The Summoner Chapter Three

Cleaver looked between us.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

I decided the pill I had picked up off the ground must have been something very special.

Actually, it had been three pills.

Which, in hindsight, might have been a mistake.

Now two of my old characters from Defenders of Krondor were standing in front of me under a bridge in the middle of a heatwave. One was a goblin I had apparently ruined, and the other was a half-orc with a battle axe called Cleavage.

Maybe it would be a good idea to go to a hospital.

Without saying anything, I stood up, brushed myself down a little, and walked out from under the bridge.

Karkit and Cleaver followed me.

“What are we going to do here?” Cleaver asked. “Are we going to kill gnolls?”

I spun around.

“You are not real,” I screamed. “Go away.”

They didn’t go away.

“Go away,” I said again. “I’m sending you back to wherever you popped out from.”

They both stayed where they were.

Although they did look a little upset that I wanted them gone. Like sad puppies, if puppies had weapons and faces that made children cry.

A car drove over the bridge above us.

Cleaver turned his head and watched it go.

“What the crap is that?”

“It’s a car,” I said. “People drive them.”

Then I frowned.

“And why am I answering you?”

I turned and started walking toward the hospital.

It was going to be a forty-minute walk in the heat. Sweat was already running down my face after one minute, and I was fairly sure I would die of dehydration before I got there.

I had no water.

No money.

No job.

No room.

And now, apparently, no sanity.

I made it to the road.

First minute completed.

Cleaver and Karkit appeared beside me, one on each side.

Another car drove past. An old man was driving it. He stared at me with his mouth wide open and his eyes bulging like he had just seen something impossible.

I decided to believe it was a coincidence.

He was staring at something else.

A cloud, maybe.

A bird.

A very ugly bird carrying a sword and walking beside me.

Cleaver pointed at the road.

“Do we need to attack a car? They are really fast. Maybe we could subdue one.”

Another car was coming. A young man was driving it.

I stopped walking.

A thought entered my head.

It was not a good thought, but those rarely came to me anyway.

If they were not real, nothing would happen. The car would drive past. My brain would finally understand this was a hallucination and snap the fuck out of it.

And if something did happen?

Well.

I would deal with that later.

“Cleaver,” I said, “smash the front of the car with Cleavage.”

Cleaver smiled.

“Karkit,” I said, “open the door and drag the man out.”

Karkit’s ears twitched.

The car came down the road.

Cleaver stepped in front of it.

The driver slammed the brakes. The car screamed to a stop just before hitting him.

Cleaver raised Cleavage over his head and brought it down on the bonnet.

The impact was so heavy the entire car bounced.

Karkit ran to the driver’s door, yanked it open, grabbed the poor bastard inside, and dragged him out onto the road.

“Run away,” Karkit told him.

The young man didn’t argue.

He ran.

I stood there in disbelief.

This was one hell of a hallucination.

I watched the man sprint down the road as fast as he could. Then I looked at Karkit and Cleaver standing beside the damaged car, waiting for me to tell them what to do next.

The heat pressed down on my head.

The hospital was still too far away.

But the car had air-conditioning.

Probably.

I said, “Fuck it. Get into the car.”