Into the Gray

by Geanna Culbertson

  “Same Boar’s Mouth rules apply to him too though, right?”

  “That’s correct.”

  Dream me glanced at the intense Boar’s Mouth statue; its massive tusks loomed intimidatingly and cast shadows. “That means if Alex doesn’t complete what the Boar’s Mouth asked of him, a piece of his soul will remain trapped here and within a year he’ll wither and die.”

  The memory faded away; everything turned fuzzy. When my vision became clear, I was immersed in another scene. This one featured Alex again. He and dream me were in our castle’s giant chess room. If I had to guess, this was maybe last summer when I was home from school. We looked around the same ages we were now.

  Seeing this memory made me sad. Alex and I used to enjoy challenging each other in this room. We were both strategic people and an extra level of difficulty was added to our matches because we knew each other so well, and chess relied heavily on being able to read your opponent. My heart twanged a little. I really used to love chess, but as Alex was the only person I’d ever played with, I hadn’t had a match in a long time. I played different kinds of games now.

  The black-and-white perspective worked well with the onyx and chrome life-size game pieces and tiles that checkered the floor. Hazy light glistened from the fully mirrored walls and glass ceiling.

  “See,” Alex said. “I told you earlier that sacrificing your queen is dumb.” He strutted with his typical confidence toward the center of the board, stopping to lean a hand casually against one of the hollow, five-foot pieces.

  Dream me met him in the middle. “The sacrifice needed to be made, Alex. She wasn’t the most important piece on the board at the time so I made the call to give her up.”

  “Crisa, have I taught you nothing? The queen is the most powerful piece on the board because she has the most moves. She’s beyond useful. How would the other pieces even stand a chance without her?”

  “She’s clearing the way for them,” dream me countered. “Trust me. They can take care of the game without her for a bit, and while my opponent gets distracted claiming her as his captive, thinking he’s won . . .”

  Dream me walked to Alex’s side of the room. There was a pawn in the back one move away from reaching the end of the board. My brother hadn’t noticed it. With a smooth slide, dream me moved this carefully prepped pawn onto the last row thus, by the rules of chess, promoting its stature and reclaiming the queen she’d lost.

  “It’s a calculated move, Alex,” dream me said cockily as she replaced the small pawn with the larger queen. “I sacrificed her believing that she could be saved if my other pieces made the right moves. It was a gamble, but I had faith it would work.”

  Alex started responding, but I couldn’t hear him anymore. Though his mouth moved and he acted like normal, no noise escaped his lips. The sound had inexplicably vanished from the world again. That’s when I spotted something new.

  A bright pink door had appeared on the back wall of the chess room. We’d taken a door to enter Enigma, so perhaps doors connected to other realms in Dreamland too. This could be an exit! My Dream Compass flashed excitedly to confirm the theory. The device’s arrows pointed toward the door and the word Sweet Dreams twinkled on its face.

  I hoped my friends were having as much luck.

  That’s when I saw a second new thing.

  On the opposite side of the room stood a powder-blue, fluffy sheep. Its face, legs, and hooves were turquoise, and the mirrored walls projected its reflection a hundred times over—a hundred bright spots in the gray scene. A counting sheep.

  I gazed at the creature warily.

  It’s creepy but it doesn’t look threatening. Maybe they’re not as dangerous as Sandman made them out to be?

  Dream me had vanished but dream Alex was still there. He didn’t notice the sheep. The creature stared vacantly ahead, unmoving. Then it abruptly and speedily zipped sideways, sliding without lifting a leg like it was on wheels. It came up next to Alex and tackled him, knocking him behind his bishop and out of my sight. Only one layer of sound came back to the dream at that point. It was the terrifying noise of a wild animal devouring prey, the victim shouting all the while.

  Okay, time to go.

  I ran for the pink door as another blue sheep materialized, a number 25 painted on its fleece. The sheep hadn’t seen me yet, so I hastily slid to my knees and ducked behind one of the rook chess pieces. I pulled my wand from my boot.

  Knife.

  Nothing happened.

  Spear.

  Still nothing.

  Oh right, no magic.

  Out of stubbornness, I tried to activate my powers. Not a wisp of golden energy appeared around my hand. Unlike on Earth where I could conjure magic for a moment before the realm rejected it so painfully that I had to stop, here I had no feeling. It was like someone had flipped a big OFF switch on my powers.

  I heard the click of hooves.

  Crud.

  I stowed my wand back in my boot. The clicks were slow and dainty. I stole a glance around the side of the rook—the coast was clear. I stealthily moved behind a knight to get farther from sheep 25. Then the hoof clicks stopped. I looked back and my heart rate jumped as I met the gaze of the first sheep’s black eyes in the mirror. Bloody splotches stained its fluff.

  Double crud.

  I made a break for the door but was cut off by sheep 25 when it curtly stepped out from behind a pawn. In panic, I raised my arm and pressed the palm button on my Dream Catcher. Though I had a jacket on, the blue glow of all the straps could be seen through the fabric. The targeting display popped up without interference, just like Sandman had shown us. I had one second to take aim and fire as the sheep darted toward me.

  I pressed the button twice. A net of blue energy ejected from the holographic display and tackled the sheep, electrocuting the creature until it poofed into smoke. The vapor took the shape of the number 25 then vanished. No time for relief as clicking drew near. I spun around and found the other sheep about to leap at me. I fired again. My energy net collided with the counting sheep mid-air, and it disintegrated into a smoky 13.

  Whoa. Okay, this thing is cool.

  I marveled at the Dream Catcher for another moment before powering it down and turning to face the pink door. Closer now, I could see the glittering words Sweet Dreams etched into the door’s wood. I couldn’t wait to leave behind Enigma’s bizarre, anxiety-inducing settings.

  This place had given me perspective. I’d always felt a bit sorry for myself for being plagued with dreams of the future. But regular minds traveled through Dreamland, which meant dealing with Enigma’s mixed bag of weirdness every night. That was arguably more exhausting than what I had to deal with.

  Maybe life is just a mixed bag of crazy, no matter what kind of person you are.

  And on that note, I readied myself, gripped the bronze handle of the pink door, and pushed through. Hopefully I would reunite with my friends in this next realm. Either way, I was long overdue for some Sweet Dreams.

  ongratulations, Crisa! You’re the new captain!” Javier slapped me on the back amicably and before I knew it, I was being lifted onto the shoulders of my Seven Suns teammates.

  We were in the Lord Channing’s Twenty-Three Skidd arena. The stadium was full of cheering fans, and I was dressed in armor. My face lit up every holographic screen and people chanted my name. I blinked like I was adjusting to bright lights. For a moment, I relished the ecstasy; then I saw Javier’s eyes. They were green. Javier’s eyes were brown. My teammates lifting me up also had incorrect features—noses that were too big, hair colors that weren’t right, and so forth.

  “This is a dream,” I thought aloud, realizing the truth. The instant I did that, the mirage broke—popping like a soap bubble. My teammates vanished and I dropped to the ground as the scene disintegrated around me. The armor on my body dissolved into wisps of white vapor, leaving my normal clothes underneath.

  I checked my Dream Compass, which confirmed I was in Sweet Dreams. The pi
nk door was gone. My friends were nowhere to be seen. With no way of contacting them, I could only stay on task: find and free Mauvrey and Mark. In order to do that, I had to get to Nightmare, and in order to reach that realm, I needed to traverse this one and then the Wanderers’ Void. I had to trust that I would run into my friends along the way since we were headed for the same goal.

  At present I was in a cave, the mouth of which opened in the distinct shape of a heart. I walked toward the opening and looked out at valleys of pink flowers that extended for miles under a hazy lavender sky. Three rainbows arced ahead and a flock of enormous golden birds flew nearby. The whole scene radiated beauty and serenity. But my heart stopped for a second when I looked up at the moon.

  Crud.

  I checked my Dream Compass again, triggering the setting that told us the amount of time left until the next full moon in our home world. According to it, we’d already been in Dreamland for six Book nights. Time was cruelly ticking by.

  My Dream Compass pointed me forward. I lowered myself out of the cave and headed for the valley below. As I descended, the lightest snowfall began, each flake transforming into a glittery splash as it touched the ground. At the base of the mountain, and at the direction of my Dream Compass, I waded through the pink flowers. Everything was calm until a surprise surge of orange-and-black butterflies bolted out of the flowers in front of me and swirled around my body disorientingly. When they were clear from my vision, I spotted Kai maybe a hundred feet away.

  “Kai!” I called.

  She turned around. “Crisa!”

  Kai and I ran toward each other. Despite our issues, I felt glad to see her and she looked like she felt the same.

  “I’m relieved I found you,” Kai said when we met up. “Without a Dream Compass, I was just wandering aimlessly.”

  Oh no, I hadn’t thought about that. Not everyone in our party had a Dream Compass—Blue, Girtha, and Kai specifically didn’t. Hopefully fortune would reunite Girtha and Blue with someone from our team like Kai had found me.

  “Don’t worry we’ll all cross paths eventually,” I said, trying to stay optimistic. “Let’s go. Maybe the others entered the realm somewhere nearby.”

  We continued through the valley toward a distant forest. We passed several sparkling silver cows grazing in the flowery field. An occasional Pegasus flitted through the sky. The faraway sound of chirping birds soothed the scene.

  When Kai and I entered the forest, the lighting that poured through the treetops turned reddish-gold like that beautiful slice of sky just before sunset. Giant wildflowers grew among the trees, their leaves covered in jewels. Harp music played in the distance.

  “Hey, Crisa,” Kai said. She paused by a big oak tree. “Can we talk for a second?”

  I stopped and cringed, then recomposed and turned around. “Kai, do you really think now is the best time for us to get into it again?”

  “I don’t want to argue,” Kai said determinedly. “I want to apologize. I’ve been terrible to you and I am sorry. I shouldn’t have judged you or belittled you and I especially shouldn’t have said those awful things to you yesterday. I really would like it if we can be good friends.” She stood and extended her hand. “If you’ll forgive me.”

  Gladness swelled through my body. I almost couldn’t believe it—making peace with Kai seemed impossible after our last confrontation, but it was something I truly wanted in spite of everything she’d said to me. Our friendship group was the best, strongest thing in my life and if Kai and I could get along, then there would no longer be any flaws in it.

  I started to reach out to shake her hand, but hesitated when I noticed a green streak of hair like Ivy Lynn’s had formed by Kai’s left ear. Her nails also changed color as I stared at her—going from neutral to black.

  I took a step back, sad and a little bitter. “This is a dream,” I said.

  The moment I uttered the words, Kai’s body burst into butterflies and she was gone. My mood sank. Sweet Dreams was messing with me—showing me things that my innermost heart desired even if they were unlikely or even impossible . . . like Kai apologizing to me and us being good friends.

  I shook my head. I’d have to be more careful to not get sucked in by these visions. I applied this same resistant mentality to the wonders I continued to pass. As my Dream Compass guided me forward, I tried not to get distracted by the stunning gorge with rainbow waters. I fought the urge to sit on a picnic blanket surrounded by all my favorite foods, which were literally sprouting from trees and flowers—though I did steal a to-go snack from one big flower whose petals were pizza slices. Then I made my way through a glen filled with puppies and only caved in once along the way, picking up a white baby Labrador with a fat face.

  I’m focused, but I’m not inhuman.

  Eventually, my Dream Compass took me to a big cavern with the words “The Hypotheticals” engraved into the rock above the entrance in glowing sapphires. This was the heart of the Sweet Dreams realm. Surely this meant I was making good progress. I set down the Labrador puppy that had been chilling in my right arm and biting at my hair. She scampered away and I entered the cavern. Waiting inside was an adorable baby unicorn with silver hair and a sapphire horn. To my surprise, she spoke my language, only her horn flashed lightly instead of her mouth moving as the words projected from her.

  “Welcome to The Hypotheticals. Please pick a vision portal.”

  “A portal?” I walked forward. The ceiling fluctuated with shimmering colors, and the multiple levels of the cavern were lined with portals. Unlike the realm-changing ones I was used to, each of these portals created a window to a different version of my life that I could easily see through.

  “This is the heart of Sweet Dreams,” the baby unicorn said, following me. “You can access different versions of what your dream life would be like if the circumstances were right.”

  I looked through the closest portal. A dream version of me donned the Twenty-Three Skidd armor of my kingdom’s pro home team, the Midveil Patriots. It looked like I was on the team. That would make me the first female player to ever make it to the professional league!

  I watched the portal in awe for a second as that version of me zipped across an arena on Sadie to the chants of a cheering crowd. I was tempted to stay there and watch longer, but curiosity moved me on to the next portal. This one provided a window to my castle’s throne room. The version of me in that world wore a crown and sat in a single throne where my parents’ two thrones typically resided. My mom and dad stood off to the side, smiling proudly as our palace chief of ceremonies announced to a gathered crowd: “All hail, her majesty, Queen Crisanta Katherine Knight.”

  In a trance, I ascended a rocky path that wrapped around the cavern to the next portal. The baby unicorn pursued me. In this new window I observed myself walking down a street simply laughing with some of my friends. In the portal after that, I wore a purple cap and gown and strut across a stage. My headmistress handed me a diploma and smiled genuinely to the sound of great applause. Next, I fought with my spear on a combat stage set up in the Lady Agnue’s practice fields. I was battling male and female co-eds alongside my friends. Opponents came at us, but no one stood a chance. We knocked charging fighters away with ease, and that version of me beamed as she used her skill to its fullest potential and was admired for it by all witnessing the contest.

  Dang. I am loving this.

  I knew I couldn’t afford to waste a lot of time here, but maybe just one more portal . . . I stopped at the last one on this level and looked through. Daniel and I sat under my favorite tree outside my school’s barn. We both leaned against the trunk and seemed to be sitting pretty close together. Wait. Was his arm around me? Suddenly Daniel leaned toward me, about to kiss me—

  I leapt back, so startled that I almost fell off the ledge of the cavern’s walkway.

  The baby unicorn gave me a curious look. “Why are you scared? These are Sweet Dreams, not Nightmares.”

  “I think your realm is
malfunctioning,” I said. My heart pounded with unexpected intensity. Desperate to un-see that Sweet Dream, I checked my Dream Compass and refocused. The device beckoned me to move higher. I ran up the ascending path to the next two cavern levels until I was just below the ceiling. There I found a tunnel going straight up, rungs fused to its wall to create a ladder.

  “Bye,” I called to the baby unicorn. I heaved myself up and climbed through the narrow tunnel until it ended. Above me was a rounded piece of metal equivalent to a sewer covering. Light streamed through its edges. I pushed it up and away, then poked my head out of the opening. The sky above me was shaded with the colors of sunrise. The moon—my home world’s moon—had changed significantly.

  How long had I been in The Hypotheticals?

  I climbed out quickly, but when I did, the world abruptly flipped over. I toppled down and landed flat on my stomach. When I got back on my feet, the hole I had just risen from was nowhere to be seen and there was no sign of the cavern either. I stood on a terrain of glowing white rocks.

  “Knight?” I turned around.

  “Daniel!” My friend was a mere dozen feet away.

  “Is it really you?” I asked.

  “I was about to ask you the same question,” he said.

  We approached each other hesitantly. Lilies growing out of the rocks filled the air with sweet fragrance and tiny glowing hummingbirds danced around. When there was barely a foot between us, we studied one another closely. I looked into his deep brown eyes and examined the curves of his face. No inconsistencies, no incorrect features. After a moment, I became certain it was actually him. This was my friend.

  Daniel also seemed satisfied that I was real and let out a sigh of relief. “I take it you’ve had some encounters with vision versions of our friends too?”

  “Yeah, a fake Javier and a fake Kai. I haven’t encountered any of our real friends though.”