Uprising

by Gareth Otton

  Tad was so preoccupied thinking of that, he barely heard the end of Jen’s story. But his inner monster was listening, and it surged to the front of his mind, pushing his fear aside.

  “Wait. Say that again. What did Trevors’ team do?” Tad asked in a deadly whisper.

  Jen gulped and stared at Tad with wide, watery eyes as she said, “They were pointing guns at me, dad. I thought they were going to shoot me. They kept telling me I had to let go of Dream or else.”

  “They threatened you?” he asked, vision turning red and hands tightening on Jen’s shoulders as his blood boiled. That monster inside was going berserk, raging at the cage that held it as though it was ready to tear the bars out of the walls.

  Therefore, when Tad heard the footsteps behind him, he spun around and grabbed Dream, ready to obliterate whoever walked through that door while pushing Jen behind him. However, a touch of logic slipped through his mind just in time to stop him pulling the trigger on that thought.

  Growler and Hawk wouldn’t let anyone unfriendly up here, that thought said, and Tad was just rational enough to listen so he didn’t blow Stella’s head off as she stepped around the corner.

  “Oh thank god, you’re still here.” She looked around Tad to where Jen’s face was peaking out from behind her father and asked, “Jen, are you okay?”

  Tad felt Jen’s nod against his side, but he ignored her answer.

  “Of course she’s not okay,” he snapped. “Those arseholes you worked with pointed guns at her, Stella. They said they would kill her unless she—”

  “I know what they said. Denise told me everything. I’m going to deal with that. Right now though, I need you to calm down.”

  “Calm down? After what they did.”

  “I already said, I’ll deal with that,” Stella said, sounding far too reasonable. “But you need to think long term. You going off like a nuclear weapon won’t help anyone, especially Jen. You’ll just turn everyone against you for—”

  “I don’t care about that,” Tad interrupted. “I’ve tried it their way. I’ve done everything by the letter of the law, I’ve kept my distance from Jen, I’ve continued to work for the government and I have continued to put my life on the line to save people. For all that, I get shit from the media, the Prime Minister is giving me attitude, those back stabbing politicians create a bill that let’s people threaten to kill my daughter for defending herself, and now I’m supposed to stand aside to let them come in and take her again. Fuck that. I’m doing what I should have done months ago. Me and Jen are leaving.”

  “Tad, you can’t,” Stella shouted, jumping forward to grab his arm, looking more panicked than he’d ever seen. “If you do, then everything you just described would be for nothing. All the months of waiting, the sacrifice, everything will be undone in a second. What you need to do is come out with me and show that not only are you willing to play ball, but you’re the reasonable one. Right now the world is watching armed men surround your house as though they’re getting ready for a war. If you run, or heaven forbid, if you attack them, that’s it for us. You might as well tell the world that dreamwalkers are evil and they need to be stopped by any means. That bill will pass without a fight, and in a week’s time you and Jen will be the most hunted people on the planet.

  “But if you come with me now, both of you turn yourselves in peacefully, the world is going to see a load of armed men who have been training to take down monsters pointing their guns at a little girl. That picture is going to seem like such a massive overreaction that the public will be up in arms about it.”

  Tad felt tears of frustration fill his eyes as he said, “This is almost exactly the same as what you said last time, Stella, and it’s been months.”

  “I know,” Stella said, her voice breaking. “But it was the right choice then, and its still the right choice now. We can’t beat them by letting them turn you into a criminal. We need to fight this smart. Please, Tad. Don’t do anything stupid.”

  When Tad didn’t answer she turned her attention to Jen and said, “Jen, be reasonable. You won’t get to train with Dr Burman, and people will hunt your dad for the rest of his life. I know it’s scary, but you have to do what’s right.”

  “Don’t put that on her, Stella. She’s too young,” Tad snapped. “It’s my decision.”

  “After everything she’s been through, she’s strong enough,” Stella disagreed. “Aren’t you, Jen?”

  There was a sniffle from behind him that only enraged the monster in Tad all the more, but Jen’s next words cut through his rage.

  “Stella’s right, dad. I don’t want you getting hurt because of me.”

  “I won’t be,” Tad answered, glaring at Stella for making her think that way. “We’ll both be safe to—”

  “No, this is my fault. If I had done something about the bullying sooner, it wouldn’t have come to this. Like you keep saying, we can always run later. But right now we need to at least try doing this their way.”

  Hearing such grown up sentiments come from Jen sent a surge of pride through Tad that did more to cut through his rage and calm the beast than anything else so far.

  “I’ll take her out,” he said. “But I’m not handing her to Trevors or any of his people, not after what they did. The police can take her and Trevors can go fuck himself.”

  “She’s a dreamwalker, Tad,” Stella started, about to tell him that the policy was that the Dream Team handle dreamwalkers because they were the only ones equipped to do so. Tad wouldn’t budge on this, though.

  “They pointed guns at her, Stella. They were going to shoot her. I will not put her in their care. It’s the police or we run. I’m not budging on that.”

  “Fine, police it is,” Stella said, raising her hands in surrender. “You’re making the right decision, Tad. I promise. One day, this is going to pay off for you both.”

  “This is the last time, Stella,” he said. “Next time, don’t even try to talk me out of it. Next time I run, no questions asked.”

  “If there’s a next time, I’ll run with you,” Stella promised. Then she turned and left the room. However, she didn’t get far before she let out an explosive sigh of relief that Tad could still hear even if he couldn’t see her.

  He turned back to Jen and looked her in the eye.

  “Jen, I’m so sorry you have to go through this,” he said.

  Surprisingly, she laughed.

  “You’re apologising to me? It’s me who lost my temper and got us in trouble… again.”

  “Yeah, but if it wasn’t for me messing up your adoption, none of this would have happened. You wouldn’t be injured, you wouldn’t have been exposed to so many dangers, and you wouldn’t be in this position right now.”

  “I also wouldn’t have got to know Charles, Miriam or Tony. I wouldn’t have got to fight off a horde of dragons or learnt that I can maybe heal people,” Jen said, listing those points off like they were good things, though Tad would argue with a few. “And I would never have got that party in Dream with all those celebrities. Everyone is still talking about that at school.”

  Despite everything, Tad chuckled.

  “I guess it can’t be all bad if there are celebrities,” he teased.

  Jen laughed as well and jumped forward to hug him again, her arms so tight it was almost painful.

  “I’m glad you’re my dad,” she whispered.

  Tad tried to reply with something of the same sentiment, but his emotions got the better of him and his words were unintelligible, which made Jen burst out laughing.

  “I didn’t understand a word of that,” she said, letting him go and wiping away her tears. “You big crybaby. Good job Tony’s not here to see this.”

  “Yeah, good job,” Tad said as he wiped away his own tears.

  “I hope he’s okay, I had to leave him behind earlier.”

  “He’ll be fine,” Tad said, making a note to find out about his ghost as soon as he could. Right now though, he prepared himself to yet again
repeat the hardest thing he’d ever had to do. He built up his will power to once more stand by and do nothing while they took away his daughter.

  “Come on,” he said, and before he could lose his nerve, he led Jen out of her room.

  15

  Friday, 25th November 2016

  23:48

  Tad collapsed onto the sofa, air exploding from his lungs as his head fell back and he stared at the ceiling. It had been a long day. It had been a long month.

  It had been a long year.

  They had taken Jen away and arrested Tad again, social services not happy to find Jen in his house. It took the Three Amigos a long time to sort that, and they warned him this wouldn’t look good. He was supposed to have zero contact with Jen and his excuse that he never told her to come wouldn’t matter.

  Groaning, Tad closed his eyes and ran his hands over his face, exhausted but also too wired to sleep. A million thoughts rushed through his brain and he was so consumed by them he didn’t notice the sofa shift as a weight settled next to him. He jumped when Stella touched his arm.

  “Everything will be alright. This is just a temporary setback.”

  He lifted his head to find her watching him, those crystal blue eyes glistening with worry. Despite all the ways his life was falling apart, that genuine concern made him smile.

  “I know,” he said, pulling her into a one-armed hug. “Thanks for talking sense into me… again.”

  Stella chuckled and rested her head on his shoulder.

  “Someone needs to,” she said. After a pause she asked, “You tired?”

  “No, my mind won’t settle. I just keep thinking—”

  “Enough. There’s no point dwelling on it. We’ve done what we can and have to hope for the best.”

  Tad nodded, but didn’t trust himself to answer.

  “What are we going to do about Trevors?” he asked. “He’s gone off the deep end. First the ghosts, then this. He’s supposed to be helping people, not turning the Dream Team into his private army.”

  “I know,” Stella answered. “But what can I do? I’ve made rules for them to follow, I’ve reprimanded them when they break them, and I have made my feelings clear. The trouble is, they can argue they’re just doing their jobs. They’re destroying nightmares, keeping people safe from ghosts, and they think they were trying to protect children today. You and I both know it’s not what really happened but… I don’t know what to do.”

  “Fire them. Start with a new team and—”

  “You must be kidding. I can’t fire them. The press would have a field day, Norman would go crazy and I’d be looking for a new job on Monday. Besides, like I said, they haven’t done anything wrong. Not officially. Until the law recognises the rights of ghosts and there are protections in place for them, they’re doing their jobs.”

  “They’re dangerous,” Tad snapped, anger getting the best of him.

  “I know. I’ll figure something out. God knows when I’ll have time, though. I’ve already got a fight on my hands tomorrow when I have to explain to Norman why I let the police handle Jen instead of our guys while the media watched. I’ve dodged his calls three times tonight.”

  Tad chuckled. “Good, give him a taste of his own medicine.”

  Stella laughed with him, but also shook her head. She pushed herself up and looked around for something. A moment later she snatched up the remote from the arm of the sofa, then settled back against him after flicking on the TV.

  “Let’s see how this played out before I take that call,” she said as she navigated to YouTube and searched for Lizzie’s channel.

  Sure enough, a new video was posted less than an hour ago, and there was a still photo of Jen being marched away as the thumbnail. Lizzie had done a masterful job at framing the picture. Jen looked like a frightened, vulnerable child while the Dream Team looked like the bullies they were.

  “Urgh… I’m going to catch so much shit for this,” Stella said, and for the first time Tad looked at it from her point of view.

  She had shown incredible loyalty today, something he overlooked until now. She got him to frame the incident in a way that he and Jen came out looking like the victims and her own team like the aggressors. It would only make more work for her and turn her already troublesome staff against her.

  Tad squeezed her shoulder in sympathy, but the words to express his gratitude wouldn’t form. Instead, he concentrated on Lizzie’s face as she began her breakdown of what happened.

  Despite Lizzie’s struggles with Stella recently, Lizzie showed just as much loyalty as Stella had by reporting on the story today as Tad wanted. He hadn’t spoken with her, but she spun the story to show Tad in the best possible light.

  Tad was struck by just how lucky he was to have these women in his life. As he looked over at Growler and Freckles, both curled up asleep on the same sofa, he thought about how they came through for him as well. Suddenly he was angry with himself for feeling so defeated. He had lost a lot over the last year, but also gained so much. After dropping the ball so frequently, he didn’t deserve these people. Even Tony was loyal in his own way. A pain in the posterior most of the time, he always came through when it mattered.

  People lived their entire lives without such friends, and Tad shouldn’t dismiss them so quickly.

  “What the hell?” Stella sat up, swinging her feet to the floor and leaning forward as she stared at the TV. “Oh, Lizzie. No.”

  Tad looked up and his momentary warm feeling vanished.

  “…leads me to assume that there’s more than Dream that’s supernatural in this world.”

  Lizzie was talking fast in the way she did when she was excited about a topic. An animated headline appeared that read, What else is out there? Underneath that headline, a picture popped up of a man carrying four giant beer kegs like they weighed less than empty cardboard boxes. Lizzie had blurred out Leon’s face, but to anyone who knew him it was obvious who he was.

  “Leon said she never got a photo,” Tad whispered, never taking his eyes off the train-wreck that was unfolding.

  “She uses hidden cameras, you know that. She’s sneaky that way,” Stella grumbled. “That bitch.”

  “I know what you’re thinking,” Lizzie said. “We’ve seen stuff like this before when dreams come true. It’s nothing new, right? Well, I have looked deeper and I’ve uncovered information that leads me to believe otherwise.”

  More pictures appeared, this time not just of Leon but other people, all of whom had their faces blurred out. The last one that popped up was Stella and was taken outside the Phoenix the other night. Tad swore. What was Lizzie thinking? She might have blurred the faces, but people were smart enough to put those clues together.

  “I have footage of all these individuals using gifts beyond human normal, and I have it on good authority that none of them are dreamwalkers.” Lizzie grinned and added, “And to make things more interesting. These three photos weren’t even taken in the Borderlands.”

  The rest of the photos fell away as three photos were isolated. One showed an average sized man lifting the tail end of a car. A second showed a person mid leap between two buildings in New York, and the gap between those buildings was enormous. The third was harder to see as it was from a lot further away and there was distortion from what looked like a man shooting lightning from his hands.

  “Crazy stuff, right?” Lizzie said into the camera. “But you know me by now. I don’t break a story until I have my facts and I wouldn’t show you this unless I had proof. So make sure you come back tomorrow for the first of my series on this mysterious group of—”

  “I need to get Leon,” Stella said, muting the TV and jumping to her feet like she was about to run out the door. Both Growler and Freckles startled awake, their big heads swinging towards her with ears alert.

  “Hang on,” Tad said, catching her hand before she could go anywhere. “What’s the rush?”

  “You heard him earlier. Those Eidolon council guys already sent him a wa
rning. What do you think they’ll do when they see this?” Turning to the TV, she growled, “I’m going to rip her bloody head off. That interfering—”

  “Calm down. Let’s think about this rationally. That wasn’t good, but lets not jump to conclusions,” he said, taking on the role of the level-headed person which was normally reserved for her. “Lizzie didn’t show any faces and hasn’t provided any proof. Those photos taken outside the Borderlands looked grainy as hell, and the ones taken here can be explained as Dream related incidents. We don’t need to get too worried yet.”

  “Tad, I recognised Leon the instant he appeared. You don’t think the Eidolon council will do the same? Remember, there are people there who’ve known him his entire life.” Her face set into an angry scowl and she said, “And that picture of me. Are you kidding? Everyone in the world knows what I look like. I bet there are already people online who have found that exact shot without the pixelated face. That bitch just outed me to millions of people without talking to me first.”

  Tad couldn’t think of anything to defend Lizzie and felt like maybe he should take back his earlier praise about her loyalty. However, she came through for them time and again, and she had earned the benefit of the doubt.

  Reading something in his expression, Stella’s mood darkened further.

  “Don’t you side with her on this. She knew what she was doing when she put that image up.” Suddenly she deflated and rolled her eyes. “God, we need to go get her too.”

  “What? Why?”

  “She’s not releasing that next video until tomorrow, and there’s a group of powerful people out there who want to ensure their secret never gets out. It’s not just Leon in trouble.”

  This time it was her turn to grab his hand and with strength that always surprised him she pulled him to his feet.

  “Come on, shake off the cobwebs. We’ve got work to do,” she said. “Let’s round them up and regroup at the DTHQ to figure out where we go next.”