by K M Frost
I am awake in moments, and this time my eyes slide open easily. I’m in the cave.
I remember waking up while I was still running to the cave, but I guess I made it inside before losing total consciousness.
I glance around the cave and pull myself to a seated position. There’s a lamp again, like last night, and it casts the cave in a warm orange glow.
Stewart’s awake and sitting a few feet away, the soft light playing in his red hair and brown eyes.
His toothy grin is huge and excited when he sees I’m awake. “Jonas!”
“Hi, Stewart.”
Leah and Rick are still just lying there. For the moment it looks like it’s just me and Stewart.
I shift a little closer to him. “How long do they usually take to wake up?”
Stewart shrugs. “It depends on the night. Leah’s usually here pretty early—sometimes she even beats me here. But Rick is kind of unpredictable.”
I frown down at the oldest Reality Dreamer. “Why is that?”
Leah unexpectedly sits up. “It’s because he’s out with his girlfriend most nights.”
I jump in surprise and bite back a shout. I can tell by her smirk she knows she scared me.
“How long have you been awake?” My face heats up while my heart thumps an unsteady rhythm in my chest. Why am I such a coward?
Leah frowns. “I’m actually sleeping right now, so you should be asking me how long I’ve been asleep.”
I roll my eyes. “Whatever. How long have you been in the Reality Dreams?”
“Not long.” She casts me a sideways look. “What, you think I’d fake being unconscious to eavesdrop?”
I shrug vaguely and glance at Stewart for help. He’s watching Rick though, who has just begun to move.
Leah grins and raises her eyebrows at him. “So, how is Marianne this fine night?”
Rick only tosses her a dark look and then focuses his attention on me. “Hey kid, glad you could make it.”
I nod back to him in acknowledgement.
Rick slides closer to us, running a hand through his short dark hair. “How was everyone’s day?”
I frown at his question. “Aren’t we going to explore tonight?” I’ve been looking forward to this all day, and now they’ve changed their minds?
Rick raises a calming hand. “Don’t worry kid, we’ll head out soon. We just have to make sure everyone’s in a deep sleep before we do. We don’t want any accidents out there.”
I feel stupid now, but I nod. Of course; they told me we can only explore during the middle of the sleep cycle. It isn’t safe right at first, or soon before morning.
Rick pulls out a canvas bag I hadn’t noticed before and takes out some kind of fruit before passing it to Stewart.
When I get the bag, I peer inside. There’s a weird assortment of fruits—maybe a dozen, of varying size and shape.
I don’t have any idea what they taste like, so I grab one at random and take a cautious bite. The fruit isn’t very juicy, but it’s sweet.
Rick munches on his green fruit and looks around at us all. “Anything interesting happen today?”
Leah leans back on her hands, looking pompous. “Well, I saved Jonas’s life.”
“That’s great, Leah.” Rick suddenly grins, blue eyes shining. “But were you the one trying to kill him in the first place?”
Leah glares as Stewart laughs.
I interrupt before she can kill anyone. “No. She just helped me deal with some idiots at school.”
I’m not sure why I stepped in for her—she would probably benefit from a little teasing—but I did it anyway.
Rick’s grin doesn’t fade. “Yeah, well, Leah’s good at dealing with idiots.”
“I deal with you every night,” she mutters at him, and he laughs.
“Tell us the story, then.” Rick waves a hand toward Leah in a gesture of permission. “We all know you’re just dying to regale us with your unbelievable exploits. But be warned, if you stray from the truth, we have Jonas here to correct you, so be careful with your exaggerations, okay?”
I want to say that I’ll do no such thing—there’s no way I’ll cross Leah—but she launches into the story before I can, and I find myself sucked into the tale just as quickly and completely as Rick and Stewart.
A minute later we’re all breathless with laughter. Even Leah’s having a hard time keeping the story going between her laughs.
I’d been present for the event, and even though I can’t detect any lies in Leah’s narration, her retelling is much more enjoyable than the real experience had been.
Finally, when the story has been told and our laughter has mostly subsided, Rick grins around at our group, looking excited. “Are y’all ready to do some exploring?”
We nod and share a round of grins.
“Alright, is everyone feeling okay?” Rick takes the time to look each of us in the eye. “No dizziness?”
I frown. “Why does that matter?”
“It’s a sign of waking up. You get lightheaded and dizzy before you wake up. They’re good indicators here. They don’t give you enough warning to get to safety, usually, but they’ll give you enough time to lay down before you wake up. Because trust me, going limp on a cave floor is not a fun thing to do.”
I wince at the idea.
I also wince at the fact that every time I’ve been to the Reality Dreams, I’ve gone out standing up—which explains why I always seem to have a headache when I wake up here.
“Are you good, kid?”
I nod. “Yeah. I’m a little lightheaded from Leah’s story, but other than that, I’m fine.”
Rick grins and Stewart laughs. I grin back at them and glance at Leah, but she’s ignoring me. She stands up and fastens her jacket.
“Are we leaving yet?” She sounds bored. I really don’t understand her.
“As you wish, milady.” Rick stores the fruit sack against the wall again and then stands up. Stewart and I follow his lead, and soon we’re all on our feet.
Rick gestures toward the cave entrance, like ‘after you’.
Leah doesn’t wait for more urging or to see if we’ll follow her, and sets off for the outside world. Rick and Stewart go to follow her, but I hesitate.
“Don’t we need the lamp?” I look longingly at the warm light they’re leaving behind.
Rick shakes his head, though. “If we take the light we won’t be able to sneak very well, will we?” His eyes shine, and I feel excited and nervous all at once.
I take a breath and follow Stewart out of the cave. Rick follows after extinguishing the lamp. The cave is dark without the warm light, and I’m glad when we’re finally outside, because at least out here we have moonlight.
“Alright.” Rick’s voice is loud in the still darkness. “Last time we headed South”—he waves a hand in that direction—“so tonight we’ll be going Southeast. Before we head out though, we’re gonna make a quick stop at the stream. Let’s go.”
I feel a bit out-of-the-loop as everyone starts walking and I hurry to catch up.
Within a minute we come to a narrow, energetic stream of clear water, and everyone kneels down for a drink. This must’ve been the water I heard earlier from the cave.
I feel odd as I kneel next to Stewart and dip my hands into the cold water and then take a large gulp. The water is surprisingly good, and I remember how thirsty I was earlier. I take three more large swallows before the others stand up.
Rick wipes his mouth with the back of his wrist. “Alright. Time to do some exploring.”
I grin in excitement. Rick and Leah take the lead, and Stewart and I follow them eagerly.
There isn’t much in the broad valley—it’s just as barren as it’d looked earlier—but the mountains in the distance look promising, and they loom nearer with each step I take.
To pass the time, I start up a conversation. “How old are you, Stewart?”
He looks up at me in surprise, but quickly grins. “I’m twelve, but I�
�ll be thirteen in two months.”
I can tell he’s excited to be another year older. I remember being twelve, and how much I’d wanted to be thirteen.
I grin back at him. “That’s great. I’ll be sixteen next month.”
Awe shines in every inch of his round, freckled face. “Wow, sixteen . . .”
I laugh a little at his reaction. “Do you have any brothers or sisters?”
“Nope, just me. Well, and Mom and Dad.”
“And you live in . . .?” I try to remember the name from last night, but it’s not coming.
“Sauri,” Stewart says, surprising me.
“Why?” I should be the one who’s sorry. I can’t even remember where he’s from.
He laughs. “No, that’s where I’m from.” A toothy smile. “S-A-U-R-I.” He spells it out for me, obviously amused.
I smile, too. “Oh. I’ll try to remember.”
“And you’re from Capernia, like Leah?”
I nod. “Yeah, I live with my parents and sister.”
“You have a sister?” He almost sounds envious.
I chuckle. “Don’t get too jealous. Having a sister isn’t all it’s cracked up to be—especially a nine-year-old one. But, Ellie’s not too bad. Sometimes.”
Stewart seems relieved when I add that last bit, and he nods with an enlightened grin. “It must be like my pet chinchilla.”
“Your pet what?”
“Edison, my chinchilla.” He puts his hands on top of each other and then puts a few inches of space between them. “He’s about . . . that tall, and he’s really cute. He’s a rodent. They’re all over the place where I live, but my parents gave me Edison for my tenth birthday.”
“That’s cool. I’ve never heard of a chinchilla. Do you like having a pet?”
He nods enthusiastically. “Oh yeah. It’s lots of fun —you should have your parents get you one.”
“Well, I don’t know how that would go over, but maybe I’ll ask them.”
“Super.” His gappy teeth make the S come out with a whistle.
Rick laughs at the sound of it in the dark, and even Leah grins.
Rick calls back to us, a laugh still in his voice. “Okay. Enough chitchat back there. We’re getting close to the mountain, so we need to be quiet.”
“Why?” I ask, though I try to keep my voice low anyway.
Stewart shivers. “Because—that’s where the Entities are.”
“The Entities?” I feel a chill zip down my spine. It’s probably just the wind.
Stew looks up at me with solemn brown eyes. “You know that feeling you sometimes get, like you’re being followed? Or that something’s watching you and waiting to attack?”
I nod.
“That’s the Entities. They’re always hiding in the shadows, waiting for someone to come along, and then—” His eyes widen and he doesn’t finish his sentence.
He doesn’t need to, though. I get the picture.
I remember a couple nights ago, the dream I had of being chased—and all of the other eerie dreams I’ve had in the past—and I shiver again. Okay, maybe it’s not just the wind.
Rick frowns. “C’mon, Stew. Go easy on the newbie. I’ve been doing this for years and no Entity’s ever got me, now has it?”
Stewart shakes his head.
Rick tosses me a reassuring smile. “We just need to be cautious. But it’s nothing to worry about.”
I trust Rick, but as the valley melds into mountain and the shadows become thick and dark, I can’t help but remember the feeling of cold fingers brushing the back of my neck, wrapping around my shoulder, and pulling me away into darkness.
Chapter 9
The mountain is dark and uneven, and I stumble many times. We’ve been walking for an hour or two, and I’m starting to feel the ache in my legs and feet as the excitement wears off.
I don’t know what I was expecting to find in the Reality Dreams, but it was definitely more exciting than this.
“What do you guys expect to find out here?” I call up to Rick.
He glances back but doesn’t stop walking. “If we knew what we were going to find, it wouldn’t be much of an adventure, would it?”
I roll my eyes. “But have you ever found, you know, anything? Or is it always just hiking through the mountains every night?”
At last, he stops and gestures for everyone to do the same. “What did you expect, kid?” I can tell he’s losing patience with me. “Fighting off magical foes and rescuing kingdoms from evil forces? This isn’t some fairytale—this is the Reality Dreams.”
I drop down onto a rough rock and try to ignore the uneven surface poking into me. I push out my breath. “I know. I just thought we’d be doing a little more, you know? I thought we might get to meet the other Reality Dreamers and stuff.”
Leah glares at me. “What? You want a new group? We’re not good enough for you or something?”
“That’s not what I meant. I was just hoping we’d get to do something.”
“Sometimes we meet other people,” Stewart says, sweating and panting. The poor kid’s barely keeping up with Rick’s fast pace.
“Well, where?” I look over my shoulder to see if maybe I missed a village or something in the trees around us. Nope.
Rick leans his back against a tree, crossing his arms over his chest. “They move around. No one stays put for very long out here.”
“Why not?”
Leah snorts obnoxiously. “Well, what kind of idiot would let everyone know where their sleeping, defenseless body is?”
I toss her an irritated look. “But I mean, couldn’t the Reality Dreamers, like, get together? Form a community or something?”
Rick shakes his head. “It’s too dangerous. We can’t afford to trust someone who might not be friendly. It’s just better to keep to yourself and keep moving.”
Without another word, he pushes away from the tree and starts hiking again.
I sigh, but I get off my rock and follow the other Reality Dreamers.
“I just don’t—”
I’m cut off by a sharp, inhuman scream that sounds dangerously close.
I freeze.
It’s the sound from my dream. The sound I heard when those things—the Entities—were chasing me.
The others recognize it, too.
“Run!” Rick shouts, and takes off into the trees.
Leah and Stewart are right behind him, and I follow them, my heart racing. I can’t feel anything chasing us, but I run anyway.
“Where are we going?” I leap over a rotting log. I barely clear the top of it, but somehow I keep my balance and go on running.
“Just run!” Leah shouts back to me, and I hear real fear in her voice.
I close my mouth and push my legs to go faster. But it’s not fast enough.
I can feel the Entities getting closer now. I don’t know if they make any sounds—we’re making too much noise to tell anyway as we tear through the woods. But somehow I know they’re following us.
And they’re closing in.
I don’t know what will happen if they catch us, but the fear tightening my muscles assures me I don’t want to find out.
Stewart is falling behind; he’s even behind me now. I glance back at him, though I keep my legs pumping madly, and I see something gray in the shadows. It looks just like the shadows, but it’s moving like no shadow can. And it’s reaching for him.
“Stew!” I feel my legs slow. My thoughts race. I can’t just leave him, but I don’t know if I can make myself go back.
The Entity is closing the distance between them, and Stew’s terrified face assures me he can’t move any faster.
Before I can come to any kind of decision, there’s something like an explosion from within the darkness. The Entity chasing Stewart lets out an awful scream that reminds me of metal grinding on metal. It’s a chilling, painful sound that penetrates my bones and makes me wince.
Then the Entity is gone.
I don’t know whe
re it went—it just disappeared, though that terrible sound still echoes around the mountain.
Breaking out of my stupor—the same one that seems to be holding Stewart in place—I dash back to where he’s standing, looking over his shoulder in a daze.
I grab his arm and pull. He stumbles and looks at me with glazed eyes.
“Come on!” I yell, though I’m right next to him. I tug his arm again and he starts to follow me, still moving sluggishly.
I can’t see Rick or Leah anywhere. All I see is darkness.
I don’t know how many Entities there are, and I certainly don’t want to wait around and find out. I grit my teeth and yank on Stewart’s arm, dragging him along with me.
We don’t get far before another form appears in front of us.
I scream and so does Stewart, and we come to a complete stop. I don’t know where to run to now.
I take a step back and almost trip right over Stew. Then, surprising me beyond words, the form speaks.
“Get out of here, bonehead!”
I blink in confusion. Did the Entity just call me a bonehead?
Before I can wrap my mind around what’s going on, the figure darts forward and impatiently waves something in my face.
“Are you deaf and dumb?” He swats my ear with the hard object.
“Ow!” I glare at him, my senses returning. That’s when I realize it’s a him.
The guy is not some shadowy phantom. Actually, he looks completely normal. I’d guess he’s about nineteen, huge, dark-skinned, and towering over me.
“I said run, you numbskull!” He moves to hit me again, but I knock the object away with my hand.
“Who—?” Before I can finish my question he mutters something under his breath. I’m not sure exactly what he said, but I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t be allowed in my house.
He suddenly extends his left arm (the one holding the object he hit me with) and there’s another echoing explosion—right next to my ear.
I shout in surprise and pain. Spots dance in front of my eyes and my ears are ringing.
I hear another scraping metallic screech and I realize he’s fighting off Entities with the object in his hand.
The thought of the Entities brings me to my senses, despite the ringing in my ears, and I remember we’re being chased by who knows how many Entities.