[Lanrete]: 546.Title TBA.Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Jade appeared in her room, sighing and surveying the chaos around her. Usually when she came back from the graveyard, her mind felt alert but calm. Tonight, her jaunt had raised far more questions than it had answered. Her body was exhausted, her limbs were heavy and aching, and she knew she should sleep, but her mind denied her rest. She was more fiercely curious than ever about Thorna, and worried as well. It wasn’t as though her friend could not take care of herself, quite the opposite. Somehow, though, she still had a very bad feeling about Thorna’s situation. Something told her that things were liable to spiral out of control, and soon. She hated that sixth sense of hers, not least because it was usually right. 
Sighing pensively, Jade undressed. She tossed her black trenchcoat over the door and dropped her tie-dye tee shirt and black pants in the corner, slipping a cotton African robe over her head to serve as pajamas. She carefully fell back on the bed, making sure to avoid the side that served as storage for novels, notebooks, history books, papers, odds and ends, and things that had probably been missing for months. There were advantages to living alone, not least of them being that no one cared how messy she was. Although she wouldn’t admit it to herself outright, she knew that tonight she could use a little order to help her think, but she wasn’t about to start cleaning. 
Jade dreaded the sleep that she knew must come. She didn’t toss and turn, but just lay there thinking. Finally, when dawn was quickly approaching, she fell into a troubled sleep.
Jade was in a dingy, rotting city. She knew that she had never been there before, but everything seemed strangely familiar. The street on which she stood housed several taverns, a few pubs, and dingy, shady-looking boarding houses. Everything was grimy and falling apart. Half the streetlamps were out, but the ones still working cast a cheerless, halfhearted glow. 
Suddenly, a man staggered out of a pub, apparently having been pushed. Even from twenty or so feet away, Jade could clearly detect the putrid scent of unwashed body, alcohol, and decay on the man. As he staggered down the steps of the pub, the man caught sight of Jade and leered at her. Glancing down, Jade realized that her dream-self was wearing only a low-cut bodice and a short, tight black skirt. Oh joy, she thought. This again.
The drunkard had noticed her apparel as well, and began to stagger toward her. She tried to back away in order to avoid a fight, but like so many other nights her bare legs were planted firmly on the ground, refusing to move. When she attempted to at least move her arms to protect herself, it was as she expected. She was frozen stiff, locked in a suggestive pose that she certainly struck herself. She waited for her body to move, as she knew it would soon. She had been through this cruel routine a thousand times, a thousand nights. 
The man was only a few feet from her now, obviously very drunk and grinning in anticipation. “Hello, me pretty little wench. Mmmm, y’are a lovely bitch, aren’t ya?”
Jade’s legs suddenly decided to move, carrying her toward the repulsive man. Her unwilling mouth formed a grin, and her eyelid winked itself suggestively. The drunk put out a filthy hand, and grabbed her rear. Jade wanted to vomit, but her stomach was not hers to control. Her tongue formed the whispered words, “Come with me, love. I know what you want.” Her treacherous hand grabbed the man by the wrist; her legs began to walk toward a boardinghouse doorway. Just let me wake up, she thought hopelessly.
But when she walked through the darkened doorway, man in tow, the dream changed. The man shrunk into a tiny, frail animal. Jade felt herself regain control over her own body. Her legs went to jelly, something that did not often happen to the strong young woman. Lying over a chair in the dingy common room was a ragged but mercifully modest old dress, which Jade immediately pulled on over her current scanty clothing. No one had told her it was for her, but she just knew. 
Having taken care of that business, she turned to the pathetic creature that was now squatting where the horrid man had stopped. It was pitifully thin, and it looked terrified. It was almost ape-like in appearance, but was like no ape Jade had ever heard of. For some reason, it too looked familiar, although she hadn’t even seen it in her restless dreams before. 
Gathering her severely shaken courage, she spoke to it. “Uh, sir - madam- whatever you are- can you understand me?”
The tiny being nodded timidly, its bald head shaking almost comically on a long neck.
“Can you speak?”
A portrait on the wall said “Jade! Jade! Hurry up! JADE! Get your lazy ass out of bed!”
The room shook, jostling Jade.