LUCID

CHAPTER 30

I smashed to the ground and lay there stunned a few seconds until my normal senses tuned back in. A dry, smoky stench filled my nostrils and throat. My fingers clawed in flaky ash. My ears were filled with the faint echoes of cries and screams and growls and hisses and cackles. My heart was filled with dread. I opened my eyes and lifted my head from the ground to look around. I was in the garden, but it wasn't happy anymore. Far from it – the place had been completely devastated.

It was like a fire had raged over the landscape, charring everything in its path – trees were scorched and black, the grass was frizzled to a crisp, the stream was a channel of dry, broken clay, and the sky was a blanket of stormy grays. The sun was gone. Swirls of foul mist hung in pockets everywhere like poison-vapour. The scorched carcasses of all the animals, the hedgehogs and tortoises, birds, rabbits, puppies, fawns and ponies lay strewn and smoldering across the frizzled meadow. And yet there was a deathly chill in the air.

"You owe me Taylor – I've come to collect."

Creed's voice cut through me like an icy wind. I sprang to my feet and turned to see him standing in a bank of mist about thirty yards away, accompanied by ten of the creatures from the Void - the creatures Brie had called her friends.

"Creed," I said.

"Well, not really, just his astral form. But you can use his name. I must say, this feels much more powerful and liberating than that little girl form I spent so long in. How is our little Brie by the way?"

"Ascended. "

"Good for her. She was useful, but I like this better."

"Where are my friends?"

"Unfortunately, they got out. No big deal though."

"How did you get here? What is it you want, Creed – whoever, whatever you are?"

"What I want... good question. I thought I wanted my little friends back – all those children you took away from me. I was so disappointed. But then you came back. Brought me this Creed person. And he got me completely out of the Void – what a surprise. I couldn't have hoped for better. And I've got you to thank for that. And as for how I got here – I've got you to thank for that too. Now I'm in the physical world, seems I can sense your frequency quite easily – and that frequency led me to this pretty little garden. Too pretty for me though, so I brought some of my friends along to help... remodel the place. Like what we've done?"

"You made a portal."

"Just over the hill – shortcut to home."

"Tell me, if you're so grateful, then I don't actually owe you anything?"

"Hmmm... I suppose not. But I still want something I haven't got yet."

"What's that?"

"You out of the way. You see, I have plans for the physical realm – and the Astral, now I can get to it from the physical – and I can't have you getting in my way. So my friends here are going to take you back to the Void and keep you there. Permanently."

"You're not going to do it yourself?"

"Don't have to – and I've got more pressing matters to attend to, like getting free of the cell this physical body is currently in."

"Good luck with that. It's a high-security facility. What do you think you're gonna be able to do?"

"Oh, I'll think of something. I'll find a way out."

"And what makes you think you can keep me in the Void? Been there twice – got out twice. Not a place I want to stay in."

"You fooled me the first time. Second time I wasn't there to stop you leaving. But I know your frequency now, I know your capabilities. And I'm confident my friends here can detain you."