by Gareth Otton
It wasn’t a fireball that flared to life, but a great flaming tornado that was caught up by the remnants of Tad’s earlier wind and wrapped around the swirling column of glass and metal. Evidently it was an impressive sight as Tad was undisturbed for the ten seconds it took for his head to stop swimming and his vision to clear. When he could focus, he stared at a hundred foot tall column of twisting glass and metal, standing proud like it had been deliberately crafted.
Again he felt eyes on him, again he ignored it.
He took a deep breath and stepped around the giant column, hiding his pain and trying to look like he was ready to act with similar force should it be needed. No one moved as everyone stared in a stunned silence that was eventually broken by Jacob’s whispered question.
“What are you?” he asked, horrified and awed at once.
Finally someone took advantage of the unnatural distraction and there was a pop. Tad looked up to find Stella had dreamwalked with the help of Freckles, so she now stood behind one of the dreamwalkers who was staring at Tad in disbelief. Before he could react, she had an arm around his neck and was cutting the flow of blood to his brain. Freckles rushed at the next nearest dreamwalker and jumped, bearing him to the ground and going for the throat. His teeth never broke the skin, but there was more than enough pressure for the man to stop fighting, terrified that the dog would tear his throat out. Done with her dreamwalker, Stella secured Freckle’s conquest.
Movement from the other side of the building caught Tad’s attention as Leon followed Stella’s example. He didn’t dreamwalk to his target, but ran faster than most cars could cover the distance. The startled dreamwalker didn’t know what hit him as Leon took the man to his knees and had a set of handcuffs locked around the dreamwalker’s wrists in moments. A nearby dreamwalker reached for him to pull Leon away, but a crack of a gunfire sounded and that dreamwalker’s chest erupted with blood.
There was nothing to stop the bullets this time, and after what had happened to their friends, Tad didn’t blame the soldiers for taking advantage of the moment. Again the silence was shattered as guns barked, taking out the few remaining dreamwalkers who hadn’t recovered from Tad’s earthquake.
Tad watched three more dreamwalkers drop and three new ghosts get created before he realised they didn’t have it in them to fight back. They had lost.
This time when Tad erected his barrier it was much smaller and around only the remaining dreamwalkers, much to the frustration of the surrounding soldiers. However, there was no fight left in these dreamwalkers, and Tad didn’t want to watch a massacre.
The soldiers got the message and Tad waited for the gunfire to stop before he let the barrier drop. The moment it was down, Stella and Leon rushed in to secure the last four dreamwalkers, none of whom put up any resistance.
With the Dream part of this fight over, the few remaining ghosts rushed towards Stella and Leon to tear them away from their dreamwalkers. Tad was gathering what little will of his remained to freeze them when a new figure stepped up beside him.
Ashley Evans took a deep breath, planted his feet, then raised both of his hands towards those ghosts before closing his eyes.
Tad felt something in that moment he had never experienced before. It was a great sucking sensation, almost like the oxygen was being pulled from the air. As uncomfortable as it made Tad, it had a greater effect on the ghosts. All nine of them staggered to a stop, some even stumbling to the ground as though they had been shot. Others froze and clutched their heads like they were in agony, and one by one the ghosts dropped to their knees, then crumpled to the ground.
Tad had never seen anything like it, and even when the sucking sensation stopped the ghosts remained where they were, groaning and whimpering.
In that moment, it was truly over.
A dreamwalker’s priorities were always with their ghosts, and with them in danger, all fight left the remaining dreamwalkers. At this point even the soldiers realised it was over, as the nearest group moved to help Leon and Stella.
Only one man hadn’t got the message yet. Jacob backed away towards the shell of the Assembly building, holding the prime minister close and keeping another hand on Lizzie, using them both as human shields as he looked around at the devastation of what had once been his dreamwalker army. He watched his friends get led away and secured, and when one soldier got rough, pulling a man’s arm hard enough to make him yelp in pain, Jacob’s eyes blazed with fury and he released Lizzie for a second to throw a fireball at the offending soldier.
Tad created a focused gust of air that blew that fireball out like a candle.
“Growler, get Lizzie.”
The big dog didn’t need to be told twice, dreamwalking to Lizzie’s side. Too late Jacob realised his mistake and tried to catch Lizzie, but Growler already had Lizzie’s hand in his mouth and they vanished. When Growler returned, he was alone and Tad wondered why before deciding to trust his dog.
Tad turned his attention to the increasingly frustrated Jacob, who now only had one human shield to hide behind. He stared at the space where Lizzie had been standing, and Tad noticed there were tears in his eyes.
“Even after that sort of treatment you protect them?” he asked Tad as he motioned to another dreamwalker who was crying as the soldiers were being rough. Ten minutes ago Tad might have sympathised, but that was before those soldiers were killed. A person couldn’t commit an atrocity like that, then complain that they were handled a little roughly.
“You went too far, Jacob. You should be happy they don’t do the same in return.”
“I went too far? You have ruined everything in the name of a government that can’t be trusted. They won’t thank you for this. They’ll turn on you and—”
“It doesn’t matter. It’s over.”
“No, it’s just beginning. While I have him, I can still make this wo—”
“You’re wrong,” Norman interrupted, speaking up for the first time. “Wrong in so many ways. Tad ruined nothing today, you did. As for my government, it’s hard to betray a trust that was never given in the first place. But most importantly, you are wrong about one more thing… You don’t have me.”
Before Jacob could say anything else, the Prime Minister met Tad’s eye, grinned his signature cocky grin and had the audacity to wink before there was a spike of Dream and he blinked out of existence.
A moment later there was a pop and the Prime Minister stood beside Tad, casually straightening out his suit like dreamwalking was the most natural thing in the world. Pretending to do a double take a Tad’s shocked expression, he asked, “What? You never seen a man dreamwalk before?”
Tad just stared, dumbfounded, a reaction that seemed to please the Prime Minister.
“Don’t you think you should save your gawking for after you’ve dealt with him?” He asked and nodded towards Jacob, who looked every bit as stunned as Tad. More importantly though, he was exposed.
As much as of Tad wanted to ask a thousand questions, the Prime Minister had a point. He turned to his friend to finally end this.
38
Wednesday, 30th November 2016
17:48
“All this time,” Jacob said, ignoring Tad’s advance and looking at the Prime Minister. “You were one of us and yet you still allowed this bill to pass?”
“The bill has not passed,” Norman said. “And I have been working behind the scenes since it saw the light of day to make sure it never would. I’ve put in countless hours of work to turn people’s minds around. I’ve used every ounce of political capital I had and was making excellent progress. You have undone all of that today.”
Jacob shook his head and stepped back, his foot one step away from entering the building behind him.
“No, you’re lying again, just trying to rattle me. You being a dreamwalker changes nothing. You still can’t be trusted and—”
“I have of course been a Proxy all my life,” Norman interrupted. “One of my first ghosts was a politician, and through hi
m I learned my craft. I also learned that our system is one that can grind you down if you’re not careful. There are bitter truths and hard edges that wear away at your idealism, and slowly you have to make compromises in order to work within the system. Over time those compromises become bigger and the system continues to grind at you until eventually you’re only a shadow of the person you once were and you realise you were never all that effective to start with.”
The Prime Minister’s words surprised Tad because he had seen a story play out almost the same way earlier when he merged with Thomas.
“But I entered politics knowing how the system worked. I could use that to my advantage and maintain the goals I had when I started. So, when the Merging happened, I saw an opportunity that I didn’t want to squander. I realized right from the start that people would be resistant to this change, and that they would not accept it from a dreamwalker. We were too new, too scary for them, so I hid my abilities from everyone and I have barely seen my ghosts other than when absolutely necessary. I did all this because I wanted to ensure that when all was said and done, the Merging worked out in everyone’s favour and there would be someone fighting for dreamwalkers from within the system.
“So I did what I did in order to take advantage of that opportunity, and thanks to my experience, I did that the right way from within the system because I know how these things work. You don’t know how it works, as you have proved today. This would never end well for you, no matter what your plan. It is hard enough to be convinced by an opinion that is not your own, but when the person trying to convince you is attacking you at the same time, then that task becomes impossible. You can’t change minds with violence, which is why violence should always be a last resort. Your actions today haven’t shown that you are strong, they show the opposite. Were you truly strong, you would have been able to convince the world you were right without violence.
“But here we are. You have undone all my hard work, all Tad’s hard work, and now the bill tomorrow will pass because people won’t respect your strength, instead they will fear you. You have made the world afraid, and that is why your plan would never work.”
“It’s not too late, Jacob,” Tad called out, pulling Jacob’s attention from the Prime Minister. “Turn yourself in, show the world that you can be reasonable when that is needed, and try to undo some of the damage you’ve caused today.”
For a moment he thought he might have got through to his friend, but then Jacob’s eyes hardened once again and he shook his head violently.
“No. I don’t care what he says. This only proves how duplicitous he can be. You can’t trust him, Tad, and I’ve said that from the start. No, I won’t be turning myself in. Despite what you think, this isn’t over.”
Tad saw in his face what he planned to do and spoke fast to head him off.
“Jacob, stop. There’s no point in running. Growler can find you wherever you go, you know that. This is pointless. Just turn yourself in.”
Seeing the truth, Jacob backed up into the building, looking around with wide frightened eyes as he looked from Growler to Freckles, to Stella, to the soldiers who were all staring at him as realised just how alone he was.
Turning back to Tad and looking panicked, he asked, “Why did you have to do this? I was doing well before you came along. We were succeeding.”
Tad shook his head, feeling sorry for his friend. “No Jacob, for all the reasons we just said, you were never succeeding. I wish you trusted me as I trusted you. If you included me in your plans from the start, then I might have been able to talk you around to seeing sense.”
Jacob laughed and again shook his head.
“I could never trust you after you made your allegiances clear. You have always been compromised. You would never see reason, and that’s why I had to tip off social services to get you out of the picture. I needed you distracted so—”
“You what?” Tad asked as he stopped walking, his brain coming to a complete stop as he struggled to understand what Jacob just said. As if realising he had just said something he shouldn’t Jacob’s eyes widened further and he stepped back into the Senedd.
Holding up his hands as if warding away an angry animal, Jacob said, “I didn’t mean that. I never –”
“You’re the reason they took Jen from me?”
Tad didn’t remember reaching for Dream, but the distance between himself and Jacob vanished and the only reason he wasn’t standing in front of him and choking the life out of the man was because the dreamcatchers built into the frame of the Senedd. However, they were only designed to stop him dreamwalking inside, and he could easily step past them. Once inside he dreamwalked again and he was in front of Jacob, reaching for his neck.
“Tad, don’t,” Stella shouted, her words crystal clear now there were no windows left a block the sound.
Tad ignored her. Suddenly he saw nothing but red and felt only fury as this man he had called a friend had ruined his life. All Tad could think of was how he wanted to return the favour in some small way. It would be a start to choke the life from the man and take it from there.
Jacob tried to fight him off, but with three ghosts inside him Tad’s strength overwhelmed the startled man. Jacob tried to push him back with Dream, using wind to blow Tad away, but again it was useless. This time Tad did nothing to knock it aside, he simply smothered the dream by imagining the wind vanishing. It was unnatural and pain spiked in his brain, but the strength from his ghosts gave him some leeway and he could push through it as his fingers contacted Jacob’s neck.
Jacob croaked out a strangled protest, but the words would not form as his windpipe was crushed. Shaking with rage, Tad lifted the man high off the floor and continued choking him as he looked at this man who was the reason Jen was gone, the reason Tad had been so distracted and let the bill pass by him without even noticing. Tad thought Jacob had crossed the line this morning when he captured him, thought he’d crossed the line when he found out what he’d been doing this afternoon. But this… This was the straw that broke the camel’s back. This pushed Tad over the edge.
However, as he approached the point of no return and saw the life start to leave Jacob’s eyes, the fight left him and he opened his hands, dropping the choking dreamwalker to the floor and turning away.
He was just in time to see Stella rushing in with Leon by her side so they could secure Jacob and end this once and for all. Tad saw the look of relief on Stella’s face and knew that she had come in not just for Jacob, but to stop him going too far. Luckily, he didn’t need that.
No matter what Jacob had done, Tad was not a monster. He had killed people this last year, but every time he was fighting for his life. To take Jacob’s life in cold blood while the man had already proved that he was powerless in the face of Tad’s new strength was something he just couldn’t do.
“What are you?” Jacob asked again as Stella secured his hands behind his back and locked the dreamcatcher cuffs in place. Jacob ignored her as he stared at Tad like he was looking at something he couldn’t understand.
Tad knew what he was referring to, and for the first time he was asking himself that same question. He didn’t think he was all that different from other dreamwalkers when he first started using the ghosts inside him to augment his strength. But as he thought about everything he had done since he broke out of that dreamcatcher on Brad’s ranch, he realised that maybe he couldn’t be so sure about what he was after all.
A hundred thousand unanswered questions of his life sprang up in his mind, flooding out his thoughts and making him question everything about himself. He thought when he discovered that Dream was the source of his powers that he had answered the last of the questions he needed to ask, but he’d been wrong.
He was so consumed by the thought he never answered Jacob’s question, and Jacob was led away before Tad returned to the moment.
He turned in time to see Stella lead Jacob out of the Senedd. With that image burned in his mind, Tad realised that today was
finally over. He hadn’t heard yet from the other dream sites about how that had gone and whether they had Cardiff back under control, but even if they didn’t, with Jacob gone Tad suspected it wouldn’t be that hard to clean everything up.
With those worries out of his mind, he started thinking about just what form the damage of today would take. One thing was for certain, once again the 30th of November was going to go down as a day to remember the world over.
39
Friday, 2nd December 2016
08:45
“They were gone by the time I arrived,” Stella said, eliciting a curse from Leon.
“How did they get out?”
“The dreamcatchers on the cells stop Dream, not Eidolon powers. It looks like your friend mimicked one of the Dream Team and made it look like he had been subdued in the cell. When the new shift arrived they tried to rescue him. From there it was just a case of overpowering our people and escaping. We’re looking for them and I’ve raised alerts to stop them leaving the country, but with your friend’s skill set, I don’t have high hopes about our chances.”
Leon groaned and leaned forward so he could put his head in his hands. Stella didn’t blame him for despairing. This was the worst-case scenario for him after a week of nothing but worst-case scenarios. Ever since Lizzie started poking around, his life had been turned upside down. The events of Wednesday hadn’t helped the matter. Thanks to Jacob, Lizzie had been live streaming from multiple angles, and the whole world saw Leon help Stella subdue the dreamwalkers, using supernatural speed and strength at times, igniting public interest in him. The Eidolon Council wouldn’t exclude him from their efforts anymore. Losing there Eidolon prisoners only made matters worse.
