Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 70429 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70429 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
He reached out all around him in the nightmare, trying to find something to grab, something to hold onto, before he drowned. His heart galloped hard and fast within him, threatening to burst through his chest. Mrs. Florence’s voice was wrapped around strange jazz tunes and tones, a symphony of bad notes and weak harp strings, all chopped up and screwed.
“We’re rollin’ in our graves!” Mrs. Florence screamed. “I’M ROLLIN’. YA MAMA IS ROLLIN’. YOUR AUNT IS ROLLIN’! Promise yourself some peace! SPEAK!!!”
Dragging his nails across the sheets, his facial muscles tight and contorting, he shot up from the bed, gasping for air. It was dark outside—the blackest of nights, adorned with bright stars.
I’ve been asleep for most of the damn day.
He shook his head, closed his eyes, and took several deep breaths. Faint music played downstairs, drifting up along with the chatter of people and the smell of food cooking. He had no plans to venture down and join the family. He just wanted space to sort his thoughts. To be left alone.
“Mrs. Florence… the buck stops here.” He opened the nightstand drawer and picked up a packet of Camel Blues his uncle Bobby liked to stash away in various rooms. Both he and Aunt Angel smoked them. Not his first choice, but they’d do for now. He found a lighter and soon, he was dragging on a cigarette after years of abstinence, looking out the window as it softly rained.
He cleared his throat. “Mrs. Florence, I find it pretty interestin’ how you started jumping in and out of Axel’s dreams, pullin’ the puppet strings. Then you visited Legend’s world. I bet his brain was a playground of lunacy. That man is as crazy as a June bug. You didn’t stop there though, did ya? You had to come over to the dark side… crawl into my brain. The craziest one of all. Couldn’t leave well enough alone. It’s not nice in there, is it? Now you know for certain that your three boys, your Brother Disciples as you called us, are stark ravin’ maniacs.” He hooted, laughing hard. “You kept on though, like some frog playin’ a game of Candy Land. Hip, hop, hip, hop. I gotta give it to you—you sure have heart. You know all about us now.”
He smirked, tapping the ashes into the nearby empty metal ashtray.
“But we know only a little bit about you, if ya really think about it. Merely bits and pieces of your life here and there. I never really thought about that until this whole thing began. The dreams. The invasion is more like it. You got us to open up like clams, exposing our pearls. We disobeyed, and you came at us with a vengeance. A teacher with an axe to grind. I’m not mad about it.” He shrugged. “You gave us what we needed when we needed it, but I don’t cower. I don’t put my head down. I don’t buckle. I don’t tuck my tail and run. I don’t break.
“You’re harassin’ me in my wakin’ hours and in my dreams. Don’t think I haven’t noticed the strange songs playin’ on the radio… the ones my mama liked. Or the little kid drawin’ with a purple crayon on the plane. You saved me for last, and we both know why. You want those two brothers of mine to double team my ass.
“Now see, Axel respects authority. He’s a family man. A provider and protector. So, he eventually fell in line. Legend didn’t have a decent mama and was lookin’ for a replacement on a subconscious level. He always wanted that attachment, so it was easier for him to accept you coming into his dreams and bossin’ him around. He sees YOU as his mama, and that’s why I knew if I spun that little tale about Axel gettin’ his jollies off on account of you, it would make Legend mad as hell. He had to be taught a lesson though. I told him to leave well enough alone. He’d see that as sacrilegious. In his mind, Axel had crossed a line. Me on the other hand, I don’t give a rat’s ass ’bout no surrogate mother because my aunt did a good job. I don’t have a family in the traditional sense but don’t care none ’bout that either. I’m not in love like Axel was, and I don’t have daddy issues like the both of ’em ’cause I don’t even know the man. I don’t think about him, and I don’t question who he was anymore. I made that promise to you ’cause you was good to me. I was a child. A very-sick-in-the-head child.”
The rain got harder, beating the window with aquatic fists. “I am a disturbed man, but I have control over myself. I suppose you know the things I’ve done…