by Gareth Otton
She pushed herself into a sitting position as her vision turned red and she opened the door in her mind. In one exaggerated movement, she brought her hands together in the mother of all claps and used Dream to do its thing.
The clap became an explosion of sound so violent the shock wave travelled out from Jen in a visible ripple, distorting the air and knocking everyone to the ground like they were bowling pins and she had just got a strike. Car windows shattered, car alarms sounded, and the world stilled.
Jen wasn’t done.
She redirected Dream into her legs and climbed to her feet, towering over the frightened school kids with eyes blazing. The boys who attacked her stared back with a mixture of fear and hatred, and she wanted nothing more than to wipe those looks off their faces.
Movement out of the corner of her eye made her look up, and she saw Robert and Tony continued to fight, with Robert looking bloody and bruised, but now having the upper hand. For all that Tony was a ghost, he had a tendency to fall back on human reactions when he got emotional. He hadn’t fought like a ghost, he fought like an angry teenager, and Robert, although younger, had more experience fighting.
Seeing the ghost she considered a brother in everything but blood take a beating on her behalf pushed her past the point of reason. She reached for Dream again, ready to do something she couldn’t take back. Robert would regret the day he ever dreamed of hurting those kids… of hurting her.
However, movement out the corner of her eye distracted her. This time it was teenagers with familiar faces climbing to their feet. Amanda, Katie and Faye stared at her with expressions she never wanted to see on their faces. Their eyes were wide, their skin had paled, and they were terrified beyond belief.
Terrified of her.
How much more scared will they be if you hurt him?
The voice in her head sounded like Tad as she knew what he’d say to calm her down. She could imagine the disappointment on his face if she continued with her original plan. However, she wanted to end this and for that she needed backup.
Acting on the kind of instinct Tad always talked about, but she never realised she shared, she used Dream in a way she never imagined before.
“Hawk,” she shouted, and willed her voice to carry to her dog, wherever he may be. Although it wasn’t physical volume that augmented her call, but a mental shove that pushed her shout through Dream itself, people flinched in terror.
Jen had an awkward ten seconds to recognise that terror as her worst fears come to life before there was a pop and an enormous dog sprang into existence, teeth bared and hackles raised as he borrowed his brother’s trick of growling with Dream to back it up.
If those faces were scared before, they were terrified now, and Jen got what she wanted, an end to this situation.
The dreamwalking dog looked like a hellhound in that moment, and it was too much for the kids in the circle and the bullies alike. They took one look at Hawk, then ran away screaming. Jen felt a momentary pang of loss as her friends ran with them, but she pushed that aside and turned her attention back to the fight between Tony and Robert.
They ignored her shout and Hawk’s arrival, and continued to struggle with each other. Jen wondered what she should do to stop it and if maybe she should send Hawk in to deal with Robert, but that choice was taken from her a moment later.
“Everyone, freeze!”
The voice was both deep and familiar, and Jen turned in surprise to find Trevors standing over her with his gun raised as though he was ready to use it. There was a pop, followed by another, and another, until soon there was an entire unit of the Dream Team surrounding her with their guns out and fingers on the trigger.
Jen stared back in shock as she realised every gun was trained on her.
Out the corner of her eye she noticed Tony and Robert had stopped fighting, but Jen was only concerned with the guns pointed at her and her crippling fear when not a single gun looked like it would be lowered anytime soon.
“Jen, let go of Dream now,” Trevors demanded, his voice cold.
In response to his command, Hawk growled again and turned to face Trevors. The large man’s gun never so much as twitched, but other guns swung to point at her dog and Jen’s fear shot through the roof.
“Don’t shoot him,” she shouted.
“Then let go of Dream and we won’t have to.”
“I can’t. I need it to walk.”
Unbelievably Trevors lifted his gun a little higher, almost like he was preparing to actually use it.
“Trevors, what the hell are you doing?” Tony demanded, but Trevors ignored him.
“I won’t say this again. Let go of Dream or we will be forced to treat you as hostile.”
Stunned beyond belief, Jen looked at Tony with terrified eyes, and he stared back, looking every bit as scared.
“Run,” he said, and Jen knew it was the right choice.
“Hawk, with me,” she shouted, then changed the channel.
“No do—” she heard Trevors shout before he disappeared along with everything else as Jen went to the one place in the world where she felt safe.
As she landed on her bed in Tad’s home, she felt a moment of panic when Hawk didn’t immediately appear, but then there was a pop and he was right by her side.
All at once the fear of the last few moments, her confusion over Robert’s transformation and Trevors’ attitude, as well as her guilt for ignoring the pain those ghosts had endured for so long became too much. Unable to process what happened, she reached for her dog, buried her face in his fur and sobbed. All the while she reflected on how since she was dragged away from Tad’s house four months ago, nothing in her life had gone right.
Terrified and in shock, Jen continued to sob until there were no more tears left to shed.
14
Friday, 25th November 2016
18:32
“She knows there’s something different about us and she’ll keep looking until she finds it,” Leon said.
“Damn, this is the last thing we need,” Stella swore, looking at Tad like this was his fault.
“I haven’t told her anything,” he said defensively. “Don’t blame me.”
“I wasn’t,” Stella said, sinking deeper into her chair and running her hands over her face. “Why does she have to make everything so difficult?”
Tad glanced at Leon, who sat in the visitor chair next to him. There was a tone in Stella’s voice that neither of them liked.
“It get’s worse,” Leon said after a hard swallow. Stella looked over her hands and her eyes narrowed as a hint of red flushed through her normally well-controlled aura.
“Worse?” she asked. “What now? You let her film you flipping over a car or something?”
“An old friend from Hydra visited as Lizzie was being marched out. He saw me talking with her and recognised who she was.”
“He’s an Idol, isn’t he?” Stella asked.
Leon nodded.
“It just never ends. I swear, between you trying to break into Ten Downing street and you showing off for any woman who bats their eyes at you, you’re both going to run me into an early grave. What did this friend of yours have to say for himself?”
“He gave me a warning?”
Stella froze, her aura vanishing as she went deadly serious.
“He threatened you?”
“Me and you,” Leon admitted. “The Eidolon council have told me I need to get home now or… well, you get the point. As for you… It’s not good. They’re coming after you for not backing down.”
“Of course they are,” she muttered. “Well, we’ll just see about—”
“Who are the Eidolon council?” Tad interrupted.
“They’re the descendants of the old gods, and they formed the council after the gods gave up their powers. They decided they couldn’t be trusted to be as powerful as they once were, but they didn’t want to give up power completely. You know those conspiracy theories you always hear about the illuminati? They�
�ve got nothing on the Eidolon council.”
“So they’re a bunch of rich old men pulling strings behind the scenes?” Tad asked, the image of a mafia crime family running through his head, running back alley deals and greasing palms to get their way.
“Try ancient, and they’re not all men. They’re the eidolon elites, and they’ve been treading a narrow path between Eidolon power and political power. What they lost when they gave up their personal power in ancient times, they made up for by pulling the strings for most of human history. Most of them are two hundred years old at least.”
“Two hundred?” Tad questioned, unable to keep the disbelief from his voice.
“It’s easy to stay young,” Leon argued. “Enough belief that you don’t seem to age and you stop, at least if your one of the eidolon. Think of actors like Tom Cruise or Keanu Reeves, they never seem to age, right?”
“They’re Eidolon?” Tad asked, glancing at Stella in surprise.
“No, they’re just actors, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they have some Eidolon ancestry, enough that people assign belief and it takes some effect.”
“We can worry about Hollywood another time,” Stella said, getting back on topic. “What kind of pull do these people have, and what can we expect them to send against us?”
Leon squirmed.
“I don’t know. Yia-yia never let me anywhere near them. They had a falling out after your mother died and they parted ways. But I’ve heard rumours and…” He swallowed hard and looked between Tad and Stella as he struggled to get the next words out. “I think you should run.”
“No,” Stella said, shooting him down without hesitation.
“I’m serious, you don’t know these people. They have the kind of pull you couldn’t imagine and if they snap their fingers, they could wipe entire cities off the map.”
“I don’t care if they’re actually gods. I’m not backing down to bullies. They’ll just have to get in line with everyone else who wants me out of the way.”
“You need to take these people seriously,” Leon pressed, working himself into a rage of his own.
“I am taking them seriously. I just don’t have time to worry, at least not until I have more information. Making sure Lizzie does nothing stupid with the theories she has in that empty blonde brain of hers is our priority.”
“That’s not fair,” Tad said, coming to the reporter’s defence. Stella waved him off irritably.
“Get over it. She’s a pain in the arse and you know it.”
“She’s not an idiot,” Tad said. “And she’s done a lot for us.”
“I know, I haven’t forgotten. I just don’t need this right now. If it’s not one thing, it’s another and I’m struggling to—”
A knock on the door cut her off, and she called out for the person to enter. A moment later Denise stuck her head inside.
“Uh… You got a second, Stella. Something’s come up that I think you’re going to want to know.”
“Of course it has,” Stella muttered. “What is it now?”
Denise shot a look at Tad and was uncharacteristically flustered.
“Can we speak alone?”
For a moment the room was silent while Stella looked at Denise with a concerned expression. Tad was about to ask what was going on, but his phone buzzed and he had the phone out of his pocket before he could think better of it. When he saw Letty’s name on the screen, he frowned and thumbed the answer button.
“Letty? Is everything alright?”
“Tad… I think you should come home. There’s something going on at your house.”
“What kind of something?” he asked. For months he had woken every morning waiting for something to mess up his day. So far today he hoped that Leon’s problems were enough, but he could tell by the tone in Letty’s voice that he hadn’t been thinking big enough.
“There are police here. A lot of them. And I think the Dream Team are here as well. There are some people from your barbecue a few months back and they all have guns.”
“What are they doing?” Tad asked, making Leon jump in surprise as he surged to his feet.
“I don’t know, but there’s a lot of people turning up, media as well, and they’re surrounding your house. I don’t know what’s happening, but it’s something big.”
“I’m not home though,” Tad said, confused. “Is it Tony?”
“I don’t know but…”
Her words trailed off in the way of someone who didn’t want to say what she was about to, and Tad’s stomach started doing somersaults.
“What is it, Letty?”
“I don’t know how to say this but… I could have sworn I saw the curtains move in Jen’s room earlier and—”
“I’ll be right there,” Tad said, hanging up and preparing to dreamwalk home.
“Tad, wait,” Stella snapped, grabbing his arm before he could leave. Tad barely paid that any mind. He had already started the process and Stella’s office disappeared. However, even that wasn’t quick enough to stop a startled Leon from grabbing hold of Stella before any of them could leave.
The world shifted, the walls of Stella’s office fell away, and they were outside in the cold and wet of the Welsh winter. Leon collapsed onto the tarmac as his chair was left behind.
Ahead of them a vast crowd surrounded Tad’s house, the closest of which jumped as Tad materialised. At the front of this crowd were a team of grim-faced, muscular men in black tactical gear who had black ink covering their arms. They had guns in their hands and all of them were eyeing the house… his house. Tad could tell they were getting ready to attack.
“Tad, wait,” Stella repeated before Tad could take a single step towards them. Anyone else would not have stopped him, but Stella was squeezing so hard it was like she had him locked in concrete, using strength he couldn’t match without calling to Dream.
“This is a delicate situation,” she said. “Let me deal with this.”
“Is Jen in there?” he asked.
For the first time in a long time, Stella hesitated before answering, fearing his reaction and not wanting to tell him the truth.
“She is, but it’s not nearly so black and white.”
“The hell it’s not,” Tad said, almost shouting now. Around him people were staring and he could feel their eyes, and their cameras, like they were insects crawling over his skin. He didn’t have time to deal with them right now. He wanted to get to his daughter.
“Let me deal with this,” she repeated, sounding as worried as he’d ever heard her.
“You do that,” Tad said. Then he shook free from Stella’s grip using a touch of Dream and before she could grab him again he changed the channel. Once more the world shifted, this time the walls appearing from nothing, and soon he was surrounded by a familiar setting.
Jen sat on her bed, curled around Hawk with tears running down her face. Hawk was already looking his way as he arrived, almost as though he’d been expecting Tad, and his tail thumped once. A moment later there was a pop and Growler appeared at Tad’s side, but did nothing more to announce his presence.
“Jen, what happened?” Tad asked, making the girl jump as she had somehow missed his arrival. However, the second her eyes found his, she launched herself off the bed and hugged him every bit as hard as she had last time. However, now there was something desperate about it and an inner monster Tad had kept bottled up since the day Trevors led a team of police to take his daughter away started tugging at its chains, trying to break free.
“I messed up, dad,” she said before she started sobbing into his chest, her fingers curling into fists behind his back as she caught up his t-shirt and pulled him closer.
“It’s alright. I’m here now. We can fix it, whatever happened. Just tell me what it is?”
Unfortunately, Jen was in no fit state to answer and though Tad felt like time was running out of time with Trevors’ men outside itching to come in, he also didn’t want to rush his daughter when she was so upset. He hugged h
er tighter as she cried and hoped she could get it out of her system in time to answer.
When he heard the door bang open downstairs a moment later, he knew his time was up.
“Hawk, Growler, guard the stairs, but don’t take any risks. Let us know if anyone’s coming and then get out of here, we won’t be far behind.”
He didn’t even question the merits of giving such complicated instructions to his dogs anymore. He was running on instinct and his dreamwalker senses told him his dogs were something special. Hawk flowed off the bed and followed his brother out the door, their nails clicking on the floor in the hall but not going down the stairs. Tad turned his attention back to Jen, pulling away from her so he could look her in the eye.
“What happened?” he asked again, making it clear he had run out of time.
“Some kids were bullying the ghosts again, and Tony wanted me to help. I didn’t want to, but Tony said if I didn’t try something he would handle it.” Slowly the entire story emerged between sobs and sniffs, and Tad built the picture in his head. He could imagine how worried she’d be about Tony doing something dangerous and knew she couldn’t let that happen. When she mentioned how far she had taken things though, he couldn’t help but be surprised, at least until he heard a specific name.
Of course Robert had to be caught up in this. Tad knew better than most how teenage hormones could elevate the emotions of any relationship to extremes. He had loved Maggie so hard as a teenager that he wanted to die when she got her first boyfriend or when she so much as showed interest in anyone that wasn’t him. Who knows how he might have reacted were Charles not there to temper his pain or if he had access to the kind of power he had now as a dreamwalker.
When Jen got to the part of the story where Robert started teasing her about him, how she reacted without thinking and took things too far, a new feeling surged to life inside him. He’d been angry to this point, but now he was terrified. Jen hadn’t just escalated things, she had taken them nuclear. Hurting children on that scale was the kind of thing the media were going to jump on and blow out of proportion. With the bad press Tad had been receiving over the last few months, this was going to be like the proverbial spark that ignited the powder keg.