On the crowded streets of a bustling city, a young boy scurried around the men in top hats and ladies in full skirts as if he were running from his own shadow. Tucked under his left arm was a small brown paper package tied up with a simple piece of twine, and in his right hand was a pocket watch that looked far too expensive for a boy of his poverty-stricken appearance. The boy would frequently flip the top of the pocket watch to check the time giving the impression that he was running late to a vital appointment. He had passed all the ladies and gentlemen galavanting along the streets of the new stores with fresh paint and shining merchandise and was now running along with the worn-down buildings where none of the elites would dare step foot. Finally, the boy screeched to a stop in front of an old theatre. It was evident that the theatre had once been a grand place frequented by many people, but I was now old and worn out with peeling paint and burnt-out light bulbs. The boy took one last look at his pocket watch before running through the doors of the old theatre. As he stepped through the doors he turned to a stairway that led through the upstairs apartment and ran up to the red door at the top.
As he stepped through the door to the upstairs apartment he felt a chill and pulled his raggedy scarf tighter around his neck. The apartment was one big room and it was covered with filing cabinets and looked like it hadn't been cleaned for years. Dust lined the window sills and spider webs collected in the corners. The boy slowly took steps to the desk sitting in the far corner of the room. Sitting at the desk was a man with slick black hair. He didn't touch anything on the table but simply sat at the desk staring at the wall ahead.
"Mr. Nyx?" The boy asked, still slightly panting from the run there. "I have the package"
The man slowly turned around in the chair and peered at the boy through a pair of glasses that sat on the bridge of his nose. The man looked to be in his late twenties or early thirties. He had very pale skin from lack of sunlight with high cheekbones and sharp, hypnotizing dark brown eyes. The man was wearing a brown tweed suit that had obviously seen better days. He stared at the boy’s face and then said in a sharp voice
"Aaron, how many times have I told you not to approach me when I'm working. How many times Aaron, how many times do I have to repeat myself?"
The boy took the package out from underneath his arm and held it out to the man
"Mr. Nyx" he repeated "I have the package"
The man sighed and took the package. He smiled at the boy and stood up from his desk.
"Come on, you're late," he said as he walked towards the door of the apartment.
The boy followed along behind Mr. Nyx and they descended down the stairs. They walked into the lobby of the theatre which was just as run-down and dusty as the rest of the place. Plastered along the walls were empty movie poster frames in which the posters for the new movies had once been displayed. The only frame that contained a picture was one particularly big poster frame which was on display on the center of the front wall. In the frame was a poster of a man that looked very similar to Mr. Nyx, but the surrounding setting along with the quality of the photo appeared to be from 50 years ago or more. Along the top of the poster in big letters were the words "the magical Mr. Morpheus" and underneath in smaller letters read "expert dream interpretation"
"So Aaron," Mr. Nyx started as he led the young boy to the doors of one of the screening rooms and stopped in front of it. "Was there any particular reason for you showing up at such a late time? I was counting on you to find this day just as important as I myself find it."
"Sir," Aaron started timidly. Mr. Nyx was usually cold in the way he communicated, but he usually didn't speak to Aaron in such a dismayed manner. Aaron had only been four minutes late; he didn't understand what Mr. Nyx could be so upset about.
"Well? Do you have an excuse that's worth hearing?" Mr. Nyx snapped at him. Aaron pondered this question for a couple of seconds. He didn't want to burden Mr. Nyx with his daily problems which seemed so minuscule compared to the problems Mr. Nyx dealt with on a daily basis. The reason that Aaron had been late was because the orphanage that he lived at was expecting a new boy to arrive that night. This boy would be staying in the lower part of Aaron’s bunk and all morning Mr. and Mrs. Melville had screeched at him about cleaning up after the previous tenant who had recently passed away from what was apparently just a common cold. The new boy had once come from money, but after his parents had died in a house fire he had been sent to live with his grandparents until their death last week. Having no other living relatives he was forced to stay at the orphanage until he turned eighteen and could come in possession of his huge inheritance. At least that’s what Billy and the other boys in the next bunk over had said. He didn’t know the whole truth about the matter, but for now, would have to accept his bully of a bunk neighbors word for it.
Aaron decided not to worry Mr. Nyx with these trivial problems and quickly shook his head in response to the question.
"Very well then." Mr. Nyx sighed and pulled out a ring of glittering silver keys from the inside pocket of his jacket. He selected a key without even having to search for the correct fit to the door in front of them, and meticulously slid it into the small lock right under the doorknob. He carefully opened the door and walked into the screening room, Aaron following behind looking around with a mix of confusion and wonder.
"Mr. Nyx," Aaron said still in a slightly timid voice. "I thought you said that today we would start with the filing... I didn't know we would be in one of the theaters in order to do that."
"Sit down." Mr. Nyx ordered, completely ignoring Aaron's previous statement. Aaron sat down on the edge of one of the many rows of seats and watched as Mr. Nyx walked up to the little room in the back of the theatre where all of the movies were projected from. He looked ahead at the huge white screen that covered up a majority of the wall. He could hear Mr. Nyx shuffling around in the little room preparing for what was coming next.
After a while, Mr. Nyx was still in the small room, and Aaron was beginning to become bored. He pulled out his shiny pocket watch and rubbed his thumb over the carved exterior. In fancy cursive letters, the word ART was spelled out. Aaron didn’t know if it stood for something, maybe his initials, or if it literally meant the word art. He continued to circle his thumb over the smooth cover and flipped open the latch a few times until suddenly a shimmering light caught the corner of his eye. He looked at the huge screen on the wall, and to his disbelief, he saw a room of a house that was filled with so many priceless pieces and silver trinkets that it was almost too bright to look at. Aaron moved up a couple of seats closer to get a better view of the beautiful room displayed on the screen. He hadn't even noticed that Mr. Nyx had started a picture until now, even though this one wasn't moving. The furniture that Aaron could see in the room was all carved and furnished with the best of craftsmen’s ship. The rug looked soft and plush to walk on and was designed with the most intricate pattern of colors Aaron had ever seen. The vases and picture frames were all made of china and gold, definitely not gilded, and they contained portraits of regal-looking men and women. Suddenly the door of the room opened and a man and a very young-looking boy entered. The young boy sat on the delicate sofa and took the box the man had been holding which was wrapped in spectacular wrapping paper. The boy opened the box and to his delight found a glossy new model train that looked fresh from the high in department stores Aaron had passed on his way over there. The young boy in the picture smiled and looked up at the man, and the man patted the young boy’s head and smiled down at him lovingly. The screen turned white again. Aaron turned to see Mr. Nyx standing behind him with his hand shoved in his jacket pockets still staring at the screen.
"A father and his son," Aaron said to Mr. Nyx.
"Do you think it was a premonition dream? That the son will receive the train soon? Or was it just the son dreaming because he wanted it?"
"Neither." Mr. Nyx said.
"It was the father’s dream. He was dreaming about what life would be like if he hadn't lost all of his money to the bank and hadn't lost his son."
"What happened to the son?" Asked Aaron.
"He was shot by the father nonetheless. In an attempt to take his own life he took his son's. An accident of course, but one that will haunt his dreams, both good and bad, forever."
Aaron didn't say anything back. He was so shocked at the fact that this father who seemed so kind with his son in the picture would have don't such a hyenas act. Mr. Nyx turned his back on Aaron and started to walk out of the doors they had entered. Aaron scrambled to his feet and quickly trotted after Mr. Nyx as they crossed the lobby and descended the stairs to the upstairs apartment once again. Once in the apartment Aaron flipped open his pocket watch and checked the time. He had only been there for about thirty minutes, but it felt like hours had passed. He walked over to the desk where Mr. Nyx had taken a seat again and waited for him to speak.
"Now Aaron, what you have just witnessed is, as you know, is a dream." Aaron nodded as he listened to Mr. Nyx. "You have witnessed the inner workings of somebody's mind. How does this make you feel?"
Aaron rocked back and forth on his heels and peered up at the ceiling, pondering his next words carefully.
"Well," he began "it's sort of an odd feeling, you know; being in somebody else's head and seeing their inner demons." Mr. Nyx nodded slowly
"It is definitely not a pleasure full experience, but it's not a burden, no, definitely not."
He reached on his desk and picked up the brown package that Aaron had given him upon his arrival.
“Now Aaron as I’ve told you the contents of this package contains something very important that I’ve been waiting for a long time”
Aaron nodded in anticipation. He had picked up the package early that morning from a shop way on the edge of WestPeak. The shop had been filled with odds and ends of things, half-finished inventions, and hundreds of mechanical parts. The man running the shop had hobbled into the back and gotten the brown wrapped package and carefully placed it in Aaron’s hands.
“For my dear friend.” The man had croaked out in a hushed voice. “May he find a use for it once again.”
Mr. Nyx carefully untied the little bow made of twine and peeled back the brown paper with the utmost care. A small flicker of delight flashed across his mundane face as he lifted up the small shiny green device that had been freshly cleaned and polished.
“My word,” Mr. Nyx breathed out “he really wasn’t joking. And in mint condition too.”
“The man said that it was the best thing that had ever landed his possession and that he knew he just had to give it to you.”
Aaron said sounding pleased with himself for delivering such a fine thing. Mr. Nyx ignored Aaron and continued to examine the shining device running his fingers along the sides in delight.
Stolen novel; please report.
“The man said that he wasn’t sure how well it worked though you know since he didn’t think himself qualified to use it.”
Mr. Nyx was now paying attention.
“Well, I guess we could... no, not now.” He suddenly stood up and recovered the device in the wrapping paper, walked over to the large desk in the corner of the room, opened the drawer, and placed the package inside.
“ I don’t want to deal with such things now. No use for it.”
“ but,” Aaron began “what’s the point if you don’t use it?”
Mr.Nyx scowled at the boy
“It’s just what it represents... the possibilities it still brings. Now that’s enough of that. Onto the real work.”
For the next few hours, what seemed like forever, Aaron and Mr. Nyx went through a small section of the many files in Mr. Nyx’s cluttered office. Some of the files were filled with portfolios of various clients Mr. Nyx had tended to, but a majority of it was disks attached to the descriptions of the contents. They were dreams and nightmares collected by Mr. Nyx over the years that clients from near and far had come to him for help interpreting.
“For some this type of dream interpretation can be sort of like therapy. Mr. Nyx had told Aaron when he had first started the work.
“It can get very emotional, especially the dreams that involved something bad about a loved one.”
“How did you get so good at it?” Aaron had asked, “you have so many files that people from all over WestPeak and maybe even some from the country and some from the Northern Hills must have come to see you.”
Mr. Nyx chucked “In all honesty after doing this for so many years you just begin to memorize all of the different meanings and recognize what things make people happy to hear and what doesn’t. That’s what really gets the money. The emotional therapeutic part I had no prior experience with. I just had the ability to get inside people's heads and voila you have people begging you to help solve their problems. As if they really matter or something.”
Mr. Nyx didn’t really have much care for peoples' problems which Aaron had noticed and grown accustomed to over the months of helping Mr. Nyx.
It was almost dinner time and Mr. Nyx pardoned Aaron for the day.
“I’ll see you Sunday!” Aaron called as he ran out of the room and back down the stairs through the theatre doors and onto the dirty road. It was now lightly drizzling and Aaron walked slowly once he got to the sidewalk. He was not looking forward to getting back to the Melvilles, and especially his new posh bunkmate. As he walked along the deserted street making his way to the busier roads, he stopped and picked a cluster of wildflowers off the side of the road. He then held out his hands and let some of the drizzles collect in his palm to which he then smoothed over his hair slicking back the wild mess that always stuck up no matter what he did. Aaron continued to walk along the busier streets which were now booming with businessmen who had just got off work and their lady friends draped in silks and diamonds. Their dresses were long and elegant barely brushing against the paved roads. Aaron tightens his scarf and hung his head down to not bring much attention to himself. He knew he looked scruffy compared to the elegant families on the street, and at his height, he was easily noticed and collected scowls from all the top hats passing him and sympathetic looks from all of the damsels draped in diamonds.
Aaron began near the residential neighborhood which was filled with rows of posh high-end townhomes and large mansions. He suddenly turned down the alleyway between the break of two houses and walked towards the end stopping under a window which was not too far from the ground. Aaron looked around him to make sure no one was watching and then tapped twice lightly on the window. A couple of seconds passed and Aaron looked around again then proceeded to tap twice except with a little bit more force. A couple of seconds went by and he heard shuffling at the window. The curtain moved to show a glimpse of a girl's face and then the sound of retreating footsteps. Another minute passed and Aaron turned to see a young girl of around his age hurrying down the alleyway. She was tall, a little bit shorter than Aaron, and slim with flowing curls of golden blonde hair and porcelain pale skin. She was wearing a pair of brown men's slacks with a Cadonia University t-shirt. Her face was in a wide smile as she proceeded to run up to Aaron and literally jump into his arms. Aaron stumped back a bit but caught his balance hugging the girl tightly then setting her on the ground.
“I brought these for you,” Aaron said, then presented the girl with the now crushed flowers.
“Oh, Aaron thank you!” She said, taking the flowers. “I’ve missed you so much. Where have you been?”
“Elle you know I only get to see you after my times with Mr.Nyx, and besides then I barely get any time to slip away from the Melvilles.”
“I know.” She huffed “maybe I can get father to give you guys more free time.”
Elle’s father, Mr. Patty, was one of the top executives for the WestPoints children’s society. They handled business within schools, camps, and of course the orphanages. Aaron had met Elle, which was short for Penelope when her father had given a speech at the children’s festival last spring. Mr. Patty had brought his entire family which consisted of his wife and eight daughters all between the ages of seven and twenty.
“Mother just had us one after the other after the other!” Elle had told him one afternoon. All of Patty's children had names starting with ‘P’.
“My parents literally named me Penelope Patty like I’m some superhero’s damsel in distress in one of the comic books the boys at school are always reading.”
Elle hated her name more than she hated most of her family members who all acted extremely stuck up and pretentious. And then there was Elle, the girl who fell for a common orphan boy who hadn’t come from money or a family or anything for that matter.
He had first seen her standing behind the building that her father had given his long exasperated speech in front of. He had seen her earlier standing proudly next to her mother and line of siblings smiling up at her father fondly as he went on and on about the correction of the orphanage system and how WestPoint’s orphans would be the most educated capable orphans in the whole country. As if that could really happen. Mr. Patty had no care whatsoever for the children besides his own lovely daughters, and neither did any of the other executives on the board.
Aaron had wandered off after the speech when the festivities had begun to get some fresh air and time away from the other boys. As he walked behind the building he had seen a boy wearing an oversized long brown coat and a brown newspaper cap. The boy's back was facing him and he was smoking a cigarette with one leg propped up against an old crate. Aaron wasn’t a big smoker, only occasionally when he would sneak out onto the balcony with the other boys in his bunk where they would all be smoking making Aaron feel obliged too, but for some reason, he felt the urge to ask this boy if he could bum a smoke. He walked up to the boy and right when he was about to introduce himself the stranger turned around revealing the beautiful face of Penelope Patty, hair tucked up in the cap, exhaling a large cloud of smoke.
“Sorry,” She started, “my parents would kill me if anybody told me I was back here doing this. I had to snatch a coat from the back of some gentleman’s chair for my disguise.”
“Oh um.” Aaron started “well don’t worry I won’t tell anybody.”
“Also I’m sorry I can’t offer you one,” Elle said, holding up the cigarette. “It’s not from my pack, it was inside the man's coat that I borrowed and I don’t want him to become suspicious if more are missing.”
“That’s okay I don’t smoke anyways. I quit.” Aaron told her. Elle frowned and dropped her hand.
“I’ve been meaning to quit myself.”
Ever since this meeting, Aaron knew that Elle was a special person, a person he wanted to know, and now meeting up in the ally way between her and her neighbor’s house had become a common thing.
“I don’t think he’ll be able to do anything,” Aaron responded to Elle’s suggestion of asking her father.
He leaned closer to her and she looked down and then backed up at him fluttering her eyelashes with a coy little smile. Aaron lifted her chin and kissed her soft lips to which she enthusiastically responded by pressing Aaron’s back up against the alley wall and continuing to heavily kiss him while she ran her hands all along him. Aaron was always surprised when Elle acted this way. She was the most forthcoming girl he had ever met. Elle pulled away from him and smiled.
“You know next week is my birthday. I’ll be seventeen finally.” She sighed with glee.
“Maybe then the father will start treating me my age. I wish we knew when your birthday was so we could properly celebrate.”
“well I know it’s sometime around Christmas,” Aaron responded. He had turned Seventeen officially on Christmas since that was the day he was dropped off at the orphanage, which meant only one more year in the hell house which was the WestPoint house for orphan boys.
“I have to go now,” he said, kissing Elle’s forehead. He began to walk away but stopped when Elle pulled at his scarf.
“Oh please don’t go so soon. You only just got here.”
“I have to be back in time for dinner or else the Melvilles will know something is wrong.” He said. Elle tugged at his scarf some more.
“At least let me keep something of yours so I can have a piece of you to hold until the next time I see you. I never know when you’ll stop by again, it could be tomorrow or a week from now!”
Aaron smiled and took out the pocket watch from his trousers. Elle gasped in delight and took it into her hands.
“Your beautiful pocket watch. Oh, Aaron I only meant your scarf or something I couldn’t take this, it’s too important.”
The watch was the only clue to which Aaron had as to where he came from. It had been tucked away in the folds of his blanket which he was wrapped in when the Melvins found him lying peacefully on the porch steps.
“I’ll be needing it back seeing as it is my only one.”
He kissed her one last time.
“Take care of it for me,” Aaron said as he hurried away checking to make sure nobody saw him leave the ally.
He walked down the rows of houses and onto the busy street. By now most everybody was off the street and inside the delicious smelling restaurants that lined up among the fashion stores. He stopped in front of the glass windows of one of the restaurants and watched as the waiter set down plates in front of a large posh-looking family. The son in the family looked around his age and was dressed in a firmly pressed tailored dress shirt. He politely put his napkin in his lap and cut into the steak that had been placed in front of him as he intently listened to an older man at the front of the table talking.
Aaron wondered what life would have been like for him if he had known his parents and had been able to grow up the way most kids did in WestPoint. WestPoint was one of the richest provinces in the entire country, and they cared very much about keeping up appearances and making sure that the citizens were happy. Well, at least the ones that could afford it.
Aaron continued along the streets and turned down a not so well left side street at the end of where the rows of stores and restaurants came to a stop. A little way down was a large square brick building that resembled a wear-house used for storing goods for the city. A large thin sign along the top read “WestPoint Orphanage for Boys”. Aaron scurried up through the double doors and ran towards the dining hall where the clinking of plates and glasses was heard. The dining hall was large and open with stained glass along the sides. At first glance, one would think that the dining room was rather nice for an orphanage, but after a bit of looking around it was evident that it needed a good sweep and dusting. Aaron grabbed a plate from under a little shelf near the front and lined up with the other boys as they received their food. Mushy pasta, mushy broccoli, everything they served was always overcooked and tasted like it had been boiling in the same pot of water for hours. There had recently been a law passed stating that all of the schools in WestPoint had to serve healthier food for the children, but Aaron and the other boys at the orphanage would much rather have the limp greasy pizza slices over the mushed vegetable option.
After dinner, Aaron walked back to his room and was about to prepare to take a shower when he saw a figure curled up in the bunk below his. The boy had his knees pulled up to his chest, back facing the room. Aaron went over to his locker that was beside each of the beds to retrieve his towel and soap when the boy suddenly turned towards him. The boy had light brown curly hair and a freckled face. He looked up at Aaron still lying down and Aaron glanced over at the boy as he tried to open his locker up. The boy's eyes were such a bright shade of green that it made Aaron uncomfortable and he quickly glanced away from the boy's enticing stair. He could feel the boy’s eyes still on him as he opened his locker and pulled out his bath items. He went to the corner behind his locker and started to undress.
The showers were always so full that you had to come already wrapped in your towel in order to take a quick shower before time was up. There wasn’t much privacy at the orphanage. Each room consisted of two bunk beds and four lockers. There were no closets to change in so you had to find a corner and quickly change. Usually, the other boys would look away out of respect, but Aaron could feel the boy’s eyes still on him which made him even more uncomfortable. His two other roommates were still out, probably in the game room, so it was just him and the new boy surrounded by an almost painful silence. After wrapping his towel around his waist Aaron glanced over at the boy one more time before leaving the room. The look that boy was giving him wasn’t sexual, but rather an evil stare like he was staring into Aaron’s mind and reading his thoughts. Aaron shivered as he thought about the boys piercing eyes staring straight at him, following him around the room. There was something not right about him, and it made Aaron shiver again as he walked out of the room still feeling the boy's eyes follow him out of the door.