by Leia Stone
He fiddled with the corner of his papers nervously.
Oh God, what is it? Do I have a brain tumor or something?
“You have the plasma cuff?” he asked, eyeing it on the chair. “We don’t have them here yet….”
Ohhh. That’s what this was about. I didn’t have the heart to tell him the mine had been blown up and there would be no more. “Well, you can have mine, for saving my life. And I can mail you one too,” I told the nurse. I knew Damien had three more new ones back in Vancouver that were supposed to act as parts in case ours broke, but I couldn’t bear to leave these nice people without.
His whole face lit up. “Then consider your bill paid for.” He walked over, retrieving the cuff, and handing me his card. “Send the other one to me, and I’ll see that my wife gets it.” He motioned to the nurse.
Ahhh. They were married.
I just nodded, in a daze as I took the card.
After pulling out my IV, the nurse told me I was free to leave.
The first person I called was Josephine. I told her to wake everyone up, that I’d made it back safely. She was thrilled and said she was sending the private jet for me, and that Jeremy was geeking out over the data he’d received from my hat.
That freaking hat! I kept forgetting about it. I could see now it was shoved at the bottom of my plastic hospital ‘personal items’ bag.
I decided to live life like Maxine. So, instead of sitting at the airport for ten hours, thinking about Dawn telling me I was going to end the Dream Wars, or that I had a similar brain as a breeder, I went to a museum. I spent the day as a tourist, as if it was my last day on Earth.
When I was about to get a taxi to the airport for my incoming flight, I passed by a small church set back from the main road, in a bed of grass. The huge arched door was open, and the most beautiful song was playing. As I stepped away from the curb and made my way to the intricately carved building, the most, incredible sense of peace came over me. I hadn’t forgotten my deal with God. If He saved us from that horrible night, I’d go back to church, and there I was.
As I stepped through the doors, I saw that no one was inside except an old lady playing the organ. Over a hundred tea lights lit up the right side in front of a bunch of saints, and in the center was a statue of Jesus on the cross. I never resonated with the idolizing of the crucifixion of Jesus. The blood and nails, it was so sad to look at, and just reminded me of the hatred in the world.
I turned away from the crucifix and just faced a blank wall. Clasping my hands into prayer, which I hadn’t done since I was a kid, I took a shaky breath. My mom once told me that God didn’t need to have a face. He didn’t have to be Jesus, Allah or even Buddha. He could just be love and a bright ball of light. That resonated with me. Not some angry God to fear. My God was a ball of light. A loving God, who accepted everyone regardless of color, religion, or even sin, and forgiveness was automatic. That was my God.
“Dear God,” I started, and was surprised to feel so nervous. I hadn’t prayed in years. “We have a deal, and I’m here to pay up. But I wanted to ask another favor. If you’re really out there, listening and all that, then please have mercy on us. Humanity is… we’re dying out, and we need your help. We’ve had enough. So if there is a way to make the ghouls go back where they came from, die, or whatever, then please… show me the way.”
It wasn’t an eloquent prayer, but it was all I was capable of. It was the five-hundred-pound weight I carried on my shoulders each day.
Another deep breath, and peacefulness washed over me then. I came to terms with something. I would either stop the Dream Wars or die trying. It had gotten to that point.
I was done.
We all were.
The plane ride was long, over fourteen hours, but because Josephine was able to wake everyone up, they were all in Vancouver, waiting for me, and not anywhere else in the world. When I walked off the plane, Damien was waiting for me. I wasn’t sure what relationship stage we were in, and if public displays of affection at the airport were okay, but he pulled me in for a huge bear hug and kiss, so I guessed we were at that stage. Maybe I needed to stop overthinking this.
“I was out of my mind with worry,” he told me, standing there on the runway, and claimed my lips again.
Back at the loft, Master Aki and I were getting a ‘lesson’ from Jeremy on my brain readings. It seemed my mentor had set up shop in the guest room, and would be staying a while for my new training. Training I was more than a little terrified about.
“So Damien hacked into some government files, from the early years of the ghoul landing, when we were still running experiments on them,” Jeremy explained.
My eyes flicked to Damien and he shrugged, giving me a sexy grin.
“I analyzed the files of the one and only breeder female from who they were able to get readings. She came into their possession unconscious, within the Dream Wars, and after they set up the neuro electrodes, she woke up. But before she made the entire medical staff nearly go crazy, and they had to let her go, they got readings,” Jeremy stated.
I’d never heard Jeremy so animated and articulate. He seemed very passionate about the topic. Meanwhile, I felt like I was going to throw up, thinking about the breeders and how they were after me.
“What I found, is extraordinarily similar to the readings I got last night from you, Kit.” He pinned me with a glare, before dropping his eyes to the floor where they usually rested.
I started to squirm in my seat. I didn’t want to be similar to the breeders. I didn’t want to be anything like them.
“Now I need to confirm some events with you, see what was happening. At exactly 7:05 p.m., before Damien and everyone came in, what where you doing?”
That was about the time I was robbing the vending machines and kicking that breeder’s ass.
“Well…,” I started. “That was probably around the time I was fighting the breeder. She gave me a massive headache and I… made her nose bleed, and then we flew off.”
Jeremy cocked his head to the side, and started scribbling notes feverishly on a yellow legal pad. I flicked my eyes sideways, and saw that Master Aki was wearing a rare grin. It made me feel a bit better.
“How did you make her nose bleed?” Jeremy asked me.
I tried to think back to that moment. I didn’t really remember how I did it, just sort of thought of pain and then lashed out. “I’m not sure.” I squirmed again.
He nodded. “Well, we will be doing some more tests to confirm my hypothesis.” He waved a hand my way.
My eyes bugged out. “Actually, Jeremy, I was hoping for a break from the hat.” I motioned to the thing lying on the floor next to me, with all the wires poking out of it.
His eyes flicked up over the top of his legal pad. “You made a promise.” He went right for the kill, big puppy dog eyes and everything.
“Yeah, about that.” Damien ran a hand through his hair. “Did you really promise him that he could have ice cream for breakfast?”
I squirmed some more. It felt like I was being interrogated.
“Yes, she did,” Jeremy said, with pride.
I cringed. “I promised, but only for thirty days because of… medical reasons.”
Jeremy scowled. “What kinds of medical reasons?”
He was a smart kid, smarter than me. If I said something stupid, he would totally call me on it. “Diabetes runs in your family. Right, Damien?” Please, God, let it run in your family. It runs in every family in North America, right?
Damien picked the lie up effortlessly. “Absolutely, and I will agree to thirty days of ice cream and no more. Carry on with your experiment.” He tried like a ninja to change the subject quickly.
Jeremy stared at his paper for a moment. “Okay. Just don’t forget about the lizard,” he reminded me.
My eyes widened farther. I had totally forgotten about the lizard.
I just nodded. If Ronnie got a kitten, she would be able to help me get a lizard… right?
/> “Shower, dry your hair, and then put the cap back on,” Jeremy ordered me, and then left.
“Yes, sir,” I mumbled after he was gone. I guess I was stuck with the hat for a while now.
Before running up to shower, I frantically pulled out my phone and texted Ronnie.
Kit: You need to find me a pet lizard for Jeremy. NOW! Please.
Ronnie: A lizard! Ugh. You owe me.
Whew. Crisis averted.
Well, at least one of the dozen crises I currently had.
Fifteen
After showering, blow-drying my hair, and putting on my cap once more, I met Master Aki in the training room we had set up at the Vancouver house. While I’d been showering, Damien had been nice enough to express ship a plasma band to the Danish doctor’s wife who’d helped save my life. Then he’d had to replace mine, which left us with one for parts. Oops.
I found Master Aki sitting cross-legged with a pot of tea on a tray and two cups. I grinned. Our favorite pastime. I’d hated tea before I met him; now I only drank it when he was around, because it made me miss him too much. I sat down, placed my hands in prayer pose and bowed before him.
He smirked. “You just now trying to get some manners?”
I scoffed, offended. “I’ve always had manners. Kind of. Probably.”
“Remember when you wore those muddy shoes into my dojo, stained the floors brown?”
I rolled my eyes. I knew he was never going to let that go. “The floors were already stained with blood.”
He shrugged. “How’s your mother?” he asked, pouring me a cup of hot tea. The steam rose up from it and broke apart when it hit his chest. I couldn’t stop thinking about what he’d told me. That he was like Dawn and could see the future. I wanted to ask him more about it, but didn’t even know where to start.
“She’s good. I just saw her recently.”
He nodded, taking a sip of tea. “Still drinking wine like it’s water?” He gave me a halfcocked smirk.
“Of course.” I smiled.
He chuckled, but it was brief, and then his face took on a serious tone. “Kit, I want you to take everything I have taught you and wrap it up tightly in your mind… and then push it away.”
What?
“Umm, that’s ten years of studying you’re asking me to push away. I don’t see the help in that.”
He flicked my forehead. “You don’t see anything. Listen to me. Push it aside and wipe the slate clean. We’re starting over.”
I rubbed my forehead and scowled at him. “Fine,” I agreed grumpily. Master Aki really knew how to push my buttons.
He held his cup of hot tea over the tray and then looked at me. “Now I want you to go into my mind, and force me to turn this hot tea over onto the tray.”
My eyes widened. “Are you drunk?” I asked him.
His face was devoid of emotion. He wasn’t even going to answer that, just stared at me.
I sighed. “You know I don’t like to control other people. I only did it that one time with Maxine, and that was to save all of our lives.”
He nodded. “Everything about this new training is going to make you uncomfortable. You will not like any of it. You will cry, you will hurt, you will probably grow to hate me, but it will save your life.”
Jesus! The seriousness in his tone was scaring me. “I could never hate you,” I said in a small voice.
“Then do as I ask, child. Go into my mind, a mind you are bonded with and know so well, and force me against my will to turn the tea over.”
I sighed. This was going to suck. It was going to suck hard.
I knew better than to argue with him, or ask a shitload of questions. It wouldn’t get me anywhere. Instead, I closed my eyes and tried to calm the spikes of nervousness that were rocking my system. Master Aki was like family to me. I didn’t want to make him do anything against his will. But I also wanted to protect myself against the breeders who seemed to be on a ‘kill Kit Steele’ rampage.
His mind was wide open, so I took a few breaths and then connected with his energy.
He was a blank slate, and I felt no resistance. ‘Pour out the tea,’ I thought and pushed.
He shook his head. “I heard that, but it didn’t make me want to do it.”
I growled. ‘Pour out the fucking tea!’ I thought and pushed harder.
My eyes popped open to find him glaring at me. “Watch your language, young lady. Still nothing. You’re thinking words, not feeling feelings.”
Always riddles with him. Feel my feelings? What kind of hippy-dippy shit was that?
I took another deep breath, and that time I felt like my arm was twisting to the side, just as I felt the pain I’d pushed at the breeder. I physically turned my arm to get the feeling right, and then pushed that into his mind. Master Aki’s eyes widened, and his hand quickly dumped the contents of the hot tea all over the tray.
“Whoop!” I shouted and jumped up, doing a little improv dance.
When I spun around, my mentor didn’t even look fazed. He simply poured another cup of hot tea and held it over his other hand. “Now try it with my absolute resistance.”
I sank into the ground. If I got him to upend the tea, it would scald his hand. Which meant he would fight like hell against me.
“This is going to be a long day, isn’t it?” I asked him.
He just gave me a sadistic grin.
Great.
Over the next two hours, I fought the man with the mental fortitude of Fort Knox. Nothing was getting past him, and he had been right. I was tired, near tears, and on the verge of hating him.
“If you want me to learn, then help me!” I shouted at him.
He’d resorted to propping his hands over his knees, because he couldn’t hold them up anymore, and simply met my eyes. “You know how to do this. Find my walls, push them down and assert your will!” he snapped.
Argh! I wanted to smack that tea out of his hand.
I stood, fists clenched, and stared down at him with all the frustration I could muster. Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath and started to probe his energy. It was walled up and tight, keeping me out.
Screw that. No more nice Kit.
I pulled my energy into myself, letting it grow, thinking about the act of him spilling that damn tea all over the place, and then I lashed out. With a scream, I opened my eyes, and pushed my energy at him. His eyes widened and his tea hand went up in the air, causing the cup to sail over my head and smash into the wall behind me.
He stood with a grin and gave me a small bow.
“Good, now we can move on to lesson two.”
Oh my God. “No, I need a break. I just made you chuck a teacup across the room. That’s seriously badass, and you’re not even excited. Don’t I get a gold star, a high five, or something?”
He gave me the same look you’d give a petulant child, then held up his palm as I high-fived it. “Now lesson two. Sensing dimensions.”
I groaned. “Sensing whaty what now?”
I needed coffee for this, and chocolate, and possibly mild pain medication.
“The prevailing theory is that the Dream Wars exist directly on top of us. Right now, in this room, there is probably a sentry eating a human and we can’t sense it.”
My face scrunched up as I looked around the room. That was actually super disturbing. I tried to stay away from all of the scientific theories, and just focused more on staying alive. But I was aware of the idea.
“Okay, and you think I’m going to be able to see it or something?” I was having a hard time with Master Aki’s newfound admission that he ‘saw’ things. I wanted to know everything about that. What kind of things did he see? How long had he been seeing them? And why the hell couldn’t he have told me!
“No. You’ll do much more than that. For now I just want you to sense them. Feel the two different dimensions if you can,” he stated with absolute seriousness.
I waved my hands out in front of me and closed my eyes, stumbling forward like a
blind man. “Nope. I feel nothing. Let’s call food delivery. I’m hungry,” I told him, peeling my eyes open.
He was giving me that sad, wounded bird look that got me every time.
“Hey. No. No! I’ve tried your training and I want a break. You can’t make me feel bad for that,” I scolded him.
“Okay, Kit. Take a break if you want, but time is growing shorter by the second, and you’re the only one who can stop it,” he claimed, face stoic without a hint of humor in there anywhere.
His words shook me. “What do you mean?”
He sighed, and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Look, I can’t see everything. I’m given glimpses and what I’ve glimpsed is… you just need to learn this, okay? I need you to not sleep until you’ve learned this.”
My eyes bugged out wider, if that was even possible. “Okay, geez. No pressure.” I sat back down and pulled out my phone. “I’ll keep training but I’m ordering food. What do you want?”
He paused for a second. “Mexican. You know what I like.”
I did. I nodded and texted Damien to order us a smorgasbord of Mex food, then set my phone down. “Okay, Master Aki, what would you like me to do?”
If there was one thing that was true to my soul, it was that I wasn’t a quitter.
Over the next two days, I sat in the training room nearly nonstop with Master Aki, only taking breaks to catch up with Damien. The news was going crazy about the giants, and only one had been confirmed killed.
Damien had determined the green goo lake in Nevada had too many military at it for us to get anywhere near there, but he’d found the Boston docks. Brisk and I helped him plan our upcoming trip to Boston, to take out their storage supply of the green stuff before it could be shipped to Nevada. Damien had been spying on the docks through its CCTV, and now knew the schedules of the guards and everything. We didn’t want anyone hurt, just wanted that green goo to blow sky-high and send a clear message—humanity couldn’t be sold. The second I’d told Santiago of our plan, he begged to come along with some of his guys, and stick it to the government.