Proxy (The Dreams of Reality Book 1)

by Gareth Otton

  “So did you know the other Charles Dickens?” she asked. His face reddened, and he pushed himself away from the counter.

  “You bet I did. I gave him the idea for a Tale of Two cities.”

  “You did not,” Miriam and Tad said together and Charles looked even angrier.

  “Did so.”

  Tad just laughed. “I’ve been your Proxy too long for you to pull that one.”

  “I’ve been on this world for two hundred and nine years, Thaddeus. Don’t think you know me better than I know myself.”

  Tad just laughed and shook his head. “Whatever, Charles.” He turned back to Stella and rolled his eyes as though she should somehow understand what it was like to argue with a two century year old ghost over the inspiration for a Dickens’ classic.

  “Uh… Are you sure it wasn’t A Christmas Carol you inspired?” Stella asked. “I mean, with you being a ghost and all—”

  Tad burst out laughing and Charles nearly exploded with rage.

  “Well I never. I have never been so insulted… I… Listen here…” Flummoxed over what to say next, he shook his head and stormed from the room.

  Stella felt awful.

  “Sorry. I didn’t mean to upset him.”

  Tad wiped the tears from his eyes and shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. He’s always like that when people talk about Dickens. I’ll give you one of his papers to read and you can mention it to him. He’ll be your best friend for life.”

  “Oh. Okay.” She hesitated another moment before saying. “You know this is weird, right? This isn’t a normal way to start a morning.”

  “It is for me. Been this way since I was nine. Charles was the first. A couple years later Tony died. He was one of those child prodigies you hear about. He lived that stereotype where his parents made him play musical instruments for five to six hours a day when he wasn’t at school. He got to be a hell of a musician but never lived his life. When he died, he decided to do all the things he missed out on. Of course he needs me to do it.”

  “He’s been doing his impression of Casper the perverted teenage ghost ever since,” Miriam said.

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means he spends most of his time looking at naked women. All those things that people joke about doing if they could be invisible, Tony does on a daily basis. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s even seen you—”

  “Miriam. Let it rest,” Tad warned.

  “But she—”

  “Leave it.”

  Stella put the clues together and was horrified.

  “He’s spied on me in the shower?”

  Tad winced and shook his head. “I’d like to say no but… with Tony you never know.”

  “That little bastard. How do you stop him doing it?”

  “If I knew, I would,” Miriam and Tad said at the same time.

  Stella shuddered and tucked herself deeper into her jacket.

  “This is all too much,” she whispered. “First people talking about ghosts on the case, then last night, now this. I don’t know if I can take it.”

  Tad touched her hand. “It get’s easier, I promise.”

  “Does this means you can finally tell me what you know about the case?”

  The smile slipped from his face and his hand left hers.

  “I suppose so. But I wasn’t holding much back. You’ve probably already guessed most of it.”

  “They were all Proxies?” He nodded. “Someone is targeting your kind?” Again he nodded. “Then I was right. You’re in danger. We have to get you protection.”

  “I wouldn’t know where to begin. For starters we don’t know who’s coming after us or how they’re finding us. If we don’t know that, how can you protect me?”

  “I could relocate you.”

  “And how would you keep my location a secret when a ghost could be standing over your shoulder trying to find out where we’ve gone?”

  “What? Oh my God. I never thought about that. Maybe we could just get you police protection.”

  Again Tad shook his head.

  “From everything I’ve heard it doesn’t matter what kind of protection you have. James told me that the woman who grabbed him did it while his ghosts were watching for her. That should be impossible.”

  “Wait. James told you this? James Tanner? How did you speak to him?”

  Tad told her of his dream, another story that was hard to swallow. Considering how bad a lier he was, she had no choice but to believe him.

  “This is just too crazy,” she said. “I don’t know what to do with it.”

  “Join the club.”

  She was about to speak again when suddenly there was a shout from behind her.

  “Tad!”

  A blur shot by her and Tad grunted as a little shape almost knocked him off his stool. Stella was treated to the sight of Jen hugging an astonished Tad so hard that Stella thought he must be in pain. If he was, he didn’t show it, he just hugged her back.

  “Hey munchkin. What’s this for?”

  “I thought you were dead,” she said into his chest.

  He laughed. “Hardly. Takes more than eleven armed men to see me off.” Jen didn’t laugh at his poor attempt at humour. “Seriously, I’m fine. I hear you had an interesting night.”

  She leaned away and looked excited. “Tad. I went into your dreams when I was awake.”

  He frowned. "What?"

  "We needed the guys to carry you and you were doing your sleep mojo thing. So I visited you in your round room and asked you to—”

  “I remember,” Tad said. “I thought it a dream but… well I suppose it was. You were awake?”

  She nodded. “Isn’t it awesome?”

  He nodded as well, also grinning. “You want to hear something else cool?”

  “What?”

  “Last night, I somehow made Tony and Charles able to touch living people.”

  Jen’s jaw dropped. Most of the conversation was flying over Stella’s head but she could sense their excitement and it made her inexplicably happy.

  “Oh my God. Could you do it again?” She looked to Miriam who wore a stunned expression. There were tears in her eyes.

  “I don’t know yet. Don’t get your hopes up, Miriam. If it’s like it was with the seeing ghosts thing, then I might have to be in the same room. That would be awkward.”

  “I’m sure Kate wouldn’t mind,” Jen said with a cheeky grin.

  Tad laughed, Stella finally got what they were talking about, and Miriam blushed.

  “Jen, shut up,” she protested, but there was a smile on her face.

  In spite of the teasing, Stella felt the strength of feelings between these three. In fact, even with Tony and Charles those feelings were evident. It took her until then to realise what those feelings represented.

  They were family, complete to all the little dysfunctions that made life interesting. As soon as she realised that she felt like the one person in that kitchen who didn’t belong.

  Suddenly awkward, she looked at the clock and swore. It was ten. Her shift started in two hours and she wanted to go home and shower first. There would be a long day of questions waiting for her, and she needed to be fresh for that.

  However, she was reluctant to leave. Tad had answers she wanted, and though she wouldn’t admit it out loud, she enjoyed the company of these strange people… ghosts… whatever.

  She pushed herself away from her stool and stood.

  “I need to get going.” To Tad she added, “Thanks again. For everything.”

  “Anytime.”

  “You mean that? I have more questions and—”

  He laughed. “Anytime. Seriously, Stella. Now you’re in the know it might be handy having another set of eyes on this. Just do me a favour, keep me in the loop.”

  “I will. You’ve got my number just in case, right?”

  He nodded.

  She was already at the door by this point, eager to leave before something else crazy happened. />
  “Alright. Well… see you later I guess.”

  With that rather awkward goodbye she walked out the door and headed to her car. She was exhausted. After last night and the weird revelations of the morning, she wanted to go to bed rather than work. But she knew that as soon as her mind had chance to calm down that would change. No doubt soon she would kick herself for not asking more questions.

  She climbed in the car and started the engine. Just as she was about to pull away she looked over her shoulder and saw Tad standing in the doorway. He grinned at her and waved once before closing the door. She caught herself grinning happily and waving back like an idiot.

  Seriously. What the hell was wrong with her?

  12

  Friday, 20th November 2015

  08:45

  Tad rubbed his eyes. It was no different. When he looked back, he saw the same thing. Jen was surrounded by a pulsing nimbus of red light. Every time she looked at him it grew more intense. Had she slipped something into his coffee?

  “You don’t have to take me all the way to the door,” Jen said bitterly from five paces ahead. “I don’t want to get known as the girl whose dad walks her to school.”

  “Better than being known as the girl who once came to this school and then disappeared one day.”

  Jen snorted and upped her pace. When you’re only five foot two and the man following you is six foot four, an increased pace isn’t going to cut it. Tad already walked at half speed to keep from tripping over her.

  She was close to the school gates when she looked over her shoulder and saw he was right behind her. That strange, red glow flickered, a hint of purple seeping into it before it turned crimson again.

  What the hell was wrong with him?

  “You wouldn’t have to walk me to school if you would just—”

  “We’re not having this argument again.”

  She stopped so abruptly he nearly knocked her over. She turned on her heel and with one pointy finger, jabbed him in the gut.

  “I don’t care. You don’t get to decide that about someone’s life. If you let me get my own ghost, then I can get stronger and watch your back. I’d like to see those guys knock you out when there are two Proxies fighting them.”

  “Or maybe by learning to be a Proxy you’ll attract the kind of attention that’s making people disappear. I won’t risk it.”

  “Have you ever thought that the reason people are disappearing was because they were alone? Your friends are lonely losers. At least with me you’ll have a chance.”

  He forced a grin that he knew would infuriate her and said, “So that’s what this is about. You want to spend more time with me. Why didn’t you say?” Before she could stop him he pulled her into a hug and said, “That’s so sweet.”

  Jen was making retching noises, and struggling to get free. When she did, he saw that the light surrounding her had changed to a deep purple. She looked at him with disgust and was about to tell him off when sudden laughter brought her up short.

  She turned in horror to find her friend Hannah and another girl giggling behind their hands. That purple glow blinked out of existence and a second later there was a deep pink that was so bright Tad had to look away.

  He glanced up again to the two girls and saw a similar nimbus around both. Hannah was a mixture of blue and orange. The other girl was a bold, vibrant blue.

  A quick look around told him it wasn’t just limited to the girls. The lights were everywhere. It was both distracting and wondrous. Something about the lights felt right, like they had been there his whole life and he was only now noticing them.

  “You are such a dick,” Jen grumbled.

  “Watch your language.”

  “Maggie says it all the time.”

  “Well she’s talking about Mark and he is a dick.”

  “Can I call him a dick then?”

  Tad pretended to think about it and then said, “No.”

  The pink vanished and purple flickered to life once more. “You ass.” She turned and walked away, keeping her head down and not looking at her friends as though she could avoid them.

  Tad knew he shouldn’t, but couldn’t resist. Jen’s relief at him being alive had vanished over the previous few days and she was back to being flippant all the time. He wanted pay back.

  “See you after school sweetie,” he called in his most sickeningly sweet voice. “Remember don’t talk to strangers and if you go anywhere, hold the teacher’s hand if you have to cross the street.”

  Jen tucked deeper into her coat with every word and the light around her went pink again. There were shades of red coming through from deep down and he wondered how long before the red won through. He suspected that red had something to do with anger. Jen had plenty of that.

  “That was mean, Thaddeus,” Charles said. “I would have thought that all the times you were bullied at school would have made you more sensitive to such things.”

  Tad fell into step beside Charles as he walked away from the school. “Please. Can you imagine anyone stupid enough to bully Jen? She’d knock their teeth out before they got out the second word in the insult.”

  Charles thought this over and smiled. “She does have fire in her.”

  “You don’t know the half of it.” He was suddenly glad it was just Charles with him today. The excitement of the past few weeks had died off since the fight, and things had returned to normal. Now that panic stations were over, Tad was comfortable walking to school with just one ghost for company. It was just like old times. He had missed his heart to hearts with his oldest friend.

  “I think I’m getting a new power,” Tad admitted.

  “Another one? You do like to keep it interesting. What is it?”

  Tad thought of a way to explain it and struggled for words. “It’s like someone’s slipped me something, to be honest. Everywhere I look I see these weird glowing lights around people. They’re all different colours and—”

  “You’re aura reading.”

  “What?”

  “You’re reading peoples auras. I’ve heard tell of it over the years, but always put it off as a myth. Like all good myths there must be a grounding in truth somewhere, so I imagine that’s what you’ve stumbled on. Can you describe these auras?”

  Tad was grateful yet again that Charles had been the one to find him all those years ago. When he thought of all the ghosts that would have taken advantage of such a young Proxy, he was lucky it had been Charles. His near encyclopaedic knowledge of the past two hundred years was the icing on the cake.

  “Think Northern Lights but surrounding a person. Also the colours are fairly distinct.”

  “Hmm. Interesting. You know, I’ve always wondered if your gifts might have less to do with death and more to do with souls. It would explain how, as you get stronger, you’re able to affect the living. First you and Jen share dreams, then Jen going into your head the other night, and now this. It’s almost as though you’re reading souls.” He paused to think, then asked, “Have you any idea what the colours mean?”

  “I’m thinking emotions. Jen kept flicking back and forth between anger, irritation and embarrassment, and the colours seemed to change in time. It’s hard to tell for sure without being inside her head.”

  “Well I wouldn’t try that at the moment. The mood she’s in she’d eat you alive if you go anywhere near her head.”

  “You probably right.” He sighed, and after a short silence asked, “Am I doing the right thing with her? She’s so stubborn about having a ghost of her own—”

  “You need to be strong, Thaddeus. We both know that if I had another choice, I would never have inflicted the kind of stress on you that you had to deal with at such a young age. Jen doesn’t know how easy she has it. As strong as she seems, she is still fragile on the inside. You see it in the moments she lets her guard down.”

  “What can I do about it? We can’t keep living like this. She’s unhappy.”

  “You know it’s times like this when I
remember how much the world has changed. When I was born, happiness was a luxury not a right. The most important thing in life was security. Having a parent who loved her as much as you do, provided for her, educated her, kept her safe… well, that was the jackpot. Today… you’re all spoilt. The lot of you.”

  Tad laughed. “So your advice would be?”

  “Stick it out. She’ll either move on or she won’t. The important thing is that you’re doing what’s best for her. If she hates you for it, then that’s a price you must pay. It’s better to be hated and see her grow into a better person for it, than to be loved and see her suffer in the long term.”

  “I thought you might say that. I guess time will tell.”

  “As with all things my friend, it always does.”

  They had no sooner walked through the door when Maggie pounced on them. She grabbed Tad’s hand and lead him to the sofas where Miriam sat.

  “What’s going on?” he asked as she pulled him down to a seat beside her.

  “We’ve got news,” she exclaimed.

  He looked from Maggie to Miriam. “You do?”

  Miriam nodded but didn’t speak, not that she had a chance.

  “We were following Mark, and he’s finally slipped up.”

  “You’ve got something to nail him with?” Tad asked, excited for her. Maggie had put on a brave face over the previous week. She was anything but patient most of the time, and he could tell how angry she was that so long had passed without Mark paying for her murder.

  “Not quite. But we have information that’s just as important,” Miriam said. After a flicker of irritation crossed Maggie’s face, she added, “Okay, not as important, but it’s still big news.”

  “Alright. What is it?”

  “They’re going to move the evidence soon. Mark’s got something that ties him to my death and wants to get rid of it, but he needs help. We’ll be able to catch them in the act.”

  Tad frowned. “Have I missed something. Them? Who are we talking about?”

  “His friends. They’re going to help him clean the house up and get rid of the evidence.”