2: Chapter 9
Me and my big mouth, Maximus groaned, his head resting on the table and his thick hair hiding the embarrassment painted on his cheeks.
You are lucky that the boss is so kind, Leff said, his voice cold. Most bosses would have cut your tongue out for something like that.
Oh, he still might, Kinsley replied with a grin. Those quiet ones are the ones you really have to watch out for. Just like Asher here. Get on his bad side and you better watch your back.
Stop scaring him, Estel said, giving Kinsley an annoyed look. Boss Garrett seems like a perfect gentleman.
The new awakened members of the Klein Family were sitting around the table in the great room, unaware of the figure that stood near them, listening to their every word. Garrett, who had entered the dream as soon as he had been able, could move freely through the inn thanks to the beautiful flowers that covered almost every surface, and had no trouble observing what was happening in the real world. He could see the slightly anxious looks that the four awakened dreamers were giving each other, and knew that it wouldnt be long until they made their excuses and slipped away to enter Dreamers Rest.
Tonight, however, Garrett had other plans. After spending four experience points to plant dream seeds in the four newest awakened, Garrett turned toward the door to the inn and resolutely walked outside, making sure to activate Dreamers Cloak. As the dream wrapped around him, erasing his presence, Garrett entered the fog and concentrated, looking for the glimmering stars in his consciousness that represented Thomas Howler and the members of his gang.
When he found them, he saw that there were two bright stars nearby, accompanied by a dozen faint glimmers that had a faint red tinge to them, which he recognized as Viper, Pax, and the flower ghouls that accompanied them. Taking a deep breath, Garrett began making his way through the dark, foggy streets, heading northwest into territory that had not yet been explored. Most of the streets around the inn had been cleared by the team of awakened dreamers, and Garrett soon came upon the first set of flowers that had been planted the night before.
Spending a moment to examine them carefully, he soon passed by them and headed into the thickening fog. It was quiet in the dream, every sound muffled by the fog that wrapped around him, and it was only when he got within a few feet of an object that it would suddenly appear, looming out of the fog as if it had just been created. When he was still a lighting stage awakener, Garrett had found the fog hard to traverse, as passing through it required a large portion of his energy, but now that he had grown to the shaper level, he found it much easier, and even though he walked a dozen blocks, he had hardly used up any of his mental energy.
Still, he could feel the faint tug on his mind as the fog was thinned wherever he moved and for a moment he wondered if he would have been better off having the dreamer team clear the way for him first. The further from Dreamers Rest he went, the more carefully he proceeded, his memory rife with pictures of the chosen nightmares he had once encountered. About to enter a small alleyway, he felt a faint ripple in the fog ahead and quickly retreated, flattening against the side of a nearby building. He could feel the hard bricks on his back as he scanned the mouth of the alleyway, looking for whatever it was that had triggered his senses.
A faint outline, blurry at first, but getting sharper as it floated closer, revealed a seeking wraith that drifted from the mouth of the alley, its large eye casting back and forth as if it were a dog sniffing out Garretts scent. Though none of his powers directly related to combat, Garrett still had his mental energy, and he wasnt too worried about tangling with lesser nightmares, but two things kept him hiding. The first was the memory of his last encounter with a seeking wraith and the crimson eyes that had sprouted all over his body. He had survived that encounter, though barely, thanks to the Dreamers Throne, but it still gave him the shivers just thinking about it.This chapter is updated by nov(e)(l)biin.com
Realizing that he couldnt engage in a direct confrontation, Garrett concentrated and his figure started to stretch and distort as Thomas struggled to get up to his knees. Staring across the room, he saw Garretts body beginning to drip away, merging with the shadows as the curtains around his bed billowed. Slowly, Garrett stretched out his arms, his gloved hands opening to reveal two mouths that spoke in a low, incomprehensible buzz. The bizarre sight caused Thomas breath to catch in his throat, especially when he saw that parts of Garretts body were dripping away and beginning to expand, stretching like fingers across the room toward the bed.
Letting out a yell, Thomas tried to back up, but as he put his hand down on the bed, the sheets started to squirm, turning around his wrist like a rope. Tearing his hand free, he tried to jump from the bed but the billowing curtains shot toward him, trying to drag him back. At the same time, across the room, Garrett saw Thomas struggling to get off the bed and an idea sprang into his head. Releasing his control of the sheets and curtain, he formed a door in the wall and smiled grimly as Thomas tore it open to run right through. Bursting from the long dark hallway, Thomas found himself standing in an empty room, with nothing but a smooth floor and walls. There was a single, faint light set in the ceiling that cast a circle on the ground, but nothing else, and as he turned around, he realized that the door was gone.
Instead, he found himself staring at that same masked figure he had seen when he jumped out of bed. Gathering what was left of his courage, he threw himself at Garret, who pressed his hand forward once more, throwing Thomas back into the wall where he found himself pinned. Like a creeping sludge, the wall softened and sucked him in, holding him in a tight grasp. Stepping into the circle of light, Garrett observed Thomas in silence for a moment. He could see the fear building in the trapped man until it spilled out in a yell.
Who are you!?
You may call me the Dreamer, Garrett said, lifting his hand and bowing slightly.
Behind him, out of the darkness at the edge of the room, faint outlines of five petaled flowers began to emerge. There were two of them, bobbing like fireflies in the darkness, and as they moved into the circle of light, Thomas next question was stifled in his throat. The flowers were beautiful, unbelievably so, but the sinewy bodies that looked like they were made from roots and the long sharp claws that clacked against the hard floor were the stuff of nightmares, causing Thomas soul spark to fluctuate wildly as he fought against Garretts binding.
That may have worked if you were still in your own dream, Garrett said quietly, as if he had no idea that two monsters were creeping toward him. But my dream is much harder to resist.
What what do you want?! Do you want gold? Women? Im rich, I can give you anything you want!
Garrett did not answer, but his mind was whirling. He had been doing his research on Thomas Howler, and if even a sliver of the things he discovered were true, the man was an abomination. Forced prostitution, drugs, blackmail, and every other vice that a human could engage in were the Howler gangs bread and butter, and all of it dripped from Thomas Howlers twisted mind. Garrett knew that he wasnt going to let the man off, but the more he learned, the stronger was his desire to just kill him. Originally, he had wanted to coerce the gang leader into joining him, but he was starting to second guess himself and wondered if it would just be easier to end the mans life.
As the silence stretched on, Thomas began to grow desperate, and a ragged scream burst from his lips as he tore one of his arms free from the grasp of the wall, not caring that it caused his skin to rip to shreds. Garrett could feel the mans mind shaking and knew that the moment had come. He had to make a decision or risk losing Thomas as the gang leader forced himself awake. Taking a breath, he hardened his heart and pointed with his finger, causing the two flower ghouls to leap forward, their petals shifting to reveal sharp teeth that stabbed into Thomas even as the dream flower began to glow with a bright light.
