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[hyacinth-sky747.livejournal.com]

Lay me Down to Sleep: Part 2
d/b
Disclaimer: This is fiction


“My mother hates me.”

“No, she doesn’t. It was just a dream.”

Dom sat up. He was soaked with sweat and shivering. Billy sat on the couch with him, holding his hand. Sunlight shone in through the windows.

“Time is it?”

“Noon. Listen, we’re going to clear out of here but the temperature dropped in the night. Viggo went to find you a coat.”

“Who’s Viggo?”

“The one with all the paint. He’s not always like that.” Billy added hurriedly. “They were experimenting with some kind of drug I think.”

Viggo could not find a coat in the lost and found so he stole one.

“I think it’s the Prime Minister’s,” Viggo said with evident glee.

“I’m not stealing the Prime Minister’s coat.”

“I’m sure he’s got another.”

“I’ll be arrested.”

Billy put a hand on Dom’s shoulder. “It’s thirty below, Dom.”

“Thirty?” Dom put on the Prime Minister’s coat. He was a tall man, the Prime Minister, and his coat pooled around Dom’s feet and dragged on the ground. The sleeves flapped over his hands. Billy rolled them up until Dom’s fingers were free.

“You should have stolen him some boots, too, Sir. All he’s got is these trainers.”

“Next time, my grouchy friend.”

~*~

In the vast foyer of the Capitol Building was a gigantic fire pit with hundreds of stones warming around it. They stopped to put some in their pockets. Billy fell asleep on his feet and nearly tumbled into the flames. Viggo caught him in time.

“He should never be left alone.”

There was a cave under the building. Their sleigh was waiting for them inside. The driver was swathed in furs and wore aviator goggles. The cold was astonishing. Dom and Billy huddled next to Viggo.

The streets were quiet. The few people Dom saw resembled bears, bundled as they were in their furs. The river was frozen over and the sky was a deep, cloudless blue. Smoke from the chimneys rose straight up.

“Where are we going?”

“Viggo’s house,” Billy said. “It’s quite snug and he’s rethought the RNM idea. He’ll…”

Billy fell forward into Dom’s lap. Viggo shook him awake.

“Not a good idea to sleep in this cold, Bill.”

“Don’t touch the lights.”

“Okay,” Viggo said.

Billy scowled with frustration.

“I’m doing it again, aren’t I?” He sounded exhausted.

“We’re almost there.”

Viggo’s house was a three story brownstone on King Street between the university and the harbor. Billy fell asleep on the threshold and Viggo didn’t bother to wake him.

“Bernard?” A man whom Dom took to be the butler appeared, threw Billy over his shoulder and carried him away up the stairs.

“Coffee is waiting in the library, Sir.”

Viggo led the way and poured the coffee while Dom warmed himself in front of the fire.

“What am I doing here?”

“Hmm? I don’t know. I think the purpose of life is to live it. We have some choice in how, of course, but…”

“No, not what am I doing on Earth. What am I doing in your house?”

“Ah! I can see how that’s a different question.” Viggo sat in an armchair and took out the doctor’s diary that Dom had obtained in the night. He stared at it for a long time.

“Are you going to answer it?”

“Well, there’s the matter of the RNM. We’ll have to sort that out. And I was hoping you could help us, Dom.”

“How?”

At that moment the front door slammed. Dom felt a draft of frigid air and the bug-eyed boy entered the room. Dom blushed. The last thing he remembered from the night before was heading towards the couch were this man was lying naked. He hoped he hadn’t…

“Horses all tucked in, Elijah?”

“Nice and toasty. I’m off home until dark, then. I’ve got to find a jar.”

Viggo waved and the door opened and shut again.

“Christ, it’s cold.” Dom shivered and his eyes drooped. He shook himself. “Listen can we get this RNM out of me now? I’m afraid to sleep.”

“Can’t, I’m afraid. After nightfall. It needs to be dark and Elijah’s the only one who can call them out. How much do you usually sleep, Dom?”

“Dunno, two or three hours on a good day.”

“Do you see things?”

“See things?”

“Odd things?”

“Do I hallucinate? Yes.”

“How often?”

“It depends.”

“Has it been more often recently?”

“Yes. Why?”

“Tell me what you see.”

“Just…weird things…like balloons in the sky, strange lights in the sea, fire in the streets. Nonsense.”

Viggo opened the diary again and handed it to Dom.

“Read that.”

5 December

Billy’s dreams are more frequent these last weeks. He’s been sleepwalking nearly every night. He has a fierce desire to get somewhere. I had to push the sofa and the bureau against the door last night so he couldn’t get out.

He falls asleep on his feet now or mid-sentence. He wakes up talking. Always lights and balloons and fire in the streets. ‘Don’t touch the lights.’

I think I’ve found another. Billy’s opposite. I spotted him walking along the quay in a snow squall. He had dark circles under his eyes and he stopped and stared through me when I approached.

“Terrible day to fly in a balloon.”

He came to himself then and staggered off. I followed him. We may need him soon.


Dom stared into the fire.

“I remember him. He’s the one that was murdered?”

“Yes.”

“Is this real? Billy dreams the same things that I see?”

“It appears that way.”

“Why? How?”

“Catch him, Sir! Block the door!”

Viggo jumped to his feet, upset the coffee pot, and bolted for the front door. Dom could hear a scuffle in the hall, someone growling and spitting. He ran forward in alarm.

Billy was nude and fighting Viggo and Bernard fiercely, trying to get to the door. Bernard was trying to soothe him and Viggo had a vicious looking needle in his hand that he was trying to aim at Billy’s squirming body.

“What’s happening?” Dom cried. “Stop!”

At the sound of Dom’s voice Billy stopped fighting. He hung limply from the butler’s arms. Viggo looked at Dom sharply.

“Of course. It works. How extraordinary.”

“What the bloody fuck is going on?”

“You balance each other. He’s the most difficult to control when he’s sleep walking. He’s very deeply asleep. Only you can speak to him now. Go on, talk to him.”

“What do you want me to say?”

“Tell him to put some damn clothes on,” Bernard offered.

“Tell him to go back to bed.”

Dom walked over and put his hand on Billy’s shoulder. For the briefest moment he had a vision of lights in a forest, lights winding through a forest and leading him on. He shook his head.

“Billy, go back to bed.”

Billy groaned. He turned his head to look at Dom but his eyes were rolled back in his head. Dom shivered. Billy got slowly to his feet and made his way up the staircase.

“What the fuck was that?” Dom wanted to get up off the floor and demand answers. He couldn’t. He vision wavered. “Tell me.”

He was asleep.

“This one’s a little bigger, Sir. I might need some help with him.”

~*~


Viggo had Bernard install a series of complicated locks on the doors before dark. Billy woke around three. The sun was just setting and Billy stood at the window staring out, but not really seeing the painted sky over the harbor while Viggo told him of his escapades earlier in the day.

“It’s like it happened to another person. Someone I don’t know. I sit and listen to stories of my own life.”

“You don’t remember your dreams?”

“I remember the dreams, but not what I’ve done while sleeping.”

“What do you remember?”

“Isn’t it in the doctor’s diary?”

“I want to hear it from you.”

“I see lights. Lights that make a path. I must follow them.”

“Where do they lead?”

“I don’t know.”

“You’ve said several times not to touch them. Why?”

“They won’t hurt you. They’re just lights. I think. I think I’m not supposed to step off the path. I need to follow them.”

“What about the balloon?”

Billy laughed. “That’s a load of nonsense. I think it’s like a neon sign, pointing west.”

“West?”

“Whenever I see it, it’s always in the west.”