The Dream Catcher a story for The Darker Side of Faerie



Thank you to Ms. Magaly for this opportunity to participate in  ALL HALLOW'S GRIM

blog party 2012

The Darker Side of Faerie.

 

 

The Dream Catcher, Jiggles

 

The dream catcher moves gently in the wind, feathers twitching, beads and bells making small clinging sounds and there is a newness to the decorations.

Some new nightmare has gotten snagged in the rigging of the web. It's not really something you can see but rather there is a feeling that there is more to the dream catcher this morning than was there last night. It feels more full, more plump with possibilities.

Jiggles only looks out of the corner of his eye so as not to disturb the "new one".It takes awhile for the ectoplasm to settle. It takes a day or two before the outer shell has hardened so that the nightmare can be eaten properly. And eat it he shall.

Once when he was a little one, he had rushed the eating of his prey and got a right good belly ache for his troubles. Spent the better part of a week retching and burbalating the horrid mess. Since then he has followed the procedures and recipes for the eating of the bad ones, the scary ones, the ones that make you sweat and wake feeling like you just relived that horrid moment. Of course every once in a while a guilt dream got caught in the catcher and then Jiggles had to clean out the whole of it. Guilt made every other dream uneatable. Guilt was the one thing Jiggles could not abide. Other than that one kind of nightmare, chomping on the bad dreams of others was a wondrous adventure. After all "one beings terror is another beings tiramasu".

The hardest ones to let cure long enough to eat them are the ones of children and innocents. They tend to wriggle themselves free of the web if not carefully attended. And careful is not exactly Jiggles long suit, if you get my drift. He usually just lets those go because he knows, they'll be back sooner or later.

He'd much rather be out with the other baddies, using what he eats to bring the others to their knees, than tending his catcher. He is after all a recycling junkie. He recycles their horror and uses it on them again and again, thereby assuring himself of a decent size meal. He has kept this secret for almost all his life.

What would happen if the other dream catchers found out that he had turned to a life of recycling? Oh that was Jiggles only bad dream and he made sure he slept tied up in knots so that his secret was safe and never retrieved by another of his race. He had seen a public lynching just as he was coming into his own and vowed never to get caught. Lynching for a recycler not only included hanging but also having your wings pulled out and your antennae plucked out of your head. It was hideous.....if you recycle.

He left the "new one" to cure and headed out to the local gathering spot hoping to meet up with his chums. On the way, he stopped by the B's place for a chat with his old neighbor. Not many many of B's kind around anymore. Most had been wiped out by bad thoughts and disparaging words. Funny how the others never gave a thought to doing that, talking bad. Jiggles couldn't imagine how it must be in their worlds where being hate filled, ill tempered and horrid was just a way of getting by. But then if it weren't for all the bullying and talking behind backs in the other's world, he wouldn't have much to munch on, now would he?

Never did Jiggles see his own dishonesty and recycling as just another way of being horrid. He saw himself as a survivor. Someone just getting by on his back handed ways.

B's was a survivor too but in a different way. B's was a goodie, through and through. He just hadn't been wiped out by the dark and dirty, yet. Lucky B's, he never had bad dreams, never lived with regret at his table, danced with the truth and dipped it backwards. Jiggles had been doing all of those things for years and it began to tell in his countenance. That's why he avoided most of his old friends and neighbors, he was sure it showed. It's why he came to visit the only goodie he knew. Everything felt better when he was with B's and maybe it would rub off on his tattered wings. At least it was worth a try. B's never gave Jiggles a hard time, he just made Jiggles feel better about himself. What's the harm in that.?

Jiggles and B's were in the middle of a good game of checkers when the authorities just showed up at B's door. Of course without guile, B's let them in and they grabbed Jiggles and arrested him for suspicion of recycling.

There was no trial. It all went very quickly. Jiggles was done away with, zip-zap quickly.

I'm sure another dream catcher took over Jiggle's web. I'm sure that the harshness of the others is still going to keep the baddies fed as well. And the slight breeze moves the dream catcher just as before and after Jiggles.

The battle to choose good over bad is an ongoing struggle no matter what color your wings are. Too bad about Jiggles.

Happy Hallows, Oma Linda