Personal adventure part two

Having never experienced what you feel now, it is hard to put into words exactly what is going on. It is not like that calm and restful state of sleeping. You aren't dreaming as much as you wish you were. Instead you are painfully awake, aware of your own thoughts and feelings. And yet, you can't see, you can't hear, you can't feel anything physical. It is more dark and silent then anything you have ever experienced before and it feels so alien to you that immediately you begin to panic because there is only one semi logical conclusion present at the moment. This is death. You aren't even sure how to panic, you are so used to having a physical body to tell you somewhat how you are feeling. Now you can't feel anything. Time has a totally different meaning for you at this moment, your mind begins to race along jumping from subject to subject to subject, your family, your life, your current situation, eternity itself, what are you going to do now. You loose track of time in but a few moments and you don't realize how long you have been like this.
Then it happens. You begin to feel something. What is it? It is your fingers, you can feel them. Confused joy comes rushing to you, some glimmer of hope that you are not dead. But where is your hand? You can't tell. You begin to grip and try to feel around, something sharp pokes your hand and you feel pain. More feeling begins to creep in, you begin to feel your arms, toes, ankles, legs, chest... You begin to slowly hear sounds and you can hear Dutch, it sounds like he is far away but slowly he gets louder... You realize he is whispering, eventually you begin to distinguish words, "All right.. I don't know if you can hear me but stay calm, don't flail around, you already stuck your hand with a thorn. Keep calm, your senses will return to you."
You do your best to relax. "Ahh.. looks like your hearing has returned, you should be able to feel your limbs now. If you can hear me hold up one finger." You do as he says. "Good.. Your sight will return soon. I am sorry I didn't warn you, there wasn't time to explain. You are doing pretty well, I don't know how long I was out my first time through, but you have only been out for eight minutes. I hope it didn't scare you too badly. It is quite a shock. I thought I had died... I don't doubt that such a thought has crossed your mind as well. Can you speak."
You can't feel your face but you try to speak hear some mumbled babbling. "I suppose not." Dutch replied "Just a few more minutes and you should be alright. I guess I should explain at least where we are and what you will see when you do open your eyes again. Right now, so long as my calculations and theories prove to be correct, we are in a place I have called the Archetypal realm, I guess it could be also rightfully dubbed the collective subconscious, or the plane of human memory and thought. And specifically in this realm we are near the archetype of the fallen and redeemed..."

(looks like I am going to be doing smaller episodes.. I've seen a webstory that runs their episodes in smaller chunks daily, I like that format better, keeps you more involved. :-)

Personal adventure part 1

*Knock Knock Knock...* The sound of rain pours all around you. the awning is small but you do your best to crouch under it and keep dry. You try again *Knock Knock Knock* thumping against the heavy solid oak door. Deep in the lonely house, or rather, mansion, you hear the faint voice call...

"I'm coming! I'm Coming!" footsteps are heard on the other side of the door, approaching. The door opens and a tall thin fellow stands in front of you wearing some ridiculous outfit. It is your friend Dutch "There you are.. The weather has been looking worse I was beginning to wonder if you were even going to show up to my odd invitation. Come in quickly. Come in..." Dutch ushers you out of the rain. "I am sorry I hope I didn't leave you outside in the cold rain for too long. Here let me take your coat. Oh, you must think I am crazy don't you?" Dutch takes your coat and disappears down a hallway for a few moments leaving you to look around the familiar room, the only room in the house that you had ever been in, well other than the kitchen and the bathroom once. The mess hadn't been touched since you were here last. The burnt out bulbs in the ceiling lamp had not been replaced, the thick layer of dust undisturbed but ever threatening an allergic fit or sickness. It is all there just like it always was there.

Dutch comes back "You must understand, I was downstairs and it is sometimes hard to hear knocking on that thick old door. As soon as I heard it, faintly as I heard it, I ran to check if you had come. I am sorry if I left you long. But that is unimportant now. I bet you are wondering why I called you here on such short notice?"

You indicate the room.

"No, we've had plenty of that, no need to talk over random matters today. Today I wanted to actually show you what I am up to."

You give him a confused look.

"Oh come now, you must have suspected something. You must have noticed that I have never spoken of a job or any other sort of income. You must have been curious to know why I live in such a rundown old shack like this." Dutch motions toward the room. "None the less, We have to hurry our window of opportunity may close any moment. We have to get you suited up."

Dutch grabs your arm and tugs. "Oh Come now.. What is the matter? You have nothing to worry about, and I will explain everything along the way." You follow his lead even though you aren't sure what you are getting yourself into.

"Remember a few weeks ago we had that conversation that I brought up about the possibility of other worlds, other civilizations. You wouldn't budge on the position that speculating about such things was merely a useless endeavor. But still you humored me because we didn't have anything more pressing to speak of at the time. Do you remember that conversation? Well you see, I wasn't bringing it up because of mere speculation. I have actually been doing several experiments... oh here we are." Dutch stops in front of a sliding door which he pulls aside to reveal a closet in which hangs several pairs of identical odd clothing, the same as Dutch is now wearing. He fingers through a few then pulls one out, this one looked new while the others looked a bit worn. "I have been planning this for weeks, but you know how I am. I loose track of time, absorbed in my hobbies and habits so you say. I almost forgot to invite you over, that would mean a complete waste of a good opportunity. What a shame that would have been. But I am rambling... the point is, I hope this fits you, I had to guess on your measurements, I made it as soon as I made the decision that I could trust you." Dutch hands you the suit and opens another door, an old bedroom with the same sense of discord that possessed the front room you were familiar with. "You can change in here but do so quickly, time is of the essence."

You walk into the room and stop to think a bit. Dutch has never exhibited any trait of a scam artist. You've seen him try and lie before, he was right, you had suspected that there was more to him than meets the eye. During your conversations in the past he had tried to cover up what he is now sharing to you now, telling you that he has normal hobbies just like everyone else, He tried to tell you he likes to make boats in bottles, You confronted him on the fact that there were no boats in bottles to be found in the main room, he caved and told the truth about that. You scour your mind to see if there were any other incidents where he tried to lie. Could he be pulling a scam now? You look at the suit and realize that there is only one way to find out, but that you had better be cautious, you begin to try on the suit.

It is a loose fit, and the legs are a little longer than they should be, you roll up the pant leg into a cuff. The suit feels a bit scratchy and stiff. you realize there are thin wires woven into the fabric. You try to ignore the scratching of the wires and eventually it subsides as the suit warms up a bit from your body heat. There is a stiff piece in the fabric on your side, you feel it and there is a handle, you pull the handle and there sitting in your hand is a knife. There are also bits of shiny metal plating on the outside of the suit, You realize with a slight shock that this is supposed to be an armor of some sort. You begin to question what is going on here. If worse comes to worse you at least have a dagger to defend yourself with. You sheath the dagger, but just to be sure, you pull it free and re-sheath it again a few times just to make sure you won't be fumbling for it if this does turn out to be a trap by some deranged man who you thought you knew. You begin to realize that your stress levels are rising. This situation is not in your control at all. You breath a few times, in... and out... in... and out... You repeat in your mind, whatever happens tonight... *Knock Knock Knock* Dutch knocks on the door at exactly the wrong moment, almost like it is on purpose.

"Are you done, I don't mean to rush but... well we need to rush..."

You take one last breath and open the door trying to repeat in your mind that whatever happens tonight you are not going to loose control of yourself.

Dutch takes a look at you in the suit and frowns innocently, "You are shorter. Oops, I should have trusted my instincts. That could be a bad thing, I am going to have to trust my instincts better. Come we haven't got a whole lot of time." Dutch began to move down the hallway, you follow tensely. "If all goes well tonight I can fix those pants up when we get back."

Dutch opens a door leading to a staircase that descended into darkness. "I keep forgetting to change the light. don't worry, just hold onto the railing and trust your feet to guide you, the first step is a bit deeper than the rest." Dutch descends into the darkness and before you know it you can't see anything but the occasional glint of light off his armor. You follow cautiously down. With every step you take downward, the temperature drops. You begin to shiver slightly, but you can't decide wither or not you are shivering more from the cold or the nervousness. You never really liked the dark.

Soon enough you can see lights. They are at the end of some hallway. You hear Dutch ahead of you, "We're almost into the light again. I hope you don't mind the cold too much. It is necessary for my equipment. When we get into the main chamber it will be warmer."

As you exit the hallway you see a room full of odd tanks and machines, there is a pungent smell in the air of car exhaust. "Most of these are generators, I had to make some adjustments on many of them to be more fuel efficient, most of them are pretty decent if I say so myself. then I had to work on the ventilation. That was a doozie, almost killed myself cause I didn't get it right the first time... come on... You will soon see why I chose this house to live in." at the far corner of the room there are more stairs down. They look as though they were not part of the original plans of the house. "This house was built partly over an underground cavern, a sink hole opened up, that is why the original owners left. I took advantage of it. I have been running all sorts of experiments down here. I've been at this for several years." Dutch presses forward, the electrical cables from all the generators run down the hole and along the ceiling. "I am sure you are wondering how I am getting away with all this? Where I am getting the funding and material? My parents were old money, they had all sorts of stocks and other sources of cash. Foolishly though, they followed the current social trends and only had one child, a curious child with a passion for the fantastic and otherworldly." Sure enough, the air begins to warm as you continue along the passage till finally Dutch and you round a corner and happen upon a fairly open cavern thirty feet across and nine feet high. The whole space is crowded with a maze of all sorts of computer and electronic equipment and cables. Lights blink like a night sky of colored stars.

"Come quick, I'll explain more when we are there." Dutch leads you through columns of electronics to a central part of the room where stands a tall black device which looks like a door frame. Its surface polished and reflecting the thousands of electric lights in the cavern, it truly does remind you of space. "It's magnificently beautiful is it not?" Dutch sighs, "We'll have more time to admire it after tonight." Dutch moves to a small monitor and presses a few buttons. The whole room comes to life, fans begin to whirr and machines begin to beep. Four boxes labeled with hazard signs begin to move toward the black device.

"This is where it can get a little dangerous some times. Put this mask and helmet on, quick." Dutch thrusts another piece of cloth and a helmet into your hand and you quickly pull it over your head. The four boxes open and you feel some strong force, electrical in a way, spark through your skin, all your hair stands on end. A loud popping noise erupts as lightning shoots from the four devices into the center of the device. It seems as though they are striking the same point of air. Your brain reels, nothing you know could possibly explain what is happening right now.

The lightning from each device breaks in two and begins moving toward the four corners of the device. But beneath the device, there is nothing, empty air. You look at Dutch wondering if it is working right. Other than being electrocuted there was no evidence that anything else was happening with the black device. Dutch only has a grin on his face, a look of triumph. When the lightning reaches the four corners of the device Dutch yells "Go, It's safe now. Go."

You look back at him worried, "It looks like nothing is going on." You yell your first words of the night.

"Trust me, Don't worry, Just run through the portal. I'll show you."

Dutch pushes you and runs through the portal and disappears in a flash of light. Nothing is stopping you now from turning around and going home. You think about it for one long moment. Few people ever get to have a truly out of the ordinary experience. "Because they Die." the thought crosses your mind. You stand undecided for a few moments then decide Dutch could be in danger, somehow, and that propels you forward and through the portal.

You black out...

Apology

As much as I hate to give up on something that I committed to do... This Particular group of story elements really refuse to work together. It is like my brain is an engine and I tried to pour an assortment of bolts, screws, nails, washers, wing nuts, and whatever else I could find, into the hole you stick the oil in and I expected it to work.. In other words, my brain has jammed pretty hard on this story, and I am also finding out that I have less time at work than I thought, and a lot of other (ahem) social obligations...

Part of the problem is that the point of inspiration is gone. By point of inspiration I mean that the point at which I received the idea has long past, aka I thought up a lot of the ideas I was going to put in this system purge a long time ago and now I cannot remember what led me to think them up. Also the point or purpose of those ideas has long past too. So While I may or may not include the random ideas in further writings (I really will try to fit them in somewhere,) I am just going to set a goal to write whatever comes to me as soon as I can. So without further ado.... Enjoy.

day one

To Whom it may concern... That means you, if you can read this... I mean, if it is in your own language and you can understand what I am trying to write... Because... oh.. forget it... I mean... The chances of this record actually making it out of this place without being destroyed are phenomenal by itself... perhaps improbability will be on my side. Perhaps if you actually have this record in your possession then perhaps by sheer improbability it will also be written in the language that you can understand... But again I ramble.

I guess I should introduce myself. My name is Mad Melvin. There exists a white box with padded walls, it is where I reside, myself and my three companions. They are called Psycho Phillip, Crazy Larry, and Igath the caveman. The white box is no mere white box. Occasionally men come into the white box, but it is never the same men, I am sure of it. Crazy Larry thinks that they are the same men but I know better, they all where the same mask. Again, I ramble. The men with masks are not what I wanted to talk to you about. I wanted to tell you about the White Box. It is no ordinary white box. When the masked men leave, the box disappears. Ask Crazy Larry.. he will tell you. Or better yet, you might get something more intelligible out of Igath. It depends on the day. You see, some days Larry can speak just fine like any one else (except Psycho Phillip of course, communicating with him is like a game of charades on steroids) but on other days Larry just grunts and only says a few words.

So ask Larry and Igath and they will tell you that when the masked men leave, the box disappears, sometimes all at once, sometimes it is slow, like a pinhole in one wall that suddenly we shrink down into. We all have different names for this box, I call it the Never Realm. On a good day Larry called it a Void, and Igath has referred to it as Purge once, I am not sure why he chose that name for the box. But he seems to be adamant that this is the name of the box we live in. Again I ramble.

What happens when the box disappears is what I want to talk about. You see, The Never Realm is a whole universe, inescapable, filled with chaos. On a daily basis, the universe is destroyed and created again. Some days it is created in continuation of the day before, other days it is the same as though nothing before existed, and still other days the universe will be created complete with a back story, the people will remember all sorts of things that happened before but we know, because we were there, that the previous day, they didn't exist.

Some days, the universe that is created is amazingly entertaining, some days it is scary, some days, it is just plain confusing, some days are utterly boring as we float through a gross mass of uniform goo. It took a long time but I bartered with the masked men and with the never realm itself and I have obtained material on which to write, material which you now have in your possession if all goes well. I have set fort on these pages a few memories of good days in the Never Realm, where things that happened have really surprised me and I just felt that I should make a record about such things.

Before I begin though, I would like to just say that I am sorry if this record is not to your liking. It will probably be only half as fun for you to read this record as it was for me to write the record. Words alone can not really describe what goes on in the Never Realm because words are weak. And so, for the sake of enjoyment, you will only get out of this experience what you put into it with your own imagination. With that in mind I think I shall tell you of the days of the bearded lady.

The Bearded lady has actually been a regular creation of the Never Realm, If the Never Realm were a living person I would say that they like the Bearded lady... Well, actually I might not be too far off on that, But I will speak on that another day. Sometimes the Bearded lady would appear by herself, sometimes among a whole crew of Bearded women, Most often however she would show up in a specific crew, with the Strong Man, the Siamese Twins, the Wild Man, and the Psychic.

My three companions and I stumbled upon the Bearded lady one such day when she was with this particular crew. The Never Realm some days will make our presence known to the people, some days it is selective, only certain people will see us, while other days we are completely incapable of interacting with the inhabitants. This was one of those days where all we could do is watch.

The group was performing various exercises in a wilderness area as they talked, The strong man was, as far as we could tell, practicing the ability to be... oh what is the word... dainty... delicate perhaps... gentle... that is most likely the closest I could describe it. He was drinking tea like a proper fellow, pinky outstretched and all. They were talking mostly of their plans to sneak into the castle of someone they referred to as Lord Chesapeake. From what we could infer, Chesapeake was not a nice man and had for some time been terrorizing the local farmers, imposing on them quotas of vegetable production, abusing their livestock, forcing them off their land if they couldn't meet his demands.

Their conversation went something like this.

"Sit strait Rupert" The Psychic said to the Strong man as he sat in the crude chair that was too small for him.

"It's got no back Willia." Said the Strong Man back.

"All the better to practice with Rupert." Said the Bearded lady.

"Would you shut it Deedra, You and Willia, you are enough to drive me crazy. keep this up and I will rip your whiskers out Dee."

The Bearded lady winced at the threat. The Siamese twins sighed, "Looks like you are getting too worked up over this." said one of the twins, "Yeah, we should all cool it, we need to remember how important our task is. Rupert you and Willia are the only ones who stand any chance of getting to Chesapeake under disguise. Ruth and I would never make it, I don't know if you noticed, but we kind of stick out like a two headed person here. Deedra would raise questions about mid day when her five o'clock shadow appears again. And Jax... Well..." Everyone looked at Jax who was passionately scratching his rear end with both hands.

Jax looked up to notice that everyone was staring at him. At this point Igath laughed really hard which distracted all of us. He kept pointing at Jax and then pointing at himself and saying "Me Too..."

When we finally got him calmed down and could hear the group again talking about the disguises. It seems like the group had been an irritant for Lord Chesapeake and that he had put out a bounty on their heads but didn't have enough description of them other than the Bearded lady and the Siamese Twins.

Soon enough Rupert and Willia were on the way to the castle of Lord Chesapeake. Seeing as how the Bearded lady could do little more in this story I went to watch Rupert and Willia and oohh.. one moment the masked men are coming in, it looks like it is time to sleep. I shall continue my writing on another day when the Never Realm creates some place boring.

Unhappy Endings Episode 4

I can't move. My head is the only thing protruding above the pavement. "You're sick in the head woman. Leave me alone." I yell at the strange girl.
"I can't leave you alone, you see. It is part of destiny, Fate has decreed you only two paths. One path is the life of a glorious tool for good..."
"You mean a tool used to enslave the populace in some freaky drug induced... Ow." she stands up and kicks me in the side of the head.
"The other path is a path of destruction, which you seem to be following just now."
"its just a dream, its just a dream." I repeat trying to remind myself. But the dream is so realistic. The pain in my skull is so sharp. "Ignore her and she will disappear, ignore her and she will disappear."
"Nice try Mr. McCasey. I'm not going away. I will haunt you till your judgment comes."

I am so tired. Night after night, she comes to me, traps me, tells me things I don't want to hear. Vanessa is worrying. She knows I am avoiding sleep now. The mental effects are bad enough, but I am feeling the physical effects too. My mind is distracted, at work, at home. It is like the dream of my sleep doesn't end, it just keeps trying to push into my mind when I am awake, it is taking more and more effort to keep focused on what is happening in the real world.

I sit in my office, alone. I take an aspirin. Luckily Harold is the only person who suspects my stress is from something other than the merger. Focus, I must Focus. Dear valued clients and partners, We are proud to report the statistical data from this last quarter... We are tired.. oops. We work tirelessly to bring you services that will maintain and even increase your over head in the pavement... ghah. increase your overhead savings. We have plans currently in the works that will help you fulfill your purpose as Fate... I put my head down on the desk. Focus, I must focus. I am better than this. I can control my mind. No one else controls it for me. I control my own fate. I sit up strait. and look out my office window. It feels like a good time to take a stroll around the company.

I make my way out the door and begin strolling through the cubicles. A bit of pride fills my heart to see such diligent workers who have all adopted the dream I created. A dream that has helped stretch the resources of thousands of corporations across America. Now we are working on developing corporate educational material. I head towards the R&D department. I arrive to see Harold standing there talking with the group. I step in behind Harold.
Harold quickly whips around at my entrance "Ahh, John. Welcome." Harold's eyes widen for a second but he tries to hide his surprise.
"Hello Harold. How are the educational materials coming along?"
"They are progressing nicely." Harold quickly grabs a few things off the table and begins trying to pocket them.
"What are those?" I can hear the tinkling of glass striking together.
"Oh nothing, it's nothing." From the looks on the developer's faces, it was not nothing.
"Well if it is nothing then surely you wouldn't mind showing me."
Harold looks around with the specific face of an opponent beaten. He takes a small brown bottle out of his pocket, labeled "relaxation". I look into Harold's eyes.
"You went to that woman again didn't you?"
Harold nodded, "Well since the one that gets rid of headaches worked, I wanted to test the other ones, So I decided to have our R&D take a look at them."
"Harold, I said I don't want any business with that woman."
"I will fund it out of my own pocket."
I look at the R&D employees and then back to Harold. "Come outside so I can have a private word with you Harold." Harold looks at the R&D team them back at me. We step outside. I speak in a calm voice. "Harold, I don't have a good feeling about these oils. You know how I am about Alcohol, drugs, and anything else that artificially alters your mental state. I think that some of these oils do that."
"Well then we can avoid the ones that alter the mental state and still distribute the ones that just give physical effect. Like the migraine one."
"We are not a medicine company Harold."
"We could do it as a sub company, a side project. These oils work, think of the opportunity."
"No Harold. We have enough on our hands as it is trying to manage the merger, we don't need something to distract us. We need to focus."
Harold looks at the floor and breathes heavily. "I guess you are right."

I head back to my office. It was good timing. I shake my head and try to clear my mind of the situation. I take a different path back to my office. I go through the cubicles and start running through the names of the employees just to keep my mind focused. Janice, Ben, Daniel, Jeffry, Maria, Isabelle, Trent, Joseph... Wait Trent. I remember the night with Jack. I take a step back and look into Trent's cubicle. He is a nervous redheaded fellow. Very efficient, very quick with the computer, and above all, the reason why I hired him is because he has a strong code of ethics. Trent ferociously flipped through the pages of a stack of folders and was quickly checking the monitor. Something seemed to be bothering him. He punched the keys on his various calculators.
"Hello Trent."
"SSHHt" he puts his hand out. he waves his pencil at the screen counting, then he pushes some buttons on his calculators, then he marks in the folders. I wait patiently as he goes through a few other motions until finally he scribbles something down on a paper. Then he sighs and sits back, he picks up the paper, looks at it, switches to a different window on the computer and frowns. He looks over at me. "Oh, Mr. McCasey. Sorry about that. Had I known it was you I'd have..."
I put my hand up "Don't worry about it. I am glad you are so intense in your work. I just had a personal question to ask you."
Trent raises an eyebrow and gives me a look that says, Huh.
"I just wanted to know if you have met my Wife or not?"
Trent scrunches up his face, concentrating, "I don't think I ever have, not on purpose no."
"So you've never been to my house?"
"Was I supposed to?"
I shake my head a little. "No, it is just that my kid said that a man named Trent has been coming over to visit my wife. I didn't think it was you, but I just wanted to make sure."
"Oh." he said. His eyes returned to his computer screen. "Nope, I've never met your family. Is that all you wanted to know?"
"Yeah, that is all."
"Well, Sir, could you look at this then."
I shrug and poke my head into his cubicle. "What is it?"
"I've been doing some accounting work and I have found that a lot of the bank transactions, the transactions that we have recorded on file, and the estimates, aren't all matching up at all. Currently, if some of the figures are right, they show differences of up to eight hundred thousand dollars. I have used every resource I have access too and I can't figure out where all these discrepancies have been coming from."
"Hmm." I try to think of a reason, but nothing is coming to me. Event the merger shouldn't have cause that large of a difference. "How about you give your mind a rest on the matter and I will look into it and see if I can find out what is going on."
"Well sir, the reason why I was looking is because I didn't have much else to do. So if you take this off my hands, I don't know what I would do with myself for most of the day. That would feel wrong. If you could grant me access to more information I might be able to find it myself. You could monitor everything I get into, and I would report what I find. Would that work?"
"It sounds reasonable enough. I will write you up a permission form. Good work Trent."

(Ok, Faithful readers, November fast approaches, and with it, the impending Nanowrimo. Because of this, the blog will take a month long hiatus. Well, from this story at least. I might put up excerpts from my Nanowrimo work, you know, to keep you all happy.)

Unhappy Endings Episode 3

Fatigue claws at my mind. I struggle to give the presentation. We are going to move this company forward by expanding our customer base. These are the companies we need to focus on. I must keep my mind focused. I look over at Harold, he looks like he had a rough night too. He holds his head... I must keep my mind focused. We can provide services that will help to save our customers money. I am tired. What a strange dream... Focus, Focus...

"Looks like you partied too much last night, eh Harold?" the presentation went well, despite Harold and I not feeling well.

"I didn't part at all last night. I just woke up with a pounding headache."

"Did you take an Ibuprofen?"

"Yeah, but it hasn't helped, I think it might be a migraine."

"Have you had those before?"

"Once or twice a year."

"Hmm, you never told me that you have migraines."

"It has been so long since I have had one, the subject never came up."

"Look if you need to go home today, I am sure Henry and William can pick up the slack..."

"Just hold a minute. Let me try one more thing." Harold pulls out a small brown bottle. "I must be nuts."

I stare at the bottle for a few moments, all of a sudden something feels weird. I can't place my finger on it. "What is that?"

"Its some sort of oil."

"You didn't get it from some crazy lady did you?"

"How'd you know?"

"She approached me yesterday as I was leaving. She said she wanted our company to market those oils."

"Weird eh... Like I said I must me nuts. But she said that this one can get rid of headaches. I might as well try it."

I watch as Harold opens the cap slowly and shakes some of the fluid onto his finger. Something still feels weird or wrong but without being able to tell why, I can't say anything against what Harold is about to do. He spreads the oil on his forehead. I watched him closely for a few moments.

"Anything?" I ask.

"I think you are supposed to give it a few minutes to kick in."

Harold closes the bottle and leans back and relaxes a bit. After a few minutes he sits up "Wow, this stuff works like a charm. I don't feel any pain in my head at all now."

"Hmm. Weird eh."

"Yeah, weird."

Harold just stares at the bottle. "I wonder how it works?"

"I don't know, I am not sure I want to know, something about that lady last night just seemed weird. I don't want to be doing business with her."

Harold gives me a look like I am crazy. He shrugs "If that is the way you feel about it. Ok."

I shake my head. "The day is still young. We have work to do."

"You don't look like you got a lot of sleep last night either John."

I freeze, I don't want to tell him about the nightmare. "I had some rough sleep. I'll be fine, don't worry about me." I walk out of the room with my briefcase under my arm ready to do what is needed. Focus... Focus...

I drive home, the clouds gather overhead. It looks like it may rain. "Figures" I say. It feels like I am in a bad scary story and that the weather is just adding to the mood. I park and sigh. Fatigue claws at my mind. I get out of the car and get to the door.

"Daddy..." the kids are pressing their faces to the window adjacent to the door. I can't help but smile. I come inside and drop my briefcase next to the door, that is how life should always be, a man comes home and he leaves his work at the door and doesn't pick it up till he leaves again. I crouch down and hug my children.

"Well hello," I say in a pleasant tone. "What are you all still doing up."

"They wanted to thank you for writing them those nice letters." Vanessa said while standing at the door.

"Is that so?"

"Thank you Daddy." the littlest one said.

"Don't feel bad Dad, we understand you have your responsibilities."

The children's words are sweet medicine for the soul. I talk with each one about their school. I ask how their friends are doing. But all too soon Vanessa finally chimes in that it is time to go to bed and the children are ushered to their rooms.

I try to sleep but bits and pieces of the nightmare play though my head. I hear someone walking along the hallway outside our room. It is probably Jack gone to get a drink as he normally does. Since I am awake I go and check it out. Sure enough it is Jack. "Are you getting a drink Jack?"

Jack looks at me and wipes at the sleepiness in his eye. "Yeah,"

"You having trouble sleeping?"

"Yeah."

I walk down the stairs with Jack and get into the kitchen, "Maybe I need a drink too."

"Are you having trouble sleeping Dad?"

"Yeah, I am."

I pour two glasses of water. We sit across from one another in the dim light and drink slowly. We are both tired and not thinking clearly.

"Do you know a man named Trent?"

My mind takes a few moments to process the question. I know a Trent at work, he is an accountant. I can't see how Jack could possibly know that Trent though. "I know a Trent, Why do you ask?"

"Mom has a friend named Trent. He comes over a lot. Mom says he's a business man like you." Jack pauses a bit, still thinking. "I wondered if he was your friend."

"Do you know if Trent works for me?"

"I dunno." Jack finishes his drink and puts his cup in the sink.

"I'll see if I know this Trent." I say.

"Ok." Jack yawns, "Night Dad."

"Night Jack."

Short Story episode two

I drive home a little unsettled at the strangeness of the event which has just occurred. I wonder if that oil vending woman was just crazy. Still, the meeting was unusual enough to become an unforgettable memory. I pull into the Driveway of my home and head inside. "I'm home Vanessa."
"Hello John." Vanessa said with a smile.
"Well don't you look gorgeous. Are you planning on going out?"
"Nope, I just like to look nice for you John. How was your party with Harold."
"He complained that there wasn't any alcohol."
"Well don't mind him. Just forget the stress of today and come and eat the dinner I prepared, I kept it warm."
I don't mind her attentiveness, the way she is always waiting to greet me the moment I come home, with her makeup on and looking beautiful just for me, yet it seems a bit excessive some days. She wasn't always like she is now.
"How are the kids?"

"They are asleep."

"I wish work didn't take up so much of my time."

"They understand honey. They still think of you as a good father."

"I hope so. I know how hard it was for me to grow up without my father."

"This is different though. Your father passed away when you were young. You are still here for your children."

I give a little nod. I am tired.

"Come to bed, you look tired."

I want to but I take some time to write letters to my children. It is sad that my work requires so much time that I can't even find time to be with my children. That is going to change. That has to change. I will delegate more of my work out, I just need the right people, I need to find the people with the right attitude. I finally go to bed and close my eyes and comfortably drift to sleep.

"This Oil here will help you fulfill your purpose in life Mr. McCasey." The lady said her voice colder than when we first met. A touch of anger lined her accent. I close the door on my car.

"How?"

"Fate has given us these oils. Fate can work through these oils. Fate can communicate through some of them. If you would spread the oil of communication on your cheek, your mind would begin to vibrate in sync with the cosmos and you would be able to truly understand the message I bring to you."

"You are lying to me." I shake my head. "Those oils are just like a placebo if anything."

"You are wrong Mr. McCasey, you could be the tool of much good in this world. It is sad that you pass up such an opportunity. There are many truths in the world yet so very few have ever found all of the important truths."

"I am not passing anything up except some psychotic drug induced fantasy."

"Tsk.. Tsk.. Mr. McCasey. I am sure glad there are other worthy candidates who will do the good in this world which you refuse to do."

"What other candidates, huh. Who would go along with your crazy plan?"

"Soon enough you will find out."

She takes out a small brown bottle.

"This is your last chance Mr. McCasey. This is your final warning. I suppose that if you still refuse then fate may still grant you favor. However this is your last to chance to choose the part of a king rather than a pawn."

"I will never choose your madness."

"OOOhhh. Tsk... Tsk.. Mr. McCasey, use the word never carefully. Well then you shall be a pawn, if you choose to be such before the last day. Don't choose too late." she uncorks the little bottle and turns it over upon herself. The contents poured down on her and she slowly begins to grow and to change into a great snarling beast. I watched in horror but my feet wont move. I looked down and I am slowly being sucked into the ground. The Beast laughs and jabs at me with a spear. My blood pours down upon the ground into which I am slowly sinking. Inch by inch my body becomes paralysed. I scream but no one could hear. Eventually my mouth dries, I am helpless. I vomit. The beast laughs again and as the ground is up to my neck.

"Too Late..." The beast says then raises a foot...

I wake up with a jerk. I feel cold. Sweat pours down my face. I am wet all over. My heart pounds. I check the clock, I have only slept a few hours.

"Honey are you alright?" Vanessa mumbles.

Breathing heavily I try to reply, "It's nothing dear.."

I try to go back to bed but I am worried I might have that dream again.