by Holly Martin
My eyes closed and I forced them open again. My eyes closed, and I felt my head loll onto my shoulders, my breathing becoming heavy as my body slipped sideways onto the sofa.
Strong hands were around my wrists pulling me firmly back into a sitting position. I jerked awake, and looked blearily into Mason’s face.
‘I’m awake,’ I muttered, not very convincingly.
‘Stand up,’ he said, gently, still holding my wrists.
I nodded, sitting was doing nothing for staying awake. ‘Maybe I’ll go for a walk.’ I stood and wobbled a bit.
‘No you need to sleep, come with me,’ he pulled me firmly along behind him, though to my confusion we went outside.
Seth was sitting outside, laughing with Lucas. Seth looked over at me in confusion as Mason dragged me across the garden. I shrugged, returning his confused look.
Mason pulled me over to Eli, who was staring out at the fields.
‘Eli, this is ridiculous, we can’t keep her awake indefinitely, look at her, she’s dead on her feet. We’re doing more damage than good here,’ Mason said, pulling me in front of Eli.
Seth was at my side, taking me in his arms as I leant against him.
Eli nodded. ‘I know. I’m sorry Eve, I thought Cain would be back by now. It’s ok, go to sleep, we’ll watch over you.’
Adam had not been able to take control for about eight days now, he would surely have got bored of trying and moved onto something else to occupy his tiny evil mind. He would think that I had done something to block him out, he wouldn’t think that I just hadn’t slept. Or maybe he hadn’t given up, and my absence from the sleeping world over the last week had made him more and more desperate to take control.
My Guardians would stop him, though maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea to do what Isaac wanted and tie me up before I went to sleep.
I lay down. A light bulb flickered in a lamp above my head and Lucas leaned over to try to fix it. I closed my eyes and a second later Adam took me.
Adam sat up and grabbed Lucas’s knife from his belt but before Adam could force me to do anything else horrible, Lucas snatched it back in a move that must have sliced his hand open as Seth pinned me to the bed. Adam struggled against my husband for a second and then left my body alone. Would Adam never give up?
I sighed as Seth held me down. This was torture. ‘Steak,’ I muttered and Lucas laughed.
Seth let me up and I swung my legs over the bed to face my Guardians, trying to push away the horrible thought that had settled into my brain and now wouldn’t let go. How could Adam have known that I was asleep? He hadn’t been able to control me for over eight days, and by coincidence he was there waiting at the exact time that I fell asleep. There were only two possible possibilities, his link with me, his brotherly link somehow allowed him to know when I was asleep or… much worse than that, so much worse than that, was that he was watching me, that he had projected and had spent the last few days, weeks, months watching my every move. He could even be watching me now. I felt sick.
Lucas gasped as he felt my thoughts.
I opened my mouth to speak, but then considering my possible audience I changed my mind. ‘It’s the only option Lucas, how else would he know?’ I took his hand and healed the slash across his palm. ‘I suppose it’s possible that he can feel how tired I am and was waiting, knowing that I’d fall asleep sometime soon, but for him to be there at the exact second that I fell asleep… he had to be watching. He could be here now.’
‘What?’ Seth asked, aware that me and Lucas were talking telepathically.
I reached out for Seth, and my Guardians so they could all hear and explained telepathically my worst fears.
‘What are we going to do?’ Eli asked.
‘I don’t know… I just need to sleep for a few hours, just so I can think straight, will you guys watch me, don’t let me do anything.’
They all nodded solemnly.
I lay down and closed my eyes. Weirdly having all my Guardians watching me sleep wasn’t as creepy as I imagined. It was comforting. Adam wouldn’t be able to do anything with their vigilance. But he could still enter my dreams, he could torture me there, but at least I would be sleeping and I only needed a few hours.
Sleep crept up on me almost immediately and I found myself on my beach. It had been so long since I had been here. My tranquil haven. Would it stay that way?
A shadow loomed over me and I closed my eyes, hoping and praying it was Cain or Leon, or failing that a six foot talking banana, anything other than my worst nightmare. I opened them and was bitterly disappointed to see Adam grinning at me manically.
‘You know I’m going to kill you one day Eve. You will never get away from me, I will always keep chasing you until you’re dead. It’s never going to be over,’ he said calmly.
I closed my eyes, willing him to go away, but nothing happened.
‘It’s so pathetic really, you have no control here do you?’ Adam said, twirling a very sharp looking knife in his hand, ready to use on me yet again.
‘Yeah but I do,’ said Cain, suddenly appearing behind Adam, my heart leapt with hope.
Adam whirled round.
‘I will kill you for this, if it’s the last thing I do, I will track you down and kill you for what you’ve done.’ Cain hissed, walking closer to Adam.
Adam laughed loudly.
Cain suddenly lunged forward punching his hand into Adam’s chest, his hand disappeared and then he ripped it out holding Adam’s heart, bloody and still beating.
I leapt up in shock.
‘See this Adam, this is how you will die, you might as well get used to this image now, because when I find you, your beating heart in my hands will be the last thing you will see,’ Cain said.
Adam staggered backwards clutching the hole in his chest and then vanished.
Cain threw the heart to the ground where it too vanished.
I stared at him in horror. Cain just smiled and sat down.
‘Did you kill him?’
He shook his head. ‘Nothing can harm you in your dreams Eve,’
‘But he has total control, I can’t do anything here,’ I sat down next to him.
‘I can teach you that, once you can fight him here, he might leave you alone.’
I sighed, he would never leave me alone. ‘Cain, where are you, I need you, I kept myself awake for four days hoping you’d come back.’
‘I’m sorry, I feared that Leon would be difficult to find but I hoped I would be back by now.’
‘Why can’t you just slide to him?’
‘He has shielded himself, so I’m having to search all his old haunts. He used to live in Canada, up in the mountains. He loves it there, so I was sure I’d find him, but he’s being a bit elusive. I found his home and it was evident he has been there recently, I left a note so he knows I’m looking for him. I don’t know whether he will be receptive to a visit from me though, and really he could be anywhere.’
I thought back to the last time I’d seen Leon, in the fort when he had come to tell me that the Oraculum had disowned me. ‘He knows your coming.’
Cain looked at me. ‘What do you mean?’
‘I saw him, he came to see me at the fort to tell me the Oraculum didn’t want me as The Sentinel any more. He said he would see me in a few weeks when you came to him for help. I didn’t think about it at the time, I kind of thought I would never seek help from the Oraculum again.’
Cain looked away, thoughtfully. ‘He must have had a prophecy… He didn’t happen to mention where I could find him did he?’
I laughed. ‘If only, that would be too easy, I figured out a long time ago that being The Sentinel is hard work.’
Cain smiled. ‘I should go,’ he stood up and I felt panic rise in me that I’d be left alone in my own dreams. He must have seen the fear in my face because he sat down again. ‘I can’t stay long Eve, the sooner I find Leon, the quicker I can get back, but listen, I have no idea how you can fight Adam for control
of your body, but in here it’s easy. Anything you can imagine, will happen.’ He opened his hand and an orange appeared in it, a second later the orange morphed into a snake that hissed and wrapped itself round Cain’s hand before it vanished. ‘You just have to believe in it, you are thinking of this place as your dream, don’t. Think of it as another plain of existence, just like your astral projection. Your powers, out there in the waking world, your ability to slide, to change the weather, to produce lightning and balls of fire, you can do all of that because you know it will happen, you just have to believe in yourself in here too. Believe it will happen. Give it a go.’
I frowned. Persia used to say that to me as well, that I over thought everything. Persia, I missed her. I visualized her on the beach with us and suddenly she was there, pulling me to my feet.
‘Come on Eve, I want to show you something,’ she laughed, excitedly.
I allowed myself to be pulled up and I turned back to Cain with confusion. ‘She’s not real though is she, this isn’t really her?’
As soon as I said this Persia faded and vanished.
‘See, you have to believe in it. Look I better go, keep practising. Now if you don’t want to be alone when you sleep, get Seth to sleep as well and enter his dreams, you can do that can’t you?’
I nodded. ‘Sort of, I did it when Adam had me, but I was on medication then and I haven’t really tried it since I’ve come back.’
‘If you are in Seth’s dreams or someone else’s he will find it hard to find your dreams, and if he does, then Seth will be able to protect you. Or enter mine, I’ll leave myself open to you when I sleep, though it won’t be very often. Right I’m off to Italy next, he had a vineyard near Montepulciano or maybe I should try Paris, he had a small house there,’ Cain stood.
My heart leapt with recognition. ‘Paris. Cain, that’s it, he said you came to him in Paris, I remember now.’
‘Are you sure?’
I nodded, vehemently. ‘Yes, definitely, he said he saw you coming to him in Paris.’
And suddenly Cain had vanished, leaving me wondering if he was even there in the first place or had I simply conjured him like I’d conjured Persia.
I held out my hand and visualized a tiny robin, it appeared as if it had slid out of the air. It sat tweeting in my palm for a moment. I placed it down on the sand and visualized it changing to a great bear, which it did, towering tall over me, my protector. If Adam came back, it could eat him, I’d enjoy watching that. I smiled to myself. It would be good to give him a taste of his own medicine.
Suddenly, my heart leapt and I woke up grinning hugely to myself.
All my Guardians were there when I woke. They all tensed when I sat up, poised, alert. My inane grin didn’t help.
‘Hey, it’s me… ok that doesn’t prove anything, look I’ve had an idea.’
My Guardians didn’t relax, Seth, sitting next to me on the bed, looked ready to throw me to the ground if need be. I took his hand and kissed his silvery scars across his knuckles and he smiled, though I could see he was still unsure.
‘What’s your idea?’ asked Eli.
I reached out for their minds. ‘I’ve just seen Cain, he entered my dream. I think he’s getting close to finding Leon, well he should be now. He gave me a few pointers about defending myself in my dreams, but I had an idea. I shouldn’t wait for Adam to come to me, I should go to him, give him a taste of his own medicine, torture him in his dreams like he’s done to me.’
‘An eye for an eye?’ Lucas asked.
I nodded.
‘That might just make him angrier, more brutal,’ Seth said.
‘He can’t get any more brutal Seth. He tortured me in a cell for over a week, he tried to kill you, for no other reason than to destroy me, he has tried to throw me off the roof of the fort, he’s determined to kill me, he can’t get any worse than that.’
‘I don’t like it,’ Eli said, predictably. ‘I’m all for giving Adam a good kicking, hell if I could get my hands on him I’d kill him, no questions asked, but we don’t know enough about this dream world to start playing about with it.’
‘Nothing can hurt me in my dreams Eli, Adam might be able to torture me mentally but he can’t physically hurt me, he needs my body for that, and you guys will protect me. Did he try anything, before?’
Eli nodded. ‘Erm yes, you might want to heal that bruise on your cheek actually, it looks quite sore.’
I touched my cheek, suddenly aware of the pain that I hadn’t noticed before. I quickly healed it. ‘What did he make me do to get that?’ I asked, annoyed that my Guardians had let him get that far.
‘I did that,’ Eli said, blushing slightly. ‘You ran for the door and I punched you, erm… sorry Eve.’
I smiled. ‘See, I’m safe here,’ I quickly reached out for them again so not to give the game away. ‘It’d only be my mind that enters Adams dreams, once he knows I can do it too, he might be less sure of doing it to me.’
‘I think we should wait till Leon and Cain get back, they’ll be able to help,’ Eli said.
‘He’s been gone four days Eli, he could be gone another four. Let me try it just once.’
Eli nodded, reluctantly. I looked at Seth and he nodded too. I had one chance to make it worthwhile and I had to use it.
Chapter 23
I lay down and closed my eyes. If he was watching, he would think I was going to sleep again, he might go to sleep too, knowing that he couldn’t do anything with my body, but that my dreams would be free for him to access. I hadn’t tried this since I’d been incarcerated, but I knew how it worked. Like Cain said, I just had to believe it would happen. I felt my body relax, felt myself standing on the edge of my dream world and just as I fell asleep, I reached out for him. I felt the peculiar sucking sensation that tore my conscious mind from the Guardian filled bedroom, through the tiny tunnel and out the other side.
I opened my eyes and I was in a stone room. This wasn’t right. I hadn’t entered his dream, because he wasn’t here. I had slid or… something else. I waggled my fingers in front of my face and was surprised to see that they weren’t my own hands. They were larger, stronger, paler. I stood and looked round wildly for a mirror, my heart pounding. What had happened? I saw a glass table on the other side of the room and I ran to it. I peered into the surface and leapt back in shock. Adam’s scared face looked back at me. I had entered Adam’s body. He hadn’t been asleep so I hadn’t been able to enter his dreams, but I had entered his empty mind instead, while he was away, watching me. And his body was alone, unprotected, his Guardians had left him.
A noise, a groan from the other side of the room made me whirl around ready to defend myself. My heart stopped beating. Literally stopped. Blood rushing in my ears, I thought I was actually going to pass out.
Quinn was curled up in a corner. He looked bloody, badly beaten. He was tied up to a pipe in the wall, and he had lots of cables that led from him to a nearby machine, electric cables that had blocked his signal from me.
My legs nearly sagged to the floor in shock. I shook him in an attempt to rouse him. I had to get him out of here before Adam realised I had his body.
‘Quinn.’ Please be ok, please.
Quinn groaned and then swore at me. I quickly unattached the cables that he was attached to, preventing me from finding his signal, preventing him from shifting.
Quinn rolled over and glared at me.
Without thinking of anything but getting Quinn out of here, without thinking about whether I could or not, I grabbed him round the scruff of the neck and slid us both back to the bedroom where Seth and my body was.
Seth was still lying on my body, pinning it to the bed, holding my hands behind my head. My body, Adam, struggled hard against him. My Guardians were focussed on him they hadn’t seen me arrive.
Quinn, lying on the floor, kicked out at me, landing his foot hard on my shins. I yelped, staggering backwards and this brought the attention of Seth and Adam down on me. My Guardians stoo
d frozen for a second. Seth looked between me and Adam and back again, not sure who was who. Adam, in my body, stopped struggling and stared, aghast.
‘No,’ he whispered. ‘NOOOOO!!!!’ he screamed.
I couldn’t help the smug smile from creeping onto my face.
My Guardians suddenly launched themselves at me in a moment of furious rage. I was thrown to the floor and punched and kicked brutally. The pain was immense. I wasn’t sure what would happen if the body I was in died, whilst I was in it. Would that mean I would die as well? I couldn’t risk it.
‘NO,’ roared Seth, obviously realising what had happened.
Lucas pushed the other Guardians away. ‘Get off her, no that’s Eve, stop!’
My Guardians stopped, but Eli held me down to the floor, his hands round my neck, ready to snap it immediately if I so much as breathed wrong.
My body on my bed suddenly went limp and I felt Adam back in his body with me. But I was still in control.
It was hugely tempting to leave Adam in his body, return to mine and let the Guardians finish him off. But what if once Adam was back in his body, he unleashed his powers on my Guardians, on Quinn, on Seth. I couldn’t lose anybody else. I couldn’t bear it. And even though he had put me through hell over the last few weeks, I couldn’t escape the feeling that we would have to work together before the end. He had almost defended me against Helez. That brief moment of unity, that showed that it was possible, that maybe we could work together. I couldn’t forget the prophecy I’d had of the end of the world, of us fighting side by side.
Closing my eyes I slid Adam back to the room where I found him. He fought against me, but I refused to relinquish control.
‘Adam?’ I said quietly. ‘Can you hear me?’
I heard him crying in the back of my head, the pain was terrible, several bones were broken and there was a lot of blood everywhere.
‘Adam?’ I said louder,
‘Yes, I can bloody hear you,’ he snapped.