by Tim Waggoner
“By everything, you mean Nathaniel, Mordacity, Connie, and the Deathmobile. Maybe even the Fata Morgana.”
I nodded. I felt tears threatening, and told myself it was just the wind in my eyes.
“Yeah.”
“Me too,” he said.
There really wasn’t anything more to be said. The Dreamer moves in mysterious ways, I suppose.
I heard a yapping and I turned to see Bloodshedder, in her dachshund Day Aspect, running down the beach toward us, tail wagging. Russell followed behind her. He was dressed in jeans and sneakers, and wore a thick brown jacket. His left arm – which during the day became an ordinary prosthetic one – rested motionless against his side, the hand tucked into his jacket pocket.
I bent down to pet Bloodshedder, grimacing as my ribs protested, and she immediately rolled over so I could give her a belly rub. At moments like these, it’s hard to remember that at night she’s a vicious killing machine.
I stood when Russell drew near. Bloodshedder still lay on her back, and she wiggled her front paws to indicate she wanted more belly rubs. Jinx crouched down to comply.
I smiled at Russell. “I was wondering when you were going to show up.”
I leaned toward him and gave him a kiss. Nothing too passionate, but definitely more than a friendly peck.
“Sorry I’ve been gone. The Thresholders had work for Bloodshedder and me. Their dimension wasn’t harmed when the Dreamer woke, but its boundaries became… I guess fuzzy is the best word for it. They needed us to help repair them.”
“So now you’re a dimensional engineer,” I teased. “Is there no end to your talents?”
“I refuse to answer that question on the grounds that it might get me slapped.” He turned to Jinx and said hello. Jinx acknowledged him with a nod. He tried to stand, but Bloodshedder wiggled her paws again, and Jinx sighed and resumed rubbing her belly. Her body relaxed and her eyes closed in satisfaction.
“How’s the arm?” I asked.
“Still working fine – at night. As for days.… I’m still getting used to it.”
His M-energy arm functioned somewhat like an Incubus. During the day, it changed into an ordinary analogue of itself – in other words, a mundane prosthesis.
I walked around to his right side, and I took his right hand with my left one.
“Walk with me,” I said.
He smiled. “My pleasure.”
As soon as we started down the beach, Bloodshedder rolled onto her legs and trotted after us. Relieved of his belly-rubbing duties, Jinx stood and followed.
I know that one of the worst ways to end a story is to write, And it was all a dream, but in this case, it’s true, on multiple levels. And the hard thing about dreams is they all end sometime. But for now, this dream continues. And that’s enough for me.
Acknowledgments
Thanks to my agent Cherry Weiner, my publisher Marc Gascoigne, and to my editor Phil Jourdan. All of them have helped make this a better book.
About the Author
Tim Waggoner is a novelist and college professor. His original novels include the Nekropolis series, Cross County, Darkness Wakes, Pandora Drive, and Like Death. His tie-in novels include the Lady Ruin series and the Blade of the Flame trilogy, both for Wizards of the Coast. He’s also written fiction based on Stargate: SG-1, Doctor Who, A Nightmare on Elm Street, the videogame Defender, Xena the Warrior Princess, and others. He’s published over one hundred short stories, some of which are collected in Broken Shadows and All Too Surreal. His articles on writing have appeared in Writer’s Digest, Writers’ Journal and other publications.
He teaches composition and creative writing at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio and is a faculty mentor in Seton Hill University’s Master of Arts in Writing Popular Fiction program in Greensburg, Pennsylvania.
ANGRY ROBOT
An imprint of Watkins Media Ltd
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To sleep, perchance to scream
An Angry Robot paperback original 2015
Copyright © Tim Waggoner 2015
Cover by Amazing 15
Ebook set by Epub Services
Distributed in the United States by Random House, Inc., New York.
All rights reserved.
Angry Robot is a registered trademark and the Angry Robot icon a trademark of Watkins Media Ltd.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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UK ISBN 978-0-85766-371-9
US ISBN 978-0-85766-372-6
Ebook ISBN 978-0-85766-373-3
