CHAPTER 22

"You don't have to. You gotta learn how to let go." She put a hand on the Jabberwock's paw. "But I would worry less about that than your other, much bigger problem."

"What's that?" he asked.

Lily casually punched her hand through the Jabberwock, then grabbed a piece of the beast and ripped it off. "Why is the whole damn thing made of chocolate?"

"What?" Mike ran to her side, and explored the hole. Sure enough, the Jabberwock was hollow, its innards an inky black. "Shit, why would it do that?"

"No idea. This is your dream, remember?" Lily took a bite of the Jabberwock. "Ooh, sea salt with caramel. You've got some good taste."

"Damn." He concentrated again, and the Jabberwock deflated like a giant whoopie cushion, blowing sand in every direction. "I thought I had it, too."

"Maybe you should have gone with something less complex." She took another bite of chocolate, then tossed the rest on the ground. It melted into the sand. "Actually, I'm curious why you were trying something so hard."

He screwed up his face. "I wanted to impress you a little."

"Okay, that's rich. Care to explain why?"

Mike let out a disgusted sigh. "I don't want you to feel like I'm wasting your time trying to train me."

"This is hardly a waste of time." Lily put her hands on her hips. "I offered to help and you accepted."

"Yeah, but I'm sure there are better things you could be doing right now." He had no idea what Lily did with her free time, and she never offered more information about it. He rarely saw her outside the Dreamscape, though he had heard rumors that she hung out with Dana quite often. "I don't want my problems to become your burdens."

"You're one of the rare humans who can even come here on his own, much less manipulate it so easily. You are years ahead of where you should be, which I find very fascinating." She scowled at him. "However, your self-pity is killing my buzz."

"Yeah, you're right. It's hard to recognize my own achievements, especially when I've made no progress on unlocking any more of those visions." Each vision Mike had gave him a new clue about the house, but also brought along more questions. He and Lily both believed that the Dreamscape was a wonderful way to prepare for the next one, and even possibly open up a path to have the visions at will.

"Maybe you should try peyote." She held up a cup full of a shimmering red paste.

"Will that even work in here?"

Lily laughed. "Your brain would probably put together its own version of what being stoned on peyote is like. However, your brain just made a chocolate dinosaur, so maybe you shouldn't risk it."

"That's probably true. Does peyote give you the munchies? A chocolate dinosaur might hit the spot."

Lily rolled her eyes, the cup in her hand disappearing. "Good grief, I was kidding. I am definitely not giving you dream drugs."

He laughed. "That's probably for the best." He cracked his knuckles again, wiggling his fingers over the sand. "Should I try to build the door?"

"Yes. I want to see it."

With a nod, he focused on the sand, thinking hard about how, millennia ago, a secret door had been planted there, just waiting for someone to discover it. Moments or minutes passed, it was hard to tell in the Dreamscape, and a thin line of wood appeared in the sand, moving slowly upward.

The door had been Lily's idea. The whole point of training in the Dreamscape had been to allow him to freely travel to the place where he was literally one with the house and could learn its secrets. Since the world of dreams seemed to be closely tied with it, Lily had surmised that stepping through a magic doorway was a perfect metaphor for his brain to hold on to.

The door grew taller, its wooden frame wrapped in vines. It had an ornate knob with a large keyhole on the bottom, and when it finished emerging from the ground, it hovered a few inches above the sand.

"It's kind of pretty," Lily said, moving closer. "Where did you get the idea for it?"

"I tried not to," he admitted. "I figured if I modeled it specifically on something I knew, my brain would take me there instead."

"Good answer." She took a step back. "So now what?"

"Well, up until recently, the door hasn't worked properly. So I gave it a lock to represent unlocking its secrets."

"I'd groan, but I think you're right."

"And for my next trick," he held up his hand and stuck out two fingers. The fingers distorted, metal teeth sprouting out from them. "I must be the key."

The succubus said nothing, an intense curiosity on her face.

Shrugging, he stuck his fingers in the lock and turned them. A loud clunking noise filled the Dreamscape, and he pulled his fingers out and grabbed the knob.

"Ready?" he asked.

"Maybe. If this works, I probably can't go in with you, so be ready for that."

He pulled the door open and was immediately bathed in light. Music played from the other side, and he stepped through, temporarily blinded. Squinting, he could make out intricate white marble that seemed to stretch on forever. His heart skipped a beat, his whole body trembling in excitement.

"Is this a bathroom?" Lily asked from behind. The light dimmed and revealed that they were now in an impossibly large room with hundreds of urinals lining the wall.

"What?" Mike looked around and saw a long mirror above the impossibly wide sink, and a handicapped stall down at the end. "I don't get it. Why a bathroom?"

Lily started laughing. When he looked at her, he saw that she was staring at his crotch. Looking down, he realized that he was naked from the waist down. Embarrassed, he tried to cover up, but a sudden flood of heat washed through his groin.