Obstruction By Nightmare (Academy of Broken Dreams Book 3)

by Rose Alexander

  I finish up and fall into bed. It doesn’t take long before I’m asleep.

  I find myself walking in a field full of poppy flowers, the air thick with pollen and the feeling is peaceful.

  Suddenly, I’m yanked into the meeting hall. My Aunt Nellie is standing in front of me and several other adults, including Coventry's butler Goddrick. I give him a leery glance and rush over to my aunt.

  “Aunt Nellie, it’s great to see you.” I step forward and wrap her in a quick hug then lower my voice to a whisper. “Are you sure about having Coventry’s butler here? What if he’s a spy? He is on that horrible man’s payroll.”

  “Goddrick can be trusted. He’s spying from the inside. He has no love for Coventry. He’s a Dissident too, dear heart. Coventry treats his help like mud.” Nellie pats my back then releases me.”

  “What’s going on? Has something happened?” I glance around at the tired, worried faces.

  “Whisper, I pulled you here because you need to know what's going on outside of the academy. The sevenths are being forced to enlist in Coventry’s army or be thrown in prison should they refuse. All of our rights are officially being stripped away from us and the only jobs they’re letting us have are the ones the other houses wouldn’t lower themselves to do.” She waves her hands animatedly as she talks.

  “Did you have to enlist?” My eyes widen, not wanting my aunt to go through that.

  “Thankfully, not as of yet. Being married to Ben has its privileges.” Her eyes are full of guilt. “I feel bad that I’m not with my people though.”

  “We need you to lead. Don’t feel bad. I know it’s hard, but you are helping in other ways. Channel those feelings and let's kick Coventry’s ass.” I take her hand as her eyes meet mine.

  It’s clear from the worried expression on her face that we may have to make a move sooner rather than later.

  “But this is ridiculous! We need to recruit more people and let them know they have a choice to stand up to Coventry and his dirty government.” I pace the floor thinking of ways that we can stop all the segregation. “What are we going to do?” My eyes bore into hers as anger builds in my chest.

  “We are actively recruiting here and as soon as the word has spread, Coventry’s army he’s building should be firmly in our control.” Ben steps forward and puts an arm around Aunt Nellie’s waist.

  “That’s a good idea… but it’s horrible they are doing this.” I growl. “Is there any way we can stop them from being recruited in the first place? And what do we do about the jobs? How are the Dissidents supposed to support their families?”

  No sooner than the words are out of my mouth, I feel a tug, and I’m pulled to a different room. I turn around slowly trying to figure out where I’ve landed this time and come face to face with a smiling Ryland.

  “Ryland!” I rush over and wrap my arms around his neck. He picks me up and squeezes me tight. “Where are we?”

  “I thought you might like a little downtime. You know maybe we can go on a date in our dreams. I have been practicing creating the perfect dream date.” His excitement overflows and I can’t help but feel guilty for what I’m about to ask of him.

  “Well, before you pulled me to this amazing spot, Aunt Nellie had just pulled me into the meeting room. It seems that Coventry is making things hard outside of the school as well as inside. All sevenths are being forced to enlist in his army. He is taking all their rights and the only jobs they are allowed to have are the ones that the other houses refuse to lower themselves to do.” I can feel my temper rising.

  “We need to let the others know about this.” Ryland’s face becomes somber.

  “Yes, but we need to go back to Aunt Nellie’s first and hear the rest of the story. I want to spend time with you, but this is important.” I squeeze his hand.

  “I agree, our date can wait.” He nods and grabs my hand.

  I close my eyes and we reappear back in the Seventh Circle. Aunt Nellie rushes over to us.

  “I wondered where you disappeared to.” She shakes her head.

  “That was my fault. I didn’t realize Whisper was busy when I stole her away.” Rylands cheeks tinge pink.

  “You’re back now, that’s all that matters.” Aunt Nellie lays a hand on Ryland’s shoulder before walking back to the front of the gathering hall.

  “We are gathered here today to discuss what is happening in our communities. We want to hear your concerns so we can make a plan to fix them.” Nellie’s voice rings over the now silent hall.

  “How are we supposed to provide for our families? My diner was taken away from me.” A large, dark haired man stands up.

  Ezra moves forward and stands next to Nellie. “That is something we were concerned about. Some of our families are better off than others. We would like to set up a food pantry to make sure no one goes hungry. If you are able to help, it would be appreciated, and if you need help, please don’t be too proud to ask.”

  “Why are they enlisting so many of us into this militia? We aren’t fighters. Half of my community has been drafted now. Are they going to come after the rest of us too?” A small, white-haired woman stands up, her voice creaking like dry leather.

  “We can’t answer that yet. But our primary goal will be to get Coventry out of office. If we unite together, we are stronger than if we try to stand alone. He won’t know what hit him.” Nellie scans the hall until her eyes meet mine. “Let me introduce you to my niece. Whisper can you come up here?”

  I straighten up as I step forward, aware of all the eyes on me. I hear whispers around me as I make my way to the front.

  “Is that the girl that tested in all the houses?”

  “My Jonnie said she’s being isolated from her own house.”

  “Coventry has his eye on that one for sure.”

  When I reach the front, I stand next to Aunt Nellie and smile as everyone examines me. I feel like an animal on display at a zoo. The room is a low roar of whispers.

  “This is Whisper Lawrence. As some of you may have heard, she has tested as having the powers of all the houses. We are confident she will be able to help us in this battle. It won’t be easy, and I can’t say we will all make it out of this alive, but that is the price for freedom. And freedom we will have, one way or another.” Aunt Nellie raises her hands confidently.

  The crowd erupts into applause, and you can almost feel the resolve clicking into place. This is going to happen. People are on board.

  “We will meet again soon. If you need anything in the meantime, feel free to reach out and we will help as best as we can. We are all in this together and will get through it as a community.” Aunt Nellie ends the meeting.

  She leads me to the side of the room where Ryland meets up with us. “You can go have your date now if you would like.

  “We need to let our group know what is going on first.” Ryland’s eyes shine with the knowledge of what we should do.

  “Thank you for including me in your meeting.” I give my aunt one last hug.

  “Of course, Whisper. Whether you realize it or not, you are the face of this uprising.” She smiles as she releases me.

  I take Ryland’s hand and think of Midnight Rising, and we appear under the willow.

  “I will grab the others.” I close my eyes and think of each of the guys, Lydia, and Korbin, and pull them into the hollow with us.

  “I’m so happy to see you all.” I grin when I open my eyes.

  “I’ve missed you.” Sam runs forward and wraps his arms around me.

  “We need to talk about this afternoon.” Finn stares at me.

  “Are you talking about the library?” Max asks, glancing back and forth between us with a confused expression.

  “That’s only a small part of it.” I wait to gauge his reaction.

  “Really, what is the rest?” Sam leans forward, watching me carefully.

  “Well to start, today I borrowed Finn’s mind and was able to see through his eyes and ears. But…” I sit down and
cross my legs.

  “But… what?” Ryland plops down next to me.

  “Well, when I came back to, Alexis was shaking me and telling me I wasn’t breathing. She helped me to the nurse’s office and that’s where I spent the next few hours sleeping it off.” I stare into the fire thinking about everything that could have gone wrong. “But thanks to Alexis, I’m ok.”

  “Why didn’t you tell us that this afternoon?” Finn scowls.

  “I was too excited about the second part of this conversation.” I sigh, feeling horrible I didn’t share what happened with him and Max.

  “That’s not an ability that you want to use often. Not if it has that effect on you. We don’t need you dying on us, Whisper. I know these new abilities are fun, but you have to be more careful. Besides, I'm not sure what I would do without you.” Ryland grows serious.

  “That’s some crazy shit!” Lydia runs forward and wraps her thin arms around me. “Don’t be doing dangerous stuff like that! I need my best friend to stay breathing.”

  “I won’t. I’ll check my memories more on new abilities before I try them out in the future.” I pat her back, touched at how much she cares. “That leads me to the second part. After I left the nurse's office, I decided to take advantage of my freedom and went exploring in the library.”

  “She found a secret library of ancient books. We are cleaning it up and I’m going to learn the language so I can help her read them all.” Finn waves his arms around animatedly, his face lighting up with joy.

  “It was close to dinner time so you guys were all in class or I would have brought you too,” I say quickly, afraid of hurting someone’s feelings.

  “It sounds like the perfect project for you and Finn.” Ryland pats my leg. “If you guys need any help cleaning it up, I’m sure the rest of us would be happy to pitch in.”

  “Yeah.” Sam nods his agreement.

  “Thank you all. I’d be lost without all of you.” My heart fills with so much warmth, I think it could burst. “The last thing is the rolodex I told you about before. I opened the second one. That’s how I figured out the mind sharing thing I used on Finn. I found something I think we should try to use for the resistance. It’s a way to give us an edge on Coventry.”

  “But only you can use those powers.” Korbin chimes in.

  “In theory,” I stare at Finn. “Yes, I know it’s not tested. I think there should be others who can harness different powers. They declined slowly in the ancients, so why couldn’t they have increased slowly, and no one noticed?”

  “Interesting hypothesis. We should test it.” Finn stands up.

  “Dude, she hasn’t even told us what she thinks we should be able to do yet.” Sam rolls his eyes then gazes at me expectantly.

  “I learned we can move things with our tendrils.” I smile and close my eyes.

  I concentrate on picking a flower, willing one tendril to come out and grab it. I open my eyes and watch as the tendril reaches out and plucks the flower, then I drop it in Lydia’s lap, before the tendril recedes back into my chest.

  “Holy shit, Whisper! Teach me how to do that!” Lydia jumps up and rushes over next to me.

  “I will. But we need to keep moving forward first. Tomorrow night, I promise.” I squeeze her hand.

  “What’s next?” Ryland sits up and takes notice.

  “We need to talk about resistance stuff now. Mrs. King wants to join so I’m going to go get her.” I push myself to my feet.

  “Your aunt and uncles should be here too. We all need to be on the same page.” He points out.

  “Good thinking.” I smile at him.

  I close my eyes and concentrate on the Fury teacher and pull her into the hollow with us. When I open my eyes, she smiles and wraps her arms around me.

  “Whisper would you mind bringing Gandore to the hollow?” Ms. King whispers in my ear as she pulls out of the hug.

  I glance at her confused but nod my head yes. Once again, I close my eyes and think of Gandore. He was a great headmaster before Coventry fired him. Gandore is pulled into the hollow.

  “Welcome Headmaster Gandore. It’s nice to see you again.” Walking over, I take a seat next to Sam.

  “Miss Lawrence, you have grown by leaps and bounds since the last time I saw you. The whispers are true, you really are creating a resistance under their noses.” Gandore chuckles and shakes his head.

  “Why did they get rid of you? You were an amazing headmaster.” I ask, on the edge of my seat waiting for his answer.

  “I don’t share the same bigoted attitude as our new Praesidium. When I refused to separate the houses in the school the way he wanted me to, he replaced me with someone who shared his views and would be yanked around like a puppet.”

  “That’s so messed up. We are all the same at the end of the day. It sounds like you’re the only smart one.” Sam shakes his head.

  “Like all things, this too shall pass. Radicals rise and fall in power then the rest of us pick up the pieces.” Gandore winks at him.

  I close my eyes one more time and find the threads that belong to my aunt and her husbands then yank all three of them here.

  When everyone is settled, I proceed to fill them all in on what Aunt Nellie had told me.

  “It’s awesome that everyone is coming together. I wish the other houses would help too.” Finn stares down at his hands.

  “In time, I think they will. It’s harder to rally against problems that don’t directly affect you.” Ryland chimes in.

  “All the Dissidents at school are now in boot camp too. At least they are feeding us better.” Lydia shrugs her shoulders as she plays with Korbin’s long black hair.

  “We can’t let this keep happening. You are just kids and shouldn’t be treated this way. We need to gather more recruits quickly.” Mrs. King’s face turns a dark shade of red.

  Gandore nods in agreement. “This is going to get extremely dangerous. We should start thinking about pulling in recruits from other houses too.”

  “That’s a good idea but the one thing we haven’t figured out is how do we recruit if we don’t know if we can trust them?” I lace my fingers through Sam’s and a similar tingling sensation happens. These guys are going to be the death of me I swear.

  “I may have a solution to that problem. Let me check on a few things and I’ll pass on what I learn.” Gandore rubs his chin as he ponders on the things he has just learned.

  “When you have your next group meeting, let me know. We need to unite them as soon as possible. It will be harder for the adults to accept the children in the resistance. They will need the time to understand that you are valuable and not as breakable as we seem to think you are.” Ben speaks up. The group has been so silent I almost forgot they were here.

  “I think that’s it for today. We can meet again tomorrow night and plan this out further.” I scan the faces in the group. “Thank you all for coming. I know we can make this work.”

  The group says their goodbyes as Ryland grabs my hand and leads me away from everyone.

  “How about that date now?” He smiles.

  “That would be amazing. Let’s go.” I grab his hand and squeeze.

  We appear in a clearing in the woods. Standing in front of a quaint redwood log cabin. Each of the rough-cut logs fit together like the Lincoln Logs I played with as a kid. The small front porch slopes gently towards us, held up by four wood columns giving the cabin a cozy feeling. There’s a red brick chimney emitting puffs of smoke telling me Ryland must have come ahead and prepared. He leads me up the front steps and opens the door. As I walk in, I see he has put a lot of thought into this.

  Candles line the mantle and every tabletop, on the floor in front of the blazing fireplace is a white bearskin rug with an amazing spread of fruit, cheese, nuts, and thinly sliced meats and sparkling waters.

  I turn and stare at him with astonishment on my face. “This is beautiful and so romantic.” Then I walk over and wrap my arms around his waist, laying my head on
his chest, listening to his heartbeat.

  He places his finger under my chin and tilts my head back so he can gaze into my eyes. “You deserve to have romance in your life, Whisper.” He tucks a strand of hair behind my ear then leans in and places a gentle kiss on my lips.

  My lips tingle and instantly cool as he pulls away, leaving me wanting more. We walk over to the rug and sit down. Ryland places a variety of food on my plate and hands me a bottle of water.

  “How are things?” he asks, setting the water down.

  I bite the strawberry, letting the sweet and tangy flavor coat my tongue. I have to admit this is a bit of a turn on. I have never had a guy feed me before and especially not the way Ryland does it. Everything he does is like one fluid movement. Smooth, never hesitating and he definitely knows how to go for what he is after.

  “Whisper?” His voice makes my insides melt into a puddle of goo.

  “Yes?” The sound of his voice causes my face to heat as I peek up at him through my lashes.

  “Do you really think this can all work out for us? I mean all of us, not just you and me but you, me and the other guys?” He runs his hands through his hair and lets out a long breath.

  “I think with a lot of work and communication we stand a really good shot at making this work in our favor.” I reach over and place my hand on his leg.

  “I was hoping you would say that. He pulls me closer and then lays back on the rug. I place my head on his chest and enjoy listening to the sound of his breathing and the comfortable silence between us.

  “Thank you for sharing all of this with me.” I rise to my feet and spin in a circle, committing it all to memory.

  “I wouldn’t have it any other way.” Ryland stands up and pulls me into an embrace.

  I reach up and grab the back of his head and pull him into a long intense kiss. Ryland pulls away breathless. We know there are lines we can’t cross yet.

  I’m pulled back to my room by my alarm going off. Well crap, that could have been timed better. I throw my legs over the side of the bed and stand up stretching out my sore muscles before grabbing my things and jumping in the shower.