LUCID

LUCID Part 3

Ignoring my disgust of seeing a rat with a human's face and focusing instead on the front sight post atop my pistol, I pulled the trigger.

At the same instant, the weapon magically vanished from my hands!

Damn! I thought.

Squeezing my trigger finger on empty air, I noticed the rat also stopped its advance.

Then everything changed.

In a split second, the rat, Kenzie and I found ourselves standing alone on a desert island. The thirty-foot round pile of sand rose out of a calm sea and contained a single palm tree in the center. Darting my head around, I couldn't spot any other landmasses, boats, or other signs of life.

Standing next to me, Kenzie now wore a two-piece bathing suit a few sizes too small for her. Glancing down at my clothing, I discovered I no longer wore an old-time detective outfit, but instead, some sort of clown costume straight out of a low-budget circus.

Everything on the island appeared genuine enough to me, apart from the rat with a human face sitting up on its hind legs.

As the thought of kicking the rat directly in front of me into the ocean entered my mind, the out-of-place human face on the rat spoke in a volume equivalent to that of a full-grown man. "And who is this, Miss Mason? Another signatory in our very special little book, I hope? A new plaything for me?"

Remembering the BOOK OF AZATHOTH Kenzie had accidentally kicked to the floor back in the library, I glanced around in the sand, but couldn't locate the ancient book. It obviously didn't make the trip with us.

"This is the Corsair." Kenzie announced, a faint tinge of fear in her voice. "He's with me."

"Oh." The rat commented, feigning surprise. "The corsair, you say?"

Suddenly, my outfit changed from a clown to that of a comic book pirate, complete with a hat, a stuffed parrot on my shoulder, and an eye patch.

Pulling the eye patch down, I began speaking to the rat thing, my voice displaying more confidence than I felt. "And you, I presume, are the 'great' I've heard so much about? The great rat, right? One rat to rule them all or whatever?"

"I like him." The rat replied, looking at Kenzie instead of me. "Miss Mason, where did you ever find this one?"

"I'm talking to you." I spat at the rodent.

Ignoring me, the rat thing continued talking directly to Kenzie. "Well, you know you might have to be punished for this, right? I mean, this is our special place. Me and you. You can't just bring other boys in here to the Dreamlands. I'll get jealous." The rat's demeanor drastically changed, as did the tone of his voice. "And trust me. If you thought I was cruel before, you really don't want to see me jealous, Miss Mason. That's the very last thing you want."

Continuing on my previous course of action of attempting to emotionally off-balance the rat creature sitting in front of me, I continued speaking to it. "So let me get up to speed, Mister Great Rat. You're obviously some sort of megalomaniac psychopath... I deduced that by your immoral actions and this whole 'great' name thing you dreamed up... and who is undoubtedly a huge loser in the real world, thus the dream world fantasy. Am I getting warm? Hot even? So you stumbled on this make-believe land, learned its secrets and decided the best way to spend your sleepy time is to harass young ladies in your dreams. After tricking them into coming here with you, of course. They would never agree to this on their own, seeing how big a psycho loser you are. How am I doing, rat-man? Did I miss anything?"

"No." The rat replied, still addressing Kenzie. "I changed my mind. I don't like him at all. Also, you, Miss Mason, you will definitely pay for this. Definitely."

I amazed myself at exactly how far into the ocean the rat thing flew after I kicked it.

SPLASH.

"Damn." I commented as the rat splashed into the water at least a hundred feet away. Then, turning to Kenzie, I politely asked her if we could go somewhere else as the thought of smelling wet rat didn't appeal to me.

Smiling, Kenzie uttered, "Home."

As I expected, everything changed again.

Standing on the lawn of a massive mansion, several ultra-expensive sports cars parked in front, I turned towards Kenzie. "This is your home?"

"I told you, Nash. You can be anyone and anything here. I'm a rich, rock-star socialite."

"I noticed you have to speak to change your environment but the rat-man didn't." I commented.

"He's been here longer." Kenzie explained. "Plus, this was his dream first. I was initially a visitor. I don't know. I have to see the dream, area or object in my head and say something to affect this realm. I guess he doesn't."

"Oh." I commented. "Let's go inside and plan how we can rescue you from all this luxury."

"It's not..."

"I know." I interrupted. "I'm just teasing you. I know this is very serious."

"By the way." Kenzie teased. "You're taking all this magic dream teleportation stuff in very well."

"Let's just say it's not my first time encountering strange stuff like this." I explained. "Plus, I'm still not a hundred percent sure this isn't all a dream of mine."

As we passed the sports cars and approached the estate's main doors, two handsome, tuxedo-wearing men appeared out of nowhere, both of them definitely male models, and undoubtedly amateur bodybuilders by the look of them, and held the doors of the palace open.

"Welcome home, Miss Mason." They both greeted Kenzie as we walked in.

After the men closed the doors behind us, they swaggered ridiculously toward Kenzie and me as we stood in the massive, three-story foyer. "Not now." Kenzie stated and the pair of door attendants instantly vanished. Turning towards me, she explained herself. "Sorry about that. They're not actually real."

"I see."

"What now?" Kenzie asked. "You met the Great..."

"Yeah. What a jerk, but first, can we please change outfits?" I asked. "Then I want to go back to the University Library. I think the answers I need are in that book."

"Clothes." Kenzie uttered. In an instant, her outfit changed from inappropriate swimwear to an elegant evening gown. My clothes also changed from the children's birthday party pirate outfit to a black in color, SWAT uniform, complete with a sidearm resting in a thigh holster.

"Can I have a second gun? A bigger one?" I asked playfully. "And lots and lots of ammo?"

"It won't do any good." The Great announced from atop the balcony, looking down on us with contempt in his human face before he began laughing maniacally.