The Lucid Dreamer (Dystopian Child Prodigy SciFi) (The Unmaker Series Book 1)

by Casey Herzog

  The wind was getting stronger and I was not what you would call a proficient climber. I wasn’t even much of a tomboy growing up, except for when it suited my purposes to make the boys look bad.

  “Everybody makes mistakes, father, and it’s what we do after we learn from them that makes the most difference. I’m afraid to ask what happened to the banished. Did you ever see them again, or were they lost forever as some kind of footnote in history?”

  I was getting closer, but I had to flatten myself against the wall when the wind was at its strongest. If I didn’t know any better, I would swear some hidden force was trying to prevent me from reaching where my father was waiting for me.

  There were black marks on the rock, and touching them were warm against my fingertips. They were fairly recent, and most likely came from the creatures we had seen in passing last night.

  It was obvious my father had avoided those hot spots, but it still left me with a curiosity to learn more. The next axe strike was off the mark; it was lucky I was still holding onto the other one. I leaned back, but letting go meant an untimely end to my life, which was something I was not interested in. I was just getting my life back, and I had no interest in letting the mountain get the best of me.

  “I know you can do this, daughter, because you have my DNA and your mother’s spirit combined into an unstoppable force. It’s the only reason you were influenced by the magic eyes and the darker arts. I should have prepared you, but I was still healing and unable to reach out without attracting the unnecessary attention of the Elders and the Guardians. I needed Jasper to think I was dead, but I never took into consideration how it was going to make you feel. Your whole world was crumbling down around you and I was to blame. You have no idea how much I regret leaving you to think I was dead, but I knew it was the only way to keep them off my tail.” He was seeing things through my eyes and feeling remorse for letting me down.

  I took a few deep breaths, reached out, and climbed back into a position of authority. I was within spitting distance, but I still couldn’t reach out and touch his fingertips. He was right there trying to get to me, and I wanted to be safely in his arms where I could be his little girl all over again. Of course, I remembered only one time during a screaming nightmare when he came in and hold me until I stopped shaking.

  “I want you to look into my eyes and see the strength inside you. You’re not doing this alone; you have me by your side. I still can’t believe you are a teenager. Time seems to slip through my fingers as easily as grains of sand. My youth is forgotten, but I still feel younger than I appear.”

  I knew that getting to him was my only option. Damien was counting on me to succeed on his behalf. The first summit was only halfway there, and it wasn’t going to get any easier.

  It burned inside of me to find the tenacity to carry myself the rest of the way. I skimmed my father’s fingertips, but there was no way to latch onto his hand without taking a couple of more swipes with the axe.

  “Tell me more about those banished, because I need something to keep my mind occupied. I’m sure you can make that happen.”

  The wind had picked up and it meant staying still for the duration of the gust.

  “We only saw one of them return and he looked like he had been through hell. He had cuts all over his body, but they didn’t seem to come from branches or jagged rocks. They were more surgical and precise, like somebody had taken great care in punishing him for encroaching on their territory. I don’t know if you remember Wilkens, but he sits outside his home, rocking in his chair, looking like he has aged years instead of being only in his forties.”

  It brought to mind the handwriting I’d found in the book, but I was reluctant to speak to him about it.

  “I thought he was just some old man who had reached the prime of his life. Are you trying to tell me he hasn’t said anything from the moment he arrived back after that harrowing ordeal?” I didn’t know how it was possible that nobody knew where Wilkens originated. He was a staple in the community, yet someone to be avoided because of the way he would look at anyone with his steely blue eyes.

  “We managed to get some words out of him, but they never really made any sense. He spoke of the darkness: how he escaped and the others didn’t. He never was able to say anything more, but I sensed the hatred coming off of him in waves towards my generation. We tried to keep our distance, much the same way I did with you when your mother was out of our lives. I suppose the sins of the father will sometimes fall on his prodigy.”

  I slammed the axe into the rock surface and reached out to have my father grab me. The rock face crumbled, and the axe penetrating into the surface was gone. My hand was bleeding; it was a wonder I was even able to keep my concentration on my father.

  “I’m not going to let go of you, daughter. You mean the world to me. I would rather die in your place than to see anything happen to you. The only thing that can hurt me severely is outliving you. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself. I can’t see how any parent can outlive their children and feel the same ever again. You’ll understand when you have children of your own.”

  My hand was numb and hanging limply by my side, with my other arm feeling like it was going to be pulled out of its socket.

  His slipping fingers, from a combination of sweat and desperation, were keeping us both from tumbling over the edge.

  Chapter Twelve

  I used my fingernails to dig into the palm of his hand. It was a desperate act of a woman clinging to life one more moment. I heard him cry out in pain with the blood from the penetration trickling down his fingers. He finally reached out with the other hand and grabbed my wrist, while pulling me up very slowly until I was safely in his arms. I could see the grimace of pain. I looked behind him to see he was using the root growing out of the ground as the only form of resistance.

  I literally kissed the ground, feeling the thin air, but not giving it much concern after everything I had already been through. He tried to stand, but he was hobbling and showing some distress.

  “I don’t know what to say. I thought I made peace with you never being in my life, but I’m glad we got past our problems. I’m sorry you’re in pain; I certainly didn’t want to do anything to contribute to it,’ I said, feeling like I was two feet tall, but there had been no other way than to grab his hand.

  “I made a decision to hold onto you and I don’t regret it for one single second. There will always be moments where parents will do things their kids will never understand. I did this for you because you are the future and I am the past. I never thought I would be in this position, but I’m grateful somebody like you is willing to pick up the baton after I’m gone. You may slip and fall, but you will always stand back up. I can’t ask for anything better than that.”

  I gave him my stick and he used both of them as makeshift crutches.

  “What you did for me by laying down those tracks touched me in more ways than one. Hanging there by your ankles to reach me in time shows me the love you have for me. I don’t think I fully understood the lengths you would go to keep me safe. I take solace in the tools you have given me to strive for excellence in anything I do.”

  Teaching was what I was meant for, and I derived pleasure from giving others those same tools my father gave me.

  “These are sacrifices parents make every day to make sure their children want for nothing. They work tirelessly to make ends meet without the children even realizing the beneficial sacrifice they’re making. We never truly know what our parents are made of until we are old enough to recognize the same things in ourselves.” These were strong words, and ones that would stay with me until my last dying breath.

  In this higher elevation, the wind was colder, so we stayed close to one another to draw strength and warmth from each other. The terrain became an icy path of resistance with a bit of snow in the air, but we continued to slowly make our way to the flower.

  “I thought I knew everything there was to know about you, but you still
manage to surprise me. I hope I have the same relationship with William as you did with mother. I want us to constantly challenge each other and not get complacent where we don’t know what to say to one another. You and mother might have differed in your approach in raising me, but I think I took a little bit from each of you.”

  Losing her at a young age made me feel hatred and a deep resounding resentment. It was something I had come to terms with, but there were moments when I wanted to scream out to her.

  “I hope you know your mother had no choice. There was nothing she could do to prevent what happened. You gave us strength to do what was considered the right thing, and she left you with very big shoes to fill. She was a teacher for those underground, and she brought me into the cause . We both knew the possibility of the Elders sending us to the asylum, but this was something we felt strongly about,” My father said with real admiration for my mother.

  I could see our breath in the air, and thankfully, we had brought some warm clothes to layer against whatever elements we might encounter. It seemed as if I could touch the air and rip away a façade keeping me from seeing the truth.

  “I’ve never been one to think outside the box. Dealing with your death made me realize I couldn’t act like a little girl anymore. I was a woman with responsibilities given to me by you. I tried to reject it out of hand for spite, but I couldn’t walk away after seeing all those children trying their best to understand their role in the world. Damien, in particular, was quite a case in need of a firm hand and understanding. I was able to commit myself to understanding him on his level.”

  “You say you’ve never been about going outside the box, but I would like to debate the issue. You’ve been a dreamer all of your life, and your imagination brought characters to life in front of your eyes. It was quite an amazing sight, and it allowed me to see you become a strong voice of your own. Your mother gave you a strong foundation to build on, and I think I allowed her to take the reins because I knew her protection was not going to keep you from rising above expectations.”

  My father was my biggest advocate and also my biggest critic. It was a balancing act that he made look easy. I put his arm around my shoulder giving him my support to lean on because of his wounded ankle. There was no visible cut, but his pain was quite evident and only he knew what he was capable of enduring. I looked at my hand; the cold had stopped it from bleeding.

  The snow swirled around us, but there was something else touching my shoulder and sending a cold sensation down my spine. It was like something had reached in beyond my skin and grabbed my spinal column with its icy cold hands.

  “I don’t want to alarm you, father, but I don’t think we’re alone. There’s something here, but I can’t quite figure out what it is. It seems alive and angry.”

  The emotion was very strong and made me ball up my fist despite not feeling any need to lash out.

  “I was wondering how long it was going to take you to feel it. It’s been there from the moment we began to make our climb. I was going to mention it, but it was better for you not to know.”

  Once again, he was trying to protect me. It should’ve upset me, but instead, I felt better for knowing he was allowing me to live, oblivious to whatever this was.

  “I don’t suppose you have any idea of what this could be? I only ask because you have a tendency to hold things back, even when you know it’s the wrong decision to make. I know it comes naturally to protect me, but I sometimes feel you don’t give me enough credit.”

  I could see his heart was true and he only wanted good things to happen for me. He believed in me and I fed on his belief in me by not shying away from the unknown.

  “The love I see in your eyes is only masked by the resentment you still feel for me leaving you. You give me a reason to be a better man and to show you the necessary respect. This thing is familiar, but I can’t really say for sure what it is. We can certainly go back, but it would seem foolish when we have come so far.” The cold of our environment was at least keeping the shadows at bay. They would come close, but it was more like they were testing their abilities.

  “I want to believe everything will work out, but I have been disappointed too many time,” I said hoping that I wasn’t saying anything to offend.

  I wanted him to know that having him around gave me a reason to choose the sensible path. It also gave me the courage to step into the light of my own making.

  “We heard of these things from various sources, but I always thought they were exaggerated. It would appear the cold is keeping them from getting any closer. We can take that as a blessing in disguise, and maybe we can use it to our advantage. This environment will help us avoid any unnecessary problems.” My father was being purposely vague, and I had a feeling I was going to have to make him reveal what he was trying to hide.

  “If you’re not going to say anything useful, then let me be the first one. I saw these things in my dream and I hear their voices like whispers in the wind. They are begging me to help them, but I get the feeling there’s more going on here. There’s no reason for me to trust them without some sort of olive branch.”

  They kept swirling around us, staying above the altitude, and I could feel them almost hungering for a taste of what we had.

  “Some have their theories, but nothing has been proven. You’re right not to trust them; they most likely have their own agenda. One theory states they are other beings trying to latch onto a human host, but this is the first time I’ve seen them in person. Others have given them a nickname of shrouds, ghoulish beings that roam the night, amassing power by draining unsuspecting victims.”

  I felt the exhaustion building inside me. The cold was having the added side effect of keeping these things away, but it was also slowing our progress. The snow was getting thicker and we had to go at a snail’s pace to avoid plummeting into a chasm.

  “I don’t like either one of those options. They must sense the magic, and maybe in some small way, I was responsible for waking them. I thought what I was doing was the right thing for everybody, but I never knew the right thing could easily turn out to be the wrong thing. I know they’re starving. One spoke with clarity, while the other one seemed to be struggling between sanity and insanity.”

  “You did what you had to and what made sense to you at the time. I don’t blame you. Some things are unavoidable, no matter what you do. Things like these are hard to swallow, and I understand your hesitation about wanting to make the hard decisions. There is such a thing as having faith everything will work out the way it’s supposed to. I’ve always been a believer of light vs. darkness.” The wind was howling, but some of the sound might have come from those things just out of reach.

  They gave the impression of being insidious and willing to brave the elements to touch the magic within my father and me. I wanted to help them, but to do so would only put myself in danger. That was becoming a trend, and one that I would like to break. The one thing I couldn’t admit to anybody was that I was energized by the excitement.The constant threat to my life was like an adrenaline rush I had never felt before. I had to assume this feeling was courtesy of the combination of both the magic eyes and the darker arts.

  “I need you to keep it together a little while longer. We’ve gotten past the point where anybody has gotten before, and there’s only been one other who made it all the way: your mother. She had a reputation for going above and beyond. I wanted her to stay, but she had to go.”

  I couldn’t see his face underneath the white winter attire. Then, I heard the crack and I looked down to see a spider web of cracks along my feet. The wind blew for one brief second, exposing that we had somehow climbed out onto an icy ledge born from the environment.

  I stopped moving altogether, and I could tell my father was feeling the same thing. One wrong move and it would be our last. If the fall didn’t get us, the jagged rocks and the inevitable landing would.

  Chapter Thirteen

  I had no idea what tomorrow was going
bring, but right at this moment, I was terrified beyond any semblance of reason. My father had told me I was a shooting star and a ray of light, but I didn’t feel any of those things. I felt deep, residing fear burning deep and holding me hostage.

  “This is no time to lose your head, daughter. I’ve taken an assessment of what we’re up against, and I don’t see any reason why I can’t be honest with you. I’ve done some calculations, and we walked across this icy bridge about halfway. The middle is the weakest point, and is the reason we are experiencing the cracks within the fissure of the ice.”

  It was nice to know one of us was keeping a sensible head. I wasn’t sure how he could be so calm when the reality was frighteningly simple.

  “None of what you said helps us to navigate to the other side, but I will concur with your assessment. We still need a solution to the problem. We can’t use magic and each step is putting us in peril. If we can somehow make it a few more feet the ice will get thicker and we won’t have to worry about plummeting to our deaths.”

  I saw him move very slowly and reach back into his bag to pull out what look like an ancient weapon. The length of very thick wire was wrapped around one of the arrows before he placed it into the mechanism. There was no way that he could see anything in front of him; using this was going on a wing and a prayer.

  “I’ve always had an unfair advantage I have never shared with anybody. Your mother was obsessed, and she took meticulous notes ,which I have in my possession. She spoke of an icy road to hell, but I really didn’t know what she meant in context. It certainly makes sense when you think about it. She was never quite the same mentally when she came back because she experienced something nobody could understand. That began her decline in health. Her mind unraveled and I tried to help her, but she was too far gone.”