by Ann McCune
“Mine described what the marks looked like and how to spot them. There was nothing about removing it or saving the person marked. I’m not giving up.” I got up from the bed and got another book from the pile.
“I’m not either,” Shawn said, following me to the desk.
We spent the rest of the afternoon looking for anything that would help me but found nothing.
Heather stopped by later to tell us dinner was ready. I packed up my stuff, since I was planning to leave after dinner and we went to the dining room. Shawn’s mom made pot roast with roasted potatoes and vegetables.
Jon said grace before we dug in. Mrs. Ericson insisted I call her Jenny. We talked about what it was like growing up in such a small town and what they could expect once tourist season started. Jon didn’t say much, but he kept looking at me with pity in his eyes.
After dinner Shawn walked to me to my Jeep. “Your dad kept staring at me, like I had a terminal disease and I was going to keel over any second,” I mumbled, watching my shoes as we walked across the parking lot hand in hand.
“I noticed, I wish he would stop feeling sorry for you and help us find a way to save you.” We stopped at the driver’s side of my Jeep.
“Me too, are you going to keep looking?” I asked, opening the door, and throwing my pack into the passenger seat then turning back to face Shawn.
“Yeah, but I have to get some homework done since I didn’t get much done today.” He moved in closer to me.
“Me too, thanks, Shawn,” I managed to say before his lips met mine and I was jelly in his arms. When he pulled back I sucked in a breath. “I have to drive now?” I laughed and got in the Jeep.
“Are you going to be alright?” He watched while I put my seatbelt on and put my keys in the ignition.
“Yes, I’ll be fine.” I smirked. “I’ll see you and Heather later?”
“Yeah, we’ll come to you.”
“See you then.” Shawn shut the door and I started the engine.
It was dark once I got to my road, but the weather was clear, and I could see better with the new Jeep’s headlights than my old one. I drove slow though, looking for anything out of the ordinary. When I pulled into my driveway, my heart was racing, and my breathing was shallow. I needed to get over the fear of hitting another animal soon. I couldn’t take the panic attacks anymore.
Mom and Dad were watching television when I finally got myself under control and went inside. I set my backpack down by the stairs and went into the living room to tell them I was home.
“How was dinner?” Mom asked, looking away from the television.
“It was good. Shawn made it sound like his mom wasn’t a good cook, but we had pot roast and it was really good.” I sat on the arm of the couch.
“Did you have a good time?” Mom asked.
“Yeah, I met his parents and his sister. Heather is really cool, and his mom is nice.”
“What about his dad?” Dad asked.
“Well, I’m not sure. It turns out he knew Victor.” I did not want to elaborate in front of my dad.
“You mean your biological father?” Dad asked, sitting up in the recliner.
“Yeah, they grew up together.”
“Small world.” Dad ran a hand through his hair. “How did he figure it out?”
Crap, I thought to myself. I was not going to tell my parents about the Knight Flyers. “He said I looked familiar and asked about my parents.”
“You must really look like him.” Dad kicked back in the recliner as his show came back on.
“Shawn’s mom said I had his eyes and mouth.” I wasn’t really sure what to say. Dad had been the only father I had ever known, it was weird to talk about Victor with him. “Well I’m going to head upstairs. It’s been a long day.” I got to my feet.
“Goodnight, Liz,” they both said as I picked up my bag and climbed the stairs.
I sat at my desk a few minutes later and pulled out what was left of my homework. I tried to concentrate, but my mind kept going back to the mark and what Jon had said: I would be lucky if I made it a year, and there was no way to get rid of it. I pulled the sleeve of my hoodie over the mark. We would find a way to get rid of it. There was no other choice.
CHAPTER 26
“You stayed up late,” Shawn said when I opened my eyes and found myself in the padded room with him and Heather. “Did you make it home alright?”
“Yeah, I needed to finish my homework.” I rubbed the mark on my wrist.
“Don’t worry, Liz, we are going to find a way to get rid of that mark. In the meantime, I want to see what you can already do,” Heather said, taking a step forward. “Shawn said you showed up in one of his dreams. Do you know how you did it?”
“I think so. I just thought about him and I was here.” I was glad Heather was going to help us. The more help I had the better my chances were of living a full life.
“Good, why don’t we try it with someone else?” Heather looked at Shawn then back at me.
“Alright who?” I asked, looking between them.
“Billy?” Shawn suggested.
I shrugged my shoulders and thought of Billy. When I opened my eyes, we were in Billy’s bedroom, the lights were low, and he was moving around on the bed. I blinked and realized there was someone on top of him. I wanted to run to him and pull the mare off, but Shawn put his arm in front of me to stop me. He pointed to his ears. He wanted me to listen. I strained my ears and the moaning became apparent. Billy was having a sex dream, gross.
Heather giggled, and Shawn cleared his throat. I closed my eyes and thought of the padded room. “I think I’m scarred for life,” I said when I opened my eyes and put a hand to my stomach.
Heather and Shawn were laughing. “We forgot to warn you. When you enter someone’s dream you never know what you are going to find,” Heather said, wiping a finger under her eye.
“When the mares are after them it’s a little better. Normally there isn’t any sex, but you never know,” Shawn said, putting his hands on my shoulders and rubbing them.
“How do you know where the mares are going to be?” I asked, leaning into him.
“We have a Mare Sensor, it casts a net over an area then feeds information into a computer and plots the activity on a map. Victor actually designed the first one. Then all a Knight has to do is think about the location and they are there.” Heather walked a few steps away from me then back again. “There is a lot more technical stuff to it, but we will go over it later.”
My bio-dad’s journal had talked about taking a net, but I still didn’t understand how it worked. “If you’re dreaming, how do you know where to go?”
Shawn pulled something out of his ear and put it in my hand. It looked like a hearing aid. “It’s a very high-tech radio. A technician, normally someone who is in training or who wasn’t born with the gift, mans the computers and tells us where we need to go. We sleep with them. They broadcast at a frequency we can understand and hear while we sleep. It takes some getting used to, but they’re great.”
I gave the radio back to him. “So, how do you kill them?” I put my hands in the pockets of my jeans. “Wait, do you really kill them?”
“To answer your first question, it depends on the mare. Different weapons work better on different mares. It’s a guessing game but typically a knife or a gun works well,” Shawn said.
“Do we really kill them?” Heather repeated my question. “Why would you ask that?”
“My stalker said he was the same one Shawn killed the night I hit the moose and who killed my bio-dad.”
Heather looked at Shawn. “We were taught they died, but if what you say is true, then we’ve been lied to.” Her face fell, and she stared at the ground.
“Liz found Victor’s journal and we both read it. He believed the mares come through a gate, or a door between their dimension and our dream dimension. He believed when we killed them they go back to their dimension, like when you die in a video game, you start back at the be
ginning of the level. All they have to do is find the door and they can come back through.” Shawn looked at me for agreement.
“My bio-dad was trying to figure out how to close the gate when he died. His journal said he had a plan, but first he needed to find a gate.”
“That’s perfect,” Heather said, grabbing my hands, and jumping up and down.
“What?” Shawn and I asked at the same time.
“Don’t you see? If we close the gate and kill the mare, you’ll be safe.”
“But we don’t know how to close it, or where it is,” I said, pointing out the obvious.
“Then we will find it and figure out how to close it. In the meantime, we will teach you how to fight.” Heather let go of my hands and took a few steps away. “That way if he ever catches you without your dreamcatcher you’ll have a chance.”
“I have already manifested a gun and some other things. I stabbed the mare with my knife and an icepick. Do you think it killed him?” I asked thinking of stabbing my stalker in the back when I fell asleep without my dream catcher.
Heather looked at me like she didn’t believe me. I thought of the .22 rifle my dad gave me for Christmas when I was twelve and it appeared in my hands. I opened the bolt to check the chamber. It was loaded and ready to go.
“I can’t believe you did it. It took me three years before I could manifest a weapon that complicated,” Shawn said, taking it from me. He unlocked the bolt, pulled it back, checked the chamber, then pushed the bolt back into it and locked it down. “It’s loaded too.”
“Nicely done,” Heather said, smiling. “Most rookies can manifest a gun, but they forget about the ammunition.”
“How is she able to do this? It took us both years to get this far.” Shawn gave me back the rifle.
Since I didn’t need it, I told the gun to go away and it was gone. I reached out and took Shawn’s hand, this was starting to freak me out.
“Natural talent or Victor? Tomorrow, I’m going to see if I can find any information on him and the research he was doing. I’m on duty tomorrow night so Shawn will relay anything I find out to you.” She took a step back. “I think we’ve done enough for tonight, so I will leave you two. Sweet dreams.”
“You too,” I called as she disintegrated before my eyes.
Shawn turned to me. “You have an amazing talent. I might be a little jealous.”
“Why? I have no idea what I’m doing. I’m the one who deserves to be jealous. You get to go out there and kill these guys.” He pulled me closer to him.
“Not tonight, tonight I am with you.” He bent his head and touched his lips to mine.
CHAPTER 27
The next day at school everything went back to normal if there was a normal the week before prom. The sun was out, and the temperature was on the rise. I was still grossed out when I saw Billy and remembered the dream I intruded on. Billy and I were talking again, Shawn and I were together as much as possible, and prom proposals were going on left and right.
Monday at lunch we were all sitting at our table, eating, and talking about what we wanted to do over the summer. Billy was sitting to one side of me and Shawn was on the other.
“Billy, please stop shaking your leg, my butt is falling asleep.” I bumped him with my shoulder.
“What?” He looked at me with bulging eyes. “Oh sorry.” His leg stopped shaking and he looked down at his untouched food.
“What is going on? Are you alright?” I whispered to him, starting to get worried.
“Yeah I’m fine.” He pushed his chair back and stood. “Jo?”
“Yeah?” Jo looked over from where she had been talking to Tracy.
“Will you go to prom with me? I know its last minute and all, and if you already have a date or just don’t want to go with me I’ll understand.” Billy rushed on, looking at his feet.
“Billy?” Jo almost giggled. “Yes, I’ll go to prom with you.” She smiled.
“Really?” His red face glowed with excitement.
“Yes, I already have a dress and everything.” Her face turned red to match Billy’s.
Tracy and Shawn started clapping and I fist-bumped Billy. “Sweet, now sit down and eat your lunch.”
“Yeah, lunch.” He sat back down and pulled his chair back to the table while I tried not to laugh at his anxiety.
After school, Shawn walked me to my car, holding my hand. “Are you working tonight?” I asked, hoping he wasn’t.
“I don’t think so, but you can never tell with my dad.”
“How will I know if we are going to be training or not?” We got to my Jeep and I hit the unlock button then leaned against the door.
“I’ll let you know on Messenger.” He stepped closer to me and ran his finger over the strap of my backpack.
“I think we need a code system. With the way my dad has been acting he’s probably cyberstalking me.” I couldn’t help my smile as he stepped closer, our bodies were all but touching.
“Not a bad idea, I don’t trust my parents to stay out of my accounts either,” he said in a low voice.
“Shawn,” Jo yelled from across the lot. “I have stuff to do.”
“Hold on,” he shouted back. “If I say, ‘sweet dreams’ we are on for training.”
“If you can’t meet me say ‘see you tomorrow’,” I offered. Making up a code was fun.
“If my sister is going to meet you I’ll send you, ‘my sister says hi’.”
I laughed. “That was easy.” I looked at my watch. “I’m going to be late if I don’t leave now.”
“Have a good time at work and I will talk to you later.” He pulled me in for a kiss that had me steadying myself against the Jeep to keep me from falling over when he released me.
“Later,” I called as he walked to his Jeep while the kids he gave a ride to yelled catcalls to him.
I got in my Jeep and headed to work a little faster than I normally did and made it on time. After work, I went home, and studied at the dining room table. I tried to keep my mind on homework, but I couldn’t help but wonder if Heather had found out anything about how to remove the mark or my bio-dad and the gates.
“How was your day, Liz?” Dad asked as he cut into the steak sitting in front of him.
“Just school. Billy asked Jo to prom, he was so scared I thought he was going to have an aneurysm.” I laughed and took a sip of my milk.
“Billy asked someone to prom?” Mom asked, looking skeptical.
“Yes, he was sweating bullets, his leg would not stop shaking. It was too funny.”
“Who is Jo?” Dad asked.
“She started after spring break. Her dad works with Shawn’s dad.” I took a bite of food.
“What did she say?” Mom asked, looking hopeful.
“She said yes. We are all going to go together.” I took a sip of milk.
“Billy got over you pretty fast.” Dad took a sip of his water.
“Thank God. The last thing I needed was him trying to derail me and Shawn again.”
“I’m glad you’re going to prom together. I’m sure you will have a good time,” Mom said, looking over at my dad.
“I’m sure Billy will make sure you stay safe,” Dad said, looking back down at his plate.
“Why do you think I would be in trouble to start with?” Dad was becoming harder and harder to deal with.
“It’s prom,” he said not looking up.
I stared at him for a minute. Why would prom be such a bad thing? I was so tired of him not trusting me. “I’m so glad you trust me.” I stood, stomped to the kitchen, and put my plate in the sink.
“Liz don’t run off,” Mom called.
“I am not going to sit there and let him act like I am going to get pregnant on prom. I’m going to bed.” I grabbed my backpack and stomped up the stairs to my room, slamming the door behind me. I was throwing a fit, but it was hard not to when I didn’t understand where his distrust came from.
I threw my bag on the bed then fell onto it to sta
re at the ceiling. I was in no mood to study, but I didn’t want to go back downstairs and deal with them. I sat at my desk and was just about to open the journal to look for anything I might have missed when my computer pinged. I went to my desk, shook the mouse to wake the screen up and clicked on my Facebook. There was a message from Shawn: Sweet Dreams
Smiling, I closed my computer and got ready for bed. I hoped Shawn would have some good news about removing the mark.
“Took you long enough.” Shawn took me in his arms and kissed me before I knew where I was.
“Sorry, I was so excited it took me forever to fall asleep.” I pulled back from him and looked around, we were back in the padded room. “Did Heather find anything out about the mark or the gate?”
“She pored over the archives, and finally found a file about Victor. It was almost like it was buried on purpose. I’ll sneak it to you at school tomorrow. There isn’t anything personal in it, only his work and training history.” Shawn paced around the room. “He worked with the Knights until he turned twenty, but she can’t find any paperwork or log of why he left.”
“The way his journal made it sound, he picked up in the middle of the night and didn’t tell anyone he was leaving. I wish I knew what happened to the rest of his things. I’m sure what I found in the box wasn’t even close to all the notes he would have made on the gates.”
“Did you ask your mom?”
“No, but I think I will, it’s more important than just learning about him. He might have information that could save not only me, but everyone in Twisted Pines.” I shivered and looked around. It was time to get started. “So, what are we doing tonight?”
“You are going to fight fake mares. I want to see how you fight, get a baseline of what we’re working with. I want you to use whatever you can think of to fight them. Use any weapon you think will work.”
“Will you protect me if I fail?” The idea of fighting a mare made my head spin. I didn’t think I was ready.
“Yes, I will control them. I promise you won’t get hurt. Are you ready?”