Lost In Dreamland

by Jason Paul Rice

  Lost in Dreamland

  Whitney Powers Paranormal Adventure #3

  Jason Rice

  Contents

  Untitled

  Prologue

  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

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Preview: Cosmic Diamonds: Whitney Powers Paranormal Adventure #4

  Lost in Dreamworld

  Whitney Powers Paranormal Adventure #3

  Jason Paul Rice

  Copyright 2017 by Jason Paul Rice

  All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, without prior permission of the author.

  This is a work of fiction. All names are made up and used fictionally. Any resemblance to real people is completely coincidental. Any resemblance to real events is only part of the author’s imagination.

  Cover Art by Ljilja Romanovic

  Prologue

  Northeast Adoxia

  2 Years Ago

  More tears glided down Mary’s trembling cheeks and fell to the hospital room floor. She shut her eyes to get rid of the image of her comatose son connected to all the noisy machines. The past two weeks of worry had taken their toll on her.

  A mother can only handle so much.

  Her husband, George, paced back and forth by the huge window. He nodded his head at the workers on the scaffolding right outside the window. He ate some shelled peanuts from a long, narrow plastic bag and grabbed a Coke can off the ledge. His wedding ring clanged against the top of the can and his Adam’s apple ripple as he chugged the liquid and set it back down.

  He sat down in the contoured hospital chair and placed his hand on his son’s forearm. Mary’s eyes remained closed as she thought back to the genesis of the problem. Mary would never forget the blank look on Robbie’s face when she found him lying below the biggest tree in their yard.

  She assumed he had fallen from the oak tree as she screamed for her husband to help. George had called for an ambulance that came and rushed Robbie into surgery. The trauma had caused his brain to swell and push down on his brain stem, shutting down his centers for arousal and awareness.

  Mary had prayed constantly since the accident for God to take down the swelling and return her baby boy. The fifteen-year-old was just beginning his life.

  The smell of burning rubber prompted Mary to open her eyes and scream. Her husband had a distant, lifeless look on his face and the flesh on his arms had turned bluish gray with red tracks of veins and arteries. George’s hand was wrapped firmly around Robbie’s right forearm. Her husband’s face started to take on the same disturbing shade as his arms and the red tracks bulged on his forehead and temples.

  Mary screamed for help.

  She ran over to the door and yelled again before rushing into the hallway. “HELP.”

  A blond nurse with an upside-down name tag rushed up to her.

  The nurse asked, “What’s the matter, ma’am?”

  “It’s my husband. Something’s happened.” Mary couldn’t get any more words out and dragged the young lady into the room by her tiny wrist.

  Mary entered and saw her husband standing up as if nothing had happened with a huge smile on his face. His skin had returned to its normal tanned tone. The blond nurse gave her a confused nod and backed out of the room. Mary was dumbfounded as her husband approached her.

  He had a twinkle of excitement in his blue eyes as he said, “I saw him. I just saw him.”

  “Saw who?” Mary asked.

  George put his palm on the small of her back and pulled his wife in closer. He looked down at her. “Our son. I saw Robbie. He was walking, running actually, and smiling. It was amazing. He was on the corner of East Stanton and Dillsbury Road. I just put my hand on his forearm and off I went.”

  Mary said, “Slow down, you look like you’re on drugs or something. I don’t know what’s going on here, but you looked dead about a minute ago and now you’re jumping around.”

  Her husband rambled, “I couldn’t be more alive. Sit down here and let me explain.” He kissed her hand and helped her into the chair. “When I put my hand on Robbie, I was transported to some type of crazy dreamland. And he was there. He came and greeted me. He explained that I could do this again to see him, but there could be possible consequences.”

  “Wait, wait. What consequences?” Mary asked.

  George answered, “Robbie said that if I came to see him, I had to remember where I entered or I could die.”

  Mary scoffed, “Die? Slow down for the sweet love of God. What do you mean, where you entered?”

  George paused for a few moments and tried to control his breathing. “I mean our son is in some type of dystopian city environment. It looks like a video game with realistic, lifelike graphics, but I know that was Robbie. I asked him why he didn’t come out and he said that they wouldn’t let him come back until they were ready.”

  Mary asked, “Who is they?”

  Her husband leaned down and kissed her on the forehead. She could feel his soft mustache as he held the embrace. Those kisses used to bring her comfort.

  “Who is they?” Mary repeated impatiently.

  George said, “He wouldn’t tell me that. A short while after I put my hand on our son’s arm, I found myself looking at a ravaged city with a dull orange sky that looked like it had been bombed. Robbie came out of nowhere and greeted me. I got to hug our son. He squeezed me back. He told me that if I wandered too far from this return pad and got lost, my body would join his in a coma.”

  Mary softly uttered, “Oh my goodness.”

  Her husband barely let her finish before continuing, “He also said that if I was inside his body in the dreamland and someone pulled my body away in this hospital room, that I would die.”

  Mary couldn’t believe it. “I almost pulled you off him before I ran out to get help. I could have killed you. I don’t understand all of this.”

  George said, “I’m not going to lie, I still don’t understand it either. It was like a lucid dream or video game graphics, good ones, but it felt so real. I can’t wait to go see him again. You should too.”

  Mary disagreed, “You know how I feel about that weird paranormal stuff and those dark magic practices.”

  Her husband laughed. “It’s not dark magic, or magic of any kind, I don’t think.”

  Mary shook her head. “Well, it’s not exactly science either. What’s your explanation?”

  George shrugged his shoulders. “I just said I don’t understand how it works, but it did indeed work. I witnessed it.”

  A short, dark-skinned nurse entered the room.

  She said, “Hello, somebody said there were screams coming from in here. I’m just popping in to make sure nothing is wrong.”

  Mary tried to calm down. “Everything is fine now, thanks.”

  The nurse left the room and Mary asked her husband, “Did he look happy? Robbie that is?”

  George grinned and said, “He looked happy as can be and he asked about you. He said he hoped that you aren’t crying because of all this. He said he never wanted to make you sad.” George was getting emotional and stopped for a moment. “He said that he would be back to see us just as soon as they told him he could return.”

  A glimmer of hope flashed through Mary’s weary body. “Did he say ho
w long it would be?”

  Her husband shook his head, “No. He didn’t give a timetable or anything, but he hoped that it would be soon.”

  Mary wondered, “What do you think is the significance of the destroyed city? Why that?”

  Her husband scratched a scab on his earlobe and responded, “Maybe a symbol of his body’s current condition? It looked like a futuristic city so maybe he somehow went forward in time travel. I think we should focus on what’s important and that’s Robbie is happy. I might go back in before we leave.”

  Mary warned, “You’d better be careful and take precautions next time, here and in that dream world. I can’t have you drifting too far from where you came in and have you disappear for good. I can’t lose you and Robbie. Don’t you dare do that to me. Please. That’s all I ask.”

  Her husband gently placed four fingers on the back of her neck and pulled her in for a soft hug. He whispered in her ear, “Hey, hey, hey, you know that I wouldn’t do anything to hurt you. Ever.”

  Visiting hours were officially over and the nurses had to chase Mary out as usual. The Ford Taurus rumbled into the driveway and Mary emptied the mailbox before going inside. She spilled the handful of different sized envelopes onto the oval table and pulled the chain cord on the lamp.

  George went to sleep and Mary sat down with a glass of whiskey on the rocks and started to open the correspondence. They were all sympathetic cards full of well wishes. The heartfelt messages helped to keep Mary’s eyes dry for a few minutes.

  She picked up the last letter, read the return address and quickly set it back down. She had been dreading this letter from the hospital.

  George had lost his job a little over a year ago, which included his health insurance that covered the family. Mary had attempted to secure government assistance for low-income families but didn’t have any luck. She had tried to get some help with children’s insurance before the accident and been rejected.

  Unpaid bills had piled up, adding extra stress to the situation involving her son. She summoned the courage to rip open the long envelope. Her entire body shook as she slipped the papers out and unfolded them. Her hands felt alien against the familiar substance as she tried to hold the papers steady. She stared at a myriad of different numbers and medical mumbo jumbo until she zeroed in on the total.

  $132,000

  Her heart threatened to leap from her chest as she fell back in her chair. The pages of the bill dropped to the ground as she sat, paralyzed in fear. Even if Robbie recovered fully tomorrow, they would never be able to pay this back.

  The soft hum of her husband’s snoring was equal to grating nails on a chalkboard to her. She couldn’t understand how her husband could sleep with all this going on. She mixed up her whiskey with her finger so she wouldn’t drink the melted ice. She held her nose, leaned back and guzzled the nasty nectar.

  She set the half-empty hard plastic cup on the table. This wasn’t the life she had always dreamed about.

  Mary Edgings had a few more full glasses of cheap whiskey and slid into her nightgown. She kneeled at the foot of her bed and prayed. She prayed mostly for her son and to find a way out from all the monetary stress.

  Mary prayed for almost an hour. She prayed for healing, even offering her own life in exchange for her son. She pleaded and begged for her son to return to normal. She even entertained the idea of making a deal with the devil. Anything that would heal Robbie.

  Mary suffered another sleepless night, but this episode of insomnia contained more hopeful thoughts about her son.

  Two weeks later, Mary paced to and fro impatiently by the family car. Visiting hours at the hospital were about to start and she didn’t want to be a second late to see Robbie. George Edgings stood on the front lawn giving another interview, this time to a reporter from a newspaper.

  Mary thought her husband was turning her son into a carnival side show. People had been flooding the hospital for a chance to glance at the Dream Kid. That was the moniker the public had settled on for her son.

  Mary hated the extra attention and the hospital even placed two armed guards outside the room so strangers didn’t try to take a ride to the dreamland. George finished the questioning, eagerly accepted a wad of cash and the couple got into the car.

  They barely got out of the driveway when Mary said, “I really wish you would stop doing those interviews and making a spectacle out of our son.”

  He said, “What do you mean? It’s extra money and right now that’s something that we desperately need.”

  Mary argued, “Is it? Is it really worth a hundred dollars here and there? Robbie’s care at the hospital just went over one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars. How are we ever going to pay that off?”

  George said, “I know it’s a tough road to hoe, but we’ll eventually get through it. We can’t worry about it or it’s going to kill us.”

  Mary added, “I also didn’t like the way these interviewers are making our son sound like some sort of freak show.”

  He objected, “Freak show? Come on, honey, people are looking at him as a hero. He’s been motionless for how long now and people are celebrating him for this. Embrace it. Embrace Dream Kid. You should go see him. We never know if he will actually snap out of this. This is your chance to see our son.”

  Mary shook her head. “I know what will happen if I do.”

  “What’s that?” he asked and slammed on the brakes. “Jackass just blew through a stop sign. What were you saying?”

  Mary squeezed the car seat as her husband broke the speed limit. “I know I’ll be the one to get lost in that city and never return or someone will rip me away from my son in real life and kill me in the process. It’s too dangerous for an unlucky person like me. You keep saying that he told you he might snap out of this at any time. Should I stop hoping for that?”

  George answered, “No. Not at all. But who’s to say what can ever happen. What if we go in together? I’ll make sure you don’t get lost.”

  This idea actually made sense to Mary. “I wish you would have suggested this already. I think I might feel safe enough with you there. So what, you just have to hold his forearm?”

  George nodded. “That’s it. Then you’ll get a weird feeling like you are being pulled in all different directions. And suddenly, the dystopian dream world just appears right in front of you. Robbie usually shows up shortly after I get there and we just talk near the landing pad at the entrance point.”

  Mary began to get excited about the prospect of seeing her son walking and talking again. They arrived at the hospital and got on an elevator. Some strange sounds started to arise as the elevator went up.

  They got off on their son’s floor and the choppy sounds of a large propeller filled her ears. She turned the corner and the two guards weren’t stationed outside Robbie’s room. As the rotor sounds of a helicopter intensified, Mary ran down the hall and frantically pushed open the door.

  The two guards were missing. Mary tiptoed around the scattered mess on the ground. A fierce breeze came from a huge hole in the wall leading outside and blew back Mary’s hair.

  Her son and most the machines were gone. Robbie’s bed had been knocked onto its side. She carefully stood near the hole in the wall. It had been perfectly cut around the enormous window. Her mind flashed back to the men that had been working outside Robbie’s room for the past fortnight.

  She grabbed the wall and poked her head out. Mary saw a huge helicopter with a wrecking ball hanging from it. The chopper kept rising and flying away from the hospital.

  Mary went to leave the room and tripped over a man in a suit on the floor. The still man had the same ominous skin color as her husband’s when he had gone inside Robbie’s dreamland. She recognized the man as one of the reporters that had covered her son’s story.

  She screamed for help as George touched her shoulder from behind and tried to console her. She tore herself away and faced her husband.

  She seethed with anger and spoke with sh
arp words soaked in venom. “You. You did this. You turned our son into some sort of video game. It was only a matter of time before some sick, sadistic person took Robbie for their own entertainment. You had to do those interviews, didn’t you? You didn’t do them for Robbie. No. You can stop lying about that. You loved the attention and this is something I will never forgive you for.”

  She stormed out of the room before her husband could reply.

  Mary Edgings shut down emotionally for the next two years. She silently prayed every day for Robbie to return. She and George drifted apart and she barely ate or even spoke to anyone. Her favorite activity was taking long walks in the woods with at least two bottles of whiskey for company. She preferred to stay away from everybody.

  A mother can only handle so much.

  1

  Present time

  Whitney woke up and reached out for her man. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and rolled over. Trent wasn’t in bed. The water in the bathroom wasn’t running and all his stuff still littered the room. Her pulse quickened and warm worry centered in her stomach as she got up and covered her naked body with a hotel robe.

  She walked out on the balcony and there was no sign of her husband anywhere. Trent normally told her if he was going somewhere. She went back inside and inspected the room. A phone on the table that didn’t belong to her or Trent caught her attention.

  She raced over to the phone and a note had been placed under it. The note said, “If you ever want to see your precious lover again, you will answer that phone when it rings and you will do exactly as I say. Failure to do so will result in the instant death of Trent Merrick. You hold his life in your hands now.”

  Whitney staggered around the hotel room as rage filled her heart. She looked under the blankets on the bed and in the closets in a vain attempt to find her husband. She couldn’t believe that her honeymoon had been ripped apart like this.