Just a little oneshot that popped into my head earlier this afternoon. It centers around Julian and his cousin Katie.
Enjoy.
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It was going to be a long night.
"Hey, move over,"
"You move over!"
"Your toes are cold."
"Then move over and get away from them,"
'Jeez these pillows are lumpy. How's yours."
"Mine? 's fine,"
"Can I have yours?"
"No,"
"Come on. Christian charity. It's the time of year for those sorts of things,"
'No it isn't. Go to sleep, Kates. Jeez, I don't know how Jessie stands you sometimes," Julian said exasperatedly, rolling over so that he was facing away from his cousin.
It was winter; the Kanslers were at their grandparents' house for a party, and had been snowed in earlier that evening. It was blizzarding like crazy, with visibility reduced to a few yards. As such, all seventeen party guests; Julian and his parents, Jessie and Katie and their parents, Nick and Rose and their parents, Julian's grandparents, and Julian's second cousins Violet and Danny Smith, and their parents, were forced to spend a rather cramped night at the house. All contested sleeping arrangements were decided by duels; specifically, original Halo, Blood Gulch, MA5B Assault Rifle duels, done in the old Wild West take-ten-steps-and-turn fashion. As it turned out, Julian ended up bunking with Katie by default, after Jessie secured the last remaining couch from his sister in the third from last duel of the evening.
So here they were, doomed to spend a very awkward night in this small first floor guestroom. Julian had already tried to sleep on the floor, but gave up as it was hard as wood, only slightly softened by the old, worn down shag carpeting, and almost certainly promised backaches.
He heard Katie reach over and grab something off the bedside table. It sounded like a book from the way if fluttered as she scooped it up. She rifled through it for a few moments and fell silent. A few seconds later, he heard her sigh and lean once more for the table. There was a slight clin-chick and the room was cast into a flickering, candle-like semi-light.
Julian rolled over to see his cousin holding a book in one hand, and a Zippo lighter in the other, reading by the light of the lighter's flickering flame.
"Hey, Dell, put it away. You wanna burn the house down?" Julian whispered, recalling John Candy's character in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, who had used the same stunt much to Steve Martin's annoyance.
"But I wanna find out if Gaunt and his team find the…" she contested hotly.
"They find it, they blow it up, and they escape. Go to sleep," Julian interrupted.
"Fine," she replied, and flicked the lighter closed, casting the room into darkness once more.
"Less talk, more sleep," Julian answered her, rolling over once more and closing his eyes.
He was walking, down a long, grated hallway, his footsteps echoing lonely, ominously, in the confined space. Thuck. Thuck. Thuck.
They were all around him, hideous, diseased creatures with bulbous, gyrating heads and bloodstained clothes. He could not move. They were surrounding him, closing in, their heads flipping and spasming impossibly fast, like a sped up video of someone having a seizure. They leaned in, clawing at him with long, smooth fingers that seemed to have no shape at all. He was paralyzed. They had him now. They lifted him up. He was rigid as a statue, defying gravity. One of them leaned in; a hideous creature with skin where its eyes should have been. It reached for him with a long, thin finger, which ended in a smooth, round gun barrel. It placed the muzzle to his forehead. Julian tried to move with all his might, but he just couldn't. He could feel the muzzle slowly pressing ever harder into his head…
He shot awake with a start, staring wildly around the dim room, the snow casting a soft bluish hue throughout the cramped space.
Julian let out a huge sigh of relief. It was only a dream.
He turned to his right and saw Katie sitting there, staring at him, her blonde hair standing out in the semi-darkness, looking like a helmet perched on top of her head.
"You okay?" she asked, raising a blonde eyebrow and studying him closely.
"Yeah, just a nightmare," Julian answered, sitting up and running a hand through his short brown hair.
"What about?" Katie replied after a while.
"Hard to explain," Julian answered her.
"Ohh yeah, those," she replied.
Julian sighed, still shook up. "That dream was so real…I've never had such a vivid one before," he thought, "Well, Heather said this might happen. Maybe she has some special way of dealing with nightmares. I'll have to ask her," This did little to assuage his fears, however, and Katie seemed to catch on.
"You sure you're okay?" she asked, looking up and studying him once more.
"Yeah, I'm …fine," Julian choked out.
"You know, there was an interesting little saying that they said in church last week. Let me see if I have…" she trailed off, rising from the bed and staggering in the dark towards the dresser. There came a thunk and a curse. Katie had obviously bumped into something.
"Ahh, tripped over my jean cuffs. I really need to buy shorter pants," came her frustrated and pained exclamation.
"Katherine Jude Kansler, you watch your language," Julian said, imitating Katie's mom's voice and frowning into the darkness.
"Ey, you can't use that. You curse more than I do," Katie replied, "And hey, I don't even know your middle name, so I can't even throw it back in your face, given the opportunity,"
"I do not curse more than you do, and you know my middle name," Julian retorted.
"Oh yeah, what is it?" Katie asked.
"It's Clay, you know that," Julian informed her.
"Oh yeah," came Katie's uninterested response.
"Oh yeah…" Julian trailed off, mock-grumbling under his breath.
"Here it is," Katie said finally, after rummaging through the pockets of her dark brown faux-leather jacket, which was sitting on the dresser, and producing a crumpled-up church bulletin. She walked over to the bed with it and sat back down.
"It says," she said, rifling through the pages until she found the quote in question, "Nightmares are God's way of helping you to subconsciously come to terms with your fears, to face them and to overcome them, to exorcise them from your mind so you can start the day anew."
"That's in the Bible?" Julian asked, "Never heard that before."
"Guest speaker, a psychologist. He was talking about dreams and how he believes God speaks to us through them. I wrote it down because I thought it was a cool idea. Just an opinion, but a neat way to look at it," Katie replied.
"Yeah, that is interesting," Julian said.
"Just thought it was relevant," Katie replied. She looked up once more at her cousin, "You sure you're okay?" she asked again.
"Yeah," Julian replied, 'Thanks."
"Glad I could be of service,"
"No I mean really, thanks," Julian said sincerely.
Katie reached up and put a hand on his shoulder, "Anytime,"
She dropped the hand and they both lay back down. Julian rolled over so that he was facing Katie. 'You know, I'm glad I'm stuck with you. God only knows what Nick or Danny would have said,"
"Glad I'm good for something," came Katie's reply.
" 'Night," Julian whispered.
"Goodnight, and remember, nightmares are good for you. So eat your green vegetables and face your nightmares. This has been a public service announcement from Katie Kansler, brought to you by Kansler Family Life Insurance. Call 1 800 NIC HRSE. We'll make you an offer you can't refuse."
Laughing, Julian closed his eyes. "Maybe bunking with Kates wasn't such a bad thing after all," he thought.
Eventually, things became quiet once more, except for the wind howling outside and Katie's slow, deep breathing next to him. "Sweet dreams, Kates," he whispered, 'Sweet dreams me," he added, chuckling, before finally drifting off into a peaceful and nightmare free sleep.
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Well, what did you think? I might add to it later.
The book that Katie was reading was one of the Gaunt's Ghosts series by Dan Abnett, one of my main heroes as a writer. They're great books, and his Eisenhorn and Ravenor trilogies are excellent as well.
Read and review, please.
Peace out and God bless.