Page 21 of Precipitous Nightmare's Valentine Dream

“What?” she asked, unable to put any of her other questions into words.

The King of Dreams pinched the bridge of his nose and grumbled. “I rule a kingdom of idiots and naïve fools.”

He turned to face her.

“Your precious Nightmare only wants you for his transformation so he can escape that horrific realm.” The king waved a hand toward a carnival on the boardwalk ahead, where Luminous could see the dream forms of Melanie and Gary sharing a banana split on a bench overlooking the water. His expression turned cruel. “As for those two, I should sprinkle a little more reality into their dreams, since that’s what you want so badly.”

Luminous watched in horror as the King of Dreams waved a hand to introduce new elements into her carefully crafted plans.

Gary took a call to accept a distant job opportunity instead of kissing Melanie when she turned her face toward him. Frustrated, she let her brother introduce her to a local friend, a man who might be as good for her as all her dreams of Gary.

“No,” whispered Luminous as she watched her own dreams sift away as easily as dream sand blown on an errant breeze. “Why would you do this?”

“They’ll achieve other dreams,” her king told her, leaning in to give her a wink and a cold, amused smile. “I’ve already put plans in motion for Gary to truly get that dream job of his. And Melanie can find contentment in any man, silly twit that she is. One asshole is as good as another when it comes to love. She’ll meet a man who’ll give her babies to dote on, then she’ll forget the chump who stood her up in middle school.”

“They would have been happy,” protested Luminous. “Truly happy…”

“And why do they deserve happiness?“ The King of Dreams seemed honestly confused by her objection. “It’s all an illusion anyway.”

Something about that struck Luminous as deeply wrong, but she dared not contradict her liege. The cheery music of the distant carousel started up again, and children’s laughter filled the air between its notes.

“They’re regular people,” protested Lumi, clinging to the hope that he might change his mind. “Everyone deserves a chance at happiness…”

He laughed then, and Luminous realized how petty and cruel he truly was. For a moment, she wondered how a place with as much beauty and joy as the Dream Realms could have broken her king so.

A whirlwind of sand drew up, separating Luminous and her king from the dream renditions of the mortals across the boardwalk.Silence fell as the sounds of the carnival drifted away.

“Go to your Nightmare creature,” said the King of Dreams, his tone bored and haughty. “Beg him for help with your task. You’ll see. He will be glad for your failure. Glad you have no one to turn to but him. You’ll know the truth when you see it in his eyes, when he offers you false sympathy and comfort in the form of a fuck. Then you can come crawling home and I shall put you to work where you’ll cause no more trouble.”

In a wash of brilliant summer sunshine, the king was gone, his dream realm dissipating with him. Luminous stood alone on a city sidewalk, just one more anonymous person with a broken heart watching the world swirl on around them.

Chapter 17

Nothing Compares to Eating Dinner in a Fancy Red Sarong

Luminous Dream

Luminous sat in Melanie’s empty bedroom, bawling her eyes out as she listened to early-90s breakup music on the mortal woman’s retro stereo. She was so wrapped up in belting out her favorite sad-song lyric “I can eat my dinner in a fancy red saronggggg…” that she barely noticed when Precipitous stepped from the Shadow Paths at her back.

He halted, then made his way around to face her. Looking up at him over the tear-stained pillow clutched to her chest, Luminous choked in a sob. The perplexed look on his annoyingly handsome face only made Luminous bawl harder, messing up her karaoke-worthy rendition of classic Sinead O’Connor.

Setting something on the dresser next to her, he knelt to bring himself to eye level. His confused brown eyes met hers as he tilted his head slightly to force himself within her field of view. When he spoke, the cautious concern almost broke her again.

“What is wrong, Lumi?”

She clutched the pillow tighter and turned her face away.

“You used me,” she accused. “You wanted me to fall in love so you could be real and then you were planning to leave me.”

His startled, guilty expression revealed the truth.He’d intended everything the King of Dreams had claimed.

Luminous wiped her tears, rose, and stalked to the other side of the room, almost tripping over a cheery flower-patterned blouse Melanie had abandoned on the polished hardwood floor.

Precipitous unfurled his large body to standing, a decidedly uncomfortable expression on his face.He didn’t approach her, though.

“I initially planned things that way, yes.” He wiped a hand through his messy hair, catching his fingers on one half-emerged horn. “But that was before I knew you. Truly, you quickly taught me how foolish of a plan it was. I could no more walk away from you than…”

“Well, you’re going to have to,” she snapped, staring at the empty bed of the woman who’s life she’d attempted to manipulate. “You were always going to have to. That’s how this kind of relationship ends, isn’t it?”

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