The Empty World | The Empty World Sequence [complete | rewriting]

Eighteen

Morpheus said that John was a good person, that he rather liked him.  "I'll have to give him some nice dreams sometime."

"You could be me!" Daniel said.

Morpheus nodded slowly.  His memory told him that John had in fact called out the name Daniel in his sleep.  "With Angel's wings."

He started to talk about someone else, but Mother told him he'd said enough. 

Morpheus snatched up a biscuit and ate it.

"Where are you moving anyway?" Daniel asked.

"Not very far," said Morpheus then licked his lips. 

"Oh."

"We just don't need to be in this house anymore."

"I think you should be quiet now, Murph," Mother said again.

"I don't know where I'll go," Daniel said.  He took a sip of tea. "I've heard so many strange things recently."

"I'm sure," said Mother,  "You don't want to stay in Los Angeles then."

"Don't I?"

"Too many memories, it's better you move on again."

"I am always doing that."

"I know."

"Somehow I'm not surprised," Daniel said.

"But nothing really ever surprises you does it?" She asked, "You don't really stop to think about things too much, that's good."

"You don't get depressed all the time!" Morpheus sighed.  "I'm getting depressed all the time, to many things to worry about.  Always having to pretend you don't know things you know.  Always having to watch over people to make sure they don't get themselves in trouble."

"Really?" Asked Daniel.

"Oh, they give us all kinds of jobs!  Because we're so good at pretending, it is rather our thing, not that we never have anything to do with the truth.  Sometimes we show things that lead people right to the truth."

"Morpheus Tyron Smith!"  Shouted his mother.

"Sorry."

"Don't worry," said Daniel, "I won't tell a soul."

Daniel finished his tea and biscuits and then left the house.  "He'll go spend some time in New Orleans," Mother said. 

"Yeah," Morpheus agreed.  He was thinking about saying he would give John some nice dreams. 

Morpheus thought about it for a long while, as his Djinn helped Mother clean out her apartment. He planned the props he would need.  He'd appear as Daniel, with white Angel wings, and the white wings made him think of the Angel that Laura Palmer had seen in that Twin Peaks movie, so he decided that the dreams would always take place in the red room or whatever it had been, the waiting room with the red curtains.

He'd appear to John when certain things were going to happen.  Definitely before Steven was shot.  Maybe he'd appear before Julien came to New York, say something that would make John want to connect Daniel, whom he had loved, with Julien so that he would want to look out for Julien. 

Morpheus spent some time going back and looking in on other dreams John had.  He dreamt of Daniel often, but not as an Angel, not in very specific settings.  A lot of times Daniel was drinking something.  So Morpheus thought he'd be drinking when he appeared.  That would be pretty cool looking, an Angel casually drinking, say, a glass of whiskey.