Dreamland

I watched as he drove his truck away and sighed; what would come out of this? I was unhappy, but my options were limited.

I hoped I did the right thing. I took a deep breath and turned towards the house.

At least I learned a couple of things, and the most encouraging one was that I was probably not directly the target of the raid but became one through my connection to the gamer's servers. The question is: why did they raid the gamers? The drug excuse was moot, so what was it? Did they raid them because they made that connection to Dreamland's Mephisto game? Really? I mean, do you raid and shoot people for that?

I stopped and covered my mouth with my hand.

It makes no sense unless my assumption was correct, and they, too, came to the same conclusion: that the fucking game enables or triggers the 'magic' genes. That may be an explanation.

Are they so afraid of us witches? But as I had that thought, my mind brought in front of my eyes the image of the black angel. Ahm, OK, that is scary enough. Was the boy with the black angel a gamer?

If my assumptions are correct, they took their time to check all connections and probably arrested all people that had a link to the gamers' servers. They had to find us all. They assumed the worst, captured everyone and started to check us individually.

Why are they so afraid? Because Bounty County happened! They want to avoid another Bounty County.

Is Bounty County kind of a witch area? What did truly happen there? What I heard in that police meeting was outright scary. Was that the truth? All of it? Why would witches behave like that? It does not make sense. Was that a lie? Why would they lie? Was it a black angel type of character that ran amok? The black angel had told me that he was not in the lead, so he had some kind of understanding with the kid. How was that possible? Unless the kid created it like this in his brain!

Things like this may happen when you can spell without knowing that you can spell. You cast spells accidentally and do not even know you did it, not to mention undoing them. You just know it happened and start worrying about that, and then you cast the next catastrophe.

Little is known about the current situation in that county. The official explanation about a doomsday sect that caused an ecological nuclear catastrophe may be entirely fabricated. It changed several times, anyhow.

Should I go to Bounty County to check? It may be difficult to get there and maybe even more challenging to come out of there.

I had to yawn. Oh dear, am I tired! Let this be a thought for another day. I did enough today!

I walked through the park back towards my house, arrived at the tree near my window and climbed it to enter my room. Everything was there as I left it, except Lola sleeping in my bed.

Oh fucking, fuck, Lola!

What could I do? She probably had an argument with Clara and took refuge in my room. This is not the first time this has happened.

I undressed silently and put my pyjama on. Yeah, trousers and a mirage.

"Mmmh? Dolores? Did you have a nice pyjama party?” - she mumbled when she felt me skipping under the blanket.

“Yes.” - I answered, trying to play my role.

Lola is my sister, whom I never had. The first time she slept in my bed, we were seven. Later she used to come, and we chatted about all and everything, kind of late-night philosophy hours. Now she turned lazily to the other side, watching me with a sleepy gaze. She yawned.

“Wow, you need to tell me everything tomorrow. Did you spend the whole weekend in your pyjama?”

No, I spent most of the time naked in an acid bathtub! I almost said that as the question unexpectedly hit my angry button, but she would misunderstand that, so I just mumbled something. She curled her hands around my right arm with a happy grin and almost instantly fell asleep. Lola, my heat vampire, she always has cold feet, and she tries to warm herself, parasitizing on my heat. I stood there, looked at the ceiling and tried to think.

Can it be that the gamers have been brought to the same location as I was? That sounds probable. Then I remembered what Helen had said: they shot those poor fuckers! They killed Mike! They shot Helen!

Yeah, they didn't want to risk a free black angel. I wonder where the good guys are? The paladins, the healers, the druids? Are there some in Bounty County too? Do they fight each other?

I wanted to turn on the left side, but then I remembered that I had wings on my back. Fuck! Wings and horns, I completely forgot about these; what if Lola touches them? I looked at the clock on my bedside table. Four-forty-five. OK, I can turn on the right side and not on the left side. Like this, I face Lola, and she faces me, not my wings.

I watched her perfect traits. She was always the princess when we played. She was always the beauty between the two of us.

I smiled at the happy memories and fell asleep.

Ants crabbing on my arm woke me up. Well, it felt like.

I tiredly opened my eyes. Lola was still there, unmoved.

I turned and looked at the clock. Barely a couple of minutes had passed. How can it be that I have already slept and am again awakened, and only two minutes have passed? I feel as if I would have slept an hour or something.

I freed my hand from her embrace. She protested with a moan but slept further.

I sighed and turned back on my back, but I cannot sleep on my back! On the side or on my belly, but never on my back!

I'll stay like this another fifteen minutes, then I'll slip out of bed. I cannot sleep here with Lola in my bed. Because of the wings. Fuck! Maybe I'll need to cut my horns and wings again. At least I slept a couple of hours in that truck.

At five o'clock, I stood up, and Cala wanted to do her sport now that I was awoken. I am not a morning person, and I have difficulties waking up, and now I should do some fucking gymnastics? But the urge became unbearable. I tried to temper her desires:

“Tell her that it does not work. Tell her that she cannot do here her assassin's exercises; that would be a dead giveaway!”

Soon White Flower's answer came back.

“There must be some exercises in this world that she can do. What are those?”

I knew what she was looking at. Those small memory chips with recordings were aligned near my library, and there was a small image visible on one with a karateka-kid flying that was looking a lot like Cala's <>. Of course, Cala's eyes fell on that.

“Those are some karate katas.”

“Well, let's do them!”

I tried to temper White Flower's and Cala's enthusiasm.

“She does not know them. I do not know them. Those are just some recordings where you shortly see how it is done, but you need a trainer to correct you, or else you do some nonsense. I had the idea to practice karate years ago, but that was then.”

“Let her see them!”

OK, I would have preferred to watch some manga but ok, let's watch karate katas. I took the glasses and connected them to my mobile through wi-fi, then inserted the memory chip in the available mobile's mini slot. The glasses can be connected to a pc or a mobile, and you can watch videos on them. I did not like them; I preferred wide screens, but I could not turn on my pc and monitor now, so I watched them on the glasses connected to the mobile.

And it was like this that at six o'clock in the morning, I was sweating my karate katas outside in the park, against my will, and Cala was feeling great. She was exercising, watching small cuts from the video, and then exercising again. I was very much admired by a couple of early joggers and three or four dog owners with their pets on a leash.

Before seven, I was back inside, went under the shower, took a cold one (yay, Cala!), then a hot one, and entered my room, steaming and fresh.

“Good morning, traitor!” - mumbled Lola turning on the other side - “so early up?”

She watched me dress my trousers and then went for the bath. That was good because I would have to hide to dress my blouse.

I carefully put a blouse over the wings and checked how I looked in the mirror. Well, what did I imagine? Quasimodo greets you.

OK, I had this problem before when my wings were smaller, and I could fix it; I only needed to hold them pressed against my back. I did that, and slowly, the extra bulges started to melt until they reached an acceptable form; however, when I tried to put the jacket on, it did not work, as the invisible parts of the wings kept it high above my shoulders.

“Fuck!”

I could have tried to bend my wings, but that was painful and difficult to keep. The wings unfolded by themselves again and again.

“Just remove everything, and I will cast an illusion!”

“But I would be naked again!”

“Not really; just like yesterday evening, you'll have trousers, belt and shoes, so technically not naked.”

“And what if I need to take my fake jacket off?”

“Why should you do that? I can simulate the whole procedure; however, what do you do with it once removed?”

“Yeah, where can I put a jacket that cannot be touched?”

In the end, I gave up on the jacket and had only a blouse on. Of course, the illusion of a blouse. The jacket illusion was too complex to maintain. If somebody had touched my arms, they would feel my skin, not the tissue of my jacket. It would be difficult to avoid any touch. For a blouse, that was more sensitive, and I hoped I could avoid any contact in those areas.

This decided I went to the kitchen with a naked torso covered in illusions to prepare breakfast. Well, I had a bra on, even if that made a little bulge under my wings and stayed tense. I could not completely eliminate that, and it bugged.

After five minutes of stress, I went back to my room and dropped the bra.

Illusions it is.

With these problems finally solved, I concentrated on my breakfast. I boiled eggs and put everything on the table: eggs with mayo, ham, tomatoes, little cucumbers and cheese. Just when everything was ready, Clara came in.

“Morning! Oh, Dolores, why did you boil ten eggs?”

That, instead of thanking me for preparing breakfast. Yeah, this is Clara.

“There were only ten in the fridge...” - Cala explained as she was now in the lead. She is the happy one to down the food, so we let her do it.

“Only ten? That's a reason to have them all hardboiled! Yeah. I'll eat one and Lola one, so what do you do with the rest?”

“Eggs with mayo! I like that; I'll eat all.”

She watched me, a bit surprised.

“You'll get sick. Don't play the fool!”

I shrugged. Fuck, do I have to eat in hiding my Cala breakfast from now on?

“I was hungry today. Are you sure I should leave only one for Lola?”

She rolled her eyes.

“Yes. What have you snorted last night?”

I sighed. I ate, looking at her. I don't like Clara; she is a snob and does anything that she possibly can to debase and humiliate me wherever and whenever there is an opportunity, and yet it is reassuring to see her and realize that this part of the world is unchanged. I almost hugged her for that.

Lola came a couple of minutes later and started eating frugally, standing beside the table and checking her phone.

While the two were making jokes about my newfound passion for eggs, I decided to look for different solutions to sate Cala's hunger next time. If she exercised less, maybe, she wouldn't need to eat so much, but she does not want to listen to me. Am I going to get fat? I hope not. Well, anyhow, it is her body; she must know what she does.

Ten minutes later, we were walking towards the school, chatting happily as best friends.

“Aren't you cold like this? Don't you want to go back and put a jacket on?” - wondered Lola.

I shook my head.

“No, it's fine.”

“This blouse shows a lot of skin”, - said Clara - “I wonder if Mrs Graham would have anything to say about it!”

I rolled my eyes. I made it to show a lot of skin to avoid the touching problem. I hoped the old witch would leave me alone, there were always other more daring suits that she had to swallow, so I hoped she would not comment on my blouse.

Interesting enough, a military car was parked not far away, and a small group of five were talking while watching the children entering the school.

That made me feel nervous. Seeing them, I thought of Gonzo and Helen. I wondered what did Gonzo tell her and what parts of yesterday's adventure does she remember...

And then I saw them.

Fuck, Helen was there waiting for me in front of the entry, Gonzo staying behind. What is this now for a circus?

“Excuse me, girls, I have to meet somebody!” - I said, walking away from Clara and Lola.

I didn't want the two to listen to our conversation.

Helen came forward. Our eyes met. Gonzo behind her.

“Hi Dolores!” - he said

“Hi!”

“May I hug you?” - she asked, coming closer to me, her eyes full of gratitude.

“Helen wanted to thank you personally!” - explained Gonzo with a guilty face.

Fuck, what do I do when somebody wants to hug me? What if she screams? How can I explain anything, especially with those in khaki uniforms not far away? Nobody should hug me! I closed my eyes. If I refuse now? What would she think of me?

“I.. I... I have a bit of an allergy problem...” - I said, opening my eyes.

Gonzo gulped guiltily behind her. The fucker, why does he put me in this situation? Probably he did not think this through!

She hesitated. She looked back at Gonzo as if she would request his help. I stepped forward. I screwed this. What can I do now?

“Look, I'll come to visit you at your place! I hope you are OK?”

I sighed. She looked even more confused. What did she understand from that? I wanted to ask her: what do you remember, but that would be telling too much. Fuck, every time I open my mouth, I make things worse.

She finally answered:

“I... I... When Gonzo found me...”

That start of the sentence rang my alarm bells. What does she want to say or talk about? Exactly what I didn't want to have! How can people be so naïve and talk freely everywhere? Maybe she wanted to say something clever, but I could not risk anything. I stepped forward, used the moment of surprise to catch her hands down, hugged her and put my lips over her lips. How else could I shut her mouth? Put a hand over it?

She was so surprised that she froze. Then I whispered in her ear, still hugging her:

“Please don't talk about that; that brings bad luck.”

I wanted to say 'here in public', but maybe that was also not wise to say. I pushed back my head and looked her in the eyes, still keeping her in my arms.

“But can I say thank you?!” - she lowered her head and whispered in my ear.

Her warm breath on my neck, I kissed her cheek and freed her.

“Yes, sure! Take care! I will visit you and eat all your breakfast again!”

She laughed and shrugged.

“I came here only to thank you. Thank you again!” - she said.

Gonzo made now the two steps forward and came to shake my hand. The bell rang, and I had to hurry up inside the schoolyard. The five in khaki uniforms were still talking, not paying us any special attention, but it could have been that the observation was done from inside the car. Who knows what sensors they had monitoring the area, probably checking all kids entering the school.

Without my wings, I would not have to behave so awkwardly, and I would not fear each and every contact. My paranoia and having to hide my wings and horns are making me too nervous. Magic mirrors are one thing, but they do not protect against touching. If I continue this, I'll have to invent something as an excuse to avoid touching. Allergy? Allergy to people or what?

Oh no, do I have to cut my wings again? Maybe I can still find a way to hide them. It was easier when they were small, but now they are too big. Oh, fuck!