The Dream Snatcher Chronicles - Chapter 8

296

'Dream Snatcher' in a world formed by limitations but
doesn't actually contain any?”

“The will,” I answered, quickly, automatically.

“Wrong!” The Necromancer spat back. “Or at least not as
you understand it. You cannot fight a war when you don’t
know how to use the weapons. Your own diluted concepts
of strength have sustained you this far, but to rely on them
indefinitely will be your downfall.”

“Then enlighten us,” Jake said. "We've fought your
corpse warriors and survived so I'd say we are doing
pretty well."

The Necromancer turned his gaze on Jacob. “You have
the will to survive, I'll grant you that. But if you do not
have the will to dominate you are doomed to failure.
Before you ever existed, I watched your world and the
ones who sought out my knowledge. While my
predecessor squandered the throne, I was watching even
then. But he is deposed, and now I reign over all, even the
dead.”

“Is that what the will to dominate gives us?” Adrienne
scoffed.

“Of course.” There was a trace of a smile in the
Necromancer's voice. He stepped closer and peered at
Adrienne. "Isn't that what you want? To crush your foes
beneath your heel? Retribution for what they did?" He

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297

shifted his head and looked directly into my eyes. "You
want it. I, too, was on the verge of defeat until I found the
Slough Beasts fluids combined with ancient rituals could
restore the dead. And after I discovered that, there was
little need for a living army.”

“You mean there was little need for life at all," Adrienne
said. "You killed this entire world!"

The Necromancer laughed harshly before responding.
“And I'd do it again in the space between heartbeats. In
the end, they all turned against me and they deserved their
fate." The corner of his mouth twitched. "Look!"

He pulled something out from the folds of his cloak and
slammed a swirling sphere onto the table. Gold and black
threads writhed over its smooth surface. The
Necromancer muttered something under his breath, and
Lazarus sprang from his shoulder and soared out one of
the windows.

“Now look,” the Necromancer ordered again. We stepped
forward, gazing into the sphere's flickering depth.

All I saw was desolation. The owl flew through the night
air at terrific speed, the moonlight sliding off its feathers
and everything it saw, I saw. The wasted land lay in the
heart of the sphere—battlefields strewn with rotted
corpses, villages burned to the ground, skeletal mothers
clutching babies to their bleached bosoms. Mouths

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298

opened in voiceless cries of agony, demanding
vengeance. This was the Necromancer's realm, his
subjects Death and Decay. The Slough Beasts lolling in
the canyons and valleys were part and parcel to the
destruction, fat corpse worms crawling through the
world's flesh.

I turned away, the sights and silent screams of the
departed burned into my mind. I saw them when I closed
my eyes.

The owl continued to fly over the vacant world as the
Necromancer spoke again. “I don’t hail from the frantic
planet, so don’t parade your decrepit sense of morals
through my throne room." A smile played at the corner of
his lips. "It seems you have nothing you can teach me.
But I may have something for you."

“What?" I asked. The Necromancer's words struck
something in me, a foot kicking over a rotted log to
discover the worms and grubs that slithered underneath.
He knew he had me under his spell.

He pointed one pale finger at me, its nail chiseled to a
point. "I made a promise to the last man many years ago
in the event that the Stedgate was ever breached. What is
the word you use for your men of learning? Dohk-tor?"

"Doctor Meyer?" I said, anxious. He had been here. He'd
had dealings with the Necromancer.

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299

"Yes, that was his name." The Necromancer continued.
"But I prefer to call him the last man, since I hoped to
never see your kind again. I promised to pass a secret to
the next seeker of knowledge. The Stedgate was
supposedly sealed off. Yet here you are." His eyes
lingered on me. "Intact. I can't say the same for your
sister."

"What happened to her?" I said. Was she a mangled
corpse like the warriors at the ruined castle? Had the
artificial Stedgate stripped away her humanity so only the
cold and indifferent Gretchen I knew in the Waking World
remained?

The Necromancer leered at me. "Don't worry yourself
about her. If you were meant to find her you would have
by now. Take the secret and—"

I cut him off, stepping forward, rage burning in my chest.
"I don't want your secrets! Where is my sister?"

The Necromancer's face contorted, the skin pulled so tight
I thought it would split. "Disdain me, boy, and I become
the last stop on your journey to defeat."

I let his words sink in. An earlier version of me might
have agreed with him and backed down in fear. Past my
fears and flaws, past the murk that clouded all of my
decisions, a spark shimmered in the darkness. "I'm not

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300

leaving this world without Gretchen. So either you tell us
how to find her, or I come back every night until I do."

The Necromancer smirked. "The Stedgate is yours. Travel
through it when you will. It won't alter the truth.
Whatever part of your sister came through the Stedgate no
longer belongs to the frantic planet. It belongs to me. And
no one trades a trifle for the void."

"Whatever traveled through the Stedgate belongs to my
sister," I said. "You have no right to her."

The Necromancer wagged a finger as if scolding a
disobedient child. "Ah-ah. I put the fragmented mess
together piece by piece. I poured my time and energy into
reconstruction while you skittered about trying to find
her. Over a hundred nights have passed and suddenly you
think that since you found the Stedgate and made it to my
throne room that you deserve to have the lost pieces
returned to you. Yet, you must ask yourself, what were
you expecting? A key? A potion? An incantation to wake
up your inert sister? What came through the Stedgate
could be anything and it could be nothing."

"What do you want?" I asked, desperate.

"I want you to make a decision. The last man left you a
gift. Take it or join the death spiral of the others who
opposed me. Those are your choices."

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301

I glanced at Jacob. I couldn't bring myself to ask the
question and admit defeat. Jacob saw it as an opportunity
to stall for time. He made to speak, but the Necromancer
held a hand up to silence him.

"They are almost returned. Maybe the Slough Beast's
passengers will be more receptive."

He touched the crystal ball with his index finger and the
vision inside the globe shifted and then went dark. He
removed it from the table and wrapped it in his cloak. I'm
not sure how he kept such a heavy object suspended in his
flowing robes, but whatever it was allowed the freedom of
both hands—one to grasp the staff and the other to rise in
the air and serve as a landing point for Lazarus who
returned, gliding through one of the windows. Lazarus
flapped his wings and then folded them back, fixing us
with his golden eyes.

I heard the arrival of the Slough Beast behind us, and
whatever passengers it carried. The Necromancer reached
out and his hand encircled the back of my neck and drew
me close to whisper in my ear.

"No matter how events unfold, I get what I want. If you
get what you want remains to be seen. "

He released me and retreated to his throne, the owl
fluttering on his arm to keep its balance.

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302

The Slough Beast spoke, "MASTER HERE ARE THE
OTHERS."

From out of the Slough Beast's bulk stepped General
Kobetz. Grimy, dirty streaks covered the business suit he
wore and his hair was in disarray. He brushed down his
jacket and smoothed back his hair. By his side, barely
perceptible in the glow of moonlight that filled the tower,
was Selene. She moved away from the General, her figure
twisting and bending with the darkness, until she reached
a section of the room where she could survey all of us.
Adrienne, Jacob and I edged away in the opposite
direction, closer to the table where the Necromancer's
apprentice continued to scribble furiously. The Slough
Beast exited out the window without waiting to be told,
its multitude of legs click-clacking against the marble.

Where was the Dream Snatcher? If he had not followed
us through the Stedgate was he at the farmhouse, waiting
for our return?

Adrienne's jaw-line went rigid at the sight of her
Grandfather. He ignored us and turned to face the throne.

"Mavian Lor, it is an honor to meet you. We've been
seeking an audience for many years."

The Necromancer's lip curled into a sneer. "And who are
you? Do you think the use of my real name somehow tips
the balance in your favor? Don't try to use the knowledge

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303

the last man gave you unless you understand the meaning
behind the words."

"Of course." The General bowed his head slightly, murder
in his eyes. "That is why we are here. To bargain. Dr.
Meyer never returned from his journey to the first
monument," he said. "We believe he betrayed us."

"He did not betray us. He betrayed you," the Necromancer
said.

The General appeared taken aback only for a moment.
"We need to know what happened to him. The first
monument can offer..."

The Necromancer spoke over the General without raising
his voice. "I owe the last man one favor which I am about
to fulfill. I owe you nothing else and I want nothing from
you or the first monument." It smiled, teeth flashing in the
moonlight. "It already gave me what I wanted."

The General looked on the verge of vaulting up the steps
and demolishing the Necromancer. No one spoke to him
like that. He clenched his fists and nodded curtly at the
Necromancer. "Then we are at an impasse."

The Necromancer slouched in his throne. Then he leaned
forward, his eyes glittering. "No. We are not. The boy
was the first through the Stedgate. The secret is his to
claim, but he hardly seems interested in it. I'll tell you my
bargain. You all came through the Stedgate on this night.

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304

You should each have a share in the knowledge." A
malignant smile crept onto his lips. "Or you can ensure
the others do not get it. Apprentice!"

The girl straightened up and gazed at him with her wide,
frightened hazel eyes.

"Bring me the last man's gift." The Necromancer issued
the order without taking his eyes off us. She stood up
from her writing desk and shuffled to the side of the
Necromancer's throne, a piece of parchment clutched in
one hand. He held the parchment between his thumb and
finger. "The knowledge left by your Dohk-tor. Which of
you wants it more?"

"I don't want it at all," I said. "Let them have it."

The Necromancer laughed. "The high road is painless to
walk when you don't think you have anything to gain. I
know the frantic planet better than you do yourself. The
brutality masked by justice, the genocide under the
pretense of righteousness. You need only the appropriate
application of pressure to become the rabid animal that I
know resides inside. Unwilling to stoop to violence? Let
me dispel any notion of nobility from your mind."

He leaned over and whispered in the girl's ear. At the
same time the parchment sparked and then burst into
flame, consuming the dry, brittle paper. The Necromancer

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305

shook the ashes away with his fingers and the flakes fell
down softly onto the throne steps.

"Tell them," the Necromancer said to the girl.

She stood up, straight and unwavering, gazing at the
General. The light had left her eyes. "I am the
Placeholder, the one whose sight can pierce the veil of
Death." She turned her head slightly to look at me, her
voice emotionless. "I am the Sister, the one who
sacrificed herself to save a fool."

The General shifted on his feet, uncertain. My heart leapt
within my chest, everything turning to haze and I thought
the dream would drift apart, but the girl by the throne kept
me anchored. The fractured part of her, whatever made it
through the Stedgate into this wretched world, I'd been
carrying with me almost since we'd entered it. The
Necromancer saw my reaction and continued speaking.

"I doubt you'll ever fully understand what she went
through, but when I found her wandering my world she
was nothing more than a vessel waiting to be filled. I gave
her our history. And I gave her my secrets. She knows
about Death and Dreams. She knows how to bring him
back." His emphasis on the word 'him' sent a chill through
me. "Now, whoever wins gets it from her."

We all hesitated.

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306

The Necromancer leaned back, the shadows of the throne
covering his face until only his eyes shone out. "Kill each
other."

Selene's shadowy form moved first, lancing through the
moonlight, her arms elongating, reaching out to embrace
the girl in black silk death. I sprinted forward, dodging
past the arms and collided into the girl, keeping her
shielded with my body. Adrienne darted forward to
confront Selene and the General charged after me,
ignoring Jacob, who threw himself at the giant man in a
wild attack that did nothing to stop him.

I struggled towards the circular windows, the girl's body
tensed as soon as I grabbed her protectively in my arms,
but she did not struggle. The windows loomed up,
offering only a thousand foot plummet to the ground. I
contemplated throwing myself out the window in the
belief that I might fly, escaping on the night breeze before
I remembered Adrienne's struggle to manipulate this
world. If she could barely bend it to her will I didn't stand
a chance.

General Kobetz reined me in, a calculating strategist,
ensuring there was no means of dodging by him.

"Hand her over," he said. I heard Adrienne scream but
could not see past the General's bulk to see what
happened to her. "I'll order Selene off Adrienne. Give her
to me and we'll leave."

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307

I clung to the girl all the tighter, hoping Adrienne
overcame her foe, certain of only one thing—I must not
lose her again. The General moved closer, inch by inch.
"We have you trapped, even if you flee back to your
world. I'm sure you already know that."

"The Dream Snatcher," I said, panting, hoisting the girl's
dead weight in my arms so her head rested on my
shoulder.

"Yes," the General said. "He's on the other side waiting
for you."

The Dream Snatcher's perfect plan made certain that even
if by some fluke we beat the General and Selene and
passed back to our world, he waited there, the reserve
force that I did not stand a chance against.

The General reached out a hand for me and I found
myself unable to go any further. The hard wall pressed
into my back and I tightened my grip on the girl, refusing
to let the looming monster tear us apart once again.

"There now—" the General's words cut short into a gurgle
as a forearm locked around the General's throat and
squeezed. Jake's face popped up from the General's right
shoulder. He must have leapt into the air to reach the
General's height and timed his choke hold perfectly.

"Run!" He hissed through clenched teeth as he struggled
to maintain his hold. "Get us out of here!" The General,

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308

surprised, took a step back and I ran along the wall,
circling the room so the Necromancer's throne lay
between myself and the General.

I saw Adrienne for a split second before the throne
blocked my view. Dark rivulets oozed out from a hole in
her shoulder. The stream cascaded down her arm and
dripped onto the floor, blending in perfectly with the
black marble. In her unwounded arm she held Jake's
Claymore and continued circling in a deadly dance with
the Shadow.

The General promised that the Dream Snatcher waited for
us on the far side, but his words triggered a thought.
During the summer, an aerial photographer stopped by the
farmhouse, trying to sell Dad a photo of the farm, high
above the earth. If I opened a Helstgate with that image in
mind, we might have a chance. The Dream Snatcher
would never expect us to appear a mile above the farm.
The General would never expect me to make such a
foolish decision. I needed to gain the upper hand and it
was the only way I knew how. I placed my hand on the
sill of one of the giant circular windows, cleared my head
and willed the portal into existence.

Nothing happened. Not a flicker or a distorted image.
Nothing. The power fizzled and died before leaving my
fingertips. Behind me, the Necromancer's laughter rang
through the room while at the same time the General

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309

shook Jacob off and charged after me again. I sprinted
away, running back towards Adrienne and Selene.

"Having a problem, boy? I commanded you to kill each
other. You want to ignore my orders? " The Necromancer
continued laughing, a cruel noise that rattled in my ears.
"The frantic planet waits for no one. Time is passed, life
is gone. At least what she experienced here served a
purpose!"

After his statement, silence filled the room. I tried to
breath, but my lungs refused to take in any air. The others
seemed afflicted with the same condition. The General
took two steps towards me, his footfalls making no noise
on the marble. Adrienne swung her sword at the Shadow,
teeth clenched, mouth opened in a muted battle cry. Jake,
already winded by the tumble he'd taken off the General
appeared asthmatic as he pushed himself off the floor and
tried to fill the void with words that did not come.

A roaring wind whipped through the chamber and as it
passed each of the spherical windows they glowed in
response, producing a glowing picture with a blinding
flash of light. I stumbled, dazed by the light and sudden
return of air. I lifted my head and saw with growing dread
what the Necromancer had brought into existence.

The pictures that formed in the wake of the wind revealed
a flickering, twisted story. The window directly in front of
the throne showed Gretchen and me arguing in the barren

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310

office that contained the fabricated Stedgate. It took me a
moment to place it because the view of us appeared as if
someone looked through the Stedgate from the other side.
The Necromancer waited for one of us to step through
into his domain. Gretchen and I argued and I tried to
convince her not to go through but she did. The doorway
rejected her and the last thing I saw was my own shocked
face as the impact of her body sent me crashing to the
floor. Then the circular window turned black.

The picture to its right showed the desolate horizon of the
Necromancer's world and a frail, tiny girl getting
unsteadily to her feet—clothed only in a tattered
nightgown. She wandered, lost, alone, stumbling over the
sharp rocks, falling and getting up and staggering on
again. In the next portal I saw the Necromancer on his
winged Slough Beast and he found the dying girl. He took
her in, but it was no rescue mission or deed of mercy. He
tossed her on the cold marble floor of the throne room and
shoved a piece of bread and water towards the prostrate
form and somehow she continued to live. He whispered
dark secrets in her ear that made her scream and made her
write down pages upon pages of notes and symbols.

The Necromancer's experiments progressed in magnitude
as my eyes went from one to another clockwise around
the room. He used the Slough Beasts secretions to restore
the dead, to give himself eternal life, to keep the Corpse
Warriors as the guardians of his ruined world. He

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311

poisoned the girl with one concoction and cured with
another. Finally the girl fled, sneaking into the underbelly
of the Slough Beast while it slept. Maybe the Slough
Beast didn't know. Maybe it didn't want to tell. Either
way, the girl made her escape and tried to find a way out
of the nightmare. The Necromancer never lost track of her
though. He allowed her to escape, to see what she would
do. And then we arrived.

I remained kneeling, unaware of the passage of time.
Adrienne yelled at me, but the words came in broken and
garbled, a radio transmission from beyond the abyss.

Selene's silk arms latched onto Adrienne's leg and
spiraled up her thigh. Selene pulled backwards, yanking
Adrienne's feet out from under her. Adrienne sprawled on
the floor, but instead of catching herself, she swung the
claymore and severed the silk bonds. Selene recoiled and
the cloth attached to Adrienne's leg fell to the ground, no
longer animated. Adrienne seized the momentary reprieve
and staggered to her feet. Bringing her body around in an
arc, she threw the claymore at me. As the blade left her
hand and started its graceful rotation towards me a single
thought crossed my mind that I still regret to this day.

She finally betrayed me!

Instinctively, I clutched the girl and bowed my head,
unable to move fast enough to dodge the blow. The
claymore passed close enough that I felt it hiss only

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312

inches above my scalp. The blade slammed into the
General, who stood a few feet behind me, one hand
outstretched for my shoulder. He staggered backwards
under the force of the blow but did not fall. The claymore
clattered to the ground and a thin red line appeared in the
General's midsection. The color drained from his face and
his shocked and surprised expression quickly gave way to
anger.

"Is this what it's come to Adrienne?" He yelled. He
clutched his abdomen and blood began to flow through
his fingers. "This boy—his family—are nothing. Nothing
compared to the first monument!" He sank to his knees.

Adrienne's jaw locked tight as she fought to keep back
tears and I saw the fragility of the veil that hung between
everything we called reality and this other world. She
attacked her Grandfather to save you. She seemed about
to speak, but Selene recovered and reached out for her,
the black silk arms flying out and constricting her throat.

"Adrienne!" I came to my feet and with one arm holding
the girl I picked up the Claymore.

Adrienne kicked at Selene, who remained unmoved and
continued to tighten her grip. I ran towards them, the girl
in one arm, dragging the claymore awkwardly behind me,
preparing to strike Selene down. Jacob arrived first. He
placed his hands on either side of Selene's head and
pushed together as if to crush Selene's silk skull between

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313

them. The silk held its form and Jacob's brow furrowed in
concentration. Adrienne's face turned red as she pried at
the silk wrapped around her throat.

She choked out indistinguishable words, but I didn't need
an explanation.

Get us home! Maybe I needed more time, like she did
when using her manipulations against the Corpse
Warriors. With the General wounded and the two of them
entangled with Selene this was my second and final
chance.

Don't waste time running to a window. You don't need it.
They are only symbols. You can make a Helstgate through
anything. Keeping the girl in one arm, I reached down
with my right hand and touched the black marble,
freezing the aerial photograph of the farm in my mind.
Again, nothing.

I closed my eyes and zoomed the picture out, till the Earth
spun beneath me in slow rotation, hanging against the
void of space. I saw clouds roaming over the earth’s
surface, and whole continents outlined in the deep blue
oceans. This world teemed with life. No matter what the
Necromancer said, at least it wasn't the barren wasteland
he had created. I partially opened one eye.

On the black marble floor a blue glowing speck appeared.
It's working! I thrilled at the sensation and as the

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314

Helstgate widened across the floor and the picture in my
mind came into existence I forgot all about the farm. The
planet's beauty and majesty put away all other thoughts.
The Helstgate widened until it was close to six feet in
diameter.

"Bravo," the Necromancer said. "You seemed to have
forgotten one important detail though." At the same time,
the Helstgate reached what my mind ruled to be its limits.

I ignored him and reached forward, putting my hand
through whatever invisible membrane covered the
Helstgate. I made it without help. We can go home. Now
to bring that world closer... My hand felt a tug, similar to
the suction of the vacuum cleaner, but magnified many
times in strength. I pulled my hand back and lost my
balance and concentration.

Selene, unable to overcome both her adversaries, flung
Adrienne towards the Helstgate, letting the black silk
slither off Adrienne's neck. Balanced on the precipice,
Adrienne instinctively reached out to her tormentor and
caught the tail end of the fleeing silk before she fell. Jacob
saw the danger but did not let go of the Shadow quick
enough. Selene latched onto him and Adrienne's
deadweight dragged both of them into the Helstgate.

General Kobetz staggered into me from behind and the
girl's leg slid sideways off my hip and entered the
Helstgate. The next moment she was gone, ripped from

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315

my hand, her body tumbling through the air to the earth
below. I watched for one sickening second before
plunging through after her. The General followed.

+++

Mom read me a story about a pilot, whose name escapes
me, that had to eject from his aircraft high above the
earth. The sky was no longer blue. It was black and he
could see the stars.

I gazed up at the stars and felt the wind roaring past my
ears. I must have pulled the picture closer before the girl
fell through the Helstgate, otherwise I'd be like the stars,
drifting through the cold emptiness of space. My second
thought was less sanguine. You should be dead. Mom
didn't cover science in depth. The only thing I knew for
certain is that the higher in altitude one got, the harder it
became to breath.

On cue, I began gasping for air. Aspects of altitude like
decompression I barely knew at all. Congratulations,
your own ignorance has saved you. My mind quipped. I
saw the Helstgate above me and the ceiling of the
Necromancer's throne room receding into the dark sky. I
turned my head and my entire body turned with it.

A blast of air caught me and sent me rolling end over end.
As I recovered from the turbulence I saw the girl's body
falling below me, her limbs collapsed upwards like a

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316

dying cockroach. I brought my arms into my sides and
closed my legs and dove towards her. I closed the
distance and reached out against the roaring air and
grasped her wrist, pulling her body close against mine.
Now what? On the eastern horizon, I saw the red and
orange glow of the sun gliding over the tree line to end
the night.

Against the horizon's glow I spotted Jacob, Adrienne and
Selene falling twenty yards to my right. A large, muscular
body plunged down on them from above. General Kobetz.
Adrienne spotted his approach and kicked Jacob clear of
the scuffle. She latched onto both of them, Selene and the
General.

I yelled something unintelligible into the wind. Don't do
it.

She caught my eye, smiled, and the three of them plunged
towards the earth at an accelerated rate, caught together in
a tight embrace.

Jacob grabbed onto my shoulder as he tumbled by. With
the wind roaring in our ears, it was impossible to speak,
but he mouthed the word and I nodded. Even if I didn't
understand atmospherics, gravity was in full effect. If I
didn't do something we were all going to slam into the
earth going over one hundred miles an hour. I pointed one
finger below us, indicating Adrienne.

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317

Jacob shook his head in the negative. She's taking them
out of the fight. She wants us to survive. Jacob tightened
his grip on my shoulder and I looked at him. He shouted
the word. Now.

Below us I saw a massive white object. I tensed as we
passed into it and continued to fall. It's a cloud. I could
barely see in any direction. Jacob's hand appeared
disembodied, clinging to my shoulder while his body hid
in the fog. We exited the clouds and I hesitated, waiting to
see if Adrienne broke free and I might yet be able to save
her. I saw her far below me, the three bodies screaming
towards the ground like a meteorite. They hit the earth,
south of our strawberry fields, sending up a plume of
debris. As the debris cleared I hope to see a sign of life.

Nothing. Not even bodies.

The snow covered fields and forests below grew larger by
the second.

You've never performed a shift like this. No time for
doubt. I shut my eyes and concentrated on Jacob's firm
grip on my shoulder and the frail, spent body resting in
the protection of my arms. The earth becomes the floor,
only inches below you. The clouds become the ceiling.
The horizon becomes the walls. That field to the left is the
bed and Gretchen is asleep on it, waiting for someone.
Waiting for something. I bit my lip and willed it into
existence. Jacob screamed and I flicked open one eye. We

Copyright © 2016 by M. A. T. Blackthorne
All rights reserved.

318

continued to fall, about to become red splatters on Dad's
strawberry fields. No. It's carpet. It's the faded pink carpet
in Gretchen's room. It's...

The wind roaring past my ears ceased and we hit the
ground. I reached out and touched it. Carpet.

Jacob let go of my shoulder and rolled over on his back.
"Ehhhhh," he said. "I've never been so glad to see this
ugly shag carpet."

I brought one leg up under my body and staggered to my
feet, cradling the girl.

"I think we can finally come to an agreement." I heard the
words and each one slapped an iron band across my chest.
I turned slowly.

Gretchen.

Gretchen—the seventeen year-old Gretchen—slept in her
bed, flat on her back, face staring up at the ceiling. Sweat
gleamed on her skin and soaked the top of the T-shirt she
wore as a pajama top. The Dream Snatcher sat on the
nightstand by the bed, its lotion bottles and shampoo and
whatever else teenage girls use on a regular basis moved
neatly to one side. He placed a hand on her forehead like
a mother soothing a fever-stricken child.

Anson. Everything I'd done, everything I'd overcome
diminished in significance. Here he sat, patiently waiting

Copyright © 2016 by M. A. T. Blackthorne
All rights reserved.

319

for me to bring him what his heart most desired. I had
foolishly thought he'd be in the basement, hovering over
the sump pump, waiting for my return.

The Dream Snatcher did not move, only studied us from
behind his dark spectacles. The sleeves of his white dress
shirt were rolled up, exposing the tattoos on his forearms.
They stood out, black against the approaching dawn that
crept through Gretchen's window. He wiped the sweat off
Gretchen's forehead and then spread his fingers wide,
encompassing her skull.

"We decided one of us would have to remain behind in
the event you tried to evade us. I wandered through your
house, revisiting some of my old haunts. Imagine my
surprise when I found her. Comatose, a dream within a
dream, but still here, waiting. Expecting something. Her
presence made it easy to wait."

He dug his fingertips into Gretchen's skull.

"I know you don't want to hurt your sister anymore. She's
gone through enough." He lifted his head and looked at
the girl in my arms. "That thing you've retrieved from the
Necromancer's world is not your sister. She's a severed
faction, the key to your sister becoming whole. I know
she's been suffering. Let me retrieve the secrets."

"And if I don't?" I said. I turned my body to shield the girl
from his gaze.

Copyright © 2016 by M. A. T. Blackthorne
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320

"I'm going to tell you a story, Mark. These glyphs
tattooed on my arm aren't really tattoos. They are scars.
The tattoos went over them later. Many years ago, I used
the Dreamsphere and while I was under I saw what Dr.
Meyer had seen, part of the message from the Black
Satellite. I woke from that experience, mind racing, ready
to transcribe all I had learned."

He sucked in a breath of air. "But it was then that I
discovered Dr. Meyer's treachery. He had no intention of
sharing the secrets that he retrieved from the Black
Satellite. He figured whatever I learned while under
would be lost from memory before someone released me.
Dr. Meyer had locked me in the Dreamsphere."

He raised a fist.

"I pounded on the door, trying to get someone's attention.
As soon as I felt the dream fading I didn't wait any longer.
I carved the symbols into my flesh with a blade from my
pocket. They discovered me about an hour later, my arms
in ribbons, blood covering the floor. Dr. Meyer denied
locking the device. I believed him at the time."

Anson chuckled and looked at me. "If you think that your
determination and will are somehow a match for mine
you are mistaken. I'll kill your sister. It won't happen
immediately. I'll shatter her psyche into a thousand pieces
that you couldn't put back together if you had from now
until the end of time."

Copyright © 2016 by M. A. T. Blackthorne
All rights reserved.

321

He pointed at the alarm clock on Gretchen's night stand.
The hands were incomprehensible to make out, but the
Dream Snatcher's meaning was not. Time is running out.

The girl stirred in my arms before the Dream Snatcher
responded. "I'll go," she whispered. She wiggled out of
my arms and walked noiselessly across the carpet, the
enormous robe she wore trailing behind her. I watched,
entranced, believing that the twig-like girl could defy the
Dream Snatcher.

When the girl was within arm’s length she reached out her
hand towards Gretchen, ready to curl up with her in sleep,
to mend the wound. The Dream Snatcher made certain
they did not touch. His hand darted out and grabbed her
by the back of the neck and yanked her away. He rotated
his wrist until she faced him, feet dangling in the air, eyes
locked with his.

"Whatever you want to give her is filtered through me. I
want that secret," the Dream Snatcher said.

Jake and I sprang towards him, but the Dream Snatcher
brought all his power to bear. Time slowed in a miasma
around us, forcing all of our attention to the scene before
our eyes. We were helpless. The tattoos on his arms
shifted and swayed, sliding up his arms and over his
hands like a million oil slicked threads.

Copyright © 2016 by M. A. T. Blackthorne
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322

"Then take it," she dared him. The tendrils on the Dream
Snatcher's arm surged forward, pouring into the girl's
mouth and ears and eye sockets. The girl's body went
rigid as the Dream Snatcher searched for the secret that
Dr. Meyer denied him, the secret the Necromancer placed
inside the fractured replica.

Whatever he triggered next, it did not agree with the girl.
The noise that emitted from her was too loud and shrill to
be reproduced on any human scale. I staggered towards
the Dream Snatcher, the time around me returning to
normal. I clutched my ears, feeling the dream sliding
away, disintegrating under the barrage of sound. The
Dream Snatcher refused to let go of the writhing girl or
his hold on Gretchen's forehead. The entire room wavered
and I felt Jake place one hand on me, I suspected, to
steady himself, but a thought passed from him to me as
clear as if he spoke it.

Hold on as long as you can.

I ground my palms into my ears and willed the
fragmenting dream together. It worked about as well as
pushing together the shards of a shattered mirror. Clarity
returned and it was enough for Jake to take the last two
tottering steps he needed to close the distance and place
his hand onto the tormented girl. Her screams ceased
abruptly as Jacob grabbed her wrist.

Copyright © 2016 by M. A. T. Blackthorne
All rights reserved.

323

A silence settled over the room and the Dream Snatcher's
eyes locked with mine. "I found it."

A noise unlike anything I'd ever heard sounded far outside
the house, a ripping, cracking, splitting sound that
shredded the skies. The sound grew in power, shaking the
house to its foundations.

"The monument from the heavens returns!" the girl
shouted, her voice barely audible as the furious noise
outside the house bore down on us.

Jacob's intrusion proved too much for the Dream
Snatcher. The connection between the girl and the Dream
Snatcher broke, threads flowing out of the girl and
returning to the Dream Snatcher's arm one by one.

The roof of the house vanished in a cloud of splintered
beams and smashed shingles as if a giant hand had
reached down and swatted it away. I felt more than saw
an enormous shape fill the wintery dawn, its nebulous
form twisting the sky into a kaleidoscope of swirling
color. The Dream Snatcher dropped the girl and the
blinding speed of the passing object imploded the world
around us.

Copyright © 2016 by M. A. T. Blackthorne
All rights reserved.