by Gareth Otton
The phoenix screeched as it flew through the curtain of water. There was an explosive hiss as the water and bird collided, and the entire forest was suddenly covered in steam so thick Jacob couldn’t see through it. However, there was no sign of the phoenix and Jacob could once more get moving.
Nothing else attacked him as his brother caught up, and together they finished the route and stepped out of the forest in time to see the surprised faces of thirty dreamwalkers who were here to run the same course. Brad was the most composed, and he remembered to stop the stopwatch, but the rest of them stared at Jacob with stunned expressions.
“You have some aggression to work out tonight?” Brad asked, earning a chuckle from everyone that fell off as there was another crash in the forest behind them, something that sounded suspiciously like another tree giving up the fight against gravity. “You leave any trees standing?”
Again everyone laughed and Jacob grinned.
“I might have had a few issues to work out tonight,” he admitted. “What was my time?”
“You smashed the course record,” Brad said without needing to look. “Destroyed the course while doing it, mind you. But, my god, that was one hell of a run.”
Jacob’s grin widened and he stood up, having finally caught his breath. “Who’s next?”
Hands shot into the air from eager dreamwalkers who wanted to break this new course record.
“Simon, why don’t you try it,” Brad said. “And see if you can leave some trees standing. It’s going to get hard to train if we’ve got no forest left.”
“Yes sir,” Simon said, grinning from ear to ear.
“Sandra, Amy and Mitchel. You’re on nightmare duty. The rest of you, get back to your drills. Come on, I don’t want to be out here all night.”
The group split up and went their separate ways, talking amongst themselves as Brad made his way over to Jacob.
“I’m assuming this afternoon didn’t go well,” he said when they were alone.
Jacob swore, his good humour fleeing.
“I’ve never met a man so blind to the truth. Tad’s got so much potential, but he’s stubborn. I’m starting to think he’s a coward. He’ll run into danger blindly, but he’s too scared to make a decision where it counts.”
Brad eyebrows creased into a frown and he asked, “We talking about the same Tad here? Coward isn’t the word I’d use. Idealist maybe, but never a coward.”
“Maybe you’re right,” Jacob said. “I’m just bitter about how I left things. I let my temper get the better of me and I think I did more harm than good.”
“The Merging anniversary is in three days. Maybe we should push everything back. That’s not enough time.”
“It has to be. That bill is up for a vote the next day and we need to get this done before then.”
“But Tad—”
“Tad’s just one man. We can deal with him if that’s necessary. I hope to god it’s not, but we can’t let that stop us.”
Brad opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. He was afraid to speak his mind, but Jacob could almost see the second thoughts running through his head.
“We’ve already discussed this. It’s the only way they’ll ever take us seriously. If we don’t do this, then by the end of this week we’ll be less than human in the eyes of UK law. Once that law gets passed here, it’ll be a domino effect as other countries fall in line to bring about something similar. If we want to be safe, we need to act now.”
“I know,” Brad said in surrender. “It’s just… I never thought it would come to this.”
“But it has, and that’s the reality we have to be ready for. It’s what we’ve been training for all these months. We’ve got three days to get ourselves ready, and then we’ll do what’s necessary to make our people are safe.”
Again Brad didn’t answer, his forehead still creased with worry lines.
“You still with me, brother?” Jacob asked, half dreading the answer. Brad was his closest dreamwalker friend and he couldn’t bear to lose him.
“Of course I’m with you. You’ve brought us this far. I just wish there was another way.”
“Me to,” Jacob agreed. “But there’s not, and we have to get ready.”
Turning back to the forest he said, “Come on, it looks like they’re ready for the next run. The best thing we can do now is make everyone ready for Merging Day because time waits for no man. Not even dreamwalkers can change that.”
Hoping he had done enough to keep Brad on the right path, he clapped his friend on the shoulder, and led him to the start line where Simon was preparing for his run.
“I hope you enjoyed your time with that record, Jacob,” he shouted. “Because you’re only going to hold it for as long it takes me to run this course. I’m coming for you, old man.”
Jacob laughed and said, “Old man? I’m only four years older than you. But if that’s the case, what are you waiting for? Those nightmares won’t banish themselves.”
Simon grinned wider and looked at Brad, who reset his stopwatch. At Brad’s wave Simon was off, throwing himself into the darkness at a dead run. Jacob only hoped he was every bit as eager to do the same in three days when it really mattered.
You get one more chance, brother, he thought to himself, thinking of Tad. One more chance, and then we’re moving on without you.
Crossing his fingers and hoping for the best, Jacob turned his attention to the forest and concentrated on getting his soldiers ready for the coming fight.
19
Monday, 28th November 2016
12:44
Jen threw the book across the room, not caring if the thump got her in trouble. She was more concerned with her lack of ability to learn its contents. Dr Burman said it was advanced material and not to worry if she didn’t get it, but she needed to learn what was in that book if she wanted to one day heal her back.
She looked up as Hawk climbed onto her bed, and as always a little of her anger slipped away at the sight of him. He flopped down next to her, laying his massive head on her legs and waiting for her to run her hands through his mohawk, closing his eyes in pleasure. The sight made her smile.
“Hawk, what would I do without you?”
She wished she were at home so she could talk her troubles over with Tad. He would know how to help her. Failing that, she had no one but Hawk who would listen, especially now she was expelled from school and friendless.
“I failed again yesterday. It was just a pinprick on the end of his finger, I should have been able to heal it. If it was on my finger, I’d heal it like that.” She snapped her fingers, which caught Hawk’s attention. “I healed quick enough from that fight the other day, didn’t I? And those injuries were much worse than a pinprick, but I just can’t figure out what I’m doing wrong.”
It was why she was hitting the books again. Dr Burman’s answer to her failure was that she didn’t have enough knowledge and needed to understand the healing process better. The trouble was that if it took her this long to learn how to heal a pin prick, how was she ever going to heal her back?
“It’s useless, Hawk. I’ll never get it.”
Hawk’s enormous head lifted, though not in response to her words. His ears were pinned forward as he looked at her bedroom window. Jen turned to see what was bothering him and screamed.
“Oh my God, Tony. What the hell are you doing out there?”
Tony, who had somehow climbed the side of the building, pressed his face against the window and pulled a face. The sound of his muffled laughter became crystal clear as he stepped through the wall and into her bedroom.
“You should have seen your face,” he said as he clutched his ribs.
“Shut up. What are you even doing here?”
He didn’t answer, still holding his sides and laughing anew. Jen swore at him and looked away, not in the mood for this, but as his laughter continued, she couldn’t help the corners of her mouth twitching into a smile.
“What do you want,
Tony?”
“I just wanted to see what you were doing?” he said, getting hold of himself and sitting on the end of her bed. Hawk abandoned Jen to go say hello, and it wasn’t long before Tony was having to fight him off to keep from getting covered in dog saliva.
“Yeah, you get him, Hawk,” Jen urged, letting her smile grow wider.
“Urgh. Enough already, call him off,” Tony pleaded.
“Not until you tell me why you’re here.”
“I thought you might want a break. Me, Amber and the kids came out for a little walk and we thought you might like to come with us.”
“I can’t, John and Jean will lose it if I sneak out.”
“It’ll be for half an hour, tops,” Tony said. “Besides, you can’t stay cooped up here. You’ll go crazy. Come on, it’s just to the park around the corner and I promised the kids I’d bring you. They feel terrible about making you fight for them, and they’re worried about how you are after getting expelled.”
“They’re worried about me?” Jen asked, fighting back a new spike of guilt for not helping sooner. “If I hadn’t ignored you for so long, then Friday would never have happened.”
“I think Friday happens every week whether you like it or not,” Tony said, then dodged aside as Jen tried to smack him.
“You know what I mean.”
Tony laughed and danced to his feet, exciting Hawk in the process who jumped from the bed to chase him.
“I know what you mean,” he admitted as again he had to fight off the overgrown puppy. “But the kids do want to see you. And it looks like Hawk wants to come too, don’t you buddy?”
“I don’t know,” Jen said, looking back at her bedroom door like Jean would appear at any moment.
“They’re waiting in the park just around the corner. You can practically see your bedroom window from there. If you dreamwalk out and back again, you’ll be even quicker.”
Her resolve was slipping, and as she looked at the giant tome of a book that lay on the floor against her wall, she made her choice.
“Ten minutes, then I have to come back and study,” she said as she lost her willpower and slipped off the bed, looking for her shoes and jacket.
“Perfect. You want to walk or can you take us. It’ll be quicker if you just—”
“Fine, I’ll take us. I swear, I’ve never known a ghost as lazy as you,” Jen said, offering him her hand.
“Hey, I’m not lazy. I just like being efficient.”
Jen snorted, but as soon as Tony grabbed her hand, she thought of the park Tony mentioned and changed the channel.
It was a nice day as far as Welsh weather went, but that just meant it was dry. It was still cold, and even in her jacket, Jen shivered. She jumped when she heard the sounds of childish screams and spun to face a group of kids who were startled by Jen and Tony’s arrival. When there was a pop a second later and Hawk made his appearance, they screamed again.
There were four kids, the twins that Jen had been introduced to when Tony first met Amber, another younger child she was yet to meet, and Andrew who was involved in the fight after school. Unlike the other children, he didn’t scream as she arrived. In fact, he didn’t even look up. The other kids were on their way to the swings and slides, but he sat on a bench beside Amber, kicking his legs and staring off into nothing.
“Doggy,” the three younger kids cried at once, and Hawk was swamped by child ghosts who wanted to pet and play with him. Despite her mood, Jen smiled at the sight.
“Hey Jen, I hope Tony didn’t put too much pressure on you to come out,” Amber said.
“It’s okay,” Jen said. “I needed a break.”
Amber climbed from the bench and surprised Jen with a hug.
“I’m so sorry they expelled you. Those bully kids deserved even worse than that for what they did to you,” she said when she pulled away. “You should get a medal, not be expelled.”
“I don’t think they give out medals for using Dream to beat the crap out of kids,” Tony said.
Amber rolled her eyes and said, “Ignore him. He’s just upset because he got beat up by a thirteen-year-old.”
“Hey, I was going easy on him because he was Jen’s boyfriend and—”
“He’s not my boyfriend,” Jen snapped for maybe the thousandth time. This was the first time she put so much force into her words though, and also the first time she felt the shudder of revulsion accompany the thought of even being friends with Robert.
“Okay,” Tony said, holding up his hands in surrender. “Noted.”
“How are you, Jen? You doing okay?” Amber asked after an awkward silence. “You’re not still hurt, are you?”
“No, I healed that up in no time,” Jen said, ignoring the larger question of how she was doing. “What about the other two boys that were there? Are they alright?”
“They’ve healed up. I spoke with their parents and they’re both doing okay. As you can see, Andrew healed up well enough, but I’m worried about him.” She looked over her shoulder at the boy on the bench who still hadn’t looked up. “He’s been quiet since what happened, and I can’t get him to snap out of it.”
Jen took one look at the boy and knew this was something he wouldn’t snap out of. That same part of her that allowed her to walk told her what was wrong with him. He wasn’t talking because his attention was focused inward and he was fighting hard just to stay in one piece. The damage he took in the fight, damage that required energy to heal, had sped up his descent into madness.
He’s hurt because of you, a voice whispered in the back of her mind. Because you didn’t step up sooner, because you were too worried about yourself to help that poor kid.
You could still help him if you wanted. It’s not too late.
Jen flinched at the thought, shuddering so hard she almost lost control of her legs. A flash of memory assaulted her, of having the ghost of Maggie Patterson wrestle control of her body, locking Jen away in her own mind. She could look, she could hear, she could smell, she could feel and she could think, but she had no control over anything. Even more than the consequences of that night, that was the worst moment of her life. She hated being paralysed and wished she could change it, but if the cost of regaining the use of her legs meant reliving that experience of not being in control again, she wasn’t sure she’d be willing to pay that price.
“Jen, are you alright?” Amber asked, snapping Jen out of her dark thoughts. The world had grown blurry and didn’t clear until Jen wiped away her tears.
“I’m fine,” she lied. “Just something in my eye.”
Amber smiled encouragingly, changing the topic by asking about how things were going with Dr Burman. Jen was happy to let the topic change, but there was a part of her that couldn’t let it go. Every time she looked at Andrew, she couldn’t help but think that all he needed to get better was a Proxy. Offering to Proxy for him was the least she could do when he had thrown himself at her attackers on Friday to protect her.
To keep her mind from her guilt, she turned her attention away from Andrew to watch the other kids as they chased Hawk around the park, screaming and laughing as the big puppy had the time of his life. Between this and the easy conversation with Amber and Tony, she left that thought behind. However, it flared back all too quickly when one of the twins stopped chasing Hawk suddenly, staggering to a halt and looking around like he didn’t know where he was. A moment later his sister rushed over to him and said something high pitched and giggly, and the boy recovered, but again Jen knew what that meant.
For everything that these kids had been through, their trials weren’t over. If they didn’t find a Proxy soon, they’d lose their minds.
Yet you sit here and watch it happen, whispered that voice in her mind.
It wasn’t the cold that made Jen shiver this time, nor did she have something in her eye as she wiped her tears away.
◆◆◆
Jen lasted forty-five minutes before the guilt became unbearable. She couldn’t concentrate o
n what Amber and Tony were saying because she was caught in a thought spiral that only grew worse when the kids came over to talk.
When the youngest thanked her for saving Andrew and the other two boys, it was too much. She apologised to Tony and Amber, then changed the channel, the last thing following her into Dream being the awed gasps of children, amazed by her powers.
Jen hadn’t left dream before tears overwhelmed her and therefore missed the two stern faced women standing in the doorway, one holding a clipboard.
“Jennifer Larson. Where have you been?”
Jen’s eyes snapped open at the sound of the hated voice. There was only one person who called her that. Penelope Banbridge. The woman from social services responsible for removing her from her home.
Jen’s guilt was washed away by a river of rage at the sight of this woman.
“Well, young lady,” Jean said. “You promised to stay in your room.”
“It was only for a second,” Jen tried, but was interrupted.
“That’s not the point,” Jean snapped. “You can’t keep doing this. I know you don’t want to be here, but while you are under my roof, you are my responsibility. You can’t run away whenever you feel like it.”
There was a sudden pop as Hawk arrived, making the Penelope squeak in surprise. That sound was the highlight of Jen’s day.
However, any satisfaction vanished when Penelope stepped away from the door and said, “Gentlemen, please restrain that animal.”
A hulking figure filled the doorway, and Jen flinched. Harry wore a grin as big as the gun he held. It turned out Jen was wrong when she thought the lady was the last person she wanted to see, because this person might be worse.
“It’ll be my pleasure,” Harry said as he stepped into the room, closely followed by one of his men who also had his finger on the trigger of his gun.