by Emma Glass
In the red light, Nikki Craven looked beautiful. After all this time, it’s difficult to think we’re finally here. At the end. The three of us, together, ready to face this threat as one…
I squeezed her hand again but didn’t let go.
“Alright,” Griswold’s voice called out. “It’s time. What we are about to do now has never been done before. Seven vampires of ascended blood will collectively dream with a human witch from beyond our world—a witch plagued by nightmares and visions. I cannot guide you. I do not know the first thing of what you will find in her mind. But this is your one and only chance to stop the Calamity.”
Nikki’s hand squeezed mine. I smiled confidently.
“As for the rest of you…“ Brother Griswold turned and faced Clara’s guardians. “The Arch-Magister will be maintaining the spell with me. You will stand guard over these vampire lords, and defend this chamber should the need arise. What we mean to do today is dangerous, untested, and hypothetical at best. We need every hand on deck.”
I gave the Knightly Trio a commanding stare, then let it extend to the Duelists. Everyone seemed to understand.
Griswold turned back. “Are you ready?”
Various nods and replies rang true.
It felt strange to be sitting in these thrones like this—it was the complete opposite of the council chambers. While our original meeting place featured a ring of stark thrones facing inwards, these faced outwards.
He began to recite a spell in a language I’d never heard, holding the spellbook open in his grip. A heavy wave of fatigue battered my vision, and I started to yawn.
“This is important!” Griswold called out. “I require all of you to hold hands…”
“Are you kidding?” Clearly, that was Valentine.
“It maintains the connection,” he replied patiently. “It’s the only way to rebound the dream. The dream must leave the witch and likewise return to her.”
“Fine. Alright then…”
Nikki and I tightened our grip together. With my other hand, I reached over and took Clara’s in mine. Stroking it with my fingers, I gave my slumbering lover a sad glance. We’re coming for you, Clara. We will find a way. I promised I would marry you…
“Everyone relax,” Griswold ordered. “And listen to the sound of my voice. Together, I guide you all down to your collective slumber. Settle back and relax. Let the world you know and understand drift away… and remember. Where you go, the rules are different. The game has changed.”
When I felt my hand clamp, I turned my head one last time. I felt sluggish; Nikki offered me a self-assured smirk.
“See you on the other side… brother dearest.”
I tried to nod, but I felt the weight of exhaustion falling onto my shoulders. Nor could I keep my eyes open, or my thoughts spinning in my mind. My head settled back into the throne as everything began to drift away…
That tall window filled my vision. It was all I could see.
And then, quite suddenly, everything was gone.
Chapter 13
Clara
I snapped awake, one cheek against the earthy ground. On every breath, I sucked in hints of death and dust.
Everything hurt. My scrambled brain struggled to make sense of what I saw, what I felt, where I’d been, how I’d gotten here… but it was little use. Peeling myself up off the ground, I sluggishly tried to dust myself off. Sleepily, I realized that every movement crinkled the ground beneath me. I widely stretched out both arms with a hard yawn—and I felt tree back against my fingertips.
Adrenaline flushed away the lethargy in my brain. No.
My body trembled. How long has it been? How long since I was in this place before? Scanning a forest so very painfully familiar to me with a shivering gaze, I felt frightened into a complete shutdown of the body and mind.
I don’t know why I didn’t see this coming.
All of this started with the nightmarish forest that overwhelmed my dreams for weeks, long before I had ever heard of Elliott Craven and his fantastical parallel world of vampires and magic.
It only made sense that it came back full circle…
Peeling myself up from a carpet of dead leaves, I took a moment to study these terrifying woods with a fresh stare again. To call this nightmare colourful was a tad generous, but never before had this place looked so crisp and lifelike. My recurring dreams buried the finer details in a haze, but such was not the case now.
I touched the bark of the nearest tree again.
No, that feels terrifyingly real. Which means…
My feet wouldn’t budge.
Run, I commanded. For the love of God, run.
One foot finally shoved forwards. Then the other. First foot again. Second foot. First. This momentum carried me into a steady stroll, quickly breaking into a jog…
And then a bolt. I raced away.
In the distance, a rumble erupted. My head snapped to the right. Something out there was waiting for me. Maybe it had been here a long time—my old enemy, an invisible, predatory force, forever hell bent on killing me. Never had I faced my killer in the flesh… because it wasn’t flesh, more like a whipping storm that descended upon me to rip me apart. Now that I was awake, so it appeared, so was it…
I knew what would happen if I stayed here.
I’d probably experienced it hundreds of times now.
And I did not want to be ripped to shreds yet again, let alone find out how permanent this time could be…
* * *
Trees splintered. Bushes ripped apart. Limbs dropped.
This time, it was more violent than I’d ever seen before. I ran as hard as I could, ignoring the growing stitch in my side. My hand grasped at a rib as I darted forwards along the closest break in the trees, determined to survive this malevolent creature again.
I wanted to turn and face it. I wanted to fight.
Every bone in my body commanded it.
But you’ve done that before, haven’t you, Clara? You faced your fears and stood your ground. And how did that work out?
Severed branches struck the trees nearest my back.
Nobody should know what it’s like to experience their own death. But I had. Too many times to count. Every time I turned to resist my destructor, it bore down hard on me.
I’d be better facing down a hurricane.
But this thing wasn’t just a force of nature. I always felt the malice behind its overwhelming power. It loved ripping me apart. It lived to tear me to pieces. Every last morning I bolted awake, dripping with sweat, I could still feel all that ferocity in its wake—like I had really, honestly been killed, only to snap back awake in another body in another life. It was a horrifying thing to endure… and although I couldn’t say I’d gotten any better at it, I knew what to expect.
A tree I’d passed a mere ten seconds before blew apart. I threw what little more exertion I had into my sprinting as I raced ahead faster—dodging thin, whiplike branches and thorny bushes almost as tall as me. Behind me, my steadily gaining predator was not restrained by such obstacles. No amount of underbrush or trees could restrain it. It wasn’t a corporeal thing; it was a vicious wind, one with the might of a hundred wolves in its power.
A stump shredded behind me; stray cuttings of broken wood stung my back like shrapnel. I cried out in surprise.
My lungs were giving out. I couldn’t keep this pace up. If my heart beat any faster, I’d drop to the ground—and be at its complete mercy. But mercy was the one proper thing that it always lacked, and I would find none today.
How did I even get here? Did I go to sleep?
It was hard to focus on running through the woods and recalling the locked memories. It was a dream, beholden to the logic of such things—I never remembered anything, try as I might, while I struggled to survive this place.
But I had to. I had to remember.
Because something told me this was my last chance to turn the tide and face off against my would-be killer. Something, I realize
d, around my neck right this second…
I grasped the dangling thing at my collarbone. What is this thing? Have I always had this? Though I couldn’t think far enough back, it felt like I had—that I had known, some point in another dream long ago, that it was here. Even as I was forced to run from this unstoppable thing.
Roots upended near me. It wasn’t long now.
Think, Clara, I hissed in my head.
Wait. That’s right. My name. I’m.. Clara.
I don’t know how I’d forgotten—have I ever known my own name in my dreams? Did it ever matter? I don’t know… I guess it was only—I dodged a felled log that exploded apart just in front of me—when my grandmother came…
And I froze, at the edge of a cliff.
How can I remember her? How can…
Ahead, the waters roared far beneath. The moonlit sky poured down light over a vast sea—highlighting an island in the distance. I felt the rumble of the splintering forest at my back as I gazed over those churning waves against the sharp rocks below.
I knew what was supposed to happen now.
But I remembered something. Something necessary.
I turned back as the force bore down, fully prepared to bear down over me as it did to the rest of these woods. As I watched the trees part with a familiar face, stepping free to guide me… I knew what I had to do.
And this thing was no longer a match for me.
Chapter 14
Elliott
All my senses roared with the overload.
It was too much to process—I couldn’t think. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t even see. My trailing fingers swung through the air, grasping nothing but wind.
The wind. I was falling.
Was I falling? Why was I falling?
My eyes flicked back and forth, trying to make sense of the world surrounding me. It was fruitless. I felt as though I was alone in a dark pitch, drowning in smoke. Nothing I saw or felt made sense. I tried, and failed, to concentrate.
And then, as I broke free the into moonlit darkness…
I learned why.
My body plummeted out through cloud cover, over the expanse of an endless wilderness. The magnificent forest stretched to the far horizon, stark and horrifying in its own way. Although it didn’t appear suited to forgivingly break a fall from this height, I couldn’t bring myself to overlook the splendour of it all. I had never seen a wilderness from this height—its uncompromising beauty was a stunning sight to behold.
Sliding into a comfier position for the descent, I turned my gaze. There, off in the other direction, I noticed that the woodlands broke at an edge and gave way to a dark sea. When the moonlight struck the water just right, I could see that there was a tiny, distant island…
Something about it struck fear into my heart.
I saw others, seven of them piercing the clouds behind me. One by one they, too, fell into view around and above. Some fell face-forwards. Some dove upright. Others flailed backwards, panicking outright in the wind. I thought that I recognized them—but I knew nothing of who they were. The wind whipped at my face, overwhelming my hearing and my sight. Frigid air sliced at my skin, trying to freeze the flesh unprotected by my fluttering cloak and whipping clothes. The others, I saw, had similar troubles.
Then again, there was the rising ground…
A panicked voice cried on the wind. The others, united in terror, struggled to slow their descents. Their fears were lost to me. I forced my eyes open, ignoring the pain. My own horror had strangely dissipated.
This felt natural, somehow.
Almost like a…
My eyes flashed. Of course. How could I have forgotten?
“It’s a dream!” I shouted out to the others, turning their heads. “Calm down and let it take you!”
A voice distantly called back: “What?”
“We are asleep!” I shouted at them. “Remember!”
Golden sparks burst around my plummeting body in a dramatic display. Despite the intensity, I oddly felt a sense of comfort overwhelm me—and the sparks only seemed to make me remember more. To my surprise, my descent felt as though it were measurably slowing down…
What is this? What is happening?
“Of course!” One shouted, her body suddenly inflamed by the same odd, sparking magic. Throwing out her arms, she span in place and laughed in a melodic, carrying voice. “We’re holding hands, aren’t we—this is a dream!”
Another voice: “What the hell is she talking about?”
The change meant I could control my free-fall now—or at least to an extent. Dropping headfirst with boots kicked out above me, I whirled a little closer to her. Her long hair billowed crazily around her wild face; the carefree woman laughed at the top of her lungs, making eye contact. I felt I recognized her, and she winked mischievously.
Another snarled on the wind: “That witch!”
We turned away to see the next one exploding with the same bright, golden crackle. Makes sense that this is a dream! Were this the world we left behind, our bodies would incinerate under that kind of power…
I thought of drifting over to her, but she cast us both a bitter glare and drifted further away, Hmph. Better not…
At this point, the rest were clearly falling faster than us. It wasn’t exactly a stretch of the imagination to grasp what they needed to do to survive this plummet.
“You have to remember!” I shouted out to them.
A few others burst into sparks—though they had fallen too far below us for me to hear them. The gust suppressed their trailing voices. Yet, a strong sense of panic filled me. I could see that two of them hadn’t activated yet…
And the ground was gaining very, very quickly.
Seeing that I felt the sparks, though they did not burn, I wasn’t sure what a drop from such great heights would do to them. As a moonbeam caught one of their silhouettes, I recognized platinum blonde hair, twinkling in the light…
Sister, I recognized in swiftly-gaining horror.
“Hey! You! Remember where we are!”
The next one burst into sparks, leaving only her. But, in a matter of moments, the familial stranger would be little more than shredded ribbons in the forest canopy beneath us. If she isn’t outright pulverized against the ground…
There was no time. She couldn’t hear me. But just then, as the winds shifted and her voice carried, I could hear her. The sound put every sense I had into overdrive.
Because she was screaming in terror.
* * *
Banking my shoulder hard, I threw myself towards the closest descender—the carefree angel, her laughter fading. She, too, had heard the echoing howls.
“Hey, you!” She glided apart. “Careful there!”
“Kick me away!” I shouted to her.
“What?”
“I have to save her! Kick me away!”
She glanced downwards! “Away where?”
I’d never catch the girl in time this way. I needed more. Not just one kick… but many. “To the nearest one! Hurry!”
I banked away, and span in an arc to build momentum. And then, I reached deep down into my head with a single command: Forget. I suppressed every last drop of memory that connected me to the room we left before—and though it stung, I grasped tightly onto the beautiful mental picture of a smiling young woman, someone I thought important and irreplaceable… and I squashed it, deep in my mind.
Whoever you are, I’ll find you… but not just yet.
The stranger flipped forwards, her hair rippling against the air as she curled her legs. I hurtled myself towards her, just before my sparks disintegrated; as her bare feet braced against the impact, knees absorbing the force, she bent in and launched me wildly towards the next descender.
The furious old woman barked: “What are you—?”
“Down!” I shouted, pointing to the last of us. “Please! I need to go down!”
But the elder swiftly dodged. She actually dodged me.
I couldn�
��t remember the last time I’d felt so murderous.
Furious at the betrayal, I soared right past her—but my arc suddenly banked a hard left. My cloak caught around my throat as I was yanked back in a swing; glancing over my shoulder revealed her fist on the billowing fabric. In a graceful spin, she redirected my momentum with strength unimaginable—and I was hurled down in a slingshot.
“Go, you fool!”
The last sands slipped through the hourglass…
But the others had seen this now, and they understood. Soaring uncontrollably towards a fierce woman wrapped half-naked in tanned skins and tattoos, she threw her legs around my waist in mid-flight, careening me onwards; my body rocketed towards a haughtier older woman, her own cloak tightly-cropped, intercepting with an ankle grab and flinging me away; and a bare-chested shaman with a milky eye caught me by my wrists, catapulting me towards that final target.
I could make the individual treetops. Remember…
“Take my hand!” I shouted down.
Hurtling backwards, the woman spun in a twirl of the brightest blond hair I’d seen. She threw out both her arms in blind terror… but the angle was wrong. She would land on her shoulders and neck before I touched them.
Her boots were closer. I latched onto one.
“Remember!” I shouted, both to her and myself.
Her eyes sharply blinked. “…E-Elliott?”
And then our bodies struck the trees.
* * *
Trees splintered apart. Branches shattered to pieces. Our boots struck the forest floor in a booming cacophony of sharp fragments and disintegrating wood.
We landing together, wrapped in each other’s arms.
And the golden sparks disappeared.
I stared into her eyes. “Nikki?”
My sister pulled me into a tighter embrace. “Elliott!”
Dazed by the impact, we heard the sound of rupturing forest above. My sister and I shared an immediate glance of understanding; without a word, we braced against each other’s bodies to hurl ourselves apart in opposing dives.
