In the Wake of a Dream: Book One of the Newcomer Trilogy Page 22

There was a sudden, loud thud as it struck the glass. I heard it again and again. But there was no sound of breaking glass.

  “What’s wrong?” Cassie called. “Why isn’t the glass breaking?”

  “Bulletproof,” Coraline remembered. “It’s bulletproof glass!”

  “But what else can we do?” Cassie asked. “We can’t get inside!”

  “There has to be something!” Ash shouted.

  Wayfara and Julian returned to the lawn, their expressions identically helpless. “Is there anything we can do?” Julian asked the Holan. “Anything?”

  “Yes,” Coraline answered. “There is one way to stop him.”

  “How?” Ash yelled.

  “We must force him to realize himself,” Coraline explained. “A forced metamorphosis will rip him from her subconscious mind. We must, essentially, manifest his realization.”

  “But he will become Utopian!” Wayfara cried in shock.

  “You’re right,” Coraline said. “He will become Utopian. He will become stronger, and that is the price.”

  “What are you waiting for?” Ash urged. “Do it! Do the manifestation!”

  “Share hands, Utopians,” Coraline instructed. “And join me in Creation!” Together, Coraline, Cassie, Wayfara, and Julian linked their hands. A single second passed.

  The night exploded, shattering the tower room’s windows. Blinded, I closed my eyes. Through narrow lids I saw the tower in flames. The light of the fire illuminated the lawn below.

  Something, or someone, was rising from the ruined tower. Silvery wings appeared first, flapping and fanning the flames. And then the body of a human followed the billowing plumage. Enormous wings wide, the Utopian launched himself into the night.

  Divion flipped over in midair. I could see something in his hand. The object looked like a suitcase. Suddenly, I realized what he held. It was the Dreamchest. Divion came to a stop a distance away, his wings treading air.

  “Finally!” Divion roared. “I am realized!”

  Coraline shook her head. “We manifested those wings!”

  “Why attack Annie!” Ash shouted. “What did she do to you?”

  “Nothing yet,” Divion admitted. “But she’s the Newcomer’s sister. She has become a Dreamdrifter and who knows what she will become. Nobody will revive Adia’s prophecy!”

  “He murdered Alexi!” I yelled, pointing to Divion. “He murdered the Newcomer!”

  “Speaking of murderers,” Divion hissed. “I see Jon has fled!”

  Cassie and Julian, fury charging their temples, were spreading their wings to attack. Divion, however, was ready for them. Smiling, he held up the Dreamchest. “Careful, my friends,” he said. “I know this chest is precious! Annie,” he continued, his wings flapping in my direction. “I will return for you!”

  Lifting the Dreamchest behind his head, Divion threw it to the ground. Strangling their cries, Coraline and Wayfara dived for the chest. Wayfara saved it, managing to get a wing beneath the chest before it hit the grass.

  “Nice, Wayfara!” Ash called.

  I gazed into the night. “Divion’s gone!”

  “Of course he’s gone,” Ash said, helping me to my feet. “You’re the one I’m worried about.”

  “I feel fine,” I replied. It was true. The manifestation had worked.

  The Holan was issuing orders. “Julian, Cassie, track him!” The pair took flight immediately. “Wayfara!” Coraline continued. “Help me put that fire out!”

  “That was insane,” I moaned. “I’ve had enough for one day!”

  Ash smiled. “Are you sure?”

  I stared at him through the night. And then I began to smile. “Actually,” I said. “One more excursion tonight sounds perfect!” I was suddenly feeling fantastic and that was saying something considering I had just had my subconscious brutalized by a raving, murderous Dreamtrapper.

  Stealthily, Ash and I went back inside the house. We stole up the staircase and into Ash’s bedroom. Lying down on the couch, Ash gathered me to him. He tightened his grip around me before brushing his lips against mine. I gazed into hazel eyes. Smiling, I retrieved the vial from my pocket.

  Ash watched me. “So you’re still going to go?”

  “I have to,” I answered. “I must know.”

  He nodded his understanding.

  Snuggling into the warmth of his embrace, I could feel the night pressing in around us. I opened the vial. I had already lifted it to my lips before I realized I had forgotten something.

  “Ash,” I said calmly. “I love you.”

  “I love you too, Annie,” he whispered. “I will always love you.”

  My heart was beating like crazy. “Ash?”

  “Yup?”

  “Why am I doing this?”

  His words were the last I heard. “Because,” he whispered. “You’re stronger than you think, Annie. You’re stronger than you think…”

  17. In the Wake of a Dream

  My heart found its beat.

  I had arrived. I was in my subconscious mind. Sensing what I could through closed eyes, I considered my position. I was standing upright. The floor beneath my feet was cold and metallic. I could feel holes in its surface. Chilled air brushed against my skin. I was naked.

  Something was in my hand, something heavy. The handle I grasped was a perfect fit, comfortable for my hand. Nothing else could be witnessed without open eyes. I opened them.

  I gasped. A building surrounded me. I was on a bridge suspended high in the building. The bridge was made of a mesh like material. That explained the holes. The sky was blacked out not by the dark of night but by the dark of a stained ceiling nearly shadowed in gloom.

  Surrounding the bridge further ahead, I could see strange shapes looming out of the darkness, their bulks suspended from above. Though the place was illuminated by pale lights, I could not distinguish the objects.

  Turning around, I gazed backward. A wall greeted my eyes. The revelation struck like a stone against my face. Forward was the only option.

  Sudden movements caught my attention, movements on me. My dreamcatcher, its worldly web whirring crazily, had come to life. The watery feathers danced across my chest.

  Other tattoos had also erupted over my body. The largest of them was an enormous letter M. It covered nearly the whole of my naked front so that my dreamcatcher spun within its middle, downward arch. The other tattoos were smaller, but all were the same letter and all were a deep scarlet.

  I examined the object in my hand. The gleaming knife had a long, deadly blade. The weapon could easily puncture the fabric of any life, any intruding encroacher. Lowering the blade, I began to move forward.

  Shadows leapt upon me as I walked. The wiry bridge was painful to the naked foot. Through the mesh, I could see machines rising out of the gloom beneath the bridge, their blades ripping the air.

  I was getting closer to the objects suspended from the ceiling. I experienced a flash of foreboding. Though I had yet to recognize the hanging bulks, I could see what held them. Chains, dark, grisly, oil slick chains descended from above, grasping the bulks tightly. I moved closer. The objects appeared to be large sacks splattered with maroon.

  I buckled under the weight of realization. The hanging bulks were not sacks. They were animals, the remains of animals. The nearest was a cow, his organs having been ripped from his body completely. He dripped blood before my eyes, his own staring from an intact head, cocked in death.

  A scream grew inside me. The ruined bodies stretched for miles ahead. The end of the bridge was far from sight, the end of the deathly, staring eyes even farther. The revelation of my subconscious mind came to me.

  It was a slaughterhouse.

  Reeling in horror, I ran. Gasping the stained air, I passed the bloody corpses in a rush of speed. Tearing across the bridge, I wouldn’t let myself stop. The animals, the massacred ruin of their bodies strangled in chains, kept coming. There was no end to the staring death.

  A wall erupted from the gloom. I
glimpsed an opening. Terror spurred me forward. Closing my eyes, I ran for the checkpoint. I shot through the opening. My eyes remaining shut, I allowed myself to walk. I was breathing hard. Regardless, pride flooded me. I had not actually screamed.

  I opened my eyes and screamed.

  I had assumed that anywhere would be preferable to the bridge. I had been wrong. Though no shredded animals filled this large room, something worse filled its space, something much worse. There were no animals here, only people.

  I had opened my eyes near a woman, her face dancing in death. Hanging from the ceiling in chains, the rolling heads of her eyes found me. She had been stabbed many times.

  Tripping in fear, I fell backward. I landed with a cry of pain on the icy, metallic ground, the periphery of my vision spinning as my knife clattered to the floor. They were everywhere.

  Mutilated bodies filled chains and cages around me. Screaming, I covered my eyes. Terror assaulted me. I could not deny what I had seen. They had all been stabbed to death.

  Jumping to my feet, I ran for my life. Running with closed eyes was impossible in the room. There were too many snares to catch me before sharing their death. I ripped past thrashed bodies and stabbed eyes.

  Spinning around a cage shaped like a mummy, I smacked right into a corpse suspended in chains. Screams thundering from me, I tried to free myself. My legs tangled in the chains.

  I screamed louder. Pushing the body away, I attempted to leap from the chains. However, my feet were still tangled in them. Falling to the floor, I cowered in the corpse’s shadow.

  “Help me!” I screamed. “Somebody! Please! Help me!”

  There was an explosion of light.

  Shielding my eyes, I glimpsed an orb in the sky. The light was descending. And then it dimmed. Someone was coming toward me, his white wings flapping magnificently. He alighted on the ground.

  He was a Paradesian. No other explanation had room for his gargantuan wingspan that was larger than any I had seen, no other explanation had space for his beautiful, crystalline skin that illuminated me like a beacon. The Paradesian folded his wings.

  “Take my hand,” he instructed. Grasping it, I felt weightless as he pulled me to my feet. A ladder had appeared, its higher rungs disappearing above. He held it steady. “Climb,” he ordered. “I will follow you.”

  Ready to be free, I immediately began climbing. After a while, I gazed downward. The Paradesian was swooping around the ladder below me, ascending slowly higher. Reaching the top of the ladder, I found a trapdoor. I pushed it open and climbed the last wrung.

  “Where are we?” I asked.

  The Paradesian shut the trapdoor. “Don’t you remember?”

  We were in a waiting alcove. Halls stretched in both directions. Looking down, I realized that I was clothed again. Regardless, the dreamcatcher earth was still alive on my chest. My eyes fell to the carpet. The pattern had squares, triangles, and circles.

  “Oh my god,” I breathed.

  “I thought you’d remember,” he said.

  “But how do you know,” I asked. “Who are you?”

  “Please sit down.” The Paradesian gestured to a chair. I watched him closely as I took it. Pulling a seat close to mine, the Paradesian rearranged his white wings before sitting.

  “Who are you?” I repeated.

  “Let’s start with what,” he said. “Do you know what I am?”

  I nodded. “Paradesian.”

  “I’m impressed,” he admitted. “That’s pretty good for a human!”

  “Well… I’m not really human anymore,” I began. “I’m a Dreamdri –”

  “Shh!” He lifted a finger to his lips. “Careful,” he added. “We’re still in your subconscious. You don’t want to awake yet, do you?”

  “No,” I said hurriedly, changing course. “Anyway, I guessed what you are and so it’s only fair you tell me who you are.”

  He shook his head. “You can’t recognize your own brother?”

  “What!” I exclaimed. It could not be. It was impossible. His was a terrible joke. “My brother is dead!”

  “I am me, Annie,” he said. “I promise.”

  “You’re …”

  But a memory interrupted me. It came from afar, ascending the spiral staircase of years. A small nose and question mark ears reflected Annie, twelve years old and speechless. They were reflecting Annie, eighteen years old and speechless.

  “Alexi?” I asked.

  “Yes,” he said.

  “But you’re dead,” I whispered. “Aren’t you?”

  He nodded.

  Tears were starting in my eyes. “I don’t understand!”

  “Don’t cry, Annie,” he pleaded. “Please, don’t cry.” He was too late. I was already bawling, the tears falling to my whirring dreamcatcher earth, adding drops to the sea. “What’s wrong?” Alexi asked. “What is it?”

  I hid my face in my hands. “You never awoke!” I sobbed. “You never awoke, Alexi! I was just sitting there and then, and then…”

  “I know,” he said quietly. “I know what happened.”

  “You never awoke!”

  “Yes I did!” Alexi said. “I did awake, Annie! I did awake!”

  “You –”

  “I awoke in heaven!”

  My eyes streaming, I gazed up at him.

  “That’s right,” he said. “I awoke in heaven, Annie. I did awake.”

  Leaning forward, I hugged him. The electricity of his pulse was stunning. “You’re beautiful, Alexi!” I gasped. “And I’m sorry for everything!”

  “Why are you sorry?” Alexi asked. “You did nothing wrong.”

  “I injected the poison,” I whispered. “I murdered you.”

  “Not on purpose,” Alexi scoffed. “And that was them, not you! If anything, Annie, you brought me to life! You wanted me so much. I could feel it then, I can feel it now. You were the perfect big sister. I remember you crying all over me.” Alexi smiled. “My whole life was very wet!”

  My laugh ended in a sob. “Will you forgive me, Alexi?”

  “Forever, for always, forgiven, dearest sister,” he said. “Never forget.”

  I wiped my tears. “Will I ever see you again?”

  “Not in a dream,” he said. “Or a nightmare. Not until your time.”

  “I love you,” I murmured. “I miss you so much.”

  “I know,” he said. “I love you too. And I will always be listening if you need help. Next time, though, I will have to send it through others. Even we Paradesians have rules.”

  “I have a question about that,” I said.

  Alexi nodded. “Of course.”

  I glanced at the ceiling. “What’s HE like?”

  Alexi smiled. “What do you expect?”

  “Oh,” I began. “I –”

  “That’s him!” Alexi exclaimed.

  I smiled back. “So even the Newcomer can’t tell his sister?”

  Standing, Alexi unfolded his wings. “What do you mean? Even the Newcomer?”

  “You’re the Newcomer, Alexi.”

  He shook his head. “I’m not the Newcomer, Annie. You are.” White wings stretching behind him, Alexi bent to kiss my forehead. “It’s no coincidence that your dreams catch the world. Light the night, Dreamdrifter …”

  ###

  About the Author

  Shayn Bloom was born in Moscow, Russia and has been a writer since the age of thirteen, penning novels, poems, songs, articles, short stories, and novellas. Shayn lives and writes in Baltimore, Maryland.