The Demon Dealings

There was a scar on my palm. I had over looked it for the longest time but something told me to look. Something told me that there was a connection to my dreams and reality. The scar on my palm lay in the exact place that I had been stabbed the night before in my dream.

I was confused. Surely this was a coincidence. I had seen it before at some point and had given no thought to it. It was insignificant in reality but significant in my dream.

There were a number of explanations for the mark, the scar. All of which I was willing to except over the idea that this was more than just mere coincidence.

I dropped my hand down to my side. There was no use dwelling on something I did not know the answer to. I knew that I would have to let it go for a while. There were some mysteries that I couldn’t solve, some mysteries I shouldn’t solve.

So I sat there in bed contemplating it for a while but decided I should just go down stairs for breakfast. I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do. I couldn’t just look it up on the internet. There were too many possibilities. I would never get a straight answer. So I shrugged it off as best I could.

As I moved to get out of bed my phone started ringing.

“Hello?” I asked without checking the ID.

“Hey Nash, I’m calling to check up on you. Last night was pretty intense.” Cara said.

“Yeah, I could have slept better but I don’t think there is any lasting damage.” I told her. “How are you?”

“A little shaken up. All of this is just so new to me but I think I will get use to it… Hopefully I won’t get used to exorcising demons but I could get used to knowing there are good people out there like you and Spiros.”

“That’s great.” I mumbled. “I have a question for you…”

“Ok…?” She asked rather hesitantly.

“What do you know about dreams?” I asked her.

“I don’t know, I guess people say that dreams have meaning. You know if you’re falling you’re afraid of something. Water has a symbolic nature and reoccurring dreams usually mean something as well. A lot of people think that it’s your mind or body’s way of trying to tell you something.”

“How am I supposed to read the signs? It’s not like I am drowning or anything…” I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. I wasn’t sure why I was asking Cara about it.

“I don’t know. If I knew what the dream was about maybe I could help you?” She offered.

“Its not just one dream… Just forget I mentioned it. They probably don’t mean anything anyways.”

“Ok.” She replied slowly, “If you ever want to talk about it you know how to get a hold of me.” She informed me.

“Yeah, I’ll make sure you’re the first one I call… Anyways, I have to go.” I didn’t give her a chance to reply before hanging up. I felt horrible for lying to her but it wasn’t a big deal. It couldn’t be.

So instead of dwelling on it any further I went downstairs and had breakfast like I would any other day. It was at the table that I realized that I could get some answers. That I had the resources in front of me all along. I quickly finished off my cereal and ran to my room. After changing I barged out the door on my way to get some answers.

“What do you know about dreams... I mean like lucid dreams?” I asked Cade as soon as he answered his door.

“Uh.. come in?” he laughed and opened the door for me.

“Yeah…” I headed inside without hesitation.

“My room is that way.” He gestured to the stairs and paused a moment, wondering why I was there but lead me up the stairs anyways.

When we got into his room I didn’t take very much notice to anything. I didn’t really care. I simply sat down on his desk chair and stared at him for a moment.

“So… Nash, what brings you to my neck of the woods?” He asked me awkwardly but I ignored it.

“Dreams. Lucid dreams. What do you know about them?” I got straight to the point.

“Are you having them?” Cade raised an eyebrow at me curiously.

“Yeah.” I sighed, “If it wasn’t for my ability and these dreams I’ve been having…”

“You do know that you can communicate through your dreams, right?” He paused “Metahumans sometimes communicate this way to prevent others from finding out their intensions.”

“I wasn’t aware.” I was confused. “but I’m pretty sure it has nothing to do with communication.”

He sighed. “Alright, then tell me about them, your dreams.”

“They’re always in the same place. But I don’t know where I am… I mean I know in the dream where I am. But I it’s not here. It’s not even on Earth. Its somewhere else and I’m always fighting. I am trying to get rid of a woman who is destroying this place. I don’t know who she is but I know that every time I wake up I know that there is something to this dream but there can’t be, right? Its just a dream. I just thought because you’re a dream demon you might know what it means.” I stopped, “I don’t know. Maybe someone is trying to communicate with me.”

“I guess I do know more about dreams than your average person.” He smiled at me trying to lighten the mood.

“Maybe its nothing. Maybe I’m freaking out over nothing but this morning I found this.” I showed him the scar on my palm, “I had a dream I got stabbed in this exact spot. I tried to brush it off. Obviously that didn’t work.”

Cade traced a finger over it gently, “Ok, tell me more about your dreams.”

“They’re always about a war. A war fought against this woman. She’s made a deal with a demon that has made her pretty powerful but because the demon has recently turned light walker he decided to help us. But despite his help I know I am the only one with ability to stop her…” I paused, “It all just seemed to real. And when I wake up I can still feel the emotions I was feeling in the dream.”

“Well, I can tell you one thing for certain. It isn’t a dream. It’s a memory.” He deadpanned.

“What? I don’t understand how that can be. I was in a different world.” I emphasized.

“Sometimes we can be taken from one place to another. When we’re moved usually we’re made to forget, make it all seem like a dream. You better than anyone else should know how easy it is to make someone believe that a dream is a memory or… a memory is a dream.”

“It still doesn’t make sense to me. How do I get from one place to the next?”

“You know about Narania, right?” He asked.

I laughed humorlessly, “I know about Narnia?! This isn’t some children’s story.”

“The concept is the same. How they go from here to Narnia was not the problem so much as the why. You have the answer right in front of you.”

“And somehow I managed to lose all this time? If I remember correctly they didn’t come back from Narnia remembering it as a dream, at least not for years to come.”

He laughed for a moment, “Sure you didn’t lose any time, you didn’t grow older or disappear here but the magic is different so you remember it differently.” He explained.

“This is… wow…” I froze. A thought occurred to me. “I guess all I have to do is figure out how all of this connects. It has to connect somehow.”

I stood up, ready to leave, to take care of this thing once and for all but Cade stopped me, “Wait. Where are you going?”

“I’m going to figure this shit out.”

“You’re going to need some help.” He suggested.

“This is something I should do on my own.” I took in a deep breath and held it.

***

I found myself hiding in a tree hoping that no one would look up and catch a glimpse of me. The park was dark and quiet with little to no civilians milling around. True to his word Cade had given me a location. There was a big meeting going on that he only knew about because someone had revealed it in a dream that he was feeding on.

It always seemed to be that way. Dark and completely suspicious but no one ever seemed to take notice. Probably because some witch decided to cast a spell so that things would go well for them. That was the thing with supernaturals. They were tricky and knew how and when to hide or cover up their tracks.

The first thing I really noticed about the people that were showing up for this meeting was that they had clicks. The pale ones stayed together, the people I already knew to be witches stayed together and the group that struck me as demons stayed together.

For people working together to take over the world they sure had prejudices against one another.

It didn’t take long for each of their leaders and right hand men to step forward as spokesmen for each of the groups.

“We don’t have much about the girl. Only that she knows more than she should right now. And that was because a slip up and the light walker…” The head honcho for the witches said. She was tall and very skinny. A person that I hadn’t exactly imagined led the witches.

“We have something planned for the light walker.” The demon responded.

“There is a problem. Our informant has gone missing…” The head honcho said confidently.

“We’re aware of the situation.” He looked over the pale man beside him, “This is Dimitri. He is on the council as for the vampires. Dimitri here is in charge of security.”

“As a member of the council I have been tasked to station a member of my family as your security liaison.” Dimitri nodded to his right hand man who moved to stand beside the head honcho witch.

“This is absurd. We want on the council.” The head honcho witch said haughtily.

“What do you have to offer?” One of the demons smirked evilly at her.

“We know there is something you want. Name it and we shall deliver it.” The right hand man stepped forward.

“I think you have something.” He nodded to one of his lackies and the men dragged forward a limp Jane. I tensed immediately.

“Jane? She is our newest recruit.” The head honcho said not quite understanding.

“She was supposed to do something for us and failed.” The demon said vaguely.

“And what is it that you want us to do with her? She has already made a deal. There isn’t much we can do.”

“Kill her.” I almost fell out of the tree at those two words but luckily for me no one noticed.

The head honcho tilted her head curiously, the look on her face said that she was not unwilling to follow orders but wanted to know more.

“She leaked some information and now her demon dealer is back in hell.” Head honcho raised an eye brow.

“But you needed her as an informant.” The right hand man stated.

“Yes well, she has been compromised and now, must be burned.” The demon smirked.

“I think that can be arranged.” Head honcho nodded at her right hand man who disappeared for a moment only to return with something in his hand that I couldn’t quite make out.

Right hand man then took Jane and dragged her into the middle of a dried fountain. Once she was sat down he did the last thing I was expecting. He lit her on fire.

I cried out before I could stop myself. The demons noticed immediately and I knew I had to get out of there. I jumped from the tree and took off running as fast as I could.

The trees of the park blurred around me as tears ran down my face. I ran blindly, not having the slightest notion where I was running to. I just went with my gut. But my gut did not help.

I ran through the street that lead to the park and made it into the city. I ran down an ally only to find that I was trapped by a fence in front of me and who knows what behind me. So I turned to face them.

“You just killed my best friend.” I whispered.

The four men who were chasing me laughed. One stepped forward and grabbed me by the hair but before I could say anything I sent a shockwave through his. He cried out in pain and his buddies looked vaguely confused.

Another one steps forward screaming at me to stop it. As he went to hit me I did the same thing I did to his buddy landing the both of them on the ground.

A sudden burst of pain goes through my own head. Someone had managed to get a blow in while I wasn’t looking and it was all they needed to gain the upper ground.

It happened in slow motion. His fist pulled back to the side of his head and slammed forward into my jaw. My face turned with the impact, spit flew from my mouth and on to the pavement and I soon joined it. He picked me up by the waist showing his superior strength and threw me to the ground. My face smashed into the pavement, breaking my cheek bone, I screamed out only to receive laughter as a response. He kicked me in the ribs twice, before someone managed to pull him off.

“No!” He screamed, “We need to teach this bitch a lesson!” He pulled a switch blade out of his pocket.

It was the last thing anyone who’d just got their ass kicked would want to hear.

I barely felt the blade go in, sliding into my stomach like butter. The pain from my check bone and fractured ribs lessened the pain of the stab wound.

My dark blood mingled with the dirt and rock that littered the pavement in the desolate alley way. My vision was blurring as the tears flowed from my eyes running down my dirty face. The figures of the 4 men who’d beat the shit of out me slowly faded away.

They left me for dead to rot in that alley way until someone who gave a damn scrapped my guts off the ground. Even then I knew that no one would truly care to save me. No one but myself.

I slowly inched forward, holding my hand to my gut taking short breathes. I stopped for a moment, gathering my energy but even then I could feel it fading. Slowly I pushed myself onto an elbow and then to my knees. I stopped for a second regaining my breath. I pushed myself off the ground, stumbling forward as I did so.

I could not see the walls or the blood I was dripping all over the ground, I could not see the dumpster a few feet to my left, all I could see was the ground in front of me.

I stumbled, lurching forward and veered to the right. I cried out in pain, only to hear the sounds of the city as faceless people went about their business.

It felt like hours before I managed to get to the pay phone. I wanted to cry. I didn’t have any change on me. I wanted to slump to the ground in defeat but looked up instead. I sniffled and looked back towards the alley way to find a sleeping hobo.

I quickly made my way to him, looking for anything that he might get change in. A cup sat on his right. I grabbed it and wobbled back to the payphone. I started to dial 9-1-1 but stopped. They would ask questions that I couldn’t answer. So I called the only person I could think of.

I slowly sank to the ground after a brief phone call; darkness inched its way into my vision.