Reality Dreamers

by K M Frost

  “A little kid did this?” Mom looked up at my face, clearly upset and disbelieving.

  She held my arm as Dad knelt in front of me and swiped an antibacterial wipe carefully over the wounds.

  “I don’t know.” I winced when Dad’s cloth passed over one of the cuts.

  Mom studied the wound with a critical eye, then looked up at me, her blue eyes tight. “It looks like someone around your age did this, Jonas.”

  I opened my mouth to say . . . something, but before I could make a sound, Ellie let out a sob.

  “I should have told you, Mom!” She leapt off her chair and ran to Mom’s side.

  “Told me what?”

  Dad was still cleaning my arm, but I think I would have flinched at Ellie’s words anyway.

  “Jonas got beat up today!” Her voice was unsteady for the tears. “But he didn’t want me to tell you, so I didn’t.”

  Mom looked up at me. Dad paused in his work to watch me, too, his blue eyes bright and alert.

  I swallowed hard, unable to meet either pair of eyes. “It was more of an accident, really.”

  “It was Ethan and his goons!” Ellie hiccupped, repeating my words from earlier.

  I would have strangled her if Mom and Dad had looked away for an instant.

  “Ethan? Ethan Coombs?” Mom turned her piercing gaze from Ellie to me.

  “Actually, it was Brock who hit me . . .”

  Mom pressed her lips together in quiet fury. She crossed the kitchen to the phone.

  I felt like the world would be coming to a painful end very soon.

  I tried not to listen to her conversation with first Ethan’s mom, then Brock’s mom, and finally Austin’s mom (once she’d wormed the last name out of me), but there wasn’t much else to do.

  Last of all, she called Instructor Platill, the school’s Head, to tell him all about the violence and injustice. He assured her it wouldn’t happen again.

  Dad wouldn’t let me go to my room until he had thoroughly cleaned and securely bandaged my cuts.

  When they finally let me go to bed, I left the kitchen feeling like a dead man walking.

  There was no way Ethan and the others would let me get away with this, and I couldn’t possibly avoid a run-in with them tomorrow.

  Mom assured me the instructors would take care of it, but I knew it wouldn’t matter. Adults thought they were all-powerful—and inside the school, they were. But when it came to the grounds, it was the kids who ruled. Whether I told someone or not, I wouldn’t escape what was coming.

  I didn’t get my revenge on Ellie, either; she wisely stayed in the kitchen with Mom and Dad, and I walked dejectedly down the hall to my bedroom.

  I dropped into my bed, feeling totally exhausted and helpless.

  Tomorrow I would die.

  Chapter 4

  I can hear dull murmuring around me, but I can’t make out any words. I try to decide if I recognize any of the voices, and after a while I decide I recognize one of them—a girl’s. I try to open my eyes, but they’re heavy.

  “Hey, he’s coming around!”

  I force my eyes open and they’re immediately stabbed with a bright light. I squint and look around without moving my head.

  I am back in the cave.

  A toothy grin suddenly fills my view. “Hey there!”

  I jolt in surprise, and then the rest of the face comes into focus. The toothy grin belongs to a round face that’s covered in freckles. He can’t be more than twelve years old. I blink and try to place the face in my memory, but I don’t recognize him.

  “Back off, Stew,” another boy says with a mix of annoyance and amusement. “Let him breathe.”

  The freckle-faced boy moves back and I carefully sit up. My head is still throbbing, but not as bad as before. I look around the cave and see it’s lit by a large yellow lantern set on a wide rock a few feet away.

  There are three people in the cave with me, all wearing strange clothes: the freckled boy, the older kid who’d called him back, and—

  The crazy girl who attacked me!

  I scramble backward away from her, but I hit into a wall and can’t get any farther away.

  The older boy laughs. He looks a couple of years older than me, and a good deal broader. “Yeah, that’s how I was the first time I saw her, too.”

  The freckled kid laughs too, brown eyes shining, but the girl does not look amused.

  “It’s not the first time he’s seen me,” she grumbles.

  I get the feeling she hopes the others won’t hear her, but they immediately stop laughing.

  The older boy glares at her. “What ?” There’s a dangerous edge to his voice.

  She doesn’t seem intimidated, though. “Like I said, Rick—it’s not the first time he’s seen me.”

  The older boy—Rick—looks back at me and frowns, his dark blue eyes probing. “You know Leah?”

  Before I can respond, the girl speaks again.

  “No, he hasn’t met me. I said it’s not the first time he’s seen me. Really, Rick. You need to learn to listen.”

  I’m so confused, I don’t even know what to think.

  Who are these people? What are they doing gathered in a dark cave? What am I doing in this cave, and how in the world did I get here?

  I have too many questions; I don’t know where to start.

  Rick looks flustered. “Well, does he already know then?”

  Leah rolls her green eyes. “I said it’s not the first time he’s seen me.” She’s fighting a grin now; Rick is not.

  “Have you talked to him or not, Leah?”

  She fidgets a little and drops her eyes. “We may have swapped words . . .”

  “Swapped words!?” I finally break out of my stupor, my voice on the edge of hysteria. “You tried to kill me!”

  Rick rounds on her, but she only glares at me.

  “If I’d wanted to kill you, wimp, you’d be dead.” Her voice is dark, and I remember the fury I saw when she attacked me.

  I swallow hard.

  “Enough threats, Leah.” Rick sounds bored. “You’ll have plenty of time for that later.” He smiles at me, and I feel a knot of unease squirm inside my stomach. “Now, time for initiation.”

  I peer uneasily at the three kids in front of me, fidgeting with my own fingers. “Initiation into what?”

  Rick’s blue eyes are bright with excitement. “Into the Reality Dreams.”

  “The Reality Dreams?”

  That’s a strange name for a club.

  Rick leans forward, resting his arms on his knees. I get the feeling he’s done this before. “Have you ever felt like your dreams are real? Like they’re something more than dreams?”

  I swallow nervously and glance at the other two kids. They’re watching me, too. I know I’ve thought that about my dreams, my nightmares—exactly that. But . . .

  “But they are just dreams, aren’t they?” I feel foolish even asking such a question.

  Rick grins wider. “Do you remember how you got here, kid?”

  I open my mouth to tell him of course I remember how I got here—and then I realize I can’t. I don’t know how I got into this cave. I can’t remember.

  My heart thumps with both fear and curiosity. “Can you remember getting here?”

  Rick laughs. “Of course I can. All I had to do was fall asleep, and I was right where I left.”

  I frown. “You fell asleep?”

  It doesn’t make sense. How can he remember getting here if he was asleep? And how did he get here if he was asleep when he came?

  Rick spreads his hands in a bracing gesture. “Here. Let’s start out simple. My name’s Rick. Rick Penski.” He sticks out a hand and doesn’t continue until I shake it. “Stewart Billings.” A nod to the freckled kid next to him. “And this is Leah Randolf, though I hear you’ve already met her.” There’s something like a laugh in his voice when he says that, and I frown.

  Leah only glares at me.

  Rick’s voice recaptures my
attention. “We’re Reality Dreamers.”

  “Reality Dreamers? What is this, some kind of weird club?”

  Leah narrows her eyes at me. “Watch who you’re calling weird, buddy.”

  Rick ignores Leah’s comment and answers my question. “You could say that. Do you ever have weird dreams —nightmares? Where you don’t know where you are, or how you got there, and you feel like something’s chasing you?”

  I shiver at his narration. It sounds exactly like my nightmare from last night.

  Rick nods, seeing my shiver. “I thought so. Well, you aren’t the only one who has dreams like that, kid.” He offers a little smile. It’s not a happy smile. “We know what it’s like, because we have the same dreams.”

  “You all have my nightmares?” It sounds ridiculous at best.

  Rick shakes his head. “Not your nightmares, exactly, but ones just like them.”

  This is all preposterous, but part of me—the curious part—wonders if maybe, just maybe, it’s true.

  “I’m listening.”

  He frowns a little. “Well . . . That’s about it.”

  “But, what are the Reality Dreams?”

  Rick smirks. “You’re in them, kid.”

  “Why are they called the Reality Dreams? And what are we supposed to do here?”

  I’ve been dragged into this, and I want the details. I feel like they owe me that much at least.

  Rick watches me with patient blue eyes. “We call them the Reality Dreams because they feel so real.”

  Leah pulls an obnoxious face. “We couldn’t just call them the ‘really cool and convincing dreams’.”

  I decide to ignore her.

  I frown at Rick. “But, what’s the point of them?”

  He frowns back. “What do you mean, the point? Do they have to have a point?”

  “Well . . .” I feel my face heating up. I can’t think of a reply, so I change the subject instead. “So, I’m asleep right now?”

  This time it’s Stewart who answers with his toothy grin. “Yup! You’re actually lying in bed somewhere.”

  “But, how are we all in the same dream?” I glance at Leah and then quickly away. “I mean, I’ve seen Leah when I’m awake. How can we be sharing a dream?”

  Leah glares. “Trust me, it’s not by choice.”

  I roll my eyes at her attitude.

  Rick shrugs. “We don’t know. All we know is that some people—we call them Reality Dreamers—share this dream when they fall asleep. There are others we’ve come across, but we all mostly keep to our own groups.”

  “How many are there?”

  “I dunno. Maybe . . . twenty others we’ve met.”

  I’d assumed the Reality Dreamers consisted of the three kids in front of me. But if Rick’s telling the truth, there could be a lot more wandering around outside.

  Stewart sniffs, brown eyes bright. “I only know Rick. I haven’t met anyone else I know.”

  I straighten up, intrigued. “You know each other? In the real world, I mean?”

  Rick nods. “Yeah, Stew lives just a couple blocks away from my grandma and me.”

  “Where do you live, though?”

  “We live in Sauri.”

  I frown. “I’ve never heard of it.”

  “I’m not surprised. I’ll bet we live on different sides of the planet.”

  “But, wouldn’t we be asleep at different times then?”

  Rick rolls his eyes. “I didn’t mean literally. I just meant we live far away. Wow, you really overthink things, kid.”

  I ignore the jab and move onto my next question. “But, Leah . . .”

  Stewart grins excitedly. “Oh! Leah lives in Capernia.”

  “Hey, that’s where I live!” It makes sense now why I ran into her—or rather, why she ran into me. But it doesn’t explain why she attacked me.

  I turn toward Leah with something like accusation. “Hey, what’s your problem, anyway? You acted like a maniac!”

  She rolls her eyes, and Rick laughs.

  “You’d better get used to that, kid. Leah always acts like a maniac.”

  Leah shoots him a look and he and Stewart break into laughs.

  I still want an explanation for her behavior, but I can tell she isn’t going to give me one. I let it go for now and ask another question.

  “Why haven’t I seen you in school?”

  She tosses me a dark look, but something in her green eyes belays the threat. She almost looks uneasy. “Because I only just moved to Capernia. My dad hasn’t had time to get me enrolled yet.”

  “Where did you live before?”

  Leah huffs. “What is this, an interrogation?” She sounds angry, but she sounds ruffled, too. I wonder why.

  Rick cuts in, sensing a potential disaster. “Anyway, we just wanted to give you the rundown of what’s what. You got a name, kid?”

  I don’t comment on the silliness of that question, and simply reply, “Jonas Hartley.”

  “Nice to meet you, Jonas. Now, there’s one last thing you should know about the Reality Dreams. They aren’t like regular dreams.”

  I’ve already figured that out on my own, but I don’t interrupt him.

  “When you’re asleep in one place, you’re awake in the other—always. For instance, right now you’re asleep, so you’re here in the Reality Dreams. But when you wake up, you’re still in the Dream.”

  Leah rolls her eyes. “Can you explain this in a more confusing way, Rick?”

  He gives her a dirty look, but he doesn’t protest when she takes the lead.

  “This is how it is. It’s a lot like having two bodies, and only one mind to occupy them. When you’re awake, your mind is in your real body, but your body in the Reality Dreams still exists, you’re just not aware of it. Also, when you fall asleep, your mind is transferred to your body in the Reality Dreams, and your real body becomes the one without awareness. Follow?”

  I’m still confused, but I try to summarize. “So, the Reality Dreams . . . It’s kind of like a summer home for our minds?”

  “Sure, whatever.” Leah waves my analogy aside. “This transfer is great and all, but it can be dangerous to leave your body unguarded.”

  Rick interrupts, apparently missing the spotlight. “Yeah, so you need to be really careful where you fall asleep here. This cave seems pretty safe, and there are a couple other places, but you don’t want to be out in the open when the real you wakes up.”

  Leah nods. “Because we’ve learned that no matter what’s happening in the Reality Dreams, if you wake up in reality, you’re pulled out of the dream. It’s like reality takes precedence.”

  “Go figure,” I say dryly.

  Rick and Stewart laugh. Leah only presses her lips together like Mom does when she’s fighting back her temper.

  “That’s why we travel in a group,” Stewart adds. “That way, if someone suddenly wakes up, the others can get them somewhere safe.”

  It’s a lot to take in, but for some crazy, unexplainable reason, I believe them.

  “Oh, one more thing.” Rick wrinkles his nose and gestures toward me.

  I follow the motion and blink at the strange one-piece suit I’m wearing. It’s nothing like the weird clothes the Reality Dreamers have on, but it’s just as foreign. The white material is soft and thin, but I can tell it’s durable. It’s got stains along the pants, like the grass stains I sometimes get at home. I can’t figure why I’d be wearing such an unusual thing.

  I turn back to Rick and see the amusement on his face. “Don’t worry. We all had on clothes like that once upon a time. We’re not sure why. We’ll get you something more comfortable soon.”

  He slaps his knees and stands up. He’s so tall, he has to duck his head to avoid the low ceiling. “So, now that you know what’s what, we’ll be all ready to head out tomorrow night.”

  “Head out where?”

  Rick grins at my cluelessness. “Outside, of course. To explore.”

  “But I thought you said it was
dangerous.”

  “It is. That’s why we only travel in the very middle of the sleep cycle. If we head out too early, we might not be deep enough asleep, and if we’re out too late, people will start waking up.” He must see my apprehension, because he smiles reassuringly. “Don’t worry, kid. I’ve been doing this for a while. I know what I’m doing.”

  I look at the Reality Dreamers, my new comrades, and though I’m scared beyond words about everything they’ve just told me, I’m also strangely excited. I finally have something in common with other people—and that doesn’t happen very often.

  Despite the dangers they all talked about, I can’t deny I’m looking forward to tomorrow night, when I can venture even further into the Reality Dreams.

  Chapter 5

  The next morning my mind was so full of dreams, I almost forgot about my impending doom. It wasn’t until I sat down for breakfast with Ellie and saw Mom on the phone that I remembered the trouble I was in.

  There was no way Mom would let me stay home from school (I should’ve stayed in bed and faked an illness). No matter what I did today, at one point, Ethan and the others were going to murder me. Which meant I would never get to explore the Reality Dreams.

  I still didn’t know what to believe about my dreams, but a part of me felt like Rick and the others were right about it all. Too bad I’d never find out.

  Resigned to my fate, I let Mom kiss me goodbye and then I stepped outside with Ellie. I took one last look at my house, knowing I’d never see it again, and then followed Ellie’s lead.

  We walked in silence, though I saw her cast me curious glances every once in a while. I figured she didn’t understand my mood, and she definitely wouldn’t comprehend my approaching doom, so I stayed quiet. What was the point of dragging her down, too? One of us might as well enjoy the day. Besides, I didn’t want to leave my little sister with the knowledge that she had single-handedly catalyzed my demise.

  Much too soon, the schoolhouse appeared in the distance, and the next moment we were stepping into the active yard. Kids were running every which-way, but Ellie didn’t run off to join her friends like usual.