Unprepared...

Have you ever built something up in your mind so much, that when it actually happens, you are left feeling completely unprepared?

I've been laying low the last couple days, nursing my wounds. Getting my head straight. Trying to figure out my plan of action.

In the mean time, Gabriel watches over me.

I've been reaching out to Justin. & to the boy who calls himself "Ch1M3Ra". I sent him a dream--I showed him how to find me....

However, I was still surprised to find the young man huddled in the doorway of the abandoned tenement building I've claimed as my hide-out. Temporarily anyways....

I awoke, & padded outside to see if Gabriel was still...frozen, & there he was.

Ch1M3Ra--no more than a boy --at least that's how I see him. A young twenty-something, curled up like a child in the doorway. Battered & broken. Shaggy blonde hair masking bruises & puffy, tired eyes. Plagued by nightmares--he was dreaming when I found him. Waiting for me...

He screamed when I touched him. Now--what ever will I do with him?

.....

His name is Anthony. & he's mine now.

We're linked somehow--he & I. The question is why?

Anthony is remarkably "in tune" with us--me & my kind. Not only is he an open receiver in the Dream Realm--but he slipped through a crack. He shattered reality as you know it--if only for a moment--& slipped into the Ciudad de Monstruos. My world.

How did he do that? I asked him--drilled him is more like it. I assaulted the poor boy with questions until he was exhausted. But I got no answers. He doesn't have them.

Right now--Anthony sleeps. I'm shielding him--so he can get a few hours of much needed rest. But it's hard--there's something about him. He's more than he seems...much more. It's taking all of my concentration to hold the barriers in place. Something wants him--badly. The Bandaged Man? Perhaps. My shields are taking one hell of a beating--but still they remain in tact...

When Anthony awakes--we're going through. I'm going home --not in the Dream Realm--but for "real" this time. & I'm taking him through the crack with me...

Entre Aqui...

Dear Torrent:

So you think of me? No worries--I'm coming to you. I hope. Help me come to you.

I found a way in. You told me it was impossible...but either you lied to me, or things have changed alot since you last set foot in the Ciudad. I hope you aren't telling me lies--please don't lie to me.

Do the words "Entre aqui, y te no estas perdido..." mean anything to you?

I dreamed them. Over & over, the Bandaged Man whispers them to me in my ears.

The other day, I was walking...past this huge old Elm tree, & I saw the world shiver. Just a twitch, like reality was taking a deep breathe. & I heard those words whispering in my mind.

"Entre aqui, y te no estas perdido."

I mumbled them under my breathe, & pressed my hands against the tree, just to steady myself...& it was like I fell through. To somewhere else.

I was standing in a city of burning grey ash. Something was watching me. A creature that looked feline in nature, with orchid fur & deep purple quills was staring at me. Her eyes were golden, & she had an old soul. My Grandmother used to say that about people--they "have old souls". But this creature did, have an old soul. She looked like she knew things. & She dared me to follow her.

But as I started to move my feet, the world twitched again, & I was back where I started. But it happened--I know that it did. I slipped through the crack.

I shouldn't be able to do that--should I Torrent?

You've been moving--I've lost track of you. But you mentioned once that you can speak to people in their dreams? That's why they fear you?

You don't want to post a location--to announce our presence to those that hunt you. Hunt us now, I suppose. I'm sorry about that--I'm a fucking moron.

Send me a dream--show me where to go. I feel like a fucking open receiver anyways. Send me something that feels like hope...

Otherwise, I fear my time grows short.

~Ch1M3Ra

Dream a Little Dream...

I rub the sleep from my eyes anxiously. I can't sleep.

It's early, & the dappled sun is just beginning to wash over the morning sky; it's just starting to peek into the windows. I use two fingers to part the slats in the venetian blinds & steal a glimpse out into the world.

The white gargoyle is perched just outside the window, claws gripping the stone ledge, as though he's always been here. He is stationary in the morning light. Frozen.

We've taken refuge in an old tenement building...long since abandoned. Boards on many of the windows. Empty, but for a few vagrants. Just for today...just to rest & heal. Then we find the others.

But I can't sleep right now. I need to heal--& that's never gonna happen if I keep waking up more fucked up than I was when I closed my eyes.

The nightmares are so vivid...the aromas of smoke & death still tangling in my nostrils...

.....

I was walking down Bloodstone Road...our version of "main street" in the Ciudad de Monstruos. However, it seemed to stretch on forever. & it was empty. Bloodstone Road is never deserted, even in the daylight hours...

But tonight it was...

So I walked--alone through the night--aware that I was in the Dream Realm & compelled to move ever forward.

& I hear the cackling of flames, & the buildings fall away like ash...They blow away on the breeze. There are no screams. Only the absence of screams. The absence of life, in a place that is anything but.

"London is burning." I hear his voice & I turn on my heals.

I am face to face with a man, bandages wrapped 'round his eyes. Long tattered wings dragging behind him.

"London is burning--& so too will you." He says to me.

I stand before him, head cocked to the side, like that of a bemused puppy.

The Bandaged Man is only a tale--told to young goblins & whelps. "The Bandaged Man will get you..."

He plunges jagged claws into my chest. I am unable to move. Unable to shift. Unable to feel.

But the blood is real. salty & bitter in the air. The blood is real.

Real. What is real?

The ashes swirl around us--until it all falls away & I am alone again. I open my eyes, & I take in the dimness of the empty apartment. Peeling paisley wallpaper & dusty venetian blinds. & blood.

Pain.

I look down, blood running down my chest.

Fuck. I can't sleep...

Keeping My Head Down

I've been trying to keep a lower profile as of late--keep my ears & eyes open--& my head down.

Gargoyles in my city--that's not a coincidence. & it's not a mistake.

Gargoyles are guardians...sentries. & hunters--when they choose to be. & they are the best of the best. & they want me to hold my tongue. To be quiet.

They want to silence me.

I told you once, that I am a Dreamweaver. & I see things.

Before I slipped through the cracks, away from the Ciudad de Monstruos, & into your world--your reality--I started to have visions. Visions of the fall of mine...I watched the Ciudad start to crumble away...like a sandcastle in the tide.

I tried to speak out--to warn the others. No one wanted to listen. No one wanted to hear.

"How do you know these things? How can you see?" They implored me...

It's a rare gift amongst my kind--visions of the future...The gift of sight...

I signed my own death warrant. Why heed my words...why believe me...when it would be so much easier to hunt the last Dreamweaver? Or so they thought...

Well--I will not go easy. I will not lie down to die. I will not surrender to "the dying of the light."

The gargoyles--they surrounded me. They ambushed me. They shredded my wings 'til I fell to the Earth.

I would be dead now--if not for the intervention of an old friend. An outcast...much like myself.

Gabriel. How I missed that name on my tongue.

Gabriel is a gargoyle--an albino gargoyle. The only one I've ever seen. Cast out by his kind & shunned by all. But we were friends once. We are friends still.

Gabriel values the truth above all things. He believes me. He believes in me.

He is watching over me now--standing guard--playing sentry.

Justin...Ch1M3Ra...Things are not as they seem. Find me.

Follow the white gargoyle....