The Infernal Games

by Reed Logan Westgate

  The room was too dark to see much detail beyond the dim glow of the stove, but she still looked back and forth between Lexxes and Amber. Lexxes’ body was supple and well-formed. She looked mature sitting there in the darkness, with her black hair draped over her shoulders, covering her breasts. She breathed in a rhythmic pattern: in through the mouth and out through the nose. Amber, on the other hand, seemed relaxed enough to fall asleep, and Xlina did not doubt that Brick was feeling right at home in the lodge. She felt the demon mark under her right breast and felt ashamed and exposed. Lexxes continued to sit in silence, so Xlina folded her arms across her chest in an attempt to hide the mark and sat staring blankly in the dim light of the stove.

  “Relax your mind, girl,” Lexxes commanded again. “I can feel you shifting from over here.”

  “Sorry,” Xlina fumbled quietly, shifting again on the furs. They felt good on her skin at first, but as the sweat poured from her body, she once again became uncomfortable. She looked back at Amber, who sat motionless, breathing deeply. She seemed tranquil, at peace. She resolved to give the experience her best efforts despite her discomfort, not wanting to offend her host, whom she needed so badly to restore the Burglecut’s good name. Leaning back on the wall of the domed structure, she closed her eyes and inhaled deeply.

  Her senses collapsed, as if she were falling in darkness, and she fought to hold back a scream. Then she was just there, lying on the coarse sand of Turtle Island next to a row of smooth, polished rocks. Her eyes fluttered as she looked up at the night sky, dotted with stars and hung with the most gigantic full moon she had ever seen.

  “Welcome back,” Lexxes said, drawing her attention to the left, where the woman sat by a small campfire. She looked younger, her skin tighter around her eyes and mouth. She carefully threw a handful of small broken branches onto the fire and gestured to a small wooden bench across the fire from her. Xlina stood. Dusting off the sand from her backside, she winced again at her nudity and shuffled her arms to cover, feigning the modesty of covering her breasts to hide the mark just below. She gingerly stepped to the fire and sat on the wooden bench across from the nude woman.

  “We’re in the dream world,” Xlina stated firmly.

  “On neutral ground as peers,” Lexxes agreed, smiling faintly.

  “Why am I still naked?” Xlina asked, shifting uncomfortably.

  “It’s the dream world,” Lexxes answered, as if that in and of itself should explain everything.

  “I’m not normally nude here,” Xlina replied dryly.

  “You feel exposed and vulnerable,” Lexxes explained softly. “Everyone has had that dream before. How many of those nightmares have you consumed over the years, Baku?”

  “Why are you naked then?” Xlina asked skeptically.

  “Because I’m not this young anymore, and I miss it,” Lexxes answered with a grin. “But you didn’t come all this way to let a little nudity deter you, now have you?”

  “Sorry,” Xlina flushed in embarrassment. “I am just feeling...”

  “The mark you carry,” Lexxes answered, gesturing to Xlina’s right breast. “I know it’s there, I have seen it in my dreams. Show me.”

  Xlina dropped her arms, drawing a gasp from Lexxes as she peered intently at the demon mark. She felt awkward and couldn’t really explain any of it. Like most of her life leading to this point, she felt her control slipping away, as if she were a ship being tossed and turned in the great ocean, unable to choose a heading of her own.

  “I see... and now you come here,” Lexxes continued solemnly.

  “The Burnished Rose has been trying to kill me,” Xlina explained, a hint of desperation seeping into her voice. “At first I thought it was just due to the mark, but as we would come to learn, it was because of the demon Ertigan.”

  “Indeed,” Lexxes nodded. “And what of this demon?”

  “He challenges my demon’s patron,” Xlina admitted sourly. “I am but a pawn in their game, it appears.”

  “Do you see yourself as a pawn?” Lexxes questioned.

  “Well, maybe a knight or a rook,” Xlina scoffed. She was starting to feel more relaxed as she told of her plight. Like the Burglecuts, Lexxes greeted her with neither contempt nor disgust, and that moment of acceptance was reassuring.

  “How did you get the mark?” Lexxes asked.

  “A mistake,” Xlina sighed, cursing under her breath. “She was disguised as my social worker.”

  “They do like to target the vulnerable,” Lexxes agreed with a nod.

  “I made a trade,” Xlina continued. “In exchange for a name of a person who could help me, I agreed not to go after a cephalopod that was hunting Amber. I didn’t know I was making a pact with a demon.”

  “And when you saved your friend,” Lexxes concluded. “You doomed your soul.”

  “That’s the kicker,” Xlina replied. “Amber wasn’t a friend at the time; she was just another annoying sorority girl living down the hall.”

  “The real question,” Lexxes asked in a serious tone, “is whether you killed the creature for her or for yourself.”

  “Funny, that’s the same thing Oxivius said to me,” Xlina answered. Dropping her head into her hands, she leaned over, unsure of how to answer. “I don’t know, honestly.”

  “It’s okay,” Lexxes responded. Standing from her position, she circled around the fire and sat next to Xlina, wrapping an arm around her. The sudden skin contact caused Xlina to jump, but Lexxes’ touch was comforting, like that of her mother when she was young. She leaned into the arm and found herself snuggled against the strange woman in a moment of intimacy and familiarity she never would have shown a stranger.

  “I don’t know,” she repeated softly, and a tear rolled down her cheek. “But I am marked, and there is nothing and no one that can change that. The Burglecuts took me in, they protected Amber, and now Puc is targeting them.”

  “How so?” Lexxes answered, rocking slightly as if she were rocking a small child instead of the full-grown woman in her arms.

  “We struck back,” Xlina answered as the tears began to flow more freely. “He sent the Rose’s death squad to Heart’s Hearth, and we fended them off. We went to Pandora’s, following the trail to find Oxivius and my demon prisoners. He used them like bait, drawing us in, but we were too strong for him. It was Puc and that damned warlock Morticae working together. We thought we had killed them both, but we were wrong. Now they are targeting the Burglecuts; they seek for the Council to exile them.”

  “Leaving you exposed and alone,” Lexxes continued, laying a hand on Xlina’s head and stroking her hair, just as her mother had when she was young.

  “It’s my fault,” Xlina whimpered, and the tears flowed freely. “It’s all because of me.”

  “Shush now, Baku,” Lexxes cooed. “It’ll be alright. Even an evil pact can be made for the right reasons. You show guilt and empathy. You are clearly not yet lost to the demon.”

  “But I will be,” Xlina replied through sobs. “I will; I can feel it. She is wearing me down. Every choice is a moral quandary pushing me closer and closer to the abyss.”

  “Little Baku,” Lexxes continued gently in a soothing voice. “Poor Baku, caught in the spider’s web. You know not what will happen with the time you have left as you fear the looming spider and your grisly fate. You fail to see the truth before you.”

  “What truth is that?” Xlina asked desperately.

  “The spider isn’t the enemy,” Lexxes answered. “The spider merely is. It’s the spider’s nature. You focus on the spider, yet it’s the web that traps you, binds you, prevents you from fleeing the spider’s grasp.”

  “You sound like Oxivius,” Xlina replied, stifling her tears.

  “He must be an interesting individual, this Oxivius,” Lexxes replied, chuckling softly.

  “He was my first true friend,” Xlina added with a sniffle. “He and Amber, they allowed me to think there could be more for me beyond nightmares and fighting.”

&nb
sp; “Baku,” Lexxes coaxed, reaching down to grab Xlina’s chin and pull her face up so she was staring in her eyes. “You are gifted with the ability to know the dream world. There will always be more for you.”

  “It feels like a curse,” Xlina responded. “Threatening anyone close to me.”

  “Your power is still raw,” Lexxes answered reassuringly. “You’ll learn control in time.”

  “You don’t understand,” Xlina replied, pulling away from the older woman’s embrace. “I am dangerous.”

  “Perhaps it is you who doesn’t understand,” Lexxes replied firmly, standing to her full height. She seemed a vision of power, unshakable.

  “I consume everything,” Xlina retorted, her anger rising from below until her hands burst into the familiar blue flames. “I am a threat to everyone.”

  “Not to me,” Lexxes answered gravely. “Not here.”

  A gust of wind swirled about Lexxes, blowing her hair in all directions as the blue outline of a massive bear appeared around her. It stood on its hind legs, its paws draped over her shoulders defensively. The raw power of her dream energy coalesced about her in a pattern of blue and white. She flung out a hand, and the release of energy was staggering. Xlina crossed her arms in front of her but to no avail. The sheer force of her nightmare blast lifted Xlina from the ground, blowing her back through the air. She felt weightless for a moment before landing in the icy cold water.

  “Xlina,” Lexxes said, her voice full of authority. As she walked forward, the spectral image of the bear dissipated until she returned to her normal unassuming posture. “Baku, you have much to learn about the Dream Realm. Like I said before, we meet as peers here.”

  “I’m sorry,” Xlina panted. Her fists returned to normal as she staggered out from the cold waters. Her teeth chattered, and she rubbed her arms, trying to dispel the cold.

  “Come now; run with me,” Lexxes beckoned, a look of adventure in her eyes as she turned and raced along the shore. Xlina, dumbfounded, ran to catch up.

  “Wait,” Xlina called, coming closer to the running woman. “What are you doing?”

  “Don’t think, Xlina,” she called back over her shoulder. “Just leap.”

  “What?” Xlina asked in confusion as Lexxes’ feet hit the dock and she bolted down to the edge of the water, leaping with all the grace of a cheetah and vanishing into thin air. Xlina pushed on, ignoring the numbing cold in her limbs, and raced down the dock. Leaping into the air, she felt the dream world morph around her, and the sensation of falling in darkness filled her again.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  The Shallow Grave

  The sensation of falling lasted for what seemed like an eternity as Xlina tumbled through the Dream Realm. The darkness soon gave way to a kaleidoscope of colors and sounds as she tumbled through a countless number of dreamscapes. Her head swooned as the chaotic tumble took her senses, until she could no longer sense whether she was falling up or down.

  Xlina landed roughly in the basement of Pandora’s. She hit the ground hard, tumbling uneasily, blinking her eyes to gather her jumbled senses as the dream came into view. Lexxes stood before her, now clothed in a sleek black leather bodysuit with matching black boots that went up her calves to just below her knee. A silver dreamcatcher charm hung from a chain around her neck as she stood with her back to Xlina, watching the dream unfold before them. She studied the dream, the familiar scene of the battle in the nightclub basement between Puc and Oxivius playing out before them. Lexxes held a finger to her lips as she reached out her hand, and the dream moved faster. At the moment when Xlina began choking the downed Morticae, Lexxes clenched her fist, and the dream stopped as if frozen in time.

  “This moment,” Lexxes said, turning to Xlina. “This moment haunts your dreams, your subconscious.”

  “I killed him,” Xlina replied coldly. “With my bare hands, I strangled him to death. How are you doing this?”

  “You eat dreams as a Baku devouring their energy,” Lexxes answered. “I walk them.”

  “You walk the Dream Realm,” Xlina answered in awe. “Asibikaashi.”

  “Asibikaashi. That’s a name I have not heard in a long time,” Lexxes replied. “My mother used to tell me stories of the legend that spawned our lineage. Unlike the Baku, our gift is passed in every generation from mother to daughter. Dream walkers, guides to the spirit realm, many things have my kin been called. For ages we have lived among the native peoples of this land, guiding them.”

  “So you can see the past and the future,” Xlina reasoned.

  “In a manner of speaking,” Lexxes mused. “In the Dream Realm, they are one and the same. That’s why the clock faces don’t appear correctly in dreams. Time and space muddle in this place, constantly shifting and overlapping.”

  “What do you mean?” Xlina asked, utterly confused.

  “The Dream Realm exists as a subconscious by-product of the Astral Realm,” Lexxes explained, choosing her words carefully. “It is a place of chaos, where the collected subconscious minds roam and mix. Think about your dreams. In many of them, things from the past, present, and future mingle and coexist. Haven’t you ever had a dream of your own where you are in the house you grew up in, but dealing with your adult friends? The Dream Realm is a blurring, a true realm of chaos. In time, you’ll learn to guide and shape that chaos.”

  “You mean I can control this?” Xlina asked

  “In time,” Lexxes acknowledged, releasing her hand and allowing the scene to play out. Xlina grimaced as she saw her doppelganger choke the life from the warlock. The battle raged on, just as it had in the Earth Realm, but she stared at Morticae’s body feeling... remorse. She had killed him, brutally, and she struggled to take her eyes off the corpse as those feelings washed over her. It wasn’t like any of the Otherworlders she had killed previously, nor the witches who had come to take her life. Morticae was defeated, nearly defenseless, and she, in her fear or hatred, had wrapped her hands about his neck and squeezed the life out of him. Perhaps it was worse because she saw in the warlock what she herself could become. Her thoughts of the mark brought her hand up unconsciously to the area just under her right breast where the mark remained dormant in the Dream Realm. As the battle’s chaos swirled around them, the pair stood over Morticae’s body, Lexxes giving Xlina the needed time to grieve for the loss of her innocence.

  “Come, let us linger here no longer,” Lexxes said, placing a hand on Xlina’s shoulder. “There is nothing more for me to see here. Your claims are true. I will represent you at the Council of Magic. The others will know of Puc and Morticae’s treachery.”

  “Will I end up like him?” Xlina asked, her eyes not leaving the warlock’s corpse. “You can walk the future dreams; is this how I’ll end up?”

  “The future is fluid,” Lexxes answered cryptically. “You have already changed what was to happen once before.”

  “What do you mean?” Xlina responded. “What have I changed?”

  “Months ago, I dreamt of your arrival,” Lexxes said tentatively. “But it wasn’t Amber at your side. It was that foul demon. She broke me, and you fed on my dreams, hopes, and ambitions. You grew stronger.”

  “That’s terrible,” Xlina gasped.

  “That future changed,” Lexxes continued. “Weeks ago, the nightmare stopped, and instead I saw you arrive with Amber. You and your companion changed the dream. However, it happened that Amber became part of your story. She is potentially a crucial component in the path that lies ahead for you.”

  “Oxivius saved her from the bite of the Cu Sith,” Xlina explained. “By all accounts, she should be dead, but he whisked us away to the Otherworld and used a portion of his essence to save her from the very jaws of death.”

  “An action not typical of the death eater, I would presume?” Lexxes continued, placing a delicate hand on Xlina’s shoulder. “The allies that surround you have made you strong; their bonds have kept you from falling into the darkness.”

  “She says she made it p
ossible,” Xlina replied, her voice and eyes distant. “That she was merely granting my desires.”

  “Even if that is true,” Lexxes countered, turning Xlina to look her in the eye. Xlina tried to look away, but Lexxes hand shot up, grabbing her by the underside of her jaw and holding her so that her eyes were trapped in her gaze. “Even if that is true, it’s still you. All the demon could do is set the table, arrange the meetings; everything else is you. The friendship, the camaraderie, the sense of contentment you have deep within when you look on your allies. I can see it on your face. All of that is you. Not her.”

  “Without her interference, I would still be in the institution in Boston,” Xlina added. “I can’t deny her part in where I am today.”

  “I am not saying she did nothing,” Lexxes replied sternly. “But while you’re giving the devil her due, don’t lose sight of the part you played. You don’t owe the demon anything.”

  “Every time I see a creature killing someone,” Xlina reasoned. “Every time I stop it. It’s who I am.”

  “You influence everything,” Lexxes confirmed. “You see why you’re coveted by the demons? Dreams drive ambition. They drive the human race. They contain all of our hopes and all of our fears. They make us powerful and yet at the same time show us our vulnerabilities. People like us can change the world, Xlina.”

  “I’m sure that’s what he thought too,” Xlina replied absently, looking at the fallen Morticae. “All he found was a shallow grave and a fiery seat in hell.”

  “Morticae the Damned is a tale of tragedy and woe,” Lexxes began sternly. “He traded his soul for power. Nothing more. He became what he is for his own selfish ends. His road was doomed to darkness well before he made his pact, I assure you of that. Let the traitor rot in his grave and spare no remorse for his fate.”

  “But does that make a difference?” Xlina asked firmly. “Does any of that make a difference to the Council of Magic? Or am I just another wayward soul marked by a demon?”