Dream Eater

Chapter 17: Myth Or Reality Within A Street

I nudged my shoulder to get Laszlo's arm off my back. He got the signal and took it off. 

 "You are normal again" I noticed he was in his standard 'Technician' shape with his fluffy short hair and puppy brow eyes. That means I am too? "Same" he confirmed my thoughts. Yippee!

 "This is definitely an unusual meeting, but since Mare isn't threatening to tear this place down, I suppose we can 'trust you" Laszlo emphasized skeptically. "Can we start, we are running low on cookies" Twins complained.

 I leaned against one of the shelves of 'fantasy' section and look at all of them. They were a strange bunch of people, lost as much as I am. 

Kira, unsteady, stepped in to the middle and cleared her throat "I guess we can finally begin then.." oh such a promising start. "From where to start?" she fumbled nervously, for the first time. Every time we met, she was the energetic bomb and now she looked like a fragile, innocent girl. 

"The attack, why did that occurred?" Lazlo's detective skills; activate! I grinned at his direction. "Precaution, plus we thought that Mare might recall of...something" Kira bit her lip. Recall of what? I raised my brow.

 Luckily, Laszlo proceeded "Right, okay let's start from beginning then. Are those your real names?" they all nod. "But what about Amadeus?" I cut in. "He wanted to be Tony, so we leave it be. No need for extra reason" Danny rolled his eyes in response.

 "I see and what about..." "Laszlo that's enough. With this speed we won't get anywhere" I sighed in frustration. "Like we said from before, the beginning. How did you all ended up in Chimera street?" I glanced up at round dome. It was made out of glass, so you can see that it's still somewhere around noon.

 At my surprise, Sandy was the one who answered, "After the disappearance of someone...who's very important to us, strange things began to happen. So we had to leave our home and escape where we thought it's safe." Someone important, riiight. 

"By home you mean?" "Dream Eater station" Danny joined in. We are getting somewhere, but that didn't explain the magic powers. "And by strange things, you mean Lucid?" "Yes, the great mist that cut our power resources to minimum. It was a threat we couldn't deal with at the moment" Kira explained. 

"Aha, but why Chimera?" Someone threw a book on the table next to me. I looked up to see Amadeus and Blossom glaring at each other so childishly that made others laugh. "I want a divorce!" they both declared, making others to laugh even more, while my eyes were glued to the book. 

The title was 'Chimera: myth or reality within a street'. Terrible title with dull beige background, but I still opened it to find what I was looking for. 

Chimera; according to mythology refers to a monstrous creature with parts from multiple animals. Usually depicted as a , with the head of a arising from its back, and a tail that might end with a 's head, the Chimera was one of the offspring of and . Blablabla. I could picture Laszlo's voice in this. I bet someone related to him wrote it. I skipped a few pages. The neighborhood was quite simple, all houses looked like identical twins with green lawns and rabbit figures as the symbol of luck and happiness. And strange rabbit fetishes I bet. At the end of the street, there was a remarkable house with even more remarkable hosts. The unstoppable duo organized a party each month, where whole neighborhood would gather around and celebrate till the early hours. 

What am I reading? What am I reading?! 

It was told that true lovers would run into the labyrinth in search of the Youth Fountain. Majestic one settled in the heart of the place with statue of Chimera, standing and guarding... hang on, is this what I think it is? I felt a tinge of breath at my neck. 

"Interesting isn't it?" Blossom whispered in my ear. She turned to page 80 and tapped on sixth paragraph. And this is the house where we lived. I took a quick look. Colored door, married couple with adopted kid, candle sticks. It was all matching! 

"But how?" I closed the book not knowing I asked out loud. "Didn't you feel anything when you came here?" Sandy stared at me, eyes filled with worry. Worry? It's probably the light, for sure.

 "Yes, the ancient power hidden behind every shelf?" she smiled while Danny and Joey made that 'ooooh' sound. Did I feel anything? "No" Laszlo responded instead. "You aren't concentrating enough! That's probably why?" Kira spoke, laughing nervously. 

"But, why is it important to know if I feel or not?" I stared at Kira, she seemed like the easiest to break. Her eye contact broke within few seconds and she started to babble, "What's good about this library is that it's not just library. It's THE library" she paused to reach dramatic effect. Why was she avoiding the question? 

"The library is specifically for magic users or should I say us" Amadeus carried on, "which contains million of books with different genres. What so special about? It allows user to open any book and step inside the story." Blossom brought a few books and put it on a desk. It made a squeaky sound. 

"You want to see Alice In Wonderland, Harry Potter, Good Omens, Guide To France?" It's all here and we can have it all. It was our sanctuary for the last seven years." Then everything became clearer. 

"What happened seven years ago?" I crossed my arms while they all shifted, side to side, looking at each other. Like caged animals, nowhere to run. Laszlo also noticed the shift and gave me a look. "I know what I'm doing" I whispered.

 "You better be, cause we are outnumbered and unarmed" he replayed. "Skeptical?" I ran my fingers trough his gauze, which was hiding his wounds. "Stop teasing" he said while I poked his arm. I shook my head. Someone cleared his throat making us to turn around. 

"Yes?" Kira took a deep breath before replaying, " Seven years ago, as you know we were member of Dream Eaters. After a sudden death of one companion, we didn't have much of energy to strike back, defeat the Lucid and avenge our friend. Knowing the consequences, we had to flee leaving all the good moments behind. And.." 

her voice broke for a moment, "we thought it was the end. Fleeing like cowards, leaving everything behind. But we couldn't return, it was far too late and we were scared. Can you imagine, mages scared for their lives? Pathetic, but how can someone move from safety when their leader is dead. So we stayed, merging with surroundings. Probably waiting for a word of encouragement to come. Only it didn't. And then when we thought we were finally safe and excommunicated from the society, you two came. Maybe it was pure speculation, luck or should I say, rather misfortune. But leave that be. The Lucid became a real threat, but this time we have an ace in the hole" she announced proudly while others cheered.