Things felt odd. Maybe they had never stopped. Ever since Julianne died nothing was solid. Watching the world move on with barely a pause at her death was frustrating. I survived Julianne's death by changing locations and focusing on Kahina. Reconnecting, remembering the little things. That Kahina hated onions, four-way stops, and thought shorts were tacky. She loved attending open mic nights, wind chimes, and race cars. Not that she had time to care about much in the last four months.

A list of little things all proving she was real. Someone I knew, who knew me. Then Hell happened. Near death twice, high chance of dying anyway. What do you do with that kind of situation? How do you find stable ground to move forward from?

Everything conspired to confuse me. Now I found myself back in the odd landscape of monochrome pillars and pastel fields. Nothing was right. My thoughts felt like they were being violently filtered. The tactile sense I relied on was almost gone. Everywhere here was intangible.

Not everything was bad news. The burning sensation in my arm and shoulder had faded.

I tried to wave an arm. It moved sluggishly but at least it was under my control again. That was something. That strange internal voice seemed to be gone as well. No moments of darkness where time slipped by me. The sky above me was now a dull gray. Previously it had been brighter.

What was the point of this? Where was I going to go?

This time, there would be no touching. The paralyzing fear from before had been enough of a lesson. I studied the pillars at a distance instead. Each column had a pattern. Some of the patterns had portions that looked the same. In one place, I could see a swirl of gray and white that repeated higher on another pillar. Another two shared the same straight black markings going from top to bottom. Connections which made no sense.

Forever passed by as my eyes sought similar markings. The more I watched, the more obvious it became. Pillars in one area would all share the same patterns. Each one clustered around an extra large column that stretched into the sky. There were only a few of these great ones nearby. Others were far out on the shortened horizon.

I could smell peppermint. There was only one person who brought that scent to mind.

"Kahina." My words held a strange double echo.

Where had I last seen her? Bleeding from a deep wound, but healing. Then all the abuse of my abilities had caught up with me. That must be why I fell asleep suddenly. At least she was safe, for now. Ann was there, Anthony had fled, Lennon was hopefully hunting him down. The household would be on high alert.

I could hear shouting. It sounded feminine. Shaggy? This was a dream and she was close by. Her voice sounded frantic but far enough away that caring was difficult. Was Kahina somehow in this landscape? Dreams were supposedly our mind's way of sorting out what we experienced. The idea that my subconscious was trying to tell me something was laughable. I couldn’t remember much out of it before.

It had started making up for lost time. Those strange thoughts taking control clearly meant something. Almost as my suspicious thought occurred, it faded away leaving me confused. It didn't matter what had happened. It, or I, had saved Kahina, and needed to keep doing so.

I had to find her again. Maybe I could track in this dreamscape. Closing my eyes felt silly. I did it anyway. Almost immediately Kahina sprang to mind. She was next to my passed out body. Did she dream? Was her mind somewhere else like this? What was Kahina, a body, or the life attached to it?

A dull purple cord flowed off into the distance. Without a better option, I trudged down the path. Both legs felt leaden. They moved in slow, clunky jerks. The cord wound through pillars, over hills and fields. It was easier to resist touching those giant monstrosities this time. At one point, the path passed through two almost perfectly identical columns. Both had a swirl of grayscale patterns that turned into warped faces leering down at me. I could swear one winked.

The dully lit sky grew brighter. Landscape lost color depth as pseudo-daylight crept across. Even the grass stopped waving. It made the world look devoid of life, no, devoid wasn't the right word. Drained.

Kahina's purple cord lead into another cluster of pillars. This group was nestled in some sort of valley. I looked across it trying to get a feel for what my clearly insane subconscious wanted to communicate. On the valley's opposite lip was the largest pillar yet. It towered over the others as if a skyscraper placed in a sprawling suburb. The pattern on it held all sorts of extremely defined shapes. Diamond edges melted into pinstripes then into what looked like a flat trail of spikes rippled around towards the base.

Even after this much traveling I had barely dented the distance between here and that monstrous column. They were essentially mountains in the distance. Big worked to describe them at first. Getting closer proved how inadequate the word ‘big’ was. The sky lit up and the shadows being cast by each column became increasingly obvious. The largest pillar cast a shadow over the valley of small ones.

A new object moved. No, again I was wrong, it wasn't one thing. Portions of the slowly forming shadows were traveling all over the landscape. Blobs of shade broke away and dared the dim light briefly before diving back to the slowly defining shadows.

The motion made me stop. What did that mean? Was it a person? In my dreams? My imagination could run wild when it came to ways of motivating people, but this was incredible. Nothing in my real life could have inspired this. Blobs of shade flowed like streams spilling in from all directions to gather in pools.

One group, the largest, stood right outside the great shadow. They lined up as an invading army on the horizon. Other faint shades were scattered around the landscape. Finally, there was the home team, a much smaller clump, that had gathered in the heart of the largest pillar's shadow.

What were they gathering for? Shadow football? The light above grew, sharpening the darkness. Each flicker of movement looked more and more human, but the only distinguishable features were bloodshot eyes. Most columns had no clear shadow as they were engulfed by the darkness cast from the largest one. The mob of attacking things surged forward towards some unknown goal.

A sudden renewal of the pain in my cheek distracted me. I shook my head back and forth trying to get rid of the sensation then opened my eyes and focused. The cord to Kahina, hopefully, was right in front of me. Slowly vision trailed its path into the distance. I looked at the mob again and back to the cord to make sure. Both the cord's direction and the mob's charge went in the same direction.

"Kahina?" My voice echoed. Not the strange possessed voice from before, no this was something else. I might have been talking out loud while dreaming. Both voices sounded like a moron stuck on repeat.

The home team of shades moved to intercept their attackers.

"Kahina?" I dumbly repeated.

This dream had to be important somehow. One side was the good guys, the other bad guys. Not that real life was that simple. I had no idea which side was which or if it was possible to help. Even my tracking could have been a delusion of the dream. But if she was down there? That wasn't something I could leave to chance.

Downward I went. Both forces below collided as my feet drug along. Dreaming made my body feel disjointed, trapped, almost too large to move through the landscape right. Maybe it was my imagination but things seemed to be growing smaller.

The mob of invaders hesitated near the pillar shadows. They would reach across the boundary for the shade creatures from the defending clump and try to pull them out. Little flickers of movement showed figures from the larger blob would flee off into the distance. Only a few fled at first. Then more as the sky brightened. I tried to get a better look at the ones running by, but none came close enough for me to make out.

Things started getting fuzzy. It was like waking up. Sunlight seeped into the cracks between eyelids. Rays of light blotted out the landscape one chunk at a time until the surreal dream faded completely.

Pressure under my gut increased. Maybe I was being carried over someone’s shoulder while half dreaming. I was too drained to fight it. Something clicked, then clicked again, now my body felt awkwardly shoved into a tiny space. Hands groped at uncomfortable places and pushed me across something familiar.

A female was complaining. The words were muffled and indistinct. My face stung again, then again from a sharp whack. There was nearly painful pressure on my shoulder as someone shook me back and forth. More complaining. Then there was a slam of metal. Minutes later there was a sudden weight pressed across me. Another slamming noise. Finally, things slipped away to the dream again.

I looked around the landscape. It was much the same. The brightening sky and warring blobs didn't provide hints as to what was happening. Everything had somehow become smaller which made it easier to see the entire battle from above. Kahina's cord connected off into a shelter provided by the largest pillar. The other end of her connection felt extremely close and far at the same time.

Kahina didn't seem to be anywhere in the melee. Her cord led further into the darkness, past the fighting groups. Trying to reach her was almost a useless gesture. Skirmishes were fought and started again in the time it took me to move my feet one step. Each blob of shade could move faster than I.

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

The invaders were growing more frantic in their movements. They dodged into shadows with larger groups and grabbed single creatures on the defending team. A few of these attempts ended in failure, others were successful. Successes were dragged to the edge of the pillar's shadow. Most of them broke away from their captures and dove back into the heart of darkness.

Two of the defenders didn't manage to escape in time. They were both hauled out. Another batch of attacking shades proceeded to drag them up the hill I stood on. They looked so small. The shades and pillars were smaller too. Something had happened, or clearly my subconscious was trying to even out my role in this dream. Each creature wasn't any taller than my knee. Maybe they never had been. This was a dream. A long and confusing one.

Above the sky had grown even brighter. In the distance, there was a burning light of some sort on the horizon. From my angle, it seemed to be a giant sheet of fire rolling across the sky, much or a storm blowing across the sea. This wasn't the sun, no, this took up everything from one end of the horizon to the other. There was a heat that I could sense from here. The warmth made me happy. As a result of the impending light, each pillar cast a clearly defined shadow.

The invading shades didn't notice me until bumping right into my legs. Both dark creatures panicked after colliding with the imaginary giant I had become. They dropped their struggling captives then looked up. Bloodshot eyes widened. Their frightened expressions felt better than the heat coming across the horizon. I smiled and that sent most of the shade creatures fleeing across the landscape. Their flight lead away from the battle, away from the coming fire, and back towards the other pillars I had traveled by earlier in my dream.

A sluggish arm descended on top of one of the stragglers. I pressed it over the shade and dug all fingers into the dull grass and dirt. The creature was small enough to be contained by my grip.

I stared at it trying to understand this aspect of my dream. Even my hand looked odd, shade like. Similar to the creatures fighting below. Not dark, just faded and transparent.

It made no sense. The creature under my hand strained and tried to turn, to claw, to bite, but nothing it did made me move. It was disturbingly easy. I had thought there was no way for me to help during this fight.

Below both parties were still struggling but combat dwindled as the fire rolled across the valley. I looked over to the two captives. They had been laying there in confusion. Clearly they hadn't expected to be dropped. Or maybe hadn't expected me. I looked at their faces, trying to make out anything distinctive. Nothing stood out besides red-rimmed eyes.

One got up and fled back down the hill to the home team's shadows. The other stayed there. Either it was too terrified or dazed to move. I lifted my head back up and looked into the burning horizon. It felt so good to bask in the light for a moment. Things felt positively giddy after a few minutes.

My grin might have been deranged as I looked back down. The creature still pinned under my hand seemed to be shrinking in silence. The other one on its shadowy knees pleading for something. None of it made sense.

The rolling fire above made it over the mountain's edge. Shadows cast by each pillar instantly solidified. Not every shadow was caught under the largest column, many smaller ones stood alone outside the biggest shadow. Flames somehow cued the invading army's retreat. Even defending creatures broke away and found  a pillar to hug.

The rolling fire must be dangerous. Not that I felt the least bit intimidated. It felt great. Incredibly comforting, like a hot tub made of flames.

I stood there watching all this action and took little notice that the creature in my hand had turned frantic. My head turned away from the activity below and watched the shade thing. Its frantic motion under my hand was a battle I knew. This struggle wasn't for freedom but to survive.

Everything here was a dream, right? I wondered what would happen if the burning light hit it full on. After all, it was part of the attacking team, invaders to whatever sanctuary Kahina had found in this dream world. It deserved repercussions for this attack. At least this shade seemed to be against Kahina’s group. Unless the defending blobs had been holding her hostage?

Hell. It was too late to care.

Fire blasted across the valley's sky. Light flooded the valley shrinking the shadows cast by each pillar. The invading shade under my hand screamed. I think. Its eyes squeezed tightly while shaking back and forth frantically. Both hands clawed at my enlarged fingers. Then it started flaking away. First hands, then arms, shoulders and even the main body under my fingers fell apart. There was no wind to carry it away. Everything sat there in a vaguely human shaped set of debris.

Something banged on my chest. I tilted my head down to look. My main body felt very far away. It was just as bad as my hand had been. Next to my chest, I guess, was the surviving defender. The creature huddled in the shadow my body was casting. There wasn't a lot of room, but the thing must have been thankful for anything. Especially if it would turn to dust like the invader I previously held down. The defender wasn't looking at me but at the largest batch of darkness being cast.

It looked back up at me. I slowly shrugged. Maybe it wanted to get back to its own safety. There was no telling what would happen if I woke up from this dream. Letting one of Kahina’s team die felt dirty.

I took a slow ponderous step forward. Then another. Maybe we could make it to down the valley before midnight. Whenever that was.

The fight had completely died down. Above me, the fire had engulfed the sky but somehow each pillar still cast a six o'clock shadow. This little defending shade I escorted was in luck, each pillar's safe zone stretched in our direction. That mountainous column on the valley's far edge had quite a few shades inside of it. It was also the direction of Kahina's cord. We were going the same direction anyway.

Another step, then another. The landscape was moving in greater chunks due to my increased size. Soon we were close enough. My hitchhiker didn't hesitate and dove across to safety. There were tiny flakes of gray ash creating a trail from the brief crossing between my safe zone and the monstrous pillar's shadow.

Defending shades peered out of their protective darkness. They positioned themselves between me and the cord's far end. I couldn’t see Kahina past their wall. Their eyes were all the same detached bloodshot and it was hard to make out arms and legs in the jumble. My sense of touch was completely numb in this place.

I didn’t feel comfortable crossing the shadow's edge. They stared outward, unblinking, a wall that couldn’t be seen past even from this vantage point. After a few moments of this silent staring match, they started to glance among themselves. Maybe the shades were confused as to how I could stand out here in the light. A feat none of their kind seemed to be able to do without leaving behind ash.

Finally, from a signal that I didn't hear, they parted. Further in the shadow's safety was a body that was all too familiar. One that I could pick out in darkness. Kahina. She was curled up in the fetal position and twitching. Her eyes were open but unfocused. Her body was clad in something resembling a white toga. It was the only splash of color besides a sea of crimson eyes floating around her.

The mountainous pillar sent out a quiet vibration across the distance. Lethargic feeling air rustled briefly in response to the motion. I had no idea what that implied. Part of me was still trying to register the strange sensation of walking on four legs. This was a dream though, that was probably perfectly normal.

One shade knelt down to Kahina and pressed something against her forehead. Fingers maybe? The movement was slow and calm, like checking an exhausted child's temperature. Whoever was kneeling over Kahina must have been important. All the other figures gave it room.

Her condition must have satisfied the creature. It strode towards the edge of the shadow's boundary and looked at me. Then frowned. How I knew it was frowning wasn't apparent, it had no mouth, had no visible facial features. Maybe it was the tilt of the head. The frown was more felt than seen.

"Will she be alright?" I asked.

It shrugged. Without distinctive features, it was hard to tell if it was a passive shrug or a worried one.

"Is this real?" I tried another question.

Both of the shade's eyes narrowed in study. It slowly but distinctly nodded. Not that the nod was much help. Having never dreamed before it was difficult to say how my subconscious would answer. Would it always say dreams were real? Would my brain tell me if a dream was fake? At least Kahina was okay here. Those shades that had gathered around to defend her didn't seem to be doing anything wrong.

If that invading bunch was trying to drag people off into the distance, then it must be bad. Especially since they were attacking before that firestorm rolled across the sky. I finally relaxed. The darkness seemed to crawl outside the boundary cast by the pillars and take over the rest of my vision. No freezing terror came forth. Only rest.