Young Writers Society

Cleona turned as the girls voice broke into her thoughts, her hand automatically going to the back of her jacket, were her knife lay. She thought better on it, upon assessing the girl. "You are.......You are in my nightmare." The words sounded weird. "Who are you? and how, or why are you here?" A light came on in the meeting house. Cleona flinched, then breathed slowly as it went back out. It was only a few hours until dawn. A few hours until she would be dragged aboard The Essex.

“So this is your nightmare,” Queenie said, assessing her, “Would you happen to know how to get out of it? Or what happens next?”

If this was a common nightmare of this girl’s, then Queenie had hope of getting out quickly. She didn’t much like the idea of waking up, especially with school tomorrow, but it was preferable to going through someone else’s bad dream.

Cleona looked at the girl through narrowed eyes. "I have never been able to figure out how to get out of it. I reach a certain point and that's it. I cannot get past that point. As for what happens next, we get assigned on the whaling ship The Essex." She emphasized the word. "It doesn't matter what I do, I always end up on it." She broke off as two other....creatures came up.

Queenie followed her line of sight and let out an exasperated sigh, “Of course you’re here,” she grumbled.

Cleona's eyebrow shot up, but she did not say anything.

The street, at first glance, looked like something straight out of a novel set in Victorian times. Towering buildings lined cobblestone streets, lit only by the light of the faint moon in the sky above. Even the multitude of the ships lining the dock resembled something out of a story of old.

The fog hung heavy, but that was good. It would hide all of the things that weren't supposed to be seen, and The Creature appreciated that in nightmares like this one. The Creature lurked in the shadows of what must have been a meeting house and listened carefully to the conversation between the two girls.

The nightmare had yet to begin.

And when it did, The Creature would be aboard The Essex with its currently ill-fated passengers.

The Creature looked to the moon above, claws gently tapping on the meeting house's wall without so much as a sound leaving the darkness.

It was going to be a long night.

"Yep!" Taber said, waving at Queenie. "And I brought my brother!" Taber gestured at Thytes, who smiled and gave a small bow.

"So, what's happening here? I heard something about a nightmare?" the wolf continued.

Carter stepped out of the door and onto the street, smoothing the ruffles on his shirt and double checking for signs of danger. The gas lamps flickered slitghtly with the passing wind. He could hear he slight clicking in the distance of carriages passing by, along with the rumbling of trains. And it was all followed by voices in the distance.

“For foxes sake. Why is this happening again?”

There was no one with him to listen.

He was all alone to work on this dang thing. And if he was expected to get through the night, he would need more than one smoke to get through it. Maybe even his flask.

“God I hope no one does anything stupid this time.”

Carter slowly walked along, waiting for one of the figures to hail him, and reading the energy all the way.

Queenie shrugged, "We're dreaming. I think. Probably. It's unclear, but this chick says this is her nightmare. She was just getting to explaining what exactly happens in this lovely little wonderland. I don't suppose I can stop you from joining us?"

Cleona turned as another person came up. "How many more people are coming? How are you guys even in my nightmare?" She asked, half exasperatedly. She looked at the sky and gulped. "We have half an hour until sunrise. Any questions, ask them now. I will answer what I can."

Queenie crossed her arms, "What's dangerous here? As in, is anything going to try to kill us? I'm not sure about the certainty of mortality in this situation, and I'd like to play on the safe side."

"Yep, I'd like to join!" Taber said, tail wagging. A couple seconds later, he paused and frowned. Tapping a couple claws together, his grin turned more sheepish. "Erm, if you don't mind having me around. I don't want to be a problem. And I'm not sure anyone else is coming?"

When Thytes coughed and started to shuffle behind Taber, the wolf spent a couple seconds looking out into the fog to find what had caught Thytes's attention. "Carter!" Taber said, internally breathing a sigh of relief at moving away from that awkward conversation with Queenie (a bit rude for him to think about it like that, but he didn't know how to talk to Queenie). "It's me, Taber!"

Cleona choked upon hearing what the girl said. "Danger? Have you never heard of The Essex? Moby Dick? Watched Heart of the Sea? It's one of the most dangerous things you could ever think of!"

Having been flagged down, Carter was now slowly walking towards the wolf and having a series of thoughts pass through his head. At the top was "who the heck is this punk". The question was soon accompanied by the tune for Werewolves of London running on loop.

Energy buzzed in his ear and he looked up to another one of the lamp posts. There was already something very wrong here, beyond his blond hair so soaked in oil it appeared brown. And this nonsense suit he had been wearing at a previous costume party.

They chose an inconvenient time to pull him into another realm.

Reaching the wolf standing in the street with a group of beings, Carter immediately asked, "Who the heck are you, punk?"

Queenie rolled her eyes, “Look, darling, this is a dream. A really freaking vivid dream, but still a dream. Anything is possible here, so you’ll have to excuse my being unaware that your worst fear is classic literature.”