Those basic activities didn’t feel so difficult that evening, though fatigue pulled at my eyelids as I haphazardly tossed jeans and a t-shirt onto the stool at the foot of my bed. Checklist done, I’d made it through another ordinary, boring, stupid day. Now my escape, now my reward. Everything in my life was carefully charted, planned out, and monitored. There were no surprises, nothing out of the mundane ever happened. I did the same thing every day, spoke to the same people, and went about the same routine. Except when I went to bed… moths erupted in my stomach at the fantasies of past dreams as they flitted through my mind. The tantalizing excitement of having something to wonder about, not knowing, the hope of seeing him again… the feeling was unmatched by anything the real world could offer me.
Not everyone had a phantom in their dreams.
I was special.
I hoped he would come as drowsiness pulled me into its grip.
Thank the stars, thank the heavens and hells… sleep wasn’t the only thing that found me that night.
Chapter
Two
HELLO, NIGHTMARE
How blessed are some people, whose lives have no fears, no dreads, to whom sleep is a blessing that comes nightly, and brings nothing but sweet dreams.
Bram Stoker
Acobblestone walkway was cold and rough under my bare feet as a sea breeze tangled through my hair. I swallowed and felt something tight around my ribs. A corset perched above a billowing skirt. I was on some sort of boat dock. I startled when gulls squawked overhead. This was a nice break from the pumpkin maze. I did love being by the water, if only in a dream. I could feel the muggy salt breeze on my skin. Were everyone’s dreams this real?
Or maybe…
I wandered down the path, wondering why he never gave me shoes—wondering how it was possible that I stepped on a pebble and it pricked my heel. This town was quaint and smelled like ocean brine. Two men stumbled out of a pub, tipping their hats at me as I went inside the bustling establishment. My feet stuck to the floor, feeling the spilled beer and cigar ash between my toes as I shimmied onto a barstool, already annoyed at the surplus of fabric strapped against my body. This was different, he’d never brought me here before. Or maybe I’d gotten lost, what if he didn’t come? My heart sank.
“Water for the lady?” a bartender asked, drying a pint glass. “I’m George, by the way.”
“Sure—”
“I don’t want no trouble!”
I startled as he shouted, looking over my shoulder. “We’re the only place on the eastern seaboard that even still serves your kind—don’t blow it, pirate.”
The aroma of moss and rum enveloped me as he took his seat next to me, tipping his black pirate’s hat. “Evening, Lilac.”
My palms were slick against the countertop, and I dried them on my skirt, trying to compose my thoughts, to ease the flutter of emotions that bubbled in my chest. “Hello, Nightmare.”
The bartender glared before sliding me a cup of water and busying himself pouring my companion a beer. Then it felt like a dream, as I looked at him, I knew it was impossible anyone in real life could be as stunning as he was. With jet black, slicked back hair, sharp jawline, and piercing violet stare—he didn’t exist—couldn’t truly exist. My throat tightened.
“None of that,” he admonished. “And no dates with shop clerks either.”
I narrowed my gaze. “How did you know about that?”
He ran a lazy finger over the lid of his glass. “You’re all he thinks about. He imagines you in your ripped jeans and that pink top. Cliché, if you ask me, I much prefer this darling little number.”
“This corset hurts,” I answered, hiding my grin.
“Good.”
My cheeks flushed, and my eyes dropped to his full lips. “You look nice as a pirate,” I whispered.
“I do, don’t I? Thought the leather vest was quite dashing, myself.” He downed his beer with a few chugs before grabbing my barstool and pulling it closer. I gasped, feeling my body press to his. My mind worried about the bartender, who watched on with judgment.
“Tell me what troubles you, oh, sleeper.” His lips lightly grazed mine, stealing my breath, sending jolts of passion through my body, crashing into my core like waves on the nearby beach.
My words caught in my throat. “You—you know what.”
He growled against my neck, giving it a bite that stung and nearly broke the skin. “Not this you aren’t real nonsense again.”