James W Morris

Dreamkiller James W Morris

It is 1955. John Krull, a Korean War veteran living an isolated, itinerant lifestyle, awakes to find a silent young woman on his doorstep. She hands him an envelope. The offer it contains will lead him to a tiny wooded island off the coast of Maine, where it is said there is a way for people in one old man's dreams to break through to reality. For various reasons, these newborn dreamed beings cannot abide in our world-they need to be "dispatched" immediately-and the old man, John's former college professor, wants him to accept the job of killing the dreams as soon as they appear. Of course, John doesn't believe any of these assertions-the poor professor, a dying man whom he once admired, must have lost his mind. On the other hand, he needs the money promised, the emissary has an otherworldly appeal he cannot resist, and, truth be told, John Krull simply has nothing more interesting to do. What begins as a lark, then, soon becomes a deadly serious task-he learns that what the professor said is true, and worse, that the dying man has been plagued by a recurring nightmare, a ferocious, violent creature that cannot be allowed to exist in our world...