After a dreamless respite, Murphy’s engines sputtered back on. Still in a daze, he woke up in an unfamiliar environment, but found himself strangely at peace.When his sight cleared, he found himself on a couch. The sun was already up, streaming directly over his head. He thought to duck under, but then paused and stared directly into its flames. “I guess it wasn’t you playing tricks after all, huh?” He found his throat still parched, but he was cooler now. The delirium had also cleared, and he found himself strangely refreshed. “You’re awake,” she obstructed his view, “I was afraid I’d have to call in a helicopter to haul you out. Luckily, I had some IVs handy.”Out in the sun, he finally caught sight of her face. One that he found familiar, but strangely obscure. It took him a while to connect things, and while he couldn’t recall her face, that red hair was unmistakable.Somewhat fretful, he nonetheless asked the name that came at the tip of his tongue, “Eleanor?” She had been a

Murphy asked without mincing his words, perhaps in the most direct and brash way possible. Devoid of any romantic passion, he simply stressed the sincerity of his plea and waited with bated breath. She stared blankly in response, unsure if she’d heard him well. When they both sunk into awkward silence for a good dozen seconds, she acknowledged he didn’t misspeak, and turned her head away. Murphy sighed again, the breath he held pushed out in resignation. Then, he also stood up. How could he know Eleanor didn’t turn out of repulsion, but to hide the traces of a creeping blush. ‘This insolent, thieving fool’, she thought, ‘How can shamelessly ask that?’ “It’s best I get going,” he muttered softly and ambled away. Yet, just as he made it past her, Eleanor caught his hand and lured him to look her way. A pair of brown eyes greeted him, closer than he would have ever expected. And closer still… Their lips met, tentatively at first, as if establishing a pact of their own. Then, they w

Dracula was no vampire, of course. His power was not at all nefarious. It was his callous heart that made him so, perverting the Numen Code into something wicked and scorned. Like many kings before him, he could have lead his domain mercifully. Had his people loved him, they would act as psychic emitters whenever they remembered their lord’s grace. Alas, for Vlad it was not enough. With a taste for power, he chose the opposite way to garner it. Whereas Murphy gained his energy through awe and inspiration, the king chose terror. Hence, the impaling began. With each spear he drove into an enemy, their corpse put on display, thousands would cower at his name.The effect was much more immediate, and his gates were unchained one after the other. When his domain did not have enough fear to feed on, he slew the Ottoman envoys and brought war to his lands. The sixth gate was on the verge of opening, and he was nigh invincible among common men. After all, his was the power to mold flesh. H

A hazy world surrounded Murphy in his sleep. He was in a limbo between reality and dreams, neither awake nor fully asleep. He had had lucid dreams before, but this wasn’t it. If in those he felt like he had control of himself, then now he was in control of his dream itself. Habitually, he thought of the world he created for his novel. That ancient island secluded from time he often wrote about. Then, as if woven from a spell, it manifested around him. A full world, all to himself. After exploring for a few minutes, he felt bored on his lonesome, so he thought back to his characters. They too appeared a second later, along with peddlers, sailors and other faceless cast he never explored.“Incredible,” he mused gleefully, before adding details to each one and clapping his hands, giving the world motion.Like a self-produced movie, the characters moved, setting a scene around him. The details were as vivid as he could imagine them to be, and he never lacked imagination. Alas, with ea

It’s unknown if Murphy ever scored his bribe or not, but he surely never spoke of intruding in her dreams again. After being forced to try out a few suits for her viewing pleasure, they finally returned to the matter at hand.QiE-Novel — and more specifically the corpo giant behind it — was still an insurmountable obstacle. While it seemed irrelevant now, soon enough they would become his primary competitor for the reader market.If LACIE was allowed to resurface in this reality as well, she would inevitably drown the market and make his fandom growth impossible.Murphy didn’t require a monopoly, but it was paramount to have a free market. So far, writing became the most efficient tool he had to reaching others. Books were a stable means of digging up a person’s emotions, and through that he could siphon the power he needed to save Eleanor.He couldn’t force his novels to grow an audience overnight, even if he spent what remained of his fortune on ads to promote them. Therefore, he ch