Dream Walkers

Episode 3: Murphy

Cecil went home nearly 5 p.m. from paper works, staff meetings, and minor operations. Exhausted from the day's work, she didn't bother to change her work clothes and resigned herself to catch her sleep. She was even too tired to wake up for dinner since she already cooked and planned their meal a week ahead. Either she or her daughter would just pull out some dinner on their fridge and heat it up on the microwave. She slept through the night and won't wake up until morning.

Meanwhile on the ravine, Athalla twitched from the sound of the bird. Her body were aching from laying on the rocky shore. She lifted her eyelids and suddenly shot up. The bird that landed on her chest flew to it's murder (a term used for a group/flock of crows).

"Am I dead?" She asked while looking over the black birds scattered in from of her.

"Basically dead that was -- quote and quote-- brought back to life." Said the voice that was behind Athalla. She turned around to where the source of the voice was and saw a young man that was maybe the same age as her. He was leaning in the 7-foot boulder behind him with his arms folded. He wore a black custom fitted suit and black undershirt which was highlighted with a maroon tie and then dark pants and shoes. "Now you're neither dead nor alive. You are in between." He pointed.

Creases evident on Athalla's forehead and touched her head in confusion.

"What?" she asked. She looked around still wondering why there's so many birds around. "Who are you? And where am I?"

"My name's Murphy and these are my familiars." Murphy's gesturing his hand pointing out on the birds.

"Some sinner had pushed you from way up there." Murphy pointed his finger into the cliff above. Athalla looked up at where he pointed. She was surprised at how high she was falling from and realized that she might've been dead if it wasn't for the person beside her.

Murphy kept his hands back, folding in front of his stomach and faced Athalla. "And you are breathing and well because your father, Hariel, begged me to keep you instead and take you as his replacement."

Athalla looked back at Murphy and her forehead creased more at the mention of his deceased father. "You know my father?" she asked.

"Yes." he nodded. "He was one of the best Dream Walkers we've ever had. And he was one of my closest and kindest friend." Murphy smiled with a hint of sadness.

"I bet you'd ask what's a Dream Walker?"

"Y-yeah" Athalla nodded and answered in a small voice still skeptic about who the person in front of her.

"Dream Walker are the ones who manages the dream states of humans. We are also a messenger to those gifted ones. We are the grim reaper of dreams. We make sure no anomalies happening between the physical realm of humans and the other realms." Murphy explained.

"By other realms, you mean..." Athalla was then interrupted by Murphy.

There are multitude realms that coexist but not entirely in sync with each other. Some of the realms don't have the concept of time. Some were frozen, some can go back and forth like a clock with batteries were running very low, some can entirely manage to bend the timeline, and the only realm that inevitable affected by the power of time. And that's human realm.

Murphy paused as he unfold his hands and fetch his pocket watch inside his suit.

"Let's take you home?" Murphy initiated. He offered his hand to Athalla to help her stand. "It's already half past 11. Pretty late."

"It looked like it's still daytime though. Do my eyes have, like, a night vision mode?" Athalla muttered under her breath as she collected her things that scattered from her bag a few yards away from where she was laying.

"That's one of the perks of being a Dream Walker." Murphy assertively smiled.

"How on earth do you even hear me mumbling when I'm a few yards away from you?" She said loudly.

"Though you might be thinking about your mom worrying about you not at home this late. I put your mom to sleep and won't wake up until morning." he added.

Athalla quickly turned her head into Murphy's direction. "You put my mom into what?!" Athalla exclaimed as she done collecting her things and marching back to Murphy.

"We don't want your mom hysterically looking for you and file a missing person at the police, don't we?" he emphasized. Athalla nodded and her tensed shoulders relaxed a little bit.

Murphy and Athalla started to walked back up by the help of Murphy's familiars.

"Can't you, like, use your magic to fly us to my house?" Athalla howled as they were climbing up the steep cliff.

"What you need is a workout. You're still 17 and youth didn't do you any good. And I won't be able to use any spells since I exhaust all my powers." He told her off.

"And you're like my age and the youth really did you good, huh? You even wore such a nice outfit for the wrong occasion." she sarcastically said.

"Oh, no. I'm older than what you think." He rectified her.

"You're, what, 18 years old? A year older than I am?" Athalla jokingly said.

Murphy simply shaked his head. They kept going until they reached the top of the cliff. Athalla looked at the ocean and saw how beautiful the scenery she has seen when the brightness of the moon reflected the ripples of the water surface. She thought if she still has the eyes of an ordinary human, she'd thought it is still beautiful but not as gorgeous as it is now with the eyes of the dream walker.

Humans only know 3 realms: Heaven, Hell, and Physical Realm. It's partially true. Though what ordinary humans don't know but some of the gifted knows: The Spiritual Realm, The Higher Beings, The Elementals, The Death, The Angelic, The Guardians, The Starseeds, and lastly, The Dream Realm.