Dreamers Of Dreams

The swirling fog of the morning made me more miserable with my utterly boring existence. Just like everything in this backwoods part of Kentucky it seemed to close in around me. Nineteen and life didn't offer any hope of escape from this place, not even from this rotten, little dinner that had been passed down to my mother from her father. Here was boredom served to me on a platter my family had created, a platter I wanted nothing to do with.

"Fuck," I whispered to myself, "I'd sell my soul to the Devil for some excitement."

"Hey, Melissa," Ballard Barnes called out, "Wake up and give us more coffee, or do I have to take you out back and wake you up?"

Ballard Barnes and his brother Sam, two morons that God made the mistake to have given vocal cords. Both were sure they would be the one to take my virginity from me. Both were very, very wrong on that idea.

As I turned from the coffee machine with the pot of coffee, the whole place lit up as lightning engulfed the fog shrouded world. Instantly there was a huge boom of thunder sounding more like a demonic scream than anything else. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end as the thunder echoed from the unseen hills around the tiny cafe.

I blinked twice as I stared out the window towards the road. Slowly two headlights pulled closer, looking more like the sinister eyes of an approaching demon than anything else. My body shook for a second before the car turned to the right and vanished towards the parking spaces.

I had returned the coffee pot to the burner and had just sat back down on the ugly burnt orange stool when he walked in. Dressed in tight black jeans, a shirt as black as a moonless night he cut the image of pure, unbridled excitement into my mind. His black hair was neatly combed and he took a glance at me with the darkest black eyes ever created. In his eyes I knew that, here was not only excitement, here was danger.

"Hey, look, it's Johnny Cash," Ballard roared loudly as the stranger passed the table the two brothers were sitting by.

I knew there was going to be trouble. The man stopped, a wicked grin tugging at the corner of his lips. He slowly turned to Ballard and moved to the table.

"Not Johnny. Not Cash. The name is Charon." He growled in a voice more like the thunder than I could imagine.

"Sharon? SHARON?" Ballard roared with laughter. "And my name is Sue. How do you do?"

"Ballard," the man said, his voice as sharp and crisp as a sharp knife. "You have so little time. Maybe you'd do better to use it more wisely."

"Who are you?" Ballard asked, confusion washing over his bearded face.

"Your worst nightmare," the man replied slowly, then turned and walked to a booth, his feet coming to the floor as if he intended to plant them through the dirty, greasy tiles with each step.

"Best not mess with them." I whispered as I set the glass of water and a menu down for the stranger. "They are real bad people."

"Bad?" He asked, picking up the menu. "They look bad, but they are just two morons who don't know when to stop."

"Come on," I don't want any trouble. Okay?"

"No trouble. Not for you. But they are caught up in a dance they don't know is coming to an end."

"Melissa, honey," Ballard said as he sauntered up. "Don't waste your time on this guy. Come on, lets go out back and you show me those little titties."

His fingers touched my blouse an instant before my hand crashed along the side of his face. "You ever do that again, you bastard, I'll fucking kill ya."

"You little tramp!" Ballard screamed as his hand slashed out to repay my slap. There was no way I could avoid it but, it never got to me. The stranger, not even looking up reach out and stopped Ballad's blow without any effort.

"Your mother never teach you any manners, Ballard? You don't go around hitting little girls. Ever!"

Both Ballard and I stood in pure amazement at what had just happened. Ballard was a big man, made muscular by a lifetime of working in the woods. No matter how shocked he was, this would not be tolerated by the two brothers who thought they owned half the girls in the community.

"I'll fucking kill you for that," Ballard growled, jerking his arm from the man's grasp.

"No you won't," The man smiled up at him. "But you'll try. Now go sit down and keep you big, ugly mouth shut for a few minutes."

Unaccustomed to such treatment, the read face giant of a man backed off.

Moving swiftly to the service window to the kitchen, I nodded to Jimmy, the old man who swept the place to come closer. "Go get the sheriff, there is going to be big trouble here."

With his coat half on, Jimmy headed to the door, his limp slowing him down. "Jimmy," the stranger said, not looking up. "He's down there behind his favorite billboard, but you will have to wake him up."

I flopped down on the stool. Something was going on here that was beyond my mind. Something evil was here, you could feel and taste it. Trouble wasn't going to happen, trouble was already here.

The three men got up at the same instant as if on cue. I opened my mouth to scream for them to sit down but nothing came out. Unable to speak or move I watched the brothers advance on the stranger, anger and hate painted on their faces as the stranger, the one called Charon, stood with a knowing grin on his face.

Charon took his time with the two. Speed was his thing as he bashed a fist into Sam's face, twirled and caught Ballard between the legs with his knee. Even in pain Ballard lashed out with a wild punch that went wide as the man stepped back.

I knew he was hurt the instant the fist slammed into his muscular chest. Ballard backed up like a staggering drunk, caught himself on the edge of the table and looked at the man in disbelief. "You fucker," He said as a trickle of blood drooled from the right side of his mouth. His eyes rolled back in his head and he collapsed in a heap, his eyes staring blindly at the ceiling.

Sam started to crawl to help his brother, but the stranger used the bottom of his shoe to slam the injured man's head against the floor. Sam lay still beside his dead brother.

I had never seen a man killed before. It had happened so quickly that I was unable to grasp any of what had happened. Sitting in total shock I found myself unable to move as the man named Charon moved towards me, a coldness coming over me as he came closer.

With his eyes boring into mine, he pulled my blouse out and I felt his hand push something beneath my bra. "Never ask for what you do not understand," he said with a smile. "You might get it."

With the lights flashing brightly, sheriff Johnson and Jimmy roared into the drive as the stranger was pulling out. It was over and it had actually seemed like some demonic dance that had been played out before me. A dance that had left one of the brothers dead and the other with a serve head injury that would leave him paralyzed the rest of his life. A dance had been played out by a man who had no compassion for the two. Slowly I remembered where I had heard about the one called "Charon the Ferryman".

I sat in total shock as the para-medics and police did their job. Sheriff Johnson insisted on calling my parents, away helping to get my grandfather's estate in order after his death a few weeks earlier. As always, my father was able to work his way out of helping me when I needed help the most. By early afternoon, Sheriff Johnson dropped me off at my home, not happy that I had refused to stay with him and his wife until my parents came home. Frankly, I just wanted to get away and lock the doors and cry.

After three beers, stolen from the refrigerator, I heard a knock on the door. Figuring it was someone checking up on me I opened the door and stood staring into the eyes of the stranger.

"Enough excitement?" He said, stepping forward as I backed into the house, unable to utter a sound.

He closed the door behind him and turned to me, his eyes going from the top of my head to me feet then back up, stopping for a moment at my breasts.

"What do you want?" I forced the words out.

"You got your excitement, Melissa, now its time to pay up."

"No," I moaned. "Please, not this."

He smiled cruelly at me. "I will give you two ways: You can be mine until I am done with you, and let you live, or you can die. I think you'd be better off doing it my way than dying at your young age."

"No, please," I moaned, now unable to even move. "I don't want to die."

"Then be mine."

"Never," I hissed.

His hand came to rest on my chest as his eyes looked deeper into me. I felt a shock go through my body, touching every part of me. My heart started hurting as it now pounded unsteadily. Dizzy and becoming weak I slowly went to my knees, his hand still on my chest.

"You have a pretty body, Melissa," he whispered, the words echoing painfully in my mind. "Too bad it has to be this way."

Lowering me to my back I could feel my life being drained from me. I could see in his cold, black eyes that he was willing to allow this to go either way. I gasped out for air, feeling my body starting to shut down. Deep inside I knew he was going to make it a long process, a process I was no longer able to endure.

My mouth opened as I tried to form the words. "You now willing to be mine?" He asked as his hand moved slightly, bring a horrid burning pain to my heart.

I tried to answer but nothing but strange, gurgling sounds came out of my mouth. Fear took over as I felt a numbness coming over me. I was too close to death to utter the words that would keep me alive.

"It's close now, Melissa," he taunted. "You can't speak and your life is just about gone. Just think it and it'll stop. Do you really want to die?"

My mind screamed out that I didn't want to die. His eyes held onto mine now, as cold descended on me. I couldn't look away, couldn't blink as darkness seemed to come over me as if life had been little more than a light control by a dimmer switch. "Liar!" My mind screamed with all its power as darkness became total and the numbness, even the numbness, was gone.

My eyes opened up instantly. Far overhead was what appeared to be the top of a cave or something. Ugly gray stones seemed to be washed by a glowing, flickering light that seemed to be coming from within the rock than from the outside. It wasn't warm or cold here, just a feeling I couldn't put my finger on. I slowly turned my head to the left. Each part of the cavern seemed so familiar yet I had never been inside this cave.

"Ah, welcome to my home, Melissa," I heard the strangers voice, now even more taunting.

I sat up, looking around as I rubbed my sore arms. My whole body hurt, hurt like I had been raised from the dead. OH, my God!

"No, my pet, you are not dead," Charon chuckled loudly. "And I? I might be many things, but I am not a liar."

"Where is this?" I questioned, forcing myself to my feet in front of the wicked thing.

Charon got to his feet, a smile on his face as he stepped towards me, stopped then swept his left arm out as if showing me the way around this cave... His home. "Here is between heartbeats. Here the dark of night and the light of day are brought by but the blinks of an eye. Here is thought and knowledge you may never know again. It is here that we may sit as I tell you the second by second story of this universe between heartbeats."

I looked around the cave, his words still stuck in my mind, then a strange thought came to me an instant before his knowing chuckled brought my eyes back to him.

"Yes, Malissa, here is you. This is the reality you have made in your mind as you woke before me. Here you dare be nothing but you for here all is of you."

"But I feel so alive," I ventured in confusion.

"Alive?" He bellowed. "You poor humans, you never cease to amaze me with your ability to only rationalize the 'all' from the perspective of alive or not alive. You insult your very creation by claiming that life is day and death is night. Now, take off your clothes so I might see what is mine."

"No," I moaned, "I am afraid. I want to go home. Please."

"Fear? Of what, your thoughts? And where might it be more home than here, in your mind? You are safe to be all that you have feared before, and now, sweet child, you fear being you more than all the other fears you have used to hide you behind."

I looked down at the rocky floor. He was right. For some reason I knew he was right. A tiny burst of light lit up in my mind, I was free, really free. "And if I make you take my clothes off. If I refuse to do what you ask, will you do this deed you ask?"

He walked back to his throne, spun around and looked at me as he sat down. "Here your clothes-those garments that hides your body from me- they are not made of cloth, they are your fears you so easily hide behind. It would be easy for me to strip away garments of cloth, but most unwise for me to strip your fears away. I cannot help you by doing it myself."

"Help me? You call this help? You make me a prisoner, nothing more than a little toy for you, now you want me to take my clothes off so you can see me naked. NO!"

"See you naked?" He laughed. "I have seen you staring back from the mirror as you touched your breasts, wondering what it would feel like if it a man, or boy was the one touching. I have watched you in the dark of night as you touched your deepest desire. I was there when, so many times, you set your mind on fire with burning passions. See you naked? I wish you to only accept your freedom so you might learn but one simple message but, like many before you, you are too pompous to allow that."

"It scares me," I whispered softly, a tear running down my cheek. "I am afraid."

"The journey of a thousand miles starts with but one step," he whispered back in a tone softer than I had ever heard from a human, "and the journey to freedom starts with that first garment of fear being removed."

My fingers played at the top BUTTON of my blouse. Sure felt like a buttons and cloth to me as it fell open. Yet, as I undid the buttons, a strange feeling rushed through my body as if my whole body- my whole being- had just giggled. I looked up at Charon in shocked surprise at the feeling, but all he did with look back to me with a smile now becoming almost warm.

With each button I felt different. Felt somehow lighter and more wanting to laugh and giggled. It was a wild feeling to stand there in front of a man, taking my clothes off as my mind whispered out to me to let go. Seven buttons now undone and I giggled out loud. Seven buttons had been like the days of the week, each one needing to be RELEASED before the dawn could come and, as each button was undone, something dawned in me as if I was awakening.

"You are a lovely one," Charon said to me as I dropped the blouse to the floor, looking down at my bra-clad breasts as I giggled loudly, knowing that, with its removal, I would be a different person.

"I am not too much to talk about," I sighed, knowing I didn't have all that great a body.

"I can show you beauty that you never thought existed, but how can beauty be seen unless beauty is accepted? Stop thinking like a human and be the human in your thoughts, Melissa."

"Are you going to laugh at me?" I asked, my hands moving behind me, willing to remove the next fear whether he laughed or not.

"Sweet, Malissa," he chuckled loudly. "Others think of me as someone who never laughs and, to them, I did not. Yet, here you are, fearing me, worried that I will laugh. Is this laughter you fear so much your greatest fear?"

"No," I said, the bra dropping to the floor. "I do not know what it is I fear, but it is still there."

"Then continue," he replied softly, his eyes feasting on my breasts.

I had to fight the need to rip my jeans and panties off, allowing myself the exquisite feeling of being freed inside myself. As I stripped, I kept looking to Charon, noticing his eyes were now looking at me in lust. Yes, here was freedom and here was power. Here was the balance inside me I had fought for so long. He had helped me do this as I found the touch of stripping away my fears sweeter than fine honey, and now I was filling him with lust. I giggled as I held my arms out to my side so he could feast his eyes on my entire body, knowing full well that we were feeding on each other's needs.

"What are you looking at?" I taunted playfully.

"A fine wine. A sweet thought. I look at the sound of the wind in the treetops and one who is more beautiful than a moonlit night."

"But I still feel naked," I giggled.

"You are naked. Believe me, you are ever so naked." He laughed lightly.

Yes, I was naked, but I knew it was all naked thoughts coming together taking a new step towards a new me.

"What is in your mind?" His words came to me softly.

"I am free. I don't feel ugly; I don't feel ashamed for you to look at me. But I feel different."

He got up and walked to me, his eyes exploring my body. He silently walked around me, stopping before me as his eyes moved up to mine. "You wish to see the beauty I told you of?"

"Yes," I replied as my eyes looked around the cavern.

He reach behind me with his left hand, pulling back the most beautiful rose I had ever seen. It was perfect in all ways, its dark redness seemingly to have been cast from the inside out.

"If you were to start a journey into beauty, child, where better to start than with the rose? But, even the rose has a lesson to teach about its beauty." He held the rose to my lips. "Kiss it child and learn."

"Ouch!" I whimpered as my lips touched a thorn and not a beautiful petal. My tongue darted out over the tiny drop of blood.

"Beauty also has a price. You kiss it with your eyes closed and you find a thorn because you can only see the rose flower behind your closed eyes." He put the flower to his lips and looked at it for a long moment before kissing it with his eyes open. "Beauty is to be seen with open eyes for, when you close your eyes to the beauty you will find that beauty demands a painful price."

"Why are you doing this to me," I whispered out my question as he handed me the rose.

"You took the chance of what I might do to you. Most would fear death less than the chance to be alive. You did what very few have done."

"And am I done?"

A bewildered look swept over his face. "And who is that in your thoughts that you try to hide from me?"

She is my friend. My best friend."

He nodded his head then motioned behind me. "You mean Victoria?"

Victoria was there, dressed in a flowing white gown, her head bent down as her arms were pulled far above her head. She, like I was her prisoner. God, she looked so beautiful like this, her breasts heaving against the gown. "Why is she here?" I demanded, not wanting her, of all people, hurt because of me.

"You brought her here, Malissa, not I. It is you who keeps her sleeping in her bonds. It is you who keeps her hidden from you because you fear your own feelings."

I walked over to Victoria. She looked beautiful like this. I turned to him and smiled. "Freedom?" He only nodded his head and motioned to Victoria.

My hands touched her young body through the silky material. God, she felt so sweet to touch, not like the sin I had once thought. I wanted to touch her bareness, wanted to stroke her as I had in my most hidden dreams, but the material stood between the two of us. There could be but one way to solve this riddle of my mind.

My fingers ripped at the material as if it were my truest enemy. Shred by shred I exposed her breasts to me. I stood back and moaned at the sight of the bound girl, now naked to her waist. I wanted it all as my fingers again started ripping my fears away from her body until she was sleeping naked before me.

Slowly my lips drew closer to hers, my left hand cupping her warm breast as our lips touched and my eyes looked into her slumbering eye lids but an instant before she woke up, returning my kiss the instant she saw me.