Excerpt: DreamScape

He didn't know when it had become normal for El to be holding onto his hand but he had only just noticed when he tried to use the occupied one to unfold the city map. It wasn't a big deal, her pillow was still safely tucked away in his backpack and he wasn't going to let her carry it around in broad daylight so his hand must be the next best thing to her. Depriving her of anything she deemed "comfortable" meant her getting upset, whether it be the pillow, blanket, towel or the TV remote.

Sighing, he tried to somehow flip the map open with one hand...ah ha! They weren't that far from the car rental, just a few more blocks maybe. The exact number was hidden away in the map section that stubbornly refused to open no matter how hard he flicked it. It...come on! Wasn't going to work.

"El, I kinda need my hand back..." he stopped talking once he noticed that the Elvaria bus had already left the stop. She was staring into the main street, just watching the people go by. He shook her hand a little in an attempt to gain her attention. "Please?"

She looked up and he immediately forgot what he was going to ask. Her eyes...morbidly fascinated, he stared as red began to bleed into her brown eyes like spots of paint being dripped into the wrong color palette. She hesitated and then opened her mouth, "Byron," he heard in her normal, airy voice with a darker, underlying rasp, hissing through his chest cavity something that sounded like "al brezck."

Needless to say, he about had a heart attack.

"What the hell!?"

"It's here!" El blurted out normally, tugging on his hand like an excited child. "It's here!"

"What's here?"

She went still, still gazing deeply at him with red eyes. "Your nightmare."

A chill, like ice screamed down his spine as his head turned on its own towards the main street. He swept his gaze up and down it but saw nothing but cars and people, buildings, but..."I don't see it, what am I looking for?" His palms were beginning to sweat as he searched, trying to keep himself calm. It could always be a false alarm-

His eyes fell on a man. Medium build, dressed in a suit and talking on his cellphone. He was smiling widely as he chatted and for some reason, Byron's eyes would not leave him. Not until they unconsciously slid down to the man's shadow trailing behind him. The man took a step, his shadow took one. Another and another, he stuck his hand into his pocket and was mimiced by his silhouette. He stepped off the curb.

And his shadow didn't.

Byron felt his heart stop and then start sprinting. The man turned his head, he caught sight of them. He must have, as his eyes were wide, his smile gone and his face one of absolute terror before he collapsed in the middle of the road.

El started screaming. "The coin! Al brezck menesto! The coin! Use the coin!

The coin! He dug through his pockets, both hands, when had she let go? Keys, wallet, where was it, where was it!? Metal, round, he pulled it out and with a motion far more calm than he was feeling, he flicked it into the air. It flipped several times, air whistling through the hole in its middle in the way only pure gold allows, and then it began to wail.

He snatched it out of the air, it was hot, and all sound ceased except for the air rushing out of his mouth and the blood rushing through his ears. The world faded into black and white, shimmering like he was underwater with the sun high above. Every car nearby was still nearby, driving slowly in stilted progress like seperate frames of a film and beginning to fade away. Every building, getting frayed at the edges. Every traffic light, transparent. Every person was still there in their own little vanishing movie clip, the man lying in the road, except one.

Elvaria Menasi was no where to be found.

But, as if to take her place, there was his nightmare.