Chapter Twenty-Three

“Stupid Bastard!” Tracy screamed and threw items in Bolan’s direction.

He managed to have missed the coffee cup before it flew past his head and shattered on the wall behind him. “Calm down,” he cautioned. “We do have other patients, you know.”

“Fuck you. You calm down.” Tracy shouted. “Laura does have a right to be buried with her name,” she protested and looked over to her father for help. “Dad, please.”

Tears were dripping off his chin as he watched his daughter fight a losing battle. “There’s nothing we can do.” Paul replied as he lowered his eyes.

“Besides, Vincent and Britany are being laid to rest with their names.” Bolan brought up. “You should be happy for them.”

“Yeah. I’ll be happy all right. I’ll be happy when Alexius rips the flesh off your dead carcass.” Tracy sneered and then stormed out of his office leaving her father in heart ache.

Tracy walked back to her new room and quickly lay down on her bed and let a flow of new tears soak her pillow. She could not understand why God took her sister from her – not now; there was a sudden feeling of despair when she thought of all the possible guidance an older sister might give her. And she even told her she would take her back home with her.

And then something came to her: Allen.

When she watched him rub the cover and pages of the book, he was only telling what he was told – not what he knew. He wasn’t really reading from the ancient pages as he led them to believe.

She stood up and wiped her face. Just before heading for the door, she felt her back pocket and was satisfied to feel that she had the book with her.

Instead of going straight to Allen’s room, Tracy paid a visit to Rick first.

“You sure about this?” he asked as he sat and listened to her story about how she believed Allen knew something that he wasn’t telling.

“Ninety-nine percent positive.” Tracy shrugged and Rick smiled.

“Good enough for me. Let’s go pay a visit to our new buddy,” he said and stood up off the bed and made his way to the door.

“Wait.” Tracy called and he turned back around. “I need you for another mission first.”

It was easy walking the corridors of their own floor, but to leave their floor to another was a bit of a challenge – especially the fourth floor which was designated for employees only.

The first door they passed belonged to one Doctor Frederick Whitaker, Senior Research Division. They noticed that on the opposite wall read Doctor Charles Bolan – Dream Research Division on a plaque next to his door. “Here,” Tracy whispered.

They approached the door and listened for any sound from within. Satisfied, Tracy put her hand on the handle. “Now, anyone coming and you create a diversion. Okay?”

Rick smiled. “I only wish I get the chance to perform,” he said and he nodded. “Go on. Get in there,” he almost had to push her inside the office.

Once the door was closed behind her, she quickly found the file cabinet against the side wall and walked over to it. Funny, she thought. In a psych hospital, you’d think that drawers like these would be locked. She pulled the drawer open and smiled at the insanity.

Tracy thumbed through the files and found Corgan, Allen. She pulled it out and laid it on the desk and opened it. What she was looking for, she didn’t know. But she’d know it when she saw it.

And there it was. Under the page with a typed heading of Reason for Illness: Murder

Allen Corgan, 16, had murdered his family while they slept peacefully in their beds. Miranda Corgan (39) was the first to die as her son slit her throat with a knife with a distinguished snake hilt. Thomas Corgan (42) came second as Allen plunged the same knife repeatedly into his chest and stomach. In an interview, Allen had claimed to have enjoyed the smell – but he also claimed to have been sleepwalking during the murders. Alicia Corgan (4), his baby sister, however, was a different situation altogether. She woke up from the noise and found the atrocity and screamed. The scream awoke Allen, but it did not dampen his feelings any. Instead, he grabbed Alicia by her hair and… - copied from trans. 3075.

Tracy closed the file before reading any further. “Dear Lord,” she whispered and opened the file to the back page where she found Bolan’s handwriting:

The snake-knife must be hidden. The sleepwalker is the deadliest foe known to man.

She closed the file and walked back to the cabinet, looked into it where she had found Allen’s file and noticed an object glistening in the light.

Pulling it out, she was looking at the knife in her hands. The size of it could classify it as a dagger. A golden snake coiled itself around the hilt and protruding from its mouth lay the silver blade. The blade gleamed as if it were new.

She turned it over in her hand and saw small writing engraved down the center of the steel – words she could not understand.

Tracy found herself transfixed with the tiny ruby eyes on either side of the snake’s head.

It was Rick that brought her out of her daze with light rapping at the door.

Someone must be coming, she thought and quickly shoved the file back where she had found it, but putting the dagger in her back pocket next to the book. Then she sprinted over to the door and quietly opened it and saw Rick gesturing to the end of the corridor where the elevator was.

“The stairs.” Tracy whispered and turned to run to the stairwell.

Once they shut the stairwell door behind them, Rick saw that it was Bolan who was heading back to his office. “That was close,” he replied with a sigh.

“So, what d'ya find out?” asked Rick after they returned to her room.

Tracy shook her head. “It was really bad,” she said and he nodded. “Killed his family in his sleep.” She walked over to the window and stared out into the raining world. “I think these Dreamkillers have been in touch with Allen for quite some time – but I’m not sure he knows it.”

Rick threw her a quizzical expression.

“Bolan wrote something down on the final page of Allen’s file: The sleepwalker is the deadliest foe known to man. I don’t think he knows what he’s really doing,” she explained.

“Well,” Rick began after a sigh. “I think it’s time to find out just how much he really knows, huh?”

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Allen was a bit reluctant to discuss anything with Tracy or Rick when they confronted him in the cafeteria shortly after they left her room – especially about why he was here in the first place.

“Sleepwalk? I don’t sleepwalk,” he told them, his eyes roaming around the room.

Tracy was tired and wanted a full night’s sleep without Alexius or Orion. “Fine,” she said with a nod. “Then tell me about the night your Mom and Dad and sister were murdered.”

Check-mate, thought Rick with a grin.

“How’d you,” Allen began as he stood up glaring at them.

“That doesn’t matter. Look, I need to know what kind of hold Orion has on you.” Tracy tried and Allen shook his head in disgust.

“You don’t get it, Bitch. You never have – and you never will. So drop the fucking subject,” Allen said as a fire of rage glowed in his eyes.

“Then tell us.” Rick stood up, facing Allen.

“Hmm,” Allen brought his fingers up to his chin, mocking them. “Let me see…No,” he grinned.

“Then tell us about Orion.” Tracy suggested with hope in her voice.

“Again, drop the fucking subject. I cannot control him yet. And I will watch him take possession of the Forbidden Realms.”

“The Forbidden Realms? You mean the dream world?” asked Rick.

“More like a world inside the dream world.”

Rick nodded. He knew that he finally had proof of that third level of the mind.

“What does Orion want with the Forbidden Realms?” Tracy asked.

“That – I don’t know. But, if he had complete control of the dream world, think about what the real world would be like.”

Rick looked down at Tracy as she returned his frightened expression.

“How,” Tracy swallowed. “How will he succeed?”

“The book, of course.” Allen answered and turned around. “But, you will not give it up, so there’s nothing more to talk about,” he said and began walking away from them.

Tracy surprised Rick by standing and jumping on top of Allen, knocking him to the floor.

He pushed her to the side and staggered onto his knees – trying to catch his breath. He propped his elbows up on a table to use as leverage. Before he could stand, he stared directly into the ruby eyes of the snake as it was plunged into the table in front of his head and Tracy leaned over him.

“Tell me how long you’ve been working for Orion,” she suggested behind a quiet voice of rage.

Tracy felt Allen’s muscles relax as he gave up the fight. He raised his hands in surrender. “All right, you win,” he sighed and dropped his head on the table.

Satisfied, Tracy pulled the dagger from the table and stood up and walked back to where Rick was standing. She turned around and faced Allen with a defiant expression and pointed to him with the dagger. “Now,” she sneered. “Talk.”

Sitting opposite them, Allen took a sip of his soda. “I really don’t remember how long he’s been contacting me – I honestly do not remember my dreams. But, about a year and a half ago, I got this insane voice in my head – says he needs me to help him take control and shit like that,” he paused and stared at the table as the other two listened with stoic faces. “He promises me power and glory. All he needed was a book, which was all. I would find it here at Lungland, he says. He tells me that either Kingston or Whitaker would have it, or know where to find it.”

Tracy looked over at Rick. “Whitaker?”

“How do I get there, I ask him. That’s when he gave me the dagger. You were not meant for this world, he tells me. You belong with me. So, I slaughtered my family – although I was unconscious during it. Oh, I wish I’d have seen the look on their faces,” he gave forth a sadistic smile.

Rick looked at Tracy and saw her frightened eyes.

“But, now, I know where the book is and it’ll take no time to get it back.” Allen almost laughed as he looked at Tracy and threw her a wink and licked his lips in an obscene manner.

Allen lunged his body forward – arms out – and quickly took hold of the dagger by the blade that was still being held with a firm grip by Tracy, and forced her arms forward with such force that it ran through Allen’s chest where it easily found his heart.

Allen winced only once and kept that evil stare on Tracy. “I’ll see you in hell,” he grunted and fell, face first, onto the table where he died.

When they witnessed Allen’s body disintegrate before their much-awaken eyes, they weren’t sure what was going on.

“Where the hell did he go?” Tracy asked, looking around for the magic act to end.

Rick shrugged as he, too, looked around.

Before they could speculate any further, the lights flickered on and off and they heard a low chuckle fill the cafeteria. “See you soon,” they heard the voice of Allen call out to them.

* * *

“And let this beautiful young woman – known to us only as Jane,”

Tracy sighed. “Laura Elizabeth Kingston,” she whispered beneath her breath, but loudly enough to be heard by the minister.

“Rest in the Kingdom of thy Father in Heaven, Amen,” concluded the minister who did not respond to Tracy’s remark.

It was only Tracy, Paul, Leslie, Rick, Steve, Bolan, and Whitaker who had attended Laura’s Jane Doe funeral. It was Bolan’s idea to bury her as quickly as possible.

That night, Tracy met Rick and Steve at the local festival standing in front of the tickets booth.

“Have you talked to Allen yet?” asked Steve and the other two glanced at one another with questionable expressions.

“You haven’t heard by now?” asked Rick and Steve shook his head with a puzzled expression.

“Kind of. He sacrificed himself to Orion, so I guess we’ll probably be seeing him pretty soon,” explained Tracy and Steve shook his head.

“So now it’s Alexius and Allen.” Steve said in disgust.

“Oh, and don’t forget Orion.” Tracy smiled at him, which caused him to return a grin.

“Yeah, let’s not forget him, too.”

“Psst, Steve,” whispered a voice behind Steve.

He turned around and jumped back. A fun house mirror had appeared out of nowhere behind Steve and he saw Allen standing inside the mirror.

Allen reached out and grabbed hold of Steve’s hair and painfully dragged him through to whatever lay behind the mirror.

“Steve!” shouted Rick as they watched the mirror vanish just as quickly as it had appeared.

“We need to find him, fast.” Tracy exclaimed as she headed down the main aisle.

Rick followed her and they looked from side to side at the empty festival. The rides had been shut down for some time; rust had formed on the metal, leaving large reddened frozen giants.

It was the sound of a ride being turned on that caused Tracy and Rick to run.

They stopped when they approached the Whirlin’ Electric spinning ride. There, they found Steve strapped into the standing harness. They stared into Steve’s widened eyes of fear.

They heard the groaning of the engine revving up and then it was off. The sudden force of the circular movement of the ride caused Steve’s arms, legs, and head to become detached from the rest of his body. All members flew in every which way – Rick ducked just in time before being hit by Steve’s leg.

Rick looked down and noticed that the leg had been severed before even being put on the ride. The sick son of a bitch put him up there for his own fucking amusement.

“You okay?” Rick asked as he turned to face a disgusted Tracy.

“That’s it,” she grunted.

Well, at least she’s not disgusted by the cruelty of this slaying, Rick thought and then found himself waking up against his will.

Tracy came into his room several minutes later, not bothering to change out of her nightgown, carrying the Alexius book and the dagger.

“What’s going on, Tracy?” asked Rick as he stared at the glistening blade.

“There’s got to be a way to stop them, right?” she began and Rick agreed. “Well, if Allen got to Orion by killing himself, I believe we should be able to do the same thing,” she explained and Rick quickly shook his head awake.

“Now just wait a second. I agree that if we kill ourselves, we might be able to fight them on their own ground, but Tracy, how the hell do we get back once we’re dead?” Rick asked, being the voice of reason.

“Who cares? Once I’m there, I intend to find them and screw them ‘til they scream. They’ve fucked with me too many times.” Tracy sneered.

“Listen, Tracy, there might not be a way back.” Rick cautioned a second time.

“Then we’ll stay there until we find a way back,” she spat out. She was becoming irate by the fact that he was wasting too much of her time.

“What if there is none?”

“Goddamnit, Rick,” she screamed. “I don’t give a shit! If there’s no coming back, then so be it – at least I’ll get some sleep.”

Rick gave in with a reluctant sigh.

Tracy held the dagger to her chest and hesitated. “This is for everyone who ever died by the hands of Orion or Alexius or Allen,” she said and then plunged the blade deep into her chest.

Her eyes widened, it felt as if she could not regain her breath. “Doesn’t hurt…that much,” she gasped and then fell onto her side and ceased breathing.

Rick slowly pulled the dagger from Tracy’s bleeding chest. Putting it up to his own, “And this is for Tracy – I hope you know what the hell you’re doing,” he sighed and pulled the blade to him where it quickly met his beating heart.