Chapter Twenty

Allen stumbled back and fell over a lawn chair just after hearing what the two of them had said. No, it isn’t true! It can’t be true. I am Allen Corgan, damnit.

He looked around the yard in a panic and found the swimming pool, staggered over to it and looked down at his reflection. He saw the man who he had become and nothing more. There was nothing left of Allen Corgan to reflect.

He screamed out and dug his nails into his face and began tearing at his flesh. “Oh, God, no! I’m Allen Corgan!” Tears ran down his face, mingling with the new blood he had drawn from his cheeks and temples. Insanity was on the brink of controlling him forever. He had to get away from here; had to get away from Vincent and that damned professor.

His mind was racing in so many different directions that he couldn’t use his power to move the slightest thing like opening a gate by will alone. He ran toward the gate and once he approached it, landed one hand on the top and hoisted his body up and over like a thief pursued by the police. Allen ran as hard as he could and tried to keep his mind focused.

He kept telling himself that there was no way he could be Orion; the soul being he loathed with all his being.

While he ran, Allen tried thinking about his past. Sure the central ideas are easy to remember (one simply never forgets their first taste of blood – unless they were completely insane to begin with), but the memories about his actual boyhood are as gray as the blackboard in his elementary school when he used to write “I will not pull up girls’ skirts” two hundred times. He could remember standing behind some attractive black haired beauty and then hiking up her skirt, exposing her blue panties before the entire third grade. But he could not recall her name or even what she looked like; all he did remember was that she had black hair and that she had on blue panties. There was no memory of her face when the act was performed (well, he was behind her, wasn’t he?) or even what the other kids said at that moment.

He couldn’t remember the kid’s name in fifth grade who claimed to be his best friend, only to trip him in the cafeteria, sending a lasagna lunch flying into the air.

All he had to do was keep telling himself that he was Allen. No matter what he could or could not remember, he was Allen Corgan.

He stopped when he reached Samantha’s house and it was then that he realized that it was already sunset. He had been running for so long that he seemed to have lost track of Vincent. Was he here already or was he still at the professor’s house? He didn’t really seem to care at this moment. He had a lifetime to follow Vincent, didn’t he?

Allen went over and grabbed the lounge chair and dragged it across the patio, over to the pine tree he so loved when looking down upon his world and wondered when his army would arise. He laid down on it and stared up at the yellow-orange sky through the tree. As dirty as his mind was, watching the sunset always brought the feeling of sorrow. He closed his eyes, hands locked behind his head, and tried his damnedest to find some memories that he could recall.

He found the key! The excitement was overwhelming as he approached the large door in the cellar level. He opened the door fast before anyone could catch him inside and slipped his thin body into the room and closed it gently. When he turned and saw what the room had to offer he was let down. There was another door on the other wall (obviously leading up into the garden in the front yard) and a stone slab in the center of the room which looked as cold as the large dark fireplace which looked as if it had not been used in twenty years. He noted the shackles on either side of the fireplace.

He tried to contemplate why his father took all of the important prisoners here where there is nothing. He walked over to the fireplace and saw a chair which was turned, facing the fireplace.

And when he looked into the fireplace he saw them; the large metal spikes hiding at the side of the wall.

The door crashed open and in rushed a large man and three other men behind him. “What do you think you are doing here?” asked his father.

They brought him to the room again when he was sixteen years of age. This time he was not chilled by the drafts of air seeping through the stone walls because he was wearing his father’s cloak. He loved the cloak; it was the one thing his father had given him out of love.

The royal guards ushered him into the room and his father gestured the fireplace. He followed the gaze and was taken aback to find a naked woman standing, shackled, in front of it.

He had never seen a naked woman and he found himself a little embarrassed while staring at her pale breasts and down between her legs. Although covered in soot, he found himself getting excited and then he felt his father nudge him from behind. “She’s yours,” he says to him.

As he approached the woman she threw curses at him and damned him for what he was going to do. He had lowered his pants and opened his cloak and wrapped the woman in his darkness while he held her wrists (bleeding from so many times she tried to free herself of the shackles) and went on with his thrusts, never hearing her sobs.

When the act was complete he walked back to his father and simply asked who she was and then laughed when his father told him that it was his mother. She had been locked away in a cell for the past sixteen years.

He walked back to his mother and with one hand touched her cheek and slid his other hand into the dark fireplace.

His father had knelt down in front of the slab, propped his elbows up on it, and began praying to the god of Orion begging for acceptance of the sacrifice.

He watched as his son walked around to her back, rubbed his hand between her wet thighs, and leaned forward. “I will always love you,” he whispered in her ear and then drew back. Before she had time to say anything further, he had run a metal spike through her back and out her chest.

He hated reliving the past; even if it were just a dream. But when he learned who he really was, everything came flooding back to him in a tidal wave.

The first contact he had with young Allen Corgan was when Allen was only nine years old. He let the Oracles show him someone who was just as wicked as he was. And when he saw the young boy in the Time window crying as he lay on his bed, he let his heart go out to the boy.

There were plenty of times when he hid away from his father and wept in the garden behind the castle. They were so much alike, Allen and Orion. There was no way Orion was going to pass up this opportunity.

“I can give you power and immortality, Allen,” he called out to the boy several days after he watched him crying in his bed.

Allen looked up into Orion’s hood, not afraid of the man who came to him in his dreams.

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“What’s immortality?”

Orion smiled beneath his hood. It was an alien feeling to his soul. He couldn’t remember a time when he actually let a smile fall across his lips. And it felt good.

“Immortality is when you never die, Allen,” he said and bent down. “I can give that to you. You don’t have to be afraid of your parents anymore. They won’t hurt you now.”

“What do I have to do?"

Should he tell Allen the whole truth, he wondered. Would young Allen fully comprehend the entire truth if explained to him?

“All we need to do is share bodies, you and I,” said Orion.

“How do we do that?”

“I shall put my mind and soul inside your body and at that time you will put yours into mine. A small trade-off.”

Allen looked skeptical and he shook his blackened crown. “When do we do that? Can it happen? Will it hurt?”

Orion stood up and ruffled the boy’s hair. “My, aren’t you full of questions,” he said. “Yes, it will hurt a little, I suppose. I’ve never done it myself, so I really can’t say how much it’ll hurt. We shall switch when the moment calls for it – when I am in need of your body. And yes, it can happen.”

Allen stared at Orion for a moment and then finally smiled. “All right. I’ll help you if you help me with my mom and dad,” he said with a dark gleam behind his eye.

“Don’t worry about that, Allen. When the time calls for it, this will be yours for the taking,” Orion said and showed Allen a dagger with a snake hilt.

He snapped awake and felt his heart racing and beating hard. These were the memories he could smell. The feel of his wet mother was still fresh on the tips of his fingers. He could count the stones on one wall of his bedchamber if he thought hard enough. Two hundred eighteen.

He wrapped his hands around his shoulders and suddenly missed his cloak. He could remember the smell of ale and dirt when he wore it.

“I named myself after a god. Soon, I shall become one.” Orion stood up off the lounge chair and looked at the house and thought of Vincent. He formed a devilish smile on his lips. “The Sleepwalker has awakened!” he screamed in hopes that wherever he was, Vince could hear his excitement.

* * *

He may not have heard the words, but Vince felt the earth tremble as he and Krieger had busied themselves with coffee and plans. Vince had told Krieger all that had befallen them and asked for a little guidance on what he should do. He wanted to know if he should go and let the devil follow, or should he just remain here, driving the devil crazy while watching him live his life?

This was not an easy question to approach without caution on either end of the scenario. On one hand, if Vince went on a journey, where would he go and for how long would he go? He could end up driving himself (and his money) into a pit.

However, if he just stayed here in Chicago, there was a possibility that the creature might go after Samantha and kill her. And they both know the consequences of the death of the Mother.

Vince had decided, after much deliberation, to try the journey.

“Do you want me to go with you? Heather is more than capable of watching over Samantha.”

Vince smiled and shook his head. He would not risk anyone’s life just because he refuses to show the devil the Forbidden Realms.

How long can he keep Orion from the Forbidden Realms? If he truly is as powerful as he boasts, then he can surely read his mind. It would lead him back to the convent. The fact is that he really doesn’t know where Eden is; just that the Convent of St. Vincent was said to be his prophecy’s final stop.

Vince stood up and extended his arm and Krieger shook the young man’s hand. “You don’t know what this means to me. Tell her that I love her more than anything,” he said and Krieger stood and went around the table.

He patted Vince on his back with a smile. “You can rest assured that she will hear it every day that you are gone.”

Tears welled in his eyes but Vince held them at bay with a nod as they headed for the front door. There were no further words between them and there didn’t seem any proper enough to express how important their new missions were. Vince was to keep Orion away from the Forbidden Realms and Krieger was to keep the mother of Mykella alive – at least until the Child is born.

After he closed the door he locked it and then turned back and almost jumped when he saw Heather standing beside the couch with a disturbed expression on her face. There was no way he could convey all that he and Vince knew. But, for the sake of his marriage, he had to find some words or else sleep in the garage for the rest of the week.

“The world is going to end soon.”

She shook her head in disgust as he walked past her to the kitchen. She followed her husband and watched as he got himself a beer from the fridge. “You’re a professor; I’m sure you can do better than that.” She threw him that look of contempt he had grown to know (and often, love).

He sat down at the nook overlooking the dining room. “I don’t expect you to understand anything I’m going to tell you.” He paused and drank half his can in several gulps. “There are forces looking for the gate to the Garden of Eden. Sadly, Vince knows where it is – more or less. He’s being followed and he’s trying to lead them away from the gate. He asked me to watch over his lady – she had suffered a severe head injury a couple of days ago – so that she would be safe.” He thought that was a pretty good explanation as he omitted all there was to do with Orion and the Dreamkillers.

A pause fell between them as she stared her husband down without emotion on her face. After a short eternity, “That’s the biggest load of crap I’ve ever heard.” She stood up and looked down at him. “I’ll help you take care of Samantha – God knows she needs someone she can trust. When this Vince comes back, you’ll be leaving with them.”

He knew this day would come. He didn’t expect it to be over something good he was doing, though. He loved her with his whole self, but he knew that she had lost her love for him. It must have been five years ago when he had that feeling. He looked up at his wife and all he could think of doing was finishing his beer in front of her without saying anything in defense.

She was irate (he knew this would make her mad) and she stormed out of the room.

* * *

Vince sped back to Samantha’s house – he had a lot of his belongings there since they returned from Jerusalem – and he was not surprised to find Orion laying on the lounge chair in the backyard. It sickened him, yes, but he wasn’t surprised. He did tell him he was allowed to follow him after all.

He didn’t turn on any lights but made his way to the living room in darkness. He found the couch, table, and the drawer in the table. He opened it and pulled out a piece of paper and a pen. Using the light from the moon, he scribbled down possible routes. Many of the places he chose were places he had always wanted to go to when he was a kid. And several were places he actually went to on vacations with his father.

He wanted to head back to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee to see how it had changed since he had last visited it ten years ago; so this would be his first stop. So many people, it would be a miracle for anyone to follow anyone there.

When he would tire there, he would choose his next location. But for now, he had his first destination picked and he wondered how long it would take Orion to get pissed enough to return to Chicago to kill Samantha. Well, he grinned, I can’t let his trip get boring, now can I?

Outside, Orion lay there with his eyes closed honing his mind on Vince’s. He smiled at the thought of a trip to Pigeon Forge. He had never been there and thought it might be fun to take in some sights. Maybe he should take a hike through the Smoky Mountains. Come to think of it, he couldn’t think of any times where he actually stood on the side of a mountain – even when he was learning to travel inside the dreams of others.

Oh, those nights were so much fun! He could remember the look on Alexius’ face when he appeared in the poor boy’s dream. He was irate with his father and had told Alexius that no one needed friends because friends will stab you in the back. He had been pacing back and forth and then he saw the young Lady Leigh. Ah, this was the Lady’s room and Alexius was here. It was a sudden act of power that made Orion leap over to the frightened woman and wrap his gloved hands around her neck. Alexius was too frightened to be of much help to the woman he loved (he knew there was no way he could fight Orion) and all he could do was watch, paralyzed, as Orion strangled her to her death. Smiling he dropped the lifeless woman back onto her bed, turned to Alexius, and then began preaching about power.

Ah, Alexius, my very first Dreamkiller. How I miss you so much. We would have had such adventures in this time.