by E. J. Mellow
Aveline shifted for the tenth time beside him, and he wanted to tell her to hold still. He had so many questions, and the last thing he wanted was to scare the girl off. This was the first Dreamer he’d seen in the flesh, not reduced to pixels on a screen or displayed through Navitas imagery. He wasn’t sure what he ever expected if given the opportunity to meet a Dreamer, but he was pretty certain Molly wasn’t it.
Watching her take in their surroundings, he noted her features remained statuesque as a gentle breeze danced through her hair and sent wisps across her cheek. In the next instant her composure jilted, and her whole body stiffened as she glanced down. On a choked gasp, she threw her hands over her chest, as if realizing for the first time her attire. The mortification etched on her face pushed a chuckle out of Dev, and Molly’s head snapped up to glare at him. Oh, she’s just too fun.
“We should go.” Aveline fiddled with her Arcus strap before turning to him. “Dev! Are you listening?”
“Aveline, we can’t just leave her here.” The thought alone made him anxious. These were the very people they lived and died to protect. How his partner could so easily abandon their sense of duty was simply lost on him, not to mention disappointing.
“And why not?” Aveline asked.
“It’s not safe. We can’t have her wandering around. This has never happened before, that either you or I can ever recall.”
“Okay, so what do you suggest we do then?”
Dev brushed a hand over his head. “We need to make sure she’s okay until she wakes up.”
Aveline barked out a laugh. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you? What even makes you think she will wake up? I for one don’t want to waste my day sticking around to find out. We have patrols to run.”
“Don’t you mean night?” The Dreamer surprised him with her question.
“Excuse me?” Aveline cut a glance her way.
“Well…you said you didn’t want to waste your day, but it’s obviously night out.” Molly gestured to the sky.
“Yeah, okay, night…whatever you say, Dreamer,” Aveline scoffed, and Dev would have told his partner to stop being such a Metus spawn if he didn’t see the gleam of defiance in Molly’s dark gaze—a hint of a worthy adversary. Something told him she could handle Aveline just fine.
“Why do you keep calling me Dreamer?” Molly asked, an edge in her tone.
Ignoring Molly, Aveline faced him with a look that clearly stated her patience had run dry—not that she had much to begin with. “Okay, Dev, I’ve obviously lost you. I’m going to finish the rounds because that’s what we are here to do. If you want to stay and play babysitter, be my guest.”
He sighed. “This is what Tim would want us to do, Ave. You know if we left now, with her still here, and something were to happen, we would get strung out by our toes in City Hall. Aren’t you in the least bit curious?”
Aveline gave a fleeting glance to Molly before turning back to him. “No.”
He shook his head. “Fine, go. But I’m staying put and making sure she gets back okay.”
Aveline breathed out an exasperated sigh. “All we need to do is leave and then report this to Tim. He’ll take care of it.”
“We can report it after she leaves,” Dev said.
“Uh, excuse me again, guys,” Molly chirped in, “but where am I leaving to? I still don’t understand anything that’s happening.”
“Whatever.” Aveline rolled her eyes. “I’m going. You have fun with that.” She jerked her chin in the direction of the Dreamer and, with one last pointed look at Dev, turned to quickly make her way back to the city.
Leaving them alone
— 3 —
LEANING AGAINST THE elm, Dev observed Molly watching Aveline grow smaller in the distance, one of Molly’s arms still draped protectively over her body as her long hair stirred softly around her face. She seemed so perfect, even in her current nervousness, and he wondered if all Dreamers were this way.
Eventually dark eyes turned to him, their deep pools twinkling the reflection of the shooting stars above, and he was momentarily unable to look away. How monotonous his days had become, how routine. Even with the slow rise of Metus, he was growing bored, listless. And he knew something would have to change fast before the past crept in, as it always did, taking up space in his seconds of rest. The appearance of this Dreamer was more than he could have hoped for.
With a frown, she blinked away from their connection and began to stand. Without thinking, and in an instant, Dev was beside her, helping. Her skin was cool and smooth, and his head swam unexpectedly as it was filled with her scent of honeysuckle and mint—a rare fragrance in these lands. Resisting the urge to lean in and graze his nose along her neck, Dev was momentarily distracted by the sight of a bandage wrapping one of her wrists.
Noticing where his attention was, Molly moved it from his view. He glanced down at her, their faces inches apart, and he suddenly became very aware of the curve of her hip, which fit seamlessly against his side.
As they remained staring, Molly shivered, and the reaction made him want to bring her into his arms—a sensation he hadn’t felt in a long time.
“Are you cold?” he asked.
“Uh, no,” she said, clearing her throat and moving away.
Dev watched as she fumbled with wiping debris from her clothes. “Need help?”
Her head whipped up in shock. “No.”
“Just trying to be polite,” he said with appeasing hands raised and a crooked smile.
With a scowl, Molly concentrated on the surrounding landscape again, and Dev wondered if this experience wasn’t that strange for her, given that she dreamt something different every night. Would this end up being just another imagined story, lost and forgotten among her many? The thought put weight on his chest.
“So where are we?” Molly asked, glancing over her shoulder.
“We’re in your dream,” he replied automatically.
“Really?” She lifted a brow. “Then who are you? I’ve never seen you before. So how am I recalling you here?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Dev asked, gesturing to himself. “I’m the man of your dreams.”
Her eyes bulged, and Dev pressed his lips together to stifle a laugh. She’s too easy.
“I highly doubt that,” Molly bit out and looked away. After running a frustrating hand through her hair, she stomped forward.
“Where are you going?” Dev was quick to catch up to her.
“Oh, so you’re allowed to ask questions, but I’m not?”
“If I recall correctly, you’ve asked questions.”
“Yeah, none of which you’ve answered truthfully.” She made a sharp turn away from him, but Dev’s speed rivaled hers, and in a flash he walked backward in front of her.
“Why do you think I haven’t answered truthfully?” he asked.
“Because I don’t dream.”
Dev stopped dead, and Molly faltered to keep herself from running into him. “What did you say?” He frowned down at her.
“I said, I don’t dream. Well not really, not like this.” She motioned around them.
“You don’t dream?” he asked, more so he could hear it from his own lips. A Dreamer who didn’t dream…it made no sense.
“Uh…not really. I mean, we all dream, I guess, right? At least that’s what they say. I can never remember them when I wake up though. I don’t know. I’ve just never felt so awake in a dream before. Like right now, I find it impossible that I could be sleeping when…when I can feel and smell and see so much.” On that, Molly closed her eyes while taking in a deep breath, and Dev took in the wave of calm that settled around her. She was even more startlingly beautiful like this, and when her eyes slowly opened to lock on to his, Dev knew in that instant he was in trouble. “Yeah, well, you get what I mean.” She struggled to meet his gaze, tucking a strand of hair behind one ear.
Who was this girl? Dev thought. Why did she come here? For everything that happened in Terra had a purpose,
a reason for existing. Molly showing up couldn’t have been a random mistake.
“You do realize people consider staring to be rude,” Molly eventually said with a frown, and Dev watched as her cheeks flushed redder the longer he kept his attention on her. Knowing he was the cause slipped a smile onto his face.
“Am I making you uncomfortable?” he asked.
Her chin tipped up, and her mouth popped open to respond, but no words came out. They seemed stuck in her throat as her wide, unblinking eyes became lost in their gaze, and though she was looking straight at him, she seemed in a whole other place, a different time. That’s when he smelled the sweet scent of Navitas, and like a mirage forming in the desert, their surroundings changed to reveal a blazing hot sun illuminating down on a tropical island, where they stood. Salty air pushed against his back and through his T-shirt as the sound of waves hitting a shore encircled them, the night of Terra a distant ring.
On a gasp, Dev took startling steps back, absorbing the quickly manifested illusion—an illusion that crunched under his boots and warmed his skin. In all of Terra… Tipping his head back, he almost burst into tears to find a blue sky orbiting their newly created oasis. And though his eyes squinted at the unfamiliar introduction of daylight, he stared and stared and stared at the sun until they watered and ached at the back of his skull. That’s when he found himself dropping to the sand and stretching out, forgetting entirely whom he was with and where they were supposed to be. This was simply amazing, beyond anything he ever thought could exist on the other side of Terra’s dimensional barriers. Sure, they had places with manifestations of beaches, but this…this was pure from the source. With the new sensation of heat on his skin, he smiled wide, imagining what it must be like to be human, to live your days when the sun rose and sleep when it set. His grin grew wistful. He had no idea how long this would last, but he knew without a doubt who created it.
“What are you doing?” Molly’s amused voice floated over to him, and he twisted in the sand as she took a seat beside him.
“What are you thinking about?” he asked, and she blinked as if his question caught her off guard.
“What do you mean?”
“What were you thinking about a couple moments ago? When we were in the field?”
“Uh…nothing. I can’t remember,” she said too quickly and bit her bottom lip. Though he could tell she was holding something back, Dev didn’t press the matter, his own hypothesis taking shape for how this island could have been created. He studied the way the sun softly brushed along her skin and deepened the freckles already peppered across her nose. This was how she looked to most, glowing under the light of day, and he hungered to take in every detail.
Digging his fingers into the sand beside him, he hit up against something solid. Glancing down, he found the tip of a shell peeking out of the grains and plucked it up, tracing the spiral design to its center. Terra’s beaches didn’t have shells, but he’d seen them in pictures. This was another reminder that what they made in Terra was a mere imitation of the real thing. He wondered what else the ecosystem engineers left out in their creations to mimic Earth and if they did it consciously or not.
“That’s a good find,” Molly said, looking at what he held in his hand. “You usually don’t get one completely intact like that.”
Dev peered up at her, fascinated by the way her hair glittered red under the sun. “Yes,” he said, no longer thinking about the shell. “It is a good find.”
Under his unrelenting gaze, the color on her cheeks deepened again, and she turned away to stare at the shallow sea surrounding them. A lazy smile slipped onto Dev’s lips as he did the same, picking up where the water ended and the familiar dark field in the distance began.
For once, Dev’s mind was clear of any unwanted thoughts, a calm settling over him that he hadn’t felt since…well, since almost forever. Eventually, a movement out of the corner of his eye brought his attention back to Molly, who was playing with the bandage on her wrist.
“What happened?” Dev asked as he gently brought her arm to him, but all too quickly she pulled it back.
“I have a burn,” she said.
“A burn?” Dev drew his brows together. “Did you do it to yourself?”
“Oh no! Nothing like that.”
“Like what, then?”
“You’d never believe me if I told you.”
“Try me.”
Her soft laughter flowed over him. “Okay, I got struck by lightning.”
Dev sat up straighter. “Right now? Before you came here?”
“No, and I guess yes…a couple of days ago. Why?”
He didn’t respond at first, too busy shifting through a multitude of rapid thoughts and wondering if the lightning had rewired her dream travel. After all, it was Terra’s symbol for their kinship with Earth. They were taught in their youth that the same energy they needed to survive, the Navitas, was also found in the lightning that flashed during human storms. It was Terra’s dimensional connection bursting through into Earth’s atmosphere, the only hint of the existence of their world. “But that doesn’t explain your wrist being bandaged,” Dev said, glancing back to the subject in question.
“I was wearing jewelry, and it burned me when I got hit.” She lightly touched the white material. Dev watched the gentle movement, continuing to spin the seashell between his fingers.
“So does this kind of thing happen often?” Molly asked, nodding to their surroundings.
Taking in the crashing of the waves hitting the shoreline and the sea air mixing with the sun’s rays, Dev glanced to her. “No…I wouldn’t say that it does.”
“Well, I really hope I don’t forget this dream.”
Hearing Molly’s words sent an urge flooding through him to tell her the truth, that this wasn’t all a dream. For Dev strangely didn’t want her to forget either, but he remained silent, instinctively knowing he shouldn’t mention any more about this place. He was probably interfering already by talking to her. If she was meant to come back, she’d come back. Dev definitely had no say in the matter, learning the hard way that fate held the cards with things like this.
“What’s happening?” Molly’s anxious voice brought him out of his thoughts, and he watched her helplessly search around her legs, as if something were touching them.
But there was nothing, only air, and Dev frowned, knowing the cause. “You’re waking up.”
“Waking up?” Molly’s panicked eyes found his, her words suddenly sent away in a hasty breeze. Then it all happened quickly—on the sound of her next gasp, she vanished, taking the illusion she created with her.
Dev was left leaning in the cold grass, the brightness instantly blinking to darkness, the field once again back in its place and painted in night. Breathing deep, he attempted to settle an ache blossoming in his chest, desperate to catch any last gust of sea air or honeysuckle fragrance. Anything to prove she was just there.
But there was nothing, only the scent of midnight dew and the rhythmic buzz of insects in the grass.
Frustrated, Dev balled his hands into fists, instantly loosening one as he felt a solid object in his palm. Glancing down, he was surprised to find the seashell he twirled only moments ago, its white surface now a dull gray with the absence of sun. He turned it over, tracing the spiral design again. Why did this remain?
His heart picked up, and he lifted his head to gaze at the shooting stars above, searching for any that might burn brighter than the rest, as a sudden certainty began to mix in with all his confusion.
She would return, he thought, grasping the shell more firmly. He knew she would return. What he didn’t know was whether he could handle the next thing she’d leave behind.
— 4 —
THE SLURPING GREW louder, and Dev wiped away an errant splatter of sauce when it hit his cheek. “You know, I’m pretty sure you’re meant to chew that,” he said, cocking a brow at his large friend across the table. Rae twirled more spaghetti onto his fork while simulta
neously shoving a meatball into his mouth with another.
“I chew,” Rae said once he swallowed the ball whole.
“From the splatter stains covering the table and myself, I contest that statement.”
“Well, I have to suck them up first,” he mumbled through a new mouthful of food. “Only way to get those slippery guys in there.”
Sitting in their favorite restaurant, Dev lazily skimmed over the small intimate establishment located on the second floor of Anima—a biodome of Earth’s ecosystems, where Terra agriculturists harvested a majority of the food. Anima was an imposing, mostly glass structure that took up a large section in the center of the city and was frequented by the Nocturna, for it was the only place one could find sunlight in their world. Even if it was a replica of the real thing, it was better than the alternative their lives only allowed them.
Dev’s attention returned to Rae, and he watched with awed terror as his companion began folding spaghetti between slices of bread. They had been coming to Elario’s since they first met a decade ago at a security summit, and while Dev could never quite match Rae’s gusto for sustenance, he could certainly appreciate a fine meal when he came across it—and Elario’s was the best. It was reviewed by the Vigil as an exact match in quality, if not better, of the food often found in Earth’s small Italian towns, so it was no shock that it had become a coveted spot.
Quickly leaning back, Dev barely missed getting hit with another spray of sauce, marveling at how none of it made its way onto his friend. Rae’s dark skin and blond hair remained clean despite his aggressive efforts to consume his meal as rapidly as possible. “So what do you think?” Dev asked, bringing their conversation back to its original topic.
“About which part?” Rae didn’t look up as he ate another forkful.
“About her being sent for a reason.”
“I think we can find meaning in all things,” Rae said while motioning to a passing waiter for more wine.
