Dreamer's Throne

“Me and my big mouth,” Maximus groaned, his head resting on the table and his thick hair hiding the embarrassment painted on his cheeks.

“You are lucky that the boss is so kind,” Leff said, his voice cold. “Most bosses would have cut your tongue out for something like that.”

“Oh, he still might,” Kinsley replied with a grin. “Those quiet ones are the ones you really have to watch out for. Just like Asher here. Get on his bad side and you better watch your back.”

“Stop scaring him,” Estel said, giving Kinsley an annoyed look. “Boss Garrett seems like a perfect gentleman.”

The new awakened members of the Klein Family were sitting around the table in the great room, unaware of the figure that stood near them, listening to their every word. Garrett, who had entered the dream as soon as he had been able, could move freely through the inn thanks to the beautiful flowers that covered almost every surface, and had no trouble observing what was happening in the real world. He could see the slightly anxious looks that the four awakened dreamers were giving each other, and knew that it wouldn’t be long until they made their excuses and slipped away to enter Dreamer’s Rest.

Tonight, however, Garrett had other plans. After spending four experience points to plant dream seeds in the four newest awakened, Garrett turned toward the door to the inn and resolutely walked outside, making sure to activate Dreamer’s Cloak. As the dream wrapped around him, erasing his presence, Garrett entered the fog and concentrated, looking for the glimmering stars in his consciousness that represented Thomas Howler and the members of his gang.

When he found them, he saw that there were two bright stars nearby, accompanied by a dozen faint glimmers that had a faint red tinge to them, which he recognized as Viper, Pax, and the flower ghouls that accompanied them. Taking a deep breath, Garrett began making his way through the dark, foggy streets, heading northwest into territory that had not yet been explored. Most of the streets around the inn had been cleared by the team of awakened dreamers, and Garrett soon came upon the first set of flowers that had been planted the night before.

Spending a moment to examine them carefully, he soon passed by them and headed into the thickening fog. It was quiet in the dream, every sound muffled by the fog that wrapped around him, and it was only when he got within a few feet of an object that it would suddenly appear, looming out of the fog as if it had just been created. When he was still a lighting stage awakener, Garrett had found the fog hard to traverse, as passing through it required a large portion of his energy, but now that he had grown to the shaper level, he found it much easier, and even though he walked a dozen blocks, he had hardly used up any of his mental energy.

Still, he could feel the faint tug on his mind as the fog was thinned wherever he moved and for a moment he wondered if he would have been better off having the dreamer team clear the way for him first. The further from Dreamer’s Rest he went, the more carefully he proceeded, his memory rife with pictures of the chosen nightmares he had once encountered. About to enter a small alleyway, he felt a faint ripple in the fog ahead and quickly retreated, flattening against the side of a nearby building. He could feel the hard bricks on his back as he scanned the mouth of the alleyway, looking for whatever it was that had triggered his senses.

A faint outline, blurry at first, but getting sharper as it floated closer, revealed a seeking wraith that drifted from the mouth of the alley, its large eye casting back and forth as if it were a dog sniffing out Garrett’s scent. Though none of his powers directly related to combat, Garrett still had his mental energy, and he wasn’t too worried about tangling with lesser nightmares, but two things kept him hiding. The first was the memory of his last encounter with a seeking wraith and the crimson eyes that had sprouted all over his body. He had survived that encounter, though barely, thanks to the Dreamer’s Throne, but it still gave him the shivers just thinking about it.

The last thing he needed was to get infected by another dream seed from the Crimson Eye of Salmaroth, though, it was likely that because Garrett had stolen the ability, he didn’t have to worry about it anymore. Still, if the seeking wraith was able to pass his location along to the Great Ruler, Garrett would be getting a visit from every nightmare under the Crimson Eye’s control, which included that terrifying chosen he had seen outside Carraway’s office. The second thing that kept him hidden was the faint glimmer of a thread that floated across the entrance to the alleyway.

Not noticing the thread, the seeking wraith pushed forward until it suddenly froze, its crimson eye filling with panic. By that time, however, it was too late. The thread it had touched multiplied, wrapping it up as a hissing spider dropped from where it had been lurking above the alley. Thrashing violently, the seeking wraith tried to escape, but a screech tore the air as the baby faced spider pounced, sinking its mandibles into the trapped nightmare. With tearing bites, it devoured the wraith as Garrett watched, his breath caught in his throat. If he had not seen the faint glimmer of the thread moving in the fog he could have been that unfortunate nightmare, doomed to be eaten alive.

With distressing frequency, Garrett had been realizing just how helpless he was without his flowers, and once again, that point was driven home as he watched the nightmare spider eat its prey. The Path of the Watcher had been advertised as a path with high growth potential, but Garrett wasn’t sure what that actually meant. If he had not stumbled into the Dream Seed ability, he was positive that he wouldn’t have survived until this point, and as of yet, the Path of the Watcher had yet to reveal any really strong abilities.

In the entrance to the alleyway the baby faced spider had finished its meal and was starting to repair its damaged web, so Garrett slowly backed off, finding another path toward the Howler gang. It was slow going and whenever he saw a nightmare, he would either hide in place until it passed by or take a detour to avoid it. Eventually he found himself outside a grim looking building where the Howlers had set up their base. The sign on the door proclaimed it a loan office, though Garrett was positive that anyone who got a loan from Thomas Howler would find themselves sucked dry of everything of value they possessed.

Taking a moment to center himself, Garrett reached out and touched the door of the building, causing it to swing open. Directly inside the doorway was a large room with a couple ragged looking couches and a desk. There were stairs along the side of the room, and Garrett walked up them, finding himself in a long hallway. At the end of the hall was a single door, and beyond it he could feel Thomas Howler. Pausing for a moment, Garrett reviewed his plan in his head and then adjusted his mask before slipping into the room.

The leader of the Howlers was laying on his bed, bottles of wine scattered around him and his arm draped over a sleeping woman. The gang leader was in a deep, drunken sleep, which suited Garrett just fine, so he immediately got to work. This was the first time that Garrett was attempting to use his powers offensively, and he wasn’t sure how it was going to go, but he forged ahead, reaching out to touch Thomas on the arm, connecting with the sleeping man’s dream. With a shimmer, the room around him changed, the simple decorations transforming into gilded versions of themselves.

Ornate wallpaper rippled across the walls as expensive looking paintings popped into existence. Marble statues rose from the floor with a rumble and the rough wood gave way to a plush carpet of purple wool. Even the bed changed, growing larger as four carved wooden posts rose from the corners and a gauzy fabric drifted in between them. Amused, Garrett stepped back from the bed, double checking that there were no nightmares nearby before he sent a stream of energy toward the dream seed resting in Thomas’ mind.

Slowly, his energy seeped into the seed, nourishing it until a slight crack appeared and a stem poked out. Little by little it grew, forming a bud, and then another. Each one began to bloom, and soon, there were two brilliant flowers dancing above Thomas’ head. Yet, even as they opened, the gang leader let out a fierce yell and bound up from the bed, a hooked knife appearing in his hand as he looked around with bloodshot eyes. He could clearly feel the dream flowers, and he started to turn toward them, his energy surging as he prepared to attack. Garrett was still hidden with Dreamer’s Cloak, but he recognized that something was wrong as soon as Thomas started to move and quickly stepped out into the open, drawing the dreaming man’s attention.

Standing there in his suit and white mask, Garrett could only imagine that he looked like some sort of alien to the wide-eyed gang leader, but clearly Thomas wasn’t in the mood to speak because he lunged forward, his hooked blade slashing down at Garrett’s head. At the same time, Thomas’ soul spark was flaring, sending off waves of energy as it tried to fight off the roots of the dream seed that were creeping toward it. With a frown, Garrett lifted his hand and pushed slightly, forcing the dream to accept his power and bending it to his will. A wave of force slammed into Thomas, throwing the man back onto the bed, but just as Garrett was about to attack again, he felt the dream shudder, as if it were about to collapse.

It can’t bear my strength, and too big a shock will snap Thomas out of the dream, waking him up. I’ll need to change tactics.

Realizing that he couldn’t engage in a direct confrontation, Garrett concentrated and his figure started to stretch and distort as Thomas struggled to get up to his knees. Staring across the room, he saw Garrett’s body beginning to drip away, merging with the shadows as the curtains around his bed billowed. Slowly, Garrett stretched out his arms, his gloved hands opening to reveal two mouths that spoke in a low, incomprehensible buzz. The bizarre sight caused Thomas’ breath to catch in his throat, especially when he saw that parts of Garrett’s body were dripping away and beginning to expand, stretching like fingers across the room toward the bed.

Letting out a yell, Thomas tried to back up, but as he put his hand down on the bed, the sheets started to squirm, turning around his wrist like a rope. Tearing his hand free, he tried to jump from the bed but the billowing curtains shot toward him, trying to drag him back. At the same time, across the room, Garrett saw Thomas struggling to get off the bed and an idea sprang into his head. Releasing his control of the sheets and curtain, he formed a door in the wall and smiled grimly as Thomas tore it open to run right through. Bursting from the long dark hallway, Thomas found himself standing in an empty room, with nothing but a smooth floor and walls. There was a single, faint light set in the ceiling that cast a circle on the ground, but nothing else, and as he turned around, he realized that the door was gone.

Instead, he found himself staring at that same masked figure he had seen when he jumped out of bed. Gathering what was left of his courage, he threw himself at Garret, who pressed his hand forward once more, throwing Thomas back into the wall where he found himself pinned. Like a creeping sludge, the wall softened and sucked him in, holding him in a tight grasp. Stepping into the circle of light, Garrett observed Thomas in silence for a moment. He could see the fear building in the trapped man until it spilled out in a yell.

“Who are you!?”

“You may call me the Dreamer,” Garrett said, lifting his hand and bowing slightly.

Behind him, out of the darkness at the edge of the room, faint outlines of five petaled flowers began to emerge. There were two of them, bobbing like fireflies in the darkness, and as they moved into the circle of light, Thomas’ next question was stifled in his throat. The flowers were beautiful, unbelievably so, but the sinewy bodies that looked like they were made from roots and the long sharp claws that clacked against the hard floor were the stuff of nightmares, causing Thomas’ soul spark to fluctuate wildly as he fought against Garrett’s binding.

“That may have worked if you were still in your own dream,” Garrett said quietly, as if he had no idea that two monsters were creeping toward him. “But my dream is much harder to resist.”

“What… what do you want?! Do you want gold? Women? I’m rich, I can give you anything you want!”

Garrett did not answer, but his mind was whirling. He had been doing his research on Thomas Howler, and if even a sliver of the things he discovered were true, the man was an abomination. Forced prostitution, drugs, blackmail, and every other vice that a human could engage in were the Howler gang’s bread and butter, and all of it dripped from Thomas Howler’s twisted mind. Garrett knew that he wasn’t going to let the man off, but the more he learned, the stronger was his desire to just kill him. Originally, he had wanted to coerce the gang leader into joining him, but he was starting to second guess himself and wondered if it would just be easier to end the man’s life.

As the silence stretched on, Thomas began to grow desperate, and a ragged scream burst from his lips as he tore one of his arms free from the grasp of the wall, not caring that it caused his skin to rip to shreds. Garrett could feel the man’s mind shaking and knew that the moment had come. He had to make a decision or risk losing Thomas as the gang leader forced himself awake. Taking a breath, he hardened his heart and pointed with his finger, causing the two flower ghouls to leap forward, their petals shifting to reveal sharp teeth that stabbed into Thomas even as the dream flower began to glow with a bright light.