Page 71 of The Wild Moon
“I’m not,” I said cheerily, clomping along, step after step. “This is a dream. Except now I’m having one while I’m awake, which is really creepy, I have to admit. So, maybe it’s not a dream anymore. It’s a hallucination. I’m probably going crazy. That’s what it is. I should see a shrink. Maybe they can give me some pills, so I stop coming here. Not that I won’t miss our fantastic conversations and your complete and total lack of telling me anything helpful about yourself or this place.”
Something poked me in the arm hard enough to make me stumble.
“Not a dream,” Mr. Mysterious rumbled, moving up next to me with utter stealth. “You feel real enough to me.”
I noticed he didn’t leave any tracks in the ground like I did.Definitely a dream.
“Well, duh,” I drawled. “My dream. I control it. That’s why it feels like you really poked me. A part of my subconscious is creating that to try and fool me.”
“I am not part of your dream,” he rumbled, looking down at me, his long black hair falling forward over his shoulders.
“Then, who are you?” I asked. “Because it seems like you’re just some mega-hunk I dreamed up.”
I was conveniently ignoring the fact that I’d seen the picture of him in my father’s journal. There was an explanation for that, too, though. If he’d ever copied that picture somewhere, somewhere that I’d seen it, then it could just as easily have been in my subconscious waiting to come out.
It was a stretch, but what else was I supposed to think?
As usual, he didn’t respond to me. Just stared down from way up high, making me feel small.
“Exactly,” I said. “You’re Mr. Mysterious and nothing more.”
I started walking again. He moved to block me.
“Really?” I said. “Dream, remember?” I kept walking, telling myself I was going to walk through him or that he was going to move.
I rebounded off his chest. His very hard chest.
“Ow!” I yelped, clutching at my nose.
Mr. Mysterious stood there, unmoving, waiting.
“Okay, well, that didn’t work out as planned.” Pondering the situation, I nodded, steppedaroundhim, and kept going. That worked.
“Where are you going?” he asked, falling in step next to me.
“There’s no place like home,” I said dryly. “I’m pretty sure if I dig past these crunchy rocks, I’ll find some yellow somewhere. Which means…shouldn’t you be wearing a pointy hat and cackling? Let me hear you cackle.”
“No.”
“You’re no fun,” I said with a falsely dramatic sigh. Shaking my head, I continued.
“It’s not safe to go this way,” the hunky hulk told me.
“Look around you, bub,” I said, not slowing. “There’s nothing but blackness, crunchy rock, that hill, and those gates. I’ve been to the hill already. Twice, in fact. It’s time I visited somewhere new. I need change. It’s good for you. Otherwise, you end up an old crotchety…whatever you are.”
Mr. Unknown looked at the ground for a moment, then back at me. “You shouldn’t be here.”
“Tell me something Idon’tknow,” I said. “I don’twantto be here. I don’t know how I’m here. But I didn’t choose this dream, hallucination, whatever it is.”
“Not a dream.”
“Fine. What is it then?” I asked, crossing my arms. “Oh, wait, let me guess. You’re just going to stay silent.”
“Danger is everywhere here.”
Nowthatgot my attention. Danger everywhere? I hadn’t picked up on that. Other than the bleak sense of foreboding that a place as lifeless as this must have, it seemed perfectly normal. The danger was back in the real world, as far as I could tell.
“Danger?” I asked.
