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- Herausgeber: Timberdoodle Press
- Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
- Sprache: Englisch
Dream World
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018
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Dream World
Charley Marsh
Dream World
Copyright © 2018 by Charley Marsh
All rights reserved.
Published 2018 by Timberdoodle Press.
Dream World is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and places are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. For more information contact the publisher: http://timberdoodlepress.com/
All rights reserved
E-Book ISBN# 978-1-945856-51-8
Cover Art: depositphoto.com
Publisher Logo by Peter Corbin
Contents
Chapter 1
Also by Charley Marsh
About the Author
Lucid Dreaming, Inc.
TAKE CONTROL of YOUR DREAMS!
The weakly lit sign cast a dim arc of light over the alley door. Borden pulled his old, rusted Subaru into the parking spot next to the brick wall of the renovated warehouse and killed his headlights. He sat for a moment, unmoving, and took a few deep breaths to calm his jittery nerves.
Tonight was the night he would attempt to go deeper into his dream world than he had ever gone before.
His two partners in the cutting edge company—Allen Joy, a computer-nerd who specialized in brain wave research, and Mark Blackstone, a wealthy student of philosophy—were unaware of the possibilities that lucid dreaming presented.
Mark provided the funding for Lucid Dreaming, Inc. and only cared about making it profitable.Allen invented the computer programs and equipment that were the backbone of their newly fledged business and only cared that it all worked.
Borden was the lab rat, the one whose brain was probed and stimulated, monitored and decoded, every tiny blip recorded and analyzed. He had volunteered because he desperately needed the money. Now the money barely mattered.
He looked at his watch, a hi-tech personal computer that did everything for him except shovel food into his mouth. A signing-on gift from Mark, it was Borden’s only possession that was not worthy of the rubbish heap.
Right now the watch was telling him he was one and one half minutes late for tonight’s test. That wouldn’t do. He might be poor and lacking in academic credentials, but he prided himself on his gentlemanly manners and being responsible. Responsible meant showing up on time for work.
Borden opened the car door and unfolded his long, skinny frame from the driver’s seat. It took two tries to get the Subaru’s warped door to close tight. He didn’t bother to lock the vehicle. If anyone wanted to go to the trouble to steal the heap of junk they could have it. He could always take the bus or cadge a ride off Allen.
He hurried down the dark, cobblestoned alley to the small, brown wooden door that led into the back of the warehouse. The company would be moving soon, to a more welcoming location. After this week they planned to advertise Lucid Dreaming, Inc. to the public.
Who could resist seizing control of their dreams? A wide grin spread across Borden’s unattractive face. Lucid Dreaming was going to make them all rich, he could feel it in his bones.
He slipped his key into the door, opened it, and entered the rear fire escape that served as LD’s entrance. Eight businesses occupied the warehouse. The other seven all rented large, light, open spaces that were accessed by the elegant front entrance.
Only Lucid Dreaming had expressed any interest in the three small, windowless rooms at the bottom rear of the building, so the landlord had cut them a deal on the rent.
Borden stepped underneath the open, concrete staircase and used a different key on the plain metal door that led directly into Lucid Dreaming’s space. He entered a softly lit room that was their coatroom, lunch room, meeting room and reception area, and tossed his backpack and jacket into his locker.
He tried to flatten the cowlicks that sprang up all over his head with long, nervous fingers and took a deep breath. Only then did he turn to greet the young woman sitting behind her desk.
“Hi S-s-sybil. How are you t-t-tonight?”
Sybil Ramfeldt, Mark’s fiancee, looked up from the book she was reading and smiled at Borden.
“I’m great, Borden. You’re looking well this evening.”
Borden felt the heat rise in his face and knew he was blushing. His pasty white complexion betrayed him at the most inopportune moments—moments when he desperately wanted to appear suave and cool.
“W-well, I’d b-better get t-to work.”
“I’ll be right in. Make yourself comfortable.”
Borden walked towards a door set in the wall behind Sybil’s desk, his heart in his throat. She was so beautiful. Being close to Sybil made his pulse race and his breathing grow irregular.
He fought it of course. After all, he was a gentleman, and an honorable one at that. He would never attempt to steal another man’s girl.
Oh, but she was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen. The light from her desk lamp bounced of her long, silky, black hair. Borden had to clench his fist to keep from reaching out and touching her as he passed by. He hurriedly entered the second room before he further embarrassed himself.
“Hi, Allen.” Why didn’t he stutter when he spoke to men? Borden wondered morosely. Didn’t he have enough strikes against him as it was? Too tall, too skinny, too pale, too poor, too bland, too, too, too…too much of a loser.
Well, he wouldn’t be a loser for much longer. Lucid Dreaming was going to take off and when it did he’d be rich, rich, rich. Then the women who now ignored him would give him a second look. Money hid many faults, even those as obvious as his own.
The middle room held all of Allen’s equipment: computers and medical monitors that kept track of the physiological changes that the dreamer underwent once he began to take control of his dream.
This was Allen’s kingdom and he ruled it with a heavy hand. No one touched anything in Allen’s room unless requested by Allen to do so, or else.
Borden wasn’t sure how Allen would punish the foolish person who messed with his equipment, as he never had the urge to test the computer freak. Angering the one person who controlled his dreaming seemed the height of stupidity, so he made sure he tucked in his bony elbows and kept his long fingers to himself whenever he passed through the room.
