(Narrated by Kevin Coffey)

Hello Coffey House readers. Happy Friday and holiday weekend (to my United States 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 new KINGDOM OF DREAMS tab on my home page.

Enjoy! -KC

With the violent storm—the spine-tingling Night Terror creation called the Lurking—gone, Jimmy gazed up again in awe at the sight of this new realm reflecting in his eyes.

Instead of clouds, the sky slithered and slid back and forth, dumping violent eruptions of salty white frothing waves, but thankfully, nothing close to like before.

Lem returned from a bathroom break, carefully maneuvering through the actual deadly blades of giant grass until she emerged beside Jimmy. (Jimmy realized they both forgot to go, of course, prior to entering a dangerous realm riddled with countless, horrifying ways to die.)

Lem parked herself beside Jimmy much too close to her brother’s liking and mimicked him, staring up at the sky. “Whatcha looking at?”

“That’s an ocean—correction—skocean. Something I made up—an ocean that makes up the sky!” he said, recalling a painting he once made in art class.

“Skocean?” Lem repeated. “Your warped brain messes things up here, too?”

Jimmy ignored her and instead contemplated his impossible creation. His inspiration came after he’d flown for the first time in an airplane. At a certain level, the clouds out of the window resembled a massive, choppy ocean.

Thunderous whitecaps broke and rolled across the colorless sky. The pesky storm infuriated the waves to the point they lashed out at the earth, but now their behavior was more or less miffed, staying up in the sky as an armada of ticked-off whitecaps, throwing occasional tantrums, spewing seafoam.

Jimmy and Lem might have been mistaken for battle-scarred porcupines, with spiked bits of the armored grass impaled in their clothes—fortunately not too deep in their skin for the most part.

Beyond some scrapes, irritating shards, and minor cuts, they were fine. Very grateful, too, as the landscape around them was flattened and demolished like it had gotten a buzzcut from a two-year-old.

“Where have you taken us?” Lem asked Jimmy, raising an accusatory eyebrow.

Jimmy caught her staring at his galaxy bed, still occupying the place their house should be across the street. Would she just leave him and go home? She will. And sooner than later, Jimmy thought.

“Let’s not forget about finding Francis and Charley,” Jimmy reminded her.

“Right….” Lem said unconvincingly. “But once we find them, we’re out of here.” She eyed the sky with doubt. “You can forget my help trying to deal with whatever that was.”

They exited the deadly maze of bladed grass and began exploring their once so familiar street. They were drawn over to Jimmy’s glowing bed.

Lem crouched by Jimmy’s amazing mattress, still active with a pulsing and twinkling galaxy. The bed was the only apparent light source for miles, radiating in the pale light like a bonfire. It was as if the magic hour was eternal here.

“Look, paw prints!” Lem pointed out a set of light prints under the bed beside larger, deeper ones. The prints then streaked off as a smeared trail into the glazed-over mud. “Looks like something might have spooked them and they tore off that way,” she said and pointed down the road. The smear trailed off around the block.

Lem took off, flapping down their once so familiar road in her ridiculous token flip-flops.

“Wait, Lem!” Jimmy called, trudging and splashing after his sister.

With nothing around, Jimmy easily tailed Lem across the barren landscape, until they both stopped in their tracks, staring dumbfounded at an immense sprawling forest that Jimmy swore hadn’t been there just a few seconds before.

“Francis? Charley?” Lem called out in desperation—much too loud in Jimmy’s opinion—searching everywhere for their pets.

These woods, too, had some oddities about them as far as Jimmy was concerned: all the tree trunks appeared as if a giant had come along and tied the entire forest in a bundled knot. Probably what happened.

Upon encountering the Odd Woods, Jimmy recollected the name from drawing a forest of knotted-up trees out of boredom during a snoozfest of a history lecture. Were all his sketches and fantasies reality here, magically brought to life? Jimmy shuddered at the thought of some of the bizarre and outright evil things and environments that might be waiting for them.

The army of tangled trees sprawled toward the horizon like an endless giant thicket. There was no obvious point of entry, so they just hoofed it along the edge of the forest.

“Why would the trees be shut?” Lem said.

“Who knows? Maybe they’ve been sewn together? Hey, let’s just ask them: Trees, why are you closed up?” Jimmy interrogated the woods.

They didn’t bother answering.

Lem didn’t miss the opportunity to make fun of him. “Nice. Talking trees, really? That’s your brilliant plan—to interrogate plants?” She swatted at her still-sopping bangs that drooped right back in front of her eyes and frowned. “Ugh! I should have shaved it all off!”

Jimmy may have made up some spectacular creatures, but he figured his sister would always be the most out there creature to him.

Case in point: Lem stopped to shove him for no good reason. “I don't know why there's a freaking ocean in the sky or a tied-together forest or spears for grass. So, stop whining like a little girl and keep your little legs moving.”

“I'm not whining, Lem—you are. I'm scared—so are you. It’ll be dark soon, and I just want to find our pets like you do and get warm and dry.” Despite trying to be tough, Jimmy’s bottom lip quivered. “You know I don't like the dark.”

“What are we supposed to do here, anyway?”

“I’m not sure exactly. But this place kind of freaks me out,” Jimmy said in a low voice.

“Kind of?” Lem said. “I thought this fantasy crap only happened to snot-nosed, whiny British brats.” Lem screwed up her face and scowled at their messed-up setting with disgust.

After a while of silent walking, Lem dropped her shoulders like she had decided something and sighed. “Alright, alright. I’ll bite: so how did you do it?”

“How did I do what?”

“The… spell you used to get rid of the bullies that led us here? Where did you learn it? Did you find a magic wand or something?” Lem stared at Jimmy with genuine curiosity.

“What? No. It’s not really a spell—definitely no wand,” Jimmy said, laughing. Then he decided against laughing like the world or something in it might take offense and quieted, carefully dodging her question. She couldn’t hold her attention for that long; she’d move on.

But Lem put a hand on his chest and stopped him from walking. “Hey, I asked you a question.”

Jimmy got a kick out of his sister’s amusement and held his hands up like he was surrendering to her. “It’s nothing, really. I’m not even sure if it’s me really doing it, but—”

“But what?”

Jimmy nodded, giving in a bit. He found he wanted to tell her—someone, anyone—all about it. “It’s a curse… I think.”

“A curse?”

“Well, yeah.”

Lem stared holes through him. She didn’t appear to be irritated or afraid, just at the height of curiosity. “That’ll be cool if it’s true,” Lem actually smiled with possible admiration in her tone.

Jimmy laughed, too. “Well, yeah! It is pretty cool, especially after all of the—”

“No, no, no. You don’t get to go blabbing on, diving down your rabbit hole. Just cut to the chase. Tell me how it works, this… Curse,” Lem said, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow.

“It’s a word.”

“A word?”

“Yeah,” Jimmy gave her an awkward smile.

“Where did you learn it?”

“It just came to me in a daze while Bucky was holding me before… well, you know.” Jimmy expected Lem would squash this as ridiculous, and that would be the end of it, but instead, she leaned in and grabbed his shoulders, regarding him like he was the most interesting person in the world. Jimmy kind of dug that feeling.

“Jimmy, I’m dying. What’s the word?” Lem said.

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Jimmy broke eye contact with his sister and stared at the ground.

Lem frowned. “Jimmy?”

“I can’t say it to you,” Jimmy said.

“Of course you can,” Lem said. Her foot began to tap. Jimmy spotted her tell: the build-up before the all-out temper tantrum.

“Lem...”

Lem pushed him down.

Jimmy got up and dusted himself off. “Don’t do that.”

“Don’t do what,” Lem smirked. She pushed him down again—this time with a little extra spice in her shove.

Jimmy’s blood boiled a bit, maybe, just maybe he should float the word—no. He wouldn’t do that. Not to family. Jimmy took a deep breath and stood. He studied his sister in earnest, feeling love for her despite her being a pain in the rear. “Lem, I’ll curse you if I say it.”

Lem pointed to herself. “Me? Why?”

“I… I don’t much about how it works, because I just sort of figured it out. It just seems to do the trick if I say it to someone I want bad things to happen to. So far, they go missing, my… hunch is, it gets worse.”

Jimmy dodged his sister’s eyes, expecting a wrecking-ball response.

“Then, I don’t know, say it without intention to me,” Lem said, taking him by the arm.

Lem knelt and picked up a rock. “Let’s test the theory: say it in a gentle voice to this rock.”

 It was such a dumb idea. Jimmy shook his head, but something stirred inside of him.

It’s a GRAND idea, I whispered inside of his head with resonance.

Jimmy focused only on the rock. Something inside of him caused more hesitation.

Lem scowled at him. “Come on. Don’t be lame.”

“Mishfictnishnee,” Jimmy said with a whisper. He instantly regretted saying the word, like the feeling he got when he got so stirred up and dared to cuss at one of his parents.

Lem’s smirk flatlined to a dead expression on her face.

“Lem?”

Lem staggered around their muddy trail, tromping in unbalanced circles, and started gasping for air.

“No. No. No—Lem!” Jimmy ran to her. “Lem, I’m so stupid, please forgive me, I—”

Lem pinched his arm and started laughing hysterically. “I’m fine. You should see your face right now.”

“Are you kidding me?” Jimmy raised his arms like he intended to clobber his sister, but in a joking, loafing Frankensteinish way that made her laugh harder. The major miracle of this place so far was he enjoyed his sister’s company. A jolt of excitement rushed through him, a new sense of freedom. Lem not only knew his secret of the Curse but was on his side attempting to help him solve his problems!

Lem staggered a couple of steps back, her eyes opened much too wide with surprise that turned quickly to one of apparent horror.

Jimmy waved her off. “Okay, good one. You got me once, but enough already. Lem?”

But Lem kept on looking vacant and unsteady, swaying on her feet.

Jimmy desperately searched her eyes and found no trace of the usual devilish spark that always occupied them. Lem opened her mouth in an expression of horror like she would scream, but nothing came out. She closed her mouth and her face went blank with no expression. Lem’s eyes rolled back, like her soul had been sucked out of her body.

Finally, she collapsed and lay still on the ground.

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