Chapter Thirty-One

Vince drove straight through the night; which he swore he would never do again on two hours of restless sleep. He saw the exit to Chicago and blessed the sign when his dreary eyes saw it.

He really didn’t know how long he would stay, perhaps a day or two. From then, he would say bitter farewells and head on to Ireland to meet humanity’s fate.

Instead of going right over to Krieger’s house, he decided on checking in at a motel to get some rest and a shower. There was no way he was going to meet his team looking like he just got run over by a train.

He got a room at a nearby motel and lay down almost as soon as he shut the door. As his head hit the pillow, he let his mind run over “his team.” He wasn’t sure if he would trust his life to Karl.

They had known each other for a long time, but since the recent turn of events, he felt a lot of hostility coming from Karl.

And then there was Chris. Her bipolar personality was something he could live without, but he knew for a fact that she would give him her every effort. He knew that she still loved him, even after he told her the feeling was not reciprocated.

He wasn’t too sure about Krieger. The man believed in Orion and the Dreamkillers long before anyone else, except Rick Hopman. Did this make him a better companion, or does this make him just as bizarre as Chris with her personality?

Mykella and his mother would most definitely be there for the final fight, but he also knew that Mykella would not be able to do anything until she was much older. He wasn’t sure what kind of damage his mother could do, although he knew her inevitable outcome as well.

Where does that ultimately leave Vincent Hopman?

Just as his eyes closed, he had completely forgotten to include Beth and Eric; the Dreamkillers bent on fighting Orion, their father. There was no way he was going to trust them. The Dreamkillers caused too much death and destruction in the past. He knew God preached forgiving your enemies, but Vince wasn’t ready yet to forgive the monsters that killed his reality.

It was the Dreamkillers that twisted his fathers mind, forcing him to write the damned book about Orion. No one believed it, causing ridicule his entire life. If the Dreamkillers never existed, he may have had a normal life.

However, if the Dreamkillers never existed, then perhaps he may never have existed as well. He never knew his mother and father, so who’s to say the marriage wasn’t during difficult times? Did his father ever hear the tale of the Dreamkillers?

He opened his eyes and saw two figures sitting in chairs by the window. They were watching him, he knew. He sat up as fast as he could and then stood up. He was about to grab the phone and call the police, but one of the figures raised their hand and the phone was ripped from the wall and flew across the room.

Vince could feel his heart pounding as he stared at the silhouetted figure. He lowered his eyes. “Beth?”

The figure stood up and he saw it nod and cross the room toward him. The other figure took the hint and stood as well. “Don’t be frightened,” came a soft voice.

Vince nodded and sat back on the bed, yet he did not remove his eyes from them approaching him. “I talked to Professor Krieger,” he began and the shapes began to become distinguishable.

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She approached him and he put up his defenses when he saw her naked body. She looked human with a ghostly hue about her. Her hair was blonde and her eyes were bright red. There was something devastatingly beautiful and terrifying about her at the same time. And then he realized that he had seen her when she was alive; the cashier at the diner in Pigeon Forge.

“We weren’t always like this, you know,” Beth whispered and came to Vince and sat down next to him.

Eric would probably never receive a ghastly appearance; he merely looked dead. There was nothing terrifying about him; except maybe his dark eyes.

“What happened?” was all Vince could think of asking. He could have asked a hundred different questions, those of which included Orion, but all he settled on was what happened.

“I began looking too human. That’s all I can tell you. That’s probably why Father hates me so much,” she replied and then gave forth a devious smile and shook her head. “We’re here to help you any way we can, Vincent,”

“During your transformation. It just doesn’t make sense that all the other Dreamkillers are evil, but now, all of a sudden, you’re good. Explain this to me,” Vince replied and kept his gaze on her red eyes.

“When it came to us, we were made out of regret and sorrow,” said Eric when he saw his sister look up at him.

Vince shook his head. “I doubt there was any regret or sorrow coming from Orion. There’s nothing that man’s done that he regrets.”

“Not his sorrow; our sorrow,” replied Beth and Vince gave her a confused expression. “When we were made, he used our fears and turned them against us. At the exact moment our souls gave in to the torment, we regretted what we let happen. But it was too late; Orion had us.”

Vince stood up. He wasn’t feeling too good about this conversation; it still felt like something wasn’t right, that they were holding something back.

“No,” she shook her head. “There is nothing we will hide. We will fight for you, by your side or otherwise.”

“It just doesn’t make sense,” Vince began. “Why now? Why you, me? What makes you so damned sure you can help fight Orion, the Master Dreamkiller?”

Eric walked closer to Vince and stopped when they were mere inches from the other. “Have you ever heard the tale of the Oracles?”

Vince dug deep into his memory and could not solidify anything concerning Oracles. He knew of Oracles, but these were merely fictitious characters in Mythological stories. Surely Eric is not suggesting that they are of the same myths he read when he was younger.

“I believe your father may have suggested them, briefly that is, in his book. Or perhaps not, even I don’t have their powers of perception,” Eric replied.

“What the hell are you getting at?”

“Perception, Vincent. Everything that is, is perceived on how we react to the moment. You, for instance, are frightened of us and cannot forgive the race of Dreamkillers for tainting your past. Therefore, you perceive us as evil without giving us the chance.”

Vince nodded his head in guilt. How many times had he heard as a child, “you can’t judge a book by its cover?” “I’m sorry, I,” he began but Beth raised her hand to silence him.

“It doesn’t matter. What matters is that Father is getting closer to the Forbidden Realms and everyone should be prepared for the battle,” she cautioned.

“All right, now answer me this: You do know what the outcome of the prophecy is? About how Orion’s supposed to get in? I’m the one who has to take him there, so, yeah, I know he’s getting closer,” he began and the two siblings gave him a sympathetic expression. They did, in fact, acknowledge that they knew the outcome to the story. “Now, it seems as if you have gone off the trail of the Oracles,” he said.

“The Tale of the Oracles,” Beth whispered and sat back down on the bed. “You might want to make sure you have enough time to sleep for this, it may take awhile,” she said and Vince nodded.

This is going to be interesting, he thought and took a seat opposite the Dreamkiller.