The Dreamer Awakens Pt. 02: Danielle

'How?'

'I don't care. Can you do it?'

'Not directly. But there are ways. Who do you want rid of?'

'Two men in my building. Gossips, slanderers, malicious bullies. I want them gone.'

The spirit went quiet, a thoughtful look on her face.

'Give us their names on paper,' Bronefar finally replied. 'Cross their names with words of doom. And take them to the river. We can deliver them to the underground rivers of Hell, beneath the Earth. The Underworld can have them.'

Jack felt like he understood her. Ideas entered his mind - ideas that were clearly not his. He nodded.

'Thank you, Bronefar. And what will you do about Amber and Sadie?'

'Leave them with me,' she smiled again. And then she disappeared.

Jack left a little bread from his sandwich, and headed back to the office.

As he walked, he pondered this weird double life he was leading -- a quiet office drone during office hours, until his lunchbreaks, when he is making pacts with wild nature spirits. As a budding occultist, he thought, his daily life should be more interesting.

Emerging into the corridor leading to his office, Amber sped around the corner, colliding into his arm, tits first. He felt her breast through her top.

'Jack! Sorry!'

'Christ! Hey Amber,' said Jack. 'In a hurry?'

'Yeah,' she laughed nervously. 'Yeah, kind of.'

'Kind of?'

'I'm just grabbing lunch downstairs. Are you on lunch?'

'Just coming back.'

'Oh yeah, of couse!' she laughed.

'Okay, I won't stop you.'

Jack turned to leave.

'Listen,' Amber continued. 'Do you want a lift home tonight?'

'Oh, sure, thanks!'

'Okay, I'll see you tonight then.' Amber smiled, turning to head towards the stairs. Jack watched her.

She did that on purpose, Jack thought. Bronefar works fast.

Walking back to his seat, he noticed Sadie sat at her desk in the managers section. She looked up at him immediately. In his peripheral vision, Jack pretended not to notice when she stared at him as he walked by.

Jack sat at his desk and logged in to his PC. He plugged his earphones in and pretended to listen to a podcast while he imagined both Sadie and Amber in a variety of erotic scenarios.

The rest of the evening went by fast. Sadie actually smiled at him as he walked past her desk that evening. He would smile back, wondering what the hell was going on.

That night, he walked with Amber to her car. They lived in completely different directions, but she offered to drive him close to his home anyway.

As she pulled out of the car park onto the main road, she glanced at him in the rear view mirror.

'So, Jack. Do you have any kids?'

'Nah. Not yet anyway. Do you?'

'No. Do you want kids?'

'Yeah, one day. Right now might not be the time, though. If I can find a better job, with better money, maybe then.'

Amber stopped smiling.

'You don't want to leave it too late. There will always be a reason not to. The clock is ticking, neither of us are getting any younger.'

Us? Christ, Jack thought. This one doesn't mess around.

'You're right,' Jack replied. 'I don't want to be an older parent. But I don't want to rush into it either.'

Amber was starting to scare him a little. But at the same time, he couldn't let Bronefar's work go to waste. He had to move it forward. This was what he asked for.

She dropped him off at the bus stop where he usually got off.

'Thanks Amber,' he said through the window. 'Listen, what are you up to tomorrow? Fancy grabbing a coffee before work?'

She smiled. Her eyes gleamed in the streetlight.

'Okay!'

They arranged to meet at a cafe on the seafront the next day.

At home, he remembered Bronefar's instructions. He had a couple of petitions to make to the Gods of the Underworld, whoever they may be.

Jack took a piece of paper, tearing it in two. On a desk, beneath his window, he wrote the names of the two assholes at work onto paper in the moonlight. He would turn the pieces of paper around and cross them with the words "Dragged down to Hell". He directed all his hate into the act, then dumped them in his rucksack for later.

Then he made a sandwich just to snap out of the angry trance he put himself in.

The next day, Jack found himself sat at a wooden table outside a quiet seafront cafe. Across from him, Amber sipped her tea while glancing over at a young couple on a nearby table, with two young children. Her red hair moved slightly in the breeze.

'This place is nice,' she said. 'Never been here before.'

'I've only been here a few time, but yeah, it's nice,' said Jack, remember some of the coffee dates he used to have with Sarah here. He thought he would miss her, but he didn't. He didn't really feel anything for his life before the incident at the Manor, which was strange to him.

'You know, it's good that you want children too. I hope you don't mind me being so upfront, but it's important we get that out of the way, right?'

Jack could see the white picket fence and child's swing set reflected in Amber's eyes as she spoke.

'No, you're right, it is important that we're on the same page about that. But let's not rush into things, shall we?'

Jack sipped on his coffee.

'No, of course,' Amber's eyes drifted away momentarily. 'But we can't leave it too long either. The clock is ticking.'

She's not wrong, Jack thought. But this was their first coffee date!

'True,' said Jack, before changing the subject.

The rest of the date, all he could think about was Olivia, and her fantastic body. The image of her whipping her top off in front of him was imprinted on his imagination.

As Amber drove him to work, all he could think of was the look in Olivia's eyes as he pinned her topless body to the floor.

Jack walked into the office with Amber. Sadie walked past them and smiled at Jack. Jack pretended not to notice how she had done her hair, how her top was more low cut than usual and her jeans were very form-fitting.

Jack smiled back. Amber glared at her.

The two douchebags at his desk went quiet and tried not to stare when Amber approached Jack at his desk and placed a hand on his shoulder, offering him a lift home that night. He accepted.

During his lunchbreak that day, he went to the river. He held the pieces of paper over the water.

'Okay, Bronefar. You know what to do.'

He dropped the papers into the murky water below, and walked back to work without looking back.

In the corridor, Jack was surprised to see Sadie walk out of the office towards him.

'Hey Jack.'

'Hey.'

As she walked past him, she winked and casually pulled her top down a little with one finger, exposing more of her pale cleavage. It was only a second, but that was long enough to imprint an image on Jack's memory that would remain in his spank bank for a long time.

Stunned, Jack carried on walking into the office as if nothing had happened. Was she wearing a pushup bra? It looked like she was.

The rest of the evening, Sadie would place herself in his direction. She seemed to know when he was on break, and would find reasons to walk past him, and make it very obvious that she was checking out his body as he checked out hers.

Jack would notice Amber looking at her, and looking at him as well. He would have to play this very carefully.

That night, Amber dropped Jack off at his usual stop. In the lights of a distant petrol station, he noticed a shadowy figure zig-zagging towards him along the pavement. The silhouette appeared to be of a woman: wild long hair, a bit shorter than he was, not very steady on her feet. Probably high or drunk.

As they got closer, she stopped. Was she staring at him?

Getting closer, Jack noticed her clothes. Her jeans were black and torn. And her red shirt was open. Jack wasn't sure, but it looked like she wasn't wearing anything underneath.

She started walking straight towards him, almost tripping over her own bare feet. Her eyes seemed to glow in the streetlight.

'Jack!' She pointed at him.

'Hello?' Jack replied, apprehensively. She really wasn't wearing anything under that open shirt.

'The Lords of Hell have heard your request,' she rasped at him, with a voice that sounded like she smoked fifty a day.

'Sorry?'

'It will be done! What you asked for! It will be done! The Lords of Hell will do what you have asked.'

She looked like she was in her forties. Her breasts were sagging but full. Jack was distracted by an exposed nipple, that jiggled out of her shirt as she raved.

'Lords of Hell?'

'Yes! The Gods of the Underworld, the Cthonic realm. They have claimed the souls of your enemies.'

'Okay, that's good to know,' said Jack, scared. 'Have we met?'

'You have forgotten the Manor, haven't you Jack?'

'Yes. Most of it.'

'Come to the Manor, Jack. All manner of pleasures await you there. Come back to the party.'

Jack glanced down at her pendulous breasts. He wondered if the other nipple was going to come out.

'I'll give it some thought.'

The woman grabbed both of his arms, pulling him towards her, staring into his eyes. He finally noticed her faded, running mascara.

'Stop thinking. Do it. Come back to us.'

Her nipple grazed against his T-shirt. She seemed completely unaware.

Jack took her by the arms and gently extracted himself from her.

'Not now. Not just yet, okay?'

He walked off, glancing behind as she stared at him. Her silhouette in the streetlight looked eerie, just standing there like the other crazy woman he met a few days ago.

Who were these women? If the Manor was such a great place, why were they wondering the streets like homeless drug addicts?

Jack went home and decided to just spend the night playing videogames like his boring coworkers. He needed to do something mundane to get himself back down to earth.

The next day he went about his usual routine. The normality was comforting for a change.

Walking towards the office that afternoon, he kept an eye out for any strange homeless-looking women. No one approached him that morning.

Back at the office, the two assholes he had to sit with were gone, their seats empty.

Sadie walked past his desk. Her blouse was opened down a little further than usual. She smiled at him.

'Hey Jack.'

'Hey Sadie. Any idea what happened to those two guys who sit here?'

She sat at a chair next to him.

'Well,' she began. 'You'll never guess. They're both in hospital. Norman got in a crash. Completely totalled his car, and he's not doing too well either. Not sure what condition he's in now.

And Will got violently ill, we don't know what happened to him. Had to be rushed to A&E. I don't think we'll be seeing either of them for a while.'

Jack hid his glee, disguising it as shock.

'Wow. Okay. What a terrible coincidence that both guys should have ended up hospitalized on the same night.'

'Yeah,' said Sadie. 'It's really weird.'

Jack thought about the woman he met last night.

'Keep me updated on their condition, will you?'

Sadie smiled.

'I will,' she replied before getting up and walking off.

As she stood up, Amber walked into the office and saw her. She stared at Sadie as she walked past, then at Jack. Jack smiled at her and waved. Amber narrowed her eyes and walked back to her desk.

The rest of the day was one of the best days at work Jack had experienced since working there. Not having to listen to those two assholes, and a lot of casual flirtation with Sadie.

The day flew by, until he found himself back at home, looking through his notebook again. The notes he scrawled after his rescue from the manor. They were starting to make more sense. This whole magic thing was starting to click for him. He started to think that he could actually be a sorceror, that he could command spirits to do greater and greater things.

Jack lay in his single bed, thinking about Sadie in that low cut top. He was starting to get hard, when he heard a familiar voice speaking from inside his mind.

'Jack.'

Startled out of his fantasy, Jack looked up to see a naked woman stood over him in his room.

'Bronefar?'

'Are you pleased with our work, Jack?'

In the streetlight that came in through his blinds, Jack could see the outline of her torso, arms and breasts above him. Her eyes seemed to reflect the moonlight, even though there wasn't any.

'Uhh, yes Bronefar. I'm really pleased, thank you. What are you doing here?'

'There's something I would like in return. An offering.'

'What is it?'

Bronefar reached down and somehow passed her hand through his quilt, laying a cold hand on his genitals.

'Your seed, Jack. Will you offer this to me, in return for my work?'

The touch of her ethereal hand against his cock felt electrifying, immediately prompting a full erection. He felt like he wouldn't last long.

Then he remembered the Manor. How they trapped him there after he gave them a similar offering.

He pulled away, sitting up in his bed.

'No!'

Bronefar stood up, looking at him with cold eyes.

'You can have something else, but not this.'

Bronefar smiled.

'You are wise, Jack. Wiser than I thought. This was a test.'

'A test?'

'I wanted to be sure I wasn't working with some idiot who is easily manipulated.'

'So you don't want an offering?'

'Not yet,' Bronefar replied. 'But I would like to offer you something. You know my name. Now, I give you my seal. You can call on me without going to the river.'

Bronefar traced a glowing red circle on his wall. Inside the circle was an intricate design that Jack knew he had to remember.

Jack woke up with a start. Bronefar was gone, as was the seal. But he remembered it. He turned the light on, grabbed a notepad from his filing cabinet and immediately drew it onto a notepad while he still could.

Jack looked at the seal. He had passed the spirit's test, and now he had a powerful spirit companion.

It was time to take the magic up a notch, and play the role of sorcerer to the full.