by C. M McCoy
A hand went up among the students.
“What?” Fin said to the boy in a way that let him know it was not the time for questions.
“I can’t feel my hands!”
“You just raised your hand, doofus,” Fin told him, and another hand shot up.
Fin dropped the microphone, closed his eyes, and pinched his nose. “No more questions,” he said stiffly. Then he looked up. “In fact, everybody shut your mouths.”
When there was silence, he proceeded without the mike.
“Normally, the Aether messes with your memory. You don’t always bring all you know in, and you don’t always remember everything you’ve experienced here once you leave.
“This Luftzeug is a special piece of equipment used by the college and the US military to study the Aether. It allows those on board to share a common dream space, to take data, and most importantly, to remember our observations.”
Fin paused and looked around at each student until his eyes fell on Hailey. Smiling at her, he continued.
“Now, all of you listen up,” he barked. “It is very important that none of you panic.”
He looked directly at the guy who couldn’t feel his hands.
“If you do panic, you risk dragging us all into your own personal nightmare. If any of you think you feel a panic coming, just close your eyes and count to eight, alright? I don’t want to see your zombies or watch your teeth fall out . . .and I certainly don’t want to see any of you naked.”
His eyes found Hailey again.
“Most of you, anyway,” he said, and he winked at her.
Hailey’s chin dipped and her ears burned, but to her relief, nobody paid attention. The others wore expressions ranging from concern to alarm. Looking around, she noticed at least three students wide-eyed and close to hyperventilating, but Hailey felt perfectly at ease.
Until the man-eating spiders crept in through the ceiling.
“Ah, shit,” she heard Fin mutter, and a pandemonium inside the Luftzeug ensued.
Trying to stay calm, Hailey watched the spiders with increasing interest. They seemed more confused than aggressive, she told herself, though one had lifted a student with its hairy legs and another was scampering in Hailey’s direction.
She closed her eyes and had counted to three when a powerful clamp gripped her shoulders and jerked her aside.
When she opened her eyes, she was standing in a forest outside the Luftzeug, listening to the muffled chaos coming from inside.
Turning around, she realized she stood in the woods of her favorite childhood place and collapsed on the soft grass, breathing in the crisp mountain air and watching violet skies swirl above her.
“How did you escape the Traumzeug?” An Envoy tilted his head as he appeared in the grass next to her.
Hailey bolted upright and stared at him speechless for several seconds.
“Asher,” she breathed, as his name dawned on her, and her belly fluttered. Taking a moment to gaze into his gorgeous eyes, she smiled uncertainly. “I would have guessed that you pulled me outside.”
“If you hadn’t disappeared, I might have. It is exceptionally rare for a human to find its way out of the Traumzeug.” His gaze fell on her right eye for a moment and then her left.
“I find you . . .” he drew a sharp breath. “ . . .surprising and . . .lovely,” he said as if he struggled to find the right words.
“Asher,” Hailey repeated. “You’re on that plane with me, aren’t you?” She pointed at the Luftzeug, which suddenly tilted into a steep nose-down attitude.
Hailey jumped up and stumbled back.
“What’s happening in there?”
Asher closed his eyes for a moment.
“Panic,” he said, rising up and once again trapping her in his gaze. “One of the students is afraid of falling, and though she doesn’t mean to, she’s about to send the Traumzeug into a nosedive.”
“Will they be alright?” Hailey was thinking about Fin.
“It’s only a dream, Hailey. It will be uncomfortable, but they will wake up soon, and they will no longer be aboard the Traumzeug. They will be back inside the Luftzeug,” he explained, and Hailey finally realized the airplane was the Luftzeug on Earth, an airplane making its way from Pittsburgh to Alaska, but in the Aether, it was the Traumzeug, which looked like something out of a Salvador Dali painting.
“I’m going to remember this,” she said, her eyes fierce with determination. “And I’ll remember you, right?”
Asher hesitated.
“You’re outside the Traumzeug. It’s hard to know. You may indeed remember—”
She held her arms out, throwing her head back.
“Finally!” she said with a laugh, and then she collapsed onto the grass once more.
“It is good to see you smile again,” he told her, and her smile widened. “I’ll see you very soon, Hailey.”
“It’ll be a dream come true, Asher.”
In front of her eyes, the eddying skies of the Aether morphed into the cold metal ceiling of the Luftzeug. She squeezed her eyes shut and opened them again, finding herself tucked warm and snug inside Fin’s sleeping bag, while he snored with one arm draped lazily across her. As he stirred, he curled his arm and pulled her into a tight cuddle as if she were his own little teddy bear.
If she could have moved inside that mummy bag, she’s not sure she would have. She woke up feeling like she was in love, so instead of shrugging Fin away, she relaxed and let him hug her, enjoying every second until he woke and let her go.
Groaning, he raised his arms in a great stretch. As he sat up and rubbed his eyes, Hailey feigned sleep and listened to him struggle against the turbulence to make his way to the front of the plane.
The PA clicked and made a brief feedback howl before Fin’s voice rang through.
“That was absolutely pathetic,” he said, as lumps of sleeping bags stirred to life. “I should fail all of you. But the shame of walking into Chinook Hall in your current state should be punishment enough, so you’ll all receive a C.”
A chorus of groans rose up.
“Everyone except for Hartley did exactly what I told you NOT to do, and now look at you.” Fin threw his hand up, and several students gasped and whimpered, clutching their sleeping bags. “It’ll be a cold walk to campus if you lose your sleeping bag,” he warned.
Hailey saw many naked shoulders poking out of the floor. She wiggled her own shoulders out and was relieved to find herself still fully clothed. But she was one of few.
“Where are my clothes?” one of the female students cried.
“Probably in the Aether where you left them.” Fin answered her in his most caustic voice as the plane descended. “Be thankful none of you dreamed of losing your teeth.”
“My teeth!” another yelled, showing a gaping hole where two incisors should have been, and Fin pointed at him in reprimand.
“I told you not to panic. The school will fit you with falsies, so calm down. Now everyone get ready for landing.”
Fin dropped the mike, which swung on its cord like a pendulum, and he staggered to the back of the plane, where Hailey helped him stuff his sleeping bag into his backpack.
“Where’d you go?” he asked her, and Hailey looked up at him.
“What?”
“While we were in the Aether. You were here. And then you were gone, Hailey. Where’d you go?”
“Oh, I went outside,” she said nonchalantly.
Fin studied her eyes. “How?”
Hailey shrugged and went back to packing his sleeping bag. “I don’t know. I was getting scared, so I started counting to eight like you said and then I was outside lying in the grass, looking at the sky with . . .”
“With what?”
She stole a glance at Asher.
“With him?” he spat with
a scowl.
“Keep your voice down,” she whispered with wide eyes. “I think so.”
Honestly, she hoped so. Her memory was a little fuzzy.
“Hailey—” He jerked his backpack out of her hands.
“What?” she demanded, but the only response she got was an angry glare and noisy breathing. Fin threw the backpack zipper closed with enough force to tear the fabric. Out of a separate compartment, he pulled a pair of goggles then strapped himself into his jump seat.
Hailey followed.
“What’s that for?” she asked as he donned his eye protection.
Fin let out an edgy laugh. “You’ll see.”
As Hailey fumbled with her harness, the floor opened under her, and she slipped out of her seat and out of the Luftzeug, swinging her arms at Fin, who made a frantic grab for her and missed.
Before she could scream, she was falling through the sky, plummeting to Earth, and the ground was coming up fast.
Chapter Seventeen
Whipped
“It may be he shall take my hand,
And lead me into his dark land.”
- Alan Seeger, I Have a Rendezvous with Death
Down Hailey fell for several seconds until a painful jolt stopped her descent at about 3 feet above the ground, where she hovered briefly with very wide eyes before landing with a giant splash in a cold, marshy puddle.
She sat shivering in that puddle, which came up to her waist, holding onto her face with trembling hands, saying over and over, “Am-I-dead-am-I-dead-am-I-dead . . .”
“No.” A soothing voice rang through her panic.
Slowly, she uncovered her eyes to find an outstretched hand. The hand was connected to an arm and that arm belonged to Him. Staring up at his purple eyes, she tried to think of something intelligent to say. Were it not for those purple eyes, he might pass for a regular grad student, looking slightly standoffish and oozing authority. Though his outstretched hand seemed more like an order than an invitation, Hailey trusted him immediately, as if she’d known him for ages, and she placed a quivering hand in his.
“Didn’t I spill a drink on you?” she blurted. It was the only thing that came to mind.
He smiled as he helped her stand on wobbly legs on the spongy ground.
She was shaking all over—mostly from fright, but also from the chill. Frigid, marshy Alaskan bog water soaked her from the chest down. Asher took her other hand in his, but when she lost her balance, he snaked an arm around her waist and pulled her close. An incredible, gorgeous heat radiated from him, which hurried her chills away.
“I’m really sorry about that drink—whoa,” she said as her legs tried to crumple again, but he caught her and hugged her closer. “I wanted to apologize properly, but when I came out of the ladies room, you’d already gone.” There. She’d been waiting months to get that off her conscience.
Asher simply held her by the waist with one hand, caressed her hand with the other and gazed adoringly into her eyes.
“So, you’re Asher,” she said, and her stomach tied itself into a knot.
“You remember me then.”
Hailey nodded. “Of course.” How could she not, he was her first kiss. At least, she thought that was real. Biting her lip, she tilted her head down. She could feel herself blushing and hoped he wouldn’t see.
He dipped his head and lured her eyes once again into his.
“Will you tell me what you’re thinking?” he asked.
I want you to kiss me again.
She felt a moment of unnatural courage and seized it. “Did you kiss me, Asher? I mean, was that real, or was it a dream?”
She couldn’t believe she’d said it.
“It was both,” he said.
Hailey waited, holding her breath to see if he would kiss her again, but he made no move to close the gap between them.
“It is good to see you,” was all he said, and Hailey’s face fell. Her pocket . . .her photo!
“Oh, no—Holly’s picture!” Stepping away from Asher, she cautiously pulled it out. “Oh no . . .no . . .” It was wet and ruined and barely holding itself together in Hailey’s hands.
Very carefully, Asher took the picture from her and held it between his hands. When he gave it back, it was—dry. Completely restored.
Hailey smiled. “Would you carry this for me until I dry off?” she asked as she closed his hand on it. If she put it back in her pocket, it would just get ruined again.
“Of course.” He tucked it away and took her hand again. Leading her through the alders and around patches of Jurassic jagger bushes and giant puddles, Asher kept hold of Hailey’s hand, lifting her with ease over downed spruce trees and across rocky streams. Every move he made appeared effortless, and Hailey honestly couldn’t tell if his feet actually made contact with the ground.
She couldn’t say the same for her own feet. At least twice, she had to ask him to stop and help extract her shoe from a mud hole after it got sucked off.
While Asher dug her right sneaker out again, Hailey stood balanced on one foot, though she didn’t know why she bothered—both of her feet were already filthy and water-logged and numb, and she doubted the one pair of shoes she’d brought with her to Alaska would still be wearable in the morning.
“Would you like me to carry you?” Asher asked as she struggled to tie her soggy laces with freezing fingers.
She didn’t know what to say. Of course she wanted him to carry her. But even more so, she didn’t want to be a wimp. “How far is it?” That seemed like a fair question.
“Two hours at this pace. Five minutes if I carry you. Three seconds if I whip you.”
“That sounds . . .painful?” She was fairly certain she didn’t want to be whipped, but . . .three seconds. And she wouldn’t arrive on campus in Asher’s arms like a damsel in distress—it sounded like a good compromise, though she wasn’t sure what “whip” meant, and it sure didn’t sound pleasant.
Smiling slightly, Asher removed a mud blob from Hailey’s forehead.
“It won’t hurt you. I can . . .propel you so that you’ll land close to the others. They’re ahead of us and less than a half mile now from campus.”
“You mean, like, throw me?” Even though it sounded cold, scary, and painful, after surviving a fall from the Luftzeug, Hailey was willing to take Asher’s word for it and try a whip.
She heaved a decisive sigh and said with a shrug, “Okay, Asher. Whip me.”
Asher wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her against his side. “I’ll see you soon,” he whispered against her ear, and with a crack that sounded more like thunder than a whip, the air at Hailey’s back pressed in, and a familiar heaviness enveloped her, static electricity, raising her hair.
What happened next felt an awful lot like a gigantic shock—like she’d moonwalked across a winter rug and bumped into a metal shelf. She arched against the jolt of Asher’s throw, squeezing her eyes shut as the foliage rushed past, her body hurtling through the air. Only when her feet hit the ground did she open her eyes again. Sure enough, there she was, holding her arms out as she regained her balance and standing in the middle of a gaggle of students, who looked even soggier and muddier than she did. Several trudged along naked and shoeless, clinging to their sleeping bags, and one of them had a leafy twig tangled in his filthy rainbow hair.
Hailey tried not to laugh, thinking of Holly’s toothbrush.
“You’ve got a twig in your hair,” she told him as she partially weaved it out.
“Don’t touch me,” he snapped, and Hailey started.
Jeez, she was just trying to help the kid.
Asher appeared at her side, and the rainbow waddled hurriedly away.
“I have that effect on people,” Hailey said, and Asher glared after him.
“He won’t bother you again,” he said darkly.
“I’ve never seen Asher actually talk to a student before,” a soaking wet and filthy Fin said, stumbling over to help her. He had a clean spot in the shape of goggles around his eyes, and looking dead serious, he added, “You know he’s not human.”
Raising her eyebrows, she mouthed the word, “Oh.” Of course she knew. But she didn’t know Fin knew. She thought for a second, and then she baited him. “Well, what is he?”
“Don’t care,” was his answer. He quickened his pace.
“You don’t care?”
“No...” he sang, sounding highly irked.
Hailey tripped over an alder bush, struggling to keep up with him.
“Oof! How can you not care about what Asher is?”
“There are a lot of ‘not humans’ here, Hailey.”
Hailey stopped and gawked after him. Then she ran to catch up. “Wait! What other ‘not humans’ are there?”
Ignoring that question, he fired one back at her. “Why didn’t you land with the rest of us?”
As if she’d planned to fall out of the Luftzeug!
“The floor opened under me,” she said, her voice rising, “and you didn’t grab me!”
“Oh,” he said in a slightly more casual, yet still heated tone. “Well, where’d you land?”
“On my bum.”
“Did you get hurt?”
“No,” she told him, “but it was scary, and I really have to pee now.”
Fin went from irate to highly amused, instantly. “You’re a goofball,” he said chuckling. “We’re less than a minute out. When we get to Chinook Hall, throw your shoes and socks in the mud room, grab a pair of house-shoes off the rack and head straight to the back of the hall for the toilets.”
“Thank you,” she breathed.