Skye Larkin and the First Book of REM

When dreams come true

    Skye Larkin tossed and turned. Then he punched his pillow and turned again. Under his eyelids his eyes moved back and forth

frantically. His dreams were disturbing him. It was so vivid, he felt as if he was right there. He saw a man in a dark suit and shades

laughing. This man was holding something. Something powerful and important. The dream wouldn’t let him see what that item was.

Then the man noticed the boy and turned his intense blue eyes upon him. Skye and the man locked eyes. Suddenly he felt a

crushing pressure on his chest, knocking him flat on his back. It sucked the breath out of him and filled him with pain. The dream

had quickly turned into a nightmare. He needed to get out. He had to wake up.

         His eyes flew open, and he pushed his palms outward. “Umff,” he grunted, “get off of me.”

Everly scrambled off the boy’s bed, face bright pink, watching as he got out of bed groaning. His whole body hurt as if he’d been hit

by a train, his chest already turning various shades of blue.

“I’m sorry,” she said, looking ever so distressed.

“What are you doing in my room?” he shouted. “You just landed on my chest!”

The girl stuck out her hand, “Hi, I’m Everly, I’m from ……” the hand hung in midair.

“What the heck is going on?” Skye demanded as he looked around his room in disbelief.

         For starters there was a huge gaping hole in his ceiling. His room looked like a hurricane had forced its way in then left a girl

in its wake. A girl who had crushed him and left him achy and sore. And this girl was weird, Skye could just feel it. She wore robes

for goodness sake, what did she think she was, a wizard?  The girl was a mess. Her robes were dirty and wrinkled, her hair

tousled, and a huge bruise on her right cheek was getting darker by the minute. She was carrying a tattered old book and watching

Skye through long lashes and grey eyes. Skye blushed, and pulled his robe closed in a belated attempt to hide his Mighty Mouse

pajama bottoms. He slipped his flip flops on and ran a hand through his messy blond hair.

“I want some explanations now!” Skye ordered.

“There is no time,” replied Everly. “We are being summoned.”

    A powerful light began to radiate from an etched wooden disc the girl wore on a leather cord around her neck. The necklace

began to vibrate and hum. She quickly removed it and laid it on the floor. The light poured out in rivers, lighting up Skye’s room like 

a beacon.  It’s humming had turned into song. It widened and lengthened, stretching into  a round doorway that emanated light.

Everly grabbed his arm.  “Come on.”

“Wait, no!” Skye shouted.  “I am not going in there,” he protested trying to pull his arm away.

“The Dream-Eaters shall soon be arriving, to erase your dreams. Permanently.”

“Dream-Eaters?”

“I shall explain later, please come with me.” Everly begged.

“Well it does sound pretty ominous,” thought Skye. “Dream-Eaters, huh… okay.”   

He rummaged around a bit, stuffing Everly’s book with the other random things in his red backpack. He threw on a Red Sox

sweatshirt, and grabbed his metal baseball bat from under the bed and grasped it firmly in his left hand. “Ok, lets go.”

Everly ducked and stepped, disappearing  from sight. Nervously Skye took one last look around his room, briefly thought of his

parents, and followed Everly to REM. Behind him the doorway shrunk back into a non assuming necklace.