Chapter 4

Chapter

Four

GALAXY

I think love is the greatest force in the universe. It's shapeless like water. It only takes the shape of things it becomes.

Guillermo del Toro

A man in a metallic suit slammed a map in front of me. "You're driving this ship, tell us! Do we go to Planet Doom or travel to the Starlight Orb?"

I looked around at my crew of various humanoid and alien beings. The windows to the ship opened, flanking the high-tech silver machinery and giving a view of a black expanse peppered with stars. "The um… Starlight Orb sounds cheerier, don't you think?"

A blue alien with huge, bug eyes shook his head and sighed. "You heard her, folks, back to work."

The man grabbed the map back and rolled it up. I recognized him… "George?" I asked. "The bartender?"

"He paused as if I'd startled him, before composing himself and clearing his throat. "Geo is my name. I think you inhaled too much cosmic dust on our descent into the black hole. Go fetch some oxygen. Miss E has it flavored to taste like bubblegum today. Go on, I'll man the spaceship. Tis a long and treacherous journey, even at warp speed, to the Starlight Orb."

Somehow, I knew the way to the oxygen bar. Passing beeping lights and whirling machinery. A purple alien with long antennas bowed as I passed. I let my hands feel the smooth fabric of my black and silver uniform. A true space captain, on my way to the Starlight Orb.

A woman with frizzy blonde hair tapped on a command board while oxygen tubes whirled in pastel colors around her. She turned to face me, huge goggles making her eyes look like one of the bug aliens. But I recognized her immediately. "Sam?"

With a belabored sigh, she hit a green bottom on the command center and grabbed a nasal oxygen mask. "You know I'm Sam-E here. Put this on. It's your favorite flavor, orange fizz." She typed again on the flashing buttons. "Number 94011 if I'm ever not here and you need it."

I rolled my eyes, even in a sci-fi reality my sister was smothering me with maternal love. The oxygen did smell like orange soda pop, and my mind did clear. Cold from the metal flooring numbed my feet. "Why am I never wearing shoes?"

"Have you taken your medicine?" Sam-E asked, ignoring me and swirling a beaker of bubbling green liquid.

I opened my mouth to respond, but the spaceship shook violently. I grabbed onto a desk for balance as the lights flickered. A loud boom sounded, and sirens trilled with alarm as red lights flashed.

"We're under attack!" a burgundy-tinted alien with elephant eats shouted as they busted into the room.

Sam frantically clicked her control panel, and the doors to the oxygen room slid shut, and a bar erected, locking us in. Her and the alien ran to the window and peered out, their faces paling. Sam, I mean, Sam-E, looked to me with horror. "It's him—he's come for you again."

"The night king will stop at nothing until he has you." The alien clutched his webbed hands together. "He will destroy the ship."

The spaceship shook, and something exploded in the distance as the sirens continued to blare. "Again?" I asked. "Why does he keep coming for me?"

Sam-E thrummed her fingers against the console. "You know why, Lucy. You've always known?—"

The door to our hiding place hissed violently, turning bright shades of red before disappearing like cotton candy in the rain. I hated the sound of sirens and the sight of uniforms. The dream was truly scaring me then with thoughts and memories I didn't want to revisit. Sam and our alien companion blocked me with their bodies as the smoke dissipated, revealing the outline of a wide statured man. I knew him the moment his violet eyes found mine.

"You can't have her!" the alien shouted. Without a word, the man dressed in black, a long cape billowing behind him, stepped forward and extended a gun. A red ray shot forward, and I gasped as it struck the being—vaporizing him into oblivion.

Sam-E shouted, still clutching my arm. "How much longer are you going to keep doing this to her?" Her tone was that of both fear and scolding. "When will you just leave her alone?"

He stepped forward, not breaking eye contact with me, the night king they'd called him. His eyes that purple hue I'd come to know in any dream, the same cut of his jaw, the same swept-back black hair. Settings were different, clothing changed, the story altered, but he never did. We always picked up where we left off, we always found each other.

"Until there are no more nights. Until every star falls from the sky, and even after, I will search for her amongst the long-forgotten black."

My heart swelled, and I wished I had a pen and paper to write down his words. They were so beautiful, so was he, he was everything. I shrugged off my sister's grip. "Not a pirate tonight?" I asked, looping my arm in his.

He gave me a crooked smile. "Space pirate."

"Too bad, I rather liked the hat."

"Did you?" He smirked, leading me down the corridors. The red lights were flashing as aliens and spacemen alike shot rays of light at each other. But we ignored it as we walked onto his adjoining ship as if it were merely a walk in the park and not a jaunt down an overthrown spaceship. "Well, maybe it'll make a reappearance someday. I'm quite taken by the cape, personally." He did a twirl, fanning it out. "And your little suit is most becoming on those sweet curves," he purred, extending a hand and helping me onto his sleek, onyx craft.

The door slid crisply shut behind us, and I looked around. We were alone in a giant bedroom. Everything was modern and black, except the plush, dark purple bed. "Is this your room?" I asked, taking a seat on the edge of the bed.

"Appears so." He fished a remote out of his pocket and cocked an eyebrow as he tapped at the buttons as if he were searching for the right one. So very un-dream-like. If this were only a dream, wouldn't the movements be blurred? Why so much detail? Why was it always him?

The shutters on the walls unclicked, and the black walls opened like eyelids, revealing the galaxy beyond. Clouds of pastel colors swirled together in the night as we floated through time and eternity. "They called you the night king. Is that your name?"

"Close," he answered, tossing the remote onto a pillow and sitting down beside me. The bed curved inward at his weight, and I leaned against his arm. His strong, firm, very real-feeling arm. "What do you think my name is?"

A breath huffed from my throat as I stared out over the heavens. "My therapist says you're a figment of my imagination. A misfiring of the neurons in my brain. Maybe you're a symptom of my medications or just proof that I'm getting worse."

"Dr. Truman, is it?" he asked, stroking his chin. "Sounds like a quack. Shall I take care of him?"

I giggled as he wrapped his arm around me. Like we'd done a thousand times it seemed. My dream man and me. "Take care of him how?"

"If he's upsetting you, I'll get rid of him."

"No, Mare, don't?—"

His fingers were gripping my chin in an instant, violet gaze searching mine. "You called me Mare."

"It just came out—I don't know why?—"

His lips were on mine, and we made out slowly but passionately. Neither of us reached for more, just enjoying the feel of our kiss and the pressing together of our bodies.

"You're not disappearing," I breathed in relief as Mare twirled his fingers lazily through my hair. We lay together in a tangled heap of our entwined limbs, watching the galaxy as idly as one would notice a thunderstorm.

He kissed my head. "I miss you when you're awake."

"I hate being awake."

Mare's dark purple gaze seared through me as he held my jaw, propping his head on his fist. "Someday, you'll be able to stay with me, Lilac. But not for a long time."

"What? How?" I sat up, feeling my heart race. It was preposterous to think I could stay in my dreams forever. To not wake up…

"There are ways. But first—" The room shook, and in a startling moment, the room flashed dark red. Someone was beating at the door and screaming, hissing, demanding to be let in. Mare held my face again, this time his gaze pleading. Pleading for what? What was he trying to tell me? "They've found me again."

I knew what happened next. My body tensed, and tears pounded behind my eyelids. Grabbing his wrist, I let out a plea of my own. "Don't, please don't leave me, Mare."

My dream man let out a strangled groan. "Fall asleep and wait for me," he whispered, planting a soft kiss on my forehead.

The room exploded in light. Men screamed as lasers flashed and shots fired and hit their targets. Worry drenched me as I fought to stay asleep, worried for him, wanting to help him. Why did this always happen? Why did every dream end in a frantic nightmare?

Warm air gasped through my lungs as I sat up in bed. Back to reality, back to stupid, bland, earthly reality. I slammed my fists against my wet sheets, realizing I was soaked in sweat. I wanted to scream in agony at losing him. That's what it was, this pain, this torment of losing him each and every night, was unbearable. Not knowing if I would see him again.

Fall asleep and wait for me. He said so simply. Like he'd always come, like he wasn't a figment of my mind or a byproduct of my medication. Fall asleep and wait for me as if he were real and not a misfiring of neurons in my brain. Fall asleep and wait for me , the phantom said, pretending to not be a trauma response, an illness within my psyche gone wrong. This was all wrong. But mostly it was all wrong because now I was awake and not asleep.