by L. E. Fred
“Hope we won’t return here to find out what else it can do.” Mitch put a grin on his face, replacing his sad expression after losing the sword. “See you.” He touched the light and left.
“He didn’t want to give that thing back.” Kyle stated the obvious.
“You think?” I said rather sarcastically. “But too bad, it came to me.”
“Yeah, well, I just hope you know what to do with it.” Kyle shrugged. “Seems to me Mitch figured it out.” He touched the light and disappeared.
I was stunned by Kyle’s mature words for a minute before touching the light myself.
.
Day 7
Afternoon
I woke up feeling alert. No delayed memory this morning; I needed to see if Tiff was okay. I checked my clock and saw it was already two. Dream time was different than normal time it seemed. As I jumped to my laptop, Kyle came barging in.
“That was nuts, man!” It was very strange seeing Kyle this excited while the sun was up.
I logged onto my messages and saw Tiff wasn’t online.
“Did you check your phone?” Kyle asked. I grabbed my cell and flipped it open. I had one missed call from my mom and a text from Tom. Nothing from Tiff. I dialed her number, but it went to her voicemail. I tried calling her house phone and got the same thing.
“Come on!” I said urgently as I dialed Tiff’s cell again. “She can’t have been kidnapped already!”
“Dude, you did tick those people off,” Kyle said, sitting on my bed. “She could have been kidnapped right after we left.” I glared at him to shut up. I wanted to tell him off, but panic made my throat close. I took a sip of water and spit it out again as my cell phone rang.
“Tiff?” I didn’t even look at the caller ID.
“No.” It was Mitch. “Guess you haven’t heard from her either.”
“Nothing.” I heard the despair in my own voice. “She’s not online; she’s not answering her phones, nothing…”
“I’m sorry, man.” Mitch really did sound apologetic. “Tiff’s the reason we knew so much more about the dream place, she’s helped us a lot, and I know how much she meant to you.”
“Wait what?” I suddenly asked. Kyle laughed in the background. “I don’t feel that way about her—” I stopped as I got another call. My heart felt like it suddenly lost fifty pounds. “Hang on, Tiff’s calling!” I switched over almost laughing with relief.
“You’re awake!” I said happily.
“Duh,” Tiff replied a little dryly. “It’s past two. Glad to see you’re awake as well. Do you still want to come over and talk about your dreams?”
“Yeah, sure,” I spoke a little faster than normal. Kyle, now realizing Tiff was on the phone, laughed even louder and made kissy noises in the background. I pushed him away, but he just pushed me back onto my bed.
“You okay?” Tiff asked, hearing the commotion through the receiver.
“Yeah, but how come you didn’t answer your phone?”
“Oh, I left it at home,” Tiff answered. “My aunt took me to get my computer fixed today. I just got back. I’ll test it out when you get here.”
I had the feeling Tiff was afraid to turn the computer on. I never thought I’d see the day when Tiffany Brightly would be afraid of technology. Then again, I met Leona last night. I didn’t blame her.
“I’ll text you when my mom gets home,” I said before hanging up. Kyle leaned against my door frame, arms folded and a smug look on his face.
“What?” I asked him, trying my hardest to stop smiling.
“You still had Mitch on the other line.” Kyle reminded me.
“Oh.” I looked at my phone and saw Mitch had texted me four times.
“Then again, I guess he won’t blame you.” Kyle grinned. “After all, your girlfriend’s safe for now.”
I was too relieved to correct him this time.
As I texted Mitch, telling him that Tiff was safe, I heard the front door open downstairs. My mom was home.
“Devon? Kyle?” I heard her call from downstairs. “Are you two up yet?”
“Yeah,” I called back down. Kyle left my room and entered his. I wondered if he was going back to sleep or not. Knowing Kyle, he wouldn’t be too freaked out by Leona and Gruff to avoid sleeping. Nothing came between Kyle and his slumber.
“Are you dressed?” That was a weird question for my mom to ask.
“Sort of,” I threw on some clean gym shorts and one of my school t-shirts. “Why?”
“Because you have a visitor.”
I was halfway through combing my hair a bit. I wasn’t expecting any company.
“Is it Tiff?” I asked while coming down the stairs.
No, it was Andy.
I could tell he just came from summer camp. He was slightly sweaty from Four-Square, or some other camp sport, and he had the obnoxious camp shirt on.
“Alexis asked me if I could give Andy a ride home today,” my mom explained. Alexis was Andy’s mom. “And since I had to go tell the camp you were sick, I figured I could pick him up. Andy asked if he could stay here until his mom came at six. He wanted to see you and tell you to get well soon. Isn’t that nice?”
“Hey.” I nodded to Andy. “Uh, I’m not contagious if you wanna come up to my room and play some video games til your mom gets home.”
“Sure.” Andy shrugged and started following me up the stairs. My mom told us she’d be up soon with snacks. Kyle poked his head out of his door at the mention of food.
“Oh, hey, Melissa’s brother.” Kyle noticed Andy. The poor kid’s face flushed at the mention of his sister.
“Uh, Kyle—” I said, giving him a look, “—lay off.”
“Oh, yeah! Sorry, dude,” Kyle actually did look a little embarrassed. “It’s just… I was in her class… but don’t give up hope, man, she may come out of it. Soon, in fact!”
“See you, Kyle,” I said with a little force, leading Andy to my room. I closed the door before Kyle could give any more words of wisdom. I straightened up my bed a bit and offered Andy a seat. He sat down and looked around awkwardly as I sat on my computer chair. We fell into a few moments of thick silence.
“So, uh, how was camp?” I decided to break it.
“Sucked, as usual—” Andy shrugged, “—you’re lucky you didn’t have to come.”
“Well, I got bit by a spider the night before—” I figured my mom told the camp that story. I got up and started looking through my video games box, “and had an allergic reaction. I’m fine now, though. So, I have Space Slayer 4 if you wanna play two player.”
“You were sick today because of something in your dreams, weren’t you?” Andy asked me suddenly. I fumbled with the game in my hand and managed to catch it before it fell. My hands were still shaking. How did Andy know?
“Uh, what—”
“Don’t bother lying about it!” Andy eyed me suspiciously as if I was going to escape from my own bedroom. “I had a dream last night about my sister. She said she saw you, Kyle, and some other guy trying to help everyone.”
“Andy, that was just a dream.” I don’t know why I was trying to play it off. First, the look in his eyes told me that Andy wasn’t going to believe anything I said other than the truth. Second, I had never seen Andy look at anyone with such intensity before.
“My life for the past few days has been one big dream,” Andy responded. “No, it’s been a nightmare. Both of my parents are in the medical field. They’re always at the hospital, so it was just me and Melissa. Losing her was the hardest thing I ever had to deal with, and now there’s a chance she can come back. There’s a chance that you can save her, and I’m not going to let you pass up that opportunity.” He looked at me with gleaming eyes. I didn’t know if he was about to cry or fly off into a rage. “You must save her and all those other people.”
“It’s more complicated than that.” My voice came out softer than I had expected. I guess because I felt so relieved to finally tell Andy the truth. I also felt
guilty about letting him believe his sister was in a coma when there was a possibility of her being saved. “You haven’t seen the place imprisoning Melissa and the others. It’s huge, dangerous, and the people guarding it will stop anyone they don’t want from coming inside. And these creatures… I don’t even know what they can do, and I’m afraid to find out. It’s gonna be difficult, Andy.”
“But you have to try!” Andy protested. “You were given the ability to go there for a reason. You have power others don’t, and you should use it.”
His words eerily reminded me of Leona. She also told me I possessed some unique power. I didn’t know what they were talking about; all I knew was that I could control my actions in my dreams. Well, I guess now I could turn a bat into a sword, but I couldn’t even use that properly. What power did they see that I didn’t?
“I wish I could do it,” Andy said, looking at the floor.
“No, you don’t,” I told him. “It’s worse than any nightmare you may have faced.”
“I don’t care,” he protested. “I want to go there so I can see who kidnapped my sister.” He looked up at me. “So I can make them pay.”
Just then, my mom knocked on my door. She brought us some apple slices, cheese wedges, and sodas. I guess Andy’s hunger outweighed his anger, because he dived into the snacks. I started feeling relieved as we ate in silence. Maybe he said what he needed to say, and we could finally get to play some video games and forget about comas and creepy dreams.
“You’re going to try, right?” Andy suddenly asked, catching me off guard.
“Try what?” I asked him, turning on my game console and setting up two-player mode.
“To save them,” Andy answered. “You’re going to save my sister, right?”
I stared at my TV in silence. I wanted to promise him that I’d bring her back. I wanted to assure him things were going to work out. But I kept imagining Serpentine, Gruff, Leona, and those Nightmare creatures. If I stood any chance against them, I was going to need backup, and a plan.
“I’m going to try,” I assured Andy. “I’m gonna try to bring Melissa back and take out the place she’s being kept.”
I just didn’t know my promise would be tested shortly after it was made.
.
Day 7
Night
I was glad when Andy’s mom finally picked him up. Though he didn’t bring up saving Melissa again, we spent the rest of his visit playing video games in tense silence. I’d occasionally glance in his direction and saw that his face was constantly set in a firm expression. He was doing some serious thinking, but I didn’t ask him about it.
“See you tomorrow,” I called out to Andy. My mom was making me go back to camp the next day. My bite marks healed up a lot, and my bruises only hurt a bit now. I was grateful last night’s events didn’t give me more injuries.
“Oh, Tiff asked if I could come over,” I hastily told my mom before she retreated to her study.
“Well, when were you going to tell me that?” My mom sounded a little agitated.
“I forgot with Andy coming over and all…”
“I think you’ve had enough excitement for one day.” She looked at me sternly. “You seem to be doing better, but I think you need a little more rest.”
“I feel fine!”
“I’m not going back out today.” My mom folded her arms.
“I’ll take him.” Kyle pounded down the stairs. My mom and I both stared at him. Kyle never volunteered to drive even when my mom offered him the car. I sometimes forgot he actually had a license.
“Are you sure, Kyle?” My mom looked from him to me as if we were plotting something.
“Yeah, uh, Chris and them are going to see a new movie tonight, but they can’t pick me up beforehand.” Kyle seemed to be doing some quick thinking — a pretty hard task for him. “So, can I use the car after I drop Devon off?”
My mom studied him for a bit. Honestly, I think she was more surprised he wanted to drive a car, especially if that meant doing me a favor.
“Well, I guess so.” My mom tossed him her keys. “Just don’t stay out past midnight.”
“We won’t.” Kyle smiled. “Get dressed for your girlfriend,” he muttered to me as we ascended the stairs.
“Whatever.” I tried to sound nonchalant, but I couldn’t help smiling. I was still relieved Tiff was okay and that we had time to prepare for Leona’s attack. I threw on some jeans and sneakers and waited for Kyle to come out of his room. He returned fully dressed.
“You’re actually seeing a movie tonight?” I raised my eyebrow.
“Pfft, no.” Kyle rolled his eyes. “I’m gonna help you with Tiff.” He led the way downstairs.
“You are?” I asked him after saying goodbye to my mother. I followed him to the car.
“Yep,” Kyle sat in the driver's seat and fiddled with the headlights. It had been awhile since he’d driven a car anywhere. “Because you’re obviously too wimpy to come up with a good plan, and I don’t want that hotshot Mitch being in charge.” He said it so matter-of-factly as if he already had a plan formulating.
“What are you thinking?” I asked him suspiciously. Kyle took his time answering, changing the radio station to metal, lowering the windows, and cranking up the volume.
“Oh, you’ll see.” He grinned wickedly as he drove to Tiff’s.
****
Thankfully, Tiff’s mom was out with some of her friends, and her dad was in his art studio working on some strange clay model. He didn’t care that Kyle came to hang out.
“Impart some of your post-teen wisdom on the young ones,” Tiff’s dad called vaguely as we ascended to Tiff’s room.
“Your dad rocks,” Kyle noted as Tiff opened her computer room door.
“I guess.” Tiff was still suspicious as to why Kyle tagged along. She knew Kyle and I tried avoiding each other as much as possible.
“So—” Tiff sat down on her favorite computer chair, “—what happened last night?”
I explained how I ended up in the middle of the fortress, that I met Gruff, another crony, and how scary Leona looked. As I told my story, Tiff started turning on her laptop.
“Don’t!” Kyle closed the screen shut before it booted up.
“Okay, first you decide to hang out at my house and now you’re messing up my stuff!” Tiff said indignantly. “What’s going on?”
“Leona’s been tracking you through your laptop,” I explained, secretly thankful Kyle had quick reflexes. “She has an entire system of monitors in her room. I saw it last night.”
“So did I,” Kyle chimed in. He explained his part of the story — how he met Mitch, about the ball of light that led them to me, and how he saved me from certain death. He also added how he thought Mitch was a pompous jerk and how he tried stealing my sword.
“He wasn’t stealing it,” I protested half-heartedly. “He just… liked using it.”
“Yeah, well, he can make his own.” Kyle shrugged.
“You seriously can make things in your dream?” Tiff seemed mostly interested in Kyle’s abilities. She took the fact that Leona was monitoring her a little too smoothly. I expected her to freak out even if it was just a little bit.
“Yeah,” Kyle responded. “It’s not hard. Even though that place is scary, it’s still a dream. Which is why you don’t have to worry about Leona taking you.”
“She wants to take me?” Tiff showed fear for the first time. “I thought she was just tracking me. Why does she want to take me?”
“Because you know too much—” I explained, “—and she’s pretty angry that we busted up her nice hotel suite.”
Tiff sat in silence for a few moments. Kyle inched closer to her, but I silently warned him to stop. Finally, Tiff spoke up.
“This might be to our advantage,” she said. I stared at her blankly.
“How could Leona kidnapping you be to our advantage?” I finally asked.
“She can lead us to the inner workings of Leona’s fortre
ss,” Kyle explained, folding his arms. “She can play in her coliseum for a chance for freedom. Then we can rescue her while bringing the place down.”
So this was Kyle’s strategic plan. It sounded completely insane. How did Kyle expect us to follow Tiff into the coliseum and save her in time while destroying the place? I was ready to protect Tiff from Serpentine, Gruff, and Leona if they tried taking her tonight, but this plan seemed even crazier. Kyle seriously wanted Tiff to be taken? I looked at Tiff. Surely she would protest such a dangerous gamble on her life. I was shocked to find her smiling.
“Wow, Kyle, I didn’t know you had it in you,” she finally said. “That sounds like the best shot we have.”
“What?” I let out a frustrated sigh. There were so many flaws in this plan. Why didn’t they see them? “First off, how do we know you will decide to play in the coliseum?”
“Oh, come on, Devon!” Tiff rolled her eyes. “Have you ever seen me eager for work? Awake or asleep, I refuse to be a cocktail waitress for some sick resort!”
“Okay.” I still wasn’t sold. “And how are we going to get into the fortress? Kyle, you saw Gruff. There’s no way we’ll be able to sneak past him—”
“Unless you have a diversion.” Kyle stopped my flow of pessimistic remarks. “Which I am happy to provide.”
“What?” I shook my head. “No, Kyle, that’s suicide. It’s way too dangerous.”
“That place is more like a dream to me!” Kyle protested. “For you and Mitch, it seems real-life. I guess because you two haven’t been lucid dreaming for long. But I do it every night. Gruff is just some random goat guy I have to get past. No biggie,” he drawled in his laid-back way. I realized that despite Kyle’s inactivity, he was a really dependable guy. My admiration for my brother hit a speed bump as I thought of another problem.