I want to say Thank you to Red Stockings, for her kindness to correct the tenses and spellings for me!
And you readers are very welcome to send me a message and tell me what you think of the story, if there something I should add or change! Is there something I have missed or forgotten? Please! I want honest and valuable critiques! I want to learn and improve!
Chapter ten.
When you're in a nightmare, everything feels like you have been there forever. The time in our dreams is not the same as in reality. You can dream a world that feels like you have lived there all your life, but you have only been there a "few seconds." You don't know where your dreams start or end, you don't know how you came here or why you are dreaming this way. Dreams or Nightmares have no structure. Sometimes it feels very real and you believe that it's true…and real. But has it ever happened to you, that you know you're dreaming and you want to change it?
What would or should you do?
Carrie's POV in her Nightmare:
She backed into the furthest corner, as he advanced dragging his claws along the walls.
A furious scream was unleashed from her lungs. "Let me out! Do you hear me? I said let me out!"
He grabbed at her throat and pulled her down on her back. Carrie winced in pain, which only made him drool more. She tried to punch It, kick It, anything to get him off her.
The Nightmare seemed very satisfied with the result he was getting with the girl. Not only she was scared, she was terrified! But not so terrified enough to fall down easily, like his others victims. She was a victim who was going to be good fun.
"You taste so sweet, pleeaaassse…fear me mooooreee!"
He needed the fear badly and the girl was starting to get more and more complicated. What was that creature who had distracted him and given the girl a chance to slip from his claws? He hasn't seen It after the incident. But never mind that, he's got her now and nothing was going to stop him from having his meal.
The nightmare raised his arm, and brought it down to finally slash through Carrie's chest. But in the last second Carrie moved her body away and the claw hit an empty spot. The claw's sharpness made a deep cut on the floor.
"Dammit," the nightmare thought as It raised It's arm again, not noticing the damage its claws has caused, before bringing them down for a final strike on Carrie's form.
The floor seemed to open up under them like a melting black vortex, and before the Nightmare's claws reached to dig her heart out, Carrie was beyond his reach. She felt herself getting sucked down into the black and then she feel into an endless dark tunnel.
One second later, all she could think of was that she was falling!
She was sailing downward into the unknown, seeing dizzying colors, swirling giddily around her. Her head was spinning as she watched them through the clear surface confining her.
Suddenly a bright light flashed on from nowhere. Carrie's darkness accustomed eyes squinted in the brightness and her legs smacked down hard on a yellow broad loam.
Her eyes focused on the bright light and what she saw made her gasp.
She looked around with an exclamation of surprise. It wasn't dark or bizarre anymore, but yellow and wooden. At least it felt wooden by her hurting head resting on the floor.
"What kind of twisted nightmare this is?"
Knowing that surely whatever was happening couldn't be a good thing, she gulped as she forced herself up. She was in a kitchen, a pretty room, painted with happy colors and the sun was shining outside the window.
It was… well, very nice.
And to make it more bizarre, there sat a small person beside the kitchen table.
It was just a little girl, who couldn't have been older than seven. Her hair was thin, straight and very light blond, wearing an over-sized white T-shirt and blue shorts. The girl was drawing something on a piece of paper and all over the bench were pieces of pens with different pastel colors, all well used.
Carrie watched her carefully.
It brought to her a strong feeling of déjà vu. She stood in silence, trying to keep herself calm. The girl glanced up and gave her a small smile, while holding up a red pen to Carrie, like she wasn't surprised at all to see a total stranger with half-torn wet goth clothes in the room.
"Could you draw a nice picture for me?"
Carrie felt her knees start to buckle from shock and forced herself to breath. It took a moment before her knees stopped feeling like Jello and she set a hand down on the side of the kitchen table to stabilize herself. Her brain racing to put together what she was seeing and what she had been seeing just a minute ago. Looking at the red pen in the little girl's hand, Carrie took a seat beside her and took the pen and began to draw on a piece of paper.
"Yeah…sure."
Back on Wormwood's deck:
"They have seen us! We must go!" Mcbean shouted as he shot his fifth Stichling.
"They should be back by now. What's keeping them so long?" Malingo thought nervously, looking out at the deck.
The Glyph was almost finished; it looked like some sort of a minibus with weird looking butterfly wings. Not grand or perfect, but it didn't matter, the important thing was that it could fly.
Decking and railings had been torn up, sails slashed and rigging brought down. One of the Stichlings had gotten this crazy idea to set fire on the rigging where Mischief John were trapped, and the result was a nice burning bonfire which was spreading very fast and starting to lick the Wormwood's sails and riggings too.
Melissa cried out as she watched the flames rise higher and higher, and Billy was struggling to hold her back from running back into Wormwood again to look for Candy.
"Wait!" Someone screamed. Malingo's head turned around and saw that out from the main cabin's door came, Finnegan, Geneva, Rebecca and (Thank you Lordi Lou) Candy. Finnegan was holding a thin body in his arms.
They were ten feet away, but he wasn't going to leave them behind. As he heard screaming he turned to see more Stichlings coming towards them.
"Look out!" He screamed.
They heard a barrage of Stichlings emerged from what was left of Lud Limbo's lower deck behind them, together with Mischief John who was running like a maniac towards them and towards the glyph.
Handing over Carrie's body to Candy and Rebecca, Finnegan and Geneva took up their swords, and together with a warrior's roar they ran towards their enemies.
Carrie's POV in her Nightmare:
"Great, so now you're what, another hallucination?" Carrie tried to make her voice sound as sarcastic as possible while she draws with hard black circles on her paper.
"What`s a hallucination?" The girl asked curiously as she continued to draw.
"Is when you see or hear something that doesn't really exist in reality," Carrie muttered. "Which sometimes can feel creepy realistic if you ask me."
"Oh!" The girl spoke. "But I`m real, am I not?"
"I guess. Anyway, this place, which includes you, is much nicer than the other one."
"The one behind the door?"
"What door?"
The girl pointed her little finger. Carrie looked behind her and saw a bright Victorian white door. The door looked vivid and colorful like the rest of this world but between the door and the wall, small gaps of a dark creepy shadow filtered through, like a dark fog that was trickling through its corners. Carrie shuddered as she looked back.
"Oh god. Here we go again."
"You don't like him?"
"No! I definitely don't like 'him'. "He" wants me as his dinner!" Carrie replied, scraping her fingers nervously through her hair.
"Why not just place him in the cookie jar? He will be safe there."
"The cookie jar?" Carrie exclaimed. "Listen, I'm not referring to a thing that is the size of a spider or a rat. I`m talking about a gigantic monster that`s twice my size, with claws and terrible breath!"
"Yes you can!" The little girl smiled. She tucked her feet up on her chair, wrapping her arms around her skinny legs. "I always do it, when I want to remember my dreams and nightmares."
"In a cookie jar?"
"And then you can take them out whenever you want and play with them! Sure they are nasty and big in here." She pointed to her temple. "But they are not scary at all."
"Alright!" Carrie grimaced as she wrapped her arms around herself, trying to find some comfort. "And how do you suggest I capture it with this cookie jar?"
The little girl looked baffled. How could Carrie not know?
"By not to fearing it of course… When you do not fear them, they are fun to play with."
Carrie starred at the girl in shock. Had she heard right? "To play…with?"
"And to use them…" The little girl chuckled, looking teasingly at Carrie.
Carrie Reilly stared at her. There was something familiar to her in her voice and her face,
"Who are you?"
Back on the Wormwood's deck:
Finnegan moved with incredible speed, his sword a whirl of motion as he spun around as he sliced a Stichlings throat, then stabbed another behind him. Geneva was a flow of endless motion; she jumped and ducked very fast. She swung and stabbed. Never did she stop her movement. She leapt through the air and stabbed her sword into a Stichling's chest. Then she spun around and swung her sword again, taking another stichling's head off. Creating around them a real mud bath. Mischief John and his brothers tried the best they could with a large stick.
Candy and Rebecca finally reached the Glyph and lifted Carrie and themselves into the Glyph's backseat door.
With Deux-Deux in the passenger seat, the rest of the group has taken seats in the back. Mcbean jumped in the "driver seat" and tried to start the glyph. They all looked sickly worried, several of them cried, bit their nails or shouted. Or rather Bill shouted.
"What in hell are we waiting for? Let`s move NOW NOW NOW!"
Through all the commotion, Malingo had managed to ask; "What happened?" while he had helped Candy bring Carrie onboard.
"Long story! Everyone is ready?" Candy replied at length, still gasping for air.
"Yes, everyone is onboard, but we can't leave Geneva, Finnegan and John."
They only had at most 30 seconds before the rest of the Wormwood's crew reached the glyph. But even Finnegan, Geneva and Mischief John's best efforts were not enough against the stichlings. They were too many, only second behind them as they ran towards the glyph.
"Come one move!"
"I can't get the glyph moving!" Malingo shouted as he repeated again and again the magic words to move the glyph.
"It`s him who is doing it again!" Mcbean pointed his finger.
All eyes moved towards where his finger was pointed and they saw Christopher Carrion's tall figure.
Candy felt him before she saw him. His power was immense, filling the entire deck with his rage.
Carrion walked swiftly through the deck, not caring where he stepped. His eyes were focused on the glyph and its passengers. His servants moved quickly away, sensing that their Dark Lord was in one of his murderous rages as he passed by them.
"He`s using his dark magic again! If we don't break it, we`ll lose and die."
"Then do it like we did before. Everyone say RISE!" Candy instructed to her friends and family.
"What for?" Bill demanded.
"Just say it!"
"What in Lordi Lou is that?" Asked Maling, his orange eyes locked on Carrion.
Candy stretched her head outside to see that he was looking at. A bug or something, three times the size of a Goliath spider dashed across the open deck. It jumped at the nearest Stichling and began to dig in into his back. His poor victim screamed as he felt this monster with super speed eat through his body and then dash out through his stomach and attack It's next victim.
This sudden intruder confused the Stichlings, they tried to kill it with their swords and spears. But because of the creatures' fast eight legs, their weapons hit their own comrades instead. Uncontrolled sharp objects created a nice mess of mud around them while they tried to kill it.
This commotion interrupted Carrion's deep concentration and not missing the opportunity, Finnegan, Geneva and Mischief John ran as fast as they could to the glyph and jumped in.
"Quick! Say RISE!"
"RISE!"
Suddenly the glyph roared with life and it shot up with excessive speed, rising straight up into the air.
Carrion tried again to control the glyph, but it was too late. The glyph was already beyond his grip.
"We made it! We made it!" The whole gang of Mischief's brothers cried in joy. Candy hugged Melissa and her brothers, whilst trying to give Tria and Deux-Deux high-fives. Meanwhile Rebecca and Geneva tried to adjust Carrie's limp body into a horizontal position on the floor.
But the smile on the faces of the survivors faded when the bug, who didn't want to be left behind, immediately shot up and took hold of the Glyph's back, just a few inches from their faces. By using its front spider-legs, it broke through the window and began to crawl in.
The bug's mouth almost caught Candy' s face as she and several others backed away as its head came in.
"Oh my God!" Melissa shouted, her voice brimming with shock and fear.
"Shit! We're all going to die!" cried someone else.
Finnegan's sword came down hard on the bug's head.
Some sort of colorful liquid splattered everywhere as he stabbed it but the creature continued to hold on the edge of the glyph with its claws. It tried to bite Finnegan's hand and the people behind him, but it missed because of a stab from Finnegan's sharp sword.
It screamed terribly and it showed it`s serrated teeth.
Again and again he beat it until the screaming ceased and it finally opened his claws and fell. The glyph had reached several meters from the ground, so when the bug hit the deck, it splashed into a big colorful mess. A large part the blotch landed right on Carrion's glass collar and cape.
Carrion wiped away the substance with distain, looking up at the glyph as it made it's way higher and further away from him. He imagined Candy Quackenbush's frightened face relaxing, her eyes closing in relief, her fast breathing becoming even. He wanted to wrap his hand around her neck and choke her. He wanted to do many other things to her…She might have escaped him now, but he would always find her. He always had, not matter how far she ran, or where she hid. They always ended up back together, and sometime soon he would teach her the consequences of wasting his time.
Unaware what he was doing, he moved his right hand down into one of his pockets. Feeling the cold metal of the pendant in the palm of his hand, he grasped around it and clutched it hard. His eyes had caught a mess of dirty blond hair in the glyphs before they closed the backdoor. Hair that belongs to a certain angry girl he briefly just meet.
So they had find her body and taken it with them. Fine with him! But pity he didn't see how much spirit the girl had when she struggled with his precious nightmare. He didn't catch to see if she was dead or not when they closed the door before him.
A person like that would not easily break down after a few minutes. Either she was dead, which means her cold eyes and stubbornness was simply an act (but a very good act!), or her mind kept on fighting for her life and it would take hours before she finally gives up, letting insanity and fear take over her. How awful he couldn't get the chance to see it. Imaging seeing this girl with terror in her eyes and her mouth open up in a loud scream, made Carrion fell a little better as he turned his back from the glyph, which was now a small spot in the horizon and started to move back into Wormwoods deck. Preparing to tell his grandmother this "wonderful" news!
Carrie's POV:
"If you are too afraid, let me do it for you," the little girl offered as she jumped down from the chair and took one of the cookie jars from the bench. She started to walk back to the door. Carrie didn't know why or how she knew it, but she could feel the Nightmare was standing behind.
"Don't open that door. He`ll hurt you!"
"This is funnier than drawings. Don't you think?"
"No I don't! If you open that door, he comes out and kills us!"
"But I told you! If you don't fear it, they can't harm you!" The little girl said as she reached for the round door handle with her small hand.
"How do you know…" Carrie begun to ask when something changed. In the moment when SHE opened the door…The familiar feeling had returned. It was at the tip of Carrie's tongue as she gazed back at the girl, or rather HERSELF as she took the first step into the darkness.
"If you don't fear it, they can't harm you!" She thought.
As she walked out, the monster stood before her reaching with it's raised claw.
Carrie was shaking slightly, but surprisingly it wasn't from fear. She wasn't quite sure where the feeling had originated from, but she couldn't help herself, something snapped inside of her and for a second her mind was excited… with a sort of adrenaline kick of anticipation.
Feeling the sudden lack of fear from this girl's aura and the way she looked at him, The confused nightmare tried nervously to back away.
A grin slowly spread across Carrie's face as she looked eagerly at the nightmare monster who was slowly backing away.
"Mine!"
Inside the Glyph:
Rebecca touched Carrie's hair and shook her shoulder a bit. Her head flopped around as if she were lifeless. A streak of dried drool ran from the corner of her mouth to the floor.
"Carrie" She begged anxiously. "Wake up. Open your eyes."
"A nightmare?" Candy echoed as she looked in panic at Finnegan. "You're telling us that one of Carrion's snakelike things is inside Carrie's brain?"
"That`s probably what he wanted her for when they came and took her!" Finnegan muttered as he inspected Carrie's pupils and pulse.
"I don't get it," Rebecca said. "Has this Carrion given her some kind of drug or an injection?"
"Not really," Geneva replied. "You have seen that Carrion wears a collar around his neck with some sort of liquid and wormlike creatures in it? He has the ability to produce nightmares in his head and give them a physical shape. They look like thin lights or worms but these nightmares are used to punish and torture..."
"So it`s some sort of a hallucination she`s having I get that! But what can we do to wake her up from it?"
Geneva squeezed her eyes shut and took a deep breath before explaining, "There is nothing you can do."
"What! What do you mean?" Shrieked Rebecca.
"No one has ever survived Carrion's nightmares!" Geneva continued. "When you've got his nightmare in your brain, it starts to showing your fears and terrors until your mind can't hold it anymore. You either become completely insane or die of fear."
Candy's heart sank. "Isn't there anything that can be done?"
"Only Carrion can take it back. But that is now impossible," Finnegan answered. "We need to contact the councils and inform them what Carrion is planning and try to make a strategy. But for Candy and her family's sake, we need to keep a low profile and move underground so Carrion won't find or notice us. "
"If we must go under some kind of protection…." Bill interrupted Finnegan's speech with his highly irritated voice. "I demand the utmost hospitality. We'll need hot, running water, three meals a day, and a good television signal - preferably with cable and…"
Nine of ten of the people in the glyph either wanted to throw Bill out, tape or sew his mouth together so they could stop hearing his never ending complains and grouching. But before Finnegan was able to open his mouth, and tell Bill to shut his, or he'd have a sword in his throat, a strange noise caught their attention.
"Oh God." Geneva gasped and the others turned to look at her. Her eyes were fixed on the floor and on Carrie. Everyone followed her gaze. Candy's eyes widened, Malingo's face went white, and Rebecca's heart skipped a beat.
A long silvery thing came out from Carrie's nostrils and glided around her neck. Swaying back and forth as it first looked up at the person standing closest to Carrie. It stared at its host's pale features carefully, before arranging itself around Carrie's neck in a loose spiral.
"WHAT IN THE ABARAT IS THAT?"
Back on Wormwoods deck, in Letheo's bedchamber:
Letheo couldn't move a muscle, he couldn't even blink. His legs felt like jelly and he half considered running out from the room. All he could focus on were two questions that burned through his mind. Question one: What in Lordy Lou is that? And question two: If Carrion finds out, is he going to give me a quick death or a long suffering torture?"
Turning abruptly to face at the old woman's transparent form standing beside him; "I did what you begged me to do but that thing was not part of the bargain!"
Diamanda herself had the same expression of confusion and bewilderment in her stare as Letheo. She looked down at the real Carrie's sleeping form on Letheo's cabin bed and her recent new ally.
Back on the glyph, the survivors starred in horror as the fake Carrie transformed back into a very small, very thin, very ugly and very dead seamstress of Mater Motley's court.
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