Chapter: Fourteen



The memory of his last Halloween faded as the furnace turned on.
“The last dream she was in she stayed in forever,” Salem whispered to himself as a light bulb clicked on inside his head. The man who was in his last dream was there forever at the gallows. So maybe if he could figure out where Ash’s last dream was at, then maybe he would be able to find her and save her. Suddenly he became extremely exhausted, so he lied back onto the couch. Not bothering to turn off the lights, he closed his eyes and drifted off immediately into deep sleep.
The snow on the ground became a lot softer and there wasn’t as much as there had been, Salem noticed that he was now in a dream and no longer in the reality of his real life. With each step that Salem found himself taking he realized that the snow that was under his feet began to grow softer and smaller in amount. Soon the snow that he was walking on disappeared and revealed brick ground that had turned grey from dirt. Walking forward he could see the shapes of a few buildings that had been masked by the fog and darkness. Against one of the brick walls a man stood smoking a cigarette and covering his face from the dim light of an old fashioned street lamp with his hood that was a little to long.
“So you’re Salem?” The Things deep monotone voice asked from behind his hood. It was a wonder how he could even see anyone walking in front of him.
“To some that is my name…Who are you?” Salem asked almost gagging on the putrid stench of one thousand corpses that seemed to be coming from this thing.
“I am the essence of what used to be Evan…” The thing said creepily.
“And how does this essence of Evan know who I am,” Salem asked dully.
“A certain Lady Angel told me that you would be here…She was ordered me to come and escort you to her,” the essence of Evan explained.
“Well then where is she?” Salem asked looking slightly around.
“Come with me…” the thing said, his breath smelled of dead animals and the slight aroma of liquor. Unaware of what lurked in the darkness Salem followed the thing into the abyss that waited ahead. Unknowingly Salem followed the smell of dead flesh that’s point of origin came from ahead of him in the utter darkness.
“It shouldn’t be to much further,” the things voice was so flat and original that it sort of had its own style to it despite the fact that it was the style that any living dead creature would infamously have. That probably doesn’t make much sense, because in reality dead things don’t have voices at all and the only sound that would come out of them would be that of the maggots eating the decaying corpse. Salem could barely hear the thing say this, but how much further ahead could this thing be? It most certainly couldn’t be to far, seeing as how Salem was walking pretty fast compared to normal just to keep up with the pungent smell of the essence of Evan. Salem kept walking to keep up with the thing, and it seemed like ten minutes had gone by in a heartbeat. And ten minutes had gone by and passed but Salem didn’t know this little fact.
“How much further is it now?” Salem asked impatiently thinking of how he could be out there trying to find Ash.
“You can’t see the doorway that lies just ahead?” The essence of Evan asked.
“No…I can see nothing but darkness,” Salem replied with attitude in his voice.
“Welcome Salem…Evan you are excused to leave,” a female voice said from up ahead. Faint footsteps where heard walking back towards the way that Salem and the essence of Evan had came in, but not only did the essence of Evan leave but also the putrid odor that came off of Evan left with him.
“Well Salem, I took up the task of trying to help you uncover the mystery of the vanishing Ash…” The female voice said from somewhere up ahead. The female voice that Salem was hearing was not coming from his imagination but coming from the cold icy lips of Lady Angel.
“I went to the only other person who in the past succeeded in doing what you, Salem, are attempting to do. Which is to bring the dead to life again,” Lady Angel said.
“He told me that he found the answer in a book that the person he saved had wrote…So if there’s anything that Ash wrote I would advise you to read it and try to uncover any clues or messages that she has hidden inside the writing,” Lady Angel said.
“You will wake up now…Go and do what you must to recover Ash, who has been lost for so long…” Lady Angel said and then all the darkness that was there turned darker and the aroma of Lady Angel vanished like a ghost in the fog.

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