The Nightmare Catcher ch 6

Chapter six!

Carrion had few dreams in his life, a very few. His biggest was to surrender Abarat into an absolute midnight. The second couldn't count as a dream, because that dream was also his nightmare. To have someone understand him and love him, seemed impossible since the only girls who could ever have given him this were either dead or too stubborn for her own good.

But the third dream was to once in his lifetime visit "Hereafter".

And now he was here!

He hadn't before felt this amount of sheer happiness overcome him. This was a world unlike Abarat. A world where that girl Candy Quakenbush lives. If the fairytale was true, you don't need to travel to different Islands to visit the hours, the hours come to you! He wondered what a place looked like when the hours paced by. It must be very strange?

But for the most part, his "happiness" was caused by the concluding capture of Candy Quakenbush and her friends. He found joy in the idea of giving them what they rightfully deserved after causing him so much pain and almost destroying his plans.

He hasn't planned to take Candy's family as hostages and some of the survivors from the water, but considering her refusal to cooperate with him, he might have some use of them.

His daydreaming of what kind of tortures he might to use on her family was suddenly disturbed by the sounds of screams inside the enemy's cabin on the Lud Limbo. He listened carefully and then heard another sound coming a minute or so later, this time a howl.

Carrion could recognize the howling or screaming from one person to another and this one, sounded awfully like Houlihan.

It had been too long since he last heard Houlihan screaming in pain. So for a moment he enjoyed the beautiful sound. Then he grabbed his cane and with some curiosity began slowly moving towards the cabin-door.

Neither Houlihan nor Carrie noticed this sudden intruder while they were fighting on the desk. Carrion stood silently behind the door-frame, his eyes drinking in this scene of violence and blood. He loved nothing more than some good old fashioned bloodshed. He only wished it could have been Candy who lay on the table and not this pathetic girl with a blood covered face. But he was impressed she didn't cry or begged for mercy.

She really fought for her life!

Then Houlihan made a mistake, a very bad mistake. Carrion knew before the girl stabbed Houlihans left globe, she had that knife under her glove. He had a thing for details. If he had been more watchful, Houlihan would have noticed the small switchblade on the girl's wrist too. If he did, he wouldn't have removed his hand from her throat to give her a nice bang with his knuckles and three seconds later lose the game and his eye.

The next thing was…beautiful!

What he saw was the girl gave another slash with her knife hard into Houlihan's shoulder, knocking him down to the ground. Then the girl moved her body over Houlihan's and took a nice grip on his treasures and squeezed it hard with her hand. Only a woman could ever dare to attack a man's` privacy like that!

"I said…when did I give you permission to touch me?" The girl growled as she pressed her knife over Houlihan's Adams apple.

Carrion's smirk widened.

"She has the eyes of a killer!"

Carrion did not question his "sixth" sense. He knew it like the back of his hand that she was a "natural!" Someone who dares to kill his or her opponent without any remorse or fright.

But unfortunately, he had no choice to stop this funny game. Houlihan was one of his soldiers and this girl was not. Considering she was in the enemies' boat, either as a one of the rebels or one of the survivors, she was an outcast!

After her last word ""But I think I've lost my interest in you…" and before she had the chance to dig her knife into Houlihan, Carrion took the opportunity to walk up and take a tight grip on her throat. He lifted her up and let her feet dangle over the ground.

"Is that so?"


Carrie realized to her horror that this man was no ordinary jackass, not like the ones she'd met before: social derelicts that drank too much and didn't even know what the word gym meant, young wannabe gangsters or gang leaders who just wanted to have good time punching and threatening weak and harmless people.

This guy was not one of them!

The word "dangerous" stood clearly on his forehead; his head looked like some crossover of a skeleton head and something she saw from one of the Hellraiser movies.

…perhaps Pinhead?

His mouth was heavily scarred, like someone had stitched his lips together a long time ago. He had almost no hair, only a few thin locks on the back. But the strangest thing was the huge tank, which was formed like a collar around his neck and covered half of his face. There was something slimy and in snaky whirling inside this tank. It looked like some kind of snake or ugly worms? At the same time barely more than long threads of light.

Carrie didn't know what it/he was but she had absolutely no desire to find out.

As much as she struggled, his hand holding her throat was like iron. A wide grin appeared on the man's scarred lips.

He moved closer and whispered into her ear.

"It's a pleasure to see a young ambitious woman showing what she's capable of, but unfortunately you've just injured one of my men, the game is over and it's time to pay for your fun!"

Carrie could hardly breath; his long fingers clutched her throat, and it hurt so badly. The things that were floating inside his glass-collar began to move faster, pressing against the glass and touching the skeleton-man's lower cheek. Like they were begging him?

"Houlihan! Make sure to take a look in the rest of the rooms on this boat so no one is hiding under the beds or closets. If you`re lucky, perhaps you`ll find another girl that`s more passive for your liking. After that you can put fire to this ship and then you`re free to treat your eye!"

"But Your Highness! If someone deserves to give her the punishment she deserves then it is me!" Houlihan protested as he stared at the struggling girl with a fierce look while holding his palm over his bleeding eye.

Instead Carrion just looked down on him, a bit like a master looks down on one of his dogs who has misbehaved and must consider an appropriate punishment.

"Houlihan! What I saw was you getting beaten by a girl. Again! I decide what I will do to her, not you! Go stop your bleeding and search after more survivors, call some of the stichlings if you`re afraid to be alone!"

Then Carrion swung with his cane and struck it hard on Carrie's head, knocking her unconscious to the ground. He grabbed her body into his arms and carried her back with him up onto the Lud Limbo's deck, leaving Houlihan back on the cabin floor, swearing like hell.


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Later...

Carrie awoke some unknown time after becoming unconscious. She lifted her hand to her pounding head and tried to steady the pain as she slowly moved her head up, off of what appeared to be an old, stiff mattress on the ground.

She sat hazily up, examining her new room, wondering what she had done to get here. Examining herself, she found was still wearing her tattered wet clothes and her hair was a mess. Except for the blood on her T-shirt, the blood was almost gone from her face and throat. The wounds had been cleaned and new bandages of some kind of old cloth had been put on. Also someone also taped her ribcage.

The fog in her brain was beginning to clear, but her throbbing head prevented any real productive thoughts. All she could remember was getting hit real hard on the back of her head.

She had no idea how long she had been unconscious, but she knew that she was hungry, tired, dirty and a prisoner!

It appeared she was in some sort of a big prison cell, with many other people in it. There were about ten-fifteen people in this cell all chained together and she herself was the last of the line in some sort of a half-circle. Some of them were survivors from the great wave. They had been stranded on the roofs nearby the ships until the crew of Lud Limbo saved them from being eaten by the fishes, but unfortunately, they just moved them from another hellfire to another. Some had sober expressions, some crying pitifully, others with scared looks, and some with faces of indifference.

Carrie noticed Candy Quakenbush's family among the group; Melissa and Bill Quakenbush and their two sons. The boys were crying slightly as Melissa tried to soothe their tears by having their heads on her lap, stroking softly with her hands. Bill looked more like a sullen child with his arms crossed. She also saw the remaining crew of the Lud Limbo; Geneva, Tria, Mischief John, Deux-Deux, Mcbean and Malingo.

Their faces looked sad and hopeless.

"So you`re awake now!"

Carrie turned her head to the right, there was a woman sitting next to her, leaning on the wall, smoking a cigarette.

"Dr Gordon!"

"Pleasure meeting you again, Carrie!" Dr Gordon muttered as she took another blow on her cigarette. Dr Gordon's well-cared for hair was a mess, several of her hairpins had gone and her dress was dirty and wet. Her expression looked tired and melancholic.

"Let me guess, husband left without you?" Carrie spoke back as she moved her back and leaned against the wall beside her therapist.

"Not really, I told him that this thing, this "Bandwagon Effect" was ridiculous and nothing to care about! He doubted me and to prove that the warnings were just "bad rumors", me and him made a bet! If something happened before the end of the day, I would do all housework for a month, or at least give him the credit that he was right! But if I was right, he would do all the housework for six months AND the cooking!"

"So he went up to "The Hill", to make sure he was going to survive and left you alone in the house!" Carrie gave her a small smirk as she massaged her poor head.

"Got that right! But I think he`ll need to wait for a while because we are going to be stuck here for a long time," muttered Rebecca as she handed the cigarette to Carrie. "I believe you smoke?"

"Sometimes," Carrie said as she took it. "But I never made it a habit."

"You prefer to paint away your sorrows rather than becoming a smoker? That`s good, better than getting lung cancer."

"How long have I been unconscious?" Carrie asked.

"Just a hour, you have no idea what`s happened while you been in your beautiful dreamland, believe or not, where are not in our world anymore! Where are in "Abarat"!"

Carrie tried to will calm her pounding heart, as the reality of her situation dawned on her.

"So…So wh…what you're saying is that we are in another world?" Carrie said in a shaky voice.

"Yes."

She leaned forward and rested her head in the palms of her hands, massaging her forehead. The memories from the last event on Lud Limbo came crashing back to her head. She remembered that man called Houlihan trying to rape and perhaps kill her, then the huge scary looking fellow with scarred mouth, holding a cold grip on her throat.

"Holy shit!"

"Got that shit right" Muttered Rebecca.

"And there nothing you, I, or any other poor bastards in this place can do now. Just suck it up, survive and maybe things will get better," muttered Bill Quakenbush from his spot.

"How can you say such a thing?" Yelled Melissa, as tears trailed down her cheeks. "These creatures have taken our daughter. You didn't protect her, you didn`t yell or protest when that man took her, you...you... just let them take her! All you have done in this moment is to yell, swear and sulk but never thought for one minute of our Candy!

"Didn't you see with your own eyes that she looked different" Bill shouted back. "Even acting different?"

"Yes! She acts as a mature, brave, young woman and I`m proud of her! But now she`s somewhere in this damned ship and we have no idea if she`s alive or not!"

"Were in "Wormwood"? Carrie whispered back to Rebecca.

"If you call this ship that name, you`re definitely right!" Rebecca said back as she took away her cigarette from Carrie's shaking fingers and moved back to her lips.

"It`s she and these weirdo's over there..." Bill cursed, pointing his fat finger over the once crew of Lud Limbo. "Who brought us to this Hell! Does anyone know where they are taking us? Does anyone know what they will do to us? Does anyone know when we are back home again? The answer is NOONE KNOWS SHIT!"

" I can answer your questions Mr Quakenbush," Finnigan Hob hissed as he starred furiously at Bill.

"The first one is that they are taking us to Gorgossium, Lord Carrion`s home Island. The second they probably will either torture us to death and make us examples to others not interfere in Carrion's plans. Or if they are in good mood and someone among us is lucky, you can end as a slave to scrub their floors or work in one of his mines. The third question I cannot answer correctly but the chances right now to get you home again is pretty slim!"

"Thank you for the information! I`m feel much better now hippie!" Bill growled as he pulled his arms together over his big beer-stomach.

"What did you say to me?" Shouted Finnegan, tried to rise up from his set, but was unable to move his feet because of the heavy chains on his ankles.

"You heard me! It`s all your fault we are stuck here! I`m stuck here with weirdos, my sons are pissing their pants in fright and my wife is only thinking about our "dearest "daughter!"

"Oh shut up!" Screamed Melissa.

"...But hopefully, someone is trying to poison our air right now, so we will probably die in lack of oxygen before we`ll reach this Gorgo Island!" Bill shouted as he sulky glared at the cigarette Carrie was holding between her ring and point fingers again. Carrie looked tiresomely at Bill's pathetic form as she blew out another puff of smoke from her lips, while resting her arms over her knees.

"Aren't you too young to smoke girl?" Bill said to her. Looking yearningly at the cigarette.

Carrie rolled her eyes "Nope, I`m borrowing it from Dr Gordon over here so there is no crime involved."

"Oh Hallelujah! We got a head-shrink here, anyone interested some therapy right now? Perhaps a group-therapy?" Bill said sarcastically.

"Just shut up Bill! No one cares about your stupid humor!" Carrie said tiredly as she blew out another smoke.

"My office is closed from now on, perhaps next week Mr. Quakenbush?" Dr Gordon sighed as she removed her last hairpin allowing her grey hair to fall down on her shoulders. Taking one look at Rebecca's hairpin, Carrie quickly snatched the hairpin from her grasp and starred at it. Suddenly a smile came to her lips as she gazed upon it.

"Can I borrow this?"

"Yes, sure, but what are you going to do with a..."

Quickly, Carrie put it in the lock on her left ankle and began to twist and turn it roughly.

"Carrie...you`re a genius!" Dr Gordon whispered, excitement showed in her eyes as she and several other heads looked at Carrie's long fingers as she struggled to open the lock.

"Hey girl! I`m an expert on these things! Give it to me!" Mischief John whispered. Carrie glanced up from her task.

"So am I!"

"I`m a master thief! Just give me the hairpin and I will unlock us all in couple of minutes." Carrie took a long look at Mischief John, then she tossed the hairpin carefully into to his eagerly hands.

"Prove it!"