After so much Sisyphean struggle, there was finally a ray of light in the form of one valuable child. The fervently frightened dreams of the others had been of no use to him. But this perfect specimen's dreams were uninhibited and free of worry, free for him to use.
"You're not at all terrified of me. You are the little boy that I need. You are my last chance." The sun of his short life was setting, but with the help of this sleeping child, Krank could turn back the clock's merciless hands. He could feel himself getting younger already.
"What on earth is that, Mama?" One of the Mishinkas in the control room asked, his gaze resting uneasily on the blinking sonar. "It can't be a submarine. It's going through the mines."
Stole my wife. Tried to end my life.
Dragging along the tank of oxygen on the ocean floor, The Diver propelled himself forward, promised perdition withstanding the pressure. Even isolated below the deep, one hears things. The Devil-man (my old treacherous friend) was taking all the children away to hell like a depraved pied piper. He knew it was all his fault, somehow his folly to correct. You took everything from me. I'll do the same for you, mark my words. His name and that of his enemy still eluded him. But as he made his way to the foundation of the towering structure, the new purpose that vengeance provided was all he needed to know as it filled his reborn world.
"Concentrate on my voice, Krank. You're sinking into sleep.
You're falling into the void, ever deeper. Together, we shall open a door."
Krank was drifting into induced sleep, reclined in the dreaming device's chair. Silent now, the brain watched nearby. If Irving had a face, there would have been a knowing smile stretched across it.
"What is it? The thing is here, Mama. In the house".
"What do we do now?"
Martha stood before her alarmed children, her motherly instincts conflicting with what needed to be done. "Don't panic! Are you men, yes or no?!"
Her six children all shook their heads.
"That's enough! Inspection and report! "Being stern was never easy for her. As she sent them away, there was an odd sense of anticipation. The kind that came before a storm.
