Dreams That Mean Death – Eric ONeal (1)

There wasn’t much joy to be had in it. That’s where she was. Screaming for revenge that I didn’t know if I’d be able to give her. And if she didn’t get it from Simon, I’d have to make due instead. I sat there on the edge of the train car, while the world passed me by in the dark. The conductor hadn’t asked us where we were going.

I think he knew where I was headed, but I needed to find out for myself first. Joey was sleeping. I hoped it was peaceful for him. We were passing a huge lake somewhere that I didn’t know. It stretched on for miles. The waters weren’t black like the ocean. I didn’t miss those dark waters.

But I did miss Lenna, and I hoped that she wouldn’t hate me forever. In the sky, the stars still twinkled there. A million lights hanging. I closed my eyes and nearly fell asleep sitting up. Then I opened my eyes back to the night sky, and the stars were gone.

Then I saw them there in the waters of the lake. Like they’d been stolen right out of the air. Sinking beneath the cold waters. I closed the door and ran back to my bed. Joey was awake staring at me from underneath his blankets. “Detective.” He’d gotten some of my food. What he could stand to eat. “Hey, Joey. Call me Graysmith. How you feeling?” “Like I was eaten by a giant fish.” I chuckled, but Joey wasn’t joking. “I’m sorry.” “No. It’s okay. I didn’t sign up to be a barnacle.”

“No one ever does.” “How did you find me?” “I talked to Tamara.” Pain flashed through Joey’s eyes. “You saw her? Was she still,” Joey searched for the word, “okay?” “She was doing alright. Still alive.” “If you can call her that.” Joey started to cry as he thought about her. “I left her, Graysmith.” “There wasn’t really much more you could do for her.” “I stayed as long as I could. But we had to leave. There was nothing left for us.”

“I know, Joey. That’s not your fault.” “I was ready. When we ran into those people on the beach, I was ready to leave all of it behind. Tamara, my old life. I wanted to start over. I thought I found my purpose.” “I’m sorry.” That did nothing to make him feel better.

didn’t think much of the case at the time. A dead girl and the only suspect was her boyfriend. I got the call after a standard night of brown liquor and cigarettes. Beyond that, I didn’t remember eating anything. A slight tremor in my guts indicated that I might have had too much.

That and the splitting headache, but that was a pretty common companion of mine. I rode to the dead girl’s apartment. My dark sunglasses did little to shield against the cruel sun. The traffic was jammed, and I tugged at my collar to relieve some of the heat. I rubbed at the thinning hairs on my head and considered shaving it away.

It might make me look younger anyway. The grays advancing across my head like an invading army. Nearly thirty years on the force were about thirty too long. If you didn’t end up with a drinking problem, then you were probably dead. I’d tossed my badge into the passenger seat along with my gun. The shine had worn off a long time ago. Detective Graysmith was something I’d longed to hear in my younger years. Now it was a term I said with spite.

It escaped through my gritted teeth. The city was bustling as usual. Gamblers on the street throwing dice, drug deals brazenly made in front of businesses. I kept my nose out of that. I got the pleasure of focusing on the murders. The girl’s name was Marie. Found dead dumped outside the city in a hastily dug grave two nights ago. Some homeless person wandering the woods with his dog stumbled across her body. Strangled and abandoned and left alone with dirt. I’d had a dream the night before. I dreamed that I was trapped under a mound of dirt.

It suffocated my lungs, and the only way I could get out was by eating the dirt. Then a worm in the ground lodged itself in my teeth. As I tried to spit it out, I heard, “Detective.” I looked, and there she was. Marie and I shared a shallow grave in the middle of the woods. But I remember thinking that it felt warm. Then I woke up.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: b270f7cb160e96dc
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 735,883 bytes (0.702 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• ISBN: 9798233731846
• Pages: 144
• Language: English (en)

Reading & Word Statistics

• Estimated Reading Time: 187.93 minutes
• Total Words: 37,585
• Total Characters: 197,782
• Average Words per Page: 261.01
• Average Characters per Page: 1373.49

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