Dream King by Elise Knight

11

The days that followed could only be described as a living hell. Pain became a constant companion. My wrists were chafed raw from the magical ropes, and my shoulders screamed in burning agony from being held in such an unnatural position. He’d made it very clear that he didn’t give a monkey’s toss about me at all, but I’d pushed it and pushed it because I couldn’t keep my mouth shut. In all the days I’d been here, many emotions had crossed through my mind, but this was the first time I’d felt real fear. Sure, the adrenaline had been surging as he’d squeezed my throat and held a knife to me, but this was a thousand times worse. It was slow and drawn out, only made worse by the fact that asshat had decided I didn’t exist again. Each time he came out through one of the doors, I hoped my torment would cease when he saw the raw agony in my face, but he never looked my way. The only times he bothered to acknowledge me at all were the few times he let me drink at the water bowl. When it became too painful to move my head, he gripped my chin, pulling my head up and dribbling the water into my mouth.

“I’m going to die!” I mumbled hoarsely as the dirty water dribbled down my chin. “Why bother with the water?” Agony rippled through me at the effort. Death would be a welcome path at this juncture—anything but the torment of this...nightmare. I couldn’t feel anything but pain, and my clothes were full of my own filth. Death would be a relief.

He held my chin up so he could look me in the eyes. The prick probably wanted to see the living daylights drain from me. Another perverted kick for him. Close up, his eyes were unnerving, cold and dark, just like his fucking soul.

“You aren’t going to die. That would be too easy.” He turned as if to move away, then hesitated and turned back. “Why did you come here?”

This again.“Fuck you!” I spat at him, though missed by a wide margin, thanks to my neck being weaker than a newborn giraffe’s.

“It seems to me that you like the pain. Otherwise, why do you ask for it?”

This time when he turned, he left.

I was asleep or passed out unconscious when he eventually let me down by untethering my wrists and letting me drop to the ground in a heap. I was too sore, too exhausted, and too utterly pissed off to complain.

“Drink this,” he said, holding the bowl of water to my lips. Part of me wanted to throw the bowl right back at him, but he’d broken me. I was too tired and too thirsty to do anything other than bend my head to drink, and even that was an effort of Herculean proportions. I uttered a moan of pain as I supped at the luke-warm water. My wrists had felt like fire after ten minutes of being strung up by them, so I hadn’t noticed how much my neck hurt, and oh, fuck, it did.

He brought me berries again, but I didn’t have the will or the energy to bother to eat them. Instead, I closed my eyes and let myself fall into blissful oblivion away from the pain.

The next morning, my wrists felt, if it was possible, worse than they had the night before. I glanced down and saw that the skin around where the magic had grated against it was now mottled and bruised, with shreds ripped out of it, the blood congealed in a thick black band. A quick look around told me that Asshat was back at work in one of the dreams. I expected that the doors would move at any minute. I also noticed that my hands had been left untied. I was no longer tethered to a tree or anything else.

Why had the fucker done that? Surely the sick fuck wasn’t about to let me go?

And then it became apparent that, no, he wasn’t about to let me go. I stood up, or at least, tried to. My legs wobbled beneath me, unable to hold my weight, and the forest swirled in a kaleidoscope of darkness. I collapsed to the ground, emptying my almost empty stomach of bile to the ground next to me. This was worse than the night I’d gotten pissed at one of David’s work parties and puked in a hydrangea bush. At least I’d had the fun part before the hangover. This wasn’t even a result of drunkenness. If only. I was weak from lack of food, from being strung up, from my body clock being so messed up with lack of light that I didn’t know anymore what day it was or what time of day it was.

Asshat was upon me in seconds. I gave him a cold look as he pulled me up into a sitting position and put a fresh pile of berries on my lap. They were the same as before. Small, dark berries. He watched as I ate them, and I was sure I saw satisfaction in his eyes as he saw the immense pain picking up each one caused me. I knew better than to ask him for help. He was enjoying this way too much to actually help me, so I had to weigh up the pain in my wrists against the pain in my empty belly. Neither was a great option, but not eating would kill me, so I gritted my teeth and ate as many as I could before it got too much. When he saw I couldn’t eat any more, he bound me again to the tree and left to go back to his work. Stringing me up hadn’t been the end of my life as I had predicted, merely an interlude of anguish in his symphony of torture.

And so the days went by and by and by. I lost count of how many.

When he wasn’t in the dreams, he was close by, never leaving my line of sight. He didn’t sleep, rest, eat or drink, or at least he didn’t do any of those things in my waking hours. He just worked none stop like a machine. If I tried to make conversation, he stood up and left or ignored me completely. Not that I cared much. What was the point? My only saving grace was that he hadn’t tried to kill me again, but it was little consolation. At first, I thought I might die of infection in my wounds, but as they cleared up, turning from black and blue to faded brown, I realized his plan was to have me die of boredom. At least in the beginning, when he’d held a knife to my throat, it was exciting. Not the kind of excitement I usually went for, but anything was better than the endless days of solitude and silence.

For my part, I spent the days and nights making a plan. He watched me like a hawk when my arms were unbound, but one of the times he’d taken me to the stream, I’d managed to pull my phone from my pocket and check it while he was distracted. It had still had a bit of battery left. I’d turned it off to conserve its meager charge and slipped it back in my pocket.

It was just a matter of time until I’d slip away from his reach. He couldn’t watch me forever.

My plan was simple. Wait until he was distracted, then run into the forest. It was a weird place with darkness everywhere. There were plenty of hiding places. Once hidden, I was going to try to phone someone. Not Chris. He’d think I was pranking him or be so worried he’d have a spasm. Wonderful as he was, he was not good in a crisis. It only left my sister, who hated me. On reflection, I should probably have gotten myself more friends, but the matter was moot. My sister was the only one who would keep her head and know what to do, just like she always did. Whether she’d believe me or not, that was another matter.

I’d noticed the raven coming with us a couple of times as we made our twice-daily toilet trip. Maybe it wanted to stretch its wings, or maybe it was a pervert too. Who knew. If I managed to do something to the bird, it might keep Freakshow distracted long enough for me to get away.

The days struggled by, each one feeling like an eternity. My body clock was so screwed up from the perpetual nightfall that I couldn’t even hazard a guess at how long I’d been Freakshow’s prisoner, but it had to have been at least a week, probably closer to two. I felt disgusting. My clothes stank, and my hair was clumping up into a birds’ nest. Basic hygiene was not a priority for asshat, although he always looked and smelled good. I didn’t know how he did it. Magic probably. Magic that was not afforded to me. What did he care if I looked like shit and smelled like shit? It wasn’t as though he had to come too close to me. I’d tried washing out the shit and piss from my pants in the stream, but I’d ended up naked from the waist down while they dried. Plus, interesting as the black stream water was, it did little to freshen up shitty pants. The raven kept a doleful watch on me when its master was weaving in and out of the doors. I looked up at it. I wasn’t a bird expert, but it looked sad to me, like it was missing out on adventure. Perhaps it was. The first time I’d come here, it was because I’d bird-napped it. Now it didn’t travel anywhere with Freakshow. It was my guard and my only companion. I had a feeling it resented me for the job it was now required to do.

“Why don’t you come for a walk with us?” I asked it nonchalantly after waiting days for it to come up with the idea itself. As it usually did, it ignored me, but when Freakshow came to untie me, I noticed with some satisfaction that the raven followed, flying above us in the dusky treetops.

No longer did Freakshow pull me along to the stream, but he walked close by, enough to grab me if I attempted to run.

“Nice weather,” I said. It had become a routine. I’d make conversation, he’d grunt, or, like he was doing today, remain silent. Since the day he’d hung me from the tree, I’d kept mostly quiet, but today I needed him to have his guard down. I needed his mind occupied with banality and not focus on whether I would run or not. So I chatted away about the weather. It was always the same. I asked him questions. He never answered. But everything I said was calculated. I knew he wasn’t going to answer me when I asked him things. He never had up to now. Nor did I care about the weather or rather lack of it. I just needed him to think I was comfortable here or at least used to my situation. Not once had he told me why he kept me here, and he’d not been forthcoming as to what he was going to do with me.

We got to the stream, and he rested against a tree trunk. I made a mental note of where the raven came to rest above him on a branch. I did what I had to do then, and after buttoning myself back up, I dipped my hands into the stream. I felt around on the bed of the stream for a suitably sized stone. Then with as much strength as I could muster, I turned and took aim. I already knew throwing it at Freakshow himself was pointless. He was stronger than any human I’d ever met and had armor covering part of him. A stone would just bounce off him, but the raven. The raven was a smaller target but much more likely to fall. The stone flew through the air, arcing between us below the foliage of the trees. As if in slow motion, the raven saw the danger and began to take off, spreading its great black wings out. For a second, I thought the stone was going to miss, but it clipped the raven’s wing, sending it spiraling to the ground. My stomach felt heavy as I watched it fall to the forest floor, landing right next to its master. I’d never hurt an animal before, and I hated what I’d done, but it was my only way to escape. Terror flooded me as I saw the coldness in Freakshow’s eyes at what I’d done to his bird. I didn’t stay around to watch further. Instead, I leapt over the stream and took off into the forest.

Bushes whipped around my face as I raced through the darkness. Only slivers of light peeping through the trees allowed me to see where I was going. Just like the parts of the forest I’d already seen, the darkness was endless. The dark trees faded into black in the distance in every direction. It was like driving on a pitch-black night with only the car’s headlights to show me where to go, revealing one part at a time.

I zigged and zagged my way through the undergrowth, not keeping to a straight line. The farther I got from Freakshow, the better. The hardness of my phone felt securely pressed against me in my pocket, my only comfort in the terrifying forest. Branches whipped out across my face, coming as if from nowhere, stinging me and slowing me down. The only sound I heard was my own ragged breathing and the crunch of dead leaves beneath my feet. Asshat was either much quieter than I at running through forests of crunchy leaves, or I’d lost him. I stopped to catch my breath and really listen. Complete silence made the forest even eerier. Living in Vancouver had accustomed me to noise all day and night. Living in a city meant that silence was not something I was used to. Not like this. Despite the trees all around me, the darkness and lack of sound had me feeling like I might lift off into space at any moment and spend my days floating, untethered to anything.

Pulling my phone out from my pocket, I turned it on. Only one bar remained

Nothing came through. No signal, just the glow from the smiling photo of David and me. I’d forgotten to change my background.

“Damnit!” I hissed, holding the phone higher to try to get a signal to no avail. Closing my eyes, I fell back against a tree trunk and looked at the picture. It had been taken during happier times. Way before Sophie had entered the picture. Fuck, I’d even call Sophie if it meant she could get me out of this hell hole. Turning to the tree, I grabbed a branch and hauled myself up to give myself a higher platform from which to get a signal. With each branch I stepped up on, the fruitlessness of the endeavor became more apparent, and the higher I went, the more hopelessness seeped in. Up in the canopy of the trees, I’d never felt more alone as the signal bar showed nothing, and the battery life bar got increasingly lower, almost as if it was connected to my mood. In any normal forest, I’d have been able to use my height in the tree as a vantage point, but in the endless darkness, all I could see were more trees, more branches, more leaves that were black enough to appear dead, but surprisingly weren’t. I shook the phone, applying the age-old tactic of shaking to get a better signal. It didn’t work. In fact, all it accomplished was a loud crack in the branch beneath me. I grabbed out for a branch above, anything to get purchase, before the phone fell out of my hand, tumbling twenty feet to the ground, with me following very quickly behind it.

Thanks to all the branches I hit on the way down, my arms and legs hurt like hell, but it slowed my fall, meaning that I didn’t die when I hit the ground. The leaves cushioned my fall, winding me but not sending me unconscious. I sucked in a breath as pain wracked my body, making me wonder how I’d managed to simultaneously land on every single part of my body because literally everywhere hurt.

“Are you alright? I saw you fall.”

I was momentarily taken out of my own pain by the strange being in front of me. She was like nothing I’d ever seen before in my life. She was tall and slim, with skin a tone of which I didn’t think possible. Like a blackboard that someone had covered in white chalk and then unsuccessfully attempted to rub off. A pale matte grey, I supposed I’d call it. She had bright violet eyes, long lilac hair that hung over her shoulder in a braided ponytail with two pointed ears peeking through. There was no way she was human, and yet, I sensed no danger from her. There was only worry in those mesmerizing eyes of hers, giving me the sense that she wasn’t about to eat me or strangle me like Freakshow had. A raven flew above her head, this one different from Asshole’s raven. This one had a hint of green and pink coloring coating the black of its feathers.

“I think so,” I finally said when my brain finally kicked into gear, and I realized she’d asked me a question. “I don’t think anything is broken, at least.”

She held out a slender hand to me. It was thinner than any adult human hand, with long elongated fingers that tapered to shaped black nails. “Aethelu, and this is Tourmaline or Tour for short. she’s my companion.” She pointed to her bird. I let her help me into a standing position, and it was only when I was upright that I finally realized how tall she was. Just like Freakshow, she was exceptionally tall. Maybe six feet four or five. She wore a long, deep purple dress that brought out the color in her eyes—the only color I’d seen around here since I’d come apart from the red door. It made a refreshing change. She was undeniably beautiful. Strangely so. Otherworldly, which I supposed she was, but stunning nonetheless.

I felt like a dump truck next to her. She recoiled a little and wrinkled her nose as I stood up. Not really a surprise as my current aroma du jour was eau de shit. It didn’t stop the look of worry in her eyes. In fact, it only increased it. I was like a stinky puppy that someone had thrown out of a car to her.

“I don’t know you,” she said, her voice almost as strange and beautiful as she was. Melodic and light but with strength to it. There was an undercurrent to it, a duality as though she wasn’t the only one speaking.

“I’m not from around here,” I replied, feeling foolish and gross next to her perfection. It was obvious I wasn’t from around here. I wasn’t some kind of gorgeous, giant weirdo for a start.

She laughed. “I can see that, but...” she cocked her head to the side. “You look strange to me.”

I raised my eyebrows. She was some kind of tall freaky grey angel, and she was telling me I looked strange?

“I’m from the world...you know...the world. Earth. Canada. Err.” I was mumbling, such was the strangeness of the situation and the awe in which I regarded her. I needed to pull myself together.

The confused expression remained on her face. “I’m sorry. I don’t know of this Worldearthcanada place. Is it part of the Dream Court or Nightmare Court? I thought I knew all the places but...” a look of horror appeared on her face. “You’re not from the Court of the Dark? Your hair...”

I shook my head, wondering if I’d banged my head more than I thought when I tumbled down from the trees. “I’m from the...er...human court.”

Shock painted her face, taking over from the horror she’d just shown. In the tree behind her, Tour squawked and ruffled its feathers.

“You’re human?” Her demeanor changed instantly. Her mouth became taut, and her pupils widened. “You aren’t supposed to be here. Humans aren’t allowed in the Night Realm. How did you get in?”

I opened my mouth to tell her the whole sordid story when something occurred to me. “If you’ve never met a human before, how come you are speaking English. Rather convenient, don’t you think?”

It was a trick. It had to be. Freakshow had done this. He’d seen and heard humans through the billions of dreams he’d seen. His speaking English wasn’t entirely strange, but to someone who had never set foot in the human world, how would they be able to speak any language in it? Especially the one I happened to speak.

“I’m not speaking English. I’ve never heard of that dialect. Everyone in the Realm of Night is a...polyglot.”

“A polywhat?”

She cast her eyes to the side and held a finger to her lips. “A multilingual. A speaker of many languages.”

Uh-huh. “Ok, I understand that, but how can you speak a language you’ve never heard of, let alone learned?”

Her face loosened up a little. “I don’t need to learn a language. I hear your words. I don’t understand them, but then they change into words I can understand in my mind. When I speak, the same thing happens, but the other way around. I think polyglot isn’t the exact translation for what I am, but I don’t know of a literal word for it in your language. You hear the translated words, so to you, it sounds like I am speaking English. Were you to speak Ravenish or Elvish, those languages are what you’d hear me speak. For example, I can speak to Tour here and understand when she speaks back to me.”

Tour let out a caw in response. It didn’t sound like it meant anything, but what did I know?

It sounded plausible. Or at least it sounded as plausible as anything else in this fucked up place. It explained the duality of her voice. I’d heard her real voice with the translation over the top. At least I wasn’t going completely batshit insane.

“I think this talk of language is not really the most important thing here. The most important thing is getting you back home. This place is not for humans.” She darted her eyes to the side as though just being in my presence would cause danger to her. Perhaps it would. Freakshow had almost murdered me about fifteen times in the last couple of weeks. Maybe one day he’d just do it. I couldn’t imagine he’d thank this woman for helping me.

“Thank you. I’m lost,” I blurted out, thankful for her help. She was the first kind face I’d seen since stepping into this hell hole.

“I’ll say,” she said, a wry smile on her face as we both started the long walk back toward the red door. “You still haven’t told me how you came to be here. I can’t help you unless you tell me how you got in. The last human that managed it didn’t...er.”

“Survive?” I vaguely remembered Asshole mentioning something about killing someone.

“Yeah. This really isn’t a place for humans. I wouldn’t want you to get eaten.”

“Eaten?” What now? “By what?”

She carried on her long strides through the forest with me practically running to keep up with her. “There are many creatures that roam this forest. Most will kill you as soon as look at you. You’ve done well to survive at all, especially with you being so...forgive me...fragrant.”

She must have seen a sickly look on my face because she took my hand and continued. “Don’t worry. You will come to no harm with me by your side, but pray tell me where we are going? I cannot help you return to the human realm if I don’t know where it is.”

“It’s through a red door. This way, I think.”

I carried on walking but was yanked back by her hand holding mine. She’d stopped suddenly.

“A red door? The King brought you here?”

King?

“No. Some fucked up weirdo with a... a crown.”

She eyed me with both amusement and trepidation. “That would be the Dream King, Dream. ”

Dream? That was his name? Freakshow suited him better, but I wasn’t about to quibble. “He didn’t exactly bring me here. Well, maybe. I followed him the first time, but then the second time, he pulled me through with him.”

Her hand shot up to her mouth in surprise. “Oh, my. Why would he do that? What did you do?”

“Nothing,” I said, shrugging my shoulders. “I might have kidnapped his bird.”

Her eyes widened as she took in my reply. “You really are in the shit, girl, aren’t you?”

She didn’t seem the type to say words like ‘shit.’ She looked far too elegant for such words, but she wasn’t wrong. Maybe there wasn’t a literal translation for the word she wanted to use. A word that was more elegant.

“Not if you help me get home.”

She shook her head, her hand at her heart. “Do you know who Dream is? I mean, really know?”

I shrugged. “I know he’s an asshole with a grudge who thinks it’s fun to tie up women.”

She blinked then looked about her as if looking to see if anyone was overhearing me. She lowered her voice so that I had to lean in to hear her. “Asshole he may be, but don’t let him hear you calling him that.”

I snorted. “I’ve called him worse to his face, and I can’t see that I’d stop now. He is an asshole.”

She brought her hand up to her forehead as though I was giving her a migraine. I probably was.

“I’ll hand it to you. You are lucky to be alive. I’ve known the king for a long time. I wouldn’t say we are friends. He’s the king of these parts, and I’m not even a noble, but he knows me. I can’t take you to the red door. It is not my place. I can only take you to the king and plead your case with him.”

The familiar sensation of dread descended on me. “I can’t go back to him. He’s the reason I’m out here in the woods. I’m running away from him. He’s kept me tied to a tree for ages. I’ve not changed my clothes for weeks.”

For some unfathomable reason, she didn’t seem in the remotest bit surprised at this tidbit of news. I guess my stink gave me away.

“He hung me from a tree for days,” I added, holding out my wrists where the thin bands of bruising were still visible.

Her brow furrowed. “I can see by your expression that you are telling me the truth, but it doesn’t sound like him. He doesn’t like...people. He really doesn’t like humans. I cannot see any reason why he would keep you. He is not the type to play games.”

Right. No one said any of this was a game.“Yeah, well, you said you don’t know him that well. Maybe he’s exactly like that.”

“Maybe.” she didn’t sound convinced. “Maybe he has good reason, although I can’t think of one. The whole thing is very strange.”

No shit!“He’s a stark raving lunatic. I don’t think he needs any other reason than that. That’s why I need you to help me get away.” I pleaded with her. When I’d first gotten here, I’d been scared of him, but now that I knew what he was capable of, my fear had turned to something much deeper. I didn’t fear him killing me. For some reason, I didn’t think he would, despite all his promises to, but causing me pain came easily to him. He got a kick out of it, and I knew that there was a lot more where that had come from.

She gulped then pulled herself up tall. “That may be, but he’ll find you no matter what I do. If he knows I’m with you and then let you go... ”

“You’re going to force me to go back with you?” I asked incredulously. What was it with people around here? Was there seriously so little in the way of entertainment that kidnap was the only option?

She gave me a wry smile. “I’m not going to force you to do anything, but if you run away through these woods alone, you won’t last the day. Going back to the king is your only option if you want to survive. I’ll leave it up to you if you want me to come with you. I wouldn’t want leaving you out here alone on my conscience, but I’m not your captor. The choice is yours.”

Fucking great.Either I get eaten by some monster in the woods or go back to the monster I knew was waiting for me at the doors. Maybe this woman was right when she said that she could talk sense into him. Maybe he’d let me go if she was the one to ask.

She looked badass enough to whip out some really cool weapon from the backpack she wore and help me in a daring escape, but I guessed it wasn’t to be. If I was going to escape, I was going to have to do it alone. It was then that I realized I’d left my phone behind. My one connection to the real world was under a tree somewhere in a pile of fucking leaves.