Chapter Thirty-Eight

Orion knew his time was finally coming. It had been a long and tiresome search. And now his search has reached its crux. He tried to imagine how he would feel when he crossed the gate into the Forbidden Realms. Would he feel the same as he did when Ilias gave him the powers such a long time ago? Time. It has a new meaning now.

As he woke the next morning, not sure what Mykella was trying to prove, he wondered if he would ever see his old mentor again. What was Beth trying to get at when she brought up his name? Surely he hasn’t angered his teacher?

But what if he had? Would Ilias be at the gate ready to bring him down and take away the powers he had grown into?

That would be absurd.

It wasn’t that Orion hated God. All he wanted was to control what God had created; give the old man a rest, so to speak.

Orion noticed that Vince had returned to his hometown, probably to say his final farewells. He smiled at that thought. It seemed his plan had worked after all; he wasn’t sure how strong Vince would be. But here they are now, preparing for their exodus into the Forbidden Realms. Well, his exodus, anyway.

It will be His feet to cross the threshold – not Vince, Mykella, or even whatever Guardian awaits them.

He sat up in bed and was satisfied where his story was heading. Soon the world, and all realms included, will be his. His fingers itched with this knowledge and he rubbed his hands together.

Orion looked around at the vacant lot he had been sleeping in. It was once a tall structure, only to have its walls crumble to the ground twenty years ago by Satan.

Soon, he thought. Soon I shall resurrect my new temple.

He stood and took one final look at the place he had called home. He almost felt guilty that his visit here was not to pay homage to his sacred place, but only to visit the Time Chamber.

Well, I’ll never need that place again, either. He smiled at the memory of showing the Oracles his new powers. Powers that were not given by angels, but from God himself! Never again will there be anyone to oppose me, he thought with delight.

And then the memories of the previous night came to him. It was so easy to find the victims. He calls them victims because he would never want to succumb to becoming a hideous Dreamkiller; he adores who he is. So why change perfection?

Scott and Lindsey Beckett. Married. And spiraling toward a nasty divorce. They were their first punch shy of physical violence. That’s what brought Orion to them while Lindsey slept in their bed and Scott on the sofa.

He had approached Scott first and used his anger toward his wife as an angle. How much these two were alike; Orion used Lindsey’s anger toward her husband against her. How very easy it was to turn them, these two, that Orion had chosen to try a different approach.

He had never even considered an animal as a Dreamkiller until that night. The canine, a rabid Golden Retriever, had been an experiment. And Orion was pleased with the outcome.

But now, as Orion stood up, feeling the sorrow of his fallen kingdom, Scott and the dog had perished through the night. Lindsey would be a lost entity without her orders.

So what? he thought. Let her be lost. He was on to something larger than her. And then he realized that it was good that they had not killed Vincent. Without him, Orion would never know the location of the Forbidden Realms.

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He began walking toward the coast, grinning the entire time. “That was a close one,” he mused and then lifted his feet off the ground and took flight heading east, against the wind.

* * *

Vince wasn’t sure which of them woke first, but once his eyes opened, he grabbed his bag and pulled out a new shirt. It was still dark in the house, so he knew that he had awakened sometime before dawn.

After slipping on his shoes, he climbed the stairs and entered the kitchen, trying to be as quiet as he could. He didn’t want Krieger to wake, because he needed him to stay with Mykella. How long can he keep dreaming?

He tip-toed his way down the hall and opened Samantha’s door. She lay asleep in a slumberland Vince could never know. He went to her and gently kissed her forehead. “I’ll see you soon,” he whispered and made his way back to the door.

“Hurry.”

Vince turned and saw that Samantha’s eyes were still closed. He thought of Mykella trying to cross over into the real world, but found it impossible. Whether he heard the voice or not, he knew that both Samantha and Mykella needed him to come back to them as soon as he could manage it.

He closed the door and then slipped out the front door without waking anyone and jumped into his car. He turned the ignition, turned on the headlights, and sat there for a moment staring straight ahead. There were a million thoughts running through his mind. But the thing that surprised him was that in all that he was thinking, never once was he afraid to die.

He shoved his car into Drive and then accelerated into the dawn to gather his friends, the Watchers, for their destiny.

He reached the dorm first and saw that Karl was ready to go as soon as Vince walked into the too-bright-for-this-time-of-the-morning room.

Karl climbed into a jacket and sighed. “I guess I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.”

Vince looked at his friend, his friend for as long as he could remember, and nodded. “I want to thank you for doing all you’re doing. It means everything to me.”

“After what I saw last night,” said Karl as he headed for the door. “I ain’t doing it for you. It’s for mankind.”

He may not like it, no more than Vince did when he first learned everything there was to know, but at least Karl has come to grasp what was going on and what it was he had to do.

There had been no further talk as Vince drove to Chris’ sorority house. And as they approached the large columned house, neither Vince nor Karl dared enter the house to get her.

Then they saw her emerge from the darkened house just as quietly as Vince had done at Krieger’s. No one needed to know of the horrors to come.

She climbed into the backseat once Vince let her in. And as before, he thanked her for what she was doing after he got back in and closed the door.

“How far are we driving?” she asked and lowered her window and lit a cigarette.

“I was hoping to see Ogunquit one last time and then hop on a plane in Portland,” said Vince.

“Any reason?” Karl asked while watching the world speed by.

“We had great memories there. Don’t you remember?” Vince smiled and knew that Karl and Chris were trying to think back to when they had vacationed in the little cove city.

“There’s two not going to be there,” said Chris.

“Donnie and Samantha,” replied Karl with a nod.

Vince cringed. “Donnie’s been out ever since Mykella was conceived.”

“Yeah, I heard about that little tiff at the Pool House between you two,” Chris said behind a grin.

“Hey, someone had to put him in his place, didn’t they?”

* * *

He took notice of Vincent’s car almost at once as Orion flew over the college campus. He smiled and became very appreciative of his young nemesis at how quickly he could get himself moving.

He was expecting to have to wait while Vince and his friends dicked around for a while until the sun rose. He had to admit, he was surprised to see that Vince was leading him to the gate. But, instead, here they were, driving off to the east. He chuckled to himself and wondered if he should have just stayed where he was and let Vincent come to him.

Didn’t matter. He enjoyed the trip as much as the next person. As he watched and flew above them, Orion knew that he would not need any more Dreamkillers. Once he gained the knowledge he desired, then he will begin to create the next wave – and he promised them to be more deadly than the first wave.

He glanced behind him and smiled as he saw the rising sun. It seemed as if Vincent were running away from the sun. “Go Boy,” Orion whispered with a sadistic grin. “Where you’re going, the sun never rises.”