(Narrated by Kevin Coffey)

Hey everyone. Happy Friday!

We’re on the last few chapters. More coming soon once I finish things up.

Until then, stay well and enjoy!

—KC

Jimmy figured the fall would kill him. He’d never wake up from the Lurking dropping him from such a ridiculous height in the sky. No, all that would be left of him was an awful eyesore permanently (and literally) stuck to the throne.

So, Jimmy was amazed when he found himself crouched on the edge of a cliff. He blinked again. Still here.

Even weirder, Lem was staring up at him, her face frozen in apparent complete terror. He’d never seen her so scared. Is this real? Jimmy asked himself. It felt like another living dream, yet here he was in the flesh. Uh oh. Some kind of sleepwalking episode again? he asked himself.

Worse: he was holding Lem over the edge of the cliff like he’d drop her.

Let her go! Dromon hissed, his recurring nightmare’s voice swirling around inside of Jimmy’s head.

Without his insides feeling hollowed out, unable to generate any kind of human emotion, Jimmy let go of Lem.

“NO!” Burks yelled just behind him.

The netting connected to the dreamcatcher saddle flew overhead and draped over Lem as she started to fall and pulled her back, slamming her into Jimmy. Jimmy fell with his sister and collapsed away from the edge.

Jimmy shook out of his emotionless daze while being tied up by Lem and Burks. Both were frantically cinching up knots, binding his arms and legs using the ropes of the dreamcatcher from Sinsul’s severed saddle. Jimmy just smiled as if he were pleasantly overmedicated. Here, but NOT here. What was going on?

In a new development, Jimmy felt his body radiate with strength and power—he decided to test it out. Jimmy flexed and grinned as the ropes strained, erupting in small explosions of dust fragments.

His family stared at him with terrified eyes, and he liked it—a new kind of respect. The ropes would be easy to break when he wanted them to, but he didn’t want to let on too much. Not just yet. So he relaxed. “So… what’s going on?” he asked Lem. It was (mostly) an honest question.

“Shut up, you little punk.” Lem scowled and lifted her foot like she wanted to kick him in the face.

Then Lem set her foot back down. She checked on Charley and Francis, who sat side by side in evident confusion and fear. They didn’t seem to like Jimmy’s energy at all as they kept their distance.

“The Lurking’s throne stabbed you when you fell on top of it,” Burks explained to Jimmy. “I believe it poisoned you and made you a scary sleepwalker capable of doing horrible things.”

“Then he was stabbed a long time ago.” Lem wandered off by herself and sat. Charley followed, standing guard by his master. Wrapping her arms around her knees, she rocked herself gently with Charley leaning into her body, nuzzling her.

Keeping a healthy distance away, Francis sat, viewing Jimmy with evidently distraught, widening eyes.

As if hallucinating as Burks indicated he might be, Jimmy experienced the surreal: a thin white span of an arch grew out of the edge of the cliff into the nothingness. It appeared to be made of the purest white marble, as it gleamed across the darkness without rails or support ropes until it disappeared from view into the gloom. Black vapors from the abyss clawed at the sides of the bridge as if desperate to make a solid purchase but instead instantly evaporated as if the bridge was so clean it could incinerate anything remotely unpure upon contact. The picky span kept itself cleaner than Sinsul’s stormy fur once did.

“The Bridge of Good Measure—It found us!” Burks whispered. “Talk about lousy timing.”

“Bugger us. How exactly are we supposed to get across with Jimmy in this condition?” Francis asked.

Jimmy took exception to his pet’s comment. “It’s quite rude to talk about someone right in front of their face, you know,” Jimmy scowled. What was his cat thinking?

Lem looked up at the bridge, scowled, and looked back down. “Maybe we don’t,” she said.

“I have a strong back; I’ll take him across,” Charley offered with enthusiasm. The dog snatched the reins of the bulky saddle up in his mouth and dragged Jimmy a few paces in demonstration. “See?”

Jimmy spilled onto his side and cursed the dog under his breath.

Charley dropped the reins and dipped his head, deeply wounded. “I forgive you.”

“Forgive him? Not likely,” Lem huffed. She hopped to her feet and pivoted on the cliff’s rocky surface. Her battered flip-flops let out a shriek as she turned back to him.

Lem grabbed Jimmy by the chin.

Feeling spunky, Jimmy tried to bite off her fingers, but she pinched his chin, keeping his bobbing head still. “Look at me.”

Jimmy drilled holes through his sister feeling amped with hate. He expected her to rear her fist back.

She didn’t. Instead, she lightly placed her hand on the crown of his head in the most gentle way she had ever touched him. “Look… I—I’m sorry,” Lem said.

“You’re… sorry?”

“Well, yeah. Sorry for tossing you into The Place and… well, breaking your spaceship.”

Jimmy paused, downright drowning in confusion. This was too much. Her apology didn’t hit him the right way. His stress caused Jimmy’s muscles to flex, and the ropes once more creaked with strain, as if crying out in pain at his strength.

Lem wrinkled her brow, confused. “Why are you still tweaking? I said I was sorry.”

“Oh. My mistake. You’re such a pure-hearted soul.” Jimmy jerked his head at the marble span. “Go ahead then! Let’s see you put your feet on that bridge first, and let’s find out what it thinks about you!”

“Dude, settle down,” Burks said, putting an awkward gauntlet on his sweaty shoulder.

“But I’m not done! Get these stupid ropes off of us!” Jimmy screamed.

“Us?” Burks asked.

Maybe a legit question, but Jimmy meant what he said. Burks wasn’t part of him anymore. Jimmy strained, and the ropes shed another spray of fibers, about to snap. A couple of feathers detached and floated off the saddle. “She needs to know how she made me feel.” Jimmy easily slipped Burks’ grip and jumped to his feet like a well-trained ninja, delighting in the shock it seemed to give them to see him easily bearing Sinsul’s extra-large saddle without much effort.

Jimmy moved close to Lem, handling the weight and bulk of the saddle with surprising—and evidently disturbing to everyone else—ease. Jimmy gritted his teeth. “I don’t need hands to finish the job.”

Burks jumped on Jimmy’s back as if to stop him, but it was as easy as fending off an annoying gnat, trying again and again to grab him and pull him back, but his daydream was weak, and easily cast aside.

Charley too bit and pulled at Jimmy’s ropes, so he had to turn and kick the dog’s front leg, causing it to bend the wrong way.

Charley yelped in apparent pain, and limped away.

“Jimmy! How could you hurt an innocent animal?” Lem scolded him. “It’s like you don’t even care.” Tears beaded in his sister’s eyes, and she slowly shook her head back and forth.

Jimmy leaned close to her ear. “I don’t even like you anymore.”

Tears continued to leak from Lem’s eyes, and her lips trembled.

“Where were you when Bucky and Clayton permanently humiliated me?” Lem’s eyes widened. “You did nothing. Why?”

“I… I didn’t know how much—”

Infuriated, Jimmy got even closer to his hated big sister and bumped into her. This time she didn’t fight back.

His sister’s flip-flops slipped on the icy surface, and he checked her again.

Charley whined in desperation as she slid backward against her will.

Jimmy lowered his shoulder and barged into her chest, spinning her closer to the edge again. He let her stand there on the edge, feeling the danger before stating, “Oh, I cursed you, too.”

Lem regarded him like he was a stranger or part alien.

“That’s right. You slumped down like a rag doll.” Jimmy laughed, the saddle strapped around his frame shook in rhythm with his body. “You asked me to curse you. Do you believe that? But I saved you. It was silly.” Jimmy frowned, shaking his head. “It was stupid. But I’ll correct that now.” He stormed toward her, intent on watching her fall a long way.

A snort burst from behind them, coming from way above their heads, but it had the effect of a blast from a shotgun. Jimmy stopped cold, skidding to a halt and whirled around, craning way up.

Nobody moved.

Not there just moments before, an immense cloud of writhing black shadows flanked their position on the solitary cliff. From within the uppermost depths down came another snort and huff.

And then Sinsul’s neigh. The cloud drifted closer to them.

Sinsul, or whatever this new monster was, neighed again, this time so close that what must be the horse’s hot breath singed Jimmy’s skin.

Hot breath?

Thrusting his neck through the veil of serpentine shadows, the once-again gigantic Sinsul revealed himself, towering over them. But this was not their once tame and helpful friend—not by a long shot.

Restless smoke clung like a murder of crows to the warhorse’s iron-black face and neck. The horse’s once icy pupils smoldered and pulsed blood-orange.

Jimmy’s once boiling veins turned frosty. He regarded his bindings with a surprised, startled conscience. Why was he all tied up like a prisoner? He felt more fear about what he might have done than for the nightmare threat looming over them.

The horse plucked Jimmy up by the ropes of the dreamcatcher tied around him and reared, causing all of Jimmy’s blood to drain to his face. The side of the nightmare’s shadowy face that touched the netting turned white.

“No!” Lem jumped and wrapped her arms around Jimmy’s ankles at the last second.

Burks also dove for the trailing stirrup ladder but missed horribly and face-planted on the ground.

The former warhorse charged straight for the cliff’s edge, no doubt meaning to toss them both over.

Rolling to his feet and barking, Charley gave chase and then started limping, only able to run on three good legs.

Lem scrambled up Jimmy like a ladder until she rested on her brother’s chest, just beneath the horse’s mouth.

“Lem, what are you—”

She ignored him, tugging like crazy at the rope in Sinsul’s boiling mouth. She tried to throw a loose portion of the netting over Sinsul’s head but missed because of all of the jostling.

Lem eyed the ledge closing in, and face to face with the nightmare, she took a deep breath and plunged her arms elbows deep into Sinsul’s steaming nostrils.

Lem screamed in evident pain, but true to her stubborn self, wouldn’t budge.

Sinsul shook his head, probably more in irritation, forced to open his mouth to breathe, and Jimmy lobbed off to the side and rolled to a stop, close to Burks.

Distracted and probably annoyed, Sinsul refused to pull up until he skidded at the edge of the cliff. Still stuck on the nightmare horse’s face, Lem smiled at Jimmy with relief when she realized he was clear of danger.

Sinsul grinded to a halt. His head whipped forward—and Lem lost her hold on the shadowy horse.

“I love you,” Lem said as she sailed over the ledge of the cliff and was gone!

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“NO!!” Jimmy’s soul numbed over. His heart turned solid like a massive stone—a weight he could no longer bare. Every inch of his body quaked and trembled, like he’d burst. He struggled to free an arm from the entangled dreamcatcher and wrestled his way to his feet. He attempted to go at Sinsul with his bare hands, but someone held him back. Burks.

“No, Jimmy. Not wise—he’ll kill you!” pleaded his Recurring Daydream.

“Let me go,” Jimmy said. “I’ll kill him!”

Sinsul snorted, spitting out fuzzy strands of frayed rope, and whirled.

Charley sprinted past them on his three good legs toward Sinsul with a snarl. The brave dog wanted revenge too, very much opposite of his usual happy-go-lucky nature.

Surprising himself again with an action that didn’t seem his own, Jimmy intercepted the dog, grabbing a handful of collar. He braced his arm and the pooch yelped at being yanked off his feet.

“No, Charley, he’ll kill you,” Jimmy said. “Burks is right. Nobody else dies.”

A spiteful snort caused Jimmy to spin around and yell.

Sinsul’s vicious teeth—no longer icicles, but black needles as hard as bone—clamped down on Burks’ helmet.

They were seized and throttled side to side by a crazy force, sprawling backward in a pile as Burks’ helmet was torn off his head.

Sinsul chewed and spit out strands of the helmet’s ripped-off mop for a plume and punted the shell away with a hoof.

The vacuum cleaner helmet cruised through the air until Francis dodged it as it clattered onto the bridge beside him and settled perfectly upright. The cat gawked at them from the foot of the pearly white bridge, which might as well be hundreds of miles away from here. At least one of them had managed to get away.

The black charger sucked in his sides.

“He’s going to breathe on us!” Jimmy exclaimed.

Despite his lame front leg, Charley sprinted away at top speed with Jimmy still holding onto the dog’s collar and to Burks by his belt with his other hand. The knight weighed next to nothing aside from his remaining bits of armor.

Black fire melted the patch where they just were, torching everything it touched—snow, ice, and rock.

Sinsul whipped his head up and pursued. He was on them in a second and cut them off as they all arrived at the Bridge of Good Measure at the same time.

Sinsul rose on his hind legs like a bear.

“Scatter!” Jimmy shouted.

In the corner of his eyes, he spotted shapes diving as everyone got out of the way—everyone but Burks.

Sinsul’s fiery breath roasted Jimmy’s daydream on the spot.

The black flames incinerated the armor into instant flakes and powder, blending with the black snow and ice. There was nothing left.

Charley dragged Jimmy up onto the Bridge of Good Measure while Sinsul stamped at Burks’s ashes.

Sinsul made no attempt to follow them. He kept a respectable distance from the bridge, glowering at Jimmy and the animals in tense, frozen silence.

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