by Gareth Otton
He’d already done it twice tonight with light after all, what would a few more times hurt.
A lot, a part of his mind that was still rational thought. He remembered the pain of doing it tonight. Anger and Tony had helped him, but he couldn’t rely on that going forward. Each use would hurt more than the last, leave him incapacitated longer. He had to do things the normal way.
But Kuruk is getting away.
One of the Children of ADaM practically fell into Tad’s arms as a fleeing Kuruk pushed him. As Tad caught the man his fingers brushed against the active tattoo and he flinched away from the heat, wondering how these people could stand it. However, as he pulled his hand away, he recognised another feeling.
Inspiration struck and before the man in his arms could even think of attacking, Tad reached out again, brushing that tattoo once more. The heat was there, but so too was a feeling Tad was familiar with. There was a connection to Dream, a power source, just like with nightmares and just like mad ghosts.
Tad grinned, and it was not a nice grin.
With barely a thought he channelled Dream through the doorway in his mind, not directing it into an image but directly into that power source. It didn’t take much.
The explosion of heat made Tad flinch and throw the man away from himself, but the damage to Tad wasn’t anything more than some singed hairs. The damage to the Child of ADaM was something much more severe.
The man screamed as Tad dropped him, clutching his arm where the tattoo had been and rolling around on the floor. Tad ignored him and looked for the nearest dreamcatcher to see if he could repeat his trick. There was a man next to him fighting with a dreamwalker who was using fire to keep him at a distance. Tad reached out and barely ran his hand over the man’s skin when he channelled Dream again. A second later there was another flash of light and heat, followed quickly by more screaming.
Tad’s grin grew wider.
Perfect.
Cupping a hand to the side of his mouth, he shouted and used Dream to augment his voice.
“Treat their dreamcatchers like mad ghosts,” he said, his voice rolling over the crowd loud enough to be heard back in Cardiff. Those nearest flinched away and covered their ears, while those furthest away quickly picked up the hint.
There was a flash of light followed by a scream, then another, and another, and quickly the fight turned.
Seeing that was in hand, Tad turned back to Kuruk. He was just in time to see him next to one of the cars, helping Marcus Riley out of the front seat. For a second only he turned to face Tad and grinned, before he blinked out of existence, taking Marcus Riley with him.
He hardly went alone, though. At the last second a large man in his early fifties who frustrated Tad every time he opened his mouth recently, jumped on top of the giant man just before Kuruk vanished. Brad the Texan vanished with them.
Tad swore, angry that Kuruk had got away again. As much as Brad had followed them, he didn’t believe for a second he would be a match for Kuruk. He simply didn’t have the experience.
“Tad, use him.”
Tad spun, surprised to find Stella rushing to his side with two puppies under her arm. She was passing him Freckles, which seemed to annoy the hell out of Growler, but Tad understood why she’d want to keep the other dog back. He was injured and needed to get patched up. And he wasn’t the only one.
Stella’s nose looked like it had been broken, there were scuff marks on her cheek from where she had hit the ground and a massive bruise covered half her face.
“Stella, I—” he started, stepping forward to get a better look, but Stella stopped him.
“Tad, I’m fine. Here, take Freckles and go find that freak.”
She practically shoved the puppy into his hands, and Tad had no choice but to take him.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“Use him to follow Kuruk. Stop him before he gets away.” When Tad still didn’t understand, Stella looked at him like he was mad. “Tad, the first thing these little guys did was follow you through Dream. You don’t think they can do the same to that piece of shit?”
“But what about all this?” Tad protested.
“We’ve got that in hand,” Stella argued and sure enough she was right. She’d read the course of the fight quicker than he had. With every dreamcatcher they took down, the dreamwalkers and Trevor’s guys were teaming up on the newer ones. Some dreamcatchers had run away and only a small pocket were left as a token resistance.
“Go,” Stella urged. “We’ve got this.”
Tad didn’t need to be told again. He turned away and with Freckles under one hand, sprinted for the abandoned cars and the space where Kuruk had fled.
“You think you can find them, boy?” Tad asked the dog in his arms, not sure at all if the dog would understand him. What was he thinking? Of course it couldn’t. It was a puppy. Any intelligence he assigned to the dogs before now was simply him explaining away normal stuff as something extraordinary.
However, Freckles chuffed happily like he had understood, then squirmed for Tad to let him down. He was squirming so violently that Tad had no choice but to comply less he drop the little guy. No sooner had his feet touched the ground when Freckles was off, nose to the floor as he sniffed around, making his way over to the car and the front seat where the door was still open. He went so far as to jump up into the car itself, still sniffing, when suddenly he stopped, looked at Tad, and barked once.
I must be crazy, Tad thought as he asked the dog, “Have you found his scent? You know where they are?”
Freckles wagged his tail and barked once more.
Still thinking himself crazy but also asking himself what he had to lose, Tad reached down and picked up the little dog.
The world shifted.
30
Monday, 18th July 2016
20:56
Tad and Freckles appeared outside a multi-storey building made of enormous glass windows mounted into slim strips of wheat-coloured stone. The glass reflected the sunlight of a sky much bluer than the one Tad left telling him he was somewhere that was a few hours behind the UK. Fluffy white clouds filled that sky creating a picturesque scene that was in stark contrast to the destruction on the ground floor.
Windows were shattered, bricks were cracked, and even the paving stones had crumbled. It looked like a bomb had gone off. However, there were just two men wrestling in front of the lobby where smartly dressed people were peaking out from whatever shelter they could find.
Both men were large and strong, but one was impossibly so. Kuruk was all bulging muscle and the vigour of youth, while Brad had the wiry muscle of a strong man past his prime. Luckily this was more than a contest of natural strength.
Kuruk’s dreamcatchers flared brightly as he fought, but Brad’s strength was that of a dreamwalker. It was more natural than the stolen power of a dreamcatcher. Unfortunately, it required more thought as well.
Brad had fallen into the same trap as most dreamwalkers, he wasn’t imaginative enough. He used his abilities in simple ways. That meant fighting fist to fist, which was very much in Kuruk’s domain. He should have stuck to his strengths and kept the giant at a distance. Unfortunately, it was too late to correct that now, and the men too close together for Tad to intercede. All he could do was watch and cheer for his friend.
“He won’t win,” sneered a voice of pure poison from Tad’s side.
Tad looked over, then down, not even noticing Marcus until now.
“Kuruk is more than your friend and he is more than you. Even if you overcame him, it doesn’t matter. The Movement grows day by day as more people see the truth. Fight all you like, eventually we’ll be coming for you.”
“I should have left you in Dream with the rest of you,” Tad muttered just loud enough for Marcus to hear.
The man’s face purpled and Tad suspected he’d have attacked if he could. However, he was too far away and without his legs he couldn’t make up the distance. He snarled at Tad, but Freckles b
arked loud enough to shut him up.
“Really, you brought a puppy?” Marcus asked in disgust. “What kind of man are you?”
“Actually he brought me,” Tad said. Then to the dog he added, “That was great work, Freckles. But I’ve got it from here. Why don’t you go back to Stella?”
The dog took one last look at Marcus, barked again, then vanished.
“Really, you’re infecting dogs as well now?” Marcus asked, disgusted.
Tad just rolled his eyes and turned back to the fight. It wasn’t going well. Tad didn’t know much about wrestling, but Brad looked tired. He was down on one knee with Kuruk on his back and an arm around his neck. Tad doubted that was good.
Thinking on his feet, he shouted, “The dreamcatcher. It’s like a mad ghost, overload it.”
Somehow, through the lack of oxygen and sheer exhaustion, Brad heard.
Slowly he released the arm holding his neck and reached back. Kuruk’s grip tightened, cutting off more air to Brad’s brain and making the man go bright red like he was about to pop. However, Brad’s hand was still moving and suddenly he was let go as Kuruk screamed in agony and Brad was thrown to the floor.
The accompanying flash of light and heat had been hidden between their bodies and it dismayed Tad to see Brad’s back was smoking as he was thrown away. However, they were finally separated and Tad could help.
“Kuruk, watch out!” Marcus screamed and Kuruk looked up just in time to catch Tad’s knee to the face.
He rolled with the blow and staggered out of reach. Through teary eyes he watched as Tad came on again and suddenly another dreamcatcher flared to life and he blurred away, running back the way Tad came and standing next to Marcus. He didn’t go any further, so Tad had time to check on his friend.
“Brad, you alright?”
“I almost had the fucker right where I wanted him,” he joked, but other than his sense of humour, he looked in a bad way. “Kick his ass, Tad.”
“Gladly,” Tad said as he turned his attention back on the dreamcatcher. “Kuruk, that’s enough. You’ve got no friends to help this time and we both know your dreamcatchers won’t be enough. It’s done. Just turn yourself in and you can have the cell next to your sister.”
“You were never moving her, were you?” Kuruk guessed.
“She’s helping us with a problem.”
“Helping you,” Kuruk sneered, clearly not believing him.
“Yes, helping us. Unlike you, she’s seen the error of her ways and wants to make up for it. She’s using those amazing designs of hers for their intended purpose, to help people. She’s creating dreamcatchers to protect people from nightmares.”
“Nightmares you caused,” Kuruk accused. “You know, I don’t even think you’re lying. That sounds like her. All she wants is to help. The trouble is she doesn’t understand how sometimes help can do more harm than good. However, this time I hope she succeeds so nightmares can’t hurt anyone else. Meanwhile, I’ll help the world by getting rid of power hungry freaks like you.”
Tad sighed and shook his head. “You don’t get it. I know how to defeat your little tricks now. There is no more fight to be had. This is already over, you’re just too stupid to know it.”
“Already over,” Kuruk sneered. “I’ve barely begun. You think those fifty men were the only dreamcatchers I created. There are thousands of Movement members all over the world being tattooed up as I speak. No, Dreamwalker. It’s only just begun.”
“You’re lying,” Tad accused, horrified at the idea of so many people who hate dreamwalkers being armed with the kind of weapons that could kill them. However, judging by Marcus’ grin, Kuruk might actually be telling the truth.
“In a way you were right, it is over. It’s just a matter of time before everyone can defend themselves against people like you and your kind are extinct.”
Tad shuddered at the thought, but realised it didn’t matter for now. The important thing was that Kuruk, the current and present danger, was taken out of play. The trouble was he was keeping his distance, and even with his strength dreamcatcher destroyed, he had plenty of others to keep himself safe.
I need him to attack me, get close so I can take him down, Tad thought. The trouble was, how to rile him up. It didn’t take long to arrive at the answer. Unfortunately, Tad hated himself for even having the idea. He didn’t see another choice though.
“I wonder what Lucy would think if she heard you saying things like that.”
The smile on Kuruk’s face vanished in an instant.
“Shut up,” he said, voice cold and hard. “Don’t even think her name.”
“I heard Lucy was a kindhearted woman. She was like your sister, just wanting to help. It’s why she started the conversation that night in the bar.”
Kuruk took a step forward, raising a finger and pointing it at Tad like it was a gun. “Shut your filthy mouth. You don’t know anything about her.”
“I know that despite what you want to think, she went to that bar looking to hook up with someone that night. She was on holiday right, it doesn’t count—”
“Shut your dirty fucking mouth!” Kuruk shouted, taking another step forward.
“What’s wrong? Don’t like the truth? Don’t like that your precious little Lucy wasn’t as faithful as—”
Nearly all of Kuruk’s dreamcatchers came alive at once and they were turned up to full power. Light shone from him so brightly it was hard to look at him as he streaked forward. However, Tad was expecting it and had Dream ready, boosting his own reaction times and speed. The world slowed, but Kuruk sprinted toward him like time was normal. Even like this he was fast, his long legs covering the distance in no time. He wasn’t ghost powered though, and Tad was faster.
He sidestepped and Kuruk rushed harmlessly past, a look of absolute hatred on his face. Tad’s hand snaked out to touch the nearest dreamcatcher and with just a thought he flooded it with Dream.
There was another flash of light followed by a scream that was half fury and half pain. Tad had no idea what the dreamcatcher he destroyed did, but when Kuruk turned back, he looked angrier than ever.
“I’ll kill you, you freak!” he yelled.
Tad had only seen hatred like that on one person before, and that man was watching the fight from twenty feet away, unable to help thanks to his missing legs. Tad hated the look as much now as he had the last time. However, he’d learned that there was no way to reason with it, so he had to use it to his advantage.
“I’m the freak? You should have heard what your girlfriend did to that—”
He never got to finish his sentence as Kuruk was running again, screaming furiously. He was every bit as fast this time even without that dreamcatcher on his shoulder, so Tad must have destroyed the wrong one, maybe the healing one Mitena spoke about. That left only speed and dreamwalking, so Tad knew what to target next.
Again he watched as Kuruk rushed closer and again Kuruk wasn’t fast enough. Tad stepped aside, but Kuruk recognised the move this time and turned away at the last second so Tad couldn’t destroy the targeted dreamcatcher.
His fingers ended up brushing over the inactive dreamcatcher on Kuruk’s left shoulder, and again he forced Dream into it.
“Aaarrrgghh!” Kuruk screamed as he skidded to a stop. Every muscle in his body clenched as he cried out at the sky, fists shaking as he fought against impossible agony. Smoke rose from his left shoulder and horrendously blistered and burnt skin covered his right shoulder and stomach. Only the large tattoo on his chest, the side not ruined the first time he encountered Tad, remained active, and even that one looked red around the edges. Tad wondered if he’d even have to touch this one to take it out.
He didn’t have long to find out. It suddenly flared impossibly bright as Kuruk gathered his will for one last attack and rushed forward faster than ever. Maybe too fast. Even as Tad once again put Dream to use, Kuruk was still like a blur coming at him.
But it was too much, too late. He was less than three steps
away when there was a final flash of light, and not from Tad’s doing this time. Kuruk had overloaded his own dreamcatcher.
Screaming in agony yet again, he collapsed to the floor, rolling on his back and crying out his anger and anguish as he writhed in pain. It was a pitiful sight. However, all Tad had to do was think of Kuruk’s victims to push any sympathy for this monster aside.
“You should have come easily,” Tad said sadly as he walked up to the downed giant. Without any of his dreamcatchers in place he wasn’t even close to a danger anymore, especially not with Tony still merged with him. “Come on, let’s get you—”
“Freeze! Back away from that man and put your hands behind your head.”
Tad turned toward the voice and was surprised to find he was surrounded by a group of twenty men and women in suits, all of whom had a pistol pointed at Tad. He was even more surprised that he recognised one of them, the man who told him to freeze.
“Agent Holmes. You’re the very last person on Earth I want to see right now.”
“Yeah, well, you’ve got a funny way of showing it. Maybe next time you want a fight, don’t stage it outside the FBI Chicago Field Office.”
Tad shook his head in confusion. “That’s where we are? Why would he come here of all…” Tad’s words trailed off as he put the clues together. “Astur. That traitorous son of a bitch. Kuruk was here for help from your messed up partner.”
“I said, step away from that man and put your hands behind your head,” Holmes repeated, raising his gun even higher like he was itching to shoot Tad dead.
“Holmes, this is ridiculous. This is the man who killed all those dreamwalkers, the same one who took out half your team. I followed him here to subdue him and now I’m taking him back to the Dream Team headquarters so we can—”
“You aren’t taking him anywhere. Now, for the last time, step away from that man, get down on your knees and put your hands behind your head. Failure to do so will be taken as an act of aggression and I will pull this trigger.”