The many people walking about were in various stages of dress, some wearing fanciful undergarments, others wearing the sort of things I'd seen in one of my favorite nightclubs. Everyone seemed intent on one another, pursuing, resisting pursuit, or not resisting at all, but also seemed to be waiting for some event to occur. The atmosphere was one of anticipation. We were in what looked like the ornate lobby of a large theatre, the stage kind not the film kind. Gaudily costumed people strolled past us, glancing slyly in our direction and snickering. I tried to pull away from Daemon, but he held my arm in a viselike grip. "Stay close to me, Lauren. You don't want to get lost amongst these people. Not all of them have your best interests at heart."

   "And you do?" I glared at him. "That's really funny, Daemon. I'd hate to see what someone who is truly against me is like." Before I could say more or cause a scene, a thin, fragile-looking blonde girl skipped over to us. She was dressed in a diaphanous garment that swirled with all colors of the rainbow. She reminded me of a faerie, somewhat sweet and full of mischief. I liked her instantly.

  "Daemon, you shouldn't have brought her here! Everyone will see her. Someone's bound to tell where she is, and you'll lose her again." She looked at me with crystalline aquamarine eyes. "Come with me, I'll hide you. I'll at least show you more than he's been able to. You must be so confused. I bet no one's bothered to tell you anything about what's going on, right?" She took my hand and pulled at it. "Come on, come on! No time to waste. Besides the show's going to start. You don't want to miss the show. It's the best thing around. Everyone watches the show." She was full of boundless energy and excitement. I wondered if she ever slowed down or shut up. Despite her association with Daemon, I couldn't help continuing to like her. She seemed so self-assured and happy, fun and interesting. I took a step toward her, intending to go with her.

   Daemon pulled me closer to him. "Lauren, meet Chloe. She's also a figment of yours. She's one you'll never need to fear, because she wants nothing of you. She only wants to play and have fun. She's like the concept of the inner-child, but not bruised and battered like you suspected yours of being. She is the shining light in your own soul, one you need to trust and let out more often. You've hidden her away and ignored her for far too long." He looked thoughtful, as if making an important decision. "Go with her. Her lesson will be of much greater benefit than Javen's was." He let go of my arm and with a swirl of his long coat, disappeared into the crowd.

  I watched him go, confused. This was so out of character for him. What had changed? The thought occurred to me that Javen would have acted very differently in the same situation. I didn't have time to ponder this train of though as Chloe immediately took my attention. She pulled me through the crowd to a door leading to a stairway. Up the stairs was a hidden balcony where props and costumes were stored. It also has a good view of the stage off to the side of the theatre. "We can sit in here and no one will see us or bother you. I tell you, absolutely everyone's been looking for you since they heard Daemon had brought you here. Most of them are too afraid of him to risk just taking you from him, but if they catch you out alone, there's no telling what they'll do. Javen alone seems to feel entitled to you, enough that he'd take on Daemon for you. He really did, too!" she said incredulously. "I never thought he had it in him. How ever did he manage it?" she asked.

  "It all happened so fast, I didn't know who he was and Daemon was frightening enough that I just attacked him and ran." I admitted. "I thought maybe Javen would be more likely to be a friend and help me, but he was acting strange and scary too, before Daemon showed up again. I'm still not sure about either of them. I wish somebody would just tell me the truth about all of this. I feel like everything's happened so quickly, so I can't catch either my thoughts or my breath. I know I'm trapped inside my mind, probably in a coma, and that I need to get out before my body dies and I'm trapped here forever. I know that whoever has control of me when that happens will be in control of this world... my world... and that Daemon specifically watched for an opportunity to cause this to happen so he could become the one in control. He wants to be a god, not just a figment of someone's imagination." I shuddered. "I just want to go home."

  Chloe looked sympathetically at me. "Lauren, things aren't always the way they seem to be. Especially here, which is as changing as your dreams. Did Javen tell you all of this?" I nodded and she went on. "Daemon isn't as bad as you think he is. He was created by your mind to be someone to make you feel desired when you felt undesireable. You somehow got things twisted in your mind that it was wrong to just enjoy those feelings and started fighting him, and then, because of what he was, you began to enjoy the struggle. His forcefulness was what was thrilling to you, and the more you resisted, the more thrilling he became. When you came here, and it wasn't a dream but real, it scared you because things like that don't and shouldn't happen in real life. He did concoct the plot to capture you, and he does want power. His main reason for being is still to desire you, and that overrides everything else about him. I'm actually surprised he left you with me, the tension inside him is painfully obvious to everyone." She giggled. "It's making him crankier than usual."

  "He was awful just a little while ago." I told her what he'd done to Javen, how smug he'd been and how he'd gloated so about taking me back from Javen. I told about how he'd tricked me into bringing the spiders, and how he'd seemed to enjoy my panic. "Why does he do these things? Doesn't he care how I might feel?"

   "Actually, no. He's only supposed to desire you, and you're supposed to direct the play when he's with you. He, and I and Javen... we're your figments. We're your puppets, dolls for you to play with and act out your fantasies with. When you're frightened of him, he's supposed to act threatening. If you make him be the bad guy, he will. You are the one who controls the show. Speaking of the show, I think it's starting." I glanced over to where her attention was focused just in time to see the red velvet curtains rising. A young girl was playing in a sunlit yard, spinning about to make herself dizzy, falling down laughing, then getting up to do it all over again. She wandered around a bit, looking at the trees, insects, and other things in the yard, seemingly peaceful and happy and content. Dark storm clouds rose behind her and the sound of thunder boomed through the theatre. The audience gasped. "Lauren!" a harsh male voice echoed off the stage. A larger than life brawny man stood to one side of the stage, holding a half-full whiskey bottle. I stiffened as I realized he looked just like my father. The poor child was cowering in the yard, eyes downcast, wondering, I knew, just what she had done wrong this time. He wobbled blearily over to her. "I told you not to play out here. Goddamit why don't you ever listen to me?" He had the child's arms and was shaking her like a rag doll now. "I'm gonna teach you girl, one way or the other." He took off his belt and wrapped the end around his fist. The girl cried out as he struck her across the back again and again, then he flung her into the dirt where she lay not moving, but weeping piteously. "Goddamn little bitch." he spat into the dirt by her head then walked offstage. The curtain closed. I sat in shock at what I had seen.

  "What the hell was that?" I asked Chloe. "Do people get off on watching my past misery?" I trembled, hoping that the "show" would not go into even greater detail of my childhood.

  "This is the theatre of your mind, where your memories and fantasies are played out." Chloe said quietly. "We watch it because it fascinates us. We haven't lived full lives with memories or fantasies, we just do what we were created to do in your mind. We never know what will be shown on the stage, a good memory, a bad memory, a wonderful fantasy, a violent fantasy. To have a glimpse of what you experience is to almost feel real to us. I can understand that this is painful to you, but some of this may be things you need to see and possibly remember. Maybe after you remember it, you can put it away where it won't bother you anymore." I turned away from her as I saw the curtains begin to rise again, this time onto the scene of the little girl's bedroom.      "Oh no,no,no,no." I thought. "Not this. I don't want to remember this." The scene played out and there was nothing I could do to stop it. Chloe looked with at me with concern and pity in her eyes as she clutched my hand.

  "It will be okay. It's just a memory. Nobody's getting hurt, it's all an act." she patted my hand and indicated that I should look at the stage.

  This scene also started out benignly. The warm glow from the lamp on the nightstand illuminated the pink wallpapered room, the shelves filled with toys, and the child sitting up in her bed, clutching her one-eyed teddy bear. Her mother came in with a cup of warm milk and read her a story of good things happening to good people, kissed her good-night and left. The light went out and the girl was left in a dimly lit room with strange, scary shadows playing along the walls. The music started to sound ominous like something nasty was about to crawl out of the woodwork, in the end it turned out to be her father. He entered the room and stood looking at her. She lay still, pretending to be asleep. He knelt beside the bed and stroked her silky curls. She shuddered at his touch. "I'm sorry, Lauren. I didn't mean to hurt you. I don't know what gets into me. You know I love you, don't you?" She nodded tearfully. "I love my sweet little girl." he whispered, his hand moving tenderly over her back. "You love me too, don't you Lauren? You forgive me, right?" His hand moved lower, hidden beneath the blanket on the girl's bed. "Yes, Daddy. I forgive you. I love you."

     The girl's sweet, piping voice was my undoing. I retched, dry-heaving and gasping for air, then panicked, ran for the stairs. Chloe caught me and held me close. "Don't leave yet. There's going to be more, and this scene is almost done. It will be all right. You can't go out there just yet anyway. Javen will be looking for you. There, look. The curtain is closing." I looked and saw she was right.

   "I can't keep watching things like this, Chloe." I sobbed. Tears coursed down my face as I struggled against a serious fit of hysterics. "It will drive me crazy. This is too much... way too much."

    Chloe hugged me tightly to her. "It's really going to be okay. Look, the next scene is starting. and it's not a little-girl scene. Maybe this one's happier?" Chloe smiled hopefully. This scene was of a young couple, teenage lovers, one a lovely red-haired girl the other a striking handsome golden haired young man. They were lying together naked in each others' arms in her room. "I love you, Lauren." the boy was saying. "I will love you forever, until the day I die. You're the most wonderful girl I've ever known." I grew apprehensive, as I realized which memory this was. One of the more heart-rending scenes in my life. I watched as the father came crashing into the room. He looked a bit older, more scraggly than brawny, years of constant drinking had taken their toll. "You goddamn little slut!" he roared. "You'll fuck anything, won't you?" he swung a fist at the boy, catching him on the side of the head, knocking him away from the girl, then he fell onto her, his fingers closing around her throat, choking the life out of her. Just before she lost consciousness, she saw the boy behind her father, one of her swimming trophies in his hand, about to bring it down onto her father's head. The curtain closed.

  "He was the most beautiful, heroic boy I ever knew." I whispered. "That blow to the head killed my father, and he was arrested. He died by lethal injection a few years after that. Nobody believed it had been in defense of me. At that moment, I realized that I destroy everything that is good and pure. That I don't deserve good, sweet, true love. That's why I fight Daemon. His desire for me is a heady thing, something I could grow to enjoy way too much. If I let down my guard with him, I could fall for him. Then he could and probably would hurt me. Every time I've ever loved it's brought me pain."

  "What about Javen? Aren't you afraid you'll fall in love with him?" Chloe asked.

   "Javen's been kind to me, he's also been rough enough with me to make me wary of him. He seems to want to be a hero to me, but there's something not quite right about him. I guess he makes me a bit nervous. Besides, he doesn't make me feel the way Daemon does. He's not the kind I'd fall in love with, but I could possibly be fond of him. I just don't know. I don't think I could love him enough for it to cause me pain." A new scene was starting, and I reluctantly looked toward the stage. This one seemed different from the others, not something directly taken from my life.    "It's a fantasy scene." whispered Chloe. She looked worriedly at me as if judging what my reaction to this one would be.

   It was a bedroom scene. The same bedroom that I'd awakened in when all this madness started, the woman awakening in the bed just the same way I had before. I watched as she walked to the mirror, then turned to face Daemon who had stepped out from the shadows. He took her into his arms and lavished kiss after kiss upon her lips, her neck and the swell of her breasts. My hands were clenched into fists as I watched it. It felt like the worst kind of betrayal.

  "It's your fantasy. Your dream." Chloe reminded me. "When you have a dream, is it in first-person like your life? No. It's like this, you outside the action watching scenes unfold, watching yourself and how you react to things. Someone has to play your part when you're watching it, you know." She looked at the stage again. "I think he's actually having as much trouble with this as you are." she remarked worriedly.

  He did seem to have some sort of problem. He had stopped all action, frozen for a moment. Then he pushed the actress-me away from him. She got up and glared angrily at him then flounced off the stage in a huff. He stood there, then looked up to the balcony where I was hidden. I could have sworn that he was looking directly into my eyes as the curtain fell.

... to be continued...