She Needed To Know

The rain was stinging her face with every ice cold drop. And the wind whipping the wounds until every piece of exposed skin was screaming out for shelter. The clothes had been saturated long ago and the water ran freely down from her head all the way into her filled shoes. Black, blue and red smears were already creeping down her white shirt. Even her hair color couldn’t stand up to the weather. But she kept walking. There was nothing else she could do.

The light was fading and she guessed that the sun must be setting. It was not possible to tell where it was through the storm clouds above. Being lost outside in this weather and the dark should have concerned her more, but she had no idea where she was anyway and welcomed the darkness to keep the sight of the nothingness that surrounded her for miles out of her mind. If she could only find some shelter for the night. A cave. Even under a tree or a bush. There was nothing to be seen for miles. How could she have got lost in a desert during a storm?

Waking was getting harder each day. Every night the same dream. When she slept in this world, she would wake in the other in the desert. The sun would rise and the storm clouds would move in. then it was the constant walk to nowhere until the sun set and she returned to this world. Each night the dream seemed longer, more real. She had the dream every night and knew she was asleep in her dream world but could do nothing.

Her mind registered that she was in her house, and her body realized it was dry and had just woken up. She got out of bed and went down stairs for breakfast. She glanced at the clock as she walked into the kitchen. 10 Am. She was waking up later every day. Her routine hadn’t changed. She went to sleep the same time every night. She seemed to be waking up a few minutes later every day. At the start this was not noticeable. Now she had been having this dream for a month she definitely noticed the extra sleep. An hour and a half longer than normal. But she was feeling more tired as well. She might be ill. She should go see someone to check if there’s something wrong with her if it continued much longer.

She sat down at the table as her husband walked in.

"About time you got up. I put the milk back in the fridge to keep it cold. If you want me to make you something different then just give me a shout." And he walked back into his office. Back to work.

She made herself breakfast and sat reading the paper and eating her cereal. Nothing new in the news today. Fighting in the Middle East. Politicians found to be corrupt. Celebrities flashing their bits. Nothing worth wasting time on a whole article. Absolutely nothing that interested her. She decided to start working herself.

She walked into her own workspace and sat in front of the computer. She had tried to share an office with her husband but his accounting and business calls had distracted her from her writing. She needed her own space to work on her latest novel. The deadline had been set and she had received the initial investment a few months ago, so she needed to get a move on to finish the book in time. The publishers had always given her plenty of support with her writing, as she had given them many successful books. But this latest project was the hardest yet.

After years of writing crime, she had decided a change would help her become a better writer. The publishers said they would allow this book as long as she returned to crime after finishing. She had always enjoyed stereotype books. Horror, crime, sci-fi and fantasy, but she always liked to create a completely original twist to the classic formula. Her greatest success had come from the possibilities she found within crime writing, but it was time for a change. Horror needed a new twist to it.

Her idea was based around taking original monsters from different stories, mixing them and bringing them to the modern day. There was a twist to the plot but she never let anyone know until the final edit. For the book she had taken vampires and mixed them with wizards and placed them in the near future. Deep research had given her plenty of ideas of storylines and twist, due to the number of myths surrounding vampires combined with the freedom in creating magic.

From years of writing crime fiction, she had become used to rigorous research about the subject she was writing about. She had searched for weeks in the library, on films and mostly on the internet. The amount of information available online these days made it possible to write so many more compelling and accurate stories she was always surprised at the lack of good books out there.

To ensure she could make her newest characters appealing and believable she had joined a few vampire forums. These were the people who would hopefully be reading her book after it came out so better to trust their opinion that make her own.

There were now a few people that she exchanged emails with. Sending them each her idea and comparing their answers to decide upon a solution that would best fit everyone. These sources had been helping her to write and she was happy with the story and the progress being made. She was happy until she reached a twist in the story that each of the people she was asking disagreed.

The three main sources were all saying different things and wouldn’t agree with any of the others. One of them had taken it very seriously and had promised to show her the truth. He had said that he would be in touch soon, but that was the last she had heard from him. That was 6 weeks ago. She had made little progress since then. Her story had come to a halt and the deadline was beginning to appear on the horizon. The rest of the novel had been re-written already and this was the only part stopping her finishing. She was there for another day making no progress. Trying to distract her mind but always returning blank. She was tired as well. After a few fruitless hours she decided to give up for the day and dropped herself in front of the television.

"Any progress with the book today?" her husband walked in to the lounge with the newspaper in one hand and a cup of tea in the other. As he sat down she simply shook her head without taking her eyes off the television.

"Anything good on TV?" she shook her head again. The television had been on the same channel for two hours and she had no idea what she was watching. Last time she actually saw what was on it was the news. There seemed to be cartoons on now. She changed it to the discovery channel. The man without a face.

"Didn’t hear from your vampire friends today either then?" just another shake of the head to answer. He wasn’t really listening anyway. He was reading the paper. He knew she wouldn’t answer him unless she’d had a good days writing. Years of the same behavior and it became normal. The same as the way he kept his working hours from nine to five even though he hadn’t had an office to be at for nearly a year.

Next thing she knew she was back in the desert. The sun was rising before her at the horizon. The usual enormous red ball lifting through the haze it caused on the sands. The heat from it hit her immediately. This was the most real it had felt yet. After having the dream so money times she was conscious that she was in a dream while she was having it. She had been in the dream, knowing she was actually asleep every night for nearly a week. The first couple of nights she had tried to wake herself but nothing worked and she had resigned to the fact that once she was asleep, she was in the desert until sunset.

Before the sun was half raised, the clouds moved to obscure her sight of it, and to stop the last of the heat she would get until she awoke again. a few days ago she had noticed mountains in the distance and had walked towards them every night. There was nothing else to be seen so she kept heading in that direction. They seemed larger than last time she was here. Were they growing or was she getting closer? She wondered if she started in the same place every night or started from where she ended the last one. She hoped she was getting closer. She started towards them anyway.

The clouds had blocked nearly all light from the sun before she even managed a mile of walking. A flash of lightening over the mountains, followed by its clap of thunder, welcomed the rain to the desert. How the rain could be there each day, yet the ground was always bone dry when she arrived was something she had asked for a while, but had forgotten to care a while ago.

Within ten minutes of walking her face was stinging from the droplets that had repeatedly slapped her face. Knowing this was a dream meant she had learnt to ignore the pain and the discomfort of walking in soaking clothes had become normal for her. She simply kept walking towards the silhouette of the mountains and hoped that time would pass briskly.

It must have been hours before she noticed the light begin to fade. She stopped and looked ahead. Did the mountains look closer than earlier or was it just a trick of the light? They looked larger anyway. She waited where she stood for the rain to stop and reveal the sunset so she could wake.

The rain stopped and the entire light disappeared but she was still stood in the desert. The clouds were still above her. Why hadn’t she woken up yet? A bolt of lightning illuminated the surroundings in a bright purple light. The light had burned the image of the mountains into her eyes. She closed her eyes in reaction to the pain of the sudden bright light and could still clearly see the mountains. They were definitely closer. The thunder passed without her noticing and she returned to looking towards the mountains. She began to walk again. if she wasn’t going to wake up yet, she might as well make some progress. She would start even closer net time she dreamt.

She had been walking for around ten minutes. The only way she could tell where she was going was by seeing the mountains silhouette appearing slightly darker than the grey tinged clouds. The lightning had also decided to stop with sunset and offered no help to see. The temperature was dropping fast and with her saturated clothes she was freezing. When would she wake up?

All of a sudden this was something catching her eye. Some flickering light at the base of the mountain. Was that the base? If it was a fire then there must be someone there. She started to run towards it. Half of her wanted to see who was there and half wanted the warmth of the fire. Before she had ran two strides she awoke. This time it took her a little while to realize where she was. The final moments in the desert had made her forget she had fallen asleep in the lounge. It was dark, the TV was off and there was a blanket covering her. She was grateful that her husband could deal with her awkwardness. She knew that she was not the best of company when her writing was failing. She would have headed up to bed to get some more sleep and return to the dream if it were possible but she was wide awake and would not fall asleep. She simply turned the TV back on and watched through the night, willing herself to feel tired. If only she could reach the mountain the dreams might end.

There sure is some crap on TV at this time. Does anyone honestly watch this stuff? She sat there watching until sunlight filled the room and her husband woke up for another day in his office.

It was another wasted day sat in front of her computer screen. Another day spent waiting for the deadline to arrive. Another day spent waiting for the answer to come with an e-mail or a call. But nothing came.

She had given up attempting the novel and was thinking about the dream. Maybe it was stopping her thinking. She needed to find out what it meant. She would have to wait until she was tired. Sitting doing nothing all day made her feel tired but she only managed a half sleep in the chair. Never long enough to enter a dream state. She even spent some time searching websites looking for dream meanings but found little to explain her dream.

She went for a walk. Hoping the change and fresh air would encourage sleep. She walked to the chemists and searched for sleeping tablets. They couldn’t sell ay without prescription apparently. She could go and see the doctor and pretend she was having trouble sleeping but decided against that for now. It was only a dream and there was no need to fake problems to get drugs. Not yet anyway. She had been out of the house for two hours so she decided to head back.

Her husband had already stopped working when she got back. He often finished a little earlier on Fridays. Another habit from his previous office jobs. He made her a cup of tea and started to cook dinner. She knew that her attitude was making him do all of the work around the house but the sooner she could get rid of this dream the sooner she could finish her novel and get back to normality. Or as much normality as they were used to.

They ate their dinner together. A sea food risotto with warm bread and a bottle of wine. He had become a good cook in the last year. Ever since he had come to work from home and began to cook for them when she was busy. He was noticeably improving all of the time. At least there was something good coming from him taking up her slack. They both went to finish the bottle of wine in the lounge and to watch a film. The usual Friday night ritual of the last few months. She was enjoying the normality but still wanted sleep to come. She was wide awake.

As the sun set outside it was getting towards bedtime. She was also beginning to get tired. Her hu8sband was beginning to get amorous. This was the part she hated most about the times she had mental block. She loved him so much it hurt when she had to tell him she couldn’t make love to him. And the fact that he accepted it and gave no protest hurt her more. But she simply couldn’t until the dreams had gone. She hated herself for it but promised herself that she would make it up to him soon.

She left him with the remnants of the wine in front of the TV and headed to bed. She was very tired by now. It seemed to take her suddenly after she had eaten. Maybe it was the wine. It didn’t matter as long as she could get into the dream and find what was at the mountain. Sleep took her as soon as she had placed her head on the pillow.

Waking up to the beginning of a desert sunrise again she quickly got up and searched around for the mountains. They were still there and as close as they were when she had left the dream last time. The dream was keeping her progress. She started walking faster than normal in their direction. She barely noticed the clouds this time but the lightning and thunder that marked the start of the rain did get her notice. She had been looking directly at the mountains and the place where she had seen the light last time when the bolt flashed straight from there. It blinded her for a moment but she kept her pace. She decided not to run in case the same rules applied here as in the real world where she would have struggled to run a mile. Walking at this speed she guessed that she would make it to the base before to long. As long as the sun didn’t set.

Her pace had slowed with the rain. Her clothes weighed her down. But she was almost there. No more than another mile or so. She looked into the sky to try and guess where the sun was but could see nothing, as usual. She reached the bottom of the mountain and found nothing there. All that was there were rocks and boulders that had fallen centuries ago. No sign of the light or anything moving. She sat on a rock and wept. A flash of lightning accompanied by immediate thunder told her that the rain was about to stop. As she looked up through her wet hair she saw the clouds parting to reveal the sunset. She sat unmoving until the sun had fully disappeared. She sat silently waiting to wake. But again she was there a while after sunset and didn’t wake. A voice penetrated the complete silence and made her jump.

"We’ve been waiting for you. Follow me." There was a man standing behind her with a flame torch. He was wearing all black and the dancing flames made it hard to see his face clearly. He was about 6 foot tall. Not fat but a long black coat hid his body. "Hurry. Come in to the shelter. It gets colder here at night." And he walked behind a large boulder. She followed as fast as she could. Half to find the answers he might have and half for the shelter and the warming fire.

He led them into a cave that was hidden behind the boulders. A tunnel ran straight into the mountain. After what she guessed was around a hundred meters the cave ended in a door. Not a house door but more like a large safe door. It was a large round door with w wheel in the center and an alcove next to it. The man put his hand into the alcove and she heard the door click its submission. He turned the wheel and the door swung inwards. they stepped into a scene that she thought she couldn’t have imagined in her wildest dreams. But of course that couldn’t be the case.

It was like they had just stepped through the door and been teleported straight into an old mansion. They stood at the foot of a large staircase, that led up to two balconies with many doors leading off them. There were a few people walking around or talking. He put out the torch and placed it in a container with a few others. Similar to an umbrella stand in busy buildings. He indicated for her to follow him and they went up the stairs and into one of the rooms. They entered another place that seemed strange to her. She had walked inn the desert for around thirty nights before seeing the mountain. Two nights walking to the mountain. Then finding a cave leading to an old gothic mansion inside a mountain. Now she had just walked into a bright modern office. A window view of a city skyline. She couldn’t tell which city. A computer, phone and coffee machine all sat on a desk in front of a leather office chair. The man sat down behind the desk.

"Please. Take a seat. You must be tired. Can I get you a drink or some food?"

"Coffee please." That was all she could manage to say at the moment. She sat in one of the chairs across the desk from him and waited while he poured her a coffee.

"The milk and sugar are in front of you here. Help yourself." He indicated the bowl and small jug on the desk and handed her the coffee mug. "So." He looked at her as she took a sip from her coffee. "What can I help you with?"

She looked at him for seconds before moving again. she had been walking every night for a month. He brings her in to this house, or mountain, and asks her what help she wants. "I was expecting you to tell me why I have been having this same dream for the past month?"

"Dream? This is no dream. This is the truth" he said nothing more. "The truth of what?" "you asked me the questions and I told you I would be in touch to show you the answers. Here I am." She was getting confused now. Had her brain been making her have this dream just to taunt her. Was it trying to stop her write this book when she was asleep as well as awake.

She decided there was no point worrying about it. She would wake soon and could try to figure out a new solution. If she played along maybe she would wake sooner.

"Ok. So the truth is there are some people in a house in a mountain in the middle of a rain soaked desert." The calm expression he had kept so far fell into an angry frown. "You honestly believe this is a dream. This is real. This is the place all new vampires come after they are turned. They must come through here before they are returned to their bodies’ vampires. If they don’t make it to the mountain before their bodies are wasted in the physical world, they are doomed to walk in the desert forever. It’s our way of ensuring that only strong humans become vampires. They walk the desert forever without knowledge of each other. you could not see them as you were not doomed. I granted you access to this realm in your sleep so you could find us and learn about vampires without the chance of damnation. I believed it would be of benefit to have one accurate book out there. if you chose not to believe then I can send you back and you will never be allowed into this realm again." his voice had got louder with each sentence and he had moved forward in his seat so he was nearly shouting straight at her.

"I’m sorry. Show me the truth about vampires then." She wasn’t sure if this was still her dream or if he was telling the truth but there was no harm in letting him speak. He began to tell her what she should include in her novel and what she should completely ignore from classic vampire stories. He covered some history and hunting. The reason they need blood and what they are weak against and what powers they have and don’t have. She sat listening for what could have been hours.

"That is what I have to say. I am sure you will finish your novel now. I will send you back to the physical world. Goodbye."

She woke up in her bed. It was nearly twelve. She had slept for hours more than normal. She didn’t believe that what she had just dreamt was real but her dream had given her the answers she had needed and she wrote the last chapters of the novel with haste and had finished before the deadline. The book needed nearly no edit and was published soon after.

Her book had done very well since its release. It had sold more copies than any of her previous crime books and she was on a signing tour. After a day signing many copies in a large city bookstore she got back to her hotel room and prepared for bed. Her dreams were back to normal and so was her life. She phoned her husband. She would be home in a week and they could get back to life. She got ready for bed and went for a shower.

She came out of the bathroom and walked into her room. The light had gone out. Had there been a power cut? She tried the switch and the light came back on. Someone grabbed her and covered her mouth to stop the screams. She felt the teeth sink into her neck and drain the blood. She felt her consciousness slip away. She felt death take her.

She opened her eyes and saw nothing. Standing up she saw something in the distance. There was a red glow growing on the horizon. The sun rose and revealed the desert around her. Panic grew as the rain clouds moved in to cover the sun. She felt the panic rise and began running, searching for the mountain to get her out of the desert. The lightning flashed and the thunder welcomed the rain again.