Light

by Adrienne Woods

  “Here, drink this. It will make you feel better,” he said and a silver flask came into view. Tim had a similar one, but he hardly drank out of it and just kept it as some sort of souvenir.

  I looked at the hands that held it, they were covered with dark leather fingerless-gloves. When I saw his face, I thought it was Ty, but when I looked again, it wasn’t. His hair was dark, and cut into that scruffy hairstyle Ty had, his eyes were dark too. I gazed at him and noticed a pair of full lips, sun-kissed skin and an Enrique Iglesias mole above his lip.

  He took a pair of glasses from his pocket and put them on his face. He was the most beautiful creature I’d ever seen and it seemed my dream guy had just turned into a reality.

  He wore a leather jacket and dark leather pants with the coolest black boots. He was at least two heads taller than me and had broad shoulders and long limbs.

  He spoke again, this time in Spanish and when I didn’t answer, he chose another language.

  I finally realized what he was doing. “English, is fine. I’m American.”

  “So you do speak. For a minute there I thought I had to sign,” he said with a hint of a smile tucking at the corner of his mouth. He pushed the flask, still in his hand, a bit forward and this time I reached out and took it.

  “Thanks.” The word barely came out and I took a sniff at the opening of the flask. It smelled like alcohol, the 83 percent kind. “What is this?”

  “It doesn’t matter. In the Oblivion it’s the only piece of sun you will get. Now drink.”

  “The Oblivion?”

  “Drink,” he ordered again without answering my question and I took a sip. It burned all the way down and I started couching again.

  “Yeah, it’s another thing you’ll get eventually used to down here.”

  I handed the flask back to him. I wasn’t planning on staying here. A cold breeze brushed up behind me and I rubbed my arms, trying to will warmth into them, but it didn’t help. My hands were freezing too.

  The guy immediately took off his jacket and put it over my shoulders. “Here, it will keep you warm. Where are you from?”

  “Chicago,” I said as I knew I wasn’t in Chicago anymore.

  He gave me a crooked smiled. One that reached his eyes. He was damn perfect. “Ahh, the windy city.”

  I huffed, wanting to smile but not here. I didn’t trust anything around me.

  “I’m Leigh, short for Leighthan.” He let out his hand and stared at it and then back at me. “And you are?”

  “Chas, short for Chastity.”

  He looked at the floor and his lips curved upward. “Like chastity belt?”

  Why is that the first thing that always popped into everyone’s mind when I introduced myself. It made me smile and I nodded.

  “Yeah, like chastity belt.” I blew out a gush of air as if it was going to help and wished that it would get rid of this feeling, but it didn’t. No matter how many breaths I took or how many I let out, the feeling didn’t want to go away. “So what is this place?”

  Leigh raised his one dark eyebrow. “You don’t know about the Oblivion?”

  “The what?”

  “The Oblivion, you know the other side of Revera.”

  I just stared at him.

  Both his eyes rose slightly as if a light bulb finally lit up. “You don’t know anything, do you?”

  “Clearly not.” I said a bit more sarcastic than I wanted to.

  “So you have no idea what you are?”

  “What I am? Other than my beautiful complexion and raven dark hair,” I joked. Stop it Chas. This wasn’t the place to make stupid jokes. “No.”

  “You are a Dream Caster, or by that black sand all over you, I’ll say a—”

  A loud clucking noise on the other side made both Leigh and I jump, interrupting his explanation of what I really was.

  Leigh crouched immediately down, grabbing my hand and pulled me down with him. By the way the fire reflected on his face, he looked anxious, alert. “We have to go,” he said and searched with his free hand behind him, picking up a black bag that made me think of a golf clubs and something that used to be a bow, it was missing the string.

  It didn’t make sense why he would carry that with him, if he had no arrows to protect us.

  I tried to look at what had made that sound and saw nothing but shadows. I was pulled down again, behind the used to be a couch.

  “What are you—”

  “Shush, you don’t want to be found by those things out there.”

  “There is nothing –”

  “I said shush,” he whispered and gave a stern look that lasted only a couple of seconds before he peeked past the couch again.

  He took a couple crouching strides toward the door that I’d entered through earlier.

  A huge clang echoed through the entire building or what was left of it, and I saw the lead pipe I’d kicked by accident.

  Leigh jumped straight up, grabbing my hand in his tight grip. “Run!”

  My heart thumped heavily inside my chest as we aimed toward the exit and just as we almost made it I saw it. It was a giant-ass Rottweiler, but it wasn’t a Rottweiler at all. It had the same structure as the rats inside the tunnel.

  Leigh pulled his bow in front of him, the one with no string. We were so screwed. Yet he still released an invisible arrow. Loon!

  I gasped as golden sand emerged out of thin air, forming a solid golden arrow.

  I knew that sand, I’d seen it this afternoon for the first time, only his was much brighter.

  The arrow struck the beast in the head and it exploded, falling into a heap of black sand.

  Leigh grabbed my arm this time, and shoved me toward the exit as I just stood there in place gawking at the scene before me.

  “Move!” He yelled and I ran through the exit. We were outside again, and running through the dark and disgusting smelling streets toward the end. We turned around another corner and found a heap of bricks that used to be a wall, and ducked.

  “What was that!”

  “Nimgolians. Where there is one, there are bound to be many.”

  “Nim what?”

  “A shadow hound.”

  “Wait, you mean more are coming?” I needed to know.

  Leigh grabbed my chin softly. His glasses were resting on the middle of his nose, and I raised my gaze to look at his. “Just calm down, okay. I’ll get us out of here.”

  I somehow knew that I could trust him. I mean if he wanted to kill me, he would’ve let demon smoky do the job.

  He gazed one more time around the corner, and then he pushed me right up, took my hand in his warm one and ran in the opposite direction down the street.

  We ran until we found an old merry-go-round. All the horses had started to lose their paint. The eyes looked scary and I jumped again as lights came on and a very old carousel tune started to play. It was very slow at first, as if it was operated by batteries, but it grew into a stronger tune, one I used to love, but never would ever again.

  My heart bounced inside my chest as Leigh darted past the carousel and through another structure. We hid behind something that look like a shell.

  The carousel died and everything became so quiet that the only thing I could hear was my own breathing. His was extremely calm and I wished I shared the same confidence as him, but I didn’t. I was beyond scared.

  When the shell structure started to move, and lights came on close by, I understood where we were. It was an old theme park, one that hadn’t been visited in years.

  We ran again and exited through what once was a gate. By now the entire theme park was alive, letting those Nim-monster things know we were here.

  I’d never ran like this before and I was glad for Rollins’ ballet classes.

  We finally found another deserted street and Leigh slowed down.

  I didn’t like this one bit and kept looking over my shoulder as I tried to keep up with him.

  “Why are we stopping?”

  “We lost the
m, don’t worry, I think it’s safe to take you to the Celestial.”

  “The what?” I felt like an idiot as nothing made any sense that left his mouth. “First the Nim-things, now Celesians…”

  “A Celestial. It’s like a porthole, back to your world.”

  “Back to my world?” I couldn’t grasp any of it, even if I wanted to. If this wasn’t my world then what was this.

  He handed me the flask again and shoved it in front of me. “Just drink, it does help, believe me.”

  I did what he asked without smelling it this time.

  It burned again and I handed the flask back to him. Why I took another sip, I didn’t know. I knew how strong that stuff was but it was like I expected something completely different.

  Leigh’s eyes still searched everywhere as he walked fast toward the edge of the street.

  I pulled the hoody of his jacket over my head to retain more heat.

  “So you care to tell me what I am?”

  “You are not from your world, Chas. You are what people would refer to as Dream Caster, the kind that can wield dreams.”

  I squinted again at him. I knew the term wield, any idiot would know what that meant but putting it together with dream was something that didn’t exist.

  “You want to tell me that I’m like a modern day Sandman? Or in my case woman?”

  He looked at her through narrow eyes as his eyebrows knitted together. “I’m not familiar with that term. What is a sandman?”

  “You know, the guy that throws sand in little kids eyes to make them fall asleep?”

  Leigh chuckled softly. “That’s absurd! Why would anybody throw sand in somebody’s eyes to make them sleep? Wouldn’t it burn the shit out of your eyes?”

  My entire body felt as if it was inflated, which wasn’t a bad thing as it was doing something else, than being afraid.

  “Never mind.”

  “Dream Casters, we are responsible for Nomad dreams.”

  “Nomad?” I asked again.

  “You know, folks that can’t weave dreams.”

  “Okay, so I’m a dream weaver, or Caster whatever, yay me.”

  “It’s what I said.”

  I sighed, I wasn’t going to get anywhere with this guy.

  We reached the end of the road and a huge square with a dried up fountain stood heavenly in front of us.

  More ruined buildings and half a statue of someone must have been important long ago stood right on the opposite side of the square. I realized that I hadn’t seen one tree in this place, or anything that used to be a tree. “What happened here?”

  “Nothing happened here,” he said. “It has always been this way.”

  I shook my head. My breathing became heavy again. I had to get out of here, wherever here was. I couldn’t be stuck in this place forever. I had to see my mom again, and I’d even settle for Tim.

  Leigh stopped dead in his steps and I walked three steps more and turned around to see what was up. His eyes were gazing everywhere, turning on one spot slowly as he kept his gaze on so many things. I did the same, but saw nothing. Still it creeped me out as I knew things that had the ability to turn into dark dust when golden arrows struck them hid somewhere inside these buildings.

  Then just like earlier, it happened again. A dog appeared out of thin air right in front of us, ready to pounce and once again, one of Leigh’s golden dust arrows hit him straight in the head. More came, and I felt as if I was going to throw up with all the adrenaline rushing through my veins. More arrows flew in the air and more monstrous beasts exploded and fell into heaps of black sand right in front of us.

  Leigh grabbed me around the waist and pulled me behind him as he killed another shadow beast that was inches away from me with a golden object in his hand. It disappeared just as fast. I tripped over a stone and scraped my knee as Leigh killed another three shadow dogs. I found one inches away from Leigh. “Five o’ clock,” I yelled and just like that, he drew out an invisible sword from his sheath that emerged into a solid blade just as he struck the beast in the chest. Black sand wash over him and he shook it off with a couple of body shakes.

  It stopped, but I could feel more were waiting in the dark for the right moment to catch us off guard. I could sense it, could feel the darkness pouring out of this place.

  “Chas,” Leigh said without lowering his bow, “are you okay?”

  “I’ll live,” But I didn’t know for how long. I didn’t say the last part out loud and felt his hand pulling me up by the arm.

  “It’s almost time.”

  “Time for what?” I said in a high-pitched voice that I didn’t mean to. I guess my nerves were on their last.

  “For you to go back.”

  Okay, I remember something like that. It had to do with the Seletine-something that was some sort of a porthole. I was ready for that.

  “In about a minute a light will show itself,” he carried on. “Whatever happens you make sure you get your ass to that light, before it disappears.”

  “What will happen if I don’t make it?”

  “Then you will be stuck here,” he said in a tone as if it wasn’t a big thing at all.”

  “Got it,” I said. “Get my ass to the light before it disappears.” I just have to make it.

  He smiled slightly. “And remember, you can always choose.”

  “Choose, what?”

  He didn’t answer, as he drew back his bow and shoot another arrow at a clouded figure. A bright light appeared on my far left, just like Leigh said it would.

  “Go, don’t stop for anything. I have your back.”

  “What about you? Will you be okay?”

  He chuckled, killed three other beasts in a matter of five seconds and drew back the invisible string. I knew it carried another invisible arrow that will appear as a golden arrow when it mattered. “I’ll be fine. Just go.” He released the arrow and it turned gold right before it hit a dark beast in the shoulder. “Go!” Leigh yelled again.

  “Thank you,” I yelled as I ran for dear life. I was after all depending on a light. I prayed it was home, my bed.

  From the corners of my eyes, I could see two dogs on both sides were heading straight for me. I wasn’t going to make it, but I had to try. Images of plans formed in my head of how I was going to slip past the dogs and I sprinted like never before. Miss Haly, the athletic teacher at school would’ve been so proud of me. I was finally giving it my all.

  The shadow dog pounced straight for me, and I crouched as I waited for its bite or whatever these dogs did. Sand covered my body and I saw a golden arrow glinting inside the sand. It disappeared and I got up and ran again. The other dog was a few paces from me. My legs burned and my lungs felt as if they were on fire. The other shadow figure came in fast and nipped with long sharp claws at my leg. I cried out in pain and watched blood oozed out from four long vertical claw marks that could’ve easily took off my leg. Still, I got up and leapt for the light. The beast followed and exploded as light engulfed us. The pain seared through my entire body and I only realized then that I still had Leigh’s jacket around my shoulders. I jumped up, cold sweat rolled down the side of my face.

  I breathed fast and heavy, I looked around and I was back inside of my room on my bed. I was wearing my nighties again, and my hands, they were clean. I felt a bit sweaty but I was clean.

  It was just a dream, the voice in my head said, but why is my leg still aching?

  I pulled down the covers and found four gashes running down my leg. My covers and pj’s were soaked with blood and my leg hurt more than I’d ever thought it could. How could this be possible?

  THE NEXT MORNING I TOOK OFF THE BANDAGES. I’D put on the night before. It was clean, my leg was clean and the marks the shadow hound left were gone. Did I just imagine that?

  I ran back to the kitchen where the front loader held all my bloody linen and found Mom cooking up a storm. I glanced at her and then at the washing machine spinning the bed linen soaked with blood.

 
Mom followed my gaze and stared at the laundry spinning in the machine too. “Are you okay, sweetheart?” She asked with concern pulling the corners of her eyes.

  “I’m fine,” I gasped. I was shocked, felt as if I was busy losing my mind and I turned around walking back to my room. I struggled to shake last night’s events from my thoughts. I could still remember every single thing that happened in that place. Dreams were not like that. You usually only remembered a fragment of what you dreamt about, not everything.

  I also knew I wasn’t imagining the blood and the pain I’d been left with when I woke up in bed last night.

  I distinctly remembered the blood and the strong iron smell that lingered for hours in my room after I changed the bed linen and cleaned up my wound with whatever was in the first aid kit.

  I even struggled to sleep because for some reason I could still smell the blood, imaginative or not, the smell was real.

  I got dressed as I thought about Leigh. If he’d gotten away from those shadow dogs I didn’t know, but I hoped that he was okay, and alive. I would really like to see him again and thank him properly for saving my ass.

  When I got back to the kitchen a plate of bacon with eggs and toast waited for me at the breakfast nook. Mom didn’t say anything as she read the newspaper with a cup of coffee almost touching her lips.

  I took a seat behind my plate of scrambled eggs and bacon. One look at it, or sniff, and my stomach started to turn and I got up, ran to the toilet and puked my lungs out.

  Tears lingered in my eyes as I bent over the toilet again. Emotions of fear and shock of last night’s events were turning the inside of my gut in turmoil.

  “Honey, what’s wrong? You know you can tell me anything.” My mom’s voice came from the door.

  Not this time, Mom. “I’m fine.” I couldn’t tell my mother about that dream. She would think I was crazy, even though she had always asked about my dreams, this was different.

  I finally came out of the bathroom. “I’ve got to go. I’m going to be late for school.” I picked up my backpack, which was where I left it last night by the door.

  “You want me to drive you?”