Redemption Read Free

“So you don’t scare me.”
    The man beneath
the hood was quiet for a moment, and she had the distinct impression that he
was smiling, laughing at her show of bravado.  “You’re half right, though I
could argue with you about the fear,” he rasped out with what sounded like
amusement.  “If this is only a dresm, why is it that you can’t just wake up and
escape…take yourself home to your nice, safe little life?”
    She gritted her
teeth.  “I don’t know.  But I suppose since my mind conjured you up, you’re
going to tell me.”
    The hooded thing
made a horrible wheezing sound that she could only hope was laughter.  “Again,
you’re half right.”  It tucked it’s long, skeletal fingers into the sleeves of
its baggy sweatshirt, which was all the time looking less like a shirt and more
like a robe. 
    “You and I are
going to play.”  She didn’t like that.  She couldn’t imagine what this creature
would call fun.  “In order to free yourself from this… dream … of yours,
you need to find the key.” 
    She snorted, and
the creature paused.  Rebecca waved him on, suppressing a grin.  “Oh, of
course.  The mystical quest.”
    “You have…”  It
turned its head this way and that, as if listening to something she couldn’t
hear, “five days to find this key.  At the end of that time,” and this time she knew it was grinning, “death will visit your waking life.”
    Rebecca tried to
brush this off, to laugh of the absurdity of her situation, but she couldn’t. 
Icicles formed in her chest as she recalled, quite vividly, the little bottle
of pills that sat on her nightstand.
    The hooded
figure stood, and his sweatshirt was longer, hanging down to his knees,
unfurling as he moved.  By the time he reached the door, the shirt had become a
robe.  The black-clad figure turned it’s empty, faceless hood toward her and
fear skittered down her spine as she remembered his words- that death would
visit her.  It seemed that death was already here.  It paused, with its
skeletal white hand on the doorknob.
    “I’ll give you
some advice,” said the deep, raspy voice.  “You aren’t the only one who shares
this dream.  Very close- in this warehouse at this very moment- you might find
an…ally?”
    The figure
ghosted out the door, his unseen feet barely making a whisper of sound on the
polished floor.  Rebecca stood, her hands fisted at her side as urgency rose up
in her despite her desire to believe that it was all a dream.  A key?  There
was something she had to find.  But where?  How the heck would she know where
to look? 
    She recalled the
piercing blue eyes of the man she had met on the street.  Are you real?  He’d
asked her.  And he’d headed here, toward this warehouse. 
    She pushed
herself into motion, hurried to the door and rushed out into the hallway.  When
she crossed the threshold, her heart gave a lurch and she windmilled her arms
to keep her balance.  The hallway was there, and the dark-haired man from the
street was standing just a few feet from where she had emerged.  But there was
a look of shock on his white face.  His wide blue eyes found hers in silent
terror. 
    The floor was
there, but beyond them- where the other side of the hallway should be- was a
vast pair of wooden doors suspended in thin air.  They were the same robin’s
egg blue as the sky beyond, with curls of white scrollwork reminiscent of the
clouds.  In any other situation, Rebecca would have taken time to admire the
beauty of the portal.  As it was, she wasn’t given the chance.  She opened her
mouth to speak, to ask what the hell was going on here, but an icy hand pushed
her forward, and a raspy voice spoke in her ear. 
    “Go on then. 
You only have five days.  Tick-tock!” 
    Then she was
falling through the door.

Chapter 2
A Many-Headed Beast
    R ebecca hit the
ground with a thump and the world slowly righted itself.  She was sprawled in
the sand.  She heard a muffled