Chapter-4
I was in a dream. A proper dream.
I was standing in what seemed to be a cemetery, but there was so much fog she couldn’t see much. Sam Kate and Brent were there. I understood I was the one buried. Sam was raving mad, destroying tomb stones.
“It’s our fault she’s fucking dead!” He was yelling.
“Our fucking fault.”
“Your fault Kate. You fault Brent.”
“And my fault.” He pulled his hair.
And that was it. Simple enough ,but I got the point.
“Look who just woke up, sleeping beauty.” Flowers appeared in Nick’s hand and he offered it to me with a sardonic smile. “A pretty flower for the pretty pwincess.”
He was completely caught off guard when I didn’t respond by throwing something at him or yelling. I sat there with my head in my hands.
They were tight knit, like a family, and they had in a way adopted me into their families, and families didn’t work unless united. But how could I let them follow me in what might possibly be my death? I couldn’t do that. Then I remembered what Brent said.
“Why so thoughtful, you usually never think.”
I ignored him. It was something about letting them help me or getting in their way. I knew what I had to do. I didn’t want to, but I had too. It was going to suck, it was going to be hard. I felt as though I was giving up part of myself. I grabbed my knives and threw them on my target for the rest of the night and morning until I decided I should go to my afternoon classes.
They were surprised to see me after I had skipped the first part of the day and even more surprised when I met up with them after school.
“Kate you’re a control freak, Brent something didn’t connect in your brain as a child, Sam sometimes I see you more as a puppy than a human. But I’ll let you help me in this.”
Their eyes were wide open and Kate opened her mouth. My green eyes narrowed.
“Oh don’t get all emotional, I just don’t want you getting hurt trying to help me while I’m off chasing some dumbass.”
I felt like I was going to faint or something. I had never accepted someone’s help with anything before.
“I will tolerate you, but. Stay. Out. Of. Danger. Got it?” I spat.
They nodded. Sam ran to me took me off the ground.
“Oh Savvy, Savvy you’re back! You’re one of us now.”
I rolled my eyes, “Oh joy.”
Nick snickered.
“You know they care about you. Probably the only people other than your mom that ever cared about you.” He said in a moment of seriousness.
“Fuck off.” I whispered to him.
“Let go of me.” I said in a deadly calm voice. He listened and I fell over. Kate offered me her hand.
“Don’t go overboard.” I got up and dusted myself.
I felt a spark at that moment, a warm feeling inside of me. At the time I thought I was perhaps coming down with a fever. A voice inside of me kept saying, “You’d do the same for them.” I told it to shut up.
“We’re off so see the wizard! The wonderful wizard of Oz!” Sam sang, grabbing Kate by the hands and twirling her around. We had wandered into a hard wood floor maze with brick walls and they were lost. I was resisting the urge to tell Sam to shut his mouth. I already regretted my decision from the day before and was wondering why I had made it.
“Bringing you along was a mistake.” I whispered, pushing Sam and Kate aside when I got to them. Still no hint on the end of the maze.
Sam grabbed my hands and commenced twirling me. I was feeling calm and concentrated that night but Sam was bothering me.
“Do it and die.” I told him extremely calmly.
Finally, we found the end of the end of the maze and we were finally in the open with some type of...grass, that looked and felt morel like an animal’s overgrown fur. There were long bunches of twigs that flowed as if there were wind.
“Are we even going anywhere?” I asked dryly.
I really wanted to get this dream world thing over with.
“No, just taking a walk, didn’t want to just stay in the tower did you?” Kate answered.
“Wouldn’t it be better to battle a potential enemy on our home turn you dumb asses?”Sam asked us.
It would, but we had been nervous and neither Sam nor Keyn could stand still. Kate sighed.
“Just think of the tower and walk.” Sure enough, the tower began to appear on the horizon.
Direction wasn’t much of a defined concept in the dream world. It wasn’t long before we reached the tower, but not through the same landscape, as it always changed. Keyn was slouching behind me, sensing my bad mood and frustration. I was good at waiting, alone. But waiting for something to happen with people all around me made me supremely nervous. Fortunately, I didn’t have to wait much longer.
Kate jumped when a howl sounded, and soon there were figures running towards us, they had leathery dark blue hides, and empty hole on their underside, their leathery skin covered what looked like ribs. In that empty space was red smoke. They got around surprisingly fast with only one front paw and oftn stood to look around like merecats. But after a while they were running towards us, non stop.
“Ohhhhh, this is not good.” Kate noticed.
“You think so? I was just going to invite them for some tea.” I said.
A snaky figure with spikes lining each side appeared and rolled around Brent’s body, looking at the canines with an evil look. They reared like horses and came back to the charge, their thin ears finished in a point that almost look like it could stab through someone and they had a rw of eyes from temple to temple. The red smoke flew out of their insides and disappeared as they ran. Bren’t guardian was huffing and scraping the ground with his claws. Kate’s unicorn was braced for attack while Sam’s tiger had flown up and was circling. A raptor appeared next to Sam, shaking its head furiously. I had observed this, and this time I was ready, concentrated. Entrancing jelly fish, seemingly lit up from the inside floated gracefully around me. If they could see me through them, it must have been an odd sight, someone controlling all these thing with a look of ultimate concentration on her face, concentrating on one single thing. As they floated to the creatures with green lips and gums, they stopped their course and yapped, standing and trying to snap at the jelly fish, who then send them in spasms against the ground. But it did not kill them, and they returned to advancing soon. Tired, I let them fade into smoke. The other, who had been watching the spectacle, sent their creatures in, but there were too many, and soon, creatures from the air began to arrive. More bat shaped with the same leathery skin and with an enormous wingspan of two leathery dragon style wings on each side, shrieking and screaming.
“Think.” I told myself in anger as the creatures died off.
Suddenly, a snaky creature erupted from the ground. It aided its movement with two agile front paws and on its back was a long crest of tall spikes and moved with it. On either side of this crest were smaller but still very thin spikes. Its mouth was completely round with a few rows of independently manoeuvred teeth all around. Its mouth moved in a sucking motion and I willed it to attack.
“Keyn.”
He looked my way, he had been holding back as if he knew I didn’t want him out there without me with him.
“The other guardians.”
He nodded, and with a smile, his tongue handing out, he left, leading them out of battle as my creature, keeping it alive was getting to be a headache, devoured the blue canines as they leaped on his back to try and bring him down. But as they did that, they yowled and whined, retreating with spikes handing form their legs, arms noses. But just as my creature started on the birds, it disintegrated, it had been too big to powerful.
“Savannah duck.” Sam grabbed me and threw both of us on the ground behind a bush of grey leaved that had blood red sap running from them. The others, guardians battle tried, them exhausted joined, looking dishevelled and ridiculou
s, especially Sam with his blue hair and his pyjamas covered in cars. The guardians were there too, silent and tense. Confused shrieks were heard and then silence. I had never felt at once so determined and so much in danger. There was more silence until.
“Skreeeeeee!” We heard as one giant flying creature came at us.
It was aiming at me.
Sam crashed into it, trying to deflect it and it grabbed kate who was right next to it.
She shrieked as it pulled her away as I was growing thick walls of intertwining branches around the others while mounting Keyn, who seemed upset and going after it.
“Faster. Faster.” I implored, but no matter how quickly Keyn beat his wings, Kate was gone and I had to worry about the other creatures grabbing me, I had been their target all along.
We entered a frightening race, and I was grateful for the practice Key and I has unconsciously got. He dived in tight swirls, moved quickly left and right close to the ground before rising steadily and diving again as they caught up, their heads were like skulls with teeth, globular eyes staring at us right out of sockets, no eyelids or anything.
Keyn finally got to the spot where the others were waiting underneath the trees. They spread open, not by me, probably Brent and I entered, reinforcing it with thicker branches.
I felt lost, confused, frustrated.
“Arhhhh!” I yelled and punched a tree branch.
And I understood.
Kate was gone and I felt horrible. She was my friend, and I had been unable to protect her. It made me feel like shit, completely useless.
“How did this happen?” I yelled.
Kate’s guardian was gone and Sam’s hand was twitching like it did when he got nervous.
“Her guardian’s gone.” Sam whispered breathlessly, and his foot began tapping on the ground.
Brent nodded gravely.
I looked at them, frowning.
“Isn’t that a good thing?” I exclaimed with hand gestures, “It might be able to help her!”
They looked at me, slowly shaking their heads. Keyn had rubbed up next to me, trying to be comforting, his ears down and his tails nervously flicking around.
I cried in frustration, almost pulling my hair out.
“Will you fuckers be straightforward for once?!” I yelled.
Keyn rolled his tails around me, I wasn’t sure if it was to be comforting or to hold me back from doing something, what? I didn’t know.
They were still looking at me, Sam had tears in his eyes, and it make me feel like crying, which I never did so I breathed deeply.
“If you hadn’t insisted on following me around, this never would have happened!” I yelled.
I pulled out a root and threw it at them and Keyn’s grip tightened, I guess I had the answer to my earlier question, not that I cared at the moment.
“If I could just be normal, and not for some unimaginable reason have a madman after me, none of this would have happened.”
I stormed out, Keyn wasn’t stupid, he knew when to quit, so he just followed me. I stopped just long enough to listen to Brent explain something, tears in my eyes.
“The only way to summon a spirit is to kill a person’s guardian. Permanently. Which means he has the topaz.”
I walked away, wiping the tears from my eyes, biting my lip.
“Wake up sweetheart.” Nick said with fake cheeriness and excitement. He opened his hand and sunglasses appeared in a puff of smoke, he put them on.
Soft sheets around me, feeling groggy. I was awake.
Nick immediately noticed something was wrong. He looked concerned.
“What’s wrong?”
“Kate.” I said in a voice that sounded as if my throat was sandpaper. “Some weird dark birds with no eyelids picked her up.”
For a moment I saw no emotion on his face, then his normal sardonic smile appeared. He pretended I hadn’t said anything.
“Fuck you.” I said throwing a pillow at him before brushing my teeth, drinking milk from the carton. I ate a bowl of cereal on the way to the bus stop.
“I’m sorry, but you’re not allowed to eat on the bus.” The driver said pleasantly.
I shot him a look and climbed onto the bus, chewing noisily as I passed by him.
When I got to school, my gang was already rounded up. They weren’t expecting an apology and I wasn’t going to surprise them. I sat and threw my empty bowl on the concrete, watching it smash. Sam was running his long fingers through his blue hair, almost pulling it out. He only stopped to compulsively scratch this one spot on his arm that was already red.
Kate, understandably, was very distraught.
“I told you guys.” He hands were shaking nervously. “He was wearing a really big hood and a cloak down to his feet, I have no idea who he is.”
Me, Sam and Kate started saying things as the same times until brent opened his mouth.
“Kate, it is extremely important that you find out what he looks like, if possible even his name. We can’t get to him in the dream world, but we can in real life...”
We looked at him as if expecting him to continues, he didn’t.
I thought about it, the only way to take care of him in the real world was...murder. The idea had always seemed somewhat romantic to me but now I might actually experience it, and I watched enough crime shows to know how to get away with it. A determined look took over my face.
“I’ll try.” She whispered faintly.
“Don’t let on about anything.” I said in a fierce tone, looking at her directing in her blue eyes.