The Dream Stalker

9) "That is Irrelevant"

"Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor

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As September transitioned to October, the first few days of McKenzie's insertion into the fold came and went. He actually took things quite well. Yet the gravity of the situation still hadn't gotten through that thick skull of his.

After we finished our discussion in McKenzie's dream, Horacio taught me the trick to leaving the dream world; it was as simple as shifting yourself with your mind back to your own subconscious. Yes, simple, but a long process nonetheless that involved relaxing both your mind and body. It was kind of like going to sleep, if that made any sense. Usually, by doing so you would spend the rest of your sleep like an average person, barely aware of your dreams, but with the seal on my dreams the only thing waiting for me in my subconscious was darkness.

McKenzie spent most of the following morning catching up on his sleep. Since he had been imprisoned in his dreams, all those hours he had spent sleeping the previous day had still left him deprived of any actual rest. I was glad for that, because I also had some sleep to catch up on. Evidently exploring others dreams had a similar effect on a person as being imprisoned did, though little more lenient, which presumably meant the Dream Stalker would also suffer from this fatigue problem.

Though since he had already gone through three targets in rapid succession and was, supposedly, waiting each night inside his targets' dreams for me, it was hard to imagine how he was doing it. Either the Dream Stalker had found some kind of trick that allowed him to go so many nights without proper sleep, or he was sleeping during the day to catch up.

About midway through the day McKenzie finally awoke, and he preceded to rouse me from my own nap so he could confirm that it had all been, in fact, real. Upon being surprised I could recite to him word-for-word what had happened during his dream, the guy then bombarded me with questions. I tried to answer the ones I could, and made several educated guesses on others that I wasn't so sure about. Most of them, though, were questions that I still wanted answers to myself.

By the end of the Q&A, McKenzie wasn't even remotely satisfied, so I promised him that we would return to the World-Between-Dreams the following night to try and get clearer answers out of Horacio. I also forced McKenzie to swear to hold the oath he made during his dream.

Once that was over, McKenzie began pitching his conspiracy theories on the identity of the Dream Stalker. Despite my assertion that we didn't have any real evidence to go with, that didn't stop McKenzie from pointing out a prime suspect. Mr. Dobson.

"Why Mr. Dobson?" I questioned skeptically. Sure the old dude was weird, and even though I myself was partially suspicious of him, that wasn't proof enough to say the guy was a murderer.

McKenzie scowled. "Well, he's creepy. He lives alone. He's creepy. He hates kids. He never leaves his house...oh, and did I mention that he's creepy?"

"That's circumstantial evidence," I argued lightly. "Besides, the only thing we really know about this Dream Stalker is that he hates the fact I have the same abilities as him—how he figured out I was a Dream Guardian before I did is still a mystery. Other than that, all we know is he's targeting high school kids."

"Oh, come on! Haven't you ever watched any movie or TV show before? It's always the creepy old man no one likes!" McKenzie shot back with a scowl.

"Problem. This isn't a movie!" I argued. "But, I do have a sneaky suspicion Horacio knows more about the Dream Stalker's identity then he's letting on."

McKenzie gasped. Looking around nervously he then whispered, "You don't think Horacio is the Dream Stalker do you?"

Annoyed, I slapped McKenzie outside the head. "It's not the monkey, and I'm pretty sure he can't hear us." I then thought back to my first day in Edman and the strange text message...maybe the notion wasn't as farfetched as it first seemed. Still, the fact that it was McKenzie who came up with the theory didn't inspire much confidence in me.