Power of Imagination
Part 9 of the
Sleep Writer Journal
© 2019 Keith Robinson
Published by Unearthly Tales
on May 24, 2019
Cover by Keith Robinson
No part of this book may be reproduced without permission from the author, except by a reviewer who may quote short excerpts in a review.
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Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
COMING NEXT
Author's Website
Chapter 1
Liam steered off the road and plowed through tall ferns toward three trees that formed a triangle. He slowed to a halt just a couple of yards from Caleb, released his iron grip on the steering wheel, and jabbed the red ON/OFF button. The whine of the engines abruptly died.
The silence was eerie. Liam stared through the windshield at the small boy standing at the perimeter of the gaping tunnel entrance. A large area of ferns around the entrance had been trampled completely flat.
Sitting motionless in the passenger seat next to Liam, Madison wore a white-faced, panic-stricken expression. In an attempt to mask his own apprehension, he calmly climbed out of the vehicle and jumped down onto soft soil.
Liam faced the boy and grinned. “How’s it going?”
The boy stared at him. He had somewhat greasy, unkempt blond hair and a smudge of dirt on his cheek. His clothing was wrinkled, unclean, and a few sizes too small. In contrast, his tennis shoes were spotless except for scuffs on the front. Liam guessed that this all-powerful eight-year-old boy hated taking baths and had no interest in fresh laundry as long as he was comfortable. No doubt he’d replaced his shoes only so they wouldn’t hurt his toes.
The boy spoke softly, keeping his head dipped and peering at Liam through low-hanging hair. “Where’s my dad?” he said.
“Your dad? He’s up on the surface.” Liam pointed to the tunnel.
“Who are you?”
“I’m Liam, and this is Madison.”
“Why are you here and not my dad? I wanted him, not you.”
Liam pointed again. “Come with us, and we’ll take you to him.”
Caleb scowled. “It’s not safe up there. That’s why I dragged the house down here.” He glanced over his shoulder. “Tried to, anyway. It must have gotten stuck.”
“You . . . you dragged your house down?” Liam repeated. Though Madison had already put that forward as a theory, it didn’t mean he’d accepted it.
Grinning suddenly, Caleb’s eyes shone as he waved his arms about. “I should have done it ages ago! It’s much easier dragging things down here than making stuff up. It takes me all day to make a house. Do you know how long it took to drag my house down?”
Liam and Madison said nothing.
“About two minutes!” Caleb yelled triumphantly, stamping his foot to punctuate his point. “So from now on, instead of spending ages imagining stuff, I’m just going to make holes in the ground and drag stuff down. Much easier.” He frowned. “So where’s my dad?”
“Um,” Liam said, finding his throat had gone dry, “he’s still up top. He wasn’t in the house when you, uh . . . when you dragged it down.”
“So where was he?”
“Outside.”
Caleb rolled his eyes. “Well, duh. If he wasn’t inside, he must have been outside, obviously!”
“Yeah, Liam,” Madison murmured, nudging him. “Obviously.”
“Who are you people?” Caleb asked, narrowing his eyes.
Liam thought for a moment and decided to take the honest approach. “We’re good friends of your dad.”
“Liar.”
“It’s true. Your dad doesn’t live in that house anymore. I do.”
“Liar.”
Gritting his teeth, Liam said firmly, “Your dad lives somewhere else now.”
“Where?”
“I—I don’t know,” Liam said truthfully, unable to contain his surprise. Where did Barton live? At Ant’s house? Or somewhere nearby? Did he keep the car the entire time in case Ant needed him urgently? Liam kicked himself for being so vacant when it came to Ant’s faithful chauffeur.
“So you live in my house now?” Caleb demanded.
“Well, I did until you dragged it underground.” Seeing Caleb’s scowl deepen, he hurried on. “But we know Barton well. Your dad, I mean. We were having a weenie roast just before it happened. He’s probably at the other end of this tunnel right now, waiting.”
Caleb pouted and folded his arms. “Liar. My dad’s name isn’t Barton. It’s Hugh.”
“He changed it,” Madison broke in. “To avoid the police.”
“I don’t believe you.”
Liam felt his temper rising. “We don’t care.”
Madison touched his arm and said to Caleb, “What he means is, it doesn’t matter if you believe us or not because all you need to do is come with us to the surface and see for yourself.”
As wary as she was, Liam couldn’t help being underwhelmed with the eight-year-old boy and his supposed magical power. He was nothing but a brat. And, seeing him standing here like this with his dirty, ill-fitting clothes, Liam couldn’t help feeling sorry for him. How long had he been alone in this place? Twenty-three years? How was that even possible?
“Why are you still eight?” he asked as Caleb chewed his lip and pondered over what Madison had said. “You’ve been gone ages. Years and years. How come you haven’t aged?”
Caleb allowed himself a proud smile. “I made time whizz by outside so the police would stop looking for Daddy quicker.”
Just like that, Liam thought with a sideways glance at Madison.
“How could you possibly make time whizz by outside?” he exclaimed, waving his hands around and gesturing to the vast, sweeping landscape over their heads. “What is this place? How is any of it possible? What—”
“I made it,” Caleb said.
Liam sighed. “Of course you did. Seriously, how did you find this place? How have you not aged? None of this makes sense. What are those fake people? Why are they falling apart?”
Caleb looked away. “I’m supposed to put them down, but I don’t want to. It’s cruel to hurt people. When I was little, my dog wouldn’t stop barking, so I sealed up his mouth just for a few minutes to teach him a lesson. But he died, and Mom shouted at me and said I was cruel. So I’ve never hurt any animal since, or any person either.”
“You sealed up your dog’s mouth? With tape or something?”
“No, I just sealed it up,” Caleb explained. “Made his mouth disappear. I think I made his nose disappear as well, though. He couldn’t breathe after that.”
Liam felt Madison’s grip on his arm tighten. He decided to brush over the details of Caleb’s horrifying story. “Okay, but look, those fake people are . . . well, fake. They’re not real people. They’re like mannequins. I don’t know how they’re walking about, but if there’s a way to switch them off—”
“Can’t you just make them disappear?” Madison interrupted, her voice soft. “You made them appear out of nowhere, right? So make them disappear. Or fix them, make them new again.”
Caleb shook his head firmly. “Can’t. I can create things, but I can’t uncreate things. Or fix them. I can only explode them into pieces.”
Create things, Liam thought with a heavy dose of skepticism. Yeah, right. Whatever this
weird inner world was, it just had to be something altogether more scientific than a place conjured from the brain of a child. The cheeseburger and fries he’d eaten earlier had tasted too good to be fake. His bet was on an alien experiment. And everything in this place was part of it, including Caleb himself. What Madison had witnessed when she’d arrived—Caleb conjuring a new shopkeeper—had to have been startling, but so was a wormhole. That shopkeeper had obviously arrived via a wormhole, magically appearing out of nowhere. With that in mind, it was easy to see why a small boy would assume he had special powers.
“You don’t believe me,” Caleb said, staring right at him.
Liam couldn’t help squirming. “It’s just . . . Look, people don’t create things out of nothing, okay? I know you think you’re powerful, but you’re not. You’re just a kid.”
“Liam,” Madison whispered. “What are you doing?”
“It’s okay,” he said quietly. “There’s a lot here we don’t understand, but I’m pretty sure Caleb is ordinary. He might have a communicator in his skin. Whenever he conjures something up, aliens beam it down to his location. So when he creates a shopkeeper, they . . . they dress an android and . . .”
His logic was already beginning to unravel. These unseen aliens had androids standing by, ready to garb in suitable costumes to play a role? Why?
What about the crazy waterfall, the inverted gravity, the artificial terrain, the eerie blank spots at the ends of hallways, the impossible sun and equally unlikely moon and stars, and the fact that Caleb hadn’t aged in twenty-three years? Could all that be achieved by even the most advanced aliens?
“I’ll show you,” Caleb said with a distinctly sneering look. “What would you like me to make? A person?” His gaze moved to the land speeder behind Liam. “Another one of those? A car? A fire truck?” His face brightened. “What about a TV?”
Despite his doubts, or perhaps because of them, Liam couldn’t resist a challenge. “How about making the volcano erupt?”
“Liam,” Madison croaked.
Caleb closed his eyes. “Okay, volcano it is.”
“We should go,” Madison urged in Liam’s ear. “Come on.”
They both began to edge around the distracted boy, giving him a wide berth, their eyes on the tunnel opening beyond. A whispering sound filled the air, and goosebumps rose on Liam’s arms. He ignored the cold feeling and reached for Madison’s hand, and together they tiptoed across the dry grass and loose soil as Caleb continued standing there with his eyes firmly shut.
They didn’t get far. A sudden roar made them both jump and spin around in fright. The volcano high above was belching black smoke. Seconds later, the top blew off in a dazzling explosion of light. Fireballs shot through the air in all directions, leaving smoky trails as the red-hot projectiles thudded into surrounding fields. As rivers of lava inched down the mountainside, smoke and ash mushroomed across the world and blotted out the sun.
A gloomy darkness descended. Liam and Madison gripped each other tight, staring in amazement and shock. If aliens were watching over this world, if they had hurriedly activated the volcano just to maintain Caleb’s delusion of magical power . . . then they were deadly serious about this experiment and extremely powerful.
Either that or Caleb really was a magician of the highest caliber.
“That was a good one!” Caleb shouted, jumping up and down. “Best one yet!”
The smog worried Liam. It was approaching fast, a black cloud that threatened to clog his nose and throat, maybe even burn his lungs from the inside. But Caleb didn’t seem worried. As the haze arrived and smothered the land all around, the boy stood there and smiled gleefully.
Liam took a few experimental breaths without any ill effects. He turned to Madison, who looked puzzled and scared but otherwise all right. “Why aren’t we choking right now?” he demanded.
Caleb shrugged. “Dad said I could only have a volcano if the smoke was safe.”
His simple answer, unencumbered by logic, made Liam feel a little better. He breathed easily, struggling to see through the dirty fog. “Okay, fine, you’re amazing,” he said in a shaky voice. “I don’t understand this at all, but it doesn’t matter. We’re still leaving. You can stay here or come with us, but we’re going home. So stand aside!”
He felt like he’d delivered a line in a lavish production of King Arthur, pointing his sword at a group of troublesome peasants and yelling, I am your king! Stand aside!
To his surprise, Caleb took a few steps away from the tunnel entrance and nodded. “Go on, then.”
Can it really be this easy? Liam wondered. He swallowed and smiled. “Okay. So, are you coming with us, Caleb?”
“No.”
Liam nodded. “Fair enough. Well, we’ll be back with your dad.” He took Madison’s hand. “Come on, let’s go.”
“Not her,” Caleb said quietly. “She stays.”
Chapter 2
Houston, we have a problem, the voice in Liam’s head said.
He looked again at the ten-foot-square tunnel entrance. If he shouldered past Caleb and jumped in, he would only tumble for a moment and then simply get up and start running. Madison could easily follow him in. He doubted the boy would come after them.
Then again, the boy didn’t need to. If Caleb could make a volcano erupt as well as create walking mannequins out of thin air, he could easily collapse a tunnel. He had, after all, brought an entire house down into the ground.
“She has to come with me,” Liam said, searching the recesses of his mind for a plausible reason. He let his statement hang to give him a few more seconds.
“Why?” Caleb asked quietly.
“Because.”
“Why?”
Nothing came to mind. “Just because!” Liam snapped.
“She stays,” Caleb muttered, peering meekly through his long hair. “Bring my dad here, and then you can have her back.”
His demand took Liam by surprise. “Just come with us,” he said at last. “We’ll go together.”
“I told you, it’s not safe up there,” Caleb murmured. “The police will get me. I won’t go. You go. If you really know my dad, which you don’t, bring him down here, and then you can have Madison back.”
It was almost comical that a boy with such tremendous power could be scared of the police. What would happen if Caleb ran into stern-looking officers? Would he freak out and hurt them? No wonder Barton had run away!—not for his son’s protection but everyone else’s.
Liam took a quick look around. The distant volcano was silent by now, no longer belching smoke. The black haze had begun to thin. The land speeder hovered nearby, a possible means of escape if the tunnel turned out to be a bust. But where could they go that Caleb couldn’t find them? Did his power include some kind of x-ray vision or telepathy that allowed him to know exactly where fugitives were hiding? Liam doubted it, but either way, he had no desire to stick around and find out.
“I’m not leaving without her,” Liam said evenly.
“We’re walking out together,” Madison added for good measure.
Caleb stared at them both for a long time, his gaze flitting from one to the other. Eventually, he folded his arms and shot them a defiant look. “Try it.”
Change the subject, Liam thought. Get him in a better mood. Be his buddy. “I love the land speeder,” he said, jabbing a thumb over his shoulder toward the floating vehicle. “It’s so cool. I’m a big Star Wars fan. You are too, right?”
“You stole it,” Caleb retorted with a glare. “You’re a thief. Do you know what I do to thieves?”
Liam shook his head, his stomach lurching. This wasn’t quite the reaction he’d hoped for.
“I cut their hands off!” Caleb yelled, making them both jump. “My dad said that in some countries thieves have their hands cut off so they can’t steal again. I should cut your hands off so you can’t steal again.”
He stuck out his bottom lip and squinted. At first it looked like he was simply pouting, b
ut then the air shimmered and a whispering sound filled the air. He held out his hand, fingers splayed . . . and then yelled triumphantly as a vicious-looking pirate’s sword appeared out of nowhere. Its curved, deadly blade glinted even in the hazy air.
“Okay, so you have a sword,” Liam murmured, strangely relieved. Of all the things the boy had the power to do, severing limbs with a sword somehow didn’t fit. “Go ahead, cut my hands off.”
He held his arms out straight. He even turned sideways so Caleb could slash at a convenient angle. Madison backed away, giving Liam a look of disbelief.
Doubt crossed the boy’s face. His sword dropped a few inches. He tilted his head and frowned.
“Go ahead,” Liam said, nodding, his confidence building. “I deserve it. Cut my hands off so I can’t steal again. I’ll try not to squirt blood all over you. Would you mind bandaging me up afterward so I don’t bleed to death?”
The sword lowered another few inches. Now Caleb looked worried. “Bleed to death?” he repeated.
“Sure. That’s what’ll happen if you cut my hands off—unless you can bandage me up? Maybe put some stitches in?” He screwed up his face, putting on a look of disgust. “It’s gonna be really, really messy, though. You might want to take your clean shoes off first, or they’ll be drenched with hot, sticky blood.”
Caleb let the sword drop to his sides. “I’ll let you off this time.”
Of course you will, Liam thought. He lowered his arms and nodded toward the gaping tunnel entrance. “So we can go?”
The boy rolled his eyes. “I already said you can go, but not her.”
Liam again considered grabbing Madison’s hand and leaping in. Would the boy do anything to them? He might if he were angry enough. Liam feared the young boy’s anger more than anything.
But he had to try. Maybe the boy would be too surprised to act.
Before he could talk himself out of it, he grabbed Madison’s hand, shoved Caleb in the chest, and hurried past. The boy sprawled backward in the dirt, his sword flying off to the side as Liam and Madison leapt into the tunnel.
They plunged into relative darkness, the gas lamps feeble compared to the sunlight. Liam’s stomach lurched, and suddenly he was rolling on the dirt-strewn floor, then up on his feet and breaking into a sprint, aware that Madison was right behind him the whole time.
Power of Imagination Page 1
