by Sarah Noffke
“No, but the fewer people who know about it, the better. It’s my sanctuary and I don’t like sharing it with others,” she said.
He arched a curious eyebrow at her, placing his finger back on the button, tempting her.
“Don’t. It’s just a dumb, run-down library. You wouldn’t like it. I’m sure you can’t even read,” Adelaide said.
And at this he tapped the button to reveal a cavernous space which was a stark contrast to the modern science fiction feel of most of the Institute. From the door he spied the black-and-white marble floor that led into a what looked like a gigantic library, a huge wooden staircase sitting in the middle of the space. Immediately the multilevel library drew him in. He leaned forward just as the door shut in front of his face.
“Don’t make me put a leash on you,” Adelaide said, pulling her hand from the button. “I’ll show you where the gym is. That’s where you can hang out, since you’ll be out of my way in there.”
“Oh, you don’t work out? Shocking,” he said, running his eyes over her thin, pale arms.
“Come on, dog boy, I’ll show you to your room. The rooming corridor is on the second level,” she said.
“What’s down there?” he said, pointing at the hallway that seemed to lead on forever. This place was massive.
“Not your room,” she said, her voice articulating each of the words. “However, Aiden’s lab is down there and that’s where you will go when he needs to give you your veterinarian exam.”
He turned and followed along beside her. “When are you going to teach me how to use that GAD-C so that I can travel easier? If I’m going to assist you with finding the other men then I’ll need to travel as fast as you do.”
She pursed her lips and regarded him for a moment. “Good point. However, you need to hone your dream travel skills first. That’s what you’ll be assigned to do tonight.” Adelaide paused and withdrew a piece of paper from her jeans pocket and handed it to Zephyr. “There’s a list of over a hundred places here. When you lie down tonight instruct your consciousness to take you to each of these places. Once you’ve visited all of these in one night then you’ll be ready for the next step in learning dream travel.”
“‘The Temple of the Sun Room in Machu Picchu at sunset of present day’?” he read from the top of the list, his voice coated in disbelief. The whole list read like that. Specific places and times of day. “Can’t you be more general, like just Machu Picchu, or even something a bit less foreign? How about just Phoenix, Arizona?”
“How about you quit being a loser,” she said. “Dream travel is about specifics. If you use intention then you don’t have to know coordinates on a map. The fabric of the universe knows for you and you simply access ley lines. But it does take practice and a whole lot of faith.”
“I thought dream traveling was more of a science,” he said.
“And even with science there is faith. Dumb scientists just deny this,” she said, punching the button for the elevator.
Still eyeing the list, Zephyr said, “And I can time travel back to sunset?”
“Yes, but never go more than a few years into the past, especially before you’re better at dream traveling. And never go into the future. You can apparently really bodge up your brain and we both know you need to hold on to all the precious brain cells you have left,” Adelaide said, hitting the button for level two once they were in the elevator.
Zephyr’s eyes fell to the book in Adelaide’s hand. It was the same one she had with her in the meeting earlier. “What book is that?”
“Speaking of books, in your room I left the Dream Traveler Codex. Sorry it doesn’t come on audio so you’re going to have to sound out all the big words. However, it does have the rules, protocols, history of Dream Travelers, et cetera. So read it to save me from having to teach you this stuff,” she said, exiting first when the elevator shot up to the second level.
“Is there a reason that you treat me with such disdain?” Zephyr said. The three men he’d met, Trent, Trey, and Aiden, had been genuinely nice. Rox was sassy and maybe too nice at times with her flirtatious looks. But Adelaide had a rudeness that was unique to her. He’d never met anyone who so flippantly ridiculed others.
“Like do you mean, do I loathe you more than the other gits on this earth? No, I loathe you just as much, maybe a little less based on your shitty situation,” she said, halting in front of a door and pressing the button. “Here’s your dog house.”
The door slid back to reveal a space that resembled a hotel room. The stainless steel walls and blue carpet in the corridor had trickled over into the rooms. A bed, dresser, side tables, and desk all sat neatly arranged. Zephyr shrugged at the space. It wasn’t great, but it beat where he was living. Actually everything about the Institute beat the life he had and even the one he had before that. He’d been lost in the Special Forces. That’s why he’d been discharged. But afterwards he was still lost, like a dog who’d run away from home but couldn’t quite remember who he’d lived with or what his home looked like. But now, he was too overwhelmed to experience that lost feeling.
And there was something strangely comforting about the Institute, something he couldn’t quite place. Maybe it was just that he’d sunk so low that the strange place full of secret people made him feel not so peculiar anymore. He didn’t feel like the outcast he should have felt like based on his werewolf status. And he didn’t feel different like he’d felt his whole life, because everyone at the Institute had a strange extraordinary quality about them.
“Will that codex tell me about my special powers or how to use or access them?” he said, pointing at a red book sitting on the desk, the one he’d guessed Adelaide had left for him.
“Why do you say ‘powers’? I thought you said you have x-ray vision. Are there other skills that you haven’t mentioned?” Adelaide said, crossing her arms, the thick book folding under her armpit.
Adelaide appeared so young to him, maybe twenty-one or twenty-two. And yet she had those old soul eyes. He despised that description though. It trivialized what he actually saw in a person. It wasn’t a soul thing, but rather a maturity thing. Not a spiritual aspect but rather a detail that spoke of the enormity that one had seen.
“The x-ray vision came on by accident. I was looking for something and then my eyesight just changed,” he said, avoiding divulging that he’d been searching for the right prescription drug to fix him.
“That’s usually how it happens. We are bodies full of desires and the psychic or super powers inside us are usually first experienced when we make an intention that the skill can fulfill, although without our express knowledge. You don’t want to know what I did with my skills before I knew I had them,” she said.
“What are your skills?”
“None of your business,” she said.
“Oh, I’m sorry. Here I thought you could share to help my orientation,” he said, walking over and picking up the book.
“I’m not here to help you. Well, only to the extent that you help me do my job. Your health, happiness, and assimilation into this world are really not my concern,” she said.
“That seems about right based on our previous conversations,” he said, thumbing through the book which held multiple drawings and charts. “But go ahead and indulge me this once. What’s your skill? I only know what Rox’s skill is and no other Dream Traveler’s.”
“Nope,” she said at once.
“I don’t even know examples of what other Dream Traveler skills would be, that’s all I’m saying. Like what’s the range? Maybe if you tell me what yours is then—”
“Stop asking about my skills,” Adelaide said, her words strong and like vivid pictures in Zephyr’s mind.
He opened his mouth to ask his question, but nothing came out. And then the desire to ask Adelaide about her skill flew away. It was the strangest experience, like the curiosity had been blotted out. He forgot entirely about the conversation and continued browsing the book.
“So
what other skill do you think you have?” Adelaide said.
He remembered the strange experiences when he dreamed—actually it had been while dream traveling, he now realized. Often while dream traveling, his raw emotions were punctuated by gale force winds. He remembered escaping from the wolf in his dream travels and then feeling his own hopelessness when alone in the location he’d intended to visit. The wind was always around him on those occasions, whipping at his face, like it meant to comfort him. And also, Zephyr recalled the strange dust storm that came out of nowhere. The one in Phoenix that blanketed his neighborhood and made it impossible to go to work. “Is it possible to control the wind?” he said.
“Anything in the Dream Traveler world is possible,” she said, eyeing him skeptically.
“It’s probably nothing—”
“Why don’t you make an intention to use this skill you deem as nothing, but seem to think was important enough to mention. Try and use it now, employing the same power you funnel for x-ray vision,” Adelaide said, sounding bored.
Her words strangely made sense. He knew what she meant by drawing on the power. Since he’d honed his skills he’d recognized where the power came from, about like when he was using combat skills. With a blunt force of intention he pictured wind in his mind, pretended to feel it. Then he held up his hand, instinct directing his movements. So much of his being was ruled by instinct now. And then his fingertips tingled and something invisible seemed to flow out of his hand. He didn’t see anything, but then Adelaide’s red hair moved a little and then more, until it blew back, like caught in a shallow breeze.
Looking unimpressed, Adelaide nodded slightly. “Well, I guess we’ll be calling you Windy from now on.”
Zephyr looked at her, exasperated, and then back at this hand. “How is it possible that my skill is synonymous with my name?”
“God thinks this kind of shit is cute,” Adelaide said with a shrug. “Oh, and we can also blame the law of attraction. That which is around us, we tend to attract, either consciously or unconsciously.”
“It’s just coincidence, right?” he said.
“There are no coincidences in this universe. Learn that right away and you won’t be blinded to the obvious workings of this world,” she said, and again she reminded him of an old sage, although she still appeared young and mostly innocent.
“But—”
“This isn’t really that bizarre,” she said, cutting him off.
It was definitely uncanny to Zephyr. He was used to rules and order and systems that were concrete. This world was metaphysical and it was both amazing and shoving him far outside his comfort zone.
A figure rushed by the open door and then doubled back. Zephyr’s eyes registered who the figure was before she solidified in the doorway completely.
Adelaide turned and rolled her eyes. “Oh fuck, you survived,” she said. “Let’s throw a party. I’m in charge of the streamers.”
“Thanks for your sympathy,” Rox said. “I actually would have been back earlier, but I had to give that creepy guy’s security a run-around so they didn’t follow me to the docks.”
“Creepy guy?” Adelaide said.
“Yeah, I think I met the guy in charge of this messed up organization,” Rox said.
“Olento Research,” Adelaide supplied. “While you were gallivanting all over Los Angeles, I was discovering real useful information on the case.”
“Olento?” Zephyr said. He’d never heard of it, but he didn’t know why he would have.
“Yeah, that’s a strange name,” Rox said, musing on it. Then she sniffed. “I smell like a wet dog from running and fighting. I’m going to peel off these clothes and shower.” She pulled at the tank top, her eyes on Zephyr.
He turned his gaze back to the book in his hands. “Thanks for covering for us. And I’m glad you got out safely.”
“Yeah, what he said, except about the getting back safely part. Maybe next time wear higher heels with really slippery bottoms,” Adelaide said, which earned zero reaction from Rox.
Chapter Thirty
“Fostering Dream Traveler abilities is a chief goal of the Lucidites. We are all stronger when we build each other up.”
- Lucidite Employee Manual
Early winter winds greeted Kaleb’s face with a rude slap of cold each dawn that he ducked out from underneath the overpass. Soon the cold nights would kill him if he didn’t get out of Salt Lake City. This wasn’t a city where the homeless survived the frigid season if they didn’t seek shelter. Even now he had the overpass to himself, when in the late summer he had shared the space with other transients. Most of those had taken up residence at a homeless shelter. But Kaleb knew the guards would be looking for him there. They’d have their eyes on everything. That’s why he knew he had to get out of the city. His hometown and the comfort it used to provide had been compromised.
The store clerk didn’t acknowledge Kaleb when he entered the sundry shop. The guy with an assortment of acne scars was too engrossed in tapping on his phone, probably texting a buddy or updating his status. “Can’t wait for tonight. Epic party at Stevens,” or “This job blows and not in a good way.” Those were a few of the potential status updates Kaleb imagined the store clerk typing. He was never lonely as long as he had the banter in his head. It usually made him laugh at himself and the strange things he came up with. His family had never appreciated his humor. They called him strange. Thought the weird observations he made about people and the world were a distraction from his faith.
“You are indirectly ridiculing people, which isn’t the way of a faithful heart,” his mom often had said to him. Kaleb didn’t understand faith. He didn’t understand his family’s religion. And yet it had been all he knew, which was why he abandoned it to find his own way instead of going on the Mormon mission. The sad part was, his parents wouldn’t even have suspected he’d been abducted since he’d run away, declaring he was going to find himself. Kaleb hadn’t even made it to the state border before someone abducted him. The memories before the lab and change were more than fuzzy. They were just a series of images of him in the woods and then he blacked out. And after that, when he awoke, he found that he didn’t even fully know himself anymore. He was something entirely new and bizarre. He was a monster.
The first aisle was empty when Kaleb turned down it. He slipped a bag of pretzels off the shelf, pretending to study the ingredient list, while he slipped beef jerky into his pockets. His mouth was already salivating at the thought of tearing the jerky apart with his teeth.
A screeching sound most wouldn’t have heard told him the clerk had slid off his stool. It was the button on the bottom of the clerk’s jeans that scraped against the seat of the stool, making the noise. Kaleb grabbed another handful of jerky, dropping the pretzels on the shelf. He turned for the exit just as the clerk came around the corner, knocking into him and causing a stick of jerky that hadn’t quite made it all the way into his pocket to slip out, falling to the dirty store floor.
“Hey!” the guy yelled, reaching out and grabbing Kaleb’s worn shirt. Something took over the boy and he lunged at the store clerk, pressing his face in close to his. And a growl Kaleb had only heard when in werewolf form escaped his mouth. He knocked the guy’s hand off of him in a swift movement and pressed both his hands into his shoulders, pushing him with a force he didn’t know he owned. The guy stumbled back before giving Kaleb a look of pure offense.
“You little shit,” the store clerk said, stepping forward.
But Kaleb was already reaching out. He grabbed the guy by the shoulders and picked him up a couple feet with ease and then threw him backwards. Immediately he was amazed by the force. The store clerk flew back several feet, ramming hard into the counter wall. Kaleb stared at the guy, whose head lulled forward, his body limp. Was he dead? Had Kaleb killed him?
Then the clerk shook his head, his eyes still closed, but he looked to be trying to awaken from a bad dream. Without hesitation, Kaleb darted forward, knocking th
e guy on his side, and withdrew his wallet from his back pocket. The guy was probably planning a big night based on the amount of cash in his wallet. Kaleb yanked it out and slipped the bills into his own pocket. The money would be enough for a bus ticket. Then he sprinted for the exit, never noticing the security camera on the wall, recording everything that had transpired.
Chapter Thirty-One
“Dream Travelers are prohibited from working at Olento Research.”
- Olento Research Employee Manual
Mika wadded up the newspaper into a giant ball and launched it across the room.
“Hey,” a bodiless voice said as the paper hit an invisible figure and bounced on the floor.
“Damn it, Kris! You know better than to sneak into my office unannounced,” Mika said, rocketing to a standing position and leaning over his desk.
In front of the desk, roughly five feet from it, something flickered like static on a television until a woman appeared, her brown hair tucked behind one ear. “How is it that you think you can give me the power of invisibility and not expect me to use it to sneak up on people?” she said, her voice amused.
“Prowl into my office again in your invisible form and I’ll strip you of your skill and your ability to walk,” Mika said.
Mika flicked his eyes down to the rest of the newspaper on the desk, giving Kris a chance to roll her eyes at her boss. “I’ll have an assignment for you soon. I don’t have a job for you right now though,” he said, studying the article from the Los Angeles Times. Another attack had happened, the witnesses reporting they saw a wolflike figure attack a woman in her front yard. The woman was unable to provide a report since she was dead.
“I heard you were sending Morgan to Salt Lake City,” Kris said. Morgan was the only other invisible subject Mika had made, and also Kris’s twin brother.
“Yes, that’s right and also none of your business,” he said. The newspaper Mika had thrown had reported the attack on the store clerk. Mika had already arranged for the security footage to be delivered to him. He was certain it would confirm his suspicions, that the boy who had thrown a guy much larger than him was Kaleb.
