by Gareth Otton
Tad groaned. “God, now Norman will be really mad. The last thing he wants is something new like this popping up.”
“Tad, you’re still not getting it. Think about it, what are dreamcatchers supposed to be for?”
“Uh… I don’t know. I never really paid much attention before… Wait. They’re for stopping bad dreams, right?”
“And what’s another name for a bad dream?” Stella asked.
“A night… mare. Holy shit!” Both puppies jumped as Tad shouted the last statement, alerting him to just how loud he was. If Stella minded she didn’t show it. Instead, she grinned and waited for him to arrive at the inevitable conclusion. “If dreamcatchers stop nightmares, we could use them to stop nightmares in the Borderlands.”
“Exactly,” Stella said, laughing. “The Prime Minister won't go mad, he’s going to be singing our praises. We need to find out more about this. Can anyone make them, or do they need to be powered up or something? Will any design do, or are they all different? There are loads of questions that need answers, but imagine if we could actually stop these nightmares by just hanging a dreamcatcher in every bedroom in the Borderlands.”
“It can’t be that simple?” Tad asked, not willing to believe there might actually be an end to this.
“I doubt it,” Stella agreed. “Nothing ever is for us. But it’s more than what we had before. I think you’ll get your wish though.”
“What wish?”
“I don’t think the Prime Minister will stop you looking into these murders. If this is right, those two people who came after you hold the answers to stopping nightmares once and for all. We need to catch them and bring them in.”
She was about to say something else, but there was a knock on the door. When Tad turned around, he found Denise waiting.
“Sorry to interrupt whatever has you both so flushed like that,” she teased. “But I’ve got a call on hold that I’m sure you’ll want to take.”
“The Prime Minister?” Stella guessed.
“Oh… Yeah… Well, Amelia anyway. She sounds super pissed. I don’t know what you guys have been up to, but—”
“Don’t worry about it, just put her through,” Stella interrupted as she rushed around her desk to wait by the phone. “I’ll deal with Amelia. Thanks, Denise.”
Looking surprised, Denise just nodded and headed back out, closing the door behind her.
Tad turned back to find Stella grinning at him.
“You know, this might be the first time I’m looking forward to speaking with this woman,” she said before the phone started ringing. Stella picked it up and said, “Hello, Stella speaking.”
She had barely finished those three words when Tad heard the Prime Minister’s voice, not Amelia’s, yelling down the phone. Seeing Stella’s grin grow wider and wider as she patiently waited for the shouting to end, Tad struggled to hold in his laughter. She was loving this, and why not? They might finally have some good news for a change.
Deciding not to jinx them with his presence, Tad mouthed that he’d see her later, then after a goodbye wave from Stella he changed the channel.
11
Friday, 08th July 2016
18:37
“Thank’s doc. I owe you one.”
“You keep up the good work, that’s payment enough for me. Make this world safe again,” he said before he turned around and headed for his car.
Mitena watched the diminishing figure until Kuruk’s contact, the man who had been feeding them criminal dreamwalker names, closed the door and turned to face her. Mitena barely noticed.
Keep up the good work?
After last night, how could they possibly think they were in a position to do anything of the kind. After what happened to her brother…
The thought drifted away as she realised her brother’s contact was talking. In all the time she’d known him, this was the first time he’d spoken to her directly.
“What?” she asked.
Realising she hadn’t been listening, he swore.
“I said, you two don’t know how much you’ve fucked up this time.”
Tired and upset, it took Mitena a few seconds to get her head around that. When she did, the tiredness and anger slipped away.
“You want to run that past me again?” she asked in a quiet voice.
“You fucked up!” he screamed at her, at the end of his patience. The thing is, Mitena was also at the end of hers.
Heat flared on her left shoulder as she activated a tattoo, and the world slowed. The angry man’s mouth was still open, spittle flying but frozen in this single moment of time. His eyes were hard, his veins bulged, and he was red faced with anger. She wondered if his hair lost its colour because of stress-induced anger like this, and how long before it would lead to a heart attack.
She didn’t wonder long because her anger was too sharp to ignore. So far this project was one nightmare after another, and she was fed up of ungrateful bastards like this while her brother lay in bed, severely injured. He needed a hospital, but they couldn’t risk taking him to one because this man kept pushing, feeding Kuruk’s rage to make their mission ever larger. The least he could do was appreciate her effort.
She ran towards him, using the power of the Dream in her tattoo to make her steps faster. The frozen moment of time sped up as she moved and the world became slow motion rather than stopped. She was still far quicker than this man was prepared for, but he had time to register that she had moved and for his eyebrows to climb his face before she had him by the throat and pushed him backwards.
Just as the tattoo grew painfully hot she pressed a knife against his neck and let go of the power.
“Don’t,” she snarled as his eyes snapped wide with terror. “You twitch for your gun and I’ll cut your throat before you even now I moved. We clear?”
His head twitched as he tried to nod.
“I’ve had as much as I can take of your attitude,” she snarled. “We’re out there risking our lives for this cause you like to speak of so much, and you give us nothing but shit. We know last night didn’t go well, that’s why my brother is so injured. But these are fucking dreamwalkers… the actual Dreamwalker, in case you’ve forgotten. This was the guy who created a tornado, stopped a tidal wave with a gesture, and is probably the most dangerous man in the world. You think you would have lasted longer than half a second against him? Show some respect, you arrogant prick.”
Mitena’s hand was shaking as her rage played out through her. This wasn’t like her at all. She was normally shy, preferring to be shut away with a good book than anything else. But after half a year of hunting and killing, of constant terror and seeing her idea to help her brother get taken to levels she’d never dreamed of, she’d had enough.
He opened his mouth to speak, but only choking noises came out until Mitena relaxed her strangle hold. Her knife stayed in place though and he looked no more comfortable even when he could breathe again.
“I’m sorry,” he croaked. “I didn’t mean—”
“Don’t lie to me,” Mitena snapped, not believing him. “Just show some respect.”
Then she let go completely, tapping that still warm dreamcatcher to carry her away from him fast enough to remind him what she was capable of.
He doubled over, sucking huge lung fulls of air and coughing as he massaged his throat. It took a while before he was breathing normally, and Mitena felt a little bad. She had forgotten how much force she used when moving at speeds like that. She was lucky not to collapse his windpipe.
When he stood his eyes were bloodshot and there were tears stains on his cheek which he hastily rubbed away.
“I’m sorry,” he repeated. “I lost sight of everything you and Kuruk have been doing for us and was only concentrating on the bigger picture.”
“Just explain yourself, how did we fuck up beyond what I already know.”
He winced at her wording, remembering just what it cost him to use that phrase, but he also couldn’t shy away from her
question.
“By letting them live. The Dreamwalker saw the tattoos you’re using. He’s put the clues together and showed up at one of your old crime scenes with his girlfriend and two of those dogs you and Kuruk spoke about.”
“There’s two of them?” she asked, unnerved by that. Dreamwalker people was one thing, but dogs, that scared her. They were just puppies and already they were terrifying. She didn’t want to think what they could grow into.
“There were today. Long story short, they reactivated one of your dreamcatchers and though they got out of there quickly, I saw the look in that woman’s eyes. She’s smart, that one. She’s put it together fast.”
“Put what together?” Mitena asked.
“I’m thinking they’re onto you using dreamcatchers now. They’ve also seen you use them in multiple different ways, so they know what you can use them for. I think it's safe to assume it will be harder to surprise dreamwalkers after this.”
“Shit,” Mitena swore. Then, just because that wasn’t enough, she repeated the word five times. “I knew this was getting out of hand,” she muttered.
“It’s just a setback. We can deal with this. We need to be more careful going forward. Scope out situations, only attack when we know we have overwhelming force. Just because they know we’ve got a weapon that can hurt them, doesn’t mean they can defend against it.” When Mitena didn’t look any happier he hastily added, “But you’re right, it’s bad. We need to take some time and think over the implications of this. We’ll regroup when we can better deal with it and come up with a new plan.
“Look, Mitena. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have yelled like that. I really appreciate what you’re doing. I’m just an angry loud-mouth at times. It won’t happen again.”
Feeling awkward, Mitena nodded to say she accepted his apology.
He hurriedly collected his things and headed for the door. Less than two minutes later he was in his car and driving off, and Mitena wondered just what the hell she would do next.
She looked at the ceiling toward her brother’s room. Even after their grandparents died, neither felt comfortable taking the master bedroom. She wondered what they’d say about the mess she found herself in and couldn’t keep her tears from falling as she imagined their disappointment. Well, her dad would be disappointed, he always had high hopes for his children. Her mother never cared so long as they were happy. All she’d want was for them to watch out for each other. She could accept anything so long as Mitena was there for Kuruk and he there for her.
Wiping away her tears, she acted on her mother’s wishes and headed up the stairs, cracking the door to her brother’s room. It turned out she was just in time.
She thought he was asleep, knocked out by the drugs the doctor gave him as he set the bones in his arm, plastered it up, and did what he could to treat the hideous burns on Kuruk’s chest. However, he was awake, writhing on the bed, and there was the sickly smell of burning flesh as yet another dreamcatcher was being pushed too far.
Tapping her own dreamcatcher, feeling the sting of intense heat at being used too much, Mitena zipped across the room and slapped her brother’s good shoulder to get his attention. A slap at that speed was enough to get the attention of a hippopotamus, so even to a giant like Kuruk it hurt enough to shock his concentration.
Instantly the tattoo on his right arm below the one that let them move in and out of Dream faded to darkness.
“Argh… What the hell, Ten?”
“You'll burn out another one, you idiot,” she snapped, anger masking the worry in her voice. “You want another burn to add to the collection?”
“It hurts so bad.”
It broke her heart to hear the pain in his voice and she sank onto the bed beside him.
“I know it does. But we need to be smart.” She ran her finger over the recently activated dreamcatcher on his arm. It was hot to the touch, probably hot enough to damage itself, but it was cooling at least. “This was never meant to heal something like this. It speeds up our body’s healing potential, but there are limits. It would take months to heal from wounds this big, so you’d need to run your dreamcatcher for two days straight. You know we can’t do that. You should use it hard for small doses, turn that healing factor up as high as you can, then let it cool completely. That’s the fastest way we can get you through this.”
“That will take forever,” Kuruk complained.
“It’ll be quicker than you think. If we push it as hard as you can, I reckon that’s five minutes of healing at a hundred times faster than normal before we have to stop. It’ll probably take fifteen minutes to cool down, so we can do that three times an hour. That means you’ll get over a day of healing every hour. At that rate, we’ll have you fully healed in a week. But if you push it and burn out that dreamcatcher, you will be laid up for months. Is that what you want?”
“You know it’s not,” he complained. “It just hurts so bad.”
“I know. I’ll help you for now. You just have to trust me.”
“You’re the only person I do trust,” he said through gritted teeth. “That fucking Dreamwalker. I’m going to kill him for this. Him and his stupid dog.”
She wanted to complain that he was only defending himself, but she knew it would fall on deaf ears, especially in the pain he was in. So instead she stayed quiet and let him rant as she looked at her watch to count down the minutes before he could use the healing dreamcatcher again. She was exhausted having not slept last night, but she couldn’t leave him alone or he would push himself too far and burn out another dreamcatcher. Considering the mess the last burnt out dreamcatcher did to his chest, she had to avoid that at all costs.
“We’ve got to be smarter next time,” Kuruk was saying. She didn’t realise she had tuned out his ramblings as she watched the second hand tick by on her watch. “We can’t just rely on these tattoos. That was my mistake. You were right, Ten. We’ve got to do both. Use the dreamcatchers on location and our tattoos together. Overwhelming force. That’s how we get these bastards. No danger to us. You were right all along. I’m sorry. I don’t know what’s wrong with me recently. I just wanted to—”
“Shush. Relax. You’re tired and in pain. Don’t dwell on this,” she interrupted.
She was happy to hear he wanted to take more precautions, but she wasn’t ready to talk about another hunt. She just wanted to help her brother get through the next week. They could think about what came next then.
She knew she’d have to plan another trip to dream to redo his burnt out tattoo. When he was thrown through that house, the toughness she’d captured in the tattoo to protect him from his own increased strength was pushed too far, which blew the tattoo. Next time she needed to go bigger, maybe his whole back, so she could capture more of Dream and keep him safe.
She had to protect him, just like he would her.
Another image of her mother telling her that very message popped into her mind, causing new tears. She wiped them away quickly so Kuruk couldn’t see, but she knew the truth. She was kidding herself when she thought her mother wouldn’t be disgusted at her and Kuruk right now. What kind of sister turns her brother into a monster and sends him out hunting people? What kind of protection was that?
However, even with his injuries, she knew Kuruk wouldn’t stop. She started him on this path and he planned to walk it to the end of the line. The only thing she could do now was keep him from killing himself and live with her own mistakes.
Another tear fell, then another, and all she could do was wipe them away as fast as she could.
12
Saturday, 09th July 2016
10:11
Tad looked up from his research and focused on his hearing. The doorbell hadn’t rung, but he could hear someone in the living room talking to Jen. A second later, he recognised the voice, which then explained why he hadn’t heard the doorbell. She was getting a little too comfortable just barging in recently.
Closing his laptop, he climbed off the stool and h
eaded for the living room to see what new trouble Lizzie brought this time. He looked around for Growler but the puppy must already be in the other room with Jen who had more attention to give this morning. That would explain the excited talk, Lizzie hadn’t met the puppies yet.
He found Jen sat on her usual sofa to the right of the TV, still dressed in her pyjamas and curled up with the TV remote. She was smiling as Hawk and Growler attacked their guest with sniffs and kisses while Lizzie giggled at the attention. As soon as Jen saw Tad, her smile was replaced with the sulking expression she’d been wearing all morning, though her aura never changed.
“Morning Lizzie, I didn’t hear you knock,” he said as he took his usual spot on the middle sofa of the three arranged in a U shape around his TV.
“The door was open,” Lizzie said as if that explained everything.
“But the doorbell works, you didn’t think to try that before letting yourself in?”
Lizzie looked at him like he was speaking gibberish before turning her attention back to the puppies.
“You haven’t been answering your texts,” she accused.
“I’ve been busy in case you haven’t noticed.”
Again Lizzie frowned, despite the puppies distracting her. “All the more reason to answer your texts. There’s been a lot happening and you haven’t been keeping your favourite reporter in the loop. First the Pendine nightmare, then the Dreamcatchers attacks, and finally these little guys. You’re holding out on me.”
Tad frowned. Dreamcatchers? Just where had she picked up that tidbit of information.
Acting like he hadn’t noticed in case she was just fishing to confirm a theory, he said, “My next interview with you isn’t scheduled until the end of the month.”
Lizzie looked appalled. “That’s almost three weeks away. This will be old news by then.” Switching to a sickly sweet voice as she spoke directly to Growler and Hawk, she added, “It’s like he doesn’t care about me anymore.”
Tad rolled his eyes and looked at Jen for support, forgetting she was still mad at him for him being in America causing trouble yesterday instead of on the golf course with the most recent doctor. In all the excitement, it slipped his mind. Now, after being stood up once, the doctor was reluctant to commit to another meet up. Tad’s opinion was that if he couldn’t accept the importance of what Tad was doing as an excuse, he wasn’t the right person for this position, anyway. Jen had other thoughts.
