Is it a dream?

Is it reality?

Death is real either way.

It starts with a nightmare more terrifying than anything he's ever had.

Soon, the monsters from his dreams are showing up in Alex Black's waking world.

He's just an average teen caught up with avoiding bullies and finding a girlfriend. Is he going insane?

When a car runs him down, Alex is propelled into a world he never knew existed.

Trapped in the dream world, he must defeat powerful creatures of nightmare, protect those he loves and try to keep ancient monsters from destroying his body before he can figure out how to wake up.

If you're a fan of the movies Dreamscape or The Cell or followed the Nightmare on Elm Street movies you'll love this book that blurs the barriers between the dream world and reality

Chapter 1

Alex Black heard furtive rustling in the grass as he relaxed beside the creek. Glancing over his shoulder, nothing was visible. Shrugging with the utter lack of worry that only a teenager secure in his invulnerability can muster, he turned back to watch the sun dance on the water.

A crack prompted him to begin to look once more when a small form rocketed into him.

Alex was slammed into the ground, eighty pounds of muscle pinning him. Struggling he twisted far enough to see a blue-furred arm pressed against his shoulder.

“Blue!” he laughed.

The lazy, unconnected feeling fled; I’m dreaming, he realized and quickly twisted around to wrestle with the blue-furred mandrill.

The boy and the stocky blue monkey rolled across the grass, black hair and blue fur flying as they wrestled. When he was small, Alex never gave the creature much of a fight, but since he had achieved his full growth he was now a good match for the mandrill. Even though it was only half his height and weight, the animal’s strength far outstripped its size. The pair rolled across the grass, grunting and straining until they rolled to a stop beside the glittering creek.

Alex’s laugh rang out across the creek as he and monkey both collapsed on their backs grinning with shared joy.

"That was fun Blue. I love it when you show up in my dreams." Alex lifted himself on an elbow and stared at the simian form lying beside him, so human but so alien.

Alex’s brow furrowed in consternation.

"Why are you still in my dreams?" he asked. "I'm not exactly a kid anymore, I’m almost seventeen not seven, but here you are."

The mandrill curled its snout in a simian grin as if to say: "Why ask me?"

Blue had been Alex’s companion for as long as he could remember. The mandrill had been the one who played soldier with him and hide and seek when Alex had no other friends to play with. When he had been eight, Alex had gone to the school library and between the many books and judicious use of internet searches he had learned that the weird blue creature in his dreams was called a mandrill. He had thought it was the funniest name for an animal ever at that age. He did think it was a bit weird that he could have an animal as his constant companion in his dreams which he didn’t even know existed. He had told his mother about his simian companion and she had told him that he had probably seen the animal on the television when he was younger and his subconscious remembered it. Alex had never questioned Blue’s existence after that; Blue was simply the perfect companion for a boy to rough house and laze about beside a stream with.

It had never bothered him that Blue couldn’t speak, after all he was an animal and Alex had outgrown talking animal stories very early in his life. It would be nice though if the creature could answer his questions. Alex often wondered if there was something wrong with him that he still had what amounted to an imaginary friend when he was within two months of turning seventeen.

“If only you could talk Blue,” Alex said.

“Wait, why can’t you talk? This is a dream; you should be able to do anything I want.”

The mandrill rolled to its feet and opened its fanged jaws, panting.

“Alex.”

“Holy crap! You talked,” Alex gasped.