Chapter 2
DREAMS TOO REAL
Summer had once again arrived in the town of Ashford, the streams flowed full, and the vast amounts of crop which filled the fields grew taller than ever before, hiding the small town from the eyes of the outside world. Thankfully it had remained this way for nearly seventeen years now, and brought much needed money into the pockets farmers that worked the fields. It was a happy and peaceful time for most who lived there, but not for all, and for one person in particular, life would never be the same.
A slight cool breeze blew gently through blue skies, caressing the leaves on the tree tops to produce a soft, soothing sound like the ocean tide. Beneath one of these trees in particular lay an odd looking boy of nearly seventeen years of age. His unusual white hair was grown out to reflect his lazy and carefree nature, and his brilliant green eyes stared aimlessly as he daydreamed. Coming to this particular spot had become routine for him, it seemed to be the only place to go for some peace and quiet, and not to mention getting away from the hard work and overwhelming amounts of chores that he was responsible for.
Ian was his name, or at least that’s what he had been called all his life by his foster father, Mr. Creed. Mr. Creed of course had never told Ian the truth about the night he had found him. This was mainly because he still had a difficult time believing it for himself. So, naturally he came up with a believable story and began to tell as if it were fact. As far as Ian knew he was an orphan who had been abandoned by his parents and dropped off at Mr. Creed’s doorstep, and nothing more. The story however just seemed far too simple for William to be thoroughly convinced. He knew that he was different from everyone else, and apparently so did everyone else who out casted him at school. Although he had never really pressed the subject with Mr. Creed, day by day he still couldn’t help but wonder if there was more to the story, or perhaps it was a completely different story altogether.
Ian snapped out of his daydream and looked up to see the suns low position in the sky. Realizing that he should be heading home now, he stood up and let out a gaping yawn as he stretched. He then brushed the dirt off the back of his pants, and made his way along a rough trail that had been cut through the grass by his constant passing. Up and down he went along the rolling hills that made up the areas terrain, and just beyond the next hill was home. The house Ian had grown up in was a small one; it seemed crowded enough with just two people living in it, but the extra room in the house suggested that the house had originally been made to accommodate a whole family, something Ian had never known. He never had any siblings, no brothers or sisters, or even a mother; All he had was Mr. Creed, the man who had taken him in as an infant, and of course his closest and only friend Audrey, whom he had know all his life growing up.
Ian came upon the small country house to which he was headed, its simplicity in shape and size reflected the kind of life that was lived in this quiet town. The house itself was of a very plain style, it looked much like what a child would draw if drawing a house. Yet simple and small as it was, it was still home to Ian, and it fit the simple lifestyle that he chose to live.
Ian walked up the front steps to the cigarette littered deck, a product of one of Mr. Creeds many bad habits. As he turned the knob and opened the door he walked inside to the very dull, yet very familiar interior of his living room. The walls inside the room and throughout the whole house were all covered with the same repetitive wallpaper pattern which could just about drive a man crazy. The next thing to hit him was the familiar smell of Mr. Creeds cooking, which was also annoyingly repetitive since Mr. Creeds menu wasn’t the largest in the world. Despite the fact that he had eaten it almost every night about a million times over, food was food he thought, and he pulled toward the smell to satisfy the bottomless hunger that brewed inside him.
Ian stopped suddenly with a surprise when finally noticing a grey haired man sound asleep with a snore at the other end of the room. The man was Mr. Creed of course, and despite his now aged appearance, he had hadn’t changed the slightest bit over the long years. This is what surprised Ian as he came marching through the room to the kitchen as he always did. Mr. Creed hadn’t really ever missed a beat in his repetitive daily agenda in all the years that Ian could remember, and he just about never slept before dark, being the up and about sort of man he was.
Ian held his breath as he made his way more quietly now to the kitchen, treating each wooden floorboard as if it were a mine in a minefield, and that should he trip one he would receive not a fiery explosion, but a verbal one from Mr. Creeds disturbed awakening. He finally let out his breath in relief as he entered the kitchen and walked over to the stove where a pot of the horrible smelling soup sat. Ian poured himself some and sat down in front of a small round table in the middle of the kitchen. He hadn’t any fear of not knowing if it tasted any good or not due to the numerous times he had eaten it before; and for the record, it wasn’t that good.
After scarfing down second helpings he sluggishly made his way out of the kitchen and toward the stairs, taking the same precautions as before as he quietly passed Mr. Creed who was still sound asleep in his armchair. Up the stairs Ian entered his room, which to his surprise was a lot cleaner than usual. This is strange he thought to himself as he scanned the tidy dust free room, surly Mr. Creed hadn’t done this, it seemed a little out of character for him, and not programmed into his repetitive, robot like schedule. As his eyes scanned the room admiring its cleanliness they immediately locked onto the one thing that seemed out of place, which was a small letter written on a piece of notebook paper on top his desk. Ian picked up the letter and immediately upon recognizing the handwriting, knew all he needed to know even before he read the letter:
Ian,
Cleaned your room while you were gone today, I wandered up there looking for you but couldn’t find you. I saw how messy your room was and just started cleaning uncontrollably, I couldn’t stop myself it was just all so dirty!
P.S. all your cloths are folded so try and keep em that way
Love Audrey
William sighed, “why does she insist on doing things like this” he thought. Although it wasn’t as if he didn’t appreciate it or anything, he was just a little confused as to why she would do these things all the time. And why did she insist on going through his laundry and folding it? That seemed a little much. Still, regardless of whether he thought it was necessary or not, the act of kindness still managed to bring a smile to his face.
Audrey had been Ian’s closest and only friend since as long as he could remember. She had been attending his school every year since grade school, and would drop by his house regularly just to visit. Ian wondered why she would choose to hang around him at times when nobody else would, although when he thought about it Audrey was a bit strange herself, in fact she wasn’t to different from himself, heck she even had eyes as strange as he did, except hers were blue and his were green. It was probably just a weird kids stick together sort of thing he thought. Still, he was really glad to have as good a friend as her, someone he could really relate to, or the only one he could really relate to for that matter. The two of them were different in ways that no one could seem to pick out or understand, and for that they were hated and despised. It was a fear of what couldn’t be explained, and there were many things about Audrey and Ian that couldn’t be explained.
After a quick shower he wasted no time in clambering into bed to fall asleep. For Ian, there was no better thing than his precious sleep, it was the place where he could escape into his dreams without a worry; of course, being awake never seemed to stop him from dreaming, however the teachers at school did. Ian pulled the covers high up to his neck and sort of bunched the ends up around his neck, a childish habit of he that started when he was a young and afraid of being exposed to the dark of the night. When finally everything was perfect, Ian quickly dosed off into a deep sleep.
As he dreamed, flash occurrences of random happenings in his daily life bunched up along with his fantasies and imaginings to make another one of his regular dreams. All of a sudden however these dreams faded away like smoke, and from the smoke emerged an image that he was unfamiliar with, and it was so vivid and clear, that it was almost hard to believe it was a dream at all. He even had a clear focused mind about him, not the aimless unfocused mind of one who would be dreaming. The image was of a cloaked man standing in the middle of what appeared to be a corn field. Behind the man a massive bolt of lightning struck the ground just behind him, and again the lighting struck in the same spot, and then once more in the exact same spot for the third time in a row. Then from the spot the lightning had struck, a massive black vortex appeared seemingly out of nowhere. The vortex, which Ian imagined resembled a black hole then started to suck in everything around it, and suddenly, for a mere split second, pulled back the hood of the cloaked man, revealing his bright glowing eyes which greatly resembled Ian’s, and then pulled the man into the blackness.
Ian awoke suddenly with a jump to find that he was sitting upright in his bed with an arm reaching out toward the mirror on the wall in front of him. He realized that he must have been trying to reach for the man in his dream, but all he saw in front of him was his own reflection, and his bright green eyes staring right back at him from a mirror which had for some strange reason been cracked and nearly shattered.
As he sat there frozen with his hand stretched out in a moment of silence wondering what on earth just happened his silence was broken by the calling of Audrey from downstairs. Ian, looking at the clock suddenly realized that he had slept the entire morning away again, being past twelve already. Quickly he jumped out of bed and threw on some cloths until frozen by the sound of Audrey knocking on his bedroom door.
“Ian, are you awake yet lazy? Can I come in?” said Audrey from behind the door.
“Just a sec!” cried Ian as he quickly threw a bed sheet over the broken mirror. “Ok, you can come in”
As Audrey opened the door light flooded into the room from the hallway window, forcing Ian to squint to allow his eyes time to adjust. Audrey’s bright blue eyes were the most immediately noticeable features about her, and her long black hair seemed to bring out the blue even more so.
“Why am I not surprised, sleeping in past twelve, what a waist of the day.” said Audrey with an eyebrow raised.
“What, and you’ve come here to help me redeem myself, am I right?” said Ian with a sarcastic tone as he continued to rubbing his eyes.
“No, your hopeless I’m afraid.” Said Audrey with a grin “hey, what’s with the mirr-”
“Nothing, lets go” Interrupted Ian as he pushed her out of the room and shut the door behind him.
The two made their way downstairs and out the front door where Mr. Creed was leaning over the opened hood of his truck, tinkering with the engine. As Ian approached Mr. Creed he noticed that he was having a terrible coughing fit, though of course he still insisted on working despite his apparent illness, it wasn’t in him to let a thing like that get in his way. Even though he didn’t express it, this fact about Mr. Creed made Ian worry. Besides, Mr. Creed wouldn’t listen to him about that even if he did express his worry, he would just leave that to Audrey, Mr. Creed seemed to listen to her more than himself, and she seemed to care more about Mr. Creed than Ian did, not that William didn’t care, he was just a bit distant is all.
Mr. Creed turned and took notice of Ian by sticking out his hand to give him a small piece of paper he was holding.“Ian, about time you woke up, I need you to run to town and get me the things on this list” Said Mr. Creed who was still coughing. Ian reached out and took the small piece of paper from Mr. Creeds hand with his eyebrows raised in a worried expression.
“You don’t look so good, why don’t you take the day off and get some rest” said Ian even though he knew what his response would be.
“Ill be fine as soon as you’ve gone to town and gotten me the things on that list” said Mr. Creed in a harsh tone which caused him to continue coughing more violently.
Ian nudged Audrey with his shoulder, motioning her to say something. Audrey quickly jumped to it and stepped up to the truck, shut the hood, and handed Mr. Creed his toolbox which was lying on the ground.
“We’ll go get you what you need Mr. Creed, but please promise that you’ll take some time to rest, for me.” Said Audrey as she ushered him back towards the house
Mr. Creed stood firm for only a moment until breaking under the pressure and giving in to Audrey’s demand. “Fine, fine, just make sure Ian doesn’t slack off, and try and get back before four.”
William rolled his eyes at comment of him slacking off, and suddenly noticed the piece of cloth that Mr. Creed was coughing into, which was red with blood. The shocking sight caused Williams heart to skip a beat, and as he looked at Audrey, by the look on her face he could tell that she had just seen the same thing he had.
As Mr. Creed entered the house and shut the door Ian started walking towards the road to be on his way to town. As Audrey caught up to him she wasted no time in plunging into a worried rant as they walked, about how Mr. Creed worked to hard, and how she thought he should retire or something. Ian didn’t disagree, she was right of course, but he didn’t think that even Audrey could convince him to retire, Mr. Creed would work until he died, and die working. He was sixty years too old in Ian’s opinion, and Audrey’s as well.
After walking for about ten minutes they had finally come to their destination. Town, as they would call it was no more than a few shops lined up along the sides of the street, which employed the non farming population of Ashford. It seemed to be the center of their little world to all the other high school students, Ian didn’t think it was all that great though, he just saw it as a place where he could buy what he needed to buy and be on his way, and not as a place to hang out and get into trouble. Of course, nobody hung out with Ian anyways except for Audrey, so it wasn’t that big of a temptation.
“Ian, do you think we should get Mr. Creed something to help him with his cough?” said Audrey as they passed the drugstore.
“Nah, don’t think so” said Ian “ besides I don’t think we would be able to get him anything there except cough drops, and I don’t think those would do him any good. He didn’t just have a cold Audrey, he was coughing up blood, if you ask me, what he really needs is to see a doctor, and you know how he is about that sot of thing.”
“Yah, your right of course, but we still have to try to get him to see a doctor, even though he probably wont listen.”
Ian doubtfully grunted in response, knowing it would be unlikely.
The two of them went from shop to shop, crossing out the items on the list as they got them. After the last of the list had been checked off, Ian’s stomach had begun to growl with hunger, and after all those errands he imagined that Audrey felt the same.
“Come on, lets get a bite to eat.” Said Ian who’s empty stomach led the way to the sandwich shop across the street.
“You sure that’s a smart idea” said Audrey as she looked up at the darkening sky of cloud above them. “I don’t want to get stranded here if it starts to rain.”
“Don’t worry about it” said Ian who had already crossed the street, his stomach speaking louder than Audrey’s reasoning.
As they sat eating their food Ian remained silent, which Audrey recognized as unusual for him, since he was almost always leading their conversations with his clever sense of humor. His responses to whatever Audrey was saying however, became more and more limited, it felt to him like he was breaking to a halt all of a sudden, the gears in his head ran slower and slower, and he began to feel weaker and weaker for some reason. Only a moment ago he was feeling ecstatic and energized, and now this, it was almost as If he had suddenly fallen ill. Audrey too was beginning to take notice of the raincloud that loomed over Ian’s head. Suddenly Ian pushed away his food as a feeling of sickness swept over him.
“What’s the matter?” asked Audrey who was more confused than worried. “ I told you not to eat so fast, and look what happened when you did.” She added with a slight laugh
William didn’t make any notion of hearing what Audrey was saying, in most cases he would laugh a little in return and tell her to shut up, but not this time. Ian just starred down at his now shaking hands with a nauseated look on his face. Beads of sweat started to form on his forehead, and suddenly he began to flinch as strange images began to flash through his mind, causing his head to ache terribly. He clenched his sweaty palms into fists as the strange images which he could make no sense of continued to appear in his head.
“Ian, are you alright?” said the now greatly worried Audrey who was prepared to get up from her chair to aid him.
Ian still gave no response to Audrey, her words were like echoes in his head as his eyes began to glow, flashing brightly with each strange image that appeared in his mind. Suddenly, as if it were a slide show Ian had come to the final image, and although he couldn’t make any sense of it like the others, he did however recognize it as the mysterious cloaked man from his dreams. As he held on to that final image, trying to make some sense of it his strange fit began to pass, returning him to his normal self. The lost echoes of Audrey’s voice calling out to him were given clarity, as if he had just come out of shell shock.
“Ian, do you hear me? Ian!” repeated Audrey as she shook at Williams clenched fists on the table.”
“Yah, I think so” said Ian with a blink as he snapped out of it. “Just a bad headache, nothing to worry about” he lied.
“Well, in any case lets go home, you don’t look too good, and neither do those clouds” Said Audrey with a look out the window.
“Right, lets go” said Ian as he stood up from his chair and exited the sandwich shop, his mind still clinging to the strange image of the cloaked man, which he still couldn’t seem to make any sense of.
Upon passing by the drugstore again on there way back, Ian noticed a group of older boys at the corner. He recognized them immediately from school, however he did not have any intentions of running up and saying hello. William, as well as Audrey, had always been targets of harassment at school due to the strangeness about them, and these three were among the lead predators of the harassment and bullying. Ian knew how he was supposed to deal with their type, “Just ignore them” is what he had always been told, however Ian often chose the alternative and more violent solution, especially when Audrey became involved.
Ian wasn’t particularly feeling any fight in him at the moment, not after his episode back at the shop. “just pass them by” he thought himself as the sped up his pace, dragging Audrey along with him. As they came to the corner however the shady group didn’t let them off so easy as they stepped directly in their path, forcing their confrontation.
Ian had expected this, their type seemed to thrive on this sort of thing, and since school was out for the summer he imagined that they would take up on any opportunity available to uplift themselves by beating down on others.
“Hey there buddy” said the ring leader of the group, a tall skinny kid, as he stepped in their direct path. “ you got yourself a hot date?” The others in the group just stood by and laughed a bit as they let the tall one do all the harassment.
“No, not really.” Replied Ian carelessly as he attempted to continue by them. The group however didn’t budge, causing Ian to bump into one of them.
Ian refused to back off and remained standing right up next to the one whom he had bumped into. Ian merely stood right up in his face, staring him down with a weary and aggravated expression.
“In a hurry now are we?” said the tall one as he grabbed the bag that Ian was carrying and handed it to his shorter, slightly chubby friend who scattered its contents on the ground.
“Back off” said Ian prior to an annoyed sigh, there was no doubt in his mind of where this was headed now.
“Back off you say?” said the tall one as he reached for Audrey’s bag. Ian positioned himself in front of Audrey and pushed away his hand.
“I said back off damn it!” said Ian again with a more intense tone, his fists now clenched, ready for an inevitable fight.
Finally Ian had given one of them the chance they had been waiting for, and the taller bully landed a punch right in Ian face, sending him to the ground with a bloody nose.
“Well, if it isn’t freak number two, looks like they flock together.” Said the tall boy as he reached for Audrey’s bag. Audrey slapped his hand away. When he reached for her again she slapped him square on the face. The boy didn’t to kindly to this and in response the bully slapped her back right on the face.
This was far too much for Ian to bear; rage filled within him, and suddenly he began to feel strange again, his head began to throb and the sounds around him became deep and distorted, and although unknown to him, his eyes began to blow brightly. Ian disregarded his pain and got up from the ground to push the bully away from Audrey with all his might. As he did this however he found that his simple push had a much greater effect than Ian would have ever imagined, and sent all three of the boys flying through the air and into the brick wall of the drugstore. Ian blinked a few times in disbelief, thinking it must be another one of those vivid dreams he’d been having, however as the adrenaline died down and the pain of his bloody nose kicked in again he knew that wasn’t the case. First he looked at the bullies who were all lying on the ground groaning, and then he looked at his hands as if they were a bomb that was about to go off, and finally he looked up at Audrey who to his surprise didn’t seem as surprised as he was. She just stood there looking at him with a serious look on her face, and not with a look of shock and surprise.
“Come on, we’d better go” said Audrey as she held her hand out to him.
Ian, forgetting about the items scattered about the ground that he had come here for took her hand, got up and followed her out of town where they headed back to Ian house, back the way they came. Ian struggled to keep up with Audrey’s pace as they walked home, she didn’t say a word to Ian the whole way back, she just looked straight ahead and kept on walking forward at a fast pace. “I wonder if she is mad at me” thought Ian as he jotted to keep up with her. He wanted to say something to her to break the silence, anything to break the awful silence, but could think of nothing. What was there for him to say, he was confused and clueless, and still in disbelief at what had happened back at the drugstore.
When they finally reached the path leading to Ian’s house, Ian just stood there staring at her for a moment, and as he opened his mouth to say something, Audrey cut him off.
“Lets just not talk about it for now, ok?”
“Are you not coming back to my place” replied Ian.
“Its been a long day, I’m just going to head home. Ill see you tomorrow, we can talk about all this then.” As they turned and went their separate ways Audrey stopped and turned around to say one last thing to the bloodied and still confused Ian. “just know Ian that there is an explanation for everything that happened today, your not crazy, or at least by my standards your not.” She then tuned and walked off without another word.
At hearing this Ian stood silently for a moment, thoughts raced through his head rapidly. “Was she just saying that in a false re assuring kind of way, or was it an attempt to put my mind at ease” Ian thought. “Or could she know something that I didn’t?” As Ian looked up at the sky and saw the dark rainclouds looming overhead, he decided to worry about it when he got home so he wouldn’t get rained on.
When Ian returned home he quietly opened the front door so he could avoid running into Mr. Creed, who would have all sorts of questions for him, questions that Ian wasn’t sure how to answer. To his relief Mr. Creed was sound asleep in his favorite chair just as he had been yesterday; Ian took advantage of the opportunity and crept past Mr. Creed into the bathroom where he washed the blood off his face in the sink. As he dried his face and looked up at the mirror he could see that even though he got the blood off, there was no hiding the mark on his face from where he had been hit. “I have to come up with some sort of explanation” he thought as he continued to stare into the mirror. “Maybe I could say that the store was closed for remodeling and I tripped and fell on the way home. Ah who am I kidding, he’ll see right through it; I’m a terrible liar.”
Ian put those thoughts away for the time being and headed into the kitchen to grab a bite to eat. After downing various leftovers he decided to go up to his room to contemplate on the days events, as he made his way out of the kitchen however a piece of paper laying on the kitchen counter caught his eye. Ian picked up the paper out of curiosity and unfolded it. The paper seemed to contain medical results of some sort, but of what, Ian was unsure. After skimming through it his eyes finally landed on something which seemingly made the whole world stop spinning. He immediately dropped the letter in shock.
“It couldn’t be” he thought. “Mr. Creed was dying.”
As the hours passed by, Ian spent the day in his room lying on his bed with his eyes fixed on the ceiling. He didn’t really feel sad for some reason, he didn’t know what it was he felt, it was as if all his feelings inside him were a jumbled up mess, lost in all the confusions of the day. It was all too much for him to absorb in one day, and it felt like he was trapped in a strange dream, but he knew better of it. Ian tried to keep his thoughts on what he had read on the medical report, hoping to feel something, anything, but right now the only thing he felt like was a robot. The harder he tried to feel something, the more his mind would drift into a daydream, the calming sound of the rain outside pulled him further and further away from his troubles.
Ian’a eyes remained open and fixed on the blank white ceiling, which acted as a canvas for his dreams, just as the darkness would when you close your eyes. For a while he dreamed about this and that, until the image of him sending those kids from town flying through the air intruded, causing him to snap out of his daydream, and see the white of the ceiling once more. It only took a few moments for his mind to drift again, and the same images of this and that danced around in his head, until once again another unwelcome image intruded, but this time it wasn’t the same image, but of the hooded man from his dream the night before. The cloaked mans glowing eyes seemed to stare straight through him, and his hand reached out to him, to guide him into the blackness of the vortex behind him. Ian suddenly snapped out of his daydream once again, and turned his head to gaze out the window into the pouring rain.
“Why is all this happening to me” said Ian quietly to himself as he stared out into the rainy night.
Ian continued to stare out the window at the pouring rain, his eyes suddenly felt heavy and tired, but he didn’t fall asleep. For some strange reason he felt compelled to stare out into the rainy night, as if he would find an explanation to all his troubles somewhere in the darkness. Suddenly Ian’s eyes landed onto an unfamiliar shape positioned in the front driveway, not to far off from the house. The heaviness in his eyes faded as he strained to make out the strange figure through the darkness and the rain. Suddenly, to Ian’s surprise, a bolt of lighting struck off on the distance, exposing the figure to the light for only a split second. The flash image from the lightning burned itself into Ian’s mind as he witnessed the very cloaked man from his dreams, standing in his driveway. Ian blinked in disbelief, of course, he didn’t know what to believe anymore. Unlike a predictable horror film however the cloaked figure remained standing in the same spot, shrouded in the darkness and the rain, proving to Ian that it wasn’t a dream, not this time.
Ian wasted no time in jumping out of the bed and hurrying down the stairs. He was going to get answers, and was going to get them now. He barged out the front door and into the rain to face the man from his dreams. Ian stopped about twenty feet in front of the man who seemed to take notice of him, and stared him down curiously with his bright blue eyes.
Out of all the things to say, Ian first words seemed the worst possible. “You’re trespassing you know. This is privet property!” said Ian, who now felt impossibly stupid for saying such a thing.
“You know Ian, I have been watching you from the day you first arrived here, and I must say you are truly something incredible.”
Ian was shocked, mostly because he wasn’t expecting a response, and because he knew his name. He stood there for a moment with his mouth open until he pulled himself together and forced himself to say something.
“I want answers” said Ian in a demanding tone. “What’s happening to me, and who are you?”
“I can see that what my daughter tells me is true, you truly are ready, I can see it in your eyes.”
“Answer my question damn it!” yelled Ian, whose patience had already ended.
“Rest assured Ian, all your questions and more will be answered soon enough, But not now, this is neither the time nor place for such a long conversation to be held. We will meet again very soon Ian, but before I go, take this” said the man as he sent a small golden coin through the air and into Ian hands. “You seem very confused, keep that to remind you that this wasn’t a dream when you awake in the morning. The cloaked man then bowed his head to Ian and walked away into the darkness, leaving Ian standing in the rain speechless, grasping the small golden coin that had been given to him.
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