Chapter 15

Orion felt a tremor within as he sat in the chair by the window, not looking out, but rather watching the dove sleeping peacefully on the middle perch.

Peace, thought Orion and he smiled. There can only be one peace – my peace.

He thought about the tremor he felt and realized that it felt synonymous to anxiety. He hadn’t felt anxious about anything since he had leveled Grendel Keep. And before that, it had been when he created Beth and Eric.

Beth, he thought and looked out the window. “Where are you my precious one?” He found it peculiar that he could not sense her roaming around the dream net.

He doubted that she had died. But where she was, he couldn’t detect. Maybe he should have sent his assassins after her instead of Samantha.

Orion stood up and yawned. He stretched his arms, and then brought them down and he looked down at the bird. “Even gods need rest, too,” he said with a tired smile and turned around.

He went to a far corner of the room where his bed sat and he pulled back the covers. He unclasped his cloak and laid it down at the foot of the bed and then took off his boots after he sat down.

Just as soon as he lay down and pulled the cover over his body, the eyes of the dove snapped open and they turned and watched the sleeping Orion.

* * *

By the time Vince returned to his apartment, he saw that Mykella and Agnes were gone. A sorrow overcame him like none he had ever felt. He wasn’t upset that she left without saying good-bye; it was, after all, her prophecy and hers alone. She must decide when it was time and he guessed by now that the time had come for her to seek out Orion.

He went over to the cot, knowing that Samantha was asleep – he didn’t think she would wake up before mid-morning. He lay down and just as his head hit the flat pillow, a scream issued from Samantha’s room.

His heart feeling like it jumped out of his chest, Vince quickly got to his feet and opened her door as he covered the distance with two long strides and he opened the door.

He wasn’t prepared for the sight that befell him. He screamed her name as he watched her unconscious body lifted up to the ceiling by invisible hands.

Vince didn’t need proof to know that she was being visited by a Dreamkiller in her dream. “Fight it!” No matter how loud he screamed, she couldn’t hear him. He even tried to grab hold of her with the intent of bringing her body down and slap her until she woke, but the ceiling was too high for him to reach her.

She had begun convulsing and those horrid invisible hands took hold of her midsection and pried her stomach open just as easy as a child opening a Christmas present.

Her blood fell like rain, covering Vince as he stood below her. He didn’t care for the blood; he cared for her life and he soon realized that Samantha’s life was at a close.

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She went limp in the air and then fell to the floor, landing on top of Vince.

He lay there motionless while a wave of anger rushed through his congested mind. After a while, he gently moved the body – only moments ago alive – to the side and laid her down on her back; her eyes were still closed as if asleep.

As he stood up to take another look at the body he felt Samantha’s blood begin to dry on his face and he didn’t care. He had even decided to leave the reminder of Samantha’s life on his body until Orion’s death.

With his right hand he made the sign of the Cross. He had never been a pious man, but he knew that Samantha had been a faithful follower of Christ, and he made the silent gesture in her honor.

He would have to bury the body, he knew, but he wanted to wait until Chris and Karl returned. He didn’t need them to view the deceased; he only wanted them to be a part of the burial. He knew that they would want to say their last good-byes.

Vince walked out of the bedroom and went over to the chair and sat down. There he remained for the next several hours, trapped in a sluggish consciousness.

It was the sound of thunderous whispers, trying to stay as quiet as they could, that brought Vince out of his semi conscious mind. He opened his eyes and realized that he had fallen asleep. He stood up and stretched his back, which had become sore from the hard chair, and he went over to the window.

The sun was warm on his face as he looked left and then right. There had to be at least two, maybe even three hundred humans walking the once-empty street. If it had been twenty years ago, Vince would have thought this was some sort of marathon.

After what he had witnessed earlier, he was very pleased at what Chris had pulled together. It was reckless, he knew, to use the underground net, but it had paid off.

As they filed slowly past the window, he saw their tired and worn faces. Some of them, a lot, he reckoned, had walked from the Californian Brigade, whereas the others most likely caravanned by trucks – only to leave their vehicles somewhere in the barren lands.

But still, a hint of excitement overcame Vince as he surveyed his army. It was true, what Karl had said. They did not know how large Orion’s force was. Vince knew, too, that what he was looking at was a grand sight.

They may not win their own battle, as Vince had foreseen, but it’s going to be one hell of a war.

He saw the crowd stop and looked to the left, near the front line. He picked out Karl and Chris from the mass of strangers and noticed that they had called a halt. Where Chris and Karl were leading them, Vince didn’t know – they hadn’t discussed a meeting place before he left them at the Barrens.

Vince stepped away from the window and made his way out of the apartment. He took to the stairs, exited the building, and found his way to his friends.

Before he could express how pleased he was to see the people, Chris looked at him with a concerned look on her face.

“Vince, what happened?”

He saw that she was looking at his face and clothes and realized that he had forgotten about the blood that had dried. Samantha’s blood.

“Are you hurt? You okay?”

Vince shook his head and understood that they thought it was his blood that had dried on his face.

“It’s not mine. It’s,” he didn’t want to say her name. He didn’t expect her to have died – not so suddenly, at least. “Samantha,” he said.

“My God,” said Karl with wide eyes. “What happened?”

“Dreamkillers.” Vince didn’t know what else to tell them except, “I got back and a few minutes later, I heard her screaming.”

Chris gave Vince a sympathetic nod. “Where is she?”

“Still in her room,” he answered while his eyes moved over the army. “I didn’t want to move her.”

Chris turned to Karl. “Can you lead them behind the building? It’s an open space with plenty of room for them to camp.”

“Sure,” he said with a sorrowful smile. “I’ll be up just as soon as they’re settled.”

Chris and Karl rarely saw eye to eye on anything, but it was as if this scene, among the crowd and the death of a close friend, solidified their friendship.

She embraced Karl and as they held one another, she felt twenty years younger. “Thank you,” she whispered in his ear.