WHISPERS OF A FADED DREAMER
Dreamshare Book 1
Celesta Thiessen
Copyright 2015 Celesta Thiessen
Chapter 1 – The Arrival
This is the story of a faded dreamer for that is what I am.
I was sitting on a large, flat rock on the sandy beach. With the city behind me, I looked out over the calm blue water as the sun shone down on me. But the warmth of the sun and the gentle breeze didn’t touch my soul. I was alone. The horror was fading but tears filled my eyes again. I’d lost everything. I wouldn’t be able to help anyone, ever again. Tears spilled out and coursed down my cheeks. I let myself cry. There was no reason to try to be brave anymore.
“Now, who will dream my dreams with me?” I whispered.
***
“Cara Pierce, you know I don’t like you helping all the guys all the time.” Dennis stood too close to me in the school hallway. He towered over me, regarding me with his serious blue eyes. He was so sincere but…really? Scolding me and calling me by my full name?
Taking in his lanky features and fair hair, I took a small step back and tried for a smile. “I help the girls too.” I didn’t like where this conversation was going…again.
“It’s just…I’m your boyfriend. I want you talking to me, spending time with me.”
“I know…but you’re not in my Math class. My teacher likes that I help the other students understand how to do the assignments.”
“That’s not the point. I’m a guy. I know what guys are like. You’re a pretty, blue-eyed red-head. I know what they’re thinking. You’re sending the wrong signals, Cara. I don’t like you flirting with other guys.”
I looked at him incredulously. “Dennis…it’s not flirting – at all.”
He had been talking so loudly that people were staring at us. Dennis glanced down at his watch. “Gotta go. The bell’s about to ring.” He turned away from me and walked quickly down the hall.
Reluctantly, I entered the brightly lit classroom. I took my usual place, at a desk beside Jason, someone who appreciated my help. But it really wasn’t flirting.
Our elderly Math teacher went up to the front and droned on for a while about the topic of the day. I tried to pay attention to the examples that he put up on the board. Opening my binder and pulling out a pen, I copied down the problems and their solutions. I wondered if I should feel angry at what Dennis had said or if I should feel guilty. But the truth was that I felt bad about it already and I wondered how I would be able to make things up to him. I’d have to make sure I wasn’t sending the wrong signals. I wasn’t trying to send the wrong signals. Were boys really so complicated? I sighed. Dennis was such a good guy. I really loved him. But I was just never able to do good enough - even when I was really trying. There was an ache in my heart again. It seemed like I’d been struggling with that for a long time. I blinked and tried to refocus on the examples. It would never do to cry in class.
Finally the teacher stopped talking and wrote down which questions we needed to do from the textbook. After re-explaining how to do these problems to Jason, I started on the questions myself.
“How about a little help over here, Angel?” a boy called from across the room. Our elderly Math teacher, now sitting at his large wooden desk in the front of the room, pretended not to notice.
I looked up and sighed. Dark eyes, an attractive face, and dark hair, a little longer than was proper.
I turned to the guy I was sitting beside. “Do you think you’ve got it now, Jason?”
“Yeah, thanks. I’m sure I would have flunked this course without your help.” He was looking down at his paper, not smiling or anything.
“You’re welcome.” See, totally not flirting. I stood and slowly walked towards the tall guy who had called me ‘Angel’. He was still looking at me but now he was also laughing, along with the guy and the girl on either side of him.
“Bryce, if you want help, that’s not a great way to ask,” I said quietly, when I reached his desk.
“It’s Blaze,” he corrected.
“Okay, Blaze.” His real name was Bryson. Some people still called him Bryce. But he told everyone his name was Blaze. Maybe it was because he wanted to be an actor. Or maybe it was because he sometimes worked as a model for department store flyers or magazines. He kept some of the magazines in his schoolbag so he could show them around. Guess he figures he’s really hot…and, well, he is. He had really long eyelashes too, especially for a guy. I realized I’d just been staring at him. I felt my face flush. He laughed again and rocked in his chair. “Do you need help with something?” I asked.
“Nah, I’m just messing with you, Angel.”
I sighed again and walked back to my desk. Why did he always call me that? Their laughter followed me. I thought about not responding next time he called for me. It would probably be best but, sometimes, he really did need my help when he asked. I just wasn’t sure about the best way to deal with him. I didn’t want to be mean. But I certainly didn’t want to send the wrong signals.
I had only just returned to my seat beside Jason when the whole classroom began to tremble. I held on to the desk, vibrating beneath my hands. An earthquake! Only, I thought, we don’t get those here. I tried to remember what to do. A moan issued from my throat as the shaking intensified. I scanned the faces of those around me for some cue as to what to do but they only looked back at me, their expressions showing bewilderment.
The ground was bucking so much that I could hardly hold on to my desk. A metallic blackness descended. I screamed as I waited for the crushing blow I knew would kill me. But it never came. I opened my eyes. There was only blackness. I was sobbing. What’s happening!? The shaking lessened and then faded to a quiet hum. My fingers were cramped from clutching my desk so hard and I couldn’t stop crying.
“Cara…are you alright?” Jason’s quiet, even voice sounded out of the darkness beside me.
“No.” I released the desk and wiped moisture from my face and neck. I tried to control the shudders that ran through my body. “I can’t see anything.”
“What can I do to help you?” Jason asked.
“I can’t see. Everything’s dark. Can you see?”
“I don’t know what’s going on. Maybe, if I bring you to the window, it will help?”
“Okay.” I reached out into the darkness, desperately groping for Jason. He caught my hand and slowly led me through the inky blackness.
And then, suddenly, I could see again! Light filtered in through the window. Bryce lay sprawled on the ground, staring wide-eyed at something behind me. I released Jason’s hand and turned around to see what Bryce was looking at. There, right behind me, taking up over half the classroom, was a black metallic…well, it could only be one thing…a spaceship.
Only part of it was visible. It was massive! I reached out to touch the dull metal surface but my fingertips passed right through the hull. I gasped and stumbled away from the thing.
“What’s wrong, Cara?” asked Jason. There was concern on his face. Our teacher was approaching me from the front of the classroom. The students around us were mostly looking at me, rather than at the spaceship.
“What do you mean, what’s wrong? Don’t you see it?” I asked. The hair on the back of my neck began to rise.
“See what?” Jason asked quietly, still staring at me.
“That!” I gestured towards the ship.
Jason simply shook his head.
“I think I do see something,” said a girl still sitting in her desk nearby. She was peering in the direction of the ship. “It was weird. A minute ago, I thought I heard something too. Rumbling. Like thunder far away. But it was hard to concentrate on it with t
he way you were crying so loud.”
Were they all crazy? Couldn’t they see the thing? What was going on? I turned to see that Bryce had righted himself. He was leaning against the back wall of the class, his wide eyes looking straight at the ship. He saw it.
“Is there some problem, Cara?” the Math teacher asked.
“Yes. Can’t you see that?” I gestured toward the massive spaceship.
“Cara, please step out into the hall with me.”
I followed the teacher out the door into the hall. I glanced around. Everything looked normal out here.
“Do you mind explaining what that was all about?” he asked.
I peered through the glass panel in the door. The spaceship was still there. I shook my head. “I can’t. I don’t know what’s going on.”
The Math teacher stared at me for a moment. “Are you taking drugs?”
“No! Of course not!”
He looked at me for a moment longer. I think our Math teacher typically pretended not to notice what was going on in the classroom so that he wouldn’t have to deal with it. But since this was way more intense than the usual scuffles that went on, he’d actually intervened. Now, clearly, he was out of his depth. “Do you…want to speak with the guidance counselor?”
“No…I think…I think I need to go home.”
“Are you sure you’re alright? Are you well enough to go home?”
“I live close by,” I assured him. “It’s less than a seven minute walk and my mother’s a nurse.” I turned to go. There was no way I was going to be speaking to the guidance counselor about this.
“Don’t forget your book and pencil.” He pointed back into the classroom.
“Right. I’m just going to go use the washroom first.”
The old man nodded and shuffled back into the classroom like it was perfectly normal for an alien spacecraft to land in our school. There was no way I was going back in there. I needed to find out what was going on! …Or at least get away from it. I knew my mother wouldn’t be at home because of her new job. She had gone back to school to become a nurse. The house was empty - a refuge. I walked through the hall towards the exit. Certainly there would be something on the news or online about what had happened.
I paused at the front door of the school. But what about Dennis? Was he in danger here? I couldn’t just leave. They had all acted like I was crazy but…I needed to warn him. I turned back into the school. Just then, the bell sounded, indicating a class change. Students flowed from the classrooms. I fought my way upstream to the class I knew Dennis had next. On some of the faces I passed, I saw fear or confusion. But clearly, for most people, it was just a normal day.
I found Dennis sitting in his next class. I motioned him out into the already clearing hall.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, joining me just outside his classroom.
“Did you see it? Did you hear it?”
He shook his head. “No. What?”
I looked passed him and saw that part of the ship was protruding into this classroom too. “That.” I pointed towards it. He looked in the direction I was indicating. Then he looked back at me.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Cara. Don’t you have a class right now? Can we talk about this later?”
I didn’t say anything so Dennis went back to his seat. He didn’t see it. I walked quickly through the hallway to the door that led out to the parking lot. The bell rang, indicating the beginning of the next class. I pushed the door open and stood on the step for a moment, taking a deep breath of the warm air. The sunlight felt good on my skin. If only this were some crazy dream. Fear turned me cold inside as I noticed a huge black ship in the parking lot. I looked around. From where I stood, I could see six massive spaceships in the neighborhood.
Someone came out through the door behind me and plowed into me. “Could you move?” he said in an irritated tone. It was Bryce. I stepped to the side but continued to gawk at what just couldn’t be happening. Was it an alien invasion?
“You see them too,” said Bryce. He had stopped beside me and was looking out past the parking lot.
“Yes. Why can’t the others see them? Are we just going crazy?” I asked.
“Going crazy together? I don’t think so. Maybe they’re cloaked or something.”
“But we see them.”
“I don’t know, okay?” he snapped.
“What are we going to do?”
“I’m going home. If it’s the end of the world, I’m not going to get in trouble for ditching class.” Bryce strode over to a metallic blue car, climbed in, gunned the engine and peeled away.
I just stood there and watched him go. Why could we see them but the others couldn’t? Checking the television and online were my best options, I decided. I struck out towards home. Taking my usual shortcut down the back alley behind a store, I encountered a problem. A spaceship was blocking my way, taking up the whole lane. There was no way around it as part of it jutted into the fence on one side and the back of the store on the other. I thought momentarily about walking through it but I couldn’t bring myself near enough to see if that would even be possible. The thought of being inside that alien darkness again freaked me out. So I backtracked five minutes and gave it a wide berth, going around the building and through the front parking lot.
Chapter 2 – Alien Conflict
It was over twenty minutes before I got home because of all the detours I had to make around spaceships. This was crazy! I was relieved to see that none of them had landed on my house. When I got inside, I locked the door and sank down onto the couch. I pulled the remote from the coffee table and clicked on the TV. On the news channel, the reporter was holding up a piece of paper. I sat up straight and turned up the volume. On the paper was a drawing of one of the spaceships!
“This is a picture of what those affected say they are seeing right now. It is unclear at the present time whether the ships are real and only a portion of the population can see them or whether there is some other explanation. There are some who are calling this some kind of elaborate hoax. Hand-drawn pictures like this one can now be found all over the world.”
The TV displayed news clips showing similar illustrations from other countries - Russia, Japan, Germany, Australia, South Africa - and then returned to the first reporter. “And, now, our own Jenny Watts, with a leading expert in the field of extraterrestrial research, live from Pennsylvania.”
The picture cut to a young, thin, female reporter, standing with an elderly man in a white lab coat.
“This is Jenny Watts reporting live from the laboratory of Dr. Vauhnhoffen. Dr. Vauhnhoffen is a professor and researcher at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Vauhnhoffen, what is your professional assessment of the current situation?”
The camera panned more towards the scientist. I shuddered as part of a spaceship became visible on the screen.
“I believe the ships are probably actually here,” said Dr. Vauhnhoffen.
Great. He believed they were probably here - when he was standing right next to one of them. Some expert. I leaned forward and rested my head in my hands as I continued to listen.
“The chances of so many people in the world all having the same delusion at the same time is extremely improbable. Ah, here is one of my lab assistants - Richard.”
I looked up to see what was happening.
The old man beckoned to someone off screen. A young man stumbled into view. But he wasn’t looking at Dr. Vauhnhoffen or the reporter. He was staring, wide-eyed, at the menacing black ship jutting into the laboratory.
“Are there aliens in there, Dr. Vauhnhoffen?” he asked quietly.
“Do you see a spaceship in this room?” asked Dr. Vauhnhoffen.
“Yes. It’s right there.” He pointed to where I could plainly see the black protrusion.
“Interesting,” said the elder scientist.
I rubbed at my forehead again. A scream came from the TV. I startled and looked back up.
> Richard was pointing and yelling a warning. “Something’s coming out!” And then I saw them too. Black, vaporous forms were pouring from a grey fracture in the black ship. I put a hand over my mouth. Were they aliens or something else? They had two short arms and two little legs that trailed about with them but the wispy figures had faces so black that I could discern no features. I shivered and moved my finger to the power button on the remote but didn’t press it. I didn’t want to see more but I knew I needed to know what was happening. I put the remote control back down. What was going on? Was this really an alien invasion? Oh, why can’t this just be a bad dream? I want to wake up now!
The TV now showed the male reporter back in the newsroom. An alien floated slowly across the screen but the reporter just kept talking as if it weren’t there.
Just then, I saw something dark on the edge of my vision. I turned my head to see what was there and screamed. One of those things was floating in my living room, not ten feet away from me! I screamed again, pulled one of the pillows from the sofa onto my lap and clung to it. The creature stopped and seemed to regard me for a moment with its featureless face of darkness.
I tried to calm my breathing. The thing started moving again, continuing its slow progress through the love seat and then through the wall. Were these things invading our planet? Or were they just explorers from a different world? Another one of the creatures came through the wall from the kitchen.
“What do you want?” I asked quietly. But there was no reply. The thing did not pause. Did they want to hurt us? Could they? They seemed incorporeal. “Hey,” I addressed the alien again, this time more loudly. Again, no response. “Think fast,” I called as I tossed the pillow in its direction, only wondering, as an afterthought, if the action might make it angry. The pillow fell right through the dark being. When the alien reached the far wall, it disappeared through it.
Maybe this wasn’t going to be so bad. Maybe I could get used to it. I got up to get myself a glass of orange juice. Maybe I could just learn to ignore them. I’d learned to cope with some pretty bad stuff. But was this just the first part to some worse plan? I poured slowly and then walked back to the living room and settled down on the couch.