Another short story. Please help me with the ending, I think it might be a little melodramatic… Anyway, please enjoy! – Therese

Dreamkeepers

Jessica stood before the carved chestnut door in Master’s great library. Even the heady smell of old books and leather chairs (usually Jessica’s muscle relaxant of choice) couldn’t calm her nerves tonight. She smoothed her unwrinkled white skirt with a sweaty palm and checked that each of the pearl buttons fastening her un-dyed cotton blouse was securely through its appropriate hole. It was fitting, she supposed, that she had to wear her chorus uniform to this, her last recital. It had always brought her luck.

But it couldn’t bring a miracle. And tonight, Jessica needed that more than luck, for only a miracle could –

Her thought were interrupted by Master’s grandfather clock. As the second hand reached the twelve (the king of time, her Master had taught her – the time for all great events to occur), a gong sound out the first of a dozen strikes. Its terrible echoes sung a death march to Jessica’s ears. Her very bones began to reverberate to the bass beats tolling away the hours until the sheaf of music she clutched in her right hand started trembling.

How could she do this? It was lunacy. It was all well and good to be a Dreamkeeper. She had welcomed the chance last year; she had welcomed it with open arms! She would’ve done anything to escape her deathly-dull days, including risking her life for the fantastic adventure that was a Dreamkeeper’s daily duties.

A lot had changed in a year’s time, though, and she wasn’t the same Jessica Winthrop that had first entered the Nightlands. She was tougher than the difficulties that continued to plague her waking life and could now face her troubles without wanting to take the easy way out. She wanted to live, but she wasn’t sure that she would be able to keep breathing after this evening.

There was only one hope, one slim chance that Jessica clung to like a lifeline. She had sung the Call to the next Apprentice earlier that evening. He or she (definitely a boy this time, though, for the pairings were always one male and one female) should have arrived by now. Master had promised her that if she sent out the Dreamkeeper’s Call and if they were asleep, the next Apprentice would join her this night, and he had never lied to her.

Jessica desperately needed the Call to have worked. The Tithe required a pair of Dreamkeepers, and her Master would not – could not – accompany her to the Nightlands. There was no time to re-sing the Call, and so she worried that something had gone wrong and she would have to recite the Tithe alone.

As Jessica’s thoughts swirled through her mind, the clock continued to chime the hour. She found herself counting the strikes, counting the last moments she had left in this world. Ten… Eleven… Twelve…

Silence. But only for the moment.

A wind blew out around the door she was facing and sprang into life about the room. It tossed papers and nooks to the ground like a finicky child throwing a tantrum. It plucked at Jessica’s clothes with freezing fingers as it caressed her cheek with an icy kiss. It pulled and tugged at her unclasped collar until at last it gave way under the relentless scrutiny. A silver necklace was revealed nestled at the base of her clammy throat. It was a tiny metal dream catcher that glistened in the light of the lamps as swan’s down feathers twirled on leashes of spun silver wire.

The wind hissed coldly when it blew through the web-like weavings stretched across the silver circle. It (or the entity that controlled it) recognized the insignia of the Dreamkeepers and thus acknowledged the young Dreamkeeper who wore it. The breeze slipped back through the door’s ornate keyhole, doubtless to carry word to its master of impending visitor.

Jessica shivered once more, though not from the cold. She was about to enter the Nightlands, alone. Master had always been with her before, to show her the way back to their world once they had carried out their duties as liaisons between this world and theirs. She had once entered the Nightlands alone every night as a simple dreamer in her sleep, but once her spirit had answered the Call she could no longer walk so easily into the forbidden land on her own.

The clock continued to tick away the seconds of the midnight hour as she forced herself to think of what must be done, and done quickly. The Portal (the door carved by the city’s first Dreamkeeper, which now resided in Master’s library and the one she know faced) would only be open for a minute and a second after midnight. At 12:01 and one second, it would be too late to enter the Nightlands and the Tithe could not be made.

Aware of the time limit, Jessica licked her dry lips and placed her still-trembling hand on the age-tarnished silver of the scroll handle. A tingling sensation tickled the fingers that rested lightly on the metal, a feeling which sped up her arm and quickly diffused through the rest of her body. Her pendant flared for a moment, the burst of light throwing her shadow into high relief on the books behind her. The handle turned of its own accord and allowed the door to swing open on greased iron hinges. Her feet drew her slowly but inevitably through the glowing chestnut-wood archway, and so Jessica entered the Nightlands.

Jessica was, as she always was when she came here through the Portal, in the middle of a dark and misty wood. During her first few trips as an Apprentice, she reveled in the novelty of being in a forest; the trees and the perpetual fog had been a fascinating curiosity to a born-and-bred city girl like her.

Now, she hurried down the well-beaten trail leading further into the woods without so much as glancing at the scenery. Every once in a while, she would come across branches and forks in the road that split off from the main way, but she continued past them as she followed a familiar route through the trees.

Finally, she paused for a moment at one turn-off point. This led to the clearing where her city’s dreams were collected and no doubt restlessly waiting for her. This was where she had met her Master one year ago tonight, where he had explained what was going on and what she had needed to. Jessica waited for a minute at the junction, anxiously scanning the trees for someone to come crashing through so they could answer her call.

But no one came, and she was starting to see shapes form in the fog. If she stared much longer, they would solidify into her various nightmares. Jessica hurriedly looked down at the ground and away from the indistinct figures in the mist, wishing them away. She had no time to wrestle with her personal demons. Not tonight.

She had waited long enough. It was time to go. She was wasting precious time. Jessica turned her back on the road and started to race up the narrow foot path that led her deep into the woods. As she raced along, she noted a particular tree or a peculiarly twisted shrub along the edges, remembering them from runs on this trail that had long since passed. She didn’t dare to think about her destination, or what she was going to do; she just ran, heedless of anything but her own pounding feet and small, insignificant landmarks along the trail.

She burst out of the woods into a small and silent meadow at a dead sprint. Breathing heavily, it was a moment before Jessica had enough air to observe her surroundings. Not that there was much to observe; the glade was just as it had been a year ago tonight, perhaps a little darker to Jessica’s eyes, now that she knew what lurked about this realm. A grass carpet covered the ground beneath a cloudy and enclosed sky. The trees were black as spilt ink, hiding the gathering of nightmares that Jessica knew from past experience was waiting for her. She allowed herself a single shudder at the icy-cold fear that the innocent scene of the meadow had driven deep into her heart. This was where her both her deepest desires and darkest fears had been realized. She still wasn’t sure if the trade-off had been worth it, but she had no one but herself to blame for being in this position. She had had the opportunity to refuse the burden of the honor of protecting humanity, and she had charged straight ahead without a look back.

A cold chuckle floating on the dead night air forced back any stray thoughts from Jessica’s mind, and without her telling them to, her feet stepped forward farther into the glade, towards the source of the sound that was now silently gliding out of the shadowed forest and into the clearing. A snake of monstrous proportions was now waiting on a small rise in the center of the meadow, its thick, cable-like coils draped about it casually. Its diamond shaped head rose into the night sky and would have been invisible if not for the poison-yellow eyes staring down at Jessica.

“All alone, my dear,” the serpent said languorously, its head weaving figure eights in the sky like a drunken firefly. “Not wise, little human, not wise at all.” Another sinuous laugh slid out as its blue-black forked tongue tasted Jessica’s cold sweat terror on the air.

Jessica trembled so hard that the paper in her hand shook. Of all the forms the nightmares could take… This had to be the worst. What had it been last year? A spider, that’s right. A huge black widow spider, with eight barbed legs and a vibrant yellow pattern on its abdomen. Spiders she could handle. Snakes? By herself? That was asking a little much.

But she had to try. “I come –” Her voice cracked from sheer terror. She coughed quickly and continued before she lost her nerve: “I come to bear the Tithe.”

The great serpent drew back a bit, obviously startled. “You presume too much, little human! If your guardians have come too late to bear the gift, you may not save yourself from our wrath!” It hissed in anger.

Somewhere, a spark of righteous indignation flared briefly in Jessica’s paralyzed chest, giving her enough energy to answer in a clearer voice than before, “I hold the honor of Dreamkeeper’s Apprentice, roamer of the Nightlands!” She pulled out her necklace and held it out so the nightmare could see it. Its silver bands glistened as it twirled in the sudden wind. The snake did not respond; it merely stared at the pendant. “Summon your spokesman so that the Tithe might be completed this night!”

“You are late, little Keeper!” The snake fairly spat the words out, its tone loaded with undisguised malice, but it dared not attack Jessica. Her master might be about as backup and waiting for such a breach of the last Tithe. “Too late, I think.” It gave Jessica one last glare and began to unravel itself to glide silently back into the forest.

Jessica started to call out for the nightmare to wait, there was still time. But she bit her lip, silently reminding herself to not reveal the depth of her need for this thing (nightmares would exact a bigger price in a deal if they knew how bad you wanted something). So, her hands still trembling a bit as if she had palsy, Jessica said as nonchalantly as she could, “Perhaps I have something better than the fear you inspire to feed you with.”

The snake froze, turning into an onyx statue barely discernable from the night. Jessica smiled grimly. So kiddie was curious, was it? Well, the next move was his; Jessica could say no more, per the centuries old ritual she had just begun.

“What could feed me better than the ripe terror of human kind, Dreamkeeper?” The serpent slowly swiveled its head so that it was once again facing Jessica, its eyes glowing in the gloom of the glade.

It had spoken the words of ritual! Jessica contained her momentary moment of joy and answered calmly, “I offer emotion far stronger than fear and far deeper than hate. For Dreamkeeper are the gate guards to the human heart, and we alone know the real power of souls.”

The black snake’s car-sized head was now at Jessica’s height, its annoyance forgotten as it stared into Jessica’s eyes with greedy golden ones. Its slit pupils were almost gone as the hungry amber light overtook the cool and uncaring black glow normally there. Jessica stared back. She was no longer afraid for herself; she was simply fascinated by the eyes that now threatened to drown her in a fiery pool of yellow light. This ritual had been repeated for countless millennia, each time a pair of Dreamkeepers offering the Tithe to feed the creatures of the Nightlands and thus keep them sedated for a year’s time. But they always hungered again; they were never full. How much longer would the Keepers be necessary? How many more times would the Tithe be reenacted before the nightmares that plagued mankind be satisfied?

Jessica jumped when the serpent said the prescribed response, its tone harsh from its appetite. “Then assuage our hunger, Dreamkeeper. Quench our thirst.” It waited for the Tithe.

Jessica took a steadying breath and slowly raised the severely crinkled paper to her face, as much to read the words and notes inked by hand onto the page as it was to put something between her and the intense stare of her nightmare. Then, she sang.

She sang, pure and true, her notes rebounding against the trees that stood like sentinels about the glade’s edge. She sang of hearts breaking and hearts becoming lost or stolen, but never returned. She sang as soft as the rose’s satin petals and strong as the roaring, unstoppable tide. She sang of fruitless quests for unknown goals and of windfalls found when expecting nothing. She sang of gentle love and burning passion. She sang of what she had wanted to have, but now would never achieve.

The last note of her lament died away in the glade. The world was silent as a tomb, as death. The snake, which had frozen as if pierced to the core by Jessica’s song, now stirred. “My hunger has been subdued, Master Dreamkeeper,” it said, its voice as emotionless as stone. “But what of my thirst?”

Jessica had slumped to the ground as soon as her song was done, exhausted by the effort of singing as if she had just run twenty miles in the space of a breath. Now she looked up at her nightmare, unseeing, and said, “Your thirst must go unquenched. My apprentice is not here; no human could heed the Call.”

The snake reared its scaly head towards the cloudy ceiling in victory. “Then the Tithe is incomplete, and we are FREE!” It screeched the last word to the heavens, and the devils hiding in the shadows answered in unearthly screams and squeals of triumph.

Jessica shook her head slowly, clearing it of the fog of exhaustion that had clouded it since the completion of her song. “No,” she said thickly as she raised her head to look at the great beast before her.

The serpent looked down at Jessica and let loose a wild scream of laughter. “There is not enough there to feed us, little Keeper! Either give us more, or give us up, ‘tis all the same!”

“Is it truly all the same, nightmare?” Jessica asked carefully, stalling her mind frantically raking in all her knowledge of the Nightlands and its creatures to find some way to complete the Tithe. There had to be a way! She had nothing more to give, however. It was too late. She had nothing…save herself.

Jessica’s knees gave out as she realized what she had to do. It had always been a possibility that she would never come home from this trip through the Portal, but then, that was always the case – the Nightlands were no walk in the park. But to purposely give up her life… That was something that she had never thought would be asked of her. But as Jessica gazed up at the snake, something inside her clicked. If this is what had to be done to protect everything she loved from their fears, than she would do it. Her life was a small price to pay for the guarantee of her city’s safety.

The nightmare drew its head back and down, so that it was looking Jessica in the face. “Of course it is, human. Whether the emotions we feel are from one or many, they must feed us all in the end.” It tasted the air around Jessica’s head, obviously hoping for another appetizer of fear before sliding off to dine on a worthier feast.

Jessica looked back into the face of her worst fears without trembling. She was strangely calm, no longer afraid of the snake in front of her. She had discovered what she had to do to save her family, her friends, her city. It was funny, she mused, that it should be a serpent here tonight to witness the completion of the Tithe. Perhaps, in her heart, she had known that it would be her fate to die at the fangs of a viper, and that was why she had been terrified of them.

The snake started to slither backward while still looking into Jessica’s face. It seemed intent to watch her until it reached the woods and its shadows. Jessica took a deep breath and called out, “I have a drink to quench your thirst, nightmare.”

The serpent froze and, once again, approached Jessica. “What? Surely you have not composed another tragedy in the space of thirty seconds?”

Jessica half-smiled at the irony of the snake’s words. She replied simply and seemingly out of context, “I want to live.”

The snake looked confused by her words. “So what?”

“I want to live. I value it above all else, since I have learned what it truly means to live. I want to run to my father and tell him that I’m sorry for choosing my mother over him. I want to hold my mother and tell her that it’s all right that she left my father. I want to hold my brother’s hands so he can’t cut. I want to scream and shout and sing and weep,” she told her fear, tears running unchecked and unnoticed down her cheeks. “I want to love and be loved and protect this town which I love more than myself. And for that love, I would sacrifice myself, though I want to live. So tell me, nightmare, will you accept this final sacrifice on humanity’s behalf?”

Jessica could no longer see past the tears that were flooding her eyes. Her shoulders shook with pent-up emotion and her hands ripped open the blouse so that her chest was bare. “I GIVE MYSELF!” she screamed to the serpent.

The snake did not pause, as a human might have when confronted with a person who was willing to make such a gift. It did not stop and think that maybe the emotions the young girl was now feeling might have been enough to fulfill the requirements for the Tithe. It simply saw a meal, a feast of pure human emotion, pain and suffering and joy (yes, joy) all rolled into one. It swooped upon the frail girl like a hawk on a helpless mouse and swallowed her whole, its neck contracting as it worked the body down towards its stomach. The music that Jessica had clutched so tightly now fluttered to the ground as the snake began to turn back to the forest, still swallowing its prey.

The Tithe was complete.