Dream of Me: Book 1 The Dream Makers Series (31 page)

Serenity was frozen under the sinister glare. Everyone in the room seemed to be holding their breath as they waited for the puppet before them to say something more. The fear rolling off of Emma was palpable, and Serenity just wanted to cross the room and gather her up in her arms, shielding her from Rat and his gun. But she couldn’t move so she did the only thing she could in that moment, she prayed,
God help us.
The thought repeated itself over and over as she waited for Rat to make his next move.

Chapter 13

“If you dream that you are in a circus, tied to a spinning board, and the knife thrower is flinging his blades at you, it means something painful is about to happen in your life.”

E
mma was like stone against the wall staring at Serenity who looked as shocked as she felt.
How had this happened,
she kept asking herself? Her mind sifted through the events of the evening, trying to determine where her situation went from ‘kind of bad’ to ‘category five hurricane bad’. She and Raphael had been sitting in her room, attempting to entertain themselves by drawing up the plans for a large scale incendiary device, or BKB, as Emma had called it. When Raphael had asked her why she called it a BKB, she just rolled her eyes and said, “
Big Kablooey Bomb,
duh.” Raphael had refused to get her the material but he at least agreed to let her sketch it out on paper. There had been a wall jarring bang and then the sound of Rat’s voice filled the house. Emma recalled the look on Raphael’s face when he’d heard Rat’s voice.

“Raphael, what’s wrong?” Emma asked him. She knew that he was worried about Rat hurting her, but the look on Raphael’s face went far beyond worry. Fear, then anger, then resolve, flashed in the angel’s eyes.

Raphael didn’t answer her as he stood and went to the bedroom door. She watched as he did something to the door knob, working his angel mojo she decided. He didn’t move from that spot. Emma sat still, trying not to hear the things Rat was yelling and cringing when she did. He sounded frantic, almost out of control. She wondered what drug could bring out such a reaction, because the only effects she’d seen so far on her aunt and the others were the sluggish kind. Rat was anything but sluggish.

The sound of shattering glass filled the hall, and for a brief moment, she imagined the glass was her own life breaking into a thousand tiny little pieces. She knew that all her efforts to keep it together had been futile. The cracks were too many and too deep. How had she thought she could handle living here? How did she think she could possibly survive in the care of one such as Mildred, who wouldn’t care if people hurt her? Emma felt like an optimistic fool. She was eight years old for goodness sakes. Who was she that such ugliness couldn’t touch her?

“Emma,” Raphael’s voice was sharp.

She looked up at him and saw the stern glare that pierced her.

“Do not let it taint you.”

“What?” she asked, her voice sounding hoarse.

“The evil that has entered this house; it is not just the evil of a man’s flesh. Something supernatural is happening and it is affecting you. I can see it in your face; do not let it crush you. The lies it is whispering to you are just that—lies. Fight back with truth.”

She was trying to catch up with what the angel was saying, but negative thoughts swirled in her head clouding her mind. Raphael had said something about supernatural. Her eyes narrowed and she sucked in a breath. “Do you mean a demon, like what you were talking about earlier? Is it because you told me about them―sort of like that saying, speak of the devil and he will…,” her words trailed off as she watched his reaction.

Raphael’s shoulders tensed. He was so rigid that Emma thought if she pushed him he would fall stiffly to the ground like a statue being toppled on its side. His jaw flexed as he ground his teeth together. “Rat is a weak man,” he finally said. “I told you that the minions find people who are weak and influence them. They gain their power off of those like Rat who have no willpower to fight back. Rat has practically rolled out the red carpet for the beast.”

“Cookies and lemonade,” Emma said with a sad shake of her head. “Like mama said, 'What do you expect if you offer the devil a recliner and hand feed him grapes?' ”

Raphael’s lips twitched. Emma thought it was funny that the angel got such a kick out of her mama’s sayings. She was glad someone appreciated them as much as she did. Another crash had her attention snapping back to the present. It was quiet suddenly but Emma didn’t think the chaos was over. No, it was more like the calm before the storm. She couldn’t have been more right. Her door smashed inward under the force of someone either kicking it or ramming their shoulder into it. Emma stood quickly and backed away, looking from Raphael to the door. The look in the angel’s eyes was one of complete helplessness. Finally, the door crashed in and Rat stood in its place.

“Time to come out and play,” he said as a sinister smile stretched across his wild-eyed face.

Something was wrong with him and it wasn’t just the drugs. Raphael didn't need to tell her that. She could see the man. It was clear Rat was under the influence of something so twisted and evil that it made it difficult for anyone in the room to breathe. She took a tentative step toward the doorway. She’d much prefer to exit on her own rather than being man handled by Rat. As she walked past Raphael, she felt the brief warmth of his touch on her shoulder and heard him speak in a language that she didn’t understand. Rat’s head snapped up as though he had heard the angel. Emma looked from one to the other, waiting with baited breath. All of a sudden she was quite certain, judging from the look of utter hatred stretched across the gaunt man’s face, that Rat could see Raphael.

R
aphael’s eyes met Rat’s. But it wasn’t a man’s eyes that stared back at the angel. It was an ancient evil, one he had contended with many times before. This demon was extremely cunning. He knew with exacting certainty the rules that would keep him from being cast into the fire, and he was careful not to cross them. Raphael could see humor in the beast’s eyes. He was laughing at Raphael. The demon knew that the angel couldn’t touch him. Free will of the humans prevented the angels from interfering. Unless given a direct order by the Creator, Raphael could not intervene when the rules had not been broken. Raphael had received no such order.

“Why are you even here, light bearer?” The demon’s voice was a hiss and sounded odd coming out of Rat’s mouth. “You know you can do nothing. You have no purpose.”

Raphael’s muscles flexed with the urge to do battle. He had served in the Creator’s army and fought many foes, and still the demons of hell paraded across the earth wreaking havoc. Of course, the only power these foul creatures wielded was whatever the humans allowed them.

“I serve a greater purpose than you can imagine, ancient one. It is you who truly has no place in this world. You are nothing but a parasite, weak without your host.” Raphael could see that his words had hit a nerve. Demons were extremely prideful beings and hated to be insulted. This demon in particular was one that specialized in violence. These types of creatures seemed to be especially prickly. Raphael was surprised that Rat didn’t carry the demon of addiction, considering his recreational habits. A demon which, though no less dangerous, was much more subtle.

“You know what must take place and what is ordained,” the demon taunted. “I have been given permission.”

“Not to harm the human!” Raphael growled. “You may influence your host, but he must choose. It must be by his hand.”  Raphael moved faster than a human could track and had Rat’s arm in his hand before the man could back away. He felt the demon squirm inside of the man as Raphael searched Rat’s mind. He had to know if there was anything salvageable left in the man. Could he be reasoned with so that he could fight off the evil that was attempting to coerce him to act? He could see Emma out of the corner of his eye. She stood, watching and barely breathing. He imagined she was attempting to keep from drawing Rat’s attention to her. Smart girl, Raphael thought.

Raphael searched the man’s mind and found that it was depraved beyond his worst imagining. He fought the urge to crush him, to prevent him from playing his part in what was to come, but it was not his place. He would not be like Lucifer so many millennia ago who decided that he should be equal to the Creator. He would trust and obey, as he always had. Raphael released the man’s arm and stepped back. “I will be watching,” he warned the beast.

A sick giggle bubbled up out of Rat’s throat. He motioned for Emma to move forward. She hesitated at first, but one hiss from the demon had the girl’s feet moving quickly across the stained and worn carpet. Raphael followed them both into the living room. Mildred was sitting on the couch with her eyes glazed over. As soon as Raphael entered the room, her eyes snapped up to meet his, and she let out a high squeal that should never have come from a human’s mouth. The demon staring back at him from her face was weaker than the one that occupied Rat. Raphael held its gaze, trying to get a read on what type of entity he was dealing with. He watched Mildred fidget as the beast inside her grew uncomfortable under the angel’s scrutiny.

“Leave us be, light bearer,” the demon said softly. “She invited me in; it was her choice.”

Raphael knew that the demon hadn’t been in the woman long. Mildred did not have the signs of one that had been possessed for a significant amount of time. She was gaunt looking, but not from supernatural evil. Her broken appearance was her own doing. It saddened him anytime he came across a human that had given into the lies that were whispered to them by hell’s minions. It meant one more of the Creator’s children had wandered too far.

“You will call the girl that was here with you the other day,” Rat’s voice was his own again but Raphael could still feel the demon’s presence. “You might not be old enough for what I want, but she is. Call her, or I will kill your aunt and make you watch. Then you will join her.” He stared at Emma as he pulled the gun from where it had been hidden under his shirt.

Emma’s hands shook as she picked up the phone that sat on the edge of the worn out couch. Her eyes stayed on Rat as she spoke. “I’ll call her; just give me a second to think of her number.”

Rat growled. “Hurry up!”

Raphael took a step toward the man but forced himself to stop. All he could yet do was be present for Emma so she would not be alone. He felt useless and angry. He did not understand why it had to happen this way.

E
mma hadn’t been trying to stall when she told Rat that she needed to remember the number. Her mind was a jumbled mess and her hands were shaking from the adrenaline that was racing through her body. Her heart was pounding so hard in her chest that Emma was sure she was going to be one of the few eight-year-olds in history that had died from a heart attack. Deciding she was pretty sure that she had the number figured out, she pushed the on button of the old, wireless phone. Emma hadn’t been around when these phones had been in almost every household in America, but she was pretty sure that this one had been dragged out of the garbage long after those days had passed. The years of grime that coated it made her want to wipe it down with those Clorox wipes her mama loved so much, spray it with Lysol, and then wipe it down again. Emma’s fingers stuck to the buttons as she pushed them, and she tried not to think about the myriad of substances that might be causing the tackiness.

As she pushed the last number, she thought it was funny that though there was a man holding a gun on her, in that moment she was thinking about not wanting to hold that disgusting phone near her face. That right there proved that she must be going into shock. The phone began to ring and she tried not to hold her breath while she waited for Serenity to answer.

“Hello?” Finally, Serenity’s voice crackled over the line. It was both the most precious and most devastating thing Emma had ever heard. She knew she was dragging Serenity into her mess and she hated it. But she couldn’t stop herself because she didn’t want to die alone in that house.

S
erenity wanted to look at Emma again to make sure that she was alright but she didn’t want to take her eyes off of Rat. He was the threat in the room and she would be stupid to think he wouldn’t use the weapon in his hand.

“You’re gonna come with me,” Rat finally spoke. His crazed and lust-filled eyes roamed over her, causing Serenity to feel as though she needed a bath and perhaps to be dowsed in bleach as well.

“Let Emma leave first,” Serenity countered and was surprised that her voice didn’t shake. She wasn’t feeling nearly as confident as she sounded but she couldn’t show him weakness. “Let Emma leave and then I will go with you. You have my word.”

Rat let out a disgusted snort. “The word of a woman, what good is that?”

Serenity tried not to roll her eyes.
Great, he’s got mommy issues,
she thought.
If he hates women there’s no telling what his sick mind has planned.
She knew that she couldn’t let her mind wander down that road or she’d vomit right there in front of him.