#46

He woke up again. His head was starting to hurt from a trope hangover. It was miserable. Then he looked over once more.

Doctor Kay was still there. “Let me know if that headache gets to you. You may be stuck in a time loop and that is a most painful...”

“MOTHER

“FUCKER.”

“The fact of the matter is that calling me such a thing is...”

“WHAT THE BLOODY HELL ARE YOU DOING IN MY ROOM YOU PICKLY HAM FUCKER?”

“...rude. And that's even worse.”

Jacob lunged over and grabbed his freshman archery bow. He had no arrows lying around but maybe he could pull a feint. Of course, his dark-robed companion was too quick, standing up, setting down the drawings he had taken, and taking a phony martial arts posture. Jacob caught a glimpse of the drawings; he had never done them before, but sure enough, he had seen them in the dream-layer he had been in before. At the time the word “dream-layer” entered his head, he was reminded of Inception and only became angrier.

“You can't stop me. I wouldn't advise it, at any rate. Your world is going to be falling apart very soon and I may be the only person who can use you properly enough to save it.”

Jacob didn't lower the bow. “Is this about that fucking shark thing or whatever?”

“The Shark, the Vulture, the Fox. Renowned for predation, scavenging, sneaking. The attributes of my Lord, the creature known...”

Jacob stood up and began punching himself in the face. “I.”

“...as Kul'ul, who I have...”

“AM.”

“...redesigned McGee Manor to be oriented...”

“NOT.

“LISTENING. TO.”

He then turned mid-punch. Amos was in the door frame, his hands in his pockets.

“Um. Anyway. Hideous chump monster.”

His bro had a lack of expression on his face.

Jacob dropped his arm. “Yes?”

“I'm heading back out to Maurice. She's waiting for me.”

“Oh, yeah, that's right.” He was going to see his girlfriend. “I forgot about that. Well, good luck, foolish scum-dog. Don't die.”

“You too.”

No emotions were shown that day. For there were none. None but puzzlement, as Jacob considered the nature of his first visitor, as the Slimechap started out.

He figured it was all a dream. One that ended with nothing worse than embarrassment. And he didn't even see it as such because Amos cared not of such things. Being the ugly beast-creature that he was.

Still, once Amos was gone, he sat down in his chair, where Kay or Kai or whatever had been. He looked at the drawings, pondering them deeply. They were in his style, but he didn't recognize them, except for what he had seen of them in his dream. There were three of them. A strangely-armored figure, covered in darkly-shaded circuitry (in black and white, like all his initial sketches); a similarly-armored man, with a proud face, smiling devilishly; and the weirdest of all, what looked like a beaked shark with blazing eyes, a hunched form, and a twisted cone growing from its brow, which was pointed on the face, giving the eyes a cruel look. The image, which was barely even etched at all, was the only one with a label: “Kul'ul”. Kai had said that word in the hallucination.

Moving slowly, with an overdramatic caution, Jacob slipped the sketches into his desk drawer, figuring he'd never have to look at them again. Then he figured that maybe it would best to just cook breakfast, call up Lex, and just forget about the whole affair.