Story: Oneiromancy, X

(Part O , IX , XI)

Helen lay in bed shivering, while a few streets away Stanley lay in bed wondering. There wasn't much else to do at two o'clock in the morning if you couldn't get back to sleep or didn't want to. They both desperately wanted to talk to one another, and wouldn't, not until their rendesvous later that day. It was all just too strange.

Stanley sat in bed and wrote down everything he remembered on the pad he had prepared for the planned 'report' the following day. Toward the end he remembered the message of the shells, and paused. When first he had seen them passively they had written "Help me", and then later when he had been awake the message had been "Run". Something else was going on beyond even what they had thought.

While Stanley analysed, Helen acted. After detailing her experiences, she pulled out the computer and went looking for what the Internet had to contribute on the matter. It was like opening a Pandora's Box of unsuspected silliness and drama, and all the more confusing as it was uncertain which of the stories were about real shared experiences instead of regular dreams. And hovering behind it all was the spectre of Jung and his collective unconscious. Did that tie in to it all?

The hours passed, and dawn approached. As is always the case, our two protagonists succumbed to light dreamless sleep about an hour before their alarm and then tumbled about their rooms rapidly in their quests to make it to work on time. Stanley's thoughts jumbled on enemies and breakfasts and mysterious strangers until he finally settled in at work, and Helen on the unknown process that was somehow at work. In between shifts at the cafe, she made some phone calls. We will come to the phone calls later.

Eventually, after some truly embarrassing moments of sleep deprivation, the two strangers met once again. Both were early at the Blue Monkey, both were crammed with nerves, and both were full of theories. They sat at the counter and didn't look at each other, much like two people both trying to not be the first to go for the food. Helen finally broke the silence.

"You know, I think we are in a lot of trouble."

Stanley nodded. They truly were.


More shall follow...