“My boss, Lucas, is here. I need to call you back. Bye, Estella.”
“Lauren, I’m coming over. Bye.”
Before she could protest Estella’s visit, the therapist hung up the phone. Lucas rang the doorbell again and waved at her through the window. Lauren closed her eyes and exhaled a loud, long breath. I just want to be left alone, she thought. Then she dropped her cell phone into her purse and unlocked the door.
“Hi, Lucas. What are you doing here?” Lauren opened the door and took only a few steps back into her home, leaving him just enough space to step inside and close the door behind himself. This, she hoped, would signal to him that she had somewhere to be and didn’t have time to talk to him.
“Hi, Lauren. I wanted to stop by and see how you were doing. Our last phone conversation was rather short, so I figured it would be easier to stop by and get a progress report. How are you doing?” His crazy smile, the one she felt showed way too many teeth, was on his face.
“I’m fine. In fact, I’m better than fine. I’m sleeping again and will probably be back in the office on Monday after my visit with my doctor to get my return to work clearance.”
“That’s good news.” Lucas sidestepped her and walked into her family room.
Before turning around to follow him, she clenched her teeth and scowled. Is this really happening right now?
When she entered her family room, Lucas was standing beside a table with a picture of her parents that she had on display.
As soon as she entered, he started talking. “Your getting better really is good news. We’ve been concerned about you. So I decided I’d stop by and check on you myself. Do you mind if I sit?” Lucas was walking towards a chair as he asked the question.
“Actually, I do mind. I’m sorry, Lucas, but I was just about to step out when you knocked.” She dangled her keys in the air. “A few more minutes and you would’ve missed me.” Oh, I wish I’d been a little faster getting out of here.
“Not a problem. This won’t take long. Then, when I’m finished, you can go out like you were planning.” He sat in the leather armchair with that smile frozen on his face.
Lauren nodded and sat on the sofa at the opposite end from the chair. She didn’t know why, but being alone with Lucas was making her feel nervous. Hairs on the back of her neck were standing up.
“It’s good news that you’re cured. When did this happen?”
“Today. I was able to sleep this morning and this afternoon as well. Like I said, Monday I’ll go back to my neurologist for a check-up. But I fully expect to receive a clean bill of health.”
“Wonderful. And what about Dr. Olivier? Have you told her about your improvement?”
“Yes. She knows.”
“And are you planning to continue seeing her? I would imagine that you would no longer need to, since you’re cured.”
This conversation with Lucas felt... off. Furthermore, she didn’t want to waste any more time at home with him. She really wanted to find Kyle and make sure he was okay.
“Why do you care about whether I see Dr. Olivier again? You asked me how I was doing, and I told you I’m cured and that I’ll likely be back at work on Monday. Why do you need to know anything other than that?”
Lucas moved from his chair to the other end of the sofa on which she sat. “Because I just wonder about the quality of care you could get from someone who uses hypnosis as part of her practice.” He said hypnosis with much condescension in his voice.
“Lucas, thank you for your concern. But I’m an adult. I can make decisions for myself without your help. And I didn’t randomly choose her. My very well respected neurologist brought her in to help. Your thoughts on how they decided to treat me weren’t needed.”
“Of course, Lauren. I didn’t mean to make it seem like you can’t take care of yourself. I just meant… Hmm, how should I put this?” He looked up like he was searching for the right words on the ceiling. “I just meant that we know Dr. Olivier. And by now, we can only guess what she’s been telling you. I was chosen, because of our existing relationship, to visit you and let you hear our side of things. Because I think she may have been painting a one-sided picture for you.”
She stared at Lucas, not sure how to respond. “What are you talking about?” Am I still asleep? Lauren wondered.
“It’s too late for you to be playing dumb. When I called you on Wednesday and you hung up in my face, I wondered why you would do something like that. We’ve always gotten along so well at work. And I’d like to think we’re friends.”
“Friends!” she exclaimed. “I. Oh my. You.” Lauren sputtered random words as she tried to respond to him.
Finally, she gathered her thoughts. “I responded like that because you were inserting yourself into an area of my life that’s not your concern, like always. It’s not appropriate for you to have a say in my medical treatment.” She was getting flustered again as she spoke to him. Why did he not understand how crazy this was?
“No, I think it was more than that. Once we found out about what your Traveler was doing on Trebor, it all began to make sense. You’ve been turned against us, and we never even had a chance to tell you our side.”
Trebor? Travelers? How could Lucas know about my mental projection unless…? Lauren looked at him, her mouth open in astonishment. All of it is real. And Lucas knows about it, too.
Butterflies fluttered in her stomach. “How do you know about those things?” she asked. She was afraid, but when would she ever have the chance to talk to someone else who knew something about Roxal and Trebor?
Lucas laughed and moved closer to her on the sofa. Lauren flinched and pushed herself back further.
“I’m not going to hurt you, Lauren. I’m just excited to finally be able to talk to you about this. Would it help if I told you my story first?”
She nodded, not trusting herself to talk.
“I’ve known I was a Dreamer since college. We’re called Dreamers. I started experimenting with lucid dreaming and met my Traveler. Well, he was just a Traveler then. When I completed my task, he began moving up in rank, and now he’s a Keepers’ Representative.”
“You are linked to someone on Trebor?” Lauren asked after finding her voice.
“Yes.” The scary smile flashed briefly. “As I was saying, once I found out I was a Dreamer, I found out that there are many companies here on Earth who believe in the vision of The Keepers. TomGen Tech is one of them. We try to find and recruit other Dreamers with assignments that align with our corporate mission: building technology for tomorrow’s generation.” Lucas sounded like a cheesy late night commercial.
Then he continued. “Dreamers like you. We found out about you while you were in college. I recruited you and made sure you came to work for me. My main responsibility has been making sure you, and the other Dreamers I manage, accomplish your goals. And you are so close. We wouldn’t want you to get derailed now.”
Lucas inched closer to her on the sofa, and she jumped up. Front door or garage? I have to get away from him. The front door was closer and unlocked because she had not locked it behind Lucas when he entered, but once outside, she would have to try to outrun him. However, the garage door was further, so she would have to hope she could get to the garage and in her car before he caught her. But even if she was in the car, she would still have to wait for the garage door to rise before she could drive out.
These options ran through her mind in seconds as she stood. Finally, she chose, front door. She turned her back on Lucas and took three fast steps towards the front door, when she felt his hand grip her upper arm. He pulled her into his body.
“Lauren. You’re really disappointing me. I had so hoped we could do this the easy way.” Lucas tightened his grip on her arm as he spoke.
“For some reason, I just don’t do easy,” Lauren replied and then threw her head back with as much force as possible.
The back of her head connected with what felt like his nose and part of his mouth. Lauren d
idn’t know for sure because as soon as he screamed and let go of her arm, she ran out the front door and kept going until she was standing in the street.
CHAPTER 24
Just as Lauren was about to start wondering what she should do next, a white Lexus SUV came speeding towards her. It came to a screeching halt beside her. Then Estella let down her window and yelled, “Get in!”
Lauren ran around to the passenger’s side door and jumped into the truck. “Go! Please,” she shouted to Estella. As they raced away, she turned to watch the front door of her home to see if Lucas was running out after her. But he hadn’t followed her. She continued watching the front door of her home until Estella made the left onto one of the streets that would exit her neighborhood. She never saw him come outside.
Lauren faced forward in her seat, laid her head back, and closed her eyes. This was all too much.
“Fasten your seatbelt,” Estella said as she maneuvered the vehicle away from Lauren’s house.
After fastening her seatbelt and calming down, she looked at Estella. “What were you doing at my house?”
Estella didn’t take her eyes away from her driving as she answered, “I told you I was going to drop by. Remember?”
“Well, yeah. You did say you were going to drop by. But you were speeding towards me. How did you know you needed to get there quick?”
“Lauren, I was speeding towards you because just as I turned onto your street, I saw someone running out of their home like they were being chased. It happened to be you, but I was speeding because I wanted to help someone who looked like they needed it.”
Estella’s face was calm as she drove, but Lauren still didn’t trust what she was saying. “You haven’t asked me why I was running out of my house like I was being chased.”
Estella scrunched her face for a microsecond before the calm facade returned. “I didn’t think I needed to ask. I figured you’d tell me when you wanted me to know.”
“Estella, stop the truck. I want to get out.” Lauren needed to get away from her so she could figure out what to do. Lucas had said Estella was part of this whole Trebor thing. Which meant she likely knew exactly who Roxal was and was pretending to be dumb when they talked about her. Lauren needed time to regroup and figure out her next move.
“We’re on a major freeway. I can’t just stop and let you out here.”
She then realized that Estella was driving like she had a destination in mind and not like she was trying to run from some unknown danger.
“Then take the next exit and let me out.”
Estella didn’t seem to be listening to her. As Lauren was considering what her options were, Estella began maneuvering her SUV to the right lane.
“Lauren, I don’t know what’s going on with you. But I’m concerned. Let’s just go somewhere and talk.”
“No!” She interrupted Estella. “You had your time to talk to me. Now, I want to get away from you, and Lucas, and find Kyle.”
“Okay,” Estella replied, taking the next exit.
As the SUV left the highway, Lauren’s phone rang. She looked around, trying to find where the ringing was coming from. On the floor, beside her feet, was her purse, and the ringing was coming from inside it.
Lauren leaned forward but was stopped with a jerk by her seatbelt. She pulled on it, trying to get the slack she needed to reach her purse, but it was locked. She then reached over to her left side and unfastened her seatbelt. She picked up her purse, and the phone was no longer ringing. She dug through it anyway, trying to find her phone. When she did, she exclaimed in frustration, “Dang it! I knew it was him calling now!”
The phone showed a missed call, from Kyle.
“Was that Kyle?” Estella asked while keeping her eyes on the road.
“Yeah,” Lauren replied as she hit the call back button.
“Hello.” A male voice that Lauren didn’t recognize answered the phone.
“Sorry, wrong number,” Lauren replied by instinct and then hung up the phone.
Wait, she thought, that doesn’t make sense.
Lauren went into her contacts, found Kyle’s name, and selected his cell phone number from the menu. She listened as the phone rang. Finally, it was answered.
“Hello,” the unfamiliar male voice said again.
“Hello, I’m calling for Kyle. Is he there?” Lauren had no idea what to think.
“Yes, he is. And if you’d like to see him again, alive, you’ll follow our instructions.”
Lauren pulled the phone away from her ear and looked at it. It showed that it was Kyle’s cell phone she had called. However, this wasn’t making any sense.
She put the phone back up to her ear. “Who is this? Is this a joke?”
“No, Lauren. This isn’t a joke. If you want to see Kyle again, you’ll do what I say. Do you know where the abandoned drive-in movie theater is on the north side of town?”
Lauren couldn’t speak. She just held the phone to her ear.
“Lauren, what is it? What’s he saying?”
Lauren turned and looked at Estella but said nothing. Again, she was at a loss for what to say. Estella pulled the truck into a nearby parking lot and took the phone from her hands. Lauren could do nothing but watch as Estella talked on her phone.
“Hello, this is Estella,” Lauren heard her say when she put the phone up to her ear.
“Yes, I know where that is,” was all she said before quietly listening again.
“I understand. We’ll meet you at the drive-in and we won’t involve the police.”
Estella ended the call and handed the phone back to her. Lauren reached out her hand for it, but couldn’t grip it before it fell out and onto her seat.
“Lauren, just hold on. It’ll be all right. We’ll figure this out.” She then pulled out of the parking lot where they had stopped and drove to their destination.
Lauren didn’t look at Estella or the road as the woman drove. She kept her head down and her eyes closed, as if not looking at where they were going would stop what was happening from happening. “This can’t be real. None of this is real. This isn’t real,” Lauren kept saying over and over as they drove.
After some time had passed, Estella spoke. “Lauren, we’re here,” she said as she parked her SUV in the drive-in theater’s gravel parking lot.
Now that they were no longer moving, Lauren looked up. Dusk had fallen, and the last of the sun’s rays were almost gone. Even though the drive-in was abandoned, thankfully the streetlights still worked. They provided light for Lauren to see that, so far, their vehicle was the only one there.
“Where is he? He said Kyle would be here. Where are they?” Lauren began to worry. Maybe something had happened and Kyle was— No. She wouldn’t let herself think the worst.
Tears rolled down her cheek. She opened the car door and exited the SUV. Estella got out and followed her. The parking lot was wide open, so there was nowhere to hide a vehicle. The only building other than the payment booths was a small building, likely containing the restroom and concessions. But it was behind a locked gate that did not appear to have been opened that day.
Still, Lauren walked around anyway. She hadn’t walked too far away from Estella’s SUV when she heard the sound of tires on the gravel. At the opposite end of the parking lot entered a black Suburban. Lauren took four steps towards it and then Estella grabbed her arm.
“Lauren, wait. Let them come to us.”
She looked back at Estella, wanting to argue, but realized there was nothing she could do even if she did run over to the vehicle. So she nodded, and then Estella released her arm. As they watched, a man exited the SUV and walked towards them. However, instead of walking over to meet them, he stopped about halfway and put something up to his ear.
The first ring of the phone in Lauren’s hand startled her. On the screen, it showed that Kyle was calling. A short moan escaped her mouth as she answered.
“Where’s Kyle?” Lauren’s voice shook as she spoke.
&n
bsp; “He’s safe, but I need you to come with me so that you can be safe also.”
“How does going with my fiancé’s kidnapper keep me safe?”
“Damn it, we don’t have time for this.” He hung up the phone. Then he yelled, “Estella. We need to go. Now! They’re on their way.”
She turned and looked at Estella, who was now holding a gun on her.
“Lauren, we didn’t want to do things like this. But we have no choice. Give me your phone and get into the Suburban. We need to talk.”
CHAPTER 25
The cloth that had been used to cover her eyes was removed as Roxal was thrown into a room. She landed hard on her hands and knees against the floor. A twinge of pain shot through her leg from where she had been injured earlier fighting Quarx. She blinked several times to clear the blurriness of her vision. When she could see clearly, she began to cry. She was back inside the compound.
This time, though, she was in a barred cell with metallic gray walls and flooring. The cell was created by floor to ceiling bars that split the rectangular room in half the long way. There were no windows in either the section of the room on her side of the bars or in the section beyond her bars. The only way in or out of the room was a door on the opposite side of the room. Roxal thought as she surveyed her surroundings, I have never seen a room on Trebor that contained bars. I have only ever seen them in Earth dreamscapes with Lauren.
As she took in her surroundings, she noticed the woman standing outside of her bars between her and the door. As the woman stared at her, Roxal stared back. If she was to die, she would not provide a show of begging for mercy. She would take whatever torture they had planned for her and die with as much dignity as she could.
As Roxal looked at the woman, she realized she was not wearing the traditional clothing of any caste. Her shirt was purple and the pants she wore were brown. Furthermore, instead of being loose fitting, they were snug to her body. Roxal had never seen anyone wearing clothing like that on Trebor.
“Who are you?” Roxal asked as her crying lessened. The certainty of her death made her feel calm instead of fearful. I know I am going to die, therefore they have nothing to threaten me with.
The Heaviness of Knowing Page 17