It was the same thing… Over and over, the Deom surrounding her, the screams, and then silence. What could it all mean? Sarah woke up at 3:00 AM, looked to her left and yawned only to fall asleep again. ‘Damn it… How the hell is this going to help me with everything that’s going on?’ The next night, the dream was a little bit different this time, as a familiar face showed up in the dream. “Hi Morgan.” The tall man turned around, and after a little scream that made him sound like a little girl, did he calm down. “Howdy! What’s going on here? One minute I was dreaming of taking a bite out of the biggest slice of pizza surrounded by all these cute girls… and as soon as I bit down… I’m surrounded by Deom’s that look a little bit like Jay Leno on a bender. Not a pretty site mind you. So…. where the Hell am I?”
She explained to her friend that they were in a dream of hers. “Nice.” He smiled just a bit, getting an idea into his mind about something and laughed a little.
“What’s so funny?” “Nothing …Just a stupid little thought. About food. And not about something else. Which is the farthest thing from my mind. Because its 3 AM, and I’m starving. Seriously, you got any food on ya?” The screams happened again and the two of them took one look into the darkness and sighed. “SHUT THE HELL UP ALREADY! WE KNOW YOUR THERE!”
“Can they hear you?” “I don’t think so… But it was fun to say.” They walked a little ways until they came to a clearing, then without warning Morgan disappeared in a puff of cherry scented smoke, as he faded away he said, “By the way? Your hair smells nice! See ya when I see ya!”
Sarah smiled to herself, as she somehow knew it was not going to be the last time this happened. “Deom huh? Great… Something else I have to deal with. I wonder what’s going to happen next?” She woke up again. This time in her room apparently, got up and went through the usual routine of getting ready, snagged a bite to eat before heading off to the college for another fun filled boring day of classes, A.S.B. work, poking fun at her friend, and watch another friend suck face with his girlfriend. Fun times, did lay ahead. As she sat in traffic she allowed her mind to wander from subject to subject, occasionally getting honked at for taking too long at the stop sign and wondering why she had taken fifteen minutes to make a right turn. Classes went by like a blur, the usual appearance by Morgan also passed the time, but not by much as he didn’t really have anything much to say besides the usual remarks of wanting sun crackers to complete his life.
The next night progressed quite the same, the howls, the appearance of Morgan. “Don’t you ever get tired of this?” He asked quietly to which the Deoms screeched again. To which he replied “Don’t YOU ever get tired of this?” he asked quietly to which the Deom screeched again. To which he replied “
OH YEAH? WELL, AT LEAST I DONT HAVE TO HANG UPSIDE DOWN TO GET A DATE! in fact, I just insulted myself didn’t I?” Sarah nodded to him, smiling a bit as she did so. “Well in any rate we should probably get going before they figured out I insulted their mating ritual. Deom are kinda weird like that.”
Sara was confused as to how Morgan had been entering her dreams, Well this one in particular. As they walked down a crystal shard path, littered with glowing colors and a slight fog which smelled of cherries and grapes, a sudden thought popped into her mind. “Um… I don’t mean to pry Morgan-” Morgan smiled as he always did, “Nothing to apologize for, just ask and ye shall receive. What’s on your mind?”
“-But how do you keep popping up in my dreams? I mean, I like the company of you preferred to, whatever you called them,” “Deom?”
“Yeah, Deom. But how are you doing this and what’s the point?” Morgan stopped walking, bent at the knees a little bit to get eye level with her and said in a mysterious voice “Divertente di le amuleto, infinito le serratura a le trama.” Sarah stopped along with Morgan, looking into his green eyes with some uncertainty.
“What did you just say?!” Morgan smiled a bit and said nothing, his mind already distracted with thoughts of randomness. “To answer your first question, I don’t know how I got here, secondly, I rather like this popping into your dreams,” he added slyly, “Never know when I’m going to see something interesting. Anyways, we have a ways to go before we hit the star shaped door. So we better get a move on.”
“But you didn’t answer my question!” As they walked on, they talked about many subjects of common interest, from family to dreams, fears to jobs. In fact they talked about almost everything until Morgan couldn’t talk anymore.
“So what was it you said earlier after getting away from the Deom. What are the Deom anyway? You seem to know an awful lot for someone who claims to be a little clueless.” she asked out of the blue. As Sarah and Morgan continued to walk, they passed a huge moon sized sphere of water, crystal blue with fish swimming in, out, and around it for no apparent reason. “What I said back there isn’t anything of interest to you. You’ll find out sooner or later, and when you do, you’ll understand why I didn’t tell you at first. I’m sure you know Italian very well, so I shouldn’t have to tell you right off the bat. The fact of the matter is that you have one Hell of a treasure in you right now that the Deom want, Hell, I have it as well.” Morgan took a break and stretched his arms out, grabbing a flying chocolate bat as he continued his explanation. “The Deom aren’t a species or a race, or even that smart for that matter. They are pure imagination, let loose by our own wants and desires. They can either be good or bad, depending on our thoughts and feeling at their individual time of creation. There are good Deom and bad Deom called the Rogue, although just like us Humans and various other races, they have there own social ladder as well that’s divided into three sects.”
Sara was really interested in what the man beside her had to say, “Go on, what are these three sects called and why do they want what we have?” He smiled again and only laughed as he faded away again into the sphere and said “Well, looks like its time for us to wake up. Dream you tomorrow night!”
She awoke abruptly, looked at the clock and sighed, Sarah still had another four hours to go before she had to get ready for the day. After a fitful fifteen minutes, she fell back asleep, her mind still wondering what it all meant and what the treasures she and Morgan had inside them. Though she wasn’t dreaming, she could hear the Deom whispering to her, there voices twisted and dark, but somehow uplifting to her darker side. “He is dangerous that one…”
“You should watch yourself around him…”
“He carries a darkness so black that light cannot escape it….”
“He will devour the light inside you too Sarah….”
“The amulet he wears around his neck…”
“The dragon and the ring…”
“Those are the treasures we desire…”
Sarah couldn’t respond, only listening in contemplation as she tried to place the voices that were speaking to her. “Come Credion… “
“We have much work to do if we want that damned necklace so much…”
“Too much if you ask me. You’re always obsessing over it, ‘Oh Nordafet, I want his necklace so much, I want it so bad I can taste it!’…”
“Bah! Your stupid trinkets are what created this whole mess to begin with…”
“Come, let us speak with the brother of this human woman.”
She thought the voices sounded almost like her two friends in the A.S.B., but the names were different. What did the Deom want with Mike? What possible use did they have for him? What the Hell did Morgan mean by what he said? She would have to ask him the next time she saw him. The next morning progressed quite the same as the previous, though a little stranger then the last. The first thing she noticed was that the board meeting went a little faster then usual, with one member asking for a raise or he would leave the college for the offer he had received from one of there rivals. The next thing she knew was that her oceanography class showed a video of a plankton doing the Macarena as well as showing parts of a fish she hadn’t learned were there before. The tests were off kilter, the classes were losing their focus and people were demanding raises. Something was not right.
As usual and with perfect timing that she could count on, Morgan showed up the first chance he got and heated up his morning Hotpocket for two minutes, disappeared downstairs and came back up with notebook in hand and ten seconds remaining on the microwave. “Shit!” and as usual, he burned himself after taking a bite out of his breakfast for the day.
“Hey Morgan, how are you doing?” Sarah cheerfully asked before her eyes returned to the computer screen in front of her. “Umm… good now that I’ve got some food in hand, some burns from the war on this hot pocket, and the news keeps getting better!” the red haired man said as he took his usual seat in the chair against the wall behind Sarah’s chair.
the brown haired woman couldnt help but turn around and tease him about the hotpocket being charred black and hard. after a few minutes of banter, she returned to the screen she was looking at and noticed a new email in her inbox titled ‘Deom warning’ from an even strange address. “Morgan?” she asked as she clicked on the email header.
“yeah?” he replied through choking down an over sized bite of food. “
water… water…” after a few seconds, he forced the chunk down his throat. “never mind! all better, whats up Sarah Bear?” “Did you create a new email address? If you did this, it isn’t a very good joke.”
Morgan looked over her shoulder to the email address and she read what the contents said. “Sarah… We have your brother… Morgan… We have your love…. If you want them both back, give us the necklace and your treasure in the Dream Dimension tonight by the inverted sword in his minds eyes. We are watching you.” Morgan thought about what they meant by ‘We have your love…’ and made the connection. “Kim? I don’t love her. They can keep her, but your brother on the other hand, I don’t want anything to happen to him. Still why would they want the treasure and my necklace. As far as I know it’s just a trinket I pulled together. Hrm, Tonight will be interesting to say the least… Ah crap!” Sarah was jolted in her seat.
“What’s wrong?” “I’m late for class! Damn it, this’ll be the third time this week! Gotta go, I’ll call ya later!” and with that he ran off to class, nearly running into Mike on the way out and sliding down the banister.
“What was that all about?” Her brother said wearily as he watched the lanky man dash off to his class. “Damn hes fast. Ohh! yeesh… Thats gonna sting in a bit… Nope, he’s up and running again. So what’s the plan today?” The Deom watched, undetected by the two Humans, unseen by there limited eyesight, unheard by there soundless voices, and unfelt by the feelings which bound the Deoms form together.
“Well, we sent her an ‘email’… its tradaning hard to write one of them with our emotion based forms. Seriously! Do you know how much cheamaterra it takes to write something of that magnitude!? It takes a lot of tradaning concentration….” “Oh well Credion.”
“Wait a second, how come the human brother is there, when we have him over here?” They looked at the male they had taken captive. His short curly brown hair shined in the darkness as the only source of light was the projection of the human realm and the room the two were in. “Nothing to worry about Nordafet my brother… I have taken the steps and created a perfect Deom replica of this, Mike, Based on the memories and feelings that Sarah has toward her brother. She shouldn’t be able to detect much difference other then the fact that strong emotions will put him into a five minute coma.”
“Five minute coma? Why did you allow that flaw to be built into him my sister?” nordafet asked with little hesitation or patience. Credion smiled a wicked smile and answered. “Just so this plot of ours will be more interesting. At any rate, this Sarah and this Morgan have something we need! The-”
“The necklace that man is always wearing, the one he never takes off, the one with the dragon on it? And the class ring? The one you’ve had your eye on these past four years? The one we set up this whole elaborate plan to grab it from him? That necklace?” nordafet grilled his sister with the questions, and than waited for her to nod eagerly. ”And can you tell me why we had to kidnap the female as well?” The Deom of joy and madness pointed with a stony finger towards the human female hanging from a string of darkness like a fly caught in a spiders web.
“He has a particularly strong attraction to her… And he would do anything to get her back. I didn’t make a Deom replica of her, and based on the history of the two, the others would think he did it, and he would then have need to get her back before they noticed.” Credion replied with a sly sense of wickedness to her voice. Mike woke up groggily and looked at his surroundings. “Where am I? what’s going on here? I must still be sleeping, damn it I’m hungry! Oh that’s a wolf! Cool…
WAIT A MINUTE! A WOLF! FRIGGIN HELL!” Mike jolted up and started screaming his head off at the sight of Credion, the Deom of agression and lust, and ran away till he ran smack dab into an invisible wall.
“Oooo… that’s gonna stordionist in a few moments. In case you hadn’t noticed or paid attention to the
details Credion… you
would’ve noticed that the attraction to the female hanging up there has pretty much disappeared. So he’d only come to get her out the need to keep his daert out of trouble.” Nordafet pointed out, slightly annoyed that his sister hadnt thought this plan of hers through thoroughly enough. ”We shall see Nordafet… We shall see.” As Mike lay unsconcious from the meeting between his face and the wall, which left a first impression that knocked him out cold, he heard a message from the Human realm.
“Divertente di le amuleto, infinito le serratura a le trama. The best is yet to come.” Morgan was walking home, he was fairly confident about a lot of things, one being that the dreaming was getting a lot more interesting these days, and that he couldn’t wait till he became exhausted from the days events and fall asleep. Another was that it was not always a fun thing to walk home by himself. He sometimes wished he had someone to talk to. As he walked down the usual road, he felt as though something were touching him on the head, turning him away from his destination.
“Knock it off Deom. I’m not interested, we’re going to get her brother back, the woman you can keep. I have no interest in her anymore. Trust me on this one.” Morgan said as he shook his head hard to the left and continued on his way home. ‘How did you know I was watching you human? And why do you not have any interest in her? Is she not beautiful? Attractive even?’ The Deom made itself visible to Morgan and walked beside him, curious as to his reaction.
“It’s not that, she’s all those things. I just don’t want to deal with the looks she gives me… That’s all.” The man said with slight sadness in his heart. ‘But people will start to talk, human. They will blame you for her disappearance, accuse you of kidnapping, blame you, even hate you! You know what we want, and you know how to give it to us. She holds no real interest for us. So why not come and get her?’ The Deom pressed, its words laced with intentions Morgan knew all too well.
Morgan was used to this kind of entertainment, he always daydreamed whenever he got bored or put in situations where things were out of his control. He knew a lot about the Deom more then he let on, and he had to keep the secret from Sarah for as long as possible. “Like I said, I’m not interested in her. I’ll come and get her and Sarah’s brother, but as for the woman in question, I’m only getting her to keep things calm. I’m assuming that you’re the sister to Nordafet then?” Morgan exclaimed in questioning tones.
‘How did you know?’ The creature asked, as there were no real defining male or female traits in Deom. “Easy, only a female would use past heartbreaks to get results.” Morgan sneered.
‘Don’t leave us guys out as well Morgan. Long time no see, looking healthy as always… I can change that!’ a second voice said as needles pierced his arm and shot through the other side, sending a racking pain through Morgan’s arm. Nordafet’s sister laughing beside the Human as he grimaced in pain. “Sorry, not today Nord. Just tell me what I need to do to get everything straightened out.” when there was no further answer, Morgan decided that there was more to this treasure then the two Deom were letting onto. ”I’ll get to the bottom of this. I swear it.”
Sarah had just gotten through finishing her paper and had briefly entered the car, still wondering what tonight’s dreams would bring. “More answers to question I didn’t ask. Hrm… I wonder what Morgan’s doing about now. Probably still walking home at this time.” All of a sudden she heard a voice enter the conversation with herself. “I thought I told you to stay away from him Sarah!” She jumped in her seat and looked into the rear view mirror to see Aneeh in the backseat with a juice box.Her dark brown eyes narrowing to slits to demonstrate her somehow threatening appeal.
“Hi…um Aneeh?” “Yes?” The small Indian woman in the back seat asked, her dark eyes matching Sarah’s.
“How..come you’re in my car?” Aneeh smiled a smile which shown off her teeth. “I squeezed in through the tailpipe, worked my way into the air conditioner and popped out the vents.”
“Ah… that explains why the covers on the floor. So… why are you telling me to stay away from Morgan? He’s not dangerous you know? And we have this conversation about every couple of days.” Aneeh drank some more from the juice box. “Well you know what happened between him and kim right?” Sarah’s friend asked snidely, almost like a snapping turtle taking a bite out of a passing fish.
“Well there’s not going to be a repeat of that. Ever. Look we talked about it and we agreed that we’re just friends and that’s it. We’ve both been through our own things and he’s over her, and even though he likes me, he’s not going to push it any further.” Aneeh closed her eyes half way and glared at Sarah. “She’s been missing for the past couple of days, the office has been getting calls about her whereabouts, and we have suspicion that he’s responsible.”
Sara reached back, laid a hand on Aneeh and smacked her. “Look, I don’t want to hear you blaming him for anything ever again. Unless he comes out and says it, then just knock it off. He’s been through Hell and back.” Aneeh replied with slight of hand. “Oh really then? Then what happened to your brother? How do you know he’s not behind that as well? The signs are all there Sarah. The way he looks at you-”
“That’s because he’s my friend Aneeh. My
FRIEND.” Sarah interrupted as she stared out the front window. “-or what about the songs he writes?” Aneeh continued, ignoring her friends cross look.
Sarah thought about kicking her out the window shield. “he asked permission to use me as his inspiration, Aneeh and told me that some of them would get a little deep.” “Well what about the blogs he writes?” Aneeh continued, getting excited about making morgan into someone to be feared, but obviously missing the fact that Sarah wasn’t buying into it. she kept pressing on anyway
Sara rolled her eyes and thought for a moment about whether or not Aneeh could fit back into the now broken air conditioning vent. “What about them? They are entertaining to read. Some of them are actually deep and thoughtful, although they can get a little depressing from time to time.” Aneeh saw for a moment that she was thinking of something else and had enough of her blame game for one day. “Did you get those reports done? The ones for the Congo De Mayo trip?” Aneeh hissed slightly and nodded slowly. “Yeah, I got them in yesterday. Everything should be taken care of, so they’re not really any worry. Think about what I said here Sarah. There’s something not quite right about that man.” with that, she open the passenger door and left. That night on the way home, Sarah was thinking of reasons to tell their parents why mike hadn’t been home in over two weeks. When she looked at the time, she noticed it was around 10:30 pm. “Damn… tonight was alfredo and I was supposed to help make the sauce. Oh well, I might as well flip some on some tunes.” as she reached for the knob she felt a slight vibration coming from the radio as it clicked on and static blared out of the speakers.
“We are the …”
“We… be watching you and…”
” …gan. We…. get…”
“The treasure that you and…”
“Have… we have your brother…”
“His love…”
“We will be waiting.” Sarah’s eyes teared up a bit as the static cleared up and a charming yet smokey voice spoke the words.
“There is much that we must discuss, you and I. Just us girls. I will be waiting for you in the land of dre-” “
Oh shut up!” Sarah interrupted, “
I’m not interested, I just want my brother back!”
“and maybe morgan love as well?” the voice perused casually, still retaining the smokiness in her voice. “He’s already told you hes not interested right?” Sarah replied with a combination of confidence and confusion in her voice.
The voice cooed softly as it thought of another answer. “Yes, he did manage that! But I talked him into rescuing her. As for your brother, he’s safe here with us.” Sarah couldn’t believe her ears, Mike was safe? She wanted to hear his voice to be sure. “Really? What proof do I have that he will
remain safe?” there was radio silence and all she could hear was more static unitl at last she heard mikes voice.
“Sarah? I’m here.. and I’m safe, that got Kim all strung up in a web and she’s breathing from what I can tell. You better come here and get us out of here real quick. They’ve got something bad planned, I can only here bits and pieces of it but they want you and Morgan to give them your treasurOOF!” mikes voice was real alright, but it nothing to soothe her frayed nerves. More radio silence and then she heard a female’s voice in the distance. “
Where am I? Who are you? more importantly, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU? SOME, ANY ONE, PLEASE HELP ME!” she knew that voice voice, Sarah could only listen in silence as the pleas continued and the laughter boomed louder until the other voices were drowned out, then nothing but static again.
“We will be waiting for you. Come prepared, or they will both lose license of life. You have exactly one month to reach us in the Realm of Dreams, under the Blood Red Moon, next to the Tree That Talks, in the Kingdom of the Deom. We look forward to your hastened arrival!” the transmission ended with a explosion of dark, insidious laughter that threatened to border on maniacally insane. Sara panicked at the thought of losing her brother, and did the only thing she could do in times of stress. She uttered a string of swear words for the next fifteen minutes which caused the paint on the cars surrounding her to crack and peel off. She took slight notice of this.
“Wow… I did not know I could do that. Might come in handy for when I want to paint my room a different color. I have to find Morgan, and get all the information I can about the Deom. He should be still walking home at this point.” Sarah told herself. She drove back up to the college and then down the road he usually took when going home, after a couple of streets she began to lose hope of finding him, but then caught sight of a familiar gigbag attached to a tall man walking towards her direction. He looked up and waved nonchalantly and continued on. She stopped the car suddenly and honked at him. “You need a ride? Don’t you have a test coming up or something close to it?” Morgan nodded slowly and then got into the car, wondering if the stars had aligned or something more mysterious.
“Am… I in trouble?” morgan asked cautiously, noticing a slight anger in Sarah that seemed readily apparent by how hard she was gripping the steering wheel. “No…and yes. It’s the Deom, Nordafet and Credion, they have Mike and Kim, and unless we give them our treasure, they die in a month.” Morgan took this in for a while and then yawned. “So you want to know what I know about the Deom right?”
“
Yes! That would be helpful! Very helpful indeed!” she yelled in his direction, giving him a little bit of incentive to hurry and tell her what he knew. “Man that’s a long walk. I never really notice it till I get a ride. Well shall we then? Let’s go to your place and I’ll explain everything. My place first, need to feed the horses.”
They drove over to Morgan’s and he quickly climbed out the window, onto the car’s roof, and jumped the fence. “Keep the motor running, this shouldn’t take long.” fifteen minutes later, he was back in the car and the horses were happy, albeit a little annoyed that they didn’t get carrots today. “How are the horses?” she asked casually.
“Their fat and happy, let’s get going, we have a lot to discuss and little time to discuss it in.” as they drove to Sarah’s house, Morgan talked about the Deom, how they were formed, who created the two in particular, and how they helped him get over Kim. “Nightmares.” he said simply.
“What?” Sarah replied, wondering what he meant. “They gave me nightmares, designed to turn me away from her. They worked didn’t they?” morgan smiled lightly, noting the gravity of the situation they found themselves.
“True. But why nightmares?”
“I told them to do it that way.”
“So tell me again, who created those two Deom and what they look like?”
“I must have skipped that part.” Morgan stalled for a minute before answering, giving very little thought to the consequences. “I did, by accident, I know I told you they were a race. Well, they aren’t. Nordafet and Credion are the only two Deom in existence.”
It was the same thing… Over and over, the Deom surrounding her, the screams, and then silence. What could it all mean? Sarah woke up at 3:00 AM, looked to her left and yawned only to fall asleep again. ‘Damn it… How the hell is this going to help me with everything that’s going on?’ The next …
