Dream Seeker

Dream Seeker- Chapter Six

Gael fixed her eyes on the man's face." Are we dead?"

He turned to her. "You are neither dead nor alive, not in the conventional sense. You see the real you is eternal. The essence of your soul needs a shell to survive in the physical world, but you abandoned your shells. I don't know what brought you to this God forsaken place. Time is disturbed here. What was never was, and what will be is forever lost."

"Once you cross you are forever lost. We are inside the heart of the rift. Aren't we?" She knew the words to be true the moment they slipped out of her mouth.

David took a step back, baffled. "But we can't be in the heart of the rift. If we are, we will never be able to return to our bodies."

The keeper lowered his gun. "What rift?" He studied their faces curiously as though he were aware of them for the first time.

"The space time rift." Marie said." We are dream seekers. Our physical bodies are connected to a machine that allows our mind to astral project."

"How is that possible?" He growled." I don't know who or what you are, but I don't want any part of what you're doing. Dream seekers? It just doesn't sound right to me."

Pax snorted. "Yeah, and living inside of a lighthouse in the middle of nowhere makes more sense."

Gael grabbed Pax's arm."The man has a gun, shut it." She muttered.

Marie covered her face in her hands, sobbing loudly.

Pax stood in place, looking stunned. "God, do any of you know what sarcasm is?"

The keeper observed Marie with pity. "Would you like to come in for some tea?"

"Oh, thank you, thank you so much. I knew you had a kind heart somewhere in there," Marie said. The keeper looked away uncomfortably and Marie winked at Gael.

Gael walked up to the keeper. "But first can you tell us who you are?"

A feeble smile stretched the keeper's weathered face. "I came here long ago. Years ago, I had a family, a wife and a little girl, but now they are gone, and there is only me. I fear this place. Every night, I hear strange sounds coming from inside the island. I went after them once I knew they were gone, but it was too late the fog had settled in. This is where I stay. The lighthouse had other keepers before, but they all abandoned it, never to return."

David looked back at the rocky shore with dread. A heavy fog was rolling in. "Is the offer for tea still up?"

The keeper let them in, securing the door locks after them.

They sat cross legged in front of the crackling fire place as the keeper set a tea kettle on an old coal stove.

Marie contemplated the burning wood. "What do you think it's on the other side?" She said to no one in particular.

"Our escape from this wretched place. " David answered, his eyes fixed on the flames.

Gael rubbed her hands together infront of the fire. She knew the answer lay before them but the clues were scattered all over the place. "I don't know. He said his wife and child were tempted by strange sounds coming from within the island," She said.

"Sounds like the ones the five children in river valley heard. Each parent reported hearing noises in the forest the day their children got lost. Could it be that this is all related?" Pax look around at them as he said this.

Marie gasped. "River valley could be on the other side of this island. This could be the crossing point."

Gael jumped up on her feet." Exactly. We need to go into the island; that's the only way we will know for sure."