Chapter 55

  Bone Chilling Dreams

  Lethargy and complacency are probably the two biggest reasons why accidents happen.

  We were finally heading home, now that we had dropped off Madame Voyou. After the emotional highs that had filled the night, I soon found myself drifting off with the rhythmic clopping of hooves and wheels on the road.

  Despite my best efforts to stay awake, I soon found myself drifting off into the dream world. Possibly due to the fact that I was in such a precarious state that I didn’t allow my mind to fully relax into a state of unconsciousness. Maybe it was the fact that my neck dangled in just a way that caused part of the blood flow to my head to get cut off. Regardless of the reason why, what happened next could best be described as a lucid dream.

  For while I was there both physically and mentally in the carriage slowly winding its way home, I could feel my consciousness expanding. Perhaps it is an unsettling aspect of the DiVoratore blood pulsing through my body, but I swear I could almost feel a surge of spiritual presence coming from the northeastern part of the city. A part that I instinctively knew as linked to where Bloom Park was.

  There at the heart of the park, in the opened spirit portal I could feel the moment something came through. Something powerful.

  Pulse.

  I swear for a moment I could feel the unnatural disturbance of the ground, as if some great evil was once again allowed to walk the lands. Only after focusing for a bit, did I realize that my supposed link, this tether of consciousness came not from the portal area itself, but from further away, towards the grove of old trees. Out where I nearly got burned to death.

  In fact, it is only this thought, this lingering memory of my near death and subsequent bleeding and trail of viscera and hazmat mat materials that my connection to the area becomes clearer. As if shifting a lens in to help focus this sight that I am now witnessing.

  Not that, this is something I particularly want to see, or maybe experience is a better word. For now I can see a dark creature that my blood and body instantly know to be otherworldly appearing before me. A lone hunter cloaked in dark robes that seemed to be formed from the very void themselves. Robes that seemed to absorb all light, except for glowing green light of the monster’s eyes.

  All of my instincts tell me that this creature is not supposed to be here, that it can’t and shouldn’t be able to survive. Yet it does.

  Sizzle.

  With each step, I can tell its bare and boney feet create friction. That’s the best word to describe what is happening, for the bones themselves burn against the cold leaves. Against the ground that I helped clean up even if ever so slightly.

  Sniff, sniff.

  Yet, despite the pain it was undoubtedly feeling, it sniffed the air, despite clearly not having a nose on its rotting skeletal face. A face that had grown dark with rot and decay, but still showed two glowing green eyes that blazed with a darker form of energy.

  In this dream like state, I felt it coming closer. I felt the way it seemed to move and track the spots of dirt with my consciousness on them. Areas where lingering traces of my blood likely still resided even if only in droplet form.

  Then I watched in horror as the rotting corpse covered in dark but flowing cloths that danced about and seemed to touch the ground as well, helping to direct and harness the creature’s senses.

  Holding my breath, I waited. I waited for what would happen next. For the next part that was sure to happen. To both my delighted curiosity and terror inducing nightmare fuel I saw what it did. Reaching down into the loose leaves and dirt, I watched as the monster scooped its boney hands into the ground and pulled up a clump of dirt, leaves, and yes somehow even part of my blood. Then what it did next would cause nightmares to form in my mind.

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  Hwuh-huh whirr

  Opening its maw, it took a deep breath and began to suck in the dirt, as it did part of me and my consciousness tethering me to this area broke apart. Suddenly I was back to a somewhat blurry resolution, the same way it was when I first began this dream sequence. Which only helped so much in that I could no longer see in crystal clarity what was happening. I could only guess, as the monster began searching, more vigorously, its eyes glowing wider with its own intense clarity, as if it had somehow gained the vision I just lost.

  Then it searched quicker, finding more clumps of my residual trail. With panicked breaths I was helpless as it hunted down and devoured each and every scrap of my existence there, until finally it scooped up my remaining clumps into a last handful. That’s when I once again got to see the world in full clarity, but this was not the sight anyone would ever want to see. For what I saw was from the perspective of a clump of dust being sucked into a deep dark blackhole. The only contrast to the darkness were the other pebbles and debris that were with my consciousness that seemed to be rattled around with me, before I was finally released from that cursed hold.

  “GASPING!”

  I awoke violently, the same way one would when they are falling and realize they are about to crash into the ground. But my waking was far worse.

  “You okay?” Madame Bloom asked, a faint smirk on her lips as she thought it was just a bad dream.

  Shakily I begin to nod, only after a second do I realize that someone put their jacket on me while I rested. Apparently I was out for longer than I thought, as it seemed like it was merely minutes.

  Then as I came to my senses, I shook my head.

  “Actually, is there a way to have prophetic dreams?” I asked.

  Hearing the question, Madame Bloom paused and then used her mana filled blue gaze upon me. “There is, but you do not possess the ability to have such dreams.”

  Exhale.

  Hearing her words I let out a sigh of relief.

  “Can I ask what exactly you dreamed about?” Madame Bloom asked, a note of curiosity filling her words.

  “It’s going to sound odd,” I protested. Even now the thought of what happened and what I thought I saw, especially the last part where it felt like I was being absorbed were almost too much.

  “Go on, no one here will judge you for your dreams,” Madame Bloom offered.

  “Not unless it involved you and a one-legged ballet dancer, if so then all bets are off,” Markan offered.

  Hearing him, I just glared at him from the corner of my eye.

  Part of me wanted to deny that it existed at all, but something about this one felt real. Had it not been for how real everything felt and how vivid the details of the dream were, I might have discarded it all.

  “I dreamed of Bloom Park, of that area where I was attacked,” I tried to note the area. Even thinking of that spot, I felt echoes of past pains and even fear of that attack that came out of nowhere.

  “By the area where you were burned by the Necrotic Fireballs?” Madame Bloom clarified. I could only nod, the pain of that moment still a bit much. Seeing my reluctance, she prodded me on, “go on.”

  “Well, it’s kind of odd, as I felt that I had my consciousness bound there and also in front of the spirit portal. That’s where I saw a figure covered in dark light absorbing robes come out of the spirit portal. The only form of light and definition from the creature were its two glowing green eyes.”

  As I spoke, I could see the faint way Madame Bloom’s hand trembled at my retelling. The deeper in detail I went, the more she seemed to have a physical reaction to my words, despite trying to preserve her mask of composure.

  “And then what?” She pressed after a sufficient amount of time passed.

  “Then it began to sniff, almost like a bloodhound, back hunched as it moved forward finding clumps of ground. Ground that seemed to be connected to me in some way, for it would take up the ground, and almost inhale the dirt into the darkness of its hood. As it did, my vision became blurrier and blurrier, until finally it found the last scoop and inhaled me. That was my last image, of my vision being swallowed whole in a swirling void of darkness, alongside hundreds of tiny specks of dirt.”

  I spoke it all, not leaving out a single detail.

  “That, that sounds like—” Markan began but then seemed to have the words cut off, as if he didn’t want to finish the thought.

  Madame Bloom just nodded in understanding, “yes it does sound like that.”

  “Like what?” I asked, realizing that unless I push they might exclude me from whatever this is. While they are saying I can’t have prophetic dreams, there does seem to be something that they are not telling me.

  “Like we will need to adjust our plans and go to Bloom Park first thing in the morning,” Madame Bloom stated.

  “But if it is, that, then shouldn’t we go as quickly as possible to investigate?” Markan pressed again, not wanting to state what exactly the that is. For a moment Madame Bloom looked like she contemplated us turning about right then and there and going to investigate Bloom Park right now.

  “No, we are nearly home. We will rest up on consecrated ground until daybreak, at which point we will head out fully refreshed and ready.” Madame Bloom stated.

  It was clear that Markan looked like he wanted to argue, but he seemed to see her logic. Also, it was at this point that we finally pulled into the grounds surrounding the Bloom estate.

  “All right, but I’ll also send word of the possible finding,” Markan noted.

  “With what proof?” Madame Bloom chastised, “on the words of an Apprentice’s dream. You know that will only make us look foolish. Or that we are trying to garner government resources to help cleanse Bloom Park, neither of which will go well for us.”

  Hearing those words, I realized this was a deeper level of politics at play that I did not have the bandwidth to follow. Especially as my mind began shutting down and going into near autopilot mode as I walked out of the carriage with my arms still covered by the leather jacket that was draped over me.

  While I still had the jacket, I offered it back, but Mr. Yi just waved me off, not even commenting on the cold. That was how I ended up carrying the jacket all the way to my room and barely remembering to take both it and my own school blazer off before squirming under the blankets and trying to get back to sleep.

  However, the moment I closed my eyes all I could see were spiraling flecks of dirt, and an icy cold chill that seemed to saturate me to the bone. Even covering my body with the blazer and Mr. Yi’s jacket did nothing to truly help cut out the bone deep cold. A cold that seemed to almost have a supernatural cling to it, despite my not seeing any threads of mana around me.

  Still, I needed to sleep, and I had trained my body and mind to go to sleep quickly from two lifetimes of meditation brought on by exhaustion. Even still, I found sleep illusive as my mind raced with thoughts of the night, and of a dark cloaked shadow with glowing green eyes walking over my body.

  Sleep it seemed, would not be easy tonight.

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