But it was Zorl who reached out and opened the Door, and a blast of hot, musty wind blew onto the plateau of Mount Doom. Zorl had done it again, tricking Charley into believing that he was winning, and gotten him instead to the threshold of the Door to Death.
“Bastard!” Charley shouted against the hot wind blowing malevolently out from that unspeakable place into which Death’s Door led. Charley pulled with all his might in an effort to escape Zorl’s tight, ferocious, seemingly unbreakable, grasp. Zorl’s scaly arms wrapped around Charley’s frame. He thought Giant! Become a Giant. But the magic didn’t work. Charley stayed within Zorl’s bear hug. And he was growing tired.
Back in the sleep room of the special lab, which used to be the psych ward of the hospital, the dream witch was writhing in agony. She could not fall asleep. She shut her
eyes, but despite the sedative she had commanded they give her, she remained wide awake. Useless to Charley.
It was Zorl, she thought. He could not have Andy; they had deprived him of that. So he meant to have Charley.
She let out a frustrated yelp, and Drs. Arambaala and Strang rushed in.
“Give in, Charley.” Zorl’s whisper was hoarse, hot—demonic. “Give in.”
Zorl managed to turn Charley around until his back was at the threshold of the Door to Death. Charley tried to stand his ground, but felt that he was an instant from being pushed through the door.
Charley let out a grunt and pulled with all this strength, but moved only inches back from it.
“Charley!” somebody shouted out on the plateau.
Charley looked around Zorl’s thick reptilian frame and saw a form. After a moment, he recognized Andy. He had inched up and was standing just behind Zorl. Somehow, he had entered the dream unnoticed. This sudden appearance surprised not only Charley, but Zorl as well. In that instant, his embrace weakened, and Charley was able to break free and step aside away from the doorway. That gave Andy the opening he needed, and he took it.
He stepped forward and pushed, sending Zorl through the Door to Death in a silent, scream-less plunge.
In the next instant, Andy slammed the Door shut.
* * * *
Andy’s eyes opened. He was awake. Wide awake.
His mother was in a plastic chair at his bedside in the hospital. She had fallen asleep and was gently snoring.
“M-mother?” Andy’s voice was dry, weak. “Mother,” he said a little louder, croaking, pushing out the words. “We did it. We won. We killed Zorl.”
“Andy?” Mrs. Moss was groggy, still unsure if she was herself wrapped in a dream.
“Andy? What are you talking about?”
“Me and Charley did it,” he said and took a deep breath. “We killed Zorl.”
Just then, Charley burst into the room. He was happy and excited as he could be, though tired and whipped from all the long days of battling Zorl in their dreams. Behind him were the Finches, followed by Dr. Arambaala, Dr. Strang and Dr. Galt, the dream witch.
“We did it, Andy, we did it!” yelped Charley. He came up to Andy’s bed and they hugged like long lost friends. “We killed the bugger.”
After a minute or so, Andy was checked out again by the on-call nurses, and Charley was also given a clean bill of health. It was late, almost midnight, by the time the doctors started to leave, rushing Charley and the Finches out of Andy’s room as well.
“Why can’t Andy come home right now?” Charley asked. “Hasn’t he been in here long enough?”
Andy wanted to know that, too—why he couldn’t leave.
“Hospital rules,” explained Dr. Arambaala, with a kindly grin. “His doctor has to make sure everything is alright before he discharges him.” He looked back at Andy and Mrs. Moss with a smile. “But I’m sure that it won’t be long before Andy is finally sleeping in his own bed again.”
Still whining and unsure about it, Charley was finally compelled to leave Andy’s room with his mother and father. Before leaving, he went back and gave Andy one last hug.
“Alright, alright, already,” Andy said, back to his old sarcastic self, a sure sign that he was better. “They’ll be telling funny stories about us at school if you keep hugging me.”
Charley backed off and punched Andy gently in the arm. He stood for a moment, looking at him holding a self-satisfied smile.
“We did it, man,” he said. “We killed that God-damned demon.”
Mrs. Finch scolded him for using a bad word. Then, she took him by the arm and led him out of Andy’s room.
After they were gone and the room was quiet, Mrs. Moss propped the pillows under Andy’s head.
“If you want to get out of here tomorrow,” she said, “you need to get some rest. Just, no more nightmares.” Her smile was kind, relaxed. At long last, all seemed well.
“Don’t worry, Mom,” Andy said with a deep yawn. “I don’t plan on dreaming any time too soon. My days of fighting demons are over.”
Mrs. Moss nodded dubiously; she’d never been quite sure what to make of Charley’s odd stories about the dreams he and Andy had shared. She yawned and sat down on her chair, next to Andy’s bed, hoping that this was going to be the last night she would ever sleep in a hospital room.
Very quickly, she fell asleep. After an indeterminable time, she awakened. The hospital by then was completely dark, silent. A few feet from her, on the bed, was Andy. His body was completely still. She gave a start when she could not detect him breathing.
“Andy,” she whispered in a hushed, frightened way as she got up and moved to his side.
“Andy,” she repeated, no longer whispering but now stating his name, as she gently poked at his left shoulder. Then, louder, “Andy!” She shook him. “An–dee!”
Finally, Andy’s eyes opened with a start and stared blankly for a time at his mother.
“Oh, hi, Mom,” he said.
His mother laughed. “Sorry,” she said. “Sorry, Andy, for waking you.” She sighed. “I fell asleep and there you were when I woke up. In a deep sleep. I got worried that maybe you had gone back to that horrible place within a dream.”
“You don’t have to worry anymore, Mom,” Andy said and smiled. “Zorl is gone. Gone back to Hell!”
But, Mrs. Moss thought, there are more demons and more nightmares, Andy. Waiting to take Zorl’s place.
She did not tell Andy what she was thinking right then. It was something he, and his good friend, Charley Finch, would learn for themselves in the coming years. Instead she stroked his head and said to him, “Go to sleep.”
Andy yawned and snuggled under the covers as Mrs. Moss tucked him in. When she had returned to her chair, Andy said, “Good night, Mom. Sweet dreams.”
“Sweet dreams, my darling,” she whispered, and closed her eyes.
About The Author
Vince Scarsella lives in Buffalo, New York, with Rosanne, his wife of 31 years and cat, Junior. He has three adult children, Derek, Kristyn and Vincent. He has gained success in publishing his short fiction in print magazines such as The Leading Edge, Aethlon: The Journal of Sport Literature, and Fictitious Force. His short story, “The Cards of Unknown Players,” published in the Fall 2000-Spring 2001 edition of Aethlon, was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. In September, 2007, "Vice Cop" appeared in the short story anthology, New Writings in the Fantastic, from Pendragon Press. In March 2008, “Practical Time Travel,” was published in Bound For Evil – Books Gone Bad, by Dead Letter Press. Another story, “Homeless Zombies,” was included in the April 2009
anthology, Dead Science, by Coscom Entertainment. In the summer of 2010, his short stories, “Killers,” and “The Time Traveler,” were included in anthologies honoring H. G. Wells, published by Northern Frights Publishing. A number of Vince’s short stories have also gained publication in various online zines.
Vince has been an attorney for over thirty years, having been admitted to the practice of law in New York in February, 1980. He currently acts as an investigative attorney developing tax crime p
rosecutions for the New York Department of Taxation and Finance. From 1989 until 2008, he was counsel to the Eighth Judicial District Attorney Grievance Committee, investigating complaints of professional misconduct on the part of attorneys practicing in the district. He is an adjunct professor in legal ethics at the University of Buffalo School of Law.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Within A Dream Page 6
