by Elsy Green
“Can you take away credit for his terrible bedside manner?”
“That bad?” Sophie cringes as we walk to the elevator.
“Worse.” I hand her the prescription he gave me.
“Pentobarbital? That’s usually used for extreme cases of insomnia.”
“Yep, insomnia coupled with mild psychosis.”
Sophie scrunches up her nose like she’s disgusted. “I wouldn’t call it insomnia, it’s more like…narcolepsy with night terrors.”
“I don’t know, the dreams aren’t all bad, some are…okay.”
“Well still, you always wake up looking like a frazzled mess. Did you mention that to Doctor Sexy?”
“Yep.”
“And?”
“He shrugged it off and told me to take the pills.”
“Hmm. He’s so mysterious.” She continues to swoon as we get into her car.
“Not mysterious, a jerk. One who obliviously doesn’t like his profession. He looked so bored in the room, like my two minutes of talking about my medical problem was actually putting him out.”
“Well when you’re that hott you kind of get a pass on life.”
“Ugghhhh!”
Sophie laughs and hits me on the arm playfully. “I’m kidding. Maybe he’s seen it before. I mean we won’t know if it works unless you try it. Who knows maybe he really does know what he’s doing?”
“Maybe.” I stare out the window hopelessly as she drives away. A part of me is optimistic about these miracle pills, part of me thinks maybe he does have experience in this field, but there’s this other part, something deep in my gut that tells me that’s not true. Deep down I think I know I won’t get rid of these dreams anytime soon, doctor or not. I’m stuck with them until I figure out whatever it is, they are trying to tell me.
“Do you want me to stick around tonight?” Sophie asks as she pulls up to my house.
“You mean like as a watch dog in case this stuff kills me?” I hold up the prescription.
Sophie rolls her eyes at my dramatics. “No, as moral support. Maybe it will help if you know someone is there with you when you take the pills. I can wake you up if you get too into your dream or start yelling out random boy’s names.”
“Have I done that before?” I turn to her mortified.
“Once or twice.” She shrugs with a teasing smile.
“Oh gosh.” I hide my face in my hands embarrassed by what else I may have done while in my dream state.
“It’s fine. No one really notices until you wake up all crazy-like, they are way more interested in the show after you get caught sleeping in class.” She hops out of the car and heads for my door. “Come on, I’m staying the night.”
I smile as I follow after her, glad I have at least one ally in this world.
***
“Okay, I’ve got cold water in case I can’t wake you up. Hot water to make you pee your pants if you fall asleep before me. Shaving cream, Oreos, a loud stereo, oh and whipped cream. I think we are all set,” Sophie beams.
“Seriously? Those look more like devices to torture me while I’m drugged, not wake me up.” Sophie smiles diabolically, wiggling her eyebrows at me. “Fine, just don’t put that whipped cream on my face it gets all sticky and itchy.”
“Sticky and itchy? It should feel like a cloud of sugary goodness.”
“Don’t put it on my face.” I warn her as I crawl into bed and pull the covers over me. “Alright, here it goes.” I take a pill from the prescription bottle I picked up from the pharmacy a little while ago. “Remember if anything weird happens wake me up, okay?”
“Got it.” She gives me a thumbs up and I shove the pill down my throat swallowing it down with a big gulp of water. I feel it slowly make its way down my throat and settle in my stomach. Laying my head on my pillow I let out a long sigh and close my eyes drifting off to the land of sleep.
“They’re coming, you need to go!”
“No, I’m not leaving you.” I grasp desperately onto to Jaxon. The same Jaxon from my first dream, the older version. Not the awkward young teenager from my last dream. He’s much more mature with his chiseled jaw, five o’clock shadow and filled out athletic body. I could really get used to this dream version, if I wasn’t always running for my life.
“Riella, this isn’t up for negotiation. You have to go now! You have to hide.”
“No, Jaxon, I won’t go. I won’t leave you.”
“I can handle them. I can stall. If she catches you here there is no telling what she’ll do. She has people now, she has power.”
“No. I brought you guys into this, I’m not leaving you to fix my mess. We leave together or we don’t leave at all.”
Jaxon grits his teeth together and growls. “Fine, but don’t leave my side. And no smart ideas got it, we do it my way.”
“Fine by me, just get us out of here alive. I still need my proof if I’m going to take her down.” He rolls his eyes and grabs my hand pulling me through her office doors and racing down a long corridor. The bright lights flicker on above our heads letting us know they’ve arrived.
We are in some sort of hospital or lab, I can’t tell. It’s big and spacious with long white hallways, lots of empty rooms, and massive windows that confirm we are several floors up. Jaxon races through the halls his grip tight on my wrist as he navigates his way through the building all the while avoiding her minions. They’ve already flooded the building making it impossible to leave the way we came in.
He keeps his body low, moving at an unfathomable pace in this hunched over position as we make our way through the building. I can’t help but notice how much it reminds me of a sci-fi movie with its glass elevators, open atrium, and secured doors that keep us going in circles. And I can’t ignore the feeling like I’ve been here before, like somehow, I know this place.
Jaxon skids to a stop in front of another secured door, we’ve hit a dead end. Like the hundredth dead end in the last minute and I’m getting really frustrated. We know the way out, we both know what we need to do, but Jaxon is hesitating for some reason. We have nothing to fear, we have the upper hand.
He turns us in a circle eying our options, left, right or back the way we came. Done playing this game I pull him towards the right knowing that’s our way out. He pulls me left; my feet plucked off the ground as he tugs me towards him.
“What are you doing? We have to get out of here,” I protest.
“She’s got men out there. We need to take another route.”
“Jaxon, you can’t be serious. We can’t hide from all of them. We can take them down.”
“There are hundreds, even you we can’t compete with that. Just trust me, will you?” I swallow down as I submit to his plan because I do trust Jaxon with everything inside of me. He’s proved himself to me over and over again and I know without a doubt that he’ll always protect me.
We race down the hall to our left heading towards the stairwell. Jaxon kicks open the door and we take the stairs three at a time. Stumbling down each floor as we make our way to freedom. I’m as surprised as he is when we make it to the ground basement without incident. Jaxon kicks open the door and we race out of the stairwell.
The basement is just a huge empty warehouse of a room, boxes and lab equipment scattered everywhere around us. There aren’t any doors down here, but there’s a window on the other side of the room, we just have to get to it.
We race through the maze of miscellaneous boxes and equipment, the window in our sights when Jaxon pulls me to a halt and hides us behind a stack of boxes. We aren’t alone anymore; I can feel it and so can Jaxon. There’s someone here. I see movement at my side, whoever it is they’re fast, moving quickly towards us, but Jaxon’s faster. He grabs our intruder and slams him up against the wall by his throat, his fist winding up for an attack.
“Wait! Don’t it’s me.” The intruder guards his face with his hands.
Ceres?” Jaxon drops him to h
is feet and he lets out a huge sigh. “I could have killed you.”
“Yeah, I noticed,” he rubs his neck, “jumpy much?”
“What are you doing here? You were supposed to leave with Annia.”
“I came back to help, I knew something wasn’t right when you didn’t meet me at the rendezvous. Come on. I actually have a plan that doesn’t include running aimlessly through her lab until you get caught.”
“That wasn’t my plan.” Jaxon speaks through gritted teeth even though we both know that kind of was his plan. Jaxon has a habit of rely on luck. Ceres on the other hand always has a plan. I move to his side letting him know he can lead the way. Ceres smiles and takes off towards the doors we just came through. I look at Jaxon concerned, he simply shrugs and grabs my hand following after Ceres.
We exit on the first floor. It’s completely empty, not a soul to be heard or seen. It’s so dark I can’t even see my hands in front of my face. Ceres must be guiding Jaxon through the dark because we keep moving somehow, making our way through the blackness. It’s slow at first, our feet barely touch the ground as we tip-toe across the floor. Then we take off, running through the blackness towards the front door. Of all the ways to escape I wouldn’t have picked the front door, but we pass through undetected. Ceres smiling the entire time.
We race across the grassy area that surrounds the lab, sprinting towards the city line. We make it to the student district out of breath and sweating from our excursion. Ceres hunches over on his knees smiling and shaking his head.
“Told you I could help.”
“How did you know the first floor was clear?”
“I set off an alarm on the seventh floor, it sent all of those goons running. Besides, my thermal scanners came in handy.” He points to his eye. He must be wearing one of his fancy new lenses, the one’s he’s been working on and perfecting for months.
“Well thanks man, I appreciate at it even if we did have it handled.” Jaxon pats him on the back in comradery. “Is Annia okay?”
“Oh yeah she’s fine. Worried about this one, but good.” He points at me.
“Yeah, we should probably lay low for a while.”
“My thoughts exactly.” Ceres straights and nods towards the doors we are standing in front of.
I stare at the familiar building shaking my head. “That’s not laying low.”
“It’s blending in, even better. We don’t need to look suspicious on top of everything else. Besides this will be a good alibi when she comes asking, because she will come asking.”
“I don’t know.”
“You know I’m right.” Ceres walks to the door and holds it open, loud thumping music and technicolored lights filling the space in front of us. I look up at Jaxon who is being rather quiet on the subject, he gives me a lopsided grin and shrug. He obviously agrees with Ceres on this, but he’s not going to leave me hanging. I roll my eyes and let out a long exhale, I won’t win this argument tonight.
Ceres chuckles and Jaxon grabs my hand pulling us inside. This place used to be an old abandoned warehouse before we fixed it up, now the kids around here use it to let off some steam on the weekends. It’s massive, sound proof, and equipped with everything you need to through a decent rave.
Loud, roaring music fills my ears, drowning out any other sound within a mile radius, the beat vibrating in my bones. There are technicolored lights flashing around the massive room, and an ancient fog machine spraying out a thick cloud of white vapor. And every teenager in the city is on the dance floor, jumping up and down banging their heads to the music.
Ceres lets out a rambunctious roar and runs into the middle of the crowd ready to party. I scoff and shake my head as I watch him blend in with the rest of the rowdy teenagers. He doesn’t always have the most conventional solutions, but they are always creative.
“Shall we?” Jaxon yells over the music, holding out his hand.
“Ugh. Do we have to?”
“Come on, have some fun. You don’t always have to be saving the world, Supergirl.”
“You know I hate that nickname.”
“No, you tell me you hate that nickname. I think you secretly like it. I’ve seen you look her up periodically. I think you draw inspiration off of her and what she stands for.”
I scoff. “Not really, Superman was the star of the show anyways.”
“Maybe in his universe, but not in hers. Not in yours, Supergirl.”
I roll my eyes. “You’re such a nerd.”
“Couldn’t hear you, I’m dancing.”
“That doesn’t—” he puts his finger to my lips and shakes his head. I pull in my lips trying to hold back a smile as I watch him maneuver onto the dance floor embarrassing himself with his old-school dance moves. When I don’t laugh, he dances around me not even matching his moves to the music and looking like a complete fool. Unable to hold it in anymore I throw my head back and laugh. He smiles triumphantly and pulls me to him.
“You look good with your hair down.”
“I always wear it down,” I puzzle.
“It’s an old saying, Walter taught it to me, it means you look good when you loosen up.”
“Huh. Weird. But I guess I get it.” He rolls his eyes pulling me deeper into the dance floor as he moves against the music.
“Less talking, more dancing.” He grabs onto my arms and makes me dance like his puppet, moving my arms perfectly to the beat. I throw my head back and laugh as I actually let myself enjoy this moment. The world will need saving tomorrow after all, it always does. Especially if I’m right about Ryss.
My eyes spring open to a black room. I can’t make out anything, not even Sophie’s silhouette. I rub my eyes and sit up, my heart still racing in my chest.
“It was just a dream,” I whisper to myself as I blow out a shaky breath and reach for Sophie. She was supposed to wake me up, she completely failed at her job. And seeing as there is no whip cream on my face, I’m assuming she’s fast asleep.
I reach over to jostle her awake and fall flat onto my face. She’s not there. Nothing is. No comforter, no sheets, no bed. I’m lying face down on a cold concrete ground all alone. I let out a terrified breath as I get up on my hands and knees and look around. I’m not home, I’m nowhere near my home. The pills didn’t work, they only made it worse.
C.03
“Sophie.” I shake her shoulder as she sleeps peacefully in my bed. “Sophie, wake up.”
“What? What is it?” she mumbles as she turns away from me.
“You failed at your job.”
“What job?”
“Waking me up.” She turns to face me with a groggy expression.
“No, you didn’t even stir.”
“I had another dream.”
“Allie, you’re freezing. And your lips, they’re blue. What happened?” She sits up suddenly awake. I sigh and go to my closet pulling out some sweats to warm me up.
“Apparently, I was traipsing through Greenville half-dressed and barefoot.”
“What! What in the world where you doing out at this hour? Are you insane, it’s below freezing out there?”
“It wasn’t by choice, trust me.”
“What do you mean?”
“I was sleep walking. One minute I was in my bed and the next I’m in front of some house five miles away.”
“Five miles?! You walked five miles in your sleep?”
“Apparently.”
“Oh my gosh.” Sophie springs out of bed and comes to stand in front of me, her eyes scanning my face for signs of distress. “Are you okay? You’ve never slept walked, mumbled yeah, but never slept walked.”
I sit down on the bed with a huff not knowing how to answer that question. I mean physically I’m fine. I just walked five miles barefoot and, in my pajama’s, but now that I’m home I’m fine. My mind has been racing since I woke up working overtime to figure out what the heck just happened and what all this means, but I’m fine, I gue
ss.
Sophie sits down next to me and puts her hand over mine. I look up into her comforting blue eyes and find a kind smile on her lips. She’s not pestering me anymore; she’s just trying to be here. She must sense my panic.
I’m glad I have a friend like Sophie, she always makes me feel better even when I’m lying to myself in saying everything is fine. Sophie’s always been there through thick and thin. It’s been like that since I can remember, Sophie’s my best friend. My only ally.
“Do you want to tell me about it?”
“It was different this time, more vivid. It was like I could feel the people in my dream. I don’t know.” I shake my head realizing I sound crazy.
“It’s okay, tell me more.” She offers me a reassuring smile to let me know I’m not completely insane. I take a deep breath in and start from the beginning.
“I was with this boy, Jaxon, he was trying to get me to run, but I wouldn’t leave him. Something was pulling me to him, keeping me at his side. We argued for a little bit until he finally caved and told me to stay by his side. We were running from something, or someone. We were racing through dark halls in this odd building. White walls, long corridors, lots of rooms, big open windows. There were all sorts of equipment I didn’t recognize, but I think my dream being did.
“I don’t know how to explain it, but I felt like I’d been there before. Only I wasn’t supposed to be there in the dream. I was in a place I wasn’t allowed. It looked like an office maybe? Anyways, I didn’t get a good look we were racing down the halls, looking over our shoulders and waiting for something to happen.
“We made it to these stairs and raced down them, like literally flying down the steps at an inhumanly pace and when we got to the bottom we ran into this guy, Ceres. We knew him, we had come there with him apparently and he came back to help us. He led us to this huge warehouse where there was some sort of rave going on. Sweaty teenagers were dancing to loud obnoxious music with strobe lights going crazy. And that was it, I woke up in in front of a house five miles away. I’ve never been to that house before and yet I was lying in the middle of their driveway when I came to.”