 
The Tunnel Dream

By A.S. Morrison

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2014 A.S. Morrison

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

#

It was a tunnel. I couldn't tell at first glance but the longer I saw it the more I knew it to be true. It was dark and brown, though I'm not sure of the details. It curved steadily to the left and then straightened out. I could not tell how fast I was moving, there was no sense of acceleration.

This wasn't my first time here. There was a faint familiarity to everything. It was a long lost memory, only recalled when the same situation arose again. I don't remember how it ended last time. Maybe it never ended. It went on indefinitely until all memory faded away and I arrived somewhere else. Perhaps it would end this time, the tunnel would lead to a new place, someplace wonderful.

I became conscious sometime in the early morning. My eyes rested absentmindedly on the specks of dust floating wistfully through the fresh rays of light. I glanced at the yellowing curtains hanging limply from the window. They needed replaced. There were small holes near the bottom where mice had munched. I didn't feel much like buying new ones yet. I always forgot or decided it could wait till later. There were more pressing concerns at the moment. That dream, it was somewhere around the fourth time I had it. Every time I woke up before reaching the end of the tunnel. Each time I felt a little anxious when I awakened. It was as if I did make it to the end but never remembered that part. The only thing left was the anxiety of whatever was there.

The alarm clock on my nightstand buzzed to life. I almost jumped off the bed I was so startled. I pounded the top until it shut up. It was looking to be the start of another wonderful day.

My legs fell to the ground and I sat up, hunched over, staring out the window at the building across the street. The windows were boarded up; sometimes I wish mine were as well.

The shower never got hot. I couldn't remember if I had paid the water bill. I'm sure I did. My clothes weren't ironed. The iron died last week and I still hadn't mustered up the necessary drive to buy a new one. I didn't care; no one would notice the wrinkles in my shirt or pants. The coffee pot was also broke and I didn't feel much like stopping somewhere to buy some so I decided on just being tired that day. It's not like anybody cared about that either. Thankfully my refrigerator was not broken.

I took out an expired bagel and some old cream cheese and had breakfast. Right before leaving my small apartment for the great outdoors I took a look at everything. There wasn't much to look at. A small round carpet lay in the middle of the room. A small table sat in the corner, and a futon with some stuffing missing sat against the wall. The doors to the bathroom and bedroom stood open. I didn't have a television and only had one lamp. I nodded happily at the dwelling I made up for myself and left it for the day.

I lived in a medium sized city. It was one of those where the people who lived there thought it was huge but all the tourists; there weren't many, thought it small. It wasn't terribly crowded, but the traffic was always bad. I blamed the city planners.

It was still too early for work so I took the long way to the bus stop. There wasn't really a short way and a long way. The short was simply to walk outside my building to where the bus stop sign was. The long was to bypass it completely and go to the next one several blocks away. It was almost summer so the mornings were cool but not too cool.

I stared at the ground as I walked to the next bus stop. I didn't much like looking at people and always worried that they might try to say something if I gave them the chance. It was much safer to avoid eye contact completely to be safe.

Not that I was antisocial. I actually found myself to be rather pleasant if found in the right mood. That usually arose sometime in the evening after work when I knew I had the rest of the night to myself. It lasted all the way until I got home and realized that that meant sitting on my futon with my tablet hoping one of the neighbors didn't notice me using their WIFI.

I didn't have too many friends or any friends at all really, at least not real friends. Once a month or so I was contacted by the guy I sat at lunch with in high school. He usually only emailed me to say that he did something else amazing in his life. Last month he couldn't wait to tell me that he got engaged again. He was one of those always engaged never married types. All the engagements fell apart somehow. I always suspected that he just told me that he was engaged to make himself feel better and then pretended to call them off when I decided I wanted to go to the weddings. Or maybe I was just pessimistic and he really was engaged to someone new every few months.

The next bus stop sign was finally in sight. I turned around to see that the bus I wanted was coming up fast. I ran to the sign but the bus zoomed by before I could get there. There wasn't any point in waiting an hour for the next one. I checked my watch. Yep, it was early. The city's public transit ran on the motto I had given it. If you miss a bus because it's early, the next one will be thirty minutes late, Guaranteed!

The place I was headed to was only a mile or so away. I could use the exercise anyway. I once had a gym membership, but I hated being there alone and didn't know how to make gym friends so I gave up on it.

I still had plenty of time before work. Sometimes when I got there early I would stop in at the little burger place across the street. They served breakfast, and even though I didn't trust the look of it I would still go in for a soda or something. They had coffee but it was always old and nobody listened when I told them.

This was turning into a pretty good day. I liked walking to work but never wanted to until I had to. It was harder to get up in the morning if I told myself I had to walk over a mile to start the day. But once I was outside it was a rather pleasant experience. I even looked up once or twice to see the people coming toward me. They looked friendly enough. Unfortunately one said good morning and I was forced into a smile and a nod. I was always so surprised when people spoke to me on the street that if I tried to say good morning in return it usually came out extra quiet or extra loud. A nice smile and nod was much better.

The small shop where I worked was at the end of a long brick building. It shared the building with a tattoo parlor and a convenience store. The bright green awning over the shop drew the eye nicely. I bypassed it for now, going instead to the restaurant on the next block.

I got a soda and sat by the window facing the building with the little shop. It was nice to watch the people from a safe distance. Someone left a newspaper at the table behind me. I glanced around to make sure no one was coming back to get it, and picked it up. The front page had a large picture of a destroyed town.

Four hundred dead in deadly clash

I suppose the fact that they were dead had to be reinforced. I could have written a better headline than that. I should have taken journalism classes. I could have been getting paid to tell people that when four hundred people died it was deadly. I put the paper back on the table behind me and stared out the window some more.

I should have stayed in college. It was getting too expensive. I got a job at the little shop I was staring at to help pay for it, but I didn't get paid enough to keep up with the classes. I could have taken out a loan but I didn't want to pay that off for fifty years. I dropped out after two years. I was going to get a degree in computers. The math did me in. There was so much math! I failed Calculus for the second time and decided it wasn't for me.

The time moved so slowly while staring out the window. I had time to wonder what the city looked like at the turn of the century, the 20th century that is. Though actually I found it just as interesting to wonder what it looked like at the turn of the 21st century as well. I lived through that but I was so young that if I went back in time it probably would look different then I remembered.

After thinking about random bits of nothingness for an hour and getting three refills on my soda, it was finally time to go to work. I filled up my cup one final time and took it across the street with me. I looked into the shop windows and felt the slightest bit nervous. I had worked there too long to feel nervous about going in every morning and yet the feeling came back each day.

A bell rang in the backroom somewhere when I opened the door. I hated that thing. Who cares if a customer comes in? I certainly didn't. I spent most of my time wishing the shop would suddenly become invisible while I was working.

I made my way to the backroom, trying not to look at all the shiny jewelry glittering in the cases. I had plenty of time to look at them while showing them to customers. The backroom was filled with more jewelry sitting in boxes on shelves. The shelves turned the backroom into a maze. I had to weave around them to get to the sign in sheet. I looked at my watch until the minute hand reached the twelve and then scribbled my name and time down. The boss, who everyone called Mr. Stone, was a middle aged man with short graying hair and a permanent good natured smile. He came up behind me without making a sound.

"Right on time as always, Agate." He said, polishing some stone I couldn't remember the name of.

My name was Aimory Bridgewater. Mr. Stone had a fascination with coming up with stone based nicknames. I actually preferred Agate to my actual name.

"I try to be punctual." I said.

I got away before he could ask me to do anything, but I wasn't fast enough.

"Hey, Agate, make sure you clean all the cases before the rush comes in." Mr. Stone called after me.

We never got a rush but he was always hopeful. I took some paper towels and a spray bottle full of some brand name cleaner and started around the store with it. It wasn't so bad. I liked cleaning the cases, especially if customers came in. It made it look like I was too busy to help them.

When I was finished I stood behind the counter near the cash register and waited for someone to come in. It was always dull in the morning. Shopping for jewelry was more of a midday to evening type of excursion.

Mr. Stone came out of the backroom after a while and saw me standing idly by. "Why don't you clean some of the rings or something? Look busy; it attracts more people than you just staring out at them creepily."

I took the key from my pocket and a cleaning cloth to the ring cases to start cleaning. They all looked fine but I suppose a nice shine wouldn't hurt. If it occupied my mind and let the minutes flow a little quicker it was alright with me.

The first person to make the bell ring was another worker. His name was Jasper. Mr. Stone probably hired him so he wouldn't have to think up a nickname. He was about ten years older than me, so around thirty five, and had long slicked back hair. He couldn't go five minutes without telling a story about what he did on some weekend somewhere. He held a newspaper in his hand on this particular morning.

"Soooo," Jasper began, elongating his words as usual, "any customers yet?"

"No." I said.

"Alright, alright, sounds good. So how about—"

He stopped. He was staring at my shirt. "You didn't iron that." He said as though I might not have noticed.

I looked down at my collared shirt and tan pants. "Oh, I think you're right. I must have forgotten."

"You shouldn't come in here like that. Who wants to be shown a five hundred dollar necklace by someone who doesn't press his own clothes?"

"Someone who really wants a necklace." I said haughtily.

"Do better next time. Anyway so how about that town that was destroyed yesterday?"

"You mean the dead deadly one?"

"What? I mean the one in some African country that was destroyed. Four hundred people killed. This is getting to be a real problem."

"You mean towns being destroyed?"

"A few hundred people were killed in the Middle East a few days ago. Haven't you been keeping up with the news?"

I shrugged. "I don't have a T.V."

"There's more than one way to get the news. Buy a paper sometime."

He thrust the newspaper in my hand and I went ahead and started reading it. The article I had seen was talking about a town in Eastern Africa that was destroyed by some terrorist group. It was a different branch of a terrorist group that had been terrorizing a Middle Eastern country for several months. When one leader got killed, six more popped up with even bigger numbers. It was really getting out of hand.

"Huh," I said when I finished, "I hadn't even heard about this."

"Well you better start paying attention." Jasper said, taking the paper back. "It's big news."

The bell rang again and this time it was a customer. Jasper mumbled something about needing to sign in and left me alone. The woman started looking into the display cases full of money clips and mood rings. Mr. Stone wanted to try out some trendier merchandise.

I went back to the cash register, took out a piece of paper and a pen, and pretended to look busy so it didn't seem like I was watching her.

"Did you greet her?" Mr. Stone had crept up behind me again.

"Not yet. She's just looking."

"It lets her know you work here."

"I'm standing behind the desk at the cash register; I think she can figure it out."

He looked at me sternly. "Go greet her, Agate."

I did as was told. The woman said she was just looking. I nodded and went back to where I was.

Mr. Stone disappeared into the backroom after making sure I annoyed the customer. I took out a bracelet and started cleaning it. It didn't need it, but I always hated it when people in stores stared at me while I was looking at something, and so refused to do it to others.

The woman started humming to the music playing. I hadn't even noticed the music until she did that. Mr. Stone always played those songs from the eighties that never made it on best of the eighties mixes but still refused to be forgotten. I generally blocked them out. Something about her humming made me notice it for the rest of the day. She left after a few minutes of wandering around and smudging up every case I had just cleaned.

The moment she left Jasper appeared out of the backroom.

"What did she want?" He asked, looking out the door after her.

"Nothing, she was just looking."

"You have to try and sell things to her. Get her looking at something. Make her feel bad for coming in and wasting your time."

"She wasn't wasting my time. I have to be here."

"Well, try harder next time."

I started to feel the signs of an oncoming headache. I couldn't tell if it was Jasper or the bright lights shining down on the jewelry that caused it. Within an hour I had a full blown headache and had to reach for my headache medicine I hid in the backroom. It was a little lighter than I remembered. I think everybody was starting to take it.

I worked from ten to four that day. As it was getting closer to four more people came in. I showed off some necklaces and some rings but nobody bought anything. Jasper took every customer he thought had money and so made several sales. When it was time to leave he came over to me the same way he did every day. Each time he found a new reason why I wasn't getting the sales.

"I don't know if you noticed, but I sold a lot more today. Do you know why that is?" He asked calmly.

"No clue."

"It's because you didn't iron your clothes. If I walked into a jewelry store and saw you and then saw me, who do you think I would walk up to?"

It took a lot of self control to not make a snide remark. "Probably you."

"Exactly." He put his arm around my shoulder. "So let's try a little harder tomorrow, sound good?"

I nodded and as soon as he took his arm away I was out the door.

I went to the bus stop but it was twenty minutes until it was supposed to come so I walked home. It was an even better walk on the way home. I had the rest of the day to myself. I could do anything, go anywhere. Who knows, I might even meet someone.

Instead of all that I went straight home and tried to connect my tablet to the neighbors WIFI. It didn't work that day. I tried for almost an hour before giving up. I briefly thought about going back outside to wander around, but by the time I hit the futon I'm not going anywhere. I pulled a frozen dinner out of the freezer and put it in the microwave. It was an old microwave and sometimes I had to put the food in for an extra few minutes.

I went to bed early. I tried the WIFI again but it wasn't meant to be that night.

#

The tunnel curved down. I was sinking closer to something. There was a destination, but I didn't know what it was. It grew closer and I began to feel nervous. I wanted to get way, to push back. I tried to reach out and grab the sides, it didn't work. There had to be a way back up. All I could see was straight ahead. The tunnel stretched indefinitely. More and more came out of the darkness. I didn't want to see the end, if it did end.

I found myself staring at a peculiar stain on the ceiling when I finally woke up. It was purple. How could I get a purple stain on the ceiling? Maybe it was there when I moved in. It was probably someone else's stain, maybe from the floor above.

I pushed my legs off the bed and sat up. The sun was shining through the window. I should have pulled the curtains closed but I always forget at night.

The shower was cold again. I really hoped I paid the water bill. I rarely even checked the two sinks in the apartment to see if they were cold. The bathroom sink had a hole in the pipe I hadn't fixed yet. If I used it then all the water would go straight to the floor. The kitchen sink still had dirty plates in it from the last time I used plates I had to clean myself. I used paper after that and never felt any need to clean the other ones. I should just throw them away.

I pulled out my ironing board from the closet and put the shirt and pants on it and then stared at them hoping an idea would come to me. The other shirts and pants weren't clean and my quarter collection was lacking to do laundry. The best idea would be to go to the corner store and see if they sold irons. But I didn't much feel like it. Instead I took a pan, turned on the stove, and used the bottom as an iron. To my surprise it actually worked. My clothes looked freshly ironed, but now had a slightly burned smell. Nobody would care about that.

Work didn't start until noon that day. I sat on my futon and played games on my tablet. The internet still wasn't working. I grew tired sitting there for so long. When I finally got up for work I was very tired. It didn't seem to want to go away.

The bus was on time in what I can only attribute to a mini miracle. The driver was nice enough to let me off in front of the store instead of the stop before it. Most ignore me when I ask and go to the next stop several blocks away. Things were going right for once.

I saw Jasper run out of sight when the bell went off. He sneaked a peak and saw it was just me.

"You're late." He said pompously.

"No, I'm not. It's not even twelve."

"Actually the clocks here run a minute fast. If you don't get to the sign in sheet in the next ten seconds you're late."

I tried hard not to give him a dirty look as I passed. I got to the sign in sheet and put down twelve exactly because that's what my watch said.

My mind wandered back to the tunnel dream as I stared longingly at all the people walking by. They looked so free out there. Not that it mattered much. I was being paid to be trapped in the jewelry jail (As I called the store in my head).

"I think it's clean enough, Aims." Jasper said, standing next to me.

I had been absentmindedly cleaning the same fire opal ring for the last ten minutes.

"It can never be too clean."

"I think there's a limit to everything. By the way, nice ironing skills, I knew you could do it if you kept your mind on it." He leaned in close. "I think something's wrong with it, you smell over done."

I put the ring back and grabbed another one.

"Soooo, did you hear about those car bombs?"

"No, what car bombs?" I asked, looking anywhere but at his face.

"You gotta be keeping up with the news. It's that war in the Middle East. Car bombs went off all over three countries.

"Sounds like a lot of them."

"Something like thirty." He said, tapping the glass on one of the cases irritatingly.

"How many people died?" I asked.

"Several hundred."

I nodded. "What's going on over there, anyway?"

"Who knows? I don't know if it's religious or a land dispute, probably both." He stretched and yawned loudly. "But things are crazy everywhere. A train derailed in Germany, killing a bunch. A bridge collapsed in Australia, killing a bunch. I'll tell you what; this is a crazy time to be alive."

"Every time is a crazy time to be alive." I said thoughtfully. "There's always something going on somewhere."

"Tis true." He said, staring off into space. "I just have a feeling this is extra crazy."

It was one of those boring days. A few people came but no one needed me to show them anything. The hours passed and I was still very tired. I knew better than to lay down after getting up in the morning, it only caused trouble later in the day.

Shortly before six when I was set to leave a large group came in. I showed some woman a necklace in a bunch of different sizes. She annoyed me by tossing the ones she was done looking at on the counter. I took them and placed them neatly back on the board they were kept on but she kept taking them back off to compare. I couldn't say anything. Mr. Stone had a no getting annoyed at the customer's policy. Finally the woman bought one of the necklaces. It may have only been a thirty dollar necklace, but it was my first sale in four days.

As soon as the woman left I signed out, said my goodbyes, and got out of there before I could be asked to do anything else. I glanced back at the window and saw Mr. Stone looking after me holding a bottle of glass cleaner.

I was still tired when I got back. I didn't want to take a nap because I wouldn't get to sleep when I needed to go to bed. I had the late shift the next day so maybe a nap wouldn't hurt.

It was there in the darkness. Just beyond my reach, or I was just out of its. It was reaching toward me, I knew it. I tried to get back, to move anywhere but towards it. There was no way to control my motion. I was going deeper into the tunnel and had no way to stop. The thing, whatever it was, was getting closer.

I woke up in a cold sweat. I had a hard time catching my breath. That dream ended sometime after my memory of it did. Something happened and it left me shaking and twitching. Whatever it was it must have been bad. No dream had ever left me in a state of shock, especially if I didn't remember it. I slowly got up and tried to find the time. The clock on my nightstand showed 2:45. It was too early to get up but I didn't know what to do. There was no way I was going to get back to sleep. The dreams were becoming frequent. That was the third night in a row and the fourth that week.

The large window looked out onto that dirty building across the street. The boarded windows all the way up rarely made an imprint. They weren't always like that. When I first moved in I could look across the street and see into abandoned rooms of an old office building. Some delinquents started busting out the windows and spray painting the inside. Sometime after that the boards went up. The delinquents didn't much like that and spray painted the boards. That all ended several years ago, but it was still fresh in my mind. Why have a building just sit there? Someone was bound to want the space for something; or perhaps not. Perhaps the local paper was right and my little city was falling into disrepair.

It didn't much matter to me. I could leave any time I wanted. I had enough saved up to buy a cheap car, or better yet rent one that might actually work, and be free of this place forever. I had relatives in a different state and, though I hadn't seen them or tried to make contact in quite a while, knew around about where they lived.

I could run anywhere I wanted if I so desired. It wouldn't take a seconds hesitation, after I got the car of course. But after that I would be off on my own and ready to start again somewhere else. Maybe that's why I was having those dreams. It was my subconscious telling me that my life was going down a dark tunnel with no light and no end in sight. It was high time to change all that and make good on a promise my mother made to me when I was small. She once said that I was destined to do something great and that the only way that wouldn't come true is if I became too set in negative ways. As a child I had no clue what she meant but I do now. It's all up to me. I have the power to choose and I should choose to get away from the jewelry jail and set out on a new course. Of course it would be better if I saved up just a little more.

As I stared out my window at the building across the street I noticed a person walking along the sidewalk three stories below. He walked with a gait that suggested he didn't need to be anywhere anytime soon. He was free to go and to come as he pleased. That's the way I should have been living. I didn't have a family waiting or even a pet that needed fed. There was no reason why I shouldn't be out at strange hours doing who knows what by the fading light and buzzing of the streetlamps. The man turned into the alley to the left of the boarded building and disappeared from sight.

I got my tablet to look up recurring dreams but I couldn't get onto the internet. I used the bathroom; I had to pull the flapper up myself because the chain was broken, and went to my futon where I proceeded to stare at the wall where I should have had a television. My mind was working in overdrive, taking me through everything I could possibly think about. I assumed it was doing what it could to make sure I didn't get tired so I wouldn't have to sleep and have that dream again. I was fearful that it was bound to come up again should I try to sleep.

My mind couldn't stay active for the rest of the night, and even before it gave up the signs of tiredness began to creep in. My eyes got heavy and I yawned frequently. The strange unknowable fear of that tunnel fell away as my body yearned to be under the blankets of my bed. I got up and started over to it, deciding to take one final look out the window at the boarded up building and the empty road. It could have been a ghost town. There wasn't a soul in sight.

I imagined for a minute that the world suddenly became vacant of all life except for me. Every street in the world suddenly looked like the one my eyes found such a joy in taking in. It would be days before I discovered that there was in fact one other human. Their prints would be left in the desert I trekked through, too new for my liking. At first I assumed it was an alien, the species that made all humanity disappear. I would stay hot on their trail, keeping an eye out for more clues as to the creature's identity. And then one day I happened upon them. A beautiful young woman just my own age. We would set out into the world to look for new life and to uncover the truth behind everyone's disappearance.

A sudden popping sound took me back to reality. I stared steadfast at the left side of the abandoned building. Someone must have gotten in. That was probably the wood hitting the ground. But it didn't sound anything like wood. I couldn't bring myself to think of what it actually sounded like.

Another pop echoed through the still night and into my bedroom. At that exact moment a singular image appeared before me. The abandoned building and lonely street disappeared, and for the briefest of instances was replaced by the dark tunnel, stretching off into nothingness. And then it was gone, the dreary view from my bedroom returned and I stepped carefully back to my bed, nervously expecting another image to appear.

For the first time the tunnel had found its way into my conscious mind. It was time to find a way to end this nightmare for good.

#

Two blocks from the jewelry store was a peculiar little building that I passed everyday but never paid much attention to. A sign outside told that the building was constructed in 1914 and was one of the last original houses left in the city. It had yellow siding and a little porch out front. If I put my hands up to block out the rest of the city I imagined that I was in 1914. Unfortunately cars honking and people passing by talking about their smart phones ended my idealized reality pretty fast.

A sign above the door read: Mrs. Boove's Psychic Readings. I wasn't one to go to psychics if I could help it. My experience with such things began and ended in watching videos online of supposed psychics and then clearing the history in case someone burrowed my tablet. Questions are abundant when someone finds out you look up supernatural events.

I knocked on the front door at exactly eight o'clock, the time the sign said they opened. My head swung back and forth to make sure no one was around. There were plenty of cars going by, but I didn't worry about that. It was the walkers on the sidewalk that I didn't want to be seen by. The door opened and a young woman stood before me. She looked to be college aged and had long brown hair. She smiled appropriately for someone who worked in a business.

"Can I help you?" She asked.

"Yes, I was wondering if I could get an appointment today for an um—you know."

"A psychic reading?" She said, smiling with understanding.

"Yes, one of those."

"We have a website." She pointed to the sign by the door. "You can make an appointment there."

"My internet hasn't worked in a while."

"Alright, well Mrs. Boove has an appointment at 8:05, but she is open from 8:30 to 9:00. Do you want to come back then?"

"That sounds good. I'll be back."

"Can I get a name?"

"Agate." I said without thinking.

"Alright Mr. Agate, I'll put you down."

I thanked her and started down the steps.

"You know you could have just come in. You didn't need to knock."

I turned around to see her smiling again. "I just thought since it was a house and all."

"I know; it happens all the time."

She shut the door. I started down the street and when I saw someone walking toward me on the sidewalk I pretended to be fascinated by a shop across the street in hopes they would not see my face. The burger joint with the strange breakfast was open and I went in there to wait. My usual table by the window was free and I sat there with a soda.

After a while the man at the table behind me got up to go and left his paper behind. I took it up to see if anyone had learned how to write a headline. The front page showed a picture of a mangled train lying on its side.

Two Derailments in Two Hours Kills 500

That was a much better headline. It got to the point and pulled at the heartstrings so everybody would want to keep reading. I tossed the paper back over to the other table and stared out the window again. The jewelry store wasn't even close to opening yet. I didn't have to be there until six. I hated the night shift. It ruined the whole day. It was all I had to look forward to during the day and it's all I would do all night. At least with the day shift I had the night to myself and didn't have to worry about getting my clothes dirty or anything like that. Well actually I still had to worry about that, I hadn't done laundry in quite a while and it was only a matter of time until Mr. Stone or Jasper realized I wore the same thing every day. There were two other people that worked there. Some woman named Molly and her sister, Peg. I never saw them because they always worked the shift I wasn't working. I heard good things, though. I would have given anything to have them to work with instead of Jasper. That guy annoyed me more than the jewelry jail itself.

I started back down the street when it was nearing my appointment. There were more people out now and I casually stopped to tie my shoes four times right outside the old house until I thought the sidewalk looked empty enough that I could run in without being seen.

The living room was off to the right and had a counter where the nice young lady I met earlier was sitting. The whole place smelled of incense. I guess that's the official smell of psychics.

"Hello again, Mr. Agate." She said when I came up to the desk.

"Hello." I said, choosing not to correct her on my name.

"Mrs. Boove is ready for you. It's the door on the left."

I nodded and went in the door she was pointing to. It was a small room with a small table and a woman I took to be Mrs. Boove sitting at it. She wasn't wearing a turban or any of the other strange things I had in mind, but she did have on heavy makeup that couldn't quite hide her aging face. The table was also void of any crystal balls and there weren't drapes hanging all over the place like I had seen in movies. It was simply a little room with a table and that was all. I stood near the door until she looked up from a piece of paper she was reading.

"Ah, Mr. Agate. What a beautiful name. Named after the stone, I'm assuming?"

"It's more of a nickname actually."

"Well either way have a set."

I took the seat across the table from her. She smiled kindly at me, the sort of smile someone would expect from an old relative. I smiled back, but probably just looked creepy.

"So what can I do for you today? We offer tarot readings—"

"Actually," I said, suddenly ashamed at myself for cutting her off. "I was wondering if you could help me with a dream I've been having. I don't know much about recurring dreams but this one is always coming up. I've had it most nights this week and I've even seen it when I wasn't sleeping."

"How did you see it when you were awake?"

"It just sort of appeared in my head while I was looking out my window last night. I would have looked it up online but I don't know what I can trust online. I just wanted a face to face kind of thing, you know? I guess this is more spiritual than psychic."

"We psychics are one with spirituality." She said calmly, looking me over. "Dreams can recur for a number of reasons. Is there something going on in your life that brings up strong emotions? Are you frightened by something or fearful of something? Are you currently worried about someone close to you?"

"Not really."

"Then tell me about the dream. Where are you? Who else is there?"

I folded my hands on the table and stared at them. "I'm in a tunnel. I'm going towards something but I don't know what it is. That was the first few dreams. Since then the dreams have been the same but now I'm getting increasingly scared. And then there's something else that's kind of strange. I wake up feeling way worse than the dream makes me feel. I think there's an ending that I never get to see. Is that strange?"

She looked at me very seriously. "I should pull out the tarot cards."

"No thanks; I only wanted to know if you could maybe tell me if recurring dreams are normal."

"They are." She said slowly. "But yours seems to be more serious than just recurring, especially if it makes you feel that way. Here's what I want you to do. I want you to keep a dream journal. Write down exactly what happens in each dream and how you feel after each one. Try to find out if there's any change in this tunnel. And also see if you are feeling the same emotions after each dream. Alright?"

"Sure." I said uneasily.

"Then you can come back in one week, I'll have Valerie make you an appointment."

I sat for a little longer, wondering if that was it. For a psychic she couldn't help me much. I was a bit of a skeptic when it came to businesses claiming to have psychics, but I did believe in the idea more or less. Less right now. When I realized the session was indeed over I got up to go. In the living room I went over to the desk and for the first time noticed the nametag on the girl there. Her name was Valerie Hankerson.

"I guess I need to make an appointment for next week," I shrugged, "same time, or at least the same day."

"I'll make it up now." Valerie said, typing the information into a computer. "Could she help you?"

"Not really. I mean it was alright, but I didn't get any closer to figuring out why I'm having these stupid dreams."

She looked up from the computer. "You're having weird dreams?"

"Yeah, recurring dreams."

"What are they about?" She asked critically.

"I'm in a tunnel."

Her eyes widened. "Oh really? That sounds interesting." She went back to typing. When she finished she stared at the keyboard for a bit before slowly looking back up at me. "Let me know if you have any more dreams like that." She nodded her head seriously. "Oh, and your appointment is for next week, same time and place."

I paid her twenty five dollars and left.

Work that night was a nightmare. I got to work with Molly for the first time and she was worse than Jasper. Her stone name was Topaz and she wouldn't respond to anything else. I tried to clean some rings when the store was empty but she kept yelling at me for doing it wrong and then sent me to do something else. No matter what she told me to do I was doing it wrong. Jasper was in the backroom doing something all night. Mr. Stone had the night off. I didn't feel like I could go to anyone to help me with Molly because I knew I was the odd one out. Everyone else who worked at the jewelry jail was friends with Mr. Stone and with each other. If I said something to somebody then everybody would know in minutes if not seconds.

I did what I was told and bit my tongue. I glanced at my watch several times a minute and couldn't believe my luck when it finally reached midnight. As soon as Jasper locked the door I went to sign out and leave. Molly had other ideas. She made us stay back and do inventory. That was usually something only Mr. Stone did, and maybe Jasper, but I certainly wasn't the one to do it. I told this to Molly and she insisted that she teach me. For the next two hours I groggily checked what was in stock and what wasn't. At a quarter to three she finally let me go. It's safe to say the busses don't run at three in the morning. I had to walk the mile home.

There's something off about nighttime. It's not the lack of people or the silence; it's much more than that. In the old days the whole world turned off. The only people out were those up to no good. The invention of manmade lights didn't change much. The dark can turn a mind into a pit of fear and anxiety. Who knows what's down that alley or whose hiding in the dark doorway. It doesn't matter anyway. If someone wanted to do something to me it didn't matter whether I feared it or not.

I walked briskly down the sidewalk towards home. There wasn't nightlife in that city. When it hit midnight everyone was at home, hiding behind locked doors and curtains. That's all I wanted to do. The slight nervousness that was inevitable when walking home at such an hour was there, but the promise of bed and sleep kept me moving. As usual I glanced into the dark world between buildings and around corners, and as usual no one was there. I didn't run into a single person the whole time.

My building came into view and I hurried to get to the door. My eyes couldn't help but shift slightly over to the boarded up building across the street. Something caught my eye. Yellow tape blocked entry to the alley on the left side. I stopped and looked over at it. I wanted to go over there and see what had happened, but the allure of home was stronger. No matter what was back there it was best to wait until daylight to look. Daylight was the long awaited cure for all the imagined evils that came with night.

#

The next few days saw the tunnel appear as it never had before. The dreams were slowly getting longer and my fright worsened considerably each night. I didn't shy away from it now; I needed to see it and to write down everything I could recall. There was never much to write. Everything was the same. The tunnel simply continued into the distance with no sign of the end. The emotions, however, did change. At first it was fear. I would wake up hopelessly frightened with no way of knowing why. Sadness was added near week's end. It wasn't just sadness, it was a depression wrapped around the fear. There was no way out. There was no way to escape the feeling that everything I ever loved was over, taken by some unknown force I had yet to see. On the morning of my next appointment with Mrs. Boove I woke up screaming, tearing something away. Something that I still didn't have a memory of.

Work began to suffer. I couldn't stay asleep for more than an hour or two. Each REM cycle showed me the same horrible vision. I was so tired at work that I began to just stare at the opposite wall no matter how many people were there or how many times Jasper or Molly yelled at me to do something. Mr. Stone was called out of his backroom to deal with me. He gave me a few days off until I got better. I accepted, but knew no amount of time off would help.

The morning of the appointment came at long last. I slipped out of bed to the floor and lay there for a while before finding the energy to continue. I found out through the newspaper that two people died in the alley across the street. Some guy killed someone and then killed himself. I found that strange but people were being killed all over the world. Every day was worse than the last. I started actually eating breakfast at the burger place near work to read the paper. The headlines were more severe as the days went on.

800 killed in Bombings . . . 200 killed in Plane Crash . . . Bridge collapse kills 50

I walked to that restaurant each morning for something to do and to be around people. I considered myself a loner type, but when I was stressed or fearful being with a crowd of people who didn't care one wink about me made it all better. Cosmic indifference used to scare me, but now I cherished knowing that no one cared. It would have been terrible if they knew me. That's why I didn't go to Mrs. Boove sooner. I was afraid to tell her how worse my dreams had gotten. I found it much more comforting to be with people who didn't know a thing about it.

My clothes had stains and wrinkles by now, but I still didn't feel like doing laundry. I threw on the same outfit I had worn for two weeks. No one cared anymore, or at least if they did they didn't say anything to my face.

It was cloudy out. It began to sprinkle on my way to Mrs. Boove's. The old house was right where I left it. I went in and stood at the desk. Valerie was typing on the computer. When she finished she looked up with a smile and greeted me.

"How was your week, Mr. Agate?"

I shrugged. I didn't feel much like talking.

Her smile disappeared. "Still having dreams?"

I nodded.

"Worse than before?"

I nodded again.

She looked at me pityingly. "It's awful."

I was about to ask her what she meant but the smile returned in full force.

"Go on in, she's waiting."

The little room with the table was intoxicating with the smell of incense. I coughed and sniffed before taking my seat with a groan and a frown. Mrs. Boove looked at me caringly. I hated it. It was too sweet. I'd rather see a stern face and hear a grumpy voice.

"So how was your week?" She talked slowly and musically. I didn't notice it the week before. Maybe it was new. "Did you have the dream again?"

I tossed a tiny notebook onto the table in front of her. "Too many times."

She picked it up and read through my short entries. "Hmm. This does sound bad. It's unlike anything I've ever seen."

I got up to go. I wasn't in any mood to hear any more if she hadn't any clues as to what was wrong.

"Sit." She said angrily.

I quickly sat back down. "Sorry." I mumbled.

"Something is clearly not right." She said, the musical quality of her voice was gone, replaced by a hard tone I liked much better. "Here, wait a second." She got up and went to the door. "Val, come in here for a moment please."

Mrs. Boove sat back down as Valerie came in and shut the door behind her. She came around the table and stood against the wall, staring steadfastly at the floor.

"Now, Mr. Agate, I want you to tell us exactly what your dreams are about and how you feel when you wake up."

"I wrote it all down." I said quietly.

"I want to hear it from you."

I took a deep breath and recounted each dream and how the fear and sadness made me feel utterly hopeless each morning. I kept my eyes down but once or twice I looked up at Mrs. Boove, who was staring at Valerie.

"I see." Mrs. Boove said when I had finished. "Val, what do you think?"

I turned to see Valerie still staring at the floor. "I think I should take my break now and walk Mr. Agate out."

Mrs. Boove nodded and stood up. "Be my guest."

I looked from face to face, unsure of what to do. Mrs. Boove finally told me to leave and then told Valerie to make another appointment for a week from then.

Valerie led me out of the little room and out of the old house. The rain was picking up. Thunder boomed in the distance. Valerie started down the street and I walked beside her, more confused than ever. She turned into an alley. At the end she finally turned around to face me.

"I've had the dreams as well." She said.

I stared at her gravely. "You have?"

"Yes, and I know how you feel."

I doubted this very much. She looked fine. I had been slowly spiraling into decay. "What do you see?"

"I see a tunnel, same as you. But I don't feel the same horrible feelings that you do. At least not yet. I've only started having them a little over a week ago. I had three by the time you came in last week."

I shrugged. "What does it mean? Do you know?"

She didn't take her eyes off me. Her stare looked into my mind in ways I've never felt before. It was as if she was sizing me up to see if I was worthy of finding out some kind of secret knowledge only known by few.

"I don't know what it means, but I don't think it's anything good." She pulled out a cell phone. "Let's exchange numbers. If your dreams lead anyplace let me know, and I'll tell you if mine do."

"I actually don't have a phone. I use my tablet for all my communications. I can give you my email."

We exchanged email addresses instead.

"I have a bad feeling about these dreams. If anything comes up don't forget to tell me. Now I better get back before someone comes in."

She smiled and started back down the alley.

"Wait." I called. She turned back to me. "Why are we having these dreams? I don't get it. It doesn't make any sense. What does it mean?" I raised my voice in despair.

"I don't know yet." She sighed. "But don't be afraid, at least not yet."

I went on home. I was so tired but I didn't want to go to sleep. I spent the day trying my hardest to stay awake. That evening I went for a walk to be around people again. I wandered into a mini mart and looked around for nothing in particular. I saw the day's newspaper. Some country had declared war on some other country. Bombs had been sent off. Thousands were feared dead.

#

Jasper sipped his coffee with a loud slurp and then sighed contentedly. "This place really is great, isn't it?"

I looked around the small coffee shop. The other patrons talked quietly or typed on their computers. It wasn't my type of hang out, but that's where Jasper wanted to meet so there I was.

"It's fine."

Jasper put his cup down and gave me a look that made me uncomfortable. "What should I tell Mr. Stone?"

"I don't know. Just tell him I've been sick."

"You don't seem very sick."

I picked up my hot chocolate and swirled it around. "Trust me I am. I haven't slept well in days and I've been having chronic headaches."

"Are you seeing a doctor?"

"Yes."

"And what have they said?"

"They said I need to rest."

"You haven't been to work in almost a week. Mr. Stone is going to need some type of excuse or he's going to fire you."

I scoffed. "I don't really care right now. I'm thinking about quitting."

Jasper shook his head. "And what are you going to do after that?"

"I don't know." I stressed.

He finished his coffee in one great gulp and stood up. "I'll tell him that you're sick and that you're seeing a doctor. That might buy you a little time. The busy season is starting. If you can't work he'll have to find someone who will." He left without another word.

I slumped down in my chair and pulled my tablet out of my bag. The one good thing about those coffee shops is that I could use the internet. I checked my email and saw that Valerie had written. All it said was that she wanted to talk to me soon. I told her I was at the coffee shop and asked if she wanted to meet there. She replied a few minutes later saying that she would be there in an hour.

I got another hot chocolate and stared out the window at the sunset awaiting her arrival. It had been a few days since my last appointment with Mrs. Boove. The dreams hadn't changed much. I still felt scared when I woke up, and I didn't feel any closer to finding out why. The notion that Valerie was having the same dreams worried me. How many other people might be having them? There was so much I didn't know, actually I didn't know anything. There had to be a reason for it all.

This was the first time I had the internet in a couple of weeks. I kept putting different things into search engines hoping to find other people who might have the same problem. I searched Tunnel dream, and Tunnel dream frightened but couldn't find anything. There were plenty of dream interpretations, but nothing came anywhere close.

Valerie showed up about the time she said she would. She took the seat across from me and got started right away on why she was there.

"I think you should come with me to my father's house tomorrow."

"What?"

"He might be able to help you with the dreams."

"Um, how can he help?"

She shifted awkwardly. "He has—well—feelings."

"Feelings?" I asked. "Like emotions?"

"No, more like feelings of what other people are, well feeling."

"He's empathic."

"Something like that."

I was trying to read between the lines but I was too tired. "You mean he's psychic."

She held her hand up and looked around to make sure no one was listening. "He has some qualities that others don't exactly have."

"Does he have the dreams?"

"No, but he has a really bad feeling about our dreams as well as current events."

I had to think about that. What were the current events she was talking about? Was something going on that I wasn't aware of? "How do you mean?"

"I think it's best that you come with me tomorrow when I see him. He wants us to spend the night and be with us when we wake up. Do you want to? Do you have anything else to do?"

"Not at the moment."

"So will you come?"

"I guess."

She laid out the plan. I was to meet her early the next morning outside Mrs. Boove's psychic house and leave from there. Mr. Hankerson lived two hours away. After spending the night and getting his opinion on the matter we would be back in the city that night.

I made it back to my apartment by nine o'clock. I glanced out the window at the police tape blocking the alley. There was nothing to see even in the daylight. I thought back to the man that killed someone and then himself there. It was probably that man I saw the other night. The gunshot went off right as I saw the tunnel. It was still the only time I saw it while awake. I wondered if there was a connection. It was hard to believe there was, but it was also hard to think there wasn't.

I woke up screaming in the middle of the night. I flailed around and threw my pillows across the room in anger at missing out on the frightening part of the dream again. It was getting to be too much now. I couldn't sleep to begin with and when I finally did doze off I had to go through the same ordeal I did every night. If I didn't get some sleep sometime I would die of exhaustion, or be too tired to wake myself up. That might be a good thing, though I feared whatever was at the end of that tunnel. I would see it eventually, I could feel it. There was no way it was going to stay out of reach forever.

Somewhere in the darkness of my room I sensed something stirring. It was beyond the light from the window, somewhere in the hall or in the doorway. As with the tunnel it was just out of reach and out of sight. I knew something was there. It was moving, but not in the way I would expect a person to move. No footsteps, no swish of clothing, but nonetheless I knew it to be there. My first response was to pull the covers up closer to my head, as though I was a child escaping the boogeyman. The thing, whatever it was, was coming closer. Its presence grew stronger. I could sense something different now, an emotion. Curiosity. It was curious. It wanted to know more about me, just as I wanted to know it.

My body involuntarily began to shake. I pulled my legs up to my chest and tried to move back, but couldn't. The presence was close now. I should have seen it. I could tell it was in the light shining from the window but I saw nothing. The whole room seemed smaller. This thing brought a terrible pressure with it that pushed in on me. I breathed hard, attempting to get enough air in to survive the suffocating pressure. And then an image appeared in my head as though planted by the thing itself. As I stared into the nothingness of my bedroom my mind clearly showed my apartment building from the outside. The image stretched from the ground to high into the air. The building looked small in comparison. Right in the center of the frame was a giant black something. It was wavy and cloudy and appeared to be radiating from an unknown source. This was a something that no words can properly describe for it was unlike anything any human had ever encountered or even dared to imagine. The best way I can describe it is as an infinitely large dark cloud standing out against the darkness of night. It was so much darker. It reached right through the building to the ground. I could tell that the part that was in my room, invisible to my eyes but not my mind, was the nucleus of it. This miniscule part of it was its own mind. It looked at me very intently, spying on my thoughts and learning all it could. I felt the power of it. It was stronger than anything else the world had ever seen, there was no denying.

Time passed and it stayed very still, exerting its force on the very reality around me. It was so hot and got hotter each second. I could no longer move. My eyes stared unflinchingly into the beast that remained invisible. I wanted nothing more than to curse it away, to yell and shout and have it feel my power. There was nothing I possessed that could harm it or even make it acknowledge me as a competitor, but I wanted it to feel me so badly. It drained my mind worse than the dreams ever could. This thing was a part of the dream. I was very much conscious, but I could feel the similarities. The same frightful depression that the dreams brought on was radiating from me in the most acute way possible. It no longer felt like fear or depression, but an acute pain that did its damage in the first instant and now made me feel as if I wasn't even alive. It felt as though I wasn't a being at all. For that passage of time, however long it was, I was nothing.

Very slowly it rose off the ground and started its ascent away. The pressure cleared and I could breathe freely again. The image in my head disappeared. I was sweating uncontrollably. Whatever that thing was, it meant no harm to me, at least for now. My body was so tired I had no control over it. My head flopped down to the bed and I lost consciousness. For the first time in several weeks I didn't dream about the tunnel. My mind was far too weak to dream.

# Part II

#

That purple stain on the ceiling caught my attention for the longest time. I became conscious while staring at it. My mind was clear and my body rejuvenated. My legs swung out of bed and I was in the shower getting ready for work before a single thought entered my mind. It all hit me at once, the dreams, the fear, the thing that visited me. I sat on my bed for a while after my shower, staring unconcernedly out the window trying to figure out what I had promised to do that day. There was no work; I had a few days off. I wasn't in school anymore; I hadn't been for a while. My family wasn't in town; I wondered how they were doing. An image of a girl and a house floated into my mind. Who was she, where was that house?

I jumped out of bed. I was supposed to meet Valerie at Mrs. Boove's. What time was it? The clock on my nightstand showed a ten. I ran out of the room, it didn't even matter what the other numbers were. I was so late. I couldn't remember what time she said to meet, if she even said a time, but whatever it was I knew it was long gone by now.

I packed a small bag real quick and ran down the street to meet her. She was sitting on the steps of the psychic house when I arrived. She stood up when she saw me. Instead of being mad she looked worried.

"What happened?" She whispered urgently when I got closer. "Are you alright?"

"I'll tell you on the way."

"Was it the dream?"

"Sort of."

She led me to her car which was parked on a small road behind the house. It's always strange getting into someone's car for the first time. I sat with my bag on my lap and my hands on my bag trying not to touch anything. We pulled out onto the main street and she peeked over at me.

"You can relax if you want, it's a long trip."

I leaned back against the seat and folded my arms casually. "Sorry for being late."

"So what happened to you?"

I told her all about the dream and then how I woke up and saw some type of creature with my mind. She listened somberly.

"That is all very strange. But you said you felt better this morning?"

"Yeah, I was so drained when the thing left that I actually slept the rest of the night without dreaming of anything."

"That's good at least. I had the dream last night as well. I'm starting to feel nervous when I wake up. I know what you mean about the ending being kept away."

There was silence for a while.

"What do you think of dreams?" She asked thoughtfully.

"What?" I had been staring out the window.

"Do you think dreams can predict the future?"

"I've heard that they can."

"That's interesting, isn't it?"

"I suppose." I said offhandedly, vainly protecting myself from what she was getting at.

"I once had a dream where I went to school and a friend came up to me to tell me her dog died. I thought that was strange, she didn't have a dog. At school the next day someone, a teacher I think, came up to tell me my friend died." She paused for a while. "It's weird that my mind told me it would be a dog."

I wanted her to stop talking about dreams. I would have brought up anything to get her to stop. I said the first thing that came to mind. "Is Mrs. Boove really psychic?"

"No." She said casually.

"Are you?"

Again she took a while to respond. "My dad thinks I am."

"Do you think I am?" I said wearily.

"I don't know."

We dropped it there. I went back to staring out the window. The countryside came and went; a house here, a house there. I wanted nothing more than to have the life of whoever lived in those cute houses. I would have traded with anyone. The road took us through a tiny town about an hour into the trip. It was a peaceful little place, one of those towns you hear about with just the one traffic light. We passed a barbershop, a diner, a two theater cinema, and a police station smaller than my apartment. I imagined living there. It seemed so pleasant. Everyone knew one another and probably lived like they did in one of those old black and white shows I used to watch as a kid. Their lives were so perfect. I doubted that anybody really lived that way back then, but it was a nice thought. How hard could it really be to create a life like that? Go to the office in the morning, go to lunch at the corner diner, and come home in the evening to hear all about my family's day. We all live happily ever after forever. No bad dreams, no cares, and no conflicts in sight. I wanted that so badly it hurt. I was tired of living alone and working at the jewelry jail. And I was really tired of having nightmares ruin what peace I had found in my life.

The small town was long gone when I came back to reality. The pretty scenery of the countryside was gone as well, replaced with trees pushing in on the small road. There was something soothing about being in a car going so fast. I was leaving my everyday life and leaving all those cares I couldn't stand to think about. No one could get us going that fast. We were in a bullet shooting through the air without a target. There was no way to stop us and no way to know where this road would take us. That's all I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Drive away and never stop.

I grew tired from sitting still so long. My eyes grew heavy and I let them close. I was determined to stay awake, but maybe I could get a little rest. I let the noise of the road and the soft shake of the car lull me into thinking all was right with the world. That was shattered as soon as we slowed down. My eyes flew open and I saw that Valerie was turning down a small road in another small town. I hated the feeling of slowing down. I didn't want to reach anywhere, even if Mr. Hankerson could help. I was fully prepared to live the rest of my life at highway speed.

This road wasn't paved. The car bumped and rattled across the dirt for quite a ways. Nothing poked up over the flat landscape. The road continued indefinitely until a house appeared on the right side. Valerie pulled off the road right in front of it. It was one story and set back a ways. There wasn't a tree or bush in any direction. The landscape was as flat as can be.

She turned the car off and looked over at me. "This is it. You ready?"

"I guess."

We got out and went up to the door. I was starting to get nervous. I had to remind myself several times that I had been invited. Valerie knocked and we heard a man shout that he was on his way. The door opened and a very thin balding man appeared. He smiled at us good naturedly and let us come in. We ended up in a large living room covered in an old brown carpet with several chairs and a little coffee table laid out. To the right was the dining room and kitchen and to the left were two bedrooms. The back door on the other side of the living room was open and a large white cat sat in the early afternoon sunlight on the patio. The house smelled just like every house I didn't belong in. I was never sure what the smell was, I suppose it was just foreignness. Mr. Hankerson, who wore jeans and a button up shirt, led us into the dining room where he had set out chips and drinks for our arrival. Valerie and I sat at the table while Mr. Hankerson poured ice tea. He then sat down and stared at me.

"It's nice to meet you, Mr. Agate." He said with a southern accent of some sort, though I wasn't sure where from.

"It's nice to meet you." I replied, taking quick glances at his eyes. I was really bad with keeping eye contact.

"This may seem strange that I asked you here today, but I really want to talk to you about those dreams you've been having. Val has told me all about them and it seems that she's having them as well. I don't want to alarm you but I feel that they may be more sinister than they let on."

"Oh, they feel pretty sinister." I assured him.

"I imagine they do. Now I would like to hear it from you. Tell me everything that's happened in your dreams and how you feel getting up in the morning."

Once again I recounted everything I could about them and the unnerving emotions upon waking. I also disclosed the events of last night, with the image appearing and the cloud monster, or whatever it was. Mr. Hankerson was particularly interested in this. He watched me carefully and I stared at the table trying to avoid his searching eyes.

"It is very strange then. Have you by any chance been keeping up with the news in recent weeks?"

I shrugged. "The world's a crazy place like it always is."

He shook his head slowly. "No, not like this. In recent days—well here, let's go into the living room and see."

He picked up his ice tea and went into the living room and took a seat on a large chair in front of a television. He turned it on and a news woman began telling about a war somewhere.

"And you're sure there is no reason for this war?"

The camera cut to a man sitting across from the news anchor. "These countries have not attacked each other or their interests at all. This is all quite baffling."

The news woman appeared again. "That brings the total number of nations that have declared war with each other to sixteen in just the last few days. For more on this story—"

Mr. Hankerson muted the T.V. "Do you see that, right there? The events of the last week are mindboggling. Sixteen nations have declared war on each other. And this isn't just in the Middle East or Africa where we might expect it nowadays. This is all over the world. Australia declared war on Malaysia. Honduras declared war on Bolivia. England declared war on Ireland. Russia declared war on several western neighbors, and North Korea declared war on everyone. It's only a matter of time before the U.S. declares war on Canada for God knows why."

"Now wait a minute." I said, bewildered. "When did this all happen? I think I would have known about some of this."

"Have you been paying attention?"

"I don't think I could miss something this big."

"There are people in this country who don't even know who the president is, or even what state they live in probably. If you stick your head in the sand the whole world passes without notice."

I tried to think back but I really couldn't remember ever hearing about any of this. "I did see something about a train derailment or something."

Mr. Hankerson waved the remote around. "See there, it's not just countries at war that's causing problems. Trains have been derailing all over the world. Planes have been falling out of the sky. The scary thing is that the majority of these things have happened in the last few days. Now one country somewhere declaring war on another is one thing, but this many in such a short amount of time, and then all of these other accidents. I'm telling you there is something going on."

"What then," Valerie said, "some kind of secret government cover-up? Remember when you thought the government was hiding a lab under the house?"

"It's nothing like that." Mr. Hankerson stressed. "I think it's bigger than all that."

"Then what?"

"I don't know, but I have a feeling that these dreams are part of it."

I scoffed. "That doesn't make any sense. How could dreams have anything to do with people dying all over?"

"I don't know." Mr. Hankerson said angrily. "That's why I invited you here. I really want to talk to you right after your dream. I want to see how you react in your sleep. At first I wanted you to have a sleep test at a hospital, but I don't trust those places."

"Dad," Valerie said, sitting down in a chair next to her father, "I want to find out what these dreams mean as well, but do you really think that they're the key to all this?"

"I really do."

Mr. Hankerson showed me to the room I would be staying in. He wanted me in his bed for the night. He pulled his big chair in from the living room and set it beside the bed. I knew it would be hard to get to sleep with him watching me.

#

After dinner, we had a frozen pizza; I sat in the living room watching the news for several hours trying to get sleepy. Every station had reporters someplace different watching from rooftops or fields as rockets flew by and bombs went off. The whole world was starting to look like one big mess and no one knew why.

It wasn't making me tired, just stressed out. I went back and sat on Mr. Hankerson's bed for a while until finally around eleven I felt tired enough to go to sleep. I got under the covers and the light was turned off. Valerie was in the other room and Mr. Hankerson was right next to me, a notebook in hand in case I said something or did something he needed to write down. I closed my eyes and tried to clear my mind of everything I had heard on the news. It took quite a while. Sometime after midnight I finally dozed off.

I started to dream. The first thing I remember is being somewhere dark. It wasn't the tunnel this time. I didn't know where it was. I realized I was standing up and started for the only light I could find, a tiny pinpoint in the distance. When I got closer I noticed more light, coming from what looked like a window looking outside. It wasn't a window, but a door. And then it dawned on me where I was. I was in Mr. Hankerson's house. Was I even dreaming? It certainly seemed like a dream, but very real. I went back to where I started and now saw a chair beside a bed. Mr. Hankerson snored softly from the chair. There was something on the bed. I got close but couldn't tell what it was. Faint breathing could be heard. I shrugged and went back toward the window. I was dreaming about the world as it was. That had never happened to me before. Usually my dreams were scrambled and didn't make any sense, but this one wasn't. It was as if I was really walking around the house.

To test out whether I was really dreaming I went up to the back door and put my hand up to it, and right through it. That was it then, I was definitely dreaming. I stepped through the closed door onto the patio where the only light was an electronic candle that flickered almost like the real thing. The large white cat I had seen earlier snoozed peacefully on the edge of the patio, where the light ended and the dark began. Only it wasn't as dark as it should have been. If I was awake I wouldn't have been able to see a thing, but I could somehow. I could make out the grass and the field leading away into the distance. I stepped out into the grass and looked up into the sky. It was the most glorious sight I ever witnessed. Every star was bright and the cloud like Milky Way was more prominent than I ever imagined. I couldn't take my eyes off of the sky. Everywhere I looked I could see deeper and farther than ever before.

Something started to change. The stars directly above me began to go out. The darkness spread until the entire sky above me was black. And then I saw what was really happening. They weren't going out, something was blocking them. Something that was also moving towards me. The air started to heat up. A pressure began to exert itself on me. The thing was moving quickly. Something wasn't right. I looked down. The house was far below. I was ascending into the sky. The ground shrank and the world expanded under my feet. Tiny lights came into view of cities that were growing so small so fast that it looked like the night sky was below me. The continent came into view next. I was so far above the Earth that within a minute I could see the edges, and then the tiny ball grew smaller and smaller until I could barely see it at all.

I looked up. Directly before me was the dark cloud that stood out against the regular darkness. Its pressure was strong but not as strong as I felt it the night before. It was too far from my body to have the same effect. I was once again near the part I knew to be the mind. This time I felt something in my own mind, a passing emotion: fear. It was trying to communicate. The emotion passed and then another one came, very similar. I tried to speak but couldn't. There didn't seem to be a way I could understand it and I didn't know how to make it understand me. But then I did. All of the sudden the emotion it was trying to convey was transformed into a noise that my mind heard. It was trying to form speech that I could understand, and before too long, the noise turned into a word.

. . . People. . .

It was trying to tell me about people, but who? I thought out a question. I was trying to ask it who the people were. It came back with another emotion. I waited patiently for the emotion to turn to noise, and that noise to take shape.

. . . Everyone . . .

I thought out another question. Evidently it could understand me better than I could it. I kept thinking about the word everyone, trying to figure out what it meant by it.

. . . Danger . . .

Everyone was in danger. It was a warning. This strange cloud creature with its pressure and heat was actually trying to warn me about something. It was amazing that I was communicating so well with it. I could feel that it was amazed as well. I don't think even it thought this could ever happen.

I tried to think about danger and ask how everyone was in danger. I tried to imagine the Earth and the people. Another feeling came to me, and then the noise again, and lastly the word.

. . . Dead . . .

This struck me with a fear that the others did not. Dead was not meant to be just the word but something more. But what was more than death? That was the end of the danger, wasn't it? Once someone died it was all over.

I tried for one more thought toward it. I wanted very much to know in what way it meant death. I strained to find the right emotion to convey my meaning that was similar to the one it sent over but I could not. The fear and power of what it sent me was far more than anything I could muster. It must have been trying to convey something worse than death. At least something it thought was worse.

I wasn't prepared for what happened next. It sent a wave of emotions my way. At first I tried to interpret it, but then it grew and continued to grow. It was more powerful than that even of death. It was so much more than I could handle. I tried to fight it but it kept coming. My head was screaming in pain. But it wasn't my screams. It was the emotion turned to noise, and that noise was of thousands, maybe millions of screams all emanating at once. It was far too much. It was beyond the boundaries of my mind's capacity and it left me with what little I could understand. It was no longer just a feeling or just a noise, it expanded exponentially until it was the very source of all loss and depression ever felt by beings who could understand such sensations.

All the light from the stars very suddenly disappeared and I was left in total darkness. And from that darkness came a very white point of light. The light grew and swallowed the darkness. I was floating without a body and without a soul in whiteness. I could just float. There was nothing, no thoughts, no mind, not a force at all. It was a very strange occurrence because I felt as though this was in some way a test. Not a test, a preview.

My eyes flew open and I sat up instantly. The room was lit and Valerie was standing in the doorway wearing a nightgown. I was breathing hard and trying to remember exactly what happened before it fluttered away forever. Mr. Hankerson put his arm on my shoulder and softly pushed me back against the pillow.

"What happened?" He asked.

"What was I doing?" I said, trying to catch my breath.

"You started screaming. I didn't want to wake you."

"I saw the creature again, the cloud one."

Mr. Hankerson sat back in his chair and started t write in his notebook. "Tell us exactly what happened. Did you see the tunnel?"

"No," I said quietly, "I was dreaming that I was right here. I saw you in the chair and me in the bed. I went through the back door and stood in the yard. I left the ground and went way up into space where I saw the cloud creature again. It communicated with me. It told me that everyone was in danger. It said that there was death. It tried to tell me something else but I couldn't handle it. It was something worse than death, at least it thought it was. And then I woke up."

Mr. Hankerson quickly wrote down what I said and then put the notebook down. He sighed and looked at me pityingly. "This creature you're seeing, I wonder if it's trying to warn you."

"That's what I was thinking. It seems to know about everything going on."

"It must have sensed all the turmoil and is trying to help. If it ever comes back make sure to ask it how you can help. It must have chosen you for a reason." He turned to Valerie. "How about you, did you have a dream?"

"I hadn't gotten to sleep yet." She said.

Mr. Hankerson decided to stay in that chair for the rest of the night in case I had another dream. I was wary to try to sleep again. I was very tired and knew I would, but I was a little nervous about it. Talking with the creature was great while it was happening, but when I looked back on it I was scared to know what it meant. I tried not to think about it and closed my eyes.

#

The morning came without another dream. That cloud creature must have drained me enough to keep the dream from coming. For that I was thankful.

I slept in late again and by the time I woke up Mr. Hankerson already had breakfast on the table. He made us all eggs and bacon. I hadn't had anything but cereal or bad fast food in the morning for a long time. I ate quickly and then immediately wished I had savored it.

Valerie was ready to leave after breakfast. Mr. Hankerson wasn't quite so keen on seeing us go.

"But you just got here." He said. "I haven't had enough time to study Agate here."

"Dad, I have to get to work tomorrow. We can't stay another night."

"What if I drive Agate back to the city, will that work?"

"I'm sure he has to work as well."

Mr. Hankerson came up to me. "Agate, do you have to work tomorrow?" He winked.

"I don't think so, I'm actually thinking about quitting my job."

Mr. Hankerson clapped his hands. "You see that? He's quitting. He can stay here for days."

"You shouldn't quit. Where do you work?" Valerie asked.

"The Jewelry Palace."

"That sounds familiar. You can't quit. What are you going to do?"

"I don't know, but I can't work if I can't get any sleep at night. I'll be a zombie all day."

Mr. Hankerson nodded. "He definitely can't work like that. Look, I'll take Mr. Agate home tomorrow. I just want one more night with him."

Valerie looked at me to decide. "I'll stay the one more night."

She shook her head. "Alright, you're appointment is in a few days, don't miss it."

"I'm not going back." I said.

"Why not?"

"You told me yourself she's not a real psychic."

"Well at least keep in touch then. I'll email you if I have any realizations about the dream."

Valerie drove away a few minutes later. As much as I probably should have gone with her I wanted one more night to see if her father could figure anything out. We spent the day looking through a bookcase in the living room of old books he collected throughout his life about spirituality and the afterlife, and even some about aliens. He was determined to find out just what this shadow was and where it came from. He had me look through several fiction books to find the answer.

"You know I don't think these books will help." I said after a morning filled with reading random pages out of fiction books. "These writers all made up what's in here."

Mr. Hankerson was sitting on the floor with books all around him and his white cat sleeping by his side. "Where do you think they get the ideas?"

"From their minds."

"And where do you think their minds got it?"

"They thought it up."

"Some yes, but most are sent by highly intelligent beings so that we might find out more about them. These writers simply add crazy storylines."

I wasn't sure if he was joking or not. He didn't sound like it. I was beginning to wonder if I had chosen the right person to be with that day. As long as he helped me figure things out it would be alright. The main problem; and I realized this halfway through reading a picture book about laundry stealing aliens, is that I wasn't sure what I wanted accomplished. Sure I wanted to know what the dreams meant, but I also wanted them to stop. Could a regular person like Mr. Hankerson do that? I didn't even know if he was sane.

Sometime in the early afternoon he gave up, mumbling something about how he knew it wouldn't be there the whole time. He made sandwiches for lunch and after that he amended his plan for the day.

"Books didn't help. I wish I had the internet. I do have a phone, though. I know! I'll call around. I'm well respected in the psychic community. I think someone I know should have some ideas on this."

He went over to the coffee table and picked up his phone and started dialing. I stayed in the dining room and sipped sweet tea while he went down his list of fellow psychics.

"Debs, guess what? Oh, you're working for the government, really? They're desperate. Well I say so, have you seen the news? What? No I didn't hear about that. Sorry, I'll talk to you later." He hung up the phone. "Debs says nuclear missiles are on launch pads somewhere." He yelled to me. "I hope that wasn't top secret." He added in a whisper.

I finished my first tea and refilled my glass. Mr. Hankerson called maybe forty people that afternoon. Most, the good ones apparently, were being called in to various places where their expertise could be better used in such a mixed up world. Others were in states of shock as their clairvoyance showed them such horrible things that have since altered their minds and rendered them as vegetables.

"Margot? Oh, she's not feeling well." He hung up the phone. "That's another one." He shouted.

I raised my eyebrows and took another sip of tea. He came into the dining room and collapsed into a chair, almost knocking the jug of tea over.

"You alright?" I asked.

"It's worse than I thought. Psychics all over the country are experiencing horrible reactions. They can't handle whatever it is that's happening. I'll tell you something and I want you to keep it between you and me." I nodded. "Invasion, that's what I'm thinking."

"What?"

"An alien invasion. I think it's finally happening. I've known it for a long time. I once had an encounter with a being that looked human but wasn't. And he said that an invasion was going to happen in my lifetime. I'll tell you I think this is clearly the time for it. And that shadow thing you met. It's part of a good clan that's trying to warn us. It's the last of its kind or something and it doesn't want anybody else killed by those evil aliens that are coming. You sense it too don't you?"

"Sure do." I said sarcastically.

"Oh, you think I'm crazy don't you?"

"I think it sounds impossible."

He sighed. "How can someone who has seen what you've seen call anything impossible?"

He had a point there. "And what about the tunnel then?"

"That's the key to it all. That's what they sent ahead. Val's got the sight, got it from her mom. And so do you. You two are seeing what they sent down. It's a sign that they're coming. It may be a passageway or something that leads them through space and time right to Earth. You weren't meant to see it. They knew that humans couldn't see it and so sent it for more of their kind to see. You two are special and saw the signal no one else can see. You two have to be the ones to tell the world and save everyone."

"If there really was an invasion by a species smart enough to get here in the first place then I don't think that me telling anyone is going to stop them or deter them."

He shrugged. "You never know. It would be a shame to let this knowledge go to waste."

"What do you want me to do, tell the government?"

"Oh, no. That would be the worst thing to do. They can't even work together to get budgets passed. How do you think they would react to this?"

"They must think something is going on."

"No," he said slowly, "they don't have any clue, no one does. I've heard theories on T.V. that have ranged from mind altering gas to tainted water. If you leave the fate of the world up to those fools we're all doomed."

I didn't want to believe his paranoia. "Let's take a minute and say that the world is not going to end."

He jumped up from his chair and went into the living room. He turned on the television and turned the volume up for me to hear.

"Fighting has now spread into twenty three countries. Africa is up in smoke as is the Middle East and Europe is next. For more on this escalating crisis we bring in our panel—"

Mr. Hankerson clicked the T.V. off. "Have you ever in your wildest dreams heard anything like that? They're trying to stay calm but I'll tell you this is madness. It is absolute anarchy of the mind and no one has a clue. That's why they're calling in my psychic pals, that's why you're having dreams, that's why the thing last night is trying to contact you. If all those don't add up to you saving the human race I don't know what does."

For just a moment, and only a moment, I seriously considered what he was trying to say. It sounded insane, but so did the news. The hardest part to comprehend was that I had this gift and no one else. Why should I see this tunnel and the cloud creature instead of someone better? It wasn't fair. I never wanted to be special. And I mean in anything. In school I was perfectly happy with B's and C's so my teachers didn't think me too smart, not that I would have complained if I had gotten a few more A's. I led a fairly low key life. I never wanted fame or fortune or even recognition. The less people that knew about me the better. And now this. And now I'm the one with a crazy gift that this quasi-sane man thinks can end the conflict.

"I may remind you," I said after thinking things over, "that there is no alien attacking us. Everything that's gone on the last week or whenever is happening because people are attacking people."

He looked at me gravely. "Remember what I said about the writers? It's the same thing. Humans can be competitive and vengeful, but not all at once like this. Something is putting thoughts into the minds of these fighters. It's the aliens. They've found the best way to kill humans, and it's to put them against each other."

His idea grabbed hold somewhere in my mind. For the second time while I was conscious the tunnel appeared before my eyes. It was just like the dream except clearer, much clearer. The walls of the tunnel were brown metal, or maybe something else but they gave the impression of metal. I slipped effortlessly through. The end was fast approaching. I might finally see what had been kept from my dreams.

A voice echoed through the tunnel and reverberated all around. It was a human voice, or at least I thought it was. It was hard to make sense of it, but after a while of it bouncing every which way it slowed and cleared.

"Quicker, it must be quicker. There isn't much time. We need more. Take the rest."

#

Mr. Hankerson was calling to me. His image appeared. His voice was muffled. It grew louder and woke me from my daydreaming.

"Agate, are you alright?"

"Sorry, what?"

"You started staring off into space, are you alright?"

I told him what I saw and what the voice said. He stood up from the table and paced the living room. Evidently he was more worried about the voice than I was.

"It was only a voice." I said.

"No, no its not. It must have been from someone. Why would you hear it?" He started mumbling and I could no longer understand him.

The phone rang. We both jumped. He answered it.

"Hello—what? Oh, well yeah I suppose. Here let me put you on speaker."

Valerie's voice came through the phone. I could tell she was driving, I could hear road noise.

"Agate?" She sounded scared.

"Yes." I said nervously, coming closer to the phone.

"I'm coming back out there. Mrs. Boove's has closed. I don't think you have to worry about going to work either, at least not for a while."

"Why, what's going on?" Mr. Hankerson asked, sitting over the phone as though it might get the information to him faster.

"People are going insane; shootings, bombs, suicides, all sorts of things going on. There's news of bigger bombs on the way. I don't know if it's true, that's just what the radio said. Whatever's happening, it's coming to a head very soon."

"Alright, alright." Mr. Hankerson said, trying to keep himself calm. "Get back here safely and we can hunker down until this all blows over or we're all dead, whichever comes first."

"That's just what I was thinking." Valerie said.

She hung up. Mr. Hankerson turned the television back on. A reporter was in New York City. Buildings were on fire and people were running around like crazy. They cut to a shot of some country, I wasn't sure which one, and a huge bomb went off, tearing apart everything it touched.

He clicked off the T.V. again. "I think we should stay away from watching that." He said.

"Everything's happening so fast." I said wearily.

"That's how they get you, the aliens. They come upon you so fast you don't have time to do a thing. They're trying to end us before we can fight back. They must want the planet for something. It probably has the atmosphere they need." He sat in a chair and rubbed his eyes. "I guess we wait it out and see what happens."

For some reason I didn't feel scared, alarmed, but not scared. It was all too fast to be frightening. If I was given a few minutes to really think everything over then I would probably be scared out of my mind, but thankfully I didn't have the time. Seeing the tunnel while conscious took what little energy I had left. I was running on adrenaline.

Mr. Hankerson and I sat in the living room silently awaiting Valerie to show up. If she was right about the city being a mess then the roads were probably a mess as well. The waiting was agonizing.

Sometime around dark the door opened and we both jumped up. Valerie came in, threw her bag down, and fell into one of the chairs.

"It's horrible everywhere. I was surprised to see so few people on the roads. I guess no one knows where to go."

"I'm so glad you're safe." Mr. Hankerson said, what little relief he could muster broke through some of the worry.

We sat around quietly for much of the night. No one turned on the lights. They wouldn't have helped. There was no getting rid of the fear and anxiety we all shared. Our ears picked up every little noise. Our minds tirelessly awaited a sudden bang or a soft far away boom that might signal the end of days. The stress got to me and I started to smile. I tried to keep it in but I accidentally let out a small laugh.

"What?" Valerie's voice came through the darkness.

"I don't know." I said. "It's just that this is all so tense. Do you really think this could be it?"

"Yes." Mr. Hankerson said loudly.

"I'm not sure." Valerie whispered. "If we could figure out this dream thing then we might see for sure. Why don't you try to sleep and see if you can dream up anything again. You're the only one who seems to be able to communicate with whatever it is."

I agreed and went to lay down in Mr. Hankerson's bed. I didn't realize how tired I was until I laid down. Within minutes I was asleep.

I was back in the tunnel. It wasn't as clear this time. I was so close to the end I could feel it. The darkness ahead still seemed never ending. Eventually it would have to lead to something different. And to my surprise it finally did. The darkness lessened and I finally saw the end. Before I could prepare myself for the impending change the tunnel ended and I floated out into the air. I looked to be in a huge building. I could see rounded walls and little holes everywhere that I took to be different tunnels. There were so many of them. Little lightning bugs glittered peacefully all around, only I saw that they were not bugs at all. Lightning bugs would have glowed for a second and then the light would have faded away. These things stayed lit. Hundreds of these little glittery dots floated all around with me. I wanted nothing more than to drift around forever with the little sparkles. The fear and dread that I felt in the tunnel was long gone. It all seemed unnecessary now.

The building began to shake violently. The little sparkles began to tremble slightly. The lights flickered all at once. I think they were communicating. I didn't understand it. I wished that they could have been clearer like the shadow creature. The shaking grew more forceful until the large building looked ready to burst.

That's when I woke up. It was morning. The sun's rays calmed my mind and made the dream seem distant and unimportant.

I got up to find Mr. Hankerson sitting on the couch. He had the remote in his hand and was watching the television. It only showed static.

"The T.V. went out overnight. Now we don't have any idea what's going on." He said sadly.

"Maybe that's a good thing."

"No." Valerie stated from the dining room where she was eating breakfast. "It's a very bad thing. The phones are dead and my car's radio won't pick up anything. We've lost all our connections to the outside world."

"I'm with Agate." Mr. Hankerson announced. He shut off the television and looked over at me. "So, did you dream?"

I went over and sat next to him and told about the dream and how the tunnel finally ended.

"Those sparkles." He mused when I finished. "I wonder if they're aliens as well. Maybe they're the villains here."

"I doubt it." I said. "I think they were nice. I no longer felt any negative emotions when I got with them."

"Then perhaps they're being held captive in that building."

I nodded. "That might be it."

Valerie came over and joined us from one of the big soft chairs. "I don't know what is going on but I think that we should try to find a town that has some access to the world. I really want to know what's going on."

"We know what's going on." Mr. Hankerson said. "The world is ending."

"No it's not." Valerie snapped. "It's a world war, that's all it is. It just happens to be worse than anything we've ever seen before."

"Valerie, honey, look at the facts. There's dreams, and sparkles, and shadow cloud beings."

Valerie stood up. "I'm not going to believe aliens are destroying the planet. Why would they even do that?"

"They need a world whose atmosphere is like their own. They needed to get rid of the inhabitants first."

She shook her head. "Agate, do you want to come with me to find out why everything shut off?"

"Sure, I guess."

I was curious to see what the world looked like. The way Mr. Hankerson was talking it sounded as though there shouldn't be anything left at all outside. And I definitely didn't want to spend the day trapped in that little house again.

Valerie and I got into her car and took off down the road. The nearest town was a few miles away. We would start there and see if they knew anything.

The sky was blue and the country side was as pretty as ever. For a while I let my mind wander away and forget about all the supposed problems in the world. Valerie tried a few more times to get something on the radio. It was no good. After a few minutes the dirt road joined a much bigger paved road and we were on our way to the nearest large town.

I was looking out the window watching the fields fly by when Valerie gasped. I glanced ahead and gasped as well. A massive black cloud rose up into the air a few miles ahead. We got closer and saw that the entire town was in flames. Every few seconds a loud explosion rang out. Valerie pulled to the side of the road and watched in horror at the sight.

A buzzing hit our ears. A plane flew straight through the black cloud and over the car. I turned my head to follow it with my eyes. I caught sight of something falling out of it, and then another, and another. Huge explosions rocked the ground as the bombs hit. Valerie flipped the car around and we started towards it.

"What are you doing?" I yelled over the din of explosions.

"We have to get back."

"Why would they be bombing out here, there's no one around."

Her face was etched in a grave seriousness. "They have to make sure they get everyone."

The bombs hadn't hit the road yet as we drove to great speeds. Valerie turned the car onto the dirt road at one hundred miles per hour. It skidded across the grass and hit a fence before getting back on the road. The plane zoomed overhead. Valerie pushed the car as fast as it would go. We rattled and lurched across bumps in the road. The small house of Mr. Hankerson came into view. The plane let loose more bombs. A trail of fire and smoke erupted on the ground, heading straight for the house. Valerie slammed on the brakes right as the house was swallowed whole by black clouds.

We lurched forward and slammed back against the seats. The smoke rose high into the air. Nothing could have stopped it. We were too late.

#

I don't know how long we sat there watching the black smoke. The plane flew away and didn't come back. It was all too clear that whatever was happening it meant the end of everything, at least of everything we grew up knowing. Valerie stared out at where the house was for at least a quarter of an hour. I didn't know what to say or what to do. I sat perfectly still, trying not to be noticed.

She put the car in reverse and started away from the scene. We got back on a main road and started for somewhere, I didn't know where. It took a long time for her to speak. I didn't dare move or say anything yet; I didn't know how to react or what her reaction would be. After an hour we passed what I thought was the little town I had admired so much on the way out to Mr. Hankerson's. It was a burned shell by now. That's when I realized where we were going.

"Where are we going?" I asked cautiously.

"Back to the city." She said emotionlessly.

"Why? That's probably gone by now if everything else is."

"I'm not going to spend whatever time I have left driving to find a city that hasn't been destroyed. I'd much rather just go back and face whatever's going on."

I didn't want to argue. I sat back and watched the countryside go by. Occasionally I would see a huge black cloud in the distance. There were other cars out today. Not as many as I expected, but a good number nonetheless. I don't know where they were going; I don't even think they knew. A few cars had left the road completely and were driving through the countryside.

Sometime later, I really don't know or care how long, the city came into view. I was expecting a complete wasteland. Instead most of the buildings were on fire and lines of cars were making a mass exodus away. Some were on the side of the road burning.

We drove into the city to find the streets deserted. It looked much worse from in there. Windows were blown out of almost all the buildings, bodies were in the streets, some cars had exploded, and dark marks etched most buildings and streets where small bombs had gone off. I was only gone a few days. The weird things Mr. Hankerson had said seemed to be coming true.

Valerie asked where I lived and I directed her to my apartment building. Flames licked the sides from the open windows and I knew I wouldn't be going back in there. The boarded up building across the street, however, looked peaceful and untouched. For some reason I expected it to be just as bad. Valerie parked outside and we went up to one of the windows where the boards had been blown off and crawled through. The noise of panic and flames diminished greatly. We were in the lobby of the building. The floor was full of dust and dark marks showed where a large desk had once been. A staircase led up to the offices on the floors above. A couple of old plastic chairs were scattered about and we sat down on them, listening hard and watching shadows pass the little bit of light that reached in from the broken windows.

"My dad was right." She said. "He always sounded crazy when I was little. He talked about a time when people would be killed off by aliens. I don't want to believe its aliens, but what else could do it? It has to be something not of this planet at least."

"No one could have predicted something so terrible. Are you still having the tunnel dreams?"

She stared at the floor. "I had a very strange one last night. It was the same one you had."

"And sparkles?"

She nodded slowly. "Yes, and sparkles."

"I wonder what it all means."

"It must be some warning we weren't able to identify on time. That large cloud thing must have been warning you all along. It showed us the dreams to have us prepare our people but we didn't realize it soon enough."

"How were we supposed to know?"

She rubbed her eyes with her palms. "I don't know." She got up. "I'm going out to see if I can find some clues as to what's going on in the world. Stay here and stay safe. I'll be back in a little while."

I stood up as well. "If you leave you may not come back."

She shrugged. I noticed tears in her eyes. "I don't really care right now."

She went over to the window and crawled back trough it. I waited for a minute to see if she would come right back in, but she didn't.

I went over to the staircase and started up to the higher floors. Each one looked the same. The floor was covered in dust and pictures were spray painted on most of the walls. I kept going until I was up to the top floor. I knocked the wood off of one of the windows with great effort and looked out. I was six stories up. Valerie's car was gone and I couldn't find it on the street.

I leaned against the wall next to the window and looked at what the world had become around me. It was all way too fast. In the movies they act like we have some time as the world descends into oblivion. The heroes can usually uncover the warning signs in time to kill off the alien bad guys with at least a second to spare. It doesn't look like that's going to happen this time. I was chosen to deliver a message and I failed. That cloud shadow creature must be so disappointed in me. If it could send a warning I wonder why it didn't try to stop whatever was happening itself, or at least get the beings of Earth away. My head hurt. It didn't much matter what I thought of or what was actually going on, I had no way of knowing if anything was truth or just made up in my head.

A rumble shook the ground. Buzzing hit my ears and I immediately backed away from the window. Loud explosions filled the air. That plane was dropping bombs again. The building shook and I was afraid that it would hit it, but it was too far away this time. I glanced out the window to see new black plumes rising up. And then the buzzing grew louder. I saw another plane come into view and it was heading straight toward my location. I ran away from the window. The bombings started and this time I couldn't move.

When each bomb hit an image appeared in my head. I could do nothing but stand and watch as these images flashed by. They were of the tunnel. They came and disappeared and then were replaced with each new explosion. The tunnel images eventually disappeared and the large building with all the little sparkles appeared. When the last bomb hit, somewhere very close, I saw an extended image of a sparkle up close, and a voice shouted in my head.

"Tell them to finish it off. It's time, we've almost got enough."

I fell back onto the dusty floor. I felt more than what the words said. I felt a meaning, a disturbed destructive pleasure. Along with that came an idea. It was as if I was seeing into the mind of one of the beings responsible. I suddenly knew that they were in fact controlling the people to do such terrible things. They took control of leaders and sent bombs to every part of the world. They took over individuals and made them kill.

I knew right then that the world was going to end unless Valerie and I could somehow change everyone's minds. But why weren't we controlled? Why could I see into their minds? It didn't make any sense. I was chosen for some reason. The only reason I could think of was because I did in fact have some unknown ability that made me resistant. That must have been it. That was the only thing I could think of.

I crawled nervously back to the window. The city was torn apart and several buildings had collapsed. I snuck a peak at the road. Large parts of walls were in the street, blocking most of the way. A car was coming up the road. I recognized it immediately as Valerie's. The windshield was cracked and there was a dent in the roof but other than that it looked fine. I watched uneasily as she slowly made her way around the obstructions in the road. She was less than a block away when I heard a great rumble from one of the buildings that was hit. A giant slab of stone came crashing down onto the road, right on her car.

#

I launched myself away from the window onto the cold dusty floor. I didn't see what happened. I couldn't see it. I didn't want to see it. That was it. That was everything. Valerie was the only person on my side. For all I knew she was the only person besides me left on the whole planet that wasn't trying to kill everyone else.

I curled up on the floor and tried not to think about everything going on. I didn't want to live anymore and yet I didn't want to die and be a part of some twisted plot. I just wanted to lie there forever and forget and be forgotten about. I didn't even want to exist.

The buzzing came back. I didn't move. The bombs fell and exploded all around. One hit the building I was in and I felt one of the walls fall away. I still didn't move. I had nothing left. I never had anything to start with. My life wasn't going anywhere. There wasn't some big moment where everything was going to change and I would be a better person. I was destined to live out my days working at that jewelry store. If anything all this chaos only made things a different sort of bad. What was worse: dying old and alone having never made anything of myself, or dying young with the rest of the world never having a chance to live. At that moment on the floor I couldn't figure out which was more desirable.

Those horrible planes kept coming and bombs kept dropping. The floor shook and I think I heard pieces of it collapsing down onto the floors below. After a while I couldn't stand the dark anymore. I opened my eyes to see what was happening. The building was half torn apart. I could see right out into the world. Somehow I was left on the half of the building that had yet to be destroyed. It was going to fall eventually. I got up and walked to the edge of the floor and looked out into the destroyed city. This certainly was something. I would have never guessed the world was going to end this way. I just hoped that I would learn the real reason for everything in the end.

Another plane flew over the city. This one dropped a bomb, but it wasn't like the ones that had fallen already. This one was much bigger. I realized what it might be right before it hit the ground. There was a bright flash and a huge force. . .

I am speeding through a tunnel. Its walls are a brownish metal but I don't think it's really metal. I can't slow down. I am flying through the tunnel at an incredible speed. It only lasts a few seconds. I tumble into a large building with holes all around where hundreds of other tunnels end. No, it's not a tunnel, it's a container. I look around and see that there are thousands upon thousands of little bright sparkles floating with me. They all look so odd. They don't just float around, they are being controlled. They are controlling themselves. I make my way through the vast group of sparkles. I don't know what I'm looking for. They seem so familiar. I think I've seen them before, but not as sparkles, as people. This is what's left of them. Their bodies are gone and this is what's left behind. The sparkles look helpless as they float around. I wonder if they can see me. I wonder if I know any of them. I make it to one of the walls and can see that it is very shiny and is reflecting all the sparkles. I look dead ahead and see one that stands out among the rest. It looks peaceful as it looks back at me.

A great rumble shakes the container. I turn to see the sparkles flicker slightly. They're scared. They don't know what's going on. I don't either. If we all stick together then we can make it through this.

The center of the ceiling opens up. I push my way among the sparkles and look up. I can see stars. They're moving. No, they're not moving, we are. The container is moving. The stars disappear. There's something blocking them. It's what we are pointing at. It's a shadow, no a cloud, no a creature. It only looks like a shadow. Something else appears. It's another shadow, but it's a lot closer. It's looking in at us. It seems so familiar. I've seen this shadow before. It looks in on all the sparkles. I can tell that it's happy. Somehow I can read its thoughts. It moves out of the way and points the container at the other shadow creature. It's pointed at the creature's mind. I can tell.

Another great rumble occurs. The walls close in. All the sparkles are smashed together. I'm at the top. I can see the creature we are pointed at. What is going on?

There is a loud bang, louder than anything I have ever heard. All the sparkles are shot out of the container at once. The stars are all around. We pass them so fast. This is far too fast. At this speed we might hurt the other shadow creature. And then I realize the worst truth of all. We are going to hurt the shadow creature. That's why we were in the container, that's why the shadow I talked to was collecting us through tunnels only sparkles can pass through. This was the plan all along. I was just a tiny sparkle in the war of another race.

The shadow creature can't move to get out of the way. We hit it at full force. The darkness disappears, only white remains.

Also by A.S. Morrison

The Last Golden Rose

Poiye

Hardin's War

Hardin's Dilemma

Hardin's Calling

The Little Brown Box

A Translation of Inspiration

Three Very Short Stories

Evening's with Littleberry and Other Short Stories

A. Candle's Light
