Dream

They search my pockets and find my wallet, keys, and my book they can't read anyway. Afterwards, they bring me to a police car.

The other female creature approaches the car, puts a seatbelt around me, and touches my arm before leaving the car again.

Her touch left behind cool blue flames that disappeared shortly after.

I instantly felt something invading my body and brain, but it seemed not to be harmful, so I let it happen out of curiosity about what it would do to me.

The next moment, I become relaxed as I haven't been in a long time and feel like drifting into sleep, so I ignore the talking policeman, make myself comfortable, and close my eyes.

In the next moment, the darkness around me changes, and I appear in a big tent made of animal leather with a fire pit in the middle...

I look down and see that I'm only wearing some airy leather trousers that are bound around my hips and a breechcloth that covers my private parts.

Man, I miss the time when it was always airy down there...

I have no tribal warrior paintings, so that means it's during the time I left my tribe to live on my own.

The strange thing is, there are two other sleeping places made out of fur here—one big one lying next to mine and a small one further away.

After standing up and stretching myself, I put on some primitive-looking leather sandals and strap on my knife, which is simply a sharpened stone imbued in a bone handle and held together by leather straps.

Before even opening the tent and walking outside, I could feel the heat coming from outside.

During the first two hundred years of my life, the climate changed dramatically from cold to unbearably warm to muggy like right now.

I can remember clearly how a lot of wildlife and predators died out during that time... it was like a mass extinction of wildlife.

My mother told me that before her tribe found me, the weather was even more extreme. She said there was eternal ice everywhere, and even with the warmest fur clothes, it was nearly unbearable outside.

I have never seen this eternal ice since we were always on the move south and away from it, but I guess it's some leftovers from the ice age or simply normal ice from the northern continents.

During that time people and tribes also started to change...

I lived in my tribe for nearly 150 years before other tribes start to join us and was seen as the protector by my people, but as a monster by the others...

So for the peace of our small community, I left the tribe and wandered around, while the world around me began to change.

Of course, I met other tribes and people who began to build the early settlements during that time. However, I never stayed for long or had long-lasting relationships with partners to settle down with them...

---

After leaving the tent, a green scenery greets me.

The tent stands in the middle of a fenced area, and the only place where there is no fence is a area protected by a fast-flowing river.

Behind the fence and river, there is a dense forest that seems to go infinitely.

I look to my left and see some sheep sunbathing and eating in the corner of the living area. They are guarded by a large husky-looking hound, which seems to be a mix breed of wolf and hound.

After walking to him and giving the good boy a pat on the head, I suddenly notice someone appearing out of thin air next to the river.

I turn towards the person and instantly know who she is, even when her vessel is different...

It is Cthylla who stands at a fireplace near the river and is grilling some skewers. Her vessel is that of a young pale-skinned woman around twenty years old with radiant long red hair.

She has typical tribal ring tattoos around her wrists and biceps that some other women have during this time and wears the same sandals and trousers as me.

The only difference in our outfits is her bone necklace that barely manages to cover her breasts.

I walk towards her slowly to imprint any details about her in my brain. When I then finally stand in front of her, she looks up and smiles.

A smile that even lights up her aura, and I freeze for a moment.

Noticing me freezing, she looks at me like a predator and walks around me while touching my body and my long hair that I have during this time and asks, "So this is your deepest desire? Living in some deep prehistoric forest, with a woman who barely wears anything."

This makes me smile, so I gently place my hand on her waist and place her in front of me, then say, "No, it's about living peacefully—"

"Is that so? And a pretty woman is a bonus then?" she says teasingly while looking up at me.

I grab her chin and come closer, saying, "Yeah, a bit, but only if you use the woman as a vessel."

She places a finger on my lips before I can kiss her and says, "Let's see if you say that when I get a not good-looking vessel," and then steps away from me to turn the skewers.

Suddenly I feel a pull from the outside world but don't let it pull me out and say, while hugging her from behind,

"I'm probably the only man who truly sees the inner values of someone first, so you can do that, but you can't scare me away with it."

She places a hand on my arm and says softly, "I know..."

I feel the strong pull again, and she turns around while looking sadly at me then says, "It seems it's time for you to go..."

"Yes... but don't worry, I will come soon."

The world around me starts to disturb and break while we look at each other.

But suddenly we hear, "Mom, Dad, look what I have found! Isn't that cool?"

A boy who looks like Micky comes running from the forest and jumps above the fence with ease and holds a wolf puppy in his hands proudly before also disappearing into nothingness.

That would explain the sleeping arrangements...

Cthylla sees my probably dumbfounded face then says with a smile, "I like your peaceful world... and I will be waiting for you. My name in the real world is ---"

I catch her name before the world turns completely white, and I wake up in the police car again, while the Chuck Norris sheriff shakes me awake.

---

While I'm being dragged by the sheriff towards an interrogation room in some police station, I'm thinking about my dream world.

The only thing that felt real about it was Cthylla, who could invade it, probably due to the connection I formed with her through the follower.

Afterwards, they take pictures of me and take my fingerprints before placing me on a chair in a typical looking interrogation room, that everyone knows from movies.

Basically, there are two chairs separated by a big metal table and a big one-way mirror on the side.

After nearly an hour of sitting there, two men enter the room. One is Chuck Norris, while the other is a dark-skinned man with a file in his hand.

"My name is Sheriff Norris, and this is FBI Special Agent Henriksen, who will lead this interrogation," Sheriff Norris announces.

"Wait, your last name is Norris? Like Chuck Norris?" I ask, surprised, after staying quiet the whole time.

"No... my name is Carlos Ray Norris, not Chuck Norris," he replies somewhat annoyed.

I'm pretty sure that is Chuck Norris' real name...

Agent Henriksen throws the file on the table for me to see and says angrily, "Do you even know the seriousness of your crimes? You are the main suspect in at least three murders!"

Three? They should only have found out about the evil old woman in the motel and the follower woman I also killed in a motel...

Maybe I'll get the nickname "The Motel Murderer" after this. Who knows?

"Hello, I'm speaking with you!" says Henriksen, waving his hand in front of me.

Why can't the two creatures be the people who interrogate me... This would be much more fun.

"Yes, hi, I'm listening... So three murders? Can you remind me who I killed?" I say and try to scratch my head, but my hands are bound to the table and I can't do it without looking like an idiot...

"Do you think this is some game we're playing? Jessica Moore, Daisy Stan, and Rebekah Williams. Does it ring a bell now?" Henriksen asks angrily.

Jessica Moore, the woman from the burning house in Stanford? When did I kill her?

---

"You're probably wondering how we found out that you killed Miss Moore, right? You were clever, leaving no evidence behind, but you made the mistake of burning the third woman...

"And since you stole the identity of Aiden Cross at Stanford, we only had to put two and two together to know that it was you," says the agent proudly.

I let out a sigh and say, "I would applaud, but my hands are cuffed... so when we finish here, I have stuff to do."

Like talking with some blue-eyed monsters, who are in the building too since I can sense them somewhere under me.

"Funny, but I think you can throw your plans out of the window, for at least let's say the next hundred years. We have everything to put you in prison, the only thing left is your name that we write on your prison uniform.

So tell me who you are, and we can also finish this process."

"Me? I'm nobody..."

I mean it is true no one knows me here...

This makes Henriksen angry, and he says, "Ok mister nobody, if you don't want to tell us, we find it out on our own. Sheriff Norris, put him in a cell till his lawyer is here, while I call a maximum security prison and tell them to reserve a place for a woman murderer."

Scary...

Chuck Norris nods and then brings me to the cells in the basement of the police station and locks me up with another inmate who looks like he is in a trance.

After he opens my handcuffs and leaves, I go to the inmate and slap him a few times in the face, but he doesn't react and stays in the state.

His aura is also unstable, probably because he is under the influence of the two creatures. While spreading out my senses I can sense even more people in the same state as him...

Monsters who can create illusions and use a police station as their hunting ground, very intriguing. The question is why do they do it?

While pondering about their motives, I can sense them coming closer to my cell.

Well, it seems I will find out soon...