Book of Joshua Read online

  The

  ENDËRLAND

  Chronicles

  Volume III

  ‘BOOK OF JOSHUA’

  Ed Marishta

  Chicago 2022

  Smashwords Edition

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.

  The Endërland Chronicles: Book of Joshua -- 1st edition.

  Cover design by Donika Mishineva

  artofdonika.com

  Copyright © 2022 Ed Marishta

  ISBN13: 9781005127077

  To all my amazing readers who followed me and Daniel on this magical journey until the very end.

  Keep on dreaming!!!

  Contents

  Prologue

  1. Awakening

  2. Truth Time

  3. Clouds and Silver Lining

  4. Return to Sender

  5. Back

  6. Tears and Truth

  7. Flight and Fire

  8. From Dusk to Dawn

  9. Tide Turning

  10.Retribution

  11.Sacrifice and Goodbye

  12.Resurrection

  13.The Finish Line

  Dreamworld Ending

  Note to the Reader

  “Love is so short, and oblivion so long...”

  Saddest Poem

  Pablo Neruda

  Prologue

  Sitting alone in the kitchen of their quiet Horsham house, a cup of earl grey turned cold in his hand, Damien tried in vain to make sense of the past couple of days. He’d been loath to leave Sam alone in the hospital and fly all the way to London, but the doctors had assured him that she was in good hands. There wasn’t much he could do for her at this point, anyway. She was still in her unexplainable coma and there’d been no change for over a week now. At least, her mother had promised to stay by her bedside, so that was something. This way, he didn’t feel so guilty about leaving her.

  His father was taking an afternoon nap upstairs in his bedroom, even though he kept saying he was fine and did not need any more rest. But Damien had insisted, somehow fearing that whatever miracle had saved his father’s life might suddenly be reversed and they were thrown back into the nightmare. Damien was not ready to lose his father too; as it was, he could barely deal with Sam's condition, or with Daniel and Nemo being lost somewhere in the dream realm.

  Despite everything that Damien had seen in both worlds, he still could not get his head around the fact that his dad had been fully healed from a major gunshot wound in just a couple of days. Had they been in Endërland, he would have no trouble finding the source of this healing, but here he had no clue where it had come from, or who was responsible for it.

  And then, there was Serena, his biggest cause of worry right now. He’d called her several times on the number Freddie had given them, but there’d been no answer. They had arranged a meeting over the phone, but they’d never showed up. He was now really starting to panic, especially since there was nothing he could do but leave message after message on their voicemail. He could not help but fear the worst; something must have happened to them.

  When his mobile phone did finally ring, he picked it up almost instantly.

  ‘Serena?’

  ‘Damien? It’s Alice.’

  The disappointment that his mother-in-law’s voice provoked in him almost broke him in half.

  ‘Oh, hey Alice,’ he finally managed to answer. ‘How are you? How is Sam? Any changes?’

  ‘Well, she’s finally awake,’ Alice got right into it. ‘She woke up from her coma earlier today and the doctors say that her body functions are restoring back to normal.’

  ‘Oh, wow, that’s amazing,’ Damien said, finally some good news warming his soul. ‘You have no idea how much I needed to hear that today. So, she will be okay, then?’

  ‘Um, well, physically they think she will be fine.’ Damien noticed that her voice began to break here. ‘But she’s not back all the way, Damien.’

  Damien didn’t understand.

  ‘Not back all the way? What do you mean, Alice?’

  The woman had begun sobbing at this point and could not speak clearly.

  ‘Here, I’ll let the nurse explain it,’ she managed to say through her tears.

  The voice of another woman now sounded through the tiny speaker.

  ‘Um, hello, sir. This is nurse Randall, from Dr Owen’s office at Chicago General. As you just heard, your wife woke up from her coma early this morning and her body functions all seem to be slowly restoring back to normal. But I’m afraid she is still catatonic in regard to her mental state. She is unresponsive to external stimuli, seeming to indicate that her cognitive capabilities are rather absent, or at the very best, dormant. The doctor has approved her relocation to the psychiatric ward of the hospital for the moment, in anticipation of her transfer to the Chicago Psychiatric Centre later in the week. As her next of kin, we just wanted to make sure that you were aware, Mr. Adams. Do you have any questions, sir?’

  Damien was still in a state of shock, unable to think clearly. He could vaguely remember later answering that he had no questions and thanking the lady before hanging up on her. He didn’t know how to feel about this. Sam was out of the coma, so that was good news, but apparently, she had not made it back whole.

  What was going on in her world and why had she only partially returned from there? He assumed that’s what must have happened. The alternative, even though it had seemed more acceptable to him before, it now scared him. If this was a dreamworld related issue, things might eventually change, and Sam could become the person she was once again. But an actual mental condition offered no such guaranty.

  He needed to find a way to get some answers, but how? He’d had no news of Daniel, or Hëna, whatsoever. Serena and Freddie had gone off the grid, and The Order, well, he’d never known much about them in the first place, so he doubted he could find them, even if he looked. Not even Veronica could be helpful in that regard.

  Frustrated and rather angry at all these things that seemed to have gotten out of control, Damien got up and poured the tea down the drain, dropping the mug in the empty sink. He then opened the overhead cupboard, where he knew his father stored a few bottles of liquor, and grabbed the first one he could see, an unopened bottle of Jack Daniels.

  Good, he thought to himself, nothing like a bit of alcohol to get me out of my head for a while.

  So, he poured for himself one glass after another, slowly but surely reaching that place where nothing really mattered to him anymore.

  Only, he was not alone in there. A presence he could not yet feel lurked in the darkest corners of his mind, whispering things he didn’t want to hear, flashing him images he didn’t want to see. A new battle had just begun, a battle that Damien didn’t know he was fighting, a battle he had already lost. And it was only a matter of time before he and the rest of the world knew it.

  Chapter 1

  Awakening

  With her smaller hand clasped tightly inside his own, Joshua fell asleep beside his little sister. Alex had been restless all afternoon. She saw their mother less and less these days and she was growing very unhappy about it. Joshua couldn’t blame her; he coul
d not remember the last time they’d actually spent some quality time as a family. Their mother would leave for her first job very early in the morning and would only return late at night after her second one. They were lucky if she ever had a whole day off, but even when she did, she’d spend most of it sleeping and resting, something which she no doubt needed. So, it fell upon Joshua to look after his little sister for the best part of the day. He didn’t mind, though; he loved Alex and could think of very few things he’d rather do with his time than to spend it with her.

  Alex rarely complained. Even for her young age she seemed to understand that their mother needed to work so that they could have food to eat and money to pay the bills. Whatever their dad had left them had all gone, and they had nothing else to live on. Everyday Joshua wished he could grow up faster, so that he too could get a job and help. He hated seeing their mother work so hard and be so tired all the time. But, at 12, no one would hire him to do anything. So, for now, he had to contend with just helping at home, cooking, and cleaning, buying groceries, and of course, looking after 6-year-old Alex.

  It wasn’t easy; between school and every other chore in the house, as well as keeping Alex entertained and happy, his exhaustion regularly matched that of their mother. But he wasn’t one to complain either. He was the man of the house, and he had to pull his weight to make sure his mother and sister were okay and lacked nothing.

  The day that had just ended, however, had been a particularly trying one. Alex had just come down with a cold and had grown restless towards the evening, constantly calling for their mother. Joshua had made her hot chicken soup, had given her a paracetamol for the fever and had put on her favourite show on the telly, but the little girl’s ceaseless whining had really tried his patience. At bedtime, she had simply refused to go to sleep until mommy returned from work, which would not be for another three hours, so he had resorted to bribing her with something she’d been asking for a good while now.

  ‘If you promise to sleep now, I will try to take you to my dreamworld.’

  Her sobs pausing and her little hazel eyes widening with excitement, Alex had given him her full and undivided attention for a moment. Then, growing suspicious, she’d resumed crying and had accused.

  ‘You’re lying; you’re just trying to trick me. You never take me there.’

  ‘Have I ever lied to you?’ Joshua had asked, sounding hurt. The little girl had thought about it for a moment. Her crying had stopped again, this time seemingly for good.

  ‘Will you really take me with you?’

  ‘I said I will try,’ Joshua had reminded her. ‘I have not tried this before, so I’m not sure if it will work.’ But that was not entirely true. Joshua actually knew he could do it; he’d done it before, after all, but back then she had been very little and remembered none of it.

  No, the reason why he was afraid to take her along again, was that he was never sure what he would find in his dreamworld. Most nights it was indeed a beautiful and dreamy place, where his time there was lovely and peaceful, with rarely anything dangerous ever happening. Most nights.

  There were other nights, however, when he was not so lucky. Very often, his dreamworld would become a dreadful and scary place, where monsters – human or otherwise - would come after him and would try to get him. He’d get so scared then and would wake up terrified and soaked in tears and cold sweat, looking around the room to see if the monsters had followed him into the real world. But they never did. It was nights like this that he wished he couldn’t dream, but that was out of his control. So, he fell asleep every evening, praying that it would be one of the good nights.

  He was already having second thoughts about promising to take Alex along. If his dreamworld was not a particularly happy place tonight, he would end up scaring her, or even worse, endangering her life; and he didn’t want that. But he had already given his word, and he would just have to make sure that they left at the first sign of danger. He had not gotten the hang of it just yet, but he was learning how to leave his dreamworld at will. Apparently, all he needed to do was to pretend to himself that he was very scared, and then he was back in his bed before the monsters got anywhere near him. Only, it didn’t work every time he tried it.

  There’d been no turning back, however, Alex was all primed for her dream-journey, and he could not bear to break her little heart. So, he’d slipped under the covers inside her little bed, taken her small hand in his and kissed her softly in both eyes.

  ‘Close your eyes and try to sleep, ok? And, whatever you do, do not let go of my hand. Not even for a second. Promise me.’

  The little girl had nodded with her head, but that had not been enough for Joshua.

  ‘Promise me,’ he’d insisted on a verbal affirmation.

  ‘I promise,’ Alex had obeyed and promptly closed her eyes. Satisfied but still anxious, Joshua had closed his eyes as well and waited for sleep to claim him.

  Please be one of the good nights.

  ***

  The crystal-clear blue sea, greeting them as they both opened their eyes next, immediately told Joshua that this was going to be one of the good nights. Relief washed over him. He’d seen this version of his dreamworld often; it was a beautiful place - his favourite, in fact - with a wide sandy beach and a pine tree forest right behind them, filled with animal life. People, he never saw around here, but he was sure the place was not deserted. He knew there was a castle way farther down the beach, with a big, beautiful garden in front of it, but he always chose to steer clear of it. He’d rather not deal with people while he was here.

  Next to him, little Alex marvelled at the sight before her. She slowly got up from the warm sand and took a few steps towards the calm and majestic sea before them, all the while looking everywhere around her and taking in her surroundings. The look in her awestruck angelic face made Joshua smile. This had been worth all the risk and worry, just this alone.

  ‘Wow,’ Alex finally managed to exhale in her adorable voice. ‘It’s so pretty here.’

  Joshua did not reply. He just walked over to her and kissed her on the head.

  ‘I knew you would like it.’

  ‘Do you always come here?’ Alex asked. Interestingly enough, Joshua noticed that she was no longer ill. Her cold had apparently not made it through into the dreamworld.

  ‘Yes,’ he answered. ‘It is my dreamworld, after all. Only, it doesn’t always look like this,’ he added, his voice a little sad. He really wished his world could always look like this. He didn’t like it when it changed into a darker place full of monsters.

  ‘What does it look like?’ Alex questioned, but Joshua wasn’t about to elaborate.

  ‘Different,’ he just answered and put his lips on her forehead to properly check for fever. Her skin was cool enough. Satisfied that she had left her illness behind in the real world, Joshua stepped forward towards the sea and tested the temperature of the water.

  ‘It’s very warm,’ he called to his sister. ‘Do you wanna go in?’

  ‘Yes,’ Alex chimed happily and began taking her clothes off. Joshua proceeded to help her and then undressed down to his shorts and got into the water with her.

  It had been years since they had been at the beach together. It wasn’t that they could not afford to go, though money was always a concern in their little family. No, it was more like their mother had actually lost the will to be happy after their father had passed away. She had almost died giving birth to Alex, and the depression that had followed had never quite left her. So, she had chosen to immerse herself into her work in order to cope better; everything else had become simply automatic living for her.

  Joshua had struggled with this for a long time, but had eventually understood that no matter how much he fussed over it, his mother would not change, she could not change. So, he had decided to grow up instead, and taken it upon himself to do all that he could to compensate for whatever their mother failed to provide, at least for his little sister.

  Fortunately, t
hey had a couple of nice neighbours whom they often socialized with, and that had made up for at least some of the lost experiences with their own parents. It had been on one of these occasions that they had gone altogether to Brighton beach. Alex had been three years old then and had had the time of her life. So had Joshua. Just being among other people and doing what everybody else did, was fun enough. But that had been the one and only time they had gone to the beach.

  It dawned on him that maybe he should have tried this sooner, bringing Alex along into his dreamworld. He could not help but feel a bit guilty about it now, knowing that every night he had the opportunity to go somewhere else and enjoy whatever fun and magic his dreamworld had to offer, while his little sister stayed back home, stuck in her normal human life. He reminded himself that he kept her away to protect her from the very likely chance that his dreamworld became a bad and dangerous place, and that was true enough. But maybe it wasn’t the whole truth. Maybe he had wanted this to be his place, his own private getaway, and he had not wanted to share it with someone else. How selfish. How could he enjoy anything if he didn’t share it with the one person he loved most in the entire world?

  Right then he decided that he would master the ability to leave his dreamworld at will, so that he could bring Alex with him every night and not worry about endangering her. He looked at her, playing by the shore half immersed into water, and her smiling little face just warmed his heart. It was settled; he would bring her here again.

  Behind him, farther into the sea, a dolphin pod came up to great them, jumping high above the water and making adorable noises as if they were having the time of their life. Joshua went to sit by his sister and the two of them enjoyed the show, Alex laughing heartily every time one of the dolphins would fall back into the water and make a big splash. This, we will definitely do this again, Joshua decided.