(Narrated by Kevin Coffey)

Hello Coffey House readers. I hope this finds everyone well.

In case you need to catch up before reading or listening:

* You can always find up to date drops of this story as it progresses in order under the KINGDOM OF DREAMS tab on my home page.

-Kevin

Jimmy’s first thought at the start of the Lurking’s attack was a frantic one: how would he protect Lem? His sister still lay out cold like a sack of potatoes at his feet—a clashing contrast with their dire circumstances!

The winds whipped up around them as if a helicopter was about to land. The horror of their situation soaked in like a plague: Bucky Brees might as well have been a god in this strange world; his new form of a loathsome, mostly invisible Night Terror called the Lurking, quite possibly gave him unlimited control over the weather here. Fear enveloped Jimmy like a second skin; shaking him to his core. His body trembled so badly he could barely stay upright.

The clouds directly above them descended much too low for normal weather.

“Mishfictnishnee,” Jimmy tried saying.

The heavens lit up pink and yellow in perfect time with an overwhelming, obnoxious laugh Jimmy had heard a million times before that now rumbled like thunder.

“Nice try,” the Lurking bellowed down. “But that boat has sailed.”

The swirling eye that Jimmy and Lem managed to elude before formed in the center of the vicious storm overhead. The eye fixed on Jimmy with deep hatred.

“Welcome to my new digshh! Let me sshhhow you around!” the Lurking taunted Jimmy.

The eye in the middle of the storm’s pupil rolled out of the eyeball and for a beat, transformed into a pitch-black, almost insectile thing with multiple arms and legs. The cloud-body dissolved and broke apart, joining the now torrential rain dumping from the sky.

The storm's fury upset the skocean above, and epic waves dropped and clobbered the earth at random from high heaven, flash flooding the land around them.

With both pets on either side of him, Jimmy quickly fathomed they didn’t have great options to flee the attacking Lurking either. The Odd Woods were sealed in front of them, and behind was another section of deadly shadow grass. There was a long corridor that ran between the closed woods and deadly grass, but the Lurking would easily catch them and pick them off if they ran in either direction.

Jimmy went with the option that worked before. He snatched Lem by her arms and heaved, dragging her as fast as he could manage. “Charley, help me with her. Come on Francis—let’s make a run for the bladed grass!”

“Awwwww,” the Lurking condemned them with mock sympathy, projecting his voice in literal surround sound through his corralling gusts. “I’m starving,” the Lurking whined. “When I catch you I’m going to eat you!”

Converging winds tugged and pushed Jimmy and the animals away from their intended escape route. Soon, a wall of wind pinned them to the muddy ground. Movement proved impossible despite their best efforts. Long blades of the steel-like shadow grass were broken off, then pointed at their throats by the wind; one jagged shard for each of them.

“Now,” the Lurking seemed to consider, “who do I skin first?”

Jimmy hoped the Lurking was just having fun and playing with them before finishing the job in typical Bucky Brees style, likely leading to broken bones. At least the Lurking’s goofing around might buy them some time. But how do I get us out of this? Jimmy worried.

A sonorous screech erupted from the patch of bladed shadow grass behind them, causing all heads to whip around to see what in this world could make such a jarring sound.

An avalanche of white exploded out of the grass. The deadly grass blades did no damage to the emerging creature. Instead, they snapped and seemed to almost dive out of the way; they might as well have been dandelions to the impressive thing that erupted from its cover.

Jimmy craned way up, gaping in awe as a glaring white beast, humongous enough to stomp an elephant into the ground, thundered onto the scene. Amidst the colorless world, the creature sported blue eyes that shone like eternally-burning firework sparklers. The overwhelming beast turned out to be a magnificent giant horse!

The charger lowered its long head cloaked in a storm of swirling frost and not seeming to guess at their enemies location, rammed the invisible Lurking, taking the Night Terror by surprise.

A high-pitched cry rang out, and a great rut raced forward in the mud as the Lurking apparently knocked against a cluster of tangled roots belonging to the Odd Woods. The shadow grass shards he was holding to their throats obliterated into thousands of pieces. The mud spread over the once undetectable Night Terror, and the cloaked Lurking was not so invisible any longer.

A long, multi-legged creature with several needlelike arms ending in icicle claws slid to a stop. The Lurking raised his head like some evil, unfinished sculpture. Two imprints reminded Jimmy of the squinty eyes of a ferret, and then the mud slid off until the Lurking’s face disappeared, leaving behind only a smiling single yellow fang, covered in enough grit and grime to stay visible. Jimmy recalled Bucky’s colliding, jagged yellow teeth right in his face in the locker room. But these were beefed-up, banana-sized versions in his current nightmare form.

The Lurking launched into the air, whipping up its most devastating weather yet. The Night Terror blasted surges of wind, one after another, like boulders fired from a catapult, obliterating bark and branches into deadly confetti.

Jimmy yelled with Charley in unison as one of the giant trees was ripped away by the roots from the forest floor and fell with its shadow stretching over Lem, leaving no time to react.

In a flash of glowing white, even before Jimmy could cry out, the titanic white horse stood over them like an armored tank, shielding them from the massive falling tree. The brave steed made no sound while the tree broke over his back and snapped in two with a violent crack, sliding harmlessly off his perhaps magical, thick-knotted coat. The white beast snorted snowflakes and gritted fearsome, icicle teeth.

“We’ve got to get out of here,” Jimmy yelled at the pets. “Francis, can you tell us where we are?”

Francis peered out from behind one of the horse’s legs that closely resembled colossal tree trunks in contrast to the wee kitty. The cat braced against the severe winds, squinting to steal a look. “With limited certainty, it appears we’re in a conflicting version of the alley that runs behind our house.”

“The alley?” Jimmy snapped his fingers, craned up, waving at their unexpected guardian, the magnificent horse. “Uh… horse? Can you cover us? I mean… if we make a run for it?”

The glowing equine peered down at Jimmy hiding among its limbs for shelter and gave a single nod.

“But do join us, er… if you want. Thanks!” The horse grinned and puffed out his mighty chest, appearing eager for battle.

“Charley, help me with Lem again. Francis, run!” Jimmy said as they ran out from beneath their animal protector in the opposite direction of the Lurking. Jimmy draped Lem’s legs over Charley once more while he half-supported his sister’s upper half.

“And where do you think you’re going?” the Lurking shrieked.

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They were targeted by blinding flashes of close-proximity lighting strikes that crackled then boomed, charging the air with the smell of static ozone. Their hair stood on end and it took maximum effort not to be blown off their feet and just keep moving.

The white horse whinnied and booming thunder chased after them in a blended cacophony. Jimmy prayed the geography here ran similar to their real world. Their lives depended on it. He hoped the rugged horse might just prove as fearsome as it looked and give the foul weather Night Terror a worthy challenge.

“Faster!” Jimmy urged his pets. “We can’t let it see where we’re going!”

“Oh,” Francis said as they streaked down the lengthy alleyway. “Surely, you’re not heading for—”

“Yes,” Jimmy confirmed. “If we can get there.”

The commotion behind them raged on as Jimmy and his pets got soaked with relentless rain and chilling winds that gnawed at their bones. Jimmy thought they must look like they were running some kind of warped human and dog relay the way they had to carry Lem in such an awkward fashion. But they hadn’t dropped her, not yet at least.

The houses that would normally be stationed along the alley were missing—the mass of empty lots spooked Jimmy. Nothing here felt quite right. Then there was the Odd Woods on the other side that had existed as a park and trail area back on Earth.

Huge volleys of lighting surged down the alley like shells from heavy artillery that grew closer with each attempt.

Charley sniffed behind them with both ears up like a satellite dish. “Uh, we need to go!”

Jimmy desperately searched the altered landscape with his eyes. Where are you? Where are you?

“Oh no!” he breathed.

They had arrived at his intended destination at the edge of the alleyway, only… there was nothing here. “My school—where is it?”

The land here was barren and ravaged, with no major features beyond huge cracks running all over like it had been a wasteland for centuries. It didn’t occur to Jimmy that much like the houses in his neighborhood, in this deranged realm, his school might be missing as well. 

Charley sniffed the air. “Smell somethin’ pamiliar. Yeah! Jim, it smells like your backpack. You know, pat school smell.”

Behind them, a whinnying screech shattered the air for miles, then a great THUMP, like something of significant size had fallen. Did their horse make it?

The eye began reforming in its usual place in the sky, feverishly searching for them again. There was no sign of their horse savior.

“Charley, quick! Where’s the school smell coming from?” Jimmy said.

Charley pointed at the ground with his nose, “bare, down in bat hole.”

“You mean this opening here in the ground?”

“Yeah.”

There was the slightest of crevices in the earth with a caved-in shelf of land that might have made a more than decent burrow for small animal in a pinch.

“Quick, quick. Get in there!” Jimmy said.

They arrived at the entryway of the hole, and in Jimmy, Charley, and Francis slid. They had to angle Lem just right so she, too could fit into the tight cavity. Jimmy wrapped his arms around his sister, straining to keep her from sliding further down the slope into the unknown deep. The space clearly went on for much farther than it appeared at first glance.

They wedged themselves behind a slice of land that had collapsed into the cavern opening and froze, becoming one with the darkness just beyond the fingers of sunlight, pawing at the opening.

For a glorious second, all was quiet. Then Jimmy heard what he imagined were breadcrumbs of loose dirt, rocks and broken sticks go skipping across the earthen roof just above their heads as the howling of a furious wind arrived.

Jimmy held his breath as something of evident size landed with great force, nearly caving in their flimsy ceiling of dirt!

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