The Dreamer

by E. J. Mellow

  Hitting the street, we follow the soft blue glow emanating from evenly patterned lampposts, my footsteps quiet against the pavement. This, of course, is from no grace of mine—the boots I wear are constructed to muffle sounds.

  Gazing from building to building, I take in the strange mixture of old and new in which this section of the city is styled. As if the architects suddenly stopped in their construction, skipped a century of design, and began building again in mostly modern material. Brick facades rest next to smooth white walls, Victorian light fixtures are positioned evenly down concrete sidewalks, and wrought iron fences are placed in front of all-glass buildings. What should probably appear like a hodgepodge of forms surprisingly blends together rather well.

  I step to the side as a man on a bicycle passes by, and in the process I almost collide with another on a skateboard, the streets holding their usual constant hum. Straightening my black T-shirt and pants, I resist looking up to what I know will be more civilians careening above on lines, where I just was.

  I still can’t believe I’m here.

  After falling asleep in an alien white room, in the back of a closet, in a spiritual bookstore in New York City (yes, this is all true), I awoke only moments ago in another brightly sterile room.

  It’s the first time I’m here knowing Terra is indeed real. That everything around me exists in another dimension, not a figment of my imagination or the creation of a dream.

  Fiddling with the pockets on my pants, I glance up to another form that greeted me upon my arrival, a man who still walks a few steps ahead. His confident, graceful strides glide silently over our path, and the quiver on his back hardly moves against his broad shoulders as it blends in with the rest of his black attire. As much as I’m enjoying the view from behind, it’s the color I know rests in his gaze that I find myself craving. My guide is one of Terra’s inhabitants, a Nocturna, and one of the first people I met here. He’s part of a race I’ve learned are the watchers of the Dreamers, the caretakers of our sleeping minds, and so far a person who takes up a large portion of my thoughts, both good and bad.

  We haven’t spoken since before traveling the ziplines, and I would ask how much longer until our destination, but I’m enjoying the silence. Using this time to reacquaint myself with the city. Something tells me he knew I would need this.

  Eventually we turn down a small street and make our way through the entrance of a more modern apartment building, where we quickly ascend a few flights in an elevator. My skin buzzes with each second I stand alone beside him, and I keep myself from being dramatic by thanking God as the doors finally open, granting me a sense of escape.

  After a few more steps down a dark hallway, he leads us to an apartment at the end. Pausing, he grasps the door handle and turns to face me, finally giving me what I was hungering for all those minutes ago. With my heart ricocheting in my chest, I look into his unnatural blue eyes and dangerously handsome face, seeing the smile tug at the corner of his mouth. “Welcome home, Molly,” Dev says as he pushes open the door.

  Everything is the same as the last time I was here. The interior is sparse of any real décor, but simple in off-white and gray coloring, and the familiar large beige couches sit in the lower portion of the living room. The warm light of the fireplace mixes with the cold blue-white of the fixtures around the apartment, fixtures that burn with the energy of the Dreamers, the Navitas.

  Dev walks toward me while removing the strap across his chest and indicates that I should do the same. “Where are Tim and Aveline?” I ask, handing him my quiver before searching for the roommates who share this space with him.

  “Tim is at City Hall, and Aveline is somewhere of equal unimportance, I’m sure,” Dev says casually as he places our equipment away.

  I’m not exactly positive what Tim is to these two, except a sort of father figure. Aveline is Dev’s Nocturna partner. Not in a romantic sense, but his companion in their duties here in Terra. All inhabitants of Terra train for combat, Vigil included, but not every Nocturna decides to become a warrior and guard the land’s borders as Dev, Aveline, and Tim do. Others filter into the various duties required in the city, including helping to monitor human dreams to spot potential developments for new technology and advancements in society.

  “Let me show you your room.” Dev is suddenly by my side and places his hand on my back to guide me forward.

  I swallow, forcing away the shivers that threaten to course down my body from the contact. I was hoping something would have changed when I met with Dev again. That a brotherly affection would have taken hold between us once my boyfriend, Jared, and my relationship was more cemented.

  I barely hold in a snort from my naivety.

  Dev’s body next to mine is like being near a giant magnet, specifically one that’s annoyingly good looking and radiates confidence, self-composure, and desires that are usually found in dark, dangerous places.

  I’ve never met anyone like him, and all that he is intrigues a part of me I never thought existed. So as happy as I am with Jared, I can’t ignore what Dev does to me, though that’s exactly what I’m going to try really freakin’ hard to do.

  After passing closed door after closed door—with me wondering if Dev’s quarters are nearby—we stop at the end of the hall. I peek into a room much like one I’d expect to find in this apartment––simple and clean. It has the same wooden floors as the rest of the place, a white modern dresser on one end with a circular mirror above, two decent-sized windows on the adjacent walls, which are lined with sheer white drapes, and a plain queen bed resting in the center. There are a few unembellished lamp fixtures around the room, as well as a ceiling light that swirls with the Navitas and casts the area in a low blue glow. It gives off a cold warmth that’s surprisingly comforting.

  “This is one of our extra bedrooms,” Dev explains as I walk in. “Mine is just across the hall.” The suggestiveness in his voice isn’t lost on me, and I refuse to turn and catch the smile that I know matches his tone.

  The thought of Dev so near to where I’ll be sleeping has my stomach in a fluster, but I play it off like it’s the most unimportant news in the world. “Why do you guys have beds when you don’t need to sleep?” I run my hand over the pristine white comforter.

  Dev gives me a look like I can’t seriously be asking that question. When I stay silent, waiting on his response, his mouth twitches from suppressing a grin. “Beds can be used for things other than sleep.”

  Oh.

  Oh!

  I can’t help it. I go crimson.

  “Don’t tell me you just use them to sleep?” He raises a brow. “That would be…disappointing to find out. Actually”—he scans my body with no shame—“that would be rather interesting.”

  I shoot him a glare. “You are disgusting.”

  “I can be a lot of things, Molly.” He leans against the doorframe, the corner of his mouth inching up. “Especially in this room.”

  Oh Lord.

  “Very mature.” I eye roll. “Now please, if you’re quite done…” I step up and give him a light shove toward the exit “I’d like to have some privacy while I settle in. Let me know when it’s time to train.”

  His smile widens at my annoyance. “I’ll be back to bring you down. If you end up taking a nap, try not to dream about me too much,” he says with a wink before I shut the door in his face, which does nothing to block the sound of his chuckle as he walks away.

  If this is how it’s going to be the whole time I’m here, I might not make it.

  Slouching on the bed, I think about everything that’s happened to me up until this point, and how here I sit in a dimension that is connected to my own like the very nerves that run through my body.

  I can still see the white room at the spiritual bookstore Rae led me to, the one way to enter Terra where my actual body stays sleeping for days so I can train here uninterrupted. It will be weird returning to my day job. Even when I’m unsure of the things I’ll be doing here, I know they
will feel much more important than what I do at the marketing firm back on Earth. Well, I don’t think anyone can really argue that, given that I’m basically meant to save all mankind from a possible world war. Yeah, a smidgen more important, I’d say. I still have no clue how one Dreamer is meant to make a difference in helping ease the growing number of Metus, which feed off of the corruption of human minds.

  Lying back with a sigh, I study the swirling light above my head, my thoughts drifting with the rhythm of the liquid that fills it. Thinking about what lies ahead, I can’t help flying back to the past, to the moment of recently closing my eyes in my world and feeling my body shift away, searching for another place.

  —∞—

  There was much of nothing as I waited in the abyss. I could sense my restlessness to open my eyes and begin, to accept my role as the Dreamer and embark on learning my abilities and powers. But my body resisted, taking forever to catch up with my thoughts and keeping me in blackness.

  Eventually the void began to take shape, and I sensed my surroundings—a cool surface against my back, a bright light under my lids, a hand against my own, and the whisper of voices.

  Blinking my eyes open, my heart stuttered at the figure before me, and a grin formed on my lips. Constant day-old scruff, buzzed raven hair, and piercing eyes all rested in an otherworldly handsome face hovering above mine.

  “Hi,” I said after a moment of us staring at the other.

  “Hello.” He smiled.

  “Fancy seeing you here.”

  Dev raised an eyebrow. “Were you expecting someone else?”

  “Actually, I was expecting many someones—oh, you are here.” Sitting up, I found Elena, a Vigil and one of Terra’s elders, standing at the end of the table I was on. Wrapped all in white, her perfect shoulder-length blonde hair was swept back to reveal her very not elderly glowing complexion. Before I knew that Elena was one of the more powerful Vigil—another Terra race that interacts with Dreamers in their awake states as a sort of guardian angel to their destinies—I could tell she was important. She seemed to radiate the power of the sun, making her a force that you desperately wanted to look at but strained your eyes if you did.

  “Welcome, once again, to Terra Somniorum, Molly,” she said in her authoritative, calm voice.

  “Thanks.” I turned distractedly to take in the stark white room. It reminded me of the holding cell I found myself being escorted to the time I tried to make my way into a Council meeting unannounced. The similar surroundings allowed me believe we were in, or close to, City Hall—the center of Terra.

  “How do you feel?” she asked.

  “Fine.” I glanced between her and Dev. “Why? Should I be feeling differently?”

  “No, fine is perfect. I take it Rae did a proper job of guiding you here?”

  “Yes.”

  Elena nodded contentedly and glanced toward the door a beat before Rae strode in. He let out a small sigh of relief at seeing me and smiled his radiant, sunny smile, teeth white against his dark skin.

  “That was fast,” he said, brushing his fingers through his tight blond curls.

  “Was it?”

  “Yeah, you pretty much just closed your eyes in New York when I portaled here.”

  “She was ready,” Elena said, staring at me with her ominous eyes.

  “Can you stand?” Dev offered his hand, helping me hop off the table. “This is an interesting sleep ensemble you have on today.” He smirked as he appraised my baggy sweatpants and tee.

  “I thought it was rather amusing myself,” Rae agreed.

  I regarded them both peevishly, and without another word quickly brought up the image of the black T-shirt, pants, and boots that are the uniform of the Nocturna.

  Surprised, they both stepped back as my clothing rapidly changed shape and settled into what I desired. Elena watched with a spark of intrigue.

  “Is that better?” I eyed them sweetly.

  Dev was the one who recovered faster. “If only you could change into what I’m imagining.”

  I made a face of disgust as Rae chuckled next to him.

  “All right, gentleman,” Elena began, “I would like to escort her out and explain a few things before she leaves with you, Dev, and is taken to her quarters.”

  “I’m not starting my training now?”

  “You will, but first I’d like you to rest a little. Much of what we’ll be doing today will take a lot out of you, and it would be preferred if you were settled before we began.”

  “But aren’t I technically resting now?”

  Elena smiled. “It would also be best if you stopped thinking about your body in New York and thought of your body here as its own.”

  I nodded, though still not understanding how that would be possible.

  The four of us traveled down the white sterile hallways of what Elena explained was the Dreamer Containment Center—a building not far from City Hall that resided mostly underground. Two Vigil guards walked in front and two behind. It was hard not to feel like we were being led through a prison.

  Elena stopped in front of a new hallway connecting to the one we were walking through. “Down there is where your physical training will be held. It’s fitted with all the material and rooms that are required,” Elena explained as she began to move again. “I believe Rae will do your physical lessons today.”

  I looked to Rae, who shot me a wink.

  After making our way down a plethora of nondescript corridors, and losing my sense of direction more than once, we stopped in front of an all-white door with a glowing blue lightning bolt resting in its center. It was a symbol I noticed also decorated the armbands of our fellow Vigil guards and something I’d seen a few Nocturna wear as well. I wondered more than once if it was the emblem of Terra Somniorum.

  After a nod from Elena, one Vigil quickly pressed a code into a keypad, and with a huff of air the door retracted into the wall, and she stepped through. As soon as I entered the room, an onslaught of pressure formed in my head, and I shivered. Glancing down, all the hairs on my arms now stood on end, and a strange wave of euphoric energy rushed through me. Something in the air made me want to take in large breaths, like I couldn’t get enough of it.

  “You okay?” Dev was suddenly by my side.

  Glancing at him in a daze, I found myself thinking how small he looked, how fragile—a thought that went against everything I knew Dev to be. But yet I couldn’t stop thinking it. Like a shift in eyesight, I could suddenly see through his skin, a strange-colored blood running through his veins, red mixed with glowing white strands of energy. I saw where it entered his heart and felt it beat in my head. I watched his glowing lungs expanding and contracting with each breath. How beautiful it all was, but how simply it could be snuffed out. How easily I could snuff it out if I merely wished the energy to stop flowing, for his heart to stop beating.

  “Molly?” Dev’s concerned voice shook me out of my trance, making the energy I saw so easily flowing through him disappear—my eyesight returned to normal.

  What was that?

  A hand was pressed lightly against my shoulder, and I spun around, feeling a tug in my core. Elena stood before me, eyes penetrating my own and shifting through thoughts I was unsure belonged to her or me. Whatever she was searching for, she seemed to have found, for her lips pursed and then relaxed. “Interesting.”

  “What is?” I asked with worry.

  “Soon, Molly Spero. We’ll get into it all soon,” she said quietly and motioned me forward.

  Before following Elena, I stole a glance back at Dev, who was regarding me with uncertainty until Rae drew his attention away. Swallowing away that strange moment, I returned my focus to the room, taking in the massive domed space and alabaster square paneling lining its entirety. Searching for the light source, I found none—the room seemed to be lit simply because it wished to be.

  As Elena and I walked forward, a shape began to rise and unfold from the center of the room, snapping and shifting to final
ly settle into a chair you’d find at a dentist’s office, except this chair was all sleek and simple in design. It appeared to be wrapped in the soft white material of the sleeping pod I laid in at the bookstore. Despite the presence of that comfortable addition, the object terrified me. What was it for? Was I to lie in that thing? And if so, what was to be done with me in it?

  I searched for Dev again, to see him studying our surroundings with narrowed eyes, his expression openly revealing he didn’t like this room, which did nothing to help my unease. Rae was off to the side, talking to another Vigil guard.

  “Molly,” Elena called as she rested her delicate hand on the chair, “this is where you will train with me on using your Navitas as well as accessing the memories of your predecessors.”

  “I’ll have to sit in that thing?”

  “Don’t worry. It’s not as bad as it might appear. You will need to be in this when I give you memories, but we won’t need it when we practice with your powers.”

  I gingerly poked the seat’s material. It molded to my fingers effortlessly, just like the white coffin. “How will I receive the memories?” I couldn’t help but imagine ancient torture devices and pliers.