11
Over the next few weeks Rosie slept less and less, most of her dreams being overtaken by the monster with red glowing eyes in the darkness. It seemed to get closer to getting her each time. Most of the time she was able to get out into the light where the monster could not follow, but once or twice she thought she would not make it and had been saved by the mysterious man. His touch almost made the terror of being hunted worth it. But that thought, as true as it was, increased her guilt over wanting him so badly. On the nights she had the nightmares and woke afraid, she could always feel his presence there to comfort her but rarely felt the invisible brush of his touch. She felt his touch in her dreams when he caught her hand, pulled her into the light, and into his arms the split second before she woke. But once she was awake he never filled her senses like that night. Once or twice she smelled the musk of his skin mixed with roses, or a light caress but just for a moment. She began to think of him like a sexy guardian angel. His presence was subtle enough that she could convince herself that he was a construct of her imagination, then she didn’t need to feel like she was being unfaithful to Jack.
She also couldn’t seem to get to the fey village with her protector anymore. Once or twice she thought she had gotten through to her protector, but it was only a momentary glimpses and when Rosie tried to follow She would be gone. Rosie never found another person who had a dream world like hers, and now it seemed neither did she. At least she didn’t feel completely devoid of protectors, in some ways her guardian angel was becoming more real than the fading memories of her dream world. She thought that she may not be able to touch him, but Rosie felt his presence every time she needed to. He was a secret intimacy she kept to herself; partly because she mostly believed him to be something she made up but also in case he was a real spirit of some kind. She didn’t want Jack to find out about him, the one thing she had that Jack could not twist into a flaw was that Rosie was loyal and faithful. An attribute she suspected Jack did not have himself. Jack refused to label their relationship, giving him leeway to do whatever he wanted, but told her that the same did not apply to her. If she wanted to be with him he expected faithfulness.
Jack forgave Rosie for slighting him by covering the marks the day after he dismissed her, and now expected sex on demand. Jack had told the truth when he told Rosie that sex wouldn’t hurt after the first time. She wasn’t sure if it was as amazing as she had expected, but then she knew the world wasn’t ever as good as it was portrayed in romances. Jack really liked sex, and her desire to please him gave Rosie enjoyment. She wondered if she would enjoy sex as much as Jack if he gave as much as he demanded of her. Jack had settled into a pattern, he wanted to get blown and then fuck Rosie. He wasn’t so much interested in touching and kissing, or oral sex for Rosie; just him. Rosie was usually just getting into it when Jack was done, often leaving her all revved up and frustrated. That paired with sleep deprivation and the inability to access her regular dream world of magical fey left Rosie depressed.
Jack seemed pleased when she told him that she hadn’t been able to get to her dream world. He told Rosie that if he could not experience her secret world it was fine by him that she couldn’t either. Jack was still running hot and cold in a way that kept Rosie off balance, and even admitted it was on purpose. He said he was tired of her being sweet and innocent and that he would break her of it. He said that if she was going to survive in this world, she would need to be tough. It was almost like the opposite side of the coin from the energy she felt protecting her.
When Jack was on a good run with Rosie she told him about the nightmares, and how she was sleeping less and less out of fear. He was sympathetic and ready to help her. Jack had a plan almost before Rosie finished telling him of the nightmare monster. He planned to put Rosie into a lucid dreaming state so he could guide her and have her lead the monster into a controlled dream environment where they could trap it and confront the monster. He said he would get her into the lucid dream state by putting her in a trance over the phone, being in high school neither of them could spend the night at the others house so the phone would do.
What he didn’t tell Rosie was that he planned to let her fight the monster alone and use her more open mind to access the magical world she once traveled to, but no longer could. He’d start off with her and slip away as soon as she was occupied. That Rosie could not access the world was fine by him, then she wouldn’t try to stop him from draining its magic dry. He was sure he could access it with Rosie distracted battling her nightmare and that it was a world built with a power he could tap and use for himself.
It was midnight, a fitting time planned to confront Rosie’s fears. She clutched the phone in her hand, waiting for it to ring. She intended to pick it up before anyone could register the sound and wake up. It was Jacks preferred way to contact Rosie, late at night and without parental oversight.
Rosie had made a little nest of pillows on the floor of her room where she could be put into a hypnotic state comfortably and prop the phone so that it would stay at her ear without her having to hold it. When Rosie and Jack were first dating and he was still wooing her they had spent many nights whispering sweet nothings to each other till they fell asleep. They hadn’t fallen asleep on the phone together since before Jack took her virginity, but tonight she had set up her nest again. The only difference in her setup was the lit candle near her on the floor. She set the white candle just enough away from her that if she fell asleep she wasn’t going to knock it over and close enough that she could focus on the flame to get into the trance state needed to lucidly dream and be able to respond to the voice guiding her.
The phone rang at a minute past midnight, and Rosie was waiting with her finger on the switch hook so that it was answered before the phone made more than a chirp. If her parents heard anything, they probably would have assumed that the smoke detector battery needed to be replaced or that something was left in the microwave over night and it was peeping a reminder.
"Hello," she answered in a hushed whisper.
"Rosie" Jack stated over the phone knowing it was her.
Hearing his voice sped her pulse and gave her a tiny thrill, just like it did most times when they spoke. "Hi, Jack."
"You just said hello, you don’t need to follow it up with hi." Jack already sounded annoyed with Rosie, she worried it was a bad omen.
"Sorry." her reply was simple, because she knew anything else might tip the conversation badly.
"Are you ready? This will only work if you are completely comfortable and completely trust me."
"I am, and I do. I love you, of course I completely trust you." Rosie was still whispering, beside not wanting to wake her parents in the next room it felt more intimate and appropriate.
"Good." Abruptly, Jack went from annoyed to sounding sincere and almost like a therapist. His unpredictable moods were the only thing Rosie could predict. "We’ll start then." He began speaking in lulling tones needed to sooth someone into a trance. "Focus on the flame. Watch it flickering and rippling and let your mind relax and think of nothing but the flame and the sound of my voice..."
With the scarf made of fey energy Kiri knit Hatter, he was able to come and go from Faerie at will. He was an eager student, learning and training with Rosie’s former teachers. Hatter knew that if he wanted to be able to get through to Rosie and give her any real help, he had a lot to learn. With this goal in mind he wanted to learn all that Fey had to offer, and was impatient that they only let him learn so much at a time. If Hatter wasn’t training, it was only because his sweet Rose had called him to her.
Rosie’s protector taught him to manipulate realities beyond the tricks he had figured out on his own. He could manipulate so much more than he ever realized, and his own form was part of that. She also taught Hatter fine tuning of his world jumping skills. All the physical disciplines were Her specialty. She was an intimidating force, and more of the strong silent type, but a good teacher. Kiri taught him about the worlds histories, and what worlds were kinder to fey-born or could be manipulated easier due to their consistent physical laws.
Hatter could now return to any stable world he had previously visited, any world but the one they called the prime material. He still could only visit the prime material, Rosie’s world, when he followed her call. He learned the prime material was so magic dry that its rules excluded most kinds of reality manipulation, and soaked up magical energies from anything without a physical body to shelter it. That was why it hurt Hatter to visit the prime material, without a physical body to protect him he could only withstand it for short periods. Rosie made it easier, but even with her energy added to his he often had to use more energy than he had in reserve. Kiri said there were other ways to build up his energy reserve, but he hadn’t gotten there yet and Kiri made no exceptions for teaching him more advanced things before he mastered the preceding lessons. Kiri also assured Hatter that as his abilities progressed he would be able to stand the prime material longer, and would be able to enter it at his will not just Rosie’s call. Hatter really didn’t see any appeal to the prime material except that Rosie lived there, though that was reason enough for him. He wasn’t sure why anyone would want to live in a place that sucked the magic from all things and resisted even the simplest alterations.
He learned that he was as rare a find as Rosie, and that their talent to travel the worlds made it possible for others to learn to do the same. It took strong fey heritage to be able to travel worlds without training. That meant Hatter must have deep roots somewhere, too bad Hatter had little memory of his past. He really wasn’t as interested in digging up the past as he was in preparing for the future he some day hoped to share with Rosie. The more he learned of himself and Rosie, the more he knew she was a true kindred spirit. Fey heritage had been so thinned out that only a few per generation had any shot at being able to use magic at all. That he and Rosie were both such strong magical talents and alive in the same generation was unheard of, and Kiri even confided in Hatter that she believed their match was fated.
They had been teaching him to understand how his ability to manipulate reality applied to his heritage. He learned that his dominant heritage was a shifter, with his natural talent maybe more than one kind of shifting fey, and with the training he received he could change his body into almost any form he wished; in most worlds. Despite the fact that he could change into anything, Hatter had a natural affinity for wolves, making that shift much easier than any other. His ability to manipulate the worlds around him had grown with his shifting in all but the prime material.
Hatter learned about the magical reserve within fey-born. If he knew that he was using up all his reserves in the prime material he would not have worked so hard to manifest to Rosie as solidly or for as long as he did. When she responded to him that night and together they were able to touch, and especially to kiss, it was a huge use of energy. The encounter had used so much energy because he hadn’t yet learned how to control his magical reserves. So when she opened her eyes and didn’t see him, the prime materials laws took effect and her disbelief burned up every ounce of magic that let them be together. He was flung from the prime material so forcefully by that magic vacuum that weeks later he still hadn’t recovered enough to really touch Rosie. He could be with her only as a comforting presence, and it was not enough for him. Unless Rosie shared her magical energy with him, he just didn’t have enough juice to effect her. Hatter craved Rosie’s touch like a drug, but try as he might he could not feel her skin beneath his hands when he reached out to touch her. He trained hardest to change that.
The monster that hurt Rosie in the prime material frustrated and confused Hatter as much as it enraged him. She could decide to walk away from that abuse, but she didn’t. Hatter could not affect things in Rosie’s world, so he could not really help her with her prime material problems. It broke Hatters heart to see the cruel things Jack did to Rosie, and that Rosie took it with professions of love for the manipulative monster. Hatter suspected that it was Jacks fey heritage that gave him such power over Rosie. Hatter planned to save Rosie from Jack when he was stronger, but for now he worked to help her with the more immediate danger.
The monster made of her own fears, that problem he could work to help her with now. Rosie’s fears created the monster that chased her through the darkness, and her self doubts built a barrier so that Hatter could not enter that private world. If only he could find a way to speak to Rosie and explain what he had learned, things would be different in many ways. Without being able to communicate with her, all he could manage so far was to open doors from her nightmare into brighter safer worlds. Whenever possible he opened doors she could find and get through, but a few times when she couldn’t get out on her own he used what energy he had to reach in and pull her out. The shock of it had always snapped her back to the prime material, so even in her dreams Hatter could not communicate with Rosie. In the end Rosie was the only one that could defeat her own fears, and until she faced it he could not help directly. So Hatter bid his time, practicing what he learned and built up all the energy reserves he could for when Rosie would really need him.
Either Rosie was beginning to call Hatter to her more frequently, or Hatter was able to find her now with much less need on Rosie’s part. Either way, Hatter was near by to witness Rosie staring at the candle light so intently that night. He wasn’t sure her going into an open trance state was such a good idea, but he couldn’t yet argue his case with her. Her energy felt off to Hatter from the moment her breathing began to change. Her breathing became slow and measured, in through the nose and out through the mouth. She was listening to a soothing voice on the phone, responding every so often with quiet yes and no grunts. Hatter knew it was Jack on the other end, and he did not trust or like the man who caused Rosie to cry so often.
He went to Rosie and tried to hold her hand, but even with his new found iron focus he could barely feel the warmth of her skin. Hatter watched as Rosie’s eyes fluttered shut, and at that moment Rosie’s hand became solid in his. She took a deep breath, and a slight smile curled her lips almost absently. "I smell roses," she sighed.
"Roses, that’s not what I expected. Is the monsters cave near a garden?" Hatter could hear Jacks voice over the phone clearly in the quiet room.
"I’m not sure. I don’t see anything but white just yet." At Rosie’s almost whispered description, Hatter felt a prickling of energy dancing over Rosie.
Jack sighed over the phone, "You need to focus more. Picture a door. On the other side of the door is the place that your nightmare monster lives. You need to find it, and let it follow you to me so I can defeat it." Hatter really didn’t like this plan.
Hatter could feel Rosie’s pulse speed with the fear of the monster. "Ok, I’ve pictured the door. I’m putting my hand on the door nob." Rosie’s breathing quickened, and Hatter could feel the muscles in her hand twitch as she interacted with the door nob in her vision.
"Good, open the door." Jack sounded confident, but Hatter was sure that he was leading Rosie into danger that Jack had no way to help with.
"Ok." Hatter could feel something shift within Rosie, almost like she was stepping from her body up through this door.
The candle flickered and began to burn very brightly with the flame leaping up by inches. A blue silk scarf was draped over the edge of Rosie’s near by dresser, and with the flame so much larger than it should have been, he worried that the scarf was close enough to catch on fire. Instinctively Hatter let go of Rosie reaching out to snuff the flame between hastily licked fingers. The flame pinched out before Hatter had time to doubt that he shouldn’t have been able to do it. He realized that Rosie was practically leaking her magical energy reserves for him to be able to interact with matter.
He turned back to Rosie but she had astrally projected out of her body. A blue ribbon of energy flowed out from her bodies core through the front of her chest. The energy was faint, like she didn’t think to keep part of herself anchored in her body. There was something vaguely familiar to this scene for Hatter, but his concern for Rosie took precedence over a moment of dejavu. He took her hand and couldn’t feel the warmth of her skin with her soul departed. He faintly heard Rosie whimper in fear, but the sound had not come from her body it seemed to travel down the weak blue ribbon of energy.
"What do you see?" Hatter heard Jacks eager voice over the phone, but didn’t think Rosie was in a place to still hear him.
He carefully touched the blue ribbon of energy, and it almost disappeared. It was part of Rosie, but it was almost detached from her body. Hatter somehow knew that if this thread of energy let go, Rosie could become lost and unable to find her body again. He needed to do something to keep her connected and something to keep her safe from her fear monster, but he couldn’t do both at once.
"I said, what do you see Rosie?" Jacks phone voice became more impatient, and Hatter wished he could hang up the phone to get rid of him. "Rosie! You need to hear my voice and tell me what you’re seeing." Hatter hated the hold Jack had over Rosie, how could she not see his intentions were never for anyone’s benefit but his own.
Hatters rush of annoyance made the blue thread of energy he touched flicker like a candle’s flame in a draft. He got hold of himself, and refocused on the energy ribbon. Tuning out Jacks voice and listening for Rosie, Hatter played his fingers delicately over the ribbon. He pulled a bit of the energy back to Rosie’s body with a force of his will, and the thread took on a faintly golden shimmer with the addition of his energy. But it wasn’t enough and he knew Rosie was disconnecting. Thinking quickly, he pulled the end thread from the scarf Kiri had given him in the fey realm and used it to wrap around Rosie’s slowly dissipating energy. Between the fey thread and Hatters energy, Rosie’s thread began to stabilize. Hatter was beginning to feel Rosie at the other end, and she was terrified. He worked as quickly as he could with the delicate thread and wove a braid of the scarfs fey energy strand, Rosie’s tether, and his own energy. He worked the threads, knotting them almost like macrame into a sling woven around Rosie’s body. As he made a final knot securing Rosie’s astral safety line to her body, he felt a jarring pain and heard Rosie scream from far away. Her body gasped, like it had forgotten it needed air, and a faint whimper followed from Rosie’s mouth but Hatter could feel the scream that the whimper was an echo of. Gathering Rosie’s body up in his arms, like he was as solid as she, he could see blood seeping through her cotton night shirt from three long slashing cuts.
No sooner had he seen the blood than he was suddenly with Rosie in the darkness. She was collapsed face down on a hard packed dirt floor with the fear monster on top of her. It had an odd tail like appendage tipped with three claws, two digging down and one digging up. The claws were raked into her back where Hatter had seen her body bleeding in the prime material.
Hatter had been too late, and Rosie was hurt. He grabbed at the monster, but it was huge with dozens of chaotically placed limbs making getting a grip on it without hurting Rosie difficult. It clawed at Hatter to defend itself and momentarily forgot the semiconscious girl under it. One claw swiped across Hatters face, leaving a bloody gash on his cheek, while others pummeled into his body. It was hard to defend against so many clawed limbs coming at Hatter through the darkness. He swung fists into the blobby furry core of the monster, but it was barely fazed. Hatter caught movement in the darkness going towards Rosie’s limp form. The monster had flung another appendage towards Rosie, this one was more tenticular with barbed hooks. Hatter dove to block the hit, taking it milliseconds before it would have ripped into Rosie’s skull. By taking the hit and grabbing the tentacle, he had managed to knock the monster off Rosie and was able to get in between them. Hatter was hurt and bloody, but the monster seemed to be untouched. He lunged at it again trying to grapple it and get it further from Rosie, but Hatter knew he was losing. The monster was continuing to maul Hatter, breaking his body with little effort. Hatter just hoped he could get Rosie to safety before he took the mortal blow. No matter what happened to Hatter he felt it would be worth it if he could just save Rosie.
As she gained some consciousness, Rosie made a pained noise trying to back away from the monster. She seemed to be having trouble focusing, like she had taken a blow to the head. Her back burned with pain, and she couldn’t see what was going on in the darkness, but she could hear the grunts of a struggle between her and the monster. She couldn’t tell exactly what was happening, but at least she knew she had help.
"Get away Rosie! Run!" A male voice with an English accent yelled from the grapple. She tried to see who it was in the darkness, and made out a vague outline that registered in Rosie’s muddled brain as the shape of her invisible guardian. Disoriented, she started to follow his directions, but she heard the monster land a blow against him with a meaty squelch that she knew was serious. In that moment the fear of losing him was so much more than the fear of the monster that she instinctively called a bit of Her wild magical energy. Reaching for her guardian angel, her hands burned with radiant light. As she touched him, her energy flowed into him and as she lost consciousness fully she saw her brave defender for that moment suspended in time.
He wore a well worn brimmed hat, that confirmed he was the same man she had seen in silhouette pulling her into the light. But in the light from her hands she could see more than she had in those moments before waking. He had dark thick hair and big brown eyes and blood flushed red lips that matched the soft kissable perfection she had felt against her skin before. She saw him, handsome beneath the bloody cuts and bruises, and she saw he was like her; so much more than just human. Not a phantom, ghost, or construct of her imagination, but a flesh and blood man. All this she saw in the fraction of a second before the light emanating from her hand reached him. And in the next fraction of a second, his shape flowed in golden energy from that of a man into a huge glowing spirit wolf. He emanated power and light so bright the monster was lost from view. The wolf pounced and with his movement light trailed behind him. As her vision faded, she could hear the wolf tearing into the monster with wet ripping sounds. Then everything faded to black, but Rosie knew this battle was won and her avenging guardian angel had saved her.