a savage beast at his twin; his razor sharp teeth getting in the way of his tongue. His words are slightly slurred.
Corbin pouts stomps his foot and waits impatiently for Night to clean Lane off by licking down her clothes like a faithful dog does its master.
“Are you SURE you’re not my pet?” Lane whispers in his ear, pulling on it in annoyance as Night finishes licking her thumb. “Stop licking me!”
“You taste delicious!” He snickers, sucking on a strand of hair like a vacuum cleaner.
“There,” She points, frustrated; shoving him off, kicking him in the shin, “Drink the pool!” And stomps over to Corbin; he smells her and takes a tentative lick to her cheek.
“You’re right.” Corbin’s face lights up. “She tastes like a popsicle frozen in lime green jelly then liquefied and mixed with chocolate syrup then baked into a sugar cookie. Can we eat her?”
“NO!” Lane yells so loud the noise, the creeping and the whispering and the giggling that was all around them, stops. Dead silence. “I’M NOT FOOD!”
The ground starts to shake and buckle and wave around like a hurricane.
Corbin latches on to Night’s hand that latches on to Lane’s.
“WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE!” The twin’s scream; terrified. “CLOSE YOUR EYES!”
Lane shuts her lids hard; tears stream down her face from the pressure.
Penny
“It’s safe to open your eyes Lane,” Corbin whispers, hovering over her balled up form.
She’s been shaking with fright ever since they left the dream. She hears Night busily rummaging around in her basement; fiddling with something that scrapes quietly along the concrete floor.
“She’s never walked through a nightmare like that before Corbin,” Night calls; his voice partially muffled by the tent flap. “She’s probably just scared. You would be too if it were YOUR first time. Remember how you ran away and cowered from those evil pixie flies with dragon’s tails when we were like four? You weren’t always so brave.”
“She nearly got us CAUGHT!” Corbin snarls; his voice raising an octave. “I am NOT getting in trouble because of her.”
“I need to FIND what I lost!” Night sighs, plopping down at the tent entrance, pulling back the flap. There’s a fake Halloween sword in his hand and a long piece of metal – part of the frame from the old bed. “Then YOU can go home. I’m not going back for a while. I need a break from our everyday life; I need a vacation.”
“A vacation in the Human World in a Human Town, what sort of a VACATION is that dear brother?” Corbin huffs as he shoves Lane in the shoulder; wanting her to unfurl.
“Human World?” Lane bolts up so fast, she bonks heads with Corbin.
“It’s NOT important!” Night hisses at Corbin. “We CAN’T say; there are laws. Now just come help me build. If I’m going to be stuck living down here for a while, I want somewhere fun to live; don’t worry Lane, your mom will never suspect a thing!”
A little terrified at what she might find, Lane cautiously crawls out of the tent, followed by Corbin. There’s a monkey stuffed animal with a fake plastic banana in its hand, sitting on an old lawn chair with one leg broken and taped with bright yellow duck-tape and a deflated soccer ball shoved into between the nylon lining of the chair. Beside it is a plastic bin that’s lid has been taped shut with packing tape with the word ‘Lane’ scrolled across it in big bold jet black letters. Her dad’s handwriting; the ink is faded and nearly invisible in parts but it’s still his work.
The basement looks exactly the same.
Night carefully, methodically, peels back a layer of clear tape from the lid of the beat up plastic container; jimmying the lid open with the broken piece of bed. When there’s just enough room for him to fit, he crawls head first through the entrance; disappearing.
Corbin follows without question; Lane hesitates, not sure if she wants to go into a creepy old bin with the twins. SHE is TERRIFIED of the DARK! Tiptoeing over, she stops at the lid and curls her fingers over the edge.
“Are you coming down or not?” Night’s voice sounds distant; far, far away.
“There’s TONS of room down here!” Corbin snickers. “WE won’t bite; WE are YOUR PETS remember?”
The twins giggle; the sound reverberating off of the plastic bin.
“HEY!” Corbin exclaims, “I found a PENNY! Now I’ll have good luck and happy hunting the next time we dream walk tonight.”
Lane’s a little shocked. “You mean we’re going to do that AGAIN?”
“Just come on down!” Night pleads. “I promise you’ll be safe. We’ll protect you! You just have to trust us!”
Lane slides into the bin, stumbling downward, spinning round and round as the passageway twirls; the tunnel tight like a covered slide at the park down the street. She lands unceremoniously on her face with a splat. The twin’s start giggling at her when she sits up covered in a very strange pink and yellow slime with little tiny balls of blue swimming around inside of the goo like mini fish.
“We can’t sleep; it’s impossible so we dream walk and memory walk all the time. We just have to be careful not to wake the dream.” Night smiles wide like a scary clown; the candles lit all around them throwing eerie shadows all over the walls and their faces.
“Night gave you a tiny bit of his blood,” Corbin sighs and wrinkles up his nose; looking at her apologetically, “Now YOU can’t ever sleep again. We visit other people’s thoughts and stuff instead. …Kind of great, right? AND,” He holds up a penny triumphantly, “I found a penny!”
Lane looks at him cross-eyed. “It’s a PENNY.”
“I know right!” Corbin bounces up and down in his seat. “Now we can examine it for prints! Look,” He points at something that’s invisible to Lane, “This one is YOUR print and,” He points to the same spot. “Your mom’s is underneath. We’ll go infiltrate the dream of the person who touched it before you and your mom. Do you remember where you got it from?”
“School… maybe..?” Lane doesn’t really remember; it’s just a penny.
“Ok,” Corbin sighs, happy and content. “I found one. Ok, Lane, take Night’s hand; we’ll take you since I KNOW you can’t get into a dream all by yourself.”
Lane might be a little hesitant but there’s excitement brewing in her that almost can’t be contained. Quickly, she grabs Night’s hand and closes her eyes with a wide smile plastered on her face. The warmth of the candlelight is quickly replaced with an Arctic chill.
Pixie Wing
The chill isn’t just a little cold, it is freezing. Lane’s lips turn a rather pretty shade of blue; her fingertips start to go numb as frostbite starts to spread down to her hand. Her teeth chatter; she accidentally chomps down on her tongue, tasting copper; tasting blood.
Her flannel PJ’s with happy bunnies parading around her legs with hearts and stars, isn’t very warm right now as the fabric sticks to her skin, glued in place by the icicles forming on them. Her bare arms are already so cold, she can hardly feel them.
She tries to open her eyelids but they seem to be superglued shut.
“You need to PRETEND it is warm Lane.” Night whispers in her ear; his breath is as hot as the sun on a hundred degree day. “I keep a mini fire place in my pocket at all times; put your hand in my back pocket and take it.”
Lane can barely feel it when Night takes her hand and shoves it into his back pocket, rummaging around till something burns her. Finding the edge, she clamps down on the tiny box and pulls it out; it instantly warms her. Now she can open her eyes; the icicles have melted.
Night and Corbin smile at her; they’re perfectly warm even without the fire. And they’re standing on the ice and stone in their bare feet. Corbin giggles at the shocked expression glued to Lane’s face as Corbin breaths out frigid air. It bubbles as it comes out. One of the translucent pink bubbles lands on Lane’s nose and bursts, exploding warm air all over her face. Giggling,
she catches the next bubble and breaks it over her legs, freeing them. Now her PJ’s do NOT stick to her skin like a leach. She does the same for her arms and her poor frozen fingertips.
Noticing that Lane is now perfectly fine, Night plucks his mini fireplace out of her hands and shoves it back into his back pocket.
“I don’t really like this dream so far.” Lane pouts.
There is nothing but white snow drifts around them and they’re standing on a frozen lake with normal pond fish swimming by peacefully underneath. There are NO monsters or scary trees, just boring, boring and boring.
“This person isn’t actually asleep; they’re meditating.” Corbin giggles. “Not every memory and thought and dream has to be of something crazy and scary and unrealistic. This is a REAL place. Night and I have been here before.” He shrugs and starts walking away. “Do you see it?” He calls back softly to Night,” Pointing to something that’s twinkling in the distance.
Night nods a yes but does not follow after Corbin as he meanders off towards the strange thing. “Lane,” He whispers, “This person is meditating which is a lot easier for them to detect us. We do not want to get caught and we do NOT want to wake the dream!”
Taking her hand, he expertly steers her around a downed gnarled tree, its trunk almost completely hidden under a snow drift. He has to climb on the top and pull her up from the bottom before sliding down the other side. Corbin is there to greet them; busy reading a