by Gareth Otton
“No,” Trevors interrupted. “You don’t get to come here and—”
“This is an order. You don’t do it, you’re fired,” Stella snapped, not willing to play this game while ghosts were being murdered… or worse.
Trevors was stunned. “You can’t be serious. What the hell for? Doing our jobs?”
“If you were doing your jobs, there would be dreamwalkers here, not some rogue arseholes trying to prove they’re bigger men by murdering ghosts.” Lizzie’s words were heated, and Trevors bared his teeth and growled at her.
“Murdering ghosts? Have you lost your minds?”
Stella was done waiting and was reaching for the radio on Trevors’ vest to tell everyone to stand down when that radio came to life on its own.
“Everyone, cease what you’re doing and report with the locations of any ghosts. Then wait for me, Gary, or Chakikra to deal with them. Under no circumstances are any of you to destroy another ghost or I will deal with you personally.”
The furious voice shocked everyone into stillness except for Stella, who snatched the radio from Trevors’ uniform and thumbed the button that would let her talk.
“Dream Team, this is DT Director Martin. Anyone thinking of ignoring Tad’s order, know that he has my full backing. Anyone who does not comply can consider themselves out of a job, effective immediately. As per the contracts you signed when you received your dreamcatchers, you will be expected to turn yourself in to have them destroyed by the end of the day or we will arrest you and destroy them anyway. If you want to avoid that fate, stand down now.”
Done with the radio, she threw it at Trevors, who stared at her with such a stunned expression that he almost didn’t react in time to catch it.
“What are you doing?” he asked when he could finally bring himself to speak again.
“I could ask the same question of you. But we don’t have time for that. You’ve still got a job to do. Help your team locate the remaining ghosts and radio their location in to the dreamwalkers. We’ll talk about this later.”
Trevors hesitated, then his expression set, and he raised an accusing finger to point at her face. “You’re overstepping again. I won’t forget this.”
“I don’t want you to forget this,” Stella snapped. “Just do your job, and we’ll talk about it later.”
Trevors stared her down, then spun to gather his men. As he stalked past Leon, he tensed up his shoulder to knock the smaller man aside, but as Harry found out a few minutes earlier, Leon was not so easily moved. He didn’t so much as budge, and Trevors bounced off the man hard enough to make him grunt in pain and hold his shoulder.
Leon just smiled, earning glared daggers in response.
Trevors didn’t push the issue. He rounded up his team and lead them around another corner of the corridor that headed back to the staircase. The moment they left, Stella felt the full impact of her weariness return.
She was exhausted, both physically and mentally. Whatever she had done to make everyone stop had taken it out of her, and the tension she just created between herself and the tactical team was almost as heavy on her mind as her guilt for letting that last ghost get destroyed. For the first time in a long time, she didn’t have the energy to finish out the day, and wanted nothing more than for this to be over.
“What should we do?” Leon asked.
“Let’s head back outside. None of us are trained to be here, and we’ll just be in the way. Besides, I need to organise police support to deal with the crowds along with more of her people when they show up.” She nodded her head at Lizzie who bristled, but didn’t get chance to reply before Stella raised her hand in apology. “Sorry, I didn’t mean it to come out that way. I’m just… never mind. Just sorry.”
Lizzie still wanted to challenge her on it, but turned away instead.
“Are you alright? It looked like you were ready to pass out after you used your Authority that second time.”
Stella could practically hear the capital A in authority and looked up sharply.
“My what?” Seeing Leon’s surprise that she didn’t know what he was talking about, she again realised she didn’t have time for this. “You know what, we’ll talk about it later. I’ve got things to do right now.”
“You’re alright though?” Leon asked.
Stella forced a smile. “I’m fine. Just tired.”
Leon frowned, knowing full well what that meant for Stella. He didn’t push it though, he just started after Lizzie, heading back out of the building.
The most reluctant to follow her was Freckles, who looked towards where Trevors had gone with an expression that Stella didn’t need her intuition to figure out. He didn’t like being taken away from the hunt.
“Come on, you’ve seen enough action today. We need to get that cut looked at on your face. It looks bad.”
Freckles huffed as if to say it was nothing more than a scratch, and despite everything Stella laughed.
“Whatever tough guy. Just come with me.”
With another huff, this time telling her just how disappointed he was, he fell into line, following Stella and the others out of the building, leaving Tad and the dreamwalkers to clean up this mess.
7
Wednesday, 16th November 2016
18:43
Tad shoved the radio back at Michael, one of Trevors’ men and yet another arsehole. Tad never had a great relationship with the Dream Team tactical units, and it only got worse over the last few months. Catching them destroying a ghost without giving it the chance to move on was too much.
Therefore, as he shoved a radio back, he pulled over a little Dream to give his message some bite. In hindsight, he might have pulled over too much.
Like all of Trevors’ guys, Michael was a walking, talking muscle. He must have weighed eighteen stone, yet with one hand Tad took him off his feet and sent him crashing into a wall on the other side of the room, completely clearing the double bed in the process. Michael’s two buddies raised their guns in response, but thought better of that when Growler pulled over a little Dream himself to augment the low rumble from his throat.
“All of you, leave,” Tad said, his voice cold.
On the other side of the room, Michael climbed to his feet, brushing dust off his shoulder from where his body cracked the plasterboard. Tad recognised the hate in his eyes and didn’t need to see his out-of-control aura to know the man was furious. He felt the tingle of Dream as a light flared from under the man’s t-shirt. Tad prepared himself to fight off an attack, but it never came. One of the other men grabbed Michael’s arm and forced eye contact.
“He’s not worth it.”
For a moment it looked like Michael would ignore him, but the light on his chest went out and he stepped away from the wall. He couldn’t leave without getting in one last word though.
“The days of you pulling stunts like that are numbered. You think you’re king shit now, but just you wait. It won’t always be that way.” When Tad didn’t respond he added. “One day the law will be on my side. I’ve got a bullet with your name on it waiting for that day.”
Despite his words, he didn’t have the confidence to hang around to make sure his threat landed. He spun away as soon as the words were out and marched out of the room. Growler didn’t let up on his growl until their footsteps faded to silence.
“Jesus, Tad. Don’t you think you were a bit harsh?” Gary asked, pulling Tad’s attention from the open doorway.
“You kidding? He should’ve used that laser trick of his to cut their heads off for what they did,” Chakikra answered, coming to Tad’s defence. She angrily wiped away the last of her tears and turned on the middle-aged dreamwalker like she wanted to punch him. “That poor ghost is gone, Gary. Either of us could have given it a choice to move on rather than condemned it to oblivion. Fuck those arseholes.”
“Whoa, calm down. I’m not on their side. I just think they’re people who were doing their job and didn’t know better.”
“No, th
ey don’t get that excuse,” Tad said. “There are rules requiring you to accompany tactical teams for a reason. They crossed a line today and if there was any justice in the world, they’d spend the rest of their lives in prison for it.”
Recognising that he was so angry his voice was shaking, Tad took a deep breath to calm himself and ran his hands over his face. The headache he’d put aside when Jen visited was re-emerging, and it came back with a vengeance.
When Stella called earlier, he thought she was ringing to see if he’d changed his mind about going to dinner with Leon. He hadn’t expected to hear what sounded like a hundred people screaming in terror. Over the next ten minutes he contacted Miles to find out what was happening and then dreamwalked to the Phoenix. He didn’t know much about the shelter as he hadn’t been listening when Stella or Kimberly spoke about it, yet another ball he’d dropped recently. However, he knew there could be as many as a hundred ghosts here, so he also knew that he needed help. Therefore, he told Miles to get the message to either Chakikra or Gary that he could do with their help, and was surprised to find that both were available as the tactical teams had gone out alone.
If that didn’t worry him enough, he turned up to find Michael and his friends hunting down a rogue ghost and destroying it without a moment of hesitation over doing the worst thing Tad could imagine.
Just thinking of it made him angry, and he couldn’t afford that right now. Lizzie was right when she told him he needed to get control of his temper. So with one last deep breath, he forced his rage down and turned back to Chakikra and Gary.
“Come on,” he said. “Let’s put these poor ghosts to rest the right way.”
◆◆◆
“Tad, this is getting us nowhere. We’ll be at this all night.”
Tad hesitated before pressing the button on the radio, sympathising with Chakikra’s complaints. After half an hour they had helped some ghosts move on, but not many. The trouble was the size of the building and the complexity of its shape. The three of them couldn’t cover enough ground to prevent the ghosts from hiding or slipping away.
It didn’t help that Trevors men had long since left, not willing to help further. Tad felt they were abandoning their duties, but at the same time was glad to see them go.
“We need a new plan,” Chakikra said, impatience obvious in the nineteen-year-old’s voice.
Tad’s tired brain wasn’t working correctly and he struggled to think of a better way to do this. He was so long coming up with a plan that Growler huffed and lay down, looking bored.
“Tad? You listening.”
“Yeah, sorry. Just trying to think of something.” Frowning at Growler, he added, “I might have just had an idea. Meet me at the staircase. I think I know how to put this to bed.”
He waited for the confirmation before he pulled out his phone and dialled Stella.
“Hey Tad. You done in there, because the building still feels wrong from out here?”
“Not done yet, but I know how to finish this quicker. Can you send Freckles in?”
There was a pause before Stella replied in a worried voice. “Freckles?”
“Yeah. Don’t worry, he’ll be fine. In fact, he’ll have the time of his life.” When she didn’t respond he added, “You know I wouldn’t ever let anything happen to him.”
There was an explosive sigh from Stella that distorted the sound of the speaker and made Tad pull the phone from his ear before Stella gave in.
“Freckles, go find Tad.” After a pause, she added, “He’s on his way. Judging by how fast he shot off, I think he’ll be with you in less than a minute. I think he was bored.”
Tad smiled. “Yeah, I’m getting that from Growler too. Alright, if this works we’ll have this wrapped up in five minutes. I’ll speak to you then.”
“Be careful. And don’t get my dog hurt or I’ll never forgive you.”
Recognising she was serious, Tad promised he would be careful before hanging up. He turned to Growler, who watched him from the hotel room floor.
“Come on buddy, let’s go have some fun.”
Growler climbed to his feet with his tail wagging and chuffed as though saying it was about time.
A few minutes later, Tad, Gary and Chakikra were stationed on the first floor landing and Tad laid out his plan.
“We’re going to clear this place floor by floor,” Tad started. “Trevors’ people did one thing right when the put dreamcatchers around this building so the ghosts can’t leave. We just need to be smarter about how we round them up.”
“So how can we do that?” Gary asked, rubbing his tired eyes and ready for this to be over.
“That’s where these two come in,” he said, pointing at the dogs who were sitting on their haunches and listening attentively. To the dogs, Tad said, “Each floor is a big loop that starts and ends at the staircase. You’re both going in one end to flush the ghosts out the other for us to deal with. Think you can manage that?”
Both dogs climbed to their feet with their tails wagging and chuffing excitedly while Gary and Chakikra both swore and laughed.
“It’s like they understand you,” Gary said in amazement.
“I wouldn’t put it past them,” Tad said. “You two ready for this? I think any ghosts that come out of those doors are going to be like cornered animals. We’re going to have to act fast.”
“We can handle it,” Chakikra answered. “But what about the bedrooms, how are the dogs going to clear those when the doors close automatically? You want me to go in with them?”
“No, we’ll need you here. Don’t forget these two are dreamwalkers and they have a strong aversion to being left behind or trapped anywhere. One of the first tricks they figured out was how to bypass doors.”
“Oh,” Chakikra said, her eyes wide. “I wish my dogs could do that.”
Tad chuckled and looked back at Growler with a proud smile. “Yeah, it’s pretty cool. Right, any other questions?” Both Gary and Chakikra shook their heads. “Then let’s finish this.” Turning his attention to the dogs he said, “What are you waiting for?”
Growler was off like a shot, sprinting for the nearest open door and instantly consumed by darkness. Freckles only hesitated to bark once in excitement before he too was off, following his brother.
“How long do you think they’ll be?” Gary asked, looking into the darkness with the others and straining to hear what was going on. Tad was about to answer when there was another bark, this one filled with Dream and infinitely more menacing.
“That’s terrifying,” Chakikra blurted. “Even I want to run from that. Where did you find those dogs again?”
“It’s more like they found me,” Tad said. There was another bark that was a little quieter as it was further away, but no less terrifying. “Come on, it sounds like they’re clearing rooms quickly. Let’s get ready for those ghosts to come out the other side. Gary, do me a favour and hang back in case any of the ghosts come out the other way.”
“Are you sure you can handle them all?” Gary asked doubtfully.
“Give it a minute to be sure,” Tad said. “If nothing comes out this end, then come help.”
Gary nodded and moved closer to the entrance while Chakikra and Tad jogged to the exit. They weren’t a moment too soon.
A shadow slipped from the darkness, looking behind itself with wide, terrified eyes. It was a strange sight for Tad. Every time he encountered a mad ghost before, it was a bundle of rage, terrifying in its intensity. But he shouldn’t be surprised. They were human spirits, driven to a point of raw emotion and instinct. It made sense that when facing a threat like dreamwalking dogs, their fear would overpower them.
The ghost, all shadow and smoke, rushed straight for Chakikra, who raised a hand and called to Dream. The instant it touched her skin its eyes widened further, its mouth opened wide, and it turned its attention back on her. Then it changed.
The smoke pulled back, almost like Tad was watching a fire in reverse. Its ephemeral edges took on m
ore solid lines, the skin smoothed out, the skeleton was covered, and soon enough there was a frightened woman standing with her arm caught by Chakikra’s hand. Tad didn’t see what happened next as two more ghosts rushed from the darkness, one still looking back and the other forward.
Tad had no choice but to catch both, something he hadn’t tried before. The one looking back was easy enough. Like with Chakikra, it rushed straight into his outstretched hand. The other tried to slip by him, but Tad caught it by the tip of his fingers, barely brushing the trailing tendrils of shadow. It was enough.
Having worked with mad ghosts for years, Dream came automatically. All Tad had to do was keep hold of the ghosts and ignore the icy cold that washed through him. He cast his senses outward, feeling for the chaos in these ghosts and adding order to the madness. Back when he did this for Tony, he thought of it like a puzzle that needed assembly before locking the pieces in place. With this ghost, he realised it was more like he had a ball of knots and he was untangling them one by one. Dream took care of most of the hard work, Tad just needed to imagine the result.
This was something Tad did easily before the Merging, so now it was no effort at all to change them both. The same fire in reverse effect happened until Tad found himself holding a frail old man and a young woman barely out of her teens. Both looked terrified, and Tad knew how they would choose.
“Move on or be destroyed. I’m afraid I don’t have a third choice,” he said.
The old man didn’t answer before evaporating into a mist that condensed into a white ball that travelled back along the spiderweb like connection that connected all souls to the next life. A sudden feeling of warmth and acceptance like Tad would never get used to rushed over him, lending him new strength and chasing away his weariness. Suddenly he felt more hopeful about what he was doing, felt like despite everything arranged against him, he could fight on and win through this.
When that warmth faded, he turned to the young woman and felt calmer.