This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are product’s of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
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Other works by K. W. McCabe:
Dark and Light: A Small Collection of Poetry
Dreams Both Real and Strange II: An Anthology
Dreams Both Real and Strange I and II: The combined Anthologies
Fantasies of the Waking Dreamer: A Small Collection of Poetry
Choices: A Free Short Story (Thomas Lord of Death)
Angel of Death: A Short Story (Thomas Lord of Death)
The Dragon’s Call
DEDICATION
For Yve.
Dreams Both Real and Strange
Book Description:
An anthology of short stories. A collection of tiny, flash fiction fantasy, horror, and dark tales of 1,000-8,000 words in length.
1 CHOICES (PART I)
The night seemed darker than normal as my footsteps echoed down the alley. Refuse snapped under my feet like shriveled twigs and dry old bones. I pulled down my hood as far as I was able. I needn't have worried, though. The inhabitants of the passage, shriveled with hunger and poisonous pastimes, shrunk away from my dark form.
I ignored them. They meant nothing to me: Their souls were as wasted as their flesh. I continued on, my path echoing behind me with a sullen rhythm. Finally, I came to the door.
It wasn’t much of a door; it had once been pure white. Dim now, it was gray with age, cracked and peeling where the elements had worn away its vibrancy. I stood for a moment, rigid and averse to the pressures building within me. My hand rose, as it always did, clenched and bone white at the knuckles and I knocked.
Everything fell silent. After a long wait, there was a muffled noise behind the door before it slowly cracked; a pale, fearful face peeked nose and eyes through the opening.
“Can I help you? What do you want?”
It was her: Her soul shone bright and translucent through her fair skin. Strands of her dark, red hair clung about her wary grey eyes making her faintly bruised face look even paler. I tensed. I couldn’t help it. I never liked this part, but I had no choice. I hadn’t had one for a very long time.
“I have a message.” I held still. She would come willing or she would not.
“Go on.” Her eyebrows creased. She glanced behind her for a moment, I couldn’t see at what, then turned back, waiting.
“The dark master has called in the debt you owe him. You will come with me tonight.”
She sucked in her breath, her eyes going bright with sudden panic and despair. “But I thought—”
I sighed heavily. It would be the unpleasant way then. “You thought he would call in your debt at a time you were ready to pay it.”
Her lips trembled as she closed her mouth, a muscle twitching slightly beneath her right eye.
I waited one more moment before speaking the second time. “Will you come willing tonight or pay the forfeit?”
Her jaw tightened.
It was the Choice. Always the Choice – and it had to be given.
“Who will the forfeit be?” She asked slowly.
I shook my head. They always wanted to know although they knew they wouldn’t be told. She had known the conditions when she accepted the return of her life for a period of time.
“All I can say is that someone you know will take your place as forfeit.”
She was silent except for the slight shuddering of her breath as she struggled to calm herself.
I spoke the words the last time. “Will you come willing or pay the forfeit?”
Three chances were all she would receive. Then I would choose for her.
She shrunk in on herself, glancing back one more time at someone – I could not see who – before turning back. Her eyes were at once defiant, as well as dull and lifeless.
I knew the choice she would make then.
“I will pay,” she said.
I nodded once. “You cannot, once it has been done, rescind your decision. Do you wish to rescind it now?” I could not leave without giving her that fourth chance. I would pay for it later. I always did.
“No,” she said, “I will pay the forfeit.”
I nodded again as heaviness settled over me. “Very well,” I said. I turned, seeing her flinch with my movement, and began to walk away.
A muffled groan and thud sounded behind her door. I heard her curse in exclamation, call out and then begin weeping inconsolably.
And I felt the pure brightness of her soul dim into grey and then a desolate black.
She should have come willing – everyone has their time. She would have escaped his grasp for all eternity if she had…
Now she will be his forever.
To be continued in Dreams Both Real and Strange II...