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I THOUGHT IT WAS A dream. A bed creaked and I looked across the room. The outside lights were still burning. I could see something moving, a slender shadow, silently gliding to the door. Except the glide was odd, like the thing had short legs and long imperfect feet. As it went out through the screen door I saw it in silhouette, the horns much longer now, reaching around her face like some sort of face guard.
I rose and followed. It was a dream, so I had to do it.
She went into the next room, took the big packet of Zanodol, and spoke to the slumbering adults on their tangled beds. It was not English, but of course you can understand anything spoken in a dream.
“Take some more. It will make it quicker.”
They sat up, took their pills, and slumped down again.
She moved on, visiting the other rooms, always the same, “Take some more. It will make it quicker.” The others rose one by one, complaining about having to wake, took the pills without any water, and fell back again, sound asleep. Some of them rose up, their hair jutting out around their horns. Taylah. Amelia. Wyatt. Michaela. The list went on.
I followed this dream creature until she had done her rounds, and, as all dreams do, it led me right back to my own bed. As I lay down to return to my oblivion, the creature slipped the pool key from Ms Loti’s bunch and shuffling out the door.
Of course. The pool. That made sense. All dreams do.