Children of Morpheus

Chapter 3

    I was frazzled by everything that had happened. I was sitting in the dining room waiting for uncle Dean to explain everything. The clanging click of a teaspoon in a cup mixing, as the sound came nearer, and nearer aloud. The boisterous clasp of wind that jiggled the branch in the backyard that causes a crispy c***k in the air.

    He sat beside me with two cups of coffee on both hands and put it aside in the table. He lied his back to rest, trying to get comfy, as his breathing grasp in my ears and stared at me like a man in a trial.

    “I don't know where to start,” he started. “It's a talent that our family inherited in each generation.”

    “What did you mean by ‘talent’?” I grilled, still trying to comprehend everything, calming myself from the upcoming revelation.

    “Oneiromancy. It's the ability or divination in dreams, to see the past, present, future. . . and sometimes it enhances, like your mom and I. We have the ability to visit and manipulate dreams of others.” He explained in a soft tone.  

    "Are you saying magic is real?"

    He nodded.

    What is he saying? That's impossible, magic is not real. I kept telling that to myself. Everything that he's saying is nonsense. My inside is laughing right now. . . but a deeper part of me is saying that it could be real. It could happen. And if it were true, that explains my dream 2 months ago.  

    But that is not possible. C'mon, I mean magic? Really? Who would ever believe in those things? Children! Stupid, young, and immature children. He's going crazy. . . I'm going crazy. 

    I guess crazy runs in the family!

    But that answers everything about the things that mom wrote in her diary. Changing dreams, and talent. Then I realized the dream that I had two months ago is the accident. I dreamed of the accident before it happened. 

    I don't know what to do anymore. The only thing  that popped out of my mind is dad.

    “Did dad know about this?” I inquired as I looked at him in his emerald eyes.  

    He replied with silence as he stared down on his cup, breathed in hard, and sighed.  

    “He knew,” my voice in a disappointed tone. “And he didn't even bother to tell me.”

    He kept a secret from me. I can't believe he did that. My mind is being swallowed by anger, disappointment, and deception. He promised we will never keep secrets from each other.

    I jerked and stood up and started walking around continuously in haste like a clock that kept ticking. My mind is in a spiral. I don't know what's happening, everything is going down for me. . . I can't think!

    My hands were shaking non-stop as it gets cold. Sweats start slid on my shirt, I don't know how to feel. . . I can't calm down! 

    He lied to me!

    “Calm down, Rafael. You need to calm down.” He commanded. His voice was shaky and his eyes followed me through.  

    He stood up and hold my shoulder to be still. He looked at my troubled eyes, to calm me down. Then he started to rub softly at my shoulders with both of his thumbs, that felt numbing and relaxing. And it did. I calmed down and sat back. He handed the coffee to me and I took a small sip.

    Maybe this is why he never talk about mom's family. Maybe he never wanted me to be a magic man.

    “H-how did we get this onirmancy or something?” I never bothered to get the name right.  

    “My mother used to tell me that Morpheus and his siblings gave our family a gift in return for our service.” He pointed out in an unassured way.

    “Can we speak to the dead? I mean in our dreams. Can we speak to the dead in our dreams?”     

    “I don't know, never heard that before. Why'd you ask?” 

    “Mom spoke to me. 5 keys, she said. Find the 5 keys. You know what that is?”

    “The 5 keys are not exactly ‘keys’, they are five objects that represent a pentacle—Spirit, Water, Air, Earth, and Fire. I don't know what they look like or where to look. But we are tasked to guard them but my grandparents hid everything about the keys, they never told anyone, even to me.”

    But why? A new question struck my mind. They are keys, right? They open something, keys are used to open things. Why is that they needed to hide everything about it? Why does mom need the keys? 

    My mind is filled with questions that Dean can't answer. I need to learn how to use my Oneiromancy.

    “All you need is to concentrate if you are in a dream.” He said as he stood and walked towards the front door. I followed him while he twists the knob and swung open the door. He looked back at me. “I know this is beyond crazy but everything you need to know is in your dreams. You just need to focus and relax.” The click of a closing door shot the air. 

    I sat on the steps of the porch as the white moon gave a glow that captured the beauty and eerie of night. The whistling sound of the wind that blended with the rustling of the wood, mixed with the songs of cricket, and the calming waves of the ocean that serenades the coldness it brought.

    A creaking sound in my back whack against the silence in my mind. Uncle Dean sat beside me in the stairs as he wrapped his right arm around me. His warmth made me cozy and safe that somehow made everything okay. I know this might be scary but I know a part of me is saying that it will all go out sane. Once again, I smiled without any sarcasm. It felt nice. 

    I just wished that I have my phone in me to capture this moment. Pictures are moments in time that reminds the beauty of life and I don't want to ruin this moment. Such a waste.

    The bed swallowed me with tender as my eyes shut-in to the darkness of sleep. I cleared my mind of strains that can hold me from slumbering and dreaming my way through. The cold whispers of the air nip at my skin like a frost blazing throughout my body.

    My eyes and other senses were at the complete darkness, that I'm locked in. Focus, Rafael. Focus, you can do it.  

    Motivational, isn't it?

    I opened my sight and there I was in the middle of the road. A crash came about and it was all over again. The crash kept repeating again and again. My eyes start to water as thunder roared in the night sky. Then it changed. 

    Broken glass shards scattered around the dining table as creatures that I've never seen before came amok. What are those things? They start to scream aloud and wilder, like chimpanzees. Their pointed ears twitched from their head with their eyes glowed in red. They were naked and only a thin cloth covered their loin. They moved quicker than an average human person. They open my door room and my uncle's room, then the screaming started. I heard myself cried out from the room that made me jerked and hide. 

    There were few of them in the dining room rampaging nonstop, breaking anything that they see. I can still hear the screams and cries in the room. What is this? The future? No, no, no! I need to go back. 

    I turned back and saw her again. Mom. She was crawling helplessly with lashes in her back. She kept calling out. But I can't move. I want to help her but I'm petrified. I can't breathe. 

    “H-help me, Rafael!” She called, her voice was limited and raspy. “Help me, please!” 

    “M-mom.” My voice began to shake.  

    “Find the 5 keys and join them.” She tasked. 

    Then she screamed like a banshee. I closed my ears with my hands and shut my eyes trying to overpower the dream.

    I jolted my body and fell off the bed again. I snapped from my dreams and quickly ran to uncle Dean's door. When I was about to open it, the door suddenly swung open revealing him standing behind. 

    “You did it! And now we need to get ready.” He started as he jerked his body into his room and opened a wooden chest with a gold line entangling to a hoop.  

    He grabbed a long satchel. beside it, was a vase with a red stripe marks traced around it. He opened the bag and picked a silver-coated shear with red small stones. 

    “Quickly now, go to your room and take everything that you need and put it in a bag.” He commanded the looked at me, shivering his body. 

    I ran to my room and grabbed my empty bag and put my mom's book, the necklace with the box, some clothes, and my phone. I moved to the right and saw myself in the vanity mirror with a humanoid shadow standing in the window. My eyes widen in fear as I called uncle Dean.

    He quickly ran towards me, and I pointed out the shadow that kept looking right at me. He pulled me quickly down the steps and into the backyard where his car was parked. Then all the windows began to shake as a scream screeched the glass pane. It exploded.

    Both of us ducked from the flying shards that came striking. Creatures, looked exactly in my dreams were jumping in the house. They looked at us like food as their mouth watered like a hungry hippo. 

    “Children of dreams!” One of the creatures called out. “Tonight, this will be your last nightmare.” He growled.

    They attacked.     

    Uncle Dean pushed me aside to save me from them. The disgusting creatures hissed. He held a shear in his left hand as it glowed into a bright light. He stood up with his right hand, palm facing front, then shoot out fire. It dances in the air as uncle Dean swung his hand over until he took a step forward driving the monsters away from him and from me. 

    Others start throwing ceramics at him that shattered and the shards bounced off to his cheek that made him bleed a bit. My eyes were still shocked that he can do that. He shot fire out of his palm. A ceramic leaped off the table and stabbed me in the left shoulder. I can feel the pain going deeper and deeper then I let out a cry.

    He looked at me and turned back with anger marked on his face. “No one hurts my family, I will kill you!” He threatened.  

    In his right hand, a light came about in a rod shape. Then a spear came from the light that glowed over the shadow that the beasts brought. He attacked one by one as he fought them with the weapon. He swung the spear that slices through their necks that spurts out black oozing blood and start to burn and fade into dust.  

    The creature ducked and missed the blow from my uncle and starts swinging his hands with elongating nails that pierced through a wall. The creature growled angrily, keeping him busy. Then another one jumped from the ceiling in front of me. He let out his knife-like nails and start walking towards me. 

    I crawled as fast as I can, away from those disgusting creatures. But it caught my feet, I tried to kick myself free from its grasp, but nothing. Its hold was too strong. The thing pulled me near him and start tracing his nails in my ankle. It bleeds as it draws something around that made me scream and my heart thumped.

    I looked back at the monster, then blood flowed like a fountain into my face, and my mouth. Practically, tasted it. I was about to vomit as I saw the spike into the monster's mouth, and uncle pulled back, cut its tongue as it wiggled in my legs disgustingly. I looked back at Dean and he is drenched with blood and so am I.  

    I opened my mouth and retched hard as all my meal came out of me slowly.