It had been sealed for a very long time.

Yet, there was something new. Metal had been exposed through the dust. Scratches. A design had been etched into the metal of the hatch. And as I watched, the scratches began to glow, growing brighter and more vivid in the darkness.

When recognition came, when I realized what the mark was, I bolted awake.

The last thing I remember from the dream was that stale air had come hissing out from around the hatch as the container had unsealed.

Julie found me on the balcony, staring at the gaudy lights of Las Vegas, wondering why I’d had a dream about the evil symbol my father had warned me about last year. She left the sliding glass door open and the air conditioning poured out behind her. Good old Vegas, middle of January and somehow it was eighty outside. She leaned on the balcony next to me and didn’t say anything for a time. Julie knew me too well. “You okay?” One gentle hand stroked my arm.

I glanced over. She was as beautiful as the day I’d met her. The breeze blew her long dark hair into her face, and she absently gathered a bunch of it and stuck it behind one ear. She’d left her glasses inside, which meant that she hadn’t joined me for the view. The city gave her a bit of a neon halo.

“Couldn’t sleep,” I answered simply. “Bad dream.”

“Bad dream…or bad dream?”

That was a fair question. I did have a bit of a history with that sort of thing; dark premonitions, ancient prophecies, other people’s memories, and that sort of thing, all as a result of my peculiar station I held in the order of the universe. It wasn’t exactly a picnic. “Normal kind.” I think. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Worrying comes with the territory when you’re married to someone like you. Can’t blame a girl for asking. So what was it?” she asked. I shook my head. “Come on…”

“There was this thing buried in a desert. Old, not ancient, but way older than us. It had a hatch like a submarine on it. I don’t know…something was living inside, but it was coming out. The mark that Dad drew for me, it had been scratched on there.”

A scowl crossed her perfect face. “You think it’s time?”