Chapter 14

Mykella stood up and went to the window where she tried to make out the outlines of Old Chicago. She noticed several roofless structures and, even though she had looked at them many times since, wondered how they came to be this way.

“When do you think we should leave?” Mykella had not looked at Agnes, who sat motionless, watching the young savior of mankind.

“I’ll leave with you when you feel the time is right.”

“I want to wait until Dad gets back,” replied Mykella as she turned to Agnes and went back to the table and sat down. “I want to at least say good-bye to him – I owe him that much.”

“I know how you feel, dear, but he may not return for a while; and every minute counts now.” Agnes wasn’t trying to sound malicious, but she felt she had to press the time issue more severely.

“Let me change my clothes and talk with Mom first. Then we can go.”

Agnes smiled and stood up. “You are very brave, Child. I just hope the world knows how brave you truly are.”

Mykella didn’t respond, but grabbed some clothes from a closet and left the room to use the bathroom. Once she closed the door behind her, she lowered her head and wept in the darkness.

She was no warrior and did not know how to fight anything, let alone, the Master Dreamkiller himself. Maybe if she had been given more time, then perhaps she could have learned to fight. As she wept, she kept telling herself that there was no way to kill Orion.

She couldn’t stop weeping as she slipped out of her sweat clothes and into a pair of jeans and a shirt. Maybe Mom can tell me what to do, she thought as she abandoned the bathroom.

As she entered the apartment, she saw that Agnes had stacked Krieger’s notebook on top of another book and had placed them on the arm of the sofa.

“I’ll only be a minute,” said Mykella and opened her mother’s door.

Samantha was awake and pleased to see her daughter. She was still too weak to leave the bed so she motioned for Mykella to sit next to her.

As Mykella sat down, she looked at the lit candle and then to her mother’s knowing eyes. “I don’t know what to do,” she finally said.

“I know,” replied her mother with a sympathetic smile. “You should have been told and trained a long time ago.”

“I’ve never – I don’t know how to fight.”

“Your strength lies within you – don’t forget you already killed one Dreamkiller. Orion taught your father one thing: surrender to your will power and become its master. Once you achieve that, you can do anything.”

“Mom,” said Mykella and took her hand. “I’m scared.”

“I know, Mykella. I’m scared too. But Orion has weaknesses and I’m sure you’ll find them. Look deep into your enemy and you’ll find his weakness. You’re a Dream Crusader – use that gift to your advantage.”

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“But how? I don’t even know what that really means.”

“It means that you can travel anywhere in the dream realm. Try not to think of fighting Orion in the here and now, but maybe someplace else – another time, perhaps.”

Mykella stared at her mother and realized that she must have put a lot of thought into this last battle.

“Why me?” Mykella was losing the inner battle for control.

“Maybe you should start to pray and then, maybe, you could find that answer.”

“Pray? What’s that?”

Samantha sighed and sat up a little more, placing a pillow behind her back. “I can’t believe no one, me included, has ever explained prayer to you.” She reached up and pulled off a necklace and handed it to Mykella.

She took it and studied the familiar shape of a cross and a man nailed to it. Chills raced down her back as she looked at it as she recalled seeing something very real in a dream so long ago. Had she actually seen this man crucified?

“Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done,” recited her mother and Mykella looked up from the cross. “There’s more to it, but that’s the gist. Prayer is talking to God, the one who made us.” She looked into her daughter’s eyes.

“A lot of people lost faith in God once Orion took control. You are the one to restore that faith. God chose you to deliver Man. Where, I don’t know. Deliver us to heaven, or back to Earth, who knows. But I know you have always been the Chosen One.”

“How can I restore a belief as old as time when I don’t believe in it?”

Samantha closed her eyes. “Who told you how to find Ben Krieger?”

“I don’t know, just some old guy with a beard.”

“What was he like? Where did you see him?”

Mykella shook her head. “I don’t know. He was nice, I guess. He came to me in my dream, in the jungle. He had robes on and sandals, but,”

Samantha opened her eyes with a smile. “The Chosen One has visited the Chosen One. That was Jesus, Mykella.”

Mykella looked down at the figure on the cross again. Remembering that gentle face of the man in her dreams – the same one who gave her the bread to give to Krieger – had been the same man who she now fully remembered seeing dangling from the cross. No words could describe the sorrow she felt as she relived that moment in her mind.

“He opened the gates of heaven to all mankind,” explained her mother while Mykella stared at the crucifix.

“There’s no way you can compare me to the Son of God,” said Mykella when she looked up at her mother, who smiled.

“That’s true, I can’t. But God has chosen you since the day he put you inside me; like he has done for everyone else. Everyone has a reason for living – yours is different as is everyone else’s.”

Samantha watched as her daughter went back to the cross in her hand. “Take it,” she said. “Hold it in your hand and pray. It doesn’t matter what you say or how loudly – He is always listening.”

Mykella glanced up; she couldn’t help to feel the doubt. She had seen so much, yet so little to believe in a God who loves and still would allow Orion to rule. She looked at her mother with a forced smile. “I love you, Mom.”

“I love you, too, Mykella.” Tears began falling from Samantha’s eyes as she looked at her daughter for, possibly, the last time. She reached out and took her into her arms and held her tight. “God be with you,” she whispered, more for her comfort than Mykella’s.

There were no official words of good-bye as Mykella rose from the bed and left the room.

She met Agnes at the table, who was drinking a cup of water, and she reached up and put on the necklace. As she did so, she recalled something her father had said to her in a dream so long ago: “Did He save my father?”

“Is it time?” Agnes looked up and saw the crucifix.

Mykella went over to the window and looked out. It was nearing dawn. Her father would be back any minute now. The desire to wait for him, to say good-bye, was so strong, but she sighed and pushed the desire back and nodded.

“Yeah,” she finally said and turned back to Agnes. “It’s time to go.”