Chapter Nineteen

 

Dream Walker

 

It only took Seth about fifteen minutes to get to Annaleah's house. She’d been sobbing as she’d asked him to come over. Though he could barely make out what she was saying, he was out the door in a flash. Always the night owl, he had been up anyway, doing a bit of reading on his day off from his artwork, which he sold to collectors around Atlanta for a decent price. His work was good, mostly paintings in an abstract style, of things of an occult nature. He enjoyed painting pagan deities or dragons, some fairy folks or mythical creatures. He did a bit of sculpture too, and those got the highest prices, as they took the most time and were a bit more difficult to do.

Seth let himself in with the key Annaleah had given him years ago when they had been friends for about a year. It had been a sign of her trust and faith in his loyalty. They had been so young back then, he recalled, smiling fondly. He hoped she had calmed down a bit so they could talk about what had upset her so much. He knew it had something to do with a dream she’d had, and that she was frightened. She hadn't wanted to wake Uncle John and worry him, and Seth understood that. She said Uncle John had to come home from work early that night, something he rarely did. His hours had been cut and he worked every chance he got, even though he was a sick man. He must have felt for him to come home from his job as an ER triage nurse at the Doltree hospital.

Uncle John took pride in his work and in his ability to take care of himself, as well as Annaleah. He had worked through being sick before, and, Seth guessed that knowing this too was partly why Annaleah was so upset. Uncle John was the last family she had left, and watching him get sicker and having to suffer with his chemo treatments broke her heart. She hid this from Uncle John though and was always cheerful and hopeful, full of nothing but helpful words and love, never letting him see how much it hurt her when he had one of his bouts. He had been doing well for a while now, both of them had been hopeful when none of his hair had yet fallen out from chemo. He had seemed to be getting better.

Knowing he had to come home from work must really have upset her. He knew she helped her uncle, as much as he had helped her since she was little. The oncologists had been quite surprised when they told him it was Hodgkin's disease. "This is a cancer we rarely see in adults. It tends to be a childhood disease," his doctor had told Uncle John. Seth knew Annaleah had wanted to burst into tears, but she had told Seth that she had grabbed Uncle John's hand instead, and told his doctor, "Well, if Uncle John has to get cancer, it would have to be the one children get. He is, after all, only a child at heart." That had been two years ago, when Uncle John was a stage two. He was a stage three now.

As Seth walked through the door, he looked at Annaleah, his heart sinking with concern as she slowly sat up on the couch. She was wearing her lilac colored silk robe over her nightclothes and had been curled up into a ball, her arms wrapped around her knees. Tears still stained her cheeks, and her eyes looked red and puffy from crying. Normally she would have jumped off the couch and ran to him, throwing her arms around him, but tonight he knew she just didn't have it in her.

"Hey Seth," she said simply. "Thank you for coming over."

"You look terrible. What happened?" Seth sat beside her on the couch, his concern blossoming in his heart and quickening its pace. She looked slightly dazed, and this worried him. He took her hand in his and held it gently, waiting for her to gather her thoughts.

"Can you make us some tea first, please?" Annaleah asked. "I would have made us some but.... I just feel so out of it right now, so drained. I have some chamomile and hibiscus in the cupboard over the stove. You know where everything else is." Her voice sounded so tiny as she spoke, as if she truly had been drained of all her energies.

"Of course," Seth answered. "I'm on it." He rose from the couch, kissing her on top of the head before making his way to the kitchen to brew their tea. He didn't say anything as he brought the teapot to a boil and prepared their mugs with four sugars each. Though it might have seemed a lot of sugar to most, he and Annaleah had bonded over the knowledge that they both shared an insatiable sweet tooth.

He let her gather her strength and her thoughts, not wanting to push her. It had been a long time since he had seen her this upset. It hurt him to see her in this state, but knowing he was there with her also made him feel better.

After a bit, Seth returned to the living room with two steaming cups of chamomile and hibiscus tea. He handed one mug to Annaleah and set the other on the coffee table in front of him before sitting down again beside her. She cupped the warm mug in her hands, seeming to gain strength from it. She looked even more pale than usual and a bit dazed. Her eyes were glazed and unfocused, and her face was almost expressionless. Her dazed demeanor worried him.

"I think I am dream walking again, Seth."

Seth leaned closer and put his hand on top of hers, his heart sinking in his chest, knowing whatever it was that she had gone through had shaken her terribly. She didn’t look like herself, and for her to act like this frightened him.

"Tell me." Seth said, leaning closer to her. Seth remembered the time she had dream walked when she was younger, just entering puberty, and it had proved to be quite an issue for her, and for Uncle John, too. They had thought it was simple sleepwalking at first, when the police dropped her off back at home early in the morning. They had seen her walking barefoot in Hideman park, almost six miles from their home.

After it happened for the third time, the police told Uncle John if they saw her out past midnight again, he would have to go to court for violating a number of child safety laws. She had been insistent that she had been dreaming, and since it had been impossible for her to walk that far in such little time, with no blisters on her feet, he and uncle john had believed her.

In some dreams Annaleah had said she had fought these angel beings before, and indeed, the marks of her dreams did show up on her skin, which prompted Seth into doing research on dreams and dream walking. He had found out how rare it was to be a natural dream walker, and that most spiritualists had to train diligently for years to be able to dream walk. Usually it meant walking into another person’s dreams and interacting with them there, but Annaleah seemed to be able to take it even further. The idea that she could slip from dreams into reality was a disturbing one. What if she found herself on top of a building and in her sleep, walked off of the roof, thinking she was somewhere else in her dream? Or what if she was dreaming of breathing underwater and transported herself to the bottom of one of the real world’s oceans?

That idea that she could travel in the real world using dreams as a means of transportation was just thoroughly frightening. At least, it was if she had no control over it. What if she got stuck in a dream, and never woke up again?

Seth closed his eyes and sought his strength. “Well,” he told himself, “That means potentially good things could come through too.”

It was hard for Seth not to express his concern for her, but he knew she would shake him off if he did so. Instead, he squeezed her hand. He sensed there was more she needed to say, and her dazed demeanor told him it was going to be disturbing.

"The night before I went to my first class," Annaleah continued, "I dreamed an awful dream. Uncle John had to wake me up. He said I was screaming.” Annaleah paused, her face crumpling with the force of her emotions. Seth could tell she was trying to control herself, but she was having a hard time. She needed him to be strong for her, so he reigned in his concern. He swallowed hard and waited for her to tell him the rest of what she had gone through.

“I dreamed of a war, but not between men. I was standing on the bloodied ground where angels fought with one another. Those with indigo eyes fought with the ones whose eyes were silver. The sky was dark, swollen and bruised, as if it suffered from battle wounds too, yet it continued to bleed forth more and more angels. Some were screaming and some were speaking in a language I have heard before in other dreams but could not understand. None of them seemed to know I was there. After Uncle John left, when I got up to go to the bathroom, I had mud on my feet. How on earth did I get mud on my feet when I was in my bed dreaming?"

Annaleah looked at Seth, her eyes now greener than usual, the tears bringing out their color all the more. Panic gripped deeply inside his chest, its icy fingers making his heart beat even faster. Why was this happening again, he wondered? What did it mean?

She took a sip of her tea and continued. "Tonight, my dream started out rather nice. I was in the woods, where my mother used to take me. I was on a path that led to a clearing in the woods, and there stood, of all people, Professor Bainbridge, only he wasn't really Professor Bainbridge.”

The professor...? Seth was now certain he had something to do with all the strange things that had been going on ever since he had entered Annaleah’s life. Even though he felt certain Professor Bainbridge was some sort of catalyst, Seth felt an odd certainty he wasn’t quite as bad as he seemed to be. Perhaps he was here to protect her in some way. She had said the dream had started out nicely, so it made sense.

“I mean it was the professor, but he was.... different. He had wings, huge wings, and they were so beautiful. He was beautiful. His eyes were silver, not just the iris part, but his entire eye; he had no pupils at all, like his eyes were mirrors. He called to me and I felt like I had known him forever, so I went to him.” She took a deep breath and looked off for a moment, as if her eyes were focusing on something Seth couldn’t see. “It was so real.”

For the first time that night, Annaleah smiled, the dazed look gone from her eyes and replaced by a gleam of wonderment.

“I could smell the crisp night air. I could feel the grass under my feet. I could hear the crickets in the woods and Gods, when he kissed me..." Annaleah trailed off, smiling just a bit.

Seth looked at her, amused. Kissing the Professor? That seemed a bit odd. It wasn’t something he had been expecting to hear, but he was glad to see her smiling. He thought briefly of teasing her to break the lingering tension, but knew right now wasn’t a good time.

If she was attracted to him, he was happy for her, she deserved a good man in her life. Assuming the professor was good, that is.

"Wow. I didn't see that one coming." Annaleah's eyes gained focus again almost at once, and she looked defensive.

"No, it isn't like that," Annaleah said. " It was like I said, as if I knew him forever, not as the Professor, but as the creature he was. He looked like one of the angels that were fighting in my other dream. Only his eyes didn't have pupils like theirs did. And Seth," Annaleah paused and looked him in the eye, "I had wings too! Though I didn't know it until just before I woke up."

"It doesn't sound that awful. I mean, the dream before that with the battle scene sounds terrifying, but the dream in the woods, it sounds like you kind of enjoyed it. What makes you think that one was dream walking?"

Annaleah considered this for a moment. "The dream was just, so intense, as if I really, truly were there. I woke up after this dream, but only for a second.”

Annaleah smiled at Seth and gently moved his hand off hers. She picked her mug up and took a sip. Seth was glad she had calmed down a bit.

After she had set the mug back in its place, she took a deep breath and went on. “It was the dream I had after that which really upset me, and is the one that frightens me. I think there is something in my dreams that is trying to escape into this reality to harm me. I know that sounds crazy, but it's the truth. If what I dreamed of is going to try to come out of my dreams, then I'm afraid of what will come of it.”

Annaleah hung her head, as if it were too full of emotion to hold upright anymore. A tear fell from her eye, and Seth gave in and wrapped his arms around her. He held her close to him, his mind racing. He would die in a heartbeat to protect her.

He hadn’t heard of anything coming out of a dream into reality before, but that didn’t mean it was impossible. The ramifications of this could be devastating. He could feel her shaking in his arms, and was surprised to feel himself shaking too.

"I need your help Seth. You know so much about dreams," Annaleah whispered against his shoulder. "I don't mind the dreams of walking in the woods and seeing a beautiful creature, but I have to tell you about the next dream."

He released her from his protective embrace, and she pulled away from him slowly, still shaking. As she lifted her head to look at him once more, the tears had come back, leaving trails on her cheeks.

Seth brought his hand to her face, and carefully wiped a tear away with the pad of his thumb.

“Don’t cry,” he whispered, though another tear fell. He gently wiped it away, too.

“I may not be the biggest or the roughest guy around, but I promise you I won’t let anything happen to you. I promise to protect you in any way I can.”

Annaleah took his hand and placed a kiss on it, splashing it with another tear.

“Thank you,” she said as she tried to smile for him.

Seth slowly moved away from her to grab a tissue from the coffee table. She took it from him and began to dab at her face.

"I was in the woods on the path to the clearing again," Annaleah swallowed, "only this time I felt as if something terrible was there with me. The darkness in the woods seemed to be alive, and it was! I was being spied on by hundreds and hundreds of spiders. They dropped from the trees and came from the woods onto the path I was on. At first I didn't know what they were, but when I realized they were spiders, some of them as big as a basketball, I ran to the clearing to a hunched over figure. I thought it was the Professor, having just seen him moments ago in my other dream.”

She looked down at her hands that held the tear stained tissue, wringing it as though it might give her some answers. “

“It wasn't. It was a beautiful Asian woman who called herself Nephila."

Seth gasped audibly.

"What is it?" her green eyes looked at him expectantly.

"Nothing, I'm sorry," Seth apologized. "It’s just that name sounds familiar.” Seth searched his mind for a moment, knowing that name meant something, but he came up with nothing. “I’m sorry, please go on."

Annaleah drank the last of her tea and then put the empty mug back down on the coffee table. "The woman knew she terrified me," Annaleah said. "At first I wasn't sure why. She was a beautiful woman wearing an elaborate kimono of black and yellow, but I knew she wasn't what she seemed. She spoke threateningly to me, but in a roundabout way. Something about offending her spider babies by running from them when all they wanted was to say hello. Something else about them coming out when it was going to rain and when war was afoot. I was so scared I couldn't speak. She got mad when I didn't say anything.”

Annaleah stared blankly at the mug on the coffee table for a moment before she went on. “Then, suddenly, another woman appeared, forming herself out of the air. She was only a bit taller than me, with straight blonde hair a bit darker than mine, and she had wings like the creature the Professor was; only hers were black. She called herself...Marchosias."

Marchosias…. That name seemed familiar too, though he couldn’t remember where he had heard it before. Why was he unable to recall such important sounding names, he wondered? Annaleah lifted an eyebrow, looking closely at him.

"Anyway," Annaleah continued, "Marchosias called this other woman Jorogumo, which really pissed her off. That's when she said her name was Nephila, and asked who dared to call her Jorogumo. None of this makes any sense, Seth."

Annaleah put her head in her hands, and sighed loudly, wiping at her face before she went on. "Marchosias told Nephila to leave me alone, and then Nephila began to change into a hideous black and yellow spider. Her mouth split open and mandibles came out; her eyes went dark and morphed into eight eyes. The other creature put her hand over my eyes and told me to wake up. So I did."

"My God Annaleah, that sounds terrifying!" Seth said. "I’m so sorry you went through that. I wish I could have dream walked there to you. I promise I’m going to do my best to figure this out for you. I’m not going to let her hurt you.”

Seth wanted desperately to calm her down and reassure her, but he had to ask her something.

“Did you wake up with muddy feet?" he asked, looking down to see her clean bare feet, wondering if she had washed them before he got there.

"No, not this time," Annaleah told him, rolling back the sleeves of her lilac robe. Tears came to her eyes once more, spilling down her cheeks. Seth looked at her arms and saw dozens of red, raised welts on each. Shocked, he took her left arm to examine it further.

"When I woke up this time," Annaleah continued, "there was no mud, though I wish that is what happened. Instead as I woke up I felt something crawling all over my arms. When I threw the covers back, I had spiders on me, all over my arms. They bit me, over and over. I am amazed I didn't scream, but I couldn't, I was too scared. I managed to brush them all off of me and step on them, but not before they did this."

As if for emphasis, a shiny black spider crawled up the table leg and onto the coffee table, chittering and opening and closing its mandibles as it went.

Annaleah jumped up on the couch, but before she could scream, Seth smashed it with his bare hand, sending its now gooey body parts to different corners of the table.

Amped up on adrenaline, they both stared wide eyed at the table, their breath ragged and deep.

Snapping out of it, Annaleah dropped to her knees on the couch, covering her head with her hands, sobbing.

Seth was just as terrified as she was, now knowing just how much danger she was in. He rushed to her side, wiping his hand on his pants before he touched her.

Seth tried not to show how scared her really was for her. If she had brought those spiders back with her, then that meant not only could she travel through dreams, but that other things could, too. That meant her safety was in jeopardy. Who knew what crazy things she could bring back with her, potentially worse than spiders?

“It’s ok, it’s gone, I killed it.” Seth said, trying to refocus himself on being strong for Annaleah. He didn’t want her to see him shaking. She didn’t seem to hear him though, and she was trembling more than ever.

He sat beside her and wrapped her in his arms again, not knowing what to say, but wanting her to feel safe. He rocked her, feeling helpless as he wiped a tear from his own face.

“It’s not okay,” she spoke against him. “It might never be okay again.”

"You need to wake Uncle John, Annaleah, and let him to look at your arms. He will know if you need to go to the hospital. I don’t want to frighten you but those things could be poisonous."

Annaleah jerked her arm back and began to roll her sleeves back down her arms. "No! I am not waking Uncle John up. He’s not well, you know that. I don't want him to see me upset. If I do tell him what happened, it will be when he feels stronger. Besides, there are no red bulls-eye looking marks or streaks on any of the bites. That means whatever those bastards were, they probably weren't poisonous. They were shiny black spiders, about the length of my thumbnail. I promise to keep an eye on them though. If they get worse I will take the day off and go to the hospital, okay?"

"Ok Annaleah," Seth conceded, knowing he couldn’t talk her out into it. Could a hospital here in the waking world even help her with bites from an otherworldly spider? The best he could do for now was to support in in whatever decision she made. If it turned out to be not in her best interest, he would be the first one there to help her then, too.

"It does sound like dream walking. Tell me the name of the women again, if I can look her up we might find some sort of way to fight her.” He pulled out his smart phone. She told him, and after a moment of searching he found what he was looking for. "Got it; a Japanese creature of folk lore, like a ghost or goblin, said to seduce men with their beauty, only to transform later into a spider and devour their victim."

Seth looked up from his phone to his friend, worried. "I know that you know a lot about the occult and different folk lore of the world, have you ever read or seen anything about the Jorogumo?" he asked.

Annaleah shook her head, her blonde curls falling over her eyes, only to be quickly brushed away. "No, never. That's what makes it seem so real, so horrible and so threatening. She’s a real creature, and she had her babies follow me out of Dream Time. Why, Seth? Why me? I am no one special, why are there angels fighting in my dreams and terrible demon-like figures trying to follow me out of my dreams?" Seth saw she was trembling and wished he had answers to give her, something to say that would make her feel better.

"I don't know, hon. I do know that you are special, very special. These creatures might know something you don't. We’ll look into dream wards and rituals, okay?”

"What about the other name?" Annaleah asked, ignoring Seth's last comment. "Marchosias? Does it say anything about her?" Seth looked back down at his smart phone and pressed some buttons.

"Yeah," Seth answered, "apparently she is a demoness too, but not totally evil. I remember reading about angels and demons before and finding out that not all those who fell are evil, in fact, they can be quite helpful to humans if approached with respect.

“The same goes for angels. Though they operate on the Goddess's word and will, not all of them are keen on humanity. Some still blame us for the loss of their brethren, for the Watchers who were seduced and thusly cursed, and for the original fall itself. Some angels who fell are neutral and serve neither the darkness nor the light.”

Seth continued to read for a moment. “Anyway, depending on the website, it seems this Marchosias is seen as both male and female. Since she showed herself to you as a female we will go with she. She was an angel of the order of Dominions, and though she didn't fall as the others did, she was forced to take a side when the first war in Heaven began. She didn't want the war to occur at all and was hoping matters could be resolved, but when the Creator wouldn't negotiate, she stood in support of negotiations with those who were to fall, and so was locked out of Heaven.

“She is a powerful negotiator between the angels and the demons, and an even more powerful warrior. She usually shows herself in her demonic form, a cross between a wolf and a gryphon with a serpent's tail. In human form, she is described as you saw her, blonde haired with black wings, but not really a woman yet, more of a teenager." Seth looked up from the phone and focused on Annaleah.

"So the question remains," Annaleah said, looking at Seth, "why are they visiting me in my dreams?"

"I don't know yet, Annaleah," Seth answered, "But I promise, we’re going to find out.”