“Then get to buttering!” Delilah said.
“Alright.” He scratched his head and tossed her a nod. “I’ll go ask right now. I’ll get back to you. Might take me a while though. You know how the Council is. I’ll come find you. Just make sure they’re still… You know. Bonding?”
“Yes, yes.” Delilah sat back and shrugged. “That’s no problem. Just try to keep her away from Sam’s room. It’s impossible.” With that, Katz disappeared in that stealthy way he had. Somehow nobody ever noticed even though there were some hospital visitors standing not too far away from the bench where she had been talking to Katz.
Delilah stood and stretched and went back inside to the ICU. She made a beeline for Sam’s room after checking the time on Oracle. Yes, Gwen should be off work and therefore she was likely already visiting. She’d taken to visiting Sam every single day. Delilah peeked in the window and saw Gwen seated like usual at Sam’s side as she read aloud from one of his books and smiling to herself, she thought she’d take a little break from her mission and go check out the tourist traps of Hollywood just a few miles away.
Delilah was wearing a new pair of sunglasses as she trotted down the steps at Hollywood and Highland. The shades were purple and glittery and they were shaped like stars, which seemed apropos. She was also sipping a fresh mocha, this one iced. She had already checked out the wax museum and the hand and footprints at the Chinese Theater and now she practically skipped as she made her way down to the sidewalk, distracted for a minute by a Batman impersonator who was pretending to box with a Joker impersonator as tourists watched and clapped. There was also a breakdancer and a couple of other guys playing tin drums. Delilah watched for a while, thoroughly entertained and then strolled down the street, staring at the sidewalk to read all the names of stars on the Walk of Fame.
She had been having a lovely couple of hours walking around Hollywood, enjoying the often crappy and sometimes shiny touristy sites of the city.
“Do you want to go on a Star Maps tour?”
Delilah instantly assumed somebody was trying to sell her an overpriced tour and had a “no” on her lips when she saw Katz walking next to her on the crowded sidewalk.
She grinned and said, “Doesn’t seem worth the money.” She pointed down at the stars on the sidewalk and said, “Do you know, I haven’t heard of half of the people on these stars. Aren’t they supposed to be famous? Was I really that out of the loop on Earth culture?”
“I’ve met a lot of famous people,” Katz said, looking very smug. “Did you know that Marilyn Monroe runs a bookstore up in the Angelic Dimension?”
“What?”
“Yeah, I’ll take you sometime.” Katz threw an arm around her shoulders. “But first things first. I got your little permission slip to jump into Sam’s noggin. It’s going to show up on your Oracle the next time you’re in Sam’s room. It will be a little button that says ‘dream entry.’ Now the only problem is, your consciousness is going to jump into Sam’s mind but your physical body will be left here so if anybody finds you-”
“My body isn’t going to die, is it?” Delilah said darkly.
“No, you’ll just look unconscious,” Katz said. “But don’t be surprised if you wake up in a hospital bed.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Delilah said. “I hope they don’t use those shock paddles on me.”
Katz only chuckled at that. “I don’t think that will be necessary.” He squeezed Delilah’s shoulder and softly said, “Hey, you know, you’re doing a good job.”
Delilah blushed at that and pretended it wasn’t happening. “Thanks, Katz.”
Once Katz had disappeared again, Delilah made her way to the hospital. It should have taken about ten minutes but with the intensity of traffic, it took about a half hour to get to the hospital entrance. Delilah had taken a rideshare, and she hopped out, tossing the driver a little salute.
In Sam’s room, she found that Gwen had since left and Arthur had also visited. She could tell because there was yet another house plant sitting amongst the others. This one was a spider plant and looked freshly watered. Delilah suspected that if Sam stayed in this coma much longer, the room would soon look like a jungle for all the plantlife Arthur the devoted butler would add to it.
“Hello, Sam,” Delilah mumbled, standing by the bed, and staring blankly down at the very muscular and very unconscious man who lay there, having no idea that she was about to invade his brain.
“This is going to be weird,” she told him. “I just want you to know, it’s necessary. And also, it’s only a dream. Here goes.”
Delilah took out her Oracle device and saw a little blinking circle on the touchscreen that read “dream entry”. She took a deep breath and tapped the circle, and everything disappeared around her.
7
Sam
It was the best part of the day because Gwen was there. She was telling Sam about her best friend, Annie and how they had met and how Gwen had introduced Annie to her girlfriend and how now Annie was having relationship problems because of Star Trek and how ridiculous that was. Sam had put himself in Griffith Park while Gwen visited this time. He’d constructed it as well as he could and now he had his hands shoved in his pockets as he crossed the deserted street to go into Travel Town and hang around the antique train cars in the park while he listened to Gwen talk.
I can’t imagine how bored you are right now if you can hear me…
“I’m not bored,” Sam said, climbing up into one of the old locomotives parked on a dead piece of track in the park. “I like hearing about your life. It sounds like a nice life. It sounds…full and… Sounds like a good life.”
Do you know, Arthur brought me cupcakes yesterday? Red velvet. Four of them. He’s so sweet. I gave three of them to my patients in the ward but I did eat one, it was amazing.
“He bakes a lot,” Sam said, chuckling. He played with the non-functional wheels and levers of the locomotive and then sat down at the door of the car and let his feet hang out the side as he talked to Gwen. “I miss his cupcakes. The red velvet is good but you really haven’t lived until you’ve tried his German chocolate.”
I’ll have to bring him something too. I wish I could ask you what he would like. Tea probably…
“Yes! Bring him tea! Or shortbread!” Sam sighed and lay on his back on the floor of the train car, swinging his feet. Sometimes he forgot that Gwen couldn’t hear him. It always sounded like she was standing right next to him. “Earl Gray,” he muttered. “Or any black tea.” He frowned and listened to Gwen go on about a book she was reading and then she was saying her goodbyes and Sam’s heart broke a little. The worst part of the day was Gwen leaving.
When she was gone, he sighed heavily and shut his eyes, but still kept his concentration, feeling the cold steel of the train car under him and the warm breeze blowing around him. He heard the leaves of the trees rustling as he swung his legs.
When he heard the sound of somebody climbing up the ladder of the train car, he didn’t think much of it at first. And then he remembered that no people existed in the void who he had not manifested himself - and he had not even been able to make manifested people move.
When he opened his eyes, there was a girl standing over him, looking down at him with a sardonic expression.
“Hi.”
Sam jerked and sat up with a jolt, scrambling backward and squinting at the girl. He thought for a moment that somehow it might be Gwen except that he was sure somehow it wasn’t. This girl didn’t look quite soft or sweet enough to be Gwen and she wasn’t looking at him very sympathetically as she stood, looming over him, her hands on her hips.
Sam had not spoken to anyone in a year and he gaped at the girl and sputtered as she tried to speak. “Who are you! What are you… What are you…”
“I’m a dream,” she said. “I’m a…manifestation. In your head. Don’t worry about it.”
“That can’t be,” Sam said, getting to his feet. The girl climbed down out of the train car
and he followed her out into the park. “I haven’t been able to make anybody appear like this. I’ve tried-”
“It’s your subconscious, buddy.” She patted him on the arm.
“But I don’t even know who you are,” he insisted. “Wouldn’t I have manifested my butler or…one of my…friends.”
“Your friends are all dead. Why would you want to manifest them and just feel worse?” she said flatly. The sky darkened and thundered overhead as he felt a stab of pain within him at her casual dismissal of them and he glowered at her. “I’m sorry!” She said. “Hey, I’m sorry. I’m not used to… I’ve never been good about handling that stuff gently. Didn’t mean to like…hurt your…feelings.”
Sam shrugged and stomped away from her, wanting to escape the feelings in question. He had never been a fan of talking about his emotions. He wasn’t about to start now, even inside his own head.
“Uh, I actually wanted to ask you something!” She jogged after him. He had about a foot of height on her and his longer legs easily outpaced her. She had to rush to keep up with him. “If you don’t mind?”
“What do you mean you have to ask me something?” He asked, scowling, as a drizzle of rain began to fall. “You’re in my head anyway.”
“I guess you…want to ask yourself a question?” She shrugged, gritting her teeth a little. She did look like she was trying to get away with something, but he was in a sour mood now and couldn’t see how she could hurt him any more than he was already hurt. It probably was a strange dream. “Or! Or maybe it’s your subconscious wanting to know something from your...conscious?”
“Whatever,” he mumbled, walking on and into the lush and quickly dampening grass. “What do you want to ask me, then?”
It wasn’t hard to want to talk to this person anyway. She seemed pretty annoying but on the other hand, he was hard up for company and Gwen had left for the day. He would take what he could get, even if it was only his mind talking back to him.
“I want to know what the spell was that cursed you,” she said firmly.
Sam stopped short. His mood was apparently manifesting the weather, and he happened to like the rain falling and the way it felt on his skin but he was sick of the park now and instead he changed the scenery around them from Griffith Park to one of his favorite streets in the city and suddenly they were standing on the sidewalk in Los Feliz, in front of his favorite bookstore, but the rain was beginning to pour down on them.
Sam leaned on the bookstore window and frowned at Delilah. “So you’re saying I’m asking myself what the curse was?”
She looked very agitated and flailed a little, obviously frustrated. “Can you just accept the reality I’m giving you? What difference does it make? What was the curse?”
“I don’t…” Sam shook his head. “I don’t know what it was called. He was sort of floating over me. He was holding a black flower.”
“A black flower?” The girl perked up. She was getting soaked in the rain but she didn’t seem to care about that.
“Yeah.” Sam shrugged. He didn’t like to think of that night. He knew a lot of spells but he hadn’t known whatever the wizard had cursed him with. “I think he was speaking French. And he was holding a black flower and then bam I was falling down the hill and then I was here in this…void. Or my own mind. Whatever it is.”
“Do you know what kind of flower?” She asked.
“It looked like a tulip,” he said. “I don’t know flowers well but tulips are pretty distinct.”
“Black tulip, spell was in French.” She nodded. “That’s probably enough to go on.”
“Enough to go on for what?” He said warily. “I thought you were in my own head.”
“I am!” She said quickly. “I’m just… You know what, just don’t worry about it. I gotta go.”
She started to turn away, and he lurched forward, grabbing her by the arm. “Hey, wait. Wait, don’t go. No one ever comes here. I haven’t…” He looked away, glowering. “There’s no one else here, is all.” He frowned down at his boots. They were just as he remembered them. Although he’d probably manifested them as less beaten up. He kicked the ground. The sky thundered again, the rain pouring down a bit harder.
The girl heaved a sigh and reached up to pat his shoulder, a little awkwardly. “Look, man, I’m sorry you’re lonely. But I’m working on that. One thing at a time, okay?”
“What do you mean?” Sam said.
“Nothing, nothing.” She waved a hand. “I’ll see you on the flipside. Do people still say that? Anyway! Later!” With that she was gone, suddenly disappeared into the rain and he was left alone again and Gwen and Arthur had already been by for the day. Now there was only the long night ahead of him, and the empty streets of his own mind all around.
8
Gwen
Gwen kept dreaming of Sam. At night, he was the last thing she thought of before she dropped off to sleep. Lately, she had trouble dropping off as early as she was used to on work days, because her mind was busy, racing in circles as it searched for a solution to Sam’s coma. She had already visited her witch friend’s apartment down the street a couple of times on impulse, attempting to go ask what she might know about curses that threw one into such a state. But twice the witch had not been home and Gwen didn’t have her number. At the end of her rope now, Gwen thought she’d leave a note next time. And if the witch didn’t know the answer, maybe she could at least point Gwen in the right direction.
She had gone dancing with some friends on Friday, done some housekeeping on Saturday, watched a movie at Annie’s Saturday night and spent Sunday reading and feeling ceaselessly impatient before running down to the hospital on a day she wasn’t even working to visit Sam.
That night she dreamed she was walking to the ICU to visit him again, except the walls weren’t walls. The walls were porous and covered in vines and there was a thick, soupy fog creeping through the hospital as she searched for Sam.
She kept hearing a deep voice softly call for her and she tried to follow it, thinking it must belong to Sam but then she couldn’t find him again. She ran through the hospital, more and more desperate, tears sliding down her face as she looked everywhere in search of Sam. He wasn’t in his room. He must have woken up, but then where was he? She saw the flash of a mountain lion at the end of a corridor and thought that must be Sam and she shifted, feeling her lion’s body run as fast as it could, but the corridor never ended. It just went on and on and on, always keeping him out of her reach and obscured by the thick fog.
On Monday morning, Gwen woke up disturbed, the dream fresh in her mind. She had been visiting Sam for weeks now. She had read his entire diary and felt she knew him to some degree. She knew it was impractical to think she truly knew him when she had never truly spoken to him. But it was getting difficult to think of much else but Sam and his fate when she wasn’t focussed on work. Annie kept teasing her yet seemed just a little concerned by how often Gwen brought Sam up in conversation. Gwen had even shared a tea or two with Arthur in the courtyard as a thank you for the cupcakes and also because she felt she needed someone to talk to about Sam who knew him. Arthur didn’t seem to think it was all creepy or strange that Gwent so much time with his charge. He only seemed grateful that somebody cared.
Gwen rolled into work on Monday morning, feeling melancholy after the dream. But she pepped herself up with coffee and forced a smile and worked with her patients with the usual amount of energy and enthusiasm that she felt compelled to bring to her job.
She worked a full five hours with patients before she was able to get a break and she sighed, rolling her neck as she made her way back to her office. Inside she sat down at her desk and immediately frowned at the Post-It stuck to her computer. It looked just like the Post-It that had been stuck to the diary. The handwriting was the same.
This Post-It read: Black Tulip curse. French.
Gwen took the Post-It off the computer screen and stared at it. On her desk was a black tulip. She yelped in
surprise as if a small dragon was sitting on her desk. But now she picked up the tulip and blinked.
The little clues seemed foreboding but they clearly had something to do with Sam. Whoever had put that Post-It on the diary was butting in again. But Gwen was not a witch and had only ever attempted a few small spells in her life. Now she sat forward in her chair and furiously googled variations of “Black Tulip curse” and threw “French” it there as well. Almost nothing useful came up outside of one reference to a “Black Tulip curse” on a witch’s forum. It was apparently considered a very dark and difficult spell and it was very old. There was no other information. The poster didn’t even mention what the spell was supposed to do.
But this was still a clue. It was a real clue, and it gave her something to go on if she ever managed to get a hold of the witch.
Gwen went to visit Sam that day, feeling particularly cheerful now. A patient had given her flowers as a thank you for helping them learn to walk again and Gwen found a spare vase in the ICE break room and filled it with some water. She set the flowers on the table by the window near the sun. They were brightly colored African daisies, and she smiled as she described them to Sam, but in her hand she also carried the black tulip.
Gwen sat by his bed and held the flower in one hand, reaching over to squeeze Sam’s hand as she told him about her day. She hoped that was alright. She kept getting the feeling that just a little bit of affection for someone like him might be nice. He was poked and prodded and bathed by nurses and doctors but she was pretty sure nobody bothered to touch him affectionately and if he was awake in there, and worse, if he was alone and scared, she figured it would be nice for him to have his hand held once in a while. If she was honest with herself, she also liked holding it. Sam had very big hands and she liked to watch her own delicate little hand disappear inside his. His fingers were long but thick and his skin seemed too tan for somebody who had been trapped in a hospital for so long. She found herself caressing his knuckles with her thumb and she swallowed, imagining what it would be like to feel animated life in those hands. She imagined them cradling her face as he looked at her with his brilliant green eyes. He could pick her up so easily in his arms usually, she was sure. She wondered what it would be like to get lost in those arms…
Awakened Alpha Page 5
