Pickman’s Student pt1
Extracts from the Personal
Diary of
Tuesday
2008
The
radio news had a report about Nelson Blake attempting suicide. Blake was a year
or two above me at
Last
night I had a really bad dream. It seemed that I woke up, but we were in a four
poster bed. I realised I was dreaming. I leant over 'Jules' so as to be close
to her while looking through the curtains. Outside it was dark and at this
point I smelt putrifaction. I closed the curtain and
snuggled up to 'Jules' and discovered she (or it) was making the putrid smell. I
was in bed with a rotting corpse! (Whether it was actually Jules' corpse or not
I didn't actually discover. I wasn't inspecting it that closely.) Knowing I was
dreaming, I just lay still and try to wake up and eventually managed.
Jules
had had a bad dream too. She was in a cemetery outside a mausoleum with its
door ajar which she felt inexorably drawn to. It was strange that we both had
nightmares the same night. It was also strange, given that we both have seen
real horrors that neither dream seemed to be based on any of these experiences.
I don't know what to make of it. I have no faith in oneiromancy
(at least by someone other than the dreamer; clearly there is much wisdom
available in the Dreamlands).
I
got a text-message from Adam on the MI13 phone. I phoned him back and he was
asking about dreams. Evidently something very strange is happening to dream in
general. A couple of hours later I received an official MI13 summons. Elisa
collected me about an hour later. Jules is unhappy about my going as these
assignments aren't good for my nerves, but we really do need the money.
Elisa
took me off to the Royal Berkshire hospital where Nelson Blake is in intensive
care. Blake was in a terrible state, horribly swollen and a livid dark colour. His
girl-friend, Penny Tilstrom was there. She is clearly
in denial about how serious Blake's condition is.
I
think we need to have a quick look at him with the bone mask. It really only needs to be a glance. All we need to know is,
if his soul is currently in his body and if not is there a thread to it. (It
really only needs a way of distracting everyone else in the room for a couple
of seconds to do this without anyone noticing.) If there is a thread, I think
we need to try following it the same way that we followed Friday's.