IMAGINATION'S PLACE
FICTION
The following story is fictional. Any resemblance it bears to actual people, places or events is purely coincidental, and not the intention of the publisher.
The Ancient One
"Bad Dreams"
By; Speaker Gerald Polley
This story contains violence which may not be appropriate for young readers.
.Now, for many nights The Ancient One had been planting seeds for different
groups making up those forces in Spirit which were skilled with his people.
This particular night however, he was in an ugly mood. That day, for no
reason, one of his co-workers had insulted and threatened him merely because
he did not like The Ancient One's ways. The Ancient One needed to plant
the seeds in a certain locality in a Northeastern City, but there were simply
no desirable bodies for him to use. He was drawn to one of the city's slums.
Darkness radiated from one particular building and it drew The Ancient One's
curiosity.
He descended, entering through a sealed doorway. He found what had once
been a lavish ballroom of a small hotel, high up on its top floor. Now,
scattered about on mattresses were twenty-one young men, and fourteen young
women. Some had long hair on one side of their heads, and none on the other.
Some had mohawks, some had no hair at all, but a tiny bit in a long pigtail
running down their back. The Ancient One shook his head.
The large room was tightly sealed, and eight kerosene space heaters were
scattered about it. There was so little oxygen left in the room the young
people were nearly suffocated. As The Ancient One looked around, something
came out of the darkness in one corner. It had once been a man, but now
it was barely recognizable.
"Go away!" it said, "Go away! They are mine! Get out of here!"
As the thing grew closer, The Ancient One extended his hand and repeated
an ancient incantation. A shimmering glow of light surrounded him.
"Aaaah!" the creature cried, and backed off. "Have pity, Lord Of Light!"
he cried.
"Be gone!" The Ancient One said, "You will not draw sustenance from those
these ones destroy any more. Their days of terrorizing have come to an end.
Be gone, demon. Find a new source of nourishment!"
The horrid creature backed off further. "What mischief do you intend,
Lord of Light?" it asked. "What will you do to my servants?"
"I will send them," said The Ancient One, "to That Place where they will
weep and wail, and I will give those forms to others who will put them to
GOOD use."
The Demon boldly stepped closer. "Does that make you any better than me?"
he asked. "Who are you to decide who is good and who is evil, what is just,
and what is unjust? You surrounded yourself in a shield of light, but are
you any better than me? You, too, destroy."
"There is a difference," The Ancient One said, "All that I do, I do for
Good. And I can only destroy Evil. Against the Good I am powerless. But
you destroy everything and anything, merely to feed your own greed, to ward
off for another day your certain destruction. That is the difference. I
will go on forever. Someday, someday soon there will be none left to feed
you, and you will die the final death, the total death, you will be drawn
up by The Darkness and devoured!"
"I live forever!" the Demon screamed, "Forever!"
The Ancient One laughed and extended his hand. The brightness around him
increased. "Perhaps," he said, "he who would live forever should see himself!"
The shield before The Ancient One became like a mirror reflecting the
demon's image. "NO!" the Demon screamed. "No!" falling to his knees. "Please!
Please! Take it away! I will depart. I will argue with you no more! Take
it away!"
The Ancient One again extended his hand, and the demon rose and fled through
a boarded up window. The Ancient One went to a couple of windows and ripped
holes in the dark plastic covering
them to let in air. The flames in the heaters immediately brightened,
then returning to the center of the room, The Ancient One extended his hands
and concentrated. He entered the dreams of each person in the room, binding
their dreams together as one. And in their dreams each person in the room
awoke and sat up, looking at him strangely. For in the dream The Ancient
One took on his ordinary form.
"Who are you?" said one of the men.
"Your executioner," answered The Ancient One. "I have come into your dreams
and in your dreams I will kill you. Do you know what happens when you die
in your dreams? The bond between you and your body is broken and your body
dies. But your bodies won't die because I'll put someone else back in them,
someone that will use them rightly.
The man who had been speaking laughed.
"Frederico," he said, "Higgles, Spike Head, kill this kook and throw his
body out back so we can go back to sleep."
The Ancient One was well aware that three young men had been walking up
behind him. Suddenly one of them brought a crowbar hard on the back of The
Ancient One's head, but with a loud metallic "PING!" the crowbar bounced
off and flew back, driving its point deep into the young man's forehead.
Without even looking The Ancient One reached back, yanked the crowbar free,
and with two lightning-fast strokes sent the other two to the floor! The
three young men faded out and three others appeared in their place, wearing
the uniforms of Polish soldiers from different eras. They quickly got to
their feet and backed off to the room's only exit, blocking it. Suddenly
two of the women in the room gave a startled cry, and faded out. Two women
in Polish dress took their places.
"What to hell?" said the man who had been speaking.
"Literally," explained The Ancient One, "they were frightened to death."
The man reached under his coat and pulled out an automatic pistol. Several
of his companions also drew weapons.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you!" The Ancient One warned. Each of the
weapons however, began to fire, and the women began to cry out and fall
over, and several of the men, too, until the guns were empty. The last round
from each struck the person firing. All the bodies shimmered, disappeared,
and others reappeared in their place. Now, only two women and one man of
the room's original occupants remained.
The Ancient One walked over to the man. Reaching under his coat he drew
out a folding knife. "You used this," he said, "to kill the old lady down
the street, so you could steal what little she possessed to feed your habit."
The Ancient One drove the blade deep nto the man's chest and yanked it out.
The man keeled over as The Ancient One turned towards the woman beside
him. "And you stood there laughing while she died. You thought it was really
funny!"
The knife again drove home and the woman, too, collapsed. The Ancient
One stood back as they faded out and their replacements appeared. The lone
woman remaining shrieked in terror and ran for the door. When the guards
there barred her way, she stepped back a little ways into the room, and
fell to her knees, crying.
"Don't be afraid," The Ancient One said, "I can't harm you. You will awake
from this nightmare I hope with an understanding that will change your life."
"You can't hurt me?" the woman asked.
"You have done nothing," The Ancient One assured, "deserving death. Fleeing
your father was no crime, and seeking protection anywhere you could was
also not evil. You did as much as you could to shield yourself from the
evil they were doing. You were a victim, not a participant."
One of the Polish soldiers walked over.
"Colonel Petrus," he said, "Polish Free Forces. What do we do with her,
sir?"
"If I were you," The Ancient One suggested, "I'd take very good care of
her because she's going to
be the only one in this city knowing your secret."
The Colonel looked around. "Some of them disappeared completely," he said,
"there's only ten men and women left."
"The rest had criminal records," explained The Ancient One, "that made
their bodies of no use to us. The rest had only misdemeanors. None of the
real crimes they had committed could be proven."
The Colonel nodded. "I am going to leave the dream state," warned The
Ancient One. "When I do you will awaken. You know where all the valuables
are they keep here. I would strip them of their weapons and jewelry and
depart quickly. Let the police clean up this mess. Let the coroner go crazy
trying to figure it out!"
The Colonel motioned to his people and they retreated to where their bodies
lay. The girl got up and looked confused. "Go lie down where you were,"
ordered The Ancient One. The girl obeyed and The Ancient One held out his
hand and reentered the real world. No sooner had he done so, then twenty-one
bodies stirred for a moment, but only eleven rose. The girl stood, bewildered
and confused as the others began to strip the bodies that didn't get up.
"My God!" she cried, "Oh, my God! It WASN'T a dream! It was REAL!"
One of the men came over to her. "Grab your things," he ordered, "we've
got to get out of here!"
"Where's the other man?" the girl asked.
"He's still here," her companion said, "but he'll be leaving soon. His
work is done."
"I'm scared!" the girl said.
"There's no need to be!" her companion told her. "As far as anyone else
is concerned, you had a nightmare. As long as you don't try to tell anyone
it was any more than that, you will be perfectly safe. None of us would
ever harm you."
The girl looked around at all the smiling faces surrounding her.
"Please be our friend!" one of the women pleaded. "You will see we can
do only good."
"The girl returned the smile and gathered up her things and they all hurried
out.
The Ancient One left too, going out on the balcony. He paused a moment
before winging home.
"Out of evil," he said, 'has been made good. From out of The Darkness
comes Light. Some might say it was wrong, but I think it's a fair night's
work."
He leapt skyward and soared home.
THE END