by P. S. Newman
Nightmare City
Book 1 of The Nightmare City Series
P.S. Newman
Copyright
Copyright © 2019 by P.S. Newman
ISBN: 9781698565439
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.
Cover Art by germancreative
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, locales or events is entirely coincidental.
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Table of Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
Bella’s Dream-Study Journal Case Report # 11
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
My Dream-Study Journal Case Report # 12
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
My Dream-Study Journal Case Report # 13
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
CHAPTER THIRTY
My Dream-Study Journal Case Report # 13 - Addendum
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
CHAPTER FORTY
My Dream-Study Journal Case Report # 14 - Just Thoughts
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
EPILOGUE
Want to know how things started for Eden, Bella, Aunt Vy & Co.?
Acknowledgments
More from P.S. Newman
For my parents, Mark & Gaby, who always made me feel like I could make my own dreams come true - and who support me in all my crazy endeavors.
CHAPTER ONE
The nightmare in the back of my van wouldn't stop purring.
I took my eyes off the empty road and glanced in the rear-view mirror. Large golden eyes gazed back at me from behind the two-inch-thick bars of the cage bolted to the metal floor. Soft paws stretched out between the bars, kneading the air.
“You’re not fooling anyone, you know.” Thirty minutes ago, this soft, gentle kitten had almost swallowed a five-year-old boy whole. I kept waiting for it to break out of the cage and try its jaw-unhinging act on me. Talking to it at least seemed to be keeping it in a friendly mood. Though I suspected that had more to do with the fact that a grown woman who wore full-body dura-tex armor and carried a sword wasn’t part of its meal plan.
The sword in question laughed. "This one is exceptionally deceptive, isn’t it?" Admiration swung in her voice sounding through my head.
I glanced down to where my sheathed katana lay across the passenger seat. The elegant weapon sported a blood-red hilt, a frequent lust for blood, and a literal mind of her own. "Almost as exceptionally deceptive as you," I agreed, thinking at her. As an inanimate object, Aunt Vy could only communicate mentally with me. Which was a good thing or, chatterbox that she was, everyone would know that my sword was a shade - someone’s night-time dream manifested in reality.
“No shade is either as exceptional or as deceptive as I am,” my sword stated, imperious. “But I do like this kitten shade’s spirit."
A spirit I’d have to crush. My mood shifted. Silence filled the van.
"No use dwelling on it, child," my sword said after a while. She never called me Eden. Then again, I never called her by her full name, Violet, either. She was ‘Aunt Vy’ to the handful of people who knew that my sword was a shade with a soul and a mind - and pretty big ego - of her own. "It’s your job, your purpose, to eliminate all shades. Even the cute, cuddly ones."
I threw her a look. “What about the sharp, snarky ones?”
She huffed in disdain. “There is an exception to every rule.”
I drove down an exit ramp of the freeway, zipping around a right turn. There were no other cars around. The curfew wouldn’t be lifted for more than an hour. Only law enforcement, hospital staff, emergency services and shade hunters like me were officially out and about during the night. Us and our nightmare prey.
“Almost home,” I told the kitten.
Purr purr.
It was oblivious to what would happen once we got home and I hoped to keep it that way. Some shades didn't react well to the realization that I was about to end their manifested life. The kitten may understand the difference between a boy and a grown-up, but it hadn’t displayed any signs of advanced intelligence beyond that of a normal kitten. No matter how many rows of teeth it had.
That didn’t mean it would like being eliminated. Most shades’ survival instincts were as strong as any other living being’s. I looked at the kitten in the mirror. “Promise I’ll be gentle.”
I was looking forward to afterward, when I could take a shower and wash off the night’s grime - assuming no more clients called. Technically, I was still on shift, even if this one had already been a monstrous one, pun intended. The shade in the cage behind me was the most harmless I’d been called to eliminate all night. I’d had to kill others on scene.
My smartphone rang and I suppressed a groan. So much for that shower. But my pulse spiked when I checked the caller-ID: Cecelia. There was only ever one reason for my best friend to call me at three-thirty in the morning.
“Hi Lia,” I answered over the hands-free unit. “What did Bella manifest this time?”
"A dog.” Cecelia’s voice was wry but far more awake than it should be at this hour. “A collie, to be exact.”
“A Lassie shade?”
“Yep."
What was it with the pet shades tonight? Then again, manifesting animals was Bella’s MO. The way she saw it, an animal’s loyalty ran deeper than that of most humans. “I’ll be right there."
“Gracias, Eden.” Cecelia’s relief was palpable through her Spanish inflection. She was more than capable of eliminating the monsters her little sister’s vivid imagination set free in this world, but talking Bella into giving up the benevolent ones was a debate Cecelia liked to leave to me. I took them on because it was one of the few things I could do to help Cecelia raise her sister. As a junior in high school, Bella’s rebellious phase was in full swing.
"Another Lassie?" Aunt Vy asked when I’d hung up, having heard my side of the conversation. "The dear needs to work on her imagination. Go for a Terminator for a change. Now that would be able to protect her from almost anything."
“No need to put ideas in her head,” I told her. “At least the Lassi
es are inconspicuous. Let’s not add rampaging robots to her nightmares.”
Swords couldn’t look guilty, but Aunt Vy’s silence spoke for itself.
"Tell me you haven’t already."
"I haven’t!" Had she been human, she would have looked indignant. "I didn’t say anything about rampaging robots. Or cyborgs, to be precise."
"Then what did you say?" I pressed.
"I only suggested she broaden her repertoire a bit. If she’s going to keep creating shades five times a week, may as well try for some variation."
I groaned. "Trying is exactly what Bella shouldn’t be doing. It’s too dangerous."
"So you keep saying."
I suddenly felt tired. "Let’s not have this discussion again."
"Always ends the same anyway."
We arrived at my house five minutes after Cecelia’s call. The sand-colored, two-story building with the faux Roman pillars was a welcome sight through the twelve-foot steel fence that surrounded the property. A press of a button on the steering wheel sent the gate sliding to the side and the garage door up. I drove the van into the garage, killed the engine and looked at my little passenger.
Purr purr?
“You’re getting a reprieve,” I told the kitten, grabbing Aunt Vy from the seat beside me. “Enjoy it while it lasts.”
Purrrrrr.
I took it as an affirmative.
The cage would hold two tons of pressure, but I still locked the van, let down the garage door and closed the gate at the end of my short driveway behind me. I wanted to leave the shade as little chance to get out and terrorize the neighborhood as possible. Little boys might not be the only trigger for its hunger.
I walked the twenty feet to the house bordering mine on the left. Cecelia spotted me from the kitchen window and hit the buzzer. It killed the eight thousand volts of electricity that hummed through their fifteen-foot fence, a state-of-the-art, shade-repelling barricade that cost five times what mine did. As a shade hunter living alone, I’d decided I didn’t need to invest the extra cost to include electricity.
The gate swung open on silent hinges and I stepped through. It closed behind me and immediately thrummed back to life, closing the hole in a long line of electric fences all down the road, ready once more to keep the monsters at bay. Of course, this only worked if they manifested outside of the fence.
Cecelia ushered me into the house. Her wavy brown hair was a mess, framing large brown eyes and a full mouth. She wore a silk nightgown that flowed around her slender form, accentuating Salma-Hayek curves.
"If her cop colleagues could see her like this, her reputation as one of the toughest homicide detectives in the city would be ruined," Aunt Vy quipped.
Thankfully, Cecelia didn’t share a mind link with my sword. If she wanted to speak to Aunt Vy, or Vy to her, I had to stand in as Vy’s voice. I chose to not translate my sword’s remark and focused on my friend.
"Why can't she just listen?" Cecelia asked, rubbing her temples. "Just once. Make it easier on herself."
"Then she wouldn't be Bella. Where is she?"
“She’s locked herself in the room with the Lassie shade and refuses to give it up. David’s with her.”
“In her room?”
“No, she’s locked us out. He’s trying to talk some sense into her through the door.”
Cecelia’s billionaire boyfriend could sell a freezer to a penguin during a blizzard, but I doubted he’d get Bella to give up her Lassie. She liked David a lot and didn’t mind that he spent most nights at their house. But when it came to her shades, there were only two people who could talk some sense into her. And even Cecelia and I had to tag-team her at times.
Cecelia saw the doubt in my face and grimaced. "At least this shade can differentiate between things to bite and things to lick. One of Bella’s typical loyal guardians.”
It made sense, in a twisted sort of way. Ever since Bella’s and Cecelia’s mother died at the claws of a shade, Bella had been yearning for the perfect protector. She’d dreamed up and manifested a lot of them over the years. Trouble was, her protectors rarely manifested alone. "What about the monster?"
"Back yard." Cecelia motioned for me to follow with the gun that suddenly appeared in her hand. I blinked. Where in her nightgown had she been hiding that?
"Silks and Sigs," Aunt Vy said with appreciation. "Great combo."
I hid a grin and didn’t translate that, either. Not the right time.
Cecelia led the way through the living room. The usually tidy space was a mess. The coffee table lay on its side. A vase of flowers had shattered on the ground and a lamp lay upended across the couch.
“Looks like it put up a fight.”
Cecelia pressed her lips together and jerked her chin at a smashed picture frame lying on the sofa - the one thing Cecelia had picked up out of the mess. "I’m just glad Bella hasn’t seen that, yet."
A pretty woman with olive skin and frizzy black hair smiled through the cracks in the broken glass. It had been taken a few months before Helena Perez’s death four years ago. I’d never met the woman, but her absence was felt by her two daughters every day. Even if neither of them ever talked about it.
Cecelia crossed to the back door and switched on the light, illuminating the front part of the small back yard. The unmoving body of something green and scaly lay at the edge of the light.
"You shot it?"
"No," she said, though she kept her gun ready. Just because a shade looked dead, didn't mean it was. “The Lassie shade took it down. She saved Bella's life."
"Fudge." That would make taking her away from Bella that much harder.
“Yep.”
I drew Aunt Vy out of her scabbard and opened the door, stepping into the yard to kneel beside Bella's shade. Up close it looked like a giant lizard, with fangs the length of my little finger jutting from behind immobile lips. The shade lay quiet, its throat torn out by sharp canine teeth. But its head was still attached to the body and one could never be sure. It wasn't necessarily oxygen or blood that kept shades alive.
I reached out to touch it. The scaly hide was cool beneath my fingers. My shade sense flared to life and I could feel the nightmare lizard in ways that had nothing to do with touch. Shades manifested out of people’s primal and subconscious emotions, creating a shade’s essence. My shade sense allowed me to perceive that essence, which gave a shade life and a purpose. I felt fear and obstinate anger fizzing through this reptile like an electric current. Bella’s subconscious had wrestled these emotions to the surface while she slept, to be dealt with in her dreams.
I now had two options. One was the usual way any other shade hunter got rid of dead shades. They would cut off the reptile’s head, which in ninety-nine out of a hundred times meant it would stay dead. Then they would call the next shade extermination facility to come pick it up and dispose of it. But these facilities kept minute records of the shades brought to them because they were always looking to improve their methods of shade extermination. They would record that I’d brought it in and that Bella had manifested it, which would alert the Somni Order. The country’s official shade policing agency took its job extremely seriously and kept a close eye on all prime dreamers and their shades.
Being a prime meant that Bella manifested shades at least four times per week on average. The Order analyzed and recorded those shades in minute detail; both to understand shades better in general but also to try to predict if a prime’s shades were developing into something more dangerous.
I looked at Cecelia. “This is Bella’s fourth shade in as many nights.”
She nodded, jaw tight. “She’s been manifesting shades above average this past month.”
“And now we have a repeat Lassie.” I rubbed my face, suddenly tired. “If the Order finds out about this…”
“They’ll bring her in for questioning.”
They’d done it once before, about a month after Bella got badly hurt and her mother killed by a monster shade. All Bella’s
dreams after that had been nightmares and a lot of them had manifested. The Order had marked her as a prime dreamer and interviewed her. They’d been nice enough about it; thirteen-year-old girls recovering from trauma and stuck with a limp for the rest of their life were bound to manifest more and darker shades than before. Yet the interview had traumatized Bella even more. If possible, both Cecelia and I wanted to spare Bella that experience again.
By law, a shade hunter was responsible for a shade’s remains ending up at an extermination facility. These facilities ensured that a shade was completely broken down into its smallest particles and wouldn’t rise again, as shades sometimes did. But I could make sure it wouldn’t come back to life without calling anyone to take it away. That was option number two; an option only I had.
I glanced around. The shade-repelling fences turned into high walls between the adjacent properties, but two of the neighboring houses were tall enough that you could see into the Perez’s back yard from their second stories.
Cecelia was also scanning the neighbors’ windows. "All dark," she said. "You're good to go. I'll keep an eye out."
I focused on the shade and reached for Bella's essence in the nightmare reptile. I couldn’t just feel shade essences - I also had the power to undo them. A short burst of that power disconnected the iguana shade’s essence from its corporeal form. The empty carcass disappeared beneath my hands, ‘phazing’ out of existence.
"Thanks," Cecelia said when the monster was gone. Only an impression of where its weight had pressed into the grass remained.
I stood and sheathed Aunt Vy. "Shall we go see Bella?"
We went back inside and headed up the stairs to Bella's bedroom. A handsome man with coffee-and-cream skin and short black hair stood in front of her door, leaning against the frame. He had his muscular arms crossed and an exasperated expression on his face.
"Come on, Bells," he was saying as we reached the top landing. "You know this has to be done."
"I won't let you eliminate her," came Bella's answer through the closed and likely locked door. "She's only protecting me. She won't hurt me."
