a dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight...

[goddessnanshe]

Early morning, Wednesday

My arms and legs are bleeding, my ceremonial dress ripped and stained. It has taken me hours to get free of the abbey and stumble onto Main Street. My hair smells of soot. I can manipulate dream, but now there is another here who can, too, and the dreams he has sent for me are full of fire and thorns. And he does not tire

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[jack_hollow]

Bit of a trial getting in this morning, what with the kitchen flooding a bit, and the... the thing that looked like Miss Pontarlier tryna drag me out the door. Missus Ramsey went after it with a broom. Wouldn't'a thought that'd work, but it's shaping up ta be a surprising day. Guess on balance a hat an' a broom are a fair trade ta have that thing outta the house...

Left Missus Ramsay mopping up, and I'm comin' up Silk when I see Noma crossing to our door, looking like she just bare made it out of a bad fight, and I start running. "Miss Noma?" She's moving under her own power, but she looks like hell. "What happened, who did this?"

[goddessnanshe]

"Jack," I say, "Deputy," and I am so very glad to see him. I throw my arms around him, which I know he may find strange, but he smells of hay and clean strong things and it takes some of the smell of blight out of my nostrils. I draw back. "The abbey," I say. "The abbey needs help," and I wobble on my feet.

[jack_hollow]

Blinking for a minute, though I put my arm 'round her back, and it doesn't seem strange as it ought.

"C'n see to that," I say, and I will, and in just a second--look up Main, and there's a light that makes my eyes hurt, a kind of white-green glare that's bright and gone in only a moment. "Miss Noma, I think you've got ta sit down." Move my free hand ta open the door, thinking if she can just have a moment ta breathe, an' I can leave her here where it's safe, where the hell is Mab? "What's happening--"

The office is different. A bit. Smoother floor, and dark walls, and writing on them in Greek, painted on in dull gold. And there's a stack of books in each corner, great old things with dark leather bindings, smelling of pipe ash and salt and dust. But the chairs are still there, the supply closet, my desk with all the paperwork.

"Ah, you might, you might wanna sit down out here fer a minute, if you c'n tell me...?" What the hell? I ain't seen anythin' like this since Waterkey made me.

[goddessnanshe]

I follow the Deputy with relief into his office - and see at once the trace of Dream here. It makes me feel - homesick, yes, these dreams made flesh. But I am also frightened, because that means the leak has spread far beyond the Abbey.

"Deputy Hollow," I say, "this is a dream. But you are awake, and so am I. Do you remember when the town fell asleep, and a monster had to be defeated so they could wake? It seems the monster did not die."

[syl_thorn]

When I woke up'is mornin', I could feel a second heart beatin'n m'chest an' m'mouth tasted'a salt. Knew'ere was somethin' wrong even b'fore I stepped out 'n saw th'colour th'sky'd gone.

Red rain is coming down, red rain...
Red rain is pouring down,
Pouring down all over me...

M'hair's streamin' through wit' red by th'time I get t'town, an' m'clothes look like I been butcherin' hogs, but from th'look'a thin's I got't easy. Th'air's bloody cracklin' wit' magic, 'n I c'n hear someone screamin'. An' wherever I step, m'footprints fill up wit' blood.

Don't take me long t'find'er. I c'n bloody smell'er on th'wind. "Noma," I yell, th'air burnin' m'throat. "Noma, th'hell's happ'nin'?"

[docconstantine]

Don't quite know where Lannie got lingerie like that, hell! I wasn't sure they even made that type of fabric any more, but wow... it suited her well. Took me a lot longer to get downstairs than it should have.

And once I hit the porch... I rather wish I were still back up in the bedroom. Everything, everywhere was screaming in my blood and veins to come and fix it. Grab my kit and throw my coffee thermos in it, and start to make my way down Main. Some things I could fix easily with a bandage and a lollipop... some things took my extra special skill. And I have no idea why Kit Smith's arm broke right after I set it three fuckin' timesExcolo

[jack_hollow]

Takes a minute ta really understand what she's saying--I am Nanshe--and I ain't properly got time ta do more'n step back enough that I can duck my head without hitting her in the forehead. "Miss-- Ma'am--" It's not Nanshe I want to call her, exactly, but a word a little longer and closer to my heart, and one I understand a bit better.

Excolo.

And then there's a woman coming up to us, looking goddamn flensed, raw and running with blood, and I'm starting to move ta stand between her and Nanshe when I can make out that she's asking, not screaming. And Constantine shows up, which I am damn glad to see.

"I'm fine," I say, straightening up and looking over ta Constantine. "The thing from-- the bad dream, from when everyone was sleeping, it came back an' he's at the Abbey." Let him know and answer the woman--Syl Thorn, I think?--all at once.

[goddessnanshe]

I smile gently at Jack.

"It's alright, Deputy," I say, and then Syl comes up, covered in blood. It's not hers, though, I can see that, and so I can say with a little smile: "have you been swimming with sharks again?"

"Who's hurt the worst, I'll start with them."

"It's Dr Constantine, isn't it? I'm a little scratched and sore, but not very hurt," I assure him, showing him the wounds on my arms.

"The thing from-- the bad dream, from when everyone was sleeping, it came back an' he's at the Abbey."

"Yes," I say, nodding tightly. "The god of nightmares. I had hoped he'd died, but it seems he was just badly wounded. The good news is that he's still not fully healed. The bad news is that he's walking around our town."