by Emma Hamm
“What is that?”
Wren’s hands were shaking as E reached for the vial. “Where did you get this?”
“I have friends in high places.”
Burke growled. “What is it?”
“The elixir of life,” E whispered. “From a pool that was dried up long ago. This should not exist.”
“What?” Confusion made Burke’s word strangled.
E looked into his eyes. “The fountain of youth wasn’t just a legend. But it was in our dimension, not the human’s. It can heal any wound and preserve any life. The pool was destroyed many years ago and long lost. There shouldn’t be any left.”
Pitch nodded. “I kept it safe for a long time.”
“Why?”
“That’s for Wren to know, not you.” He slowly stood and dusted himself off. “I’ll be leaving now.”
“Wait.” Burke slowly stood and held out his hand. “I don’t trust you at all.”
Pitch snorted but shook his hand. “Yeah I know.”
Then the dark haired man was swallowed by shadows and disappeared. Burke blinked a few times and tried to reconcile what happened. His brows furrowed, and he turned to meet E’s gaze.
“Did he just teleport?”
“Apparently there are a few of them around here.” E was frowning as well.
“What is he?”
“No one knows.”
E held out the chain and vial towards Burke. “Now please?”
He put it over his head and was comforted by the thump against his chest. It weighed more than he would have thought possible. Or perhaps it was the responsibility that now held his throat in a vise.
“When I get her to the top of your consciousness?”
“I’ll take it from there,” E said. “She’ll be in control of her body, and I will work on putting up the walls again.”
“Okay, so how do I do this now?”
“Do what you’re best at Dream Walker. Just dive into my mind this time.”
Burke situated himself next to the bed. He rested his hands on his forearms and slowly released a deep breath. “Let’s fly,” he muttered as he lost himself once more to the dreaming world.
CHAPTER 13
T he air around him swirled with dark fog. Not white colors as it should have been, but black wisps that curled up from the ground. Burke shook himself as he stepped into the mind of Legion. This was not a dream, nor was it the world he was used to discovering. He would need to tread carefully.
A long curl of black rose from the ground. It brushed along his arms and down the long length of his spine. Before it could reach its destination, Burke flinched forward with a sharp shout.
Laughter echoed around him. “You’ll have to excuse her. It’s not often we have a visitor that isn’t part of us.”
“E,” he growled, “this wasn’t the plan.”
“What, having parts of me try to feel you up?”
“Just get on with it, would you?”
The long silence that followed made Burke assume that E was pouting. He wouldn’t put it passed the creature. It had a record of acting fairly childish, depending on which part of the creature he was speaking to.
Some of the shadows in front of him formed a column of darkness. Burke took one step back as a figure formed there. It did not have a face, but many faces that flickered in and out of existence.
It stepped towards him and held out a hand.
“I’m not holding onto you. Point me in the right direction, and I’ll head that way.” Burke shook his head as he took another step back.
“You want to save her, don’t you?”
“Yes.” Without a doubt. His very soul called for hers.
“Then we need to go a lot deeper than this. You’ve only scratched the surface of my mind.”
He grimaced, but reached out to hold onto the hand that was extended to him. It was more solid than he had been expecting. His mind jumped into overdrive as he tried to explain to himself that he was currently inside another creature holding the hand of a shadow. It didn’t feel right.
He wasn’t stepping into a completely unknown world. This was his reality, and he had to stay on his toes. Nerves made him uncomfortable. This place was unpredictable and out of his control.
Dreams were never fully under his control. He was always at the mercy of the dreamer to a certain extent. He could leave or disappear from the dream if a nightmare became too dangerous. But this place was different. He couldn’t yank himself out easily. He didn’t even know how to get out.
Speaking of - “E?” he asked. “How am I supposed to get out?”
“Same way you do from dreams.”
“This doesn’t feel like the dreaming world.”
“No, I suppose it wouldn’t.” The shadows raised to tap a finger against what should have been its chin. “Perhaps you just need to wake up?”
“That’s not very clear. I was hoping you might have a ideas than than that.”
E shrugged. “We’ll figure out that problem when we get there.”
“Reassuring,” he muttered.
The ground below him opened up. Not like a trap door, that would have been theatrical even for E. But it slowly opened into a vast expanse of nothing. He and E hovered above it, though Burke had a feeling if he let go of E, even for a second, he would tumble through and never return.
“What’s this?” he asked as he stared into the abyss below them.
“My mind.”
“It has layers?”
“Have you ever played chess?”
Burke slowly turned to look at the creature next to him. It asked the strangest questions at times like these. “Yes.”
“Have you ever played three dimensional chess?”
“You mean the kind where there are multiple boards stacked on top of each other?”
“Yes.”
“No, I haven’t.” But Burke was getting a bad feeling he was going to experience it first hand.
“Well you’re about to.”
Slowly, they began to descend into the darkness. Their progress was too quick for Burke to linger upon too many details. But it appeared as though most of E’s mind was dreaming. Burke knew when he was looking at dreams.
A woman floated down a river that dropped off a cliff and into a void of nothing. A man wandered down a dimly lit street where flowers grew from between the cracks in the pavement. Twin girls built a dragon out of sand, which turned its head when Burke and E passed by it.
Yet all of these dreams were slightly out of place. The dreamers were aware of him when they should not be. They watched E pass by, some waving and calling out greetings.
“Are you dreaming?” he asked E.
“In a way. My dormant creatures live out many lives here.”
“So they aren’t… suppressed or dying?”
E gave him an odd look. “When I said some of my souls were weak, what did you think I did with them?”
“I thought they weren’t coherent or even aware of what was happening to them.”
“I am not so cruel. They are not capable of handling great emotion, such would tear them apart. I provide them a safe place where they are happiest. They relive those moments until they grow bored, and I provide them a new one.”
“You’re like a sanctuary for broken souls,” Burke mused. “Lucky them.”
The blank darkness that served as E’s face turned towards him. “No one has ever thought of it like that.”
“I have a feeling you’ve never really let anyone know you very well.”
“Touché,” E muttered.
They stopped after a few moments. Burke’s feet settled onto firm ground. After traveling in such a way, it was almost startling to feel himself not moving.
He stared around them and wondered now where they were. No dreams reflected here. In fact, he didn’t even see any souls. There was nothing but a blank void that made it feel as though he were blind. The only reason he knew he wasn’t was the solid feeling of E’s ha
nd and the general shape of the creature next to him.
“Are you frightened?” the creature whispered.
“No.” But his voice was higher than it should have been. He cleared his throat. “Why do you ask?”
“Because you’re still holding onto my hand.”
He immediately dropped the referenced limb and took a step back. The laughter that rumbled out of E’s chest made him uncomfortable. He was not likely to mention it.
His body felt heavier here. Not quite as though he weighed more or that the form he took inside this mind was larger. But there was a certain seriousness that held down on his shoulders as though there were hands upon him.
It couldn’t be the place he was in. Burke knew how to keep his own emotions out of his dreams. This couldn’t be his own nerves, his own stress, filtering into the world which E had created… Could it?
“Easy there big guy,” E muttered.
He glanced towards it.
“This isn’t a dream. You affect the environment just as much as others. For now, you’re a visitor inside me who has just as much power as any other soul.”
“Good to know,” he muttered as he worked hard to clear his mind. The last thing he needed was to turn this into yet another of Wren’s nightmares.
The last one had been dangerous enough.
Burke took one step, then another, further away from E and towards what he knew was likely to be the fight of his life. Find Wren. Give her the elixir that was wrapped around his throat. Keep her with him and convince her to return. Hope to every God that might be listening that E could put her in control over her own body again.
“E?” he asked.
“Last question Burke, you’re stalling.”
“How do I get her to you? Are you staying or not?”
“She’ll know. Give her the elixir and everything will be changed.”
“Right, ‘cause that’s going to be easy. Why do you think I’m capable of this?”
Silence was his answer.
“E?” He turned around to see whether or not the creature was still behind him. It wasn’t. There was nothing but a blank space where a column of darkness should be.
“Okay,” he muttered. “Guess I’m on my own.”
Burke bent down to press his hand against the solid ground beneath him. There was nothing here with him. Just a blank slate he could fill to try and lure Wren towards him.
Taking in a deep breath, he flexed his fingers and spread them wide against the ground. In his mind he built the scene he wanted. Green grass spread from his fingertips and flowers grew into bright colors. Every rose color he could think of and more bloomed before him.
Into the scene he added a warm sun with puffy white clouds. Butterflies that fluttered above the flowers and landed upon his shoulders and arms. Birds that could not be seen chirped and filled the ears with lyrical music. And finally, he made certain that the sweet scent of lavender danced through the air.
It was enough. He hoped it was enough. He added a chair and table. Silver wrought iron slithered from the ground and metal roses entangled with the legs of the chair and table. Here he would wait for her.
Burke settled onto the chair and tried to tell himself he wasn’t setting a trap for her. He wasn’t going to harm her, he was going to do the opposite. Yet it still felt as though he was lying in wait for the woman that made his chest ache.
He did not know how long he waited. Only that the entire time he sat on that chair with the sweet scent of roses, he thought of her. He thought of the way she laughed loud and long at the oddest of things. He thought of her kindness to her customers. He thought of the graceful way she moved and the long arch of her neck.
The shadows beyond the edge of his creation moved.
“Wren?” Burke asked quietly.
He held his breath as the shadows moved once more. Like a curtain they parted to reveal Wren as she wandered into his creation. Her feet were bare, and he could see a shiver travel up her spine as her toes touched the springy grass.
She was beautiful in the way a wild creature was. Her hair swept off of her neck as a breeze constantly walked with her. This time her white dress was slightly different. It glittered in the light, and Burke realized it was made out of webbing. Spider webs, it must be, just like the spider dress Pitch had given her.
A spike of jealousy made some of the grass curl and die. Wren paused, and her brow furrowed in confusion. He was losing control of the dream and himself. He couldn’t do that at a time like this.
Slowly, he stood. His hand reached out towards her, and the grass became green once more.
“Wren,” he murmured.
She looked at his hand and cocked her head to the side. She wasn’t herself, he realized. Her hands were holding onto the delicate fabric of her dress. Her head swiveled constantly to look around her, and her eyes were large with fright.
Was she worried something was coming after her? If he remembered anything from her nightmares, it was possible. But E had said that the other souls were not stressed in the depths of its mind. Why would she be?
He took one step towards her and froze when she poised to run.
“Wren.” He was quiet with his words and movements. Burke had the distinct feeling that if he lost her now, she was gone forever. “It’s me.”
Her head cocked to the side, and she looked at him for the first time since entering the clearing. Those storm grey eyes danced over his features, and her lips parted. A jolt of joy nearly made him run forward to hold her in his arms.
She took one step towards him. “Cricket?”
His brows furrowed instantly. Cricket? What was she talking about?
Was this situation more dire than he had realized?
She shook her head too many times to count as her eyes moved to stare down at her open hands. Her fingers opened and clenched in a pattern. “No, no, no, not cricket. That’s a person not a cricket.”
She was whispering to herself, he realized. Without E constantly in her mind Wren had grasped at the edges of her mind and wrapped them around herself. Insanity was a tightrope she was currently walking without any guidance.
“Man. Cricket. Bug? No, not bug.” She muttered as her arms wrapped around herself. “Think. Think!”
He wanted to help her. But she was so wrapped firmly in her own mind that he did not know the effects of him talking. She had to figure this out for herself. It was killing him to not assist her.
“Jiminy Cricket?” Her eyes looked up at him with a hopeful light in them before her brow furrowed instantly. She stared at him as though he was the problem in this moment. “No, not character, you’re too big.”
Burke waited patiently and prayed to every God that she would figure it out. She had to go through this moment by herself.
“Jiminy.” She whispered then. Her eyes widened again as she stared at him. This time, he saw recognition in that gaze. The fog had lifted from her mind. “Jiminy.”
“Hello.”
He wanted her to step forward. He wanted so desperately to hold her in his arms. To get this entire ordeal over with and to save her once more. But she took a step away from him instead.
“Wren-” Burke followed her for each step he lost.
“I’m not right, Jiminy.” She shook her head and held out a hand as a barrier against him. “I’m not right.”
“I know. I know, sweetheart. I’m here to fix you.”
“You can’t.”
His hand checked that the vial around his throat was still there. He could fix her. She just had to give him a chance. “Why do you think I’m here, Wren?”
She tapped hard against her head. Jabbing the solid skull underneath her wild hair, she shook her head at him. “I’m in pieces, Jiminy. Not whole. Not the same. Shattered and broken, I’m -” she swallowed hard, “I’m not myself.”
His hands clenched at his sides. “Malachi did that to you. He pushed you too hard, but we found a way to piece you back together.”
�
�Silly.” The smile on her face didn’t look right. “You can’t put together a puzzle that has pieces missing.”
She turned and plunged into the darkness around the trap he had set. Burke didn’t hesitate. He followed her instantly.
He didn’t know what the depths of E’s mind would feel like the further he got from the point he had been dropped at. Strangely, it felt as though something was constantly pulling him backwards. The only way he could describe it was as though he was attempting to run through waves. Something was always pushing him back.
Sight was nonexistent in this place. His hand might have been in front of him, but he did not know. His body was no longer attached, and his mind was spiraling as he tried to find her.
Burke could see how this place drove people insane.
“Wren!” he shouted. “Wren!”
A giggle from his right cause him to swerve. He wasn’t interested in playing this game. He wasn’t chasing her through a labyrinth.
“I’m here to save you!”
She laughed again.
“Damnit, Wren!”
This wasn’t her. This wasn’t the woman he had fallen in love with. It was only pieces of her, and some pieces he didn’t particularly like. Insanity made her words seem meaningless and her actions less.
He broke free into another dream. Silvery light nearly blinded him as he brushed off the black spiderwebs that tried to pull him back into the abyss. He wasn’t letting go. He was going to find her.
Before him were fields of roses. They were a blanket that covered the ground and filled the air with a cloying scent. So sweet, it clung to his clothing, and Burke could taste the bitter stems. Red roses that put his own image to shame.
Perhaps she was showing him what she truly wanted. If he were going to tempt her, he was going to have to do a lot better.
“Wren?” he asked one more time. He was going to change form soon if that was what it required. As a bird, he might be able to find her in this dream that was her own creation.
An image shimmered before him as the roses parted to reveal a stone ruin. The crag glittered as the silver light caught on veins of ore that threaded through its rough stones. A carved stairwell ringed its great height.