by Palladian
Everyone seemed to agree and went back to eating lunch. Lex noticed Riss frowning out of the corner of her eye and sighed. At one point when the group was heading back down the trail and Riss and Lex fell slightly behind the others, Riss confronted Lex.
“That was your chance to speak up, you know,” she said, shooting a hard look at her friend.
Lex could feel her shoulders droop. “I know, Riss, I know. It’s just…hell, what would I say? I’ve had some bad dreams? I have more the farther north we come? It probably doesn’t mean anything,” Lex finished, shaking her head as if trying to drive the idea away.
Riss shook her head in return. “You don’t know it’s nothing,” she responded with a dark look.
Miserably, Lex nodded in response, unable to say anything more. Riss was the only one awake when she had her nightmares, and was often the one to calm her down enough to sleep again. Lex felt as if she would be throwing an alarm out to the group for nothing, though, if her fears proved to be only that, so she kept silent.
That evening, however, the nature of the dream changed yet again.
The group of them walked down a quiet city street to their van. Lex could see everyone dressed in the clothes they usually wore on stage, and they all talked with animation about something. Suddenly, a chill ran through Lex and she looked around, but nothing was there except them. They reached the mouth of an alley a moment later, however, and Lex drew back in horror as she saw the reddish-brown eyes hanging in the darkness of the alley. When she turned, seemingly in slow motion, back to the rest of the group to warn them, she woke up.
Lex sat bolt upright in bed, trying to catch her breath. She shut her eyes once to try to blink away the final vision, and then spotted Riss in a chair nearby in the room they shared, laptop open. In the small circle of light that the tiny lamp shed, Lex could clearly read Riss’ watchful, knowing expression.
She opted for changing the subject. “Why is it that you’re always awake late?” Lex murmured as she got out of bed and pulled a chair over to sit next to her friend.
Riss shrugged. “This is my favorite time of day. I always feel more alive when it’s dark; I feel tired when the sun comes up.” She paused for a moment to bring her attention from her computer screen to Lex. “So, same nightmare again?”
Lex rubbed her eyes and shook her head in agreement, figuring there was no reason not to tell her friend. “No, it changed. I dreamed that we’d left a show, and walking to the van I got a bad feeling. A minute later we walked by this alley and there those weird eyes were. I tried to warn everyone, but then the dream ended.”
Shaking her head, Riss sighed. “Are you really sure you don’t want to tell anyone else about this? We don’t know all of the effects the drugs might have had on you. Maybe the dreams mean something.”
Lex snorted a laugh, but in the back of her mind she was thinking about seeing herself through a curtain of water the way she appeared now. “It’s probably nothing, just worry because everything’s going so well.”
“You’re really stubborn, you know that?” Riss asked as she shook her head again and went back to typing. “I know it probably won’t make you feel any better, because the team who’s after us is in the general area, but I’m still showing that they don’t seem to have any active leads on us.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” Lex said, leaning her head back in the chair and resting it on the back. She awoke some time later, hearing Riss getting ready for bed, and she crawled back under the covers, dreamless for the rest of the night.
The farther north they got, however, the more frequent the dreams became. By the time they’d reached the Seattle area and only had a few tour dates left, Lex had been having the dream at least once a night. She tried to be quiet and not wake anyone else, but she had enough disturbed sleep that she’d become irritable. Lex tried to bite her tongue a lot because of it and fade into the background, but she knew the others had noticed.
Casey had put it down to Lex being tired of the tour. “Don’t worry,” the taller woman had said to her friend at one point, “not too much longer now and we’ll be headed home.”
Lex had nodded and smiled quietly, still reluctant to tell Casey the real problem. She kept her fingers crossed that they’d just finish the tour in the next few days and return home with everything exactly the same. Unfortunately, on the first date they were supposed to play in Seattle proper, Lex woke after little sleep to find Kate in the next bed, a t-shirt over her head. Victor stood nearby watching her, a look of concern on his face.
“She said that she had a headache and was having trouble focusing her eye,” he told Lex when she asked.
Lex returned his look of concern as she watched her friend for a few minutes, then gestured Victor over to the little kitchen area where Lex poured some coffee for him and started tea for herself. “Let’s let her sleep a while longer,” Lex said in a low tone. “Hopefully she’ll feel better when she wakes up.”
Kate did awake a while later, but she seemed out of sorts even when she emerged after her shower. “Do you need any headache medicine?” Lex asked, then produced it from her purse when Kate nodded.
The group made it to the venue on time and everything went smoothly once they arrived. The club seemed sizable, like it would hold a couple hundred people on the main and balcony levels. People had already started to arrive as the bands did, and when Jacob’s Hammer went on an hour later, the place seemed packed.
Lex thought the three members of the band sounded great that night, despite the air of slight irritability that had been hanging over the larger group due to Kate and Lex’s moods. Lex felt everyone start to relax as they watched from backstage, Kate paying special attention to the bass player and part-time singer. Lex found herself watching her friend as the band started up one of the songs that she knew Jack sang on.
Changing tides under endless waves
I was watching the mindless days roll by
Ever fine, ever blue
The lightening air around always brings me thoughts of you
Wavering in the fire of ages
Singing sounds are born in timid sky
In time, in mind
The morning trains will ever bring me sight of your face
Lex smiled as she saw Kate seem to completely relax for the first time that day, and she tried to follow suit, smirking as she caught Riss shooting her a knowing look over the top of her computer screen.
The crowd cheered Jacob’s Hammer’s performance for a while once they’d finished their last song, and Lou helped them clear their gear off the stage, then started carrying Alexander’s Army’s gear onstage. Once they set everything up and Victor had walked them through the sound check, the band jumped right into the performance. They started with a song off their first CD and then one off the new CD. Lex found the crowd active that evening and thought that they seemed to have grown since the time Jacob’s Hammer had been on stage. The cheering continued through the beginning of the third song, but as the song played, Lex could tell something felt off. Lex didn’t think it would be something anyone outside of the band could detect, but Kate’s playing seemed a little out of time.
When they broke after the third song, Lex smiled at the crowd for a moment and bowed, then quickly went over to the guitar player. “What’s up?” she asked. “Are you all right?”
Kate held the heel of her hand up to her new eye. “Fuck, Lex, my new eye is acting really funny. I had trouble focusing earlier today, like I said, but I thought it was gone until I got onstage. Now all I can see in that eye is this pair of eyes, brown with red. It’s really weird, but I get the feeling they’re looking for us.”
Lex could feel her mouth hanging open, and a shudder ran down her spine. As soon as she could get some words together, she asked Kate, “Can you get a sense of how close they are?”
Closing her eyes for a moment, Kate seemed to concentrate, then opened them again. “I don’t know exactly, but they seem close by.”
L
ex sighed and glanced out at the crowd as their applause started to die away. “Three more songs and we’ll call it quits. I’ll let Lou and Riss know at the next break,” Lex said, glancing at Kate, who looked grateful.
She didn’t really remember singing the next song, but since it was one of the first ones they’d written, it came so naturally to her by now that she didn’t need to concentrate on it. When the applause came up, she ducked back to Riss first.
“Kate says the only thing she can see in her new eye is those same red ones I’ve been seeing,” Lex murmured into Riss’ ear and watched as the other woman’s eyes grew wide. “She says they’re not far. Two more songs and let’s get out of here.”
Riss gave Lex a serious glance as she nodded. Lex stopped by Lou as she returned to her place on stage and stood on tiptoes to reach his ear. “Two more songs and we’re wrapping up,” she said. “I’ll explain afterwards.”
He looked at her curiously but didn’t argue, nodding his head. The next couple of songs Lex sang on autopilot, but she felt more concerned about Kate stumbling through her parts and whoever might be out there looking for them. Throughout the whole ordeal the crowd still seemed enthusiastic, even though a number of people called for an encore as they finished and many seemed disappointed they’d stopped.
They all packed up their things as fast as possible and Lou started moving their amps and speakers off stage. Lex reached for Riss’ arm as she walked by. “Go get Casey and Victor and meet us out back,” Lex said, to which Riss nodded and disappeared.
Kate nearly tripped as she carried her guitar case offstage and Lex stood near Lou for a moment, speaking quietly into his ear as he put a speaker down. “Kate and I are pretty sure someone is here looking for us. I thought it would be best for us to get out of here as soon as we could. Can you pack this stuff in the van and help Kate?”
Lou nodded, picked up a huge armload of things, and headed out the back door to the loading dock. Lex rushed around backstage and finally found Laura.
“Look, I’m sorry we stopped so early today,” Lex told her. “You know how Kate was having that headache earlier? She’s feeling a lot worse now and we think it would be better if she rested, so I figured it would be better to cut the set short.”
Laura waved a hand in front of her face as if to wave off the idea. “Don’t worry about it, Lex. We’ve got it covered. We’ll just play a little longer tonight, maybe dust off some old songs.”
Letting a sigh of breath out that she hadn’t realized she was holding, Lex managed a small smile. “Thanks, Laura. You guys are real friends.”
“Just get back and get some sleep. I hope Kate feels better. If she doesn’t, I’ll never hear the end of it, anyway,” Laura replied, smiling a little wryly over at Jack and Kate talking.
Once all five of them made it out to the loading dock, Lex had a moment of horror as she saw a large delivery truck and not their van, but after a few seconds that seemed like hours, Lou appeared.
“Sorry,” he explained, “but this truck got here and so I had to move the van. It’s not too far away.”
They started walking, Lex trying to walk quickly, but Casey reached out for her arm. “So, what’s this about, Lex?”
Lex sighed, not sure how to tell the story. Finally, she said, “Well, I’ve been having these dreams. I figured they were just nothing, that I was worried. But they were about this pair of weird eyes following me, well, us really.”
She looked over to see Kate staring at her, dismayed. “Yeah,” Lex continued, nodding at Kate, “so when Kate told me that all she could see in her new eye was the same thing I’d been dreaming about, and that she had a feeling they were close by, I figured we should get the hell out of here. I’m sorry; I should have said something earlier. I screwed up.”
Casey looked over at Lou, who returned her glance with a serious expression. “Don’t waste time being sorry; it may be nothing anyway. Let’s just focus on getting out of here.” She leaned over to whisper urgently into Lex’s ear. “And stop acting so freaked out; you’re taking everyone else along with you.”
Biting her lip, Lex nodded and then took a deep breath. “Thanks for that,” she replied, giving Casey a shaky smile. “Hey, Kate, let’s walk out front,” Lex continued, grabbing her friend’s arm.
Kate’s worried expression had disappeared. “I can see out of that eye again,” she quietly told Lex, then smiled.
“Do you think that means everything’s OK?” Lex asked in hushed tones.
Shrugging, Kate looked forward again. “I have no idea; I just hope it never happens again.” Raising her voice, she turned her head to see Lou. “Hey, how far ahead is the van?”
Lex didn’t hear what Lou answered, however, because a chill ran down her spine and there seemed to be a wind rushing in her ears that blocked the chatter around her out. She began to recognize the quiet city street, the cars, and all of the surroundings.
“Fuck,” she said, coming to a stop. Riss nearly ran into her and the others were suddenly clustered around her. “In the last dream I had, it centered on that alley,” she said softly, pointing to an opening between the buildings several yards away.”
Lou and Casey slid to either side and flanked Riss and Victor, and Lex and Kate stood in front. “Look sharp, everyone,” Casey said in a low voice, and then they started moving together. Some of Lex’s nervousness melted away at that, because they’d stepped naturally into one of the same formations they’d practiced in the team training she’d insisted on. All the same, she found herself swallowing against a dry throat as the approached the mouth of the alley.
The unearthly calm she often sensed just before a fight fell over her. Five people had stepped out of the alley and stood in their path. At the front a slight woman with a smug look blocked the way, shorter than Lex, her brunette hair in a bob hairstyle and her arms crossed, her expression a smug grin. Behind her was a man whose hair looked like stubble and who stood at parade rest. As Lex’s eyes widened, she saw the man leer at Casey and at the same time could feel Lou tense behind her. A slim blonde man half a head shorter than Casey, with artfully tousled hair, leaned against the nearby building. The woman who stood near him, closer to the mouth of the alley, was a head shorter again, her long dark hair in a braid down her back, her arms crossed over her chest, and her head turned away in annoyance. The fifth person was also another woman. The first four wore something similar to the jumpsuits Lex, Casey, and Riss had worn when on a job with the M Agency, but the final woman wore what looked like a one-piece spandex bodysuit. She kept her brown hair in a pixie cut and eyed the group in front of her with suspicion.
“I told you they’d be here,” the one with the bob said, angling her head back slightly as if speaking to the man who looked like he’d been in the military.
“Whatever, Alison,” he said, rolling his eyes.
“Who are you people and what do you want with us?” Casey’s voice rang out loud in the previously quiet street, and Lex couldn’t help sliding her eyes to look at her friend’s annoyed expression. She seemed to be skewering the newcomers with her gaze, so Lex turned to support her friend, giving the people blocking their path a hard look.
“Oh, don’t try to look so innocent!” Alison replied, narrowing her eyes. “Someone in your group was using unnatural power. I could feel it.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Casey thundered. “We’re here minding our own business, not bothering anyone or breaking any laws. There’s no reason for you to harass us.”
“It doesn’t matter to me how much you deny it. I’m going to take you in and the people back home can examine you and find out if you’re telling the truth. It’s the same to me one way or the other.” Alison finished and gave Casey an insincere smile.
“So you’re a dog for MSI,” Riss said, surging forward for a moment to glare at the woman. “Don’t think that’ll save you,” she continued, and Alison looked nervously in Riss’ direction at that comment. “They’ll take you in and experime
nt on you as soon as they feel like it.”
I guess playtime’s over, Lex thought as she took a wider stance between Kate on her right and Lou to her left and slightly to her rear.
Then, a number of things seemed to happen all at once. The woman with the bob scowled at Riss and raised her arm, the blonde man who’d been leaning against the wall disappeared, and the woman who’d been standing next to the blonde said, “You know I’m not going to help you, Alison.”
A heartbeat later, Lex and Kate stepped forward as one, easily skirting the charge of the big man that had been standing behind Alison, now headed for Lou, while at the same time Lex heard a sizzling pop behind the two of them and the smell of something burning filled the air.
Lex gave a quick backward glance to see Victor fiddling with a gun he must have produced from his bag and goggles Lex didn’t ever recall having seen him wear. The thin blonde man sat half-leaning against the wall of the building behind Casey and Riss, looking stunned. Lex turned her head back to the front as Kate tapped on her arm.
“Keep your head in the game,” Kate said with a smile that looked to be all teeth. “You know they’ve got it back there. How about you take the mouthy one and I’ll take the one in the bodysuit? It doesn’t sound like the third one is going to attack, but if she does, whoever finishes first gets dibs, all right?”
“No problem,” Lex said, feeling her answering grin pull wide. “I should be able to finish this in no time at all.”
“You wish,” Kate snorted, grinning even wider. “I’m going to be done so soon I’ll be standing around bored.”
As she approached Alison, Lex’s heart iced over as the woman turned in her direction and the orange light from the street lamp caught her eyes. They seemed to glow red even through the strangely colored light. After a heartbeat, however, Lex started to get angry.
