The Power of the Young: Dawn of an Era

  Chapter 5

  May 5-7th, 2034

  The sight Matt and Sara had seen never left their lips, as did Eli's about Matt.

  At first, Eli was disgusted. How could his friend be so stupid as to deal with their very enemy? Why hadn't he come forward sooner, so that he might've been helped? Eli couldn't comprehend that such a great guy like Matt could've made such a foolish choice.

  Then, his senses came back to him. Matt had every right to be afraid of coming clean. This was how he predicted people would act once he told: angry, and confused. Eli knew that his friend would never hurt anyone on purpose. He had to understand that Matt wasn't really Matt when he did those things.

  But that thing would be back. That voice had been coming from inside Matt. It would come back. Matt would have to be locked with that creature every night until they could find something to help him.

  A day after Matt had told Eli, he had come to his room midday. The door was unlocked, but Matt wasn't there. No note, no trace. Like everything in there was placed by a terrible decorator.

  “God,” Eli muttered, “Tell me it hasn't happened already...”

  Actually, Matt had gone to Ryan and Mia: the two scientists in the base. They were extraordinarily smart for being seventeen. Matt knew that if anyone could help him, it would be those two.

  It was hard retelling his issue, but Ryan and Mia seemed to understand better than Eli did.

  “Interesting,” Mia said to herself, and then to the other two, “and yet you've never tried to resist before?”

  “A little, but it never really worked.”

  Ryan asked, “Do you know why you think it possesses you for?”

  Matt laughed sarcastically, “Well, it certainly isn't here to say, 'Hey, I'm just passing by. Do you think I could borrow some sugar?' It’s made me kill people, Ryan, and I have no way of knowing that’s next.”

  “Maybe you do,” piped in Mia, “since you have remarkable control over things before this... thing comes into you, perhaps we can set something up in your room to monitor you. That way, we can see just how you respond.”

  “And besides,” said Ryan, “you had a lot of sense talking to Eli about it. If you hadn't, well, who knows what would've happened.”

  “What would've happened?” Matt asked, “I'll tell you what would've happened; someone would've died. But I can't just be constantly locked in my room until it moves on to someone else. Eventually, Its going to be left open, and, minus one H.A.N.D operative.”

  Mia nodded, “We'll do everything we can to help you, Matt. You're the best fighter among us, and not to bad keeping the others under control.”

  “We'll see you tonight over the monitor. That way, all of us might be able to find a weakness in it, and try to put a muzzle on the situation.”

  Matt smiled and half-heartedly laughed, “Thanks for everything you're doing for me. You guys are the best.”

  With that, he went back to his room and tried to pick up his room some, even though it would probably be the same by morning.

  As he straightened his desk, Sara came in.

  “You doing okay?” she asked.

  Matt nodded. “Just was talking to a few friends of mine. Hopefully they'll be able to help me.”

  “Do you think you'd be able to tell me what the problem is? Last night sounded pretty serious to me.”

  “Sure. Just remember: this doesn't go outside the room.”

  Sara nodded, and they both sat down on the stage.

  Once he finished, Matt wondered how Sara was taking it. She was pretty shocked, but not very surprised after what she had seen and heard. But one thing bothered her more than anything else.

  “You said that you made a deal with red smoke. I-I think I know what that smoke is. Very well, actually.”

  Matt leaned in, intrigued. “Go on.”

  “You see, when I lived in Las Vegas, I wasn't really alone. No, there weren't people there, but I had some company. There was this smoke. Red smoke. You made that deal with the thing that raised me.”

  It wasn't the fact that he had made a deal with the thing that might as well've been Sara's dad. The fact that she knew it was what bothered him. But Matt didn't say anything.

  He changed the subject. “So, how do you think the rest of the group will handle the coyote?”

  Sara smiled, “Not well, I take it. The question is: should we tell them?”

  Matt thought. On one hand, the defenses could be tightened for an oncoming attack. Still, it could cause a huge panic, and possibly rebellion.

  “Not yet,” Matt decided, “or at least not until the group becomes an actual group again.”

  “Right.” she agreed.

  With that said, she left Matt, and spent the day in her room, trying on clothes and admiring the weapons.

  That night, the same thing happened. Still, Matt could fight it with confidence, because thankfully. Mia and Ryan had put up the cameras and were watching him at that very moment.

  As it entered him, his thoughts were dimmed, and Matt could feel his vision double. It was coming again, and it felt more violent than before...

  In the lab, Mia watched carefully over Matt while Ryan cleaned up the place.

  “Anything new yet?” Ryan called from across the room.

  “Nothin' yet, he's just sitting on the floor right now.”

  Soon, he started to move around.

  “Hey Ryan?” she called, “I think we might have something here.”

  Matt had gotten up and picked up a piece of paper and scribbled something on it. Then he held it up to the camera:

  Its happening, I can feel it. Just watch. Don't try to stop it. Wait until the morning to come in. Period.

  Mia leaned in, and Ryan peeked over her, and none of them knew what to expect.

  Soon, he began to pace the room. Still nothing notably weird. But Mia noticed that he seemed to be talking to himself.

  “Ryan, can we get some sound?” she asked.

  “Let me see... There; that should do it.”

  Mia tuned in, and listened.

  “...being watched.” Matt said.

  Another voice, very inhuman, responded, “Really? Perfect! Let me see that.”

  Matt took the paper and scribbled something else. It was in entirely different handwriting, grabbing Mia's attention.

  You'll enjoy this, Mia. Please, have fun, and enjoy the show! Take out your cameras: this one is sure to knock your socks off.

  Matt, or, the thing in Matt's body, waved, and smiled mockingly.

  Ryan had walked off moments before, leaving Mia in almost pure shock. How could it know she was watching?

  Then, she noticed something else clearly wrong. His eyes, but they weren't his eyes. The usually soft gray iris was a dark, deep red.

  'This isn't real. It can't be real...' She thought.

  Matt backed away from the camera and picked up one of his paperweights. Then, he threw it at the camera. Thankfully, he missed, but the sound was knocked out entirely.

  “Ryan!” Mia called, “get over here. You have to see this.”

  Mia went over to the controls and pressed 'Record'. Then, she watched again. Ryan didn't come over, and Mia had no doubt he had fallen asleep in some odd place.

  'Think, Mia, who can you trust to see this?'

  It hit her. Mia rushed over to the controls again.

  “Eli, Sara, please come up to the science lab, ASAP.”

  She released the button and kept her eyes on the monitor. Mia didn't want to miss one second of it.

  Matt still seemed to be arguing with the thing inside him, and it was pretty creepy to watch a guy switch facial expressions in less than a second.

  The door behind her popped open, and Eli and Sara came in.

  “Something wrong?” Eli asked.

  “We got ready as soon as we heard the intercom.” Sara added.

  Mia spoke to Eli, “You might know what this is about. Just watch and you'll understand.”

  S
he rewinded the tape and showed them the beginning.

  Sara shuddered. “That's the same voice alright.”

  Once the sound was over, and the other piece of paper was shown, Mia put it back in real time.

  Matt was continuing to fight with the thing, which seemed more and more violent by the minute. Suddenly, Matt seemed to throw himself against the slanted window, even though the three knew that thing inside him had done it from the inside.

  The glass cracked, but didn't break. Matt leaned against the wall, with a bit of blood trickling down the side of his head.

  “God,” Sara muttered, “he's trying to get out.”

  And so it was; within seconds, Matt had again been flung against the window like a rag doll. The window still only lost a chip of glass. One final time, and this time, the glass gave way. Matt's face was cut and bleeding, but his eyes remained that deep red. But not as deep as before. Its grip was loosening on him.

  It tried to climb out, but Matt, regaining control for a brief moment, threw himself back and landed against his desk. Then, the thing regrouped and picked up another paperweight. This time, the camera went dead.

  Eli almost went into a full-fledged panic. “What's going on? We need to get down there or else-”

  “Or we can switch to camera 2.” Mia interrupted.

  Mia turned to number two, and the three watched Matt struggle from a different point of view. It looked like a game of tug-a-war. At one point, Matt was sprinting towards the window. The next, it looked like he as being blown back by an invisible fan.

  For almost the whole night, the same process went on. Matt was bleeding heavily from his arm and head. His eyes were more of a dark pink by now.

  He turned to the second camera. The creature inside him screamed at the camera, but with no sound, they couldn't tell what he was saying.

  Sara shook her head. “Can anyone read lips?”

  Mia spoke up, “I can a little.”

  She pushed back her ivory hair, leaned in towards the screen and repeated aloud:

  “He's saying, 'This was supposed to be the night. The night you all died. My night. My night, do you hear me? This was my night. And it’s not going to be pleasant when I get out.

  'You're gonna pay, you hear? All of you miserable excuses for life are going to pay. Listen up, you freaks. Give me her and I'll let this screwed up boy go. If you decide to keep her, than one dies, and two will help me.'

  It snarled at them and walked away. Suddenly, Matt collapsed. He somehow grabbed a picture and weakly wrote something down on the back of it. His eyes were back to normal.

  I think he's gone. Get help. Tell them what happened. Tell them who I am, or, what I am. They need to know the truth. Help them, and you help me.

  Matt dropped the paper and lay still. Sara ran out of the room and down the stairs. Eli rushed after her. Before Sara could unlock the door, he put her hand down, stopping her from opening it.

  “He's okay! I know it. Please, just trust me on this.”

  Eli froze, knowing very well that it could still be in Matt, but he wasn't sure. He took the chance, and let her open the door.

  Mia had already called an emergency meeting in the lab, but not to do much as to tell, but to distract them away from Matt. She had told Tyler and Natalie to check in on Matt.

  As Mia started to organize the group, Tyler and Natalie worked on getting Matt's room in order. Sara helped him up, and Eli grabbed some gauze from the other room.

  Matt coughed, “Did it work?”

  “I think so. I mean, I watched the whole thing.”

  “Out of pure curiosity, what happened?” he asked.

  Sara's lower lip dropped slightly and she gave him an 'Are you kidding me?' look.

  “Are you serious?” she scoffed, “You don't remember any of last night?”

  Matt shook his head. “Remember? No, I really don't. This happens every time it enters me: I wake up and don't recall a thing.”

  “Well, Mia's having a meeting right now. And according to this,” she held up the back of the picture, “you have some explaining to do.”

  Matt nodded. Then, he smiled, “That much I do remember.”

  Eli finally came back in the room with the gauze. As he worked on Matt's arm, Sara tried to get his memory to resurface.

  “Come on, you have to remember something!” Sara pleaded, “Anything at all? Maybe something it said, or what happened with the window?”

  Matt shook his head. “Nothing. It’s all one big blur. All I remember is writing something on a piece of paper, and then waking up to this,” he gestured around the room, “and seeing you and Eli running in. And that's it.”

  Sara shook her head. “Ugh, this is pointless!”

  Eli finished working on his arm.

  “Come on, everyone else is probably finished watching the footage by now. They're gonna want answers, trust me.”

  Matt began to stutter, “Wait-whoa-huh? Did I hear you right? You showed them the footage of me being invaded by that smoke thing? Are you crazy?”

  “No,” Sara put in, “we're helping. With all these people watching it, someone's bound to notice some sort of weakness in the enemy.”

  He shook his head.

  “Come on,” Eli said, “let's get going; we're gonna have a long day...”

  The rest of H.A.N.D had long since finished the video, and weren't taking it well. In fact, they were taking it worse than Eli had.

  When it finished, no one spoke. Then, the boy who had spoken at the last meeting cried out,

  “What the hell was that?”

  “Ian,” Mia started, “please, this is really serious stuff. Matt is going through insanely bad things. We didn't even know about it until recently. Ryan and I are doing everything we can to figure out how to stop it.”

  “That's it?” he asked, “No, that isn't it. I think we all have a right to know what's really going on. Where's Matt then, hm? Where's the star of this lovely little clip?”

  “Ian,” Mia said quietly, “in case you didn't notice, Matt passed out after the thing inside him left. I don't even know if he's conscious right now. He could be in serious condition, or even-”

  “-walking in the room. I miss anything important?” Matt tried for a smile.

  Matt had just walked in, with Eli and Sara behind him. Ian didn't sit back down, but Mia gave Matt back the center stage.

  “I, um, I take it you've all seen what happened last night?”

  Ian laughed, “You better believe it!”

  “Listen,” Matt continued, ignoring Ian, “I know that you're pretty angry at me, and you have every reason to be. But if we can work together on this, we can figure out how to stop it.”

  Ian started to laugh again, “Call me crazy, but isn't that Ryan and Mia's job? Because if they can't figure out what the problem is, how are we supposed to?”

  Matt bit his lip. Sara could tell almost immediately that he was one wrong word away form snapping. Before Matt could speak again, Sara stepped in front of him.

  “Listen,” she said sharply, “I don't know who you think you are, but give him a little credit! Do you have any idea how hard he's worked for the organization and its members? The only reason he became possessed in the first place was because that thing inside him made him think that Matt would be able to keep all of you safe. Now if you want to go and goof off all day, that's fine by me, but it might do us all some good if you showed just the slightest hint of respect.”

  Ian slowly nodded. “Alright, Sara, you want to play that way? Might I mention that all these bad things started happening right about the time when you showed up? These violent lock-ins with Matt, seeing what's happening with Ryan and Mia's time, and even that stupid scout that nearly saw the base. If that thing wants you back, I say we give you back.”

  This time, Eli was the one who was the one who got ticked off.

  “Well, while we're at it, let's just throw you down to hell.” he spat, “Really, this is the reason it’s attacki
ng us: we can't defend ourselves!”

  He looked around at everyone, and finally finished, “Now let's get going. We need to tighten the defenses. That means today; we train.”

  As Eli had requested, H.A.N.D spent the rest of the day training. Sara tried out almost all her weapons, but none of them worked quite right for her. Eli then showed her an ax.

  “Sweet.” she smiled.

  As the day ended, unbelievable progress had been made. Sara had already gotten better at the ax than she ever thought she would be. Well, to be honest, she never thought she'd be using an ax!

  Once she got into bed, Sara tried not to think about Matt. Mia and Ryan were watching him again, and they were safe, but Sara was still worried about what the Smoke had said to her.

  'Give me her and I'll let this screwed up boy go. If you decide to keep her, then one dies, and two will help me.'

  It wanted her back, that stupid smoke. Why, she couldn't fathom. Sara knew the right thing to do was to turn herself in before someone was killed. Most likely, it was going to be Eli, or maybe Matt, but Matt was possibly the one doing it. Her heart raced, and she stayed awake for hours, deep into the night.

  'How would I live with myself if someone was killed because of me?' Sara kept thinking to herself, 'What do I do now? How do I go through this?'

  Sara managed to keep herself awake for the majority of the night. Once she fell asleep, her alarm clock went off an hour later. She grunted and knocked the clock off her nightstand. Finally, Sara rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and got ready for the day.

  Before she worked on training, Sara had to check in on Matt, after another night locked in. She expected the room to be totaled again, with Tyler and Natalie cleaning up the remains.

  As she finished brushing her hair, Eli knocked on the door. When she opened up, he was beaming. Sara looked around nervously, half wondering if something really bad had happened.

  “Is something wrong?” she asked.

  Eli smiled again, “Far from it. Come down and I'll show you.”

  Sara put her brush down and followed him to Matt's. As he unlocked the door, Sara pushed open the door; her hand slightly touching his.

  Matt was waiting for them at his desk when they walked in. Much to Sara's surprise, the room was in perfect condition, and not due to Tyler and Natalie's efforts, either.

  She looked around in shock. Did she dare to believe that he- the actual Matt- was sitting at his desk with no injuries?

  He stood up and smiled. “You haven't seen last night's footage, have you?”

  Sara shook her head.

  With that, Eli helped Matt turn on a projector, which had been buried underneath dozens of paper. Sara watched carefully as the screen flickered against the map, which was still missing most of Europe.

  Sara watched. Matt was pacing the room, clearly waiting for it to enter him again. But instead, and Sara came in close, Matt turned to the corner of the room, the one to the left of the stage. To her, it seemed like it was only a shimmer of light in the darkness. But to Matt, it was everyone that he had ever known. It was his brother, his father and mother, Reagan, and so many more people, all existing in one glow. If he hadn't known better, Matt would've given in to it all.

  “So, that's how you decide to come to me tonight. You think that this,” he waved at the light, “makes any difference in my mind?”

  The light spoke, using every voice it could find, making Matt quite dizzy, “Still, you know that I exist with you. I exist with any tormented soul. You know just as well as I do that you can't let go of your past.”

  Although the tape didn't show the details, Matt remembered clearly what he had been shown: the final breath of his brother, Reagan's last moments, and even the death of his parents, which he had never seen. He felt his breath quicken, and his forehead became beaded in sweat faster than he thought possible.

  He could see Reagan; her crystal blue eyes sparkling in the midday light. She ran up to Matt, who found himself standing in the middle of a battlefield. Bodies littered the ground, and from a close distance, wolves could be heard and were closing in on them.

  Reagan leaned in, and Matt remembered her final words like they were yesterday:

  “Go, Matt. I'll be okay.”

  She smiled, and gave a gentle kiss on his lips for a single second. Matt once again watched as she ran into the swarm of wolves, to her death. He felt himself run to save her, but he was pulled back once again. Eli, bloodied and battered, was screaming at him, but Matt could only watch as Reagan disappeared into the crowd, forever. Finally, he was forced to run away from her once more.

  Matt shook his head, scattering the memory. The voices were still ringing around in his head, but the light no longer spoke.

  “Let it go, let it go.” Matt muttered to himself.

  “Let it go?” it mocked, “Of course! Just let go of every unpleasant memory in one night. That's perfectly natural.”

  Matt knew that it was next to impossible, but that still gave him the chance.

  The light filled him with another memory. Matt stood in the corner of a dark room, lit only by a light bulb hanging from the ceiling. He saw himself standing at the bedside of his brother. Both the young Matt and the elder Matt were crying at the sight of Robert.

  “Rob?” the Matt at the bed whispered, “Common Rob, wake up.”

  At once, Rob's eyes shot open. His eyes were panicked, and looked like they were coursed with blood. Every breath was long and hard.

  “You're gonna be okay, Rob. You're going to fine.” Matt promised his brother.

  Rob looked at him, then weakly spoke, “Take... Take good... care... of.... the base.”

  “What? The base? Why?” Matt asked, beginning to panic.

  As he stood in the corner, he noticed something he hadn't the first time: a small light, hovering several feet above the ground. He watched as it entered his brother's body.

  “Please Rob,” Matt pleaded, holding his brother's hand, “I don't want you to go.”

  In the corner, he hardly realized that this had happened only a year or so ago. Just two months before he lost Reagan as well.

  The light left Rob's chest, looking slightly larger. Once it floated through the ceiling, Rob began to shake violently. Matt could only look on as the other Matt turned away in fear.

  Rob stopped. As Matt turned back to the bed, he knew that H.A.N.D had just lost the best operative it had ever had. He closed his eyes, and finally let himself cry.

  As he watched the scene, Matt realized the truth that smoke had just shown him. How old had Rob been? He racked his brain, and recalled the Rob was roughly between twenty or twenty-one. 'That doesn't give us much time...’ he thought.

  Then, the smoke whispered, its voice echoing around the room,

  “You want to let this go? If I wasn't using up all the tissues, I might be tempted to laugh.”

  Matt bit his lip, trying not to let the smoke's sick sense of humor get to him. And then he realized,

  “It’s over now.”

  The room flickered and died, revealing the same light was in his room still.

  Matt nodded, “Yeah, that's what I said. Rob, Reagan, all of them, they're all gone now. And that's something I never really accepted until now.”

  That didn't seem to settle well with the smoke/light.

  “You want to let this go?” it yelled in his head, “You want to let all of the pain go?”

  Matt felt the light rattling the room. Reagan and Rob's death, and even watching himself kill several members, zipped through his head, making Matt incredibly dizzy. His hands covered his ears without use.

  “You don't scare me anymore.” Matt whispered, “None of it does.”

  At once, the light exploded, blinding Matt and knocking out the camera for a brief moment. He was knocked against the desk, nearly toppling it.

  Matt squinted, but his eyes were seeing double and his ears were ringing. What had just happened?

  When the light slowly fa
ded and died, Matt looked around the room, wondering where it was hiding. Strangely, the room, and Matt, seemed just fine. The desk was standing on all four legs, the stage wasn't dented, but Europe was still mostly missing on the map. Matt walked up to the camera, too shocked to do anything other than smile, and start laughing, a twinkle in his eyes beginning to form.

  Sara turned away from the screen. “Its gone?” she smiled. “I mean, really gone?”

  Eli sat down at the desk. “Yeah. Just gone. And, uh, I think not a moment too soon.”

  Just as Eli motioned to the door, someone knocked rather loudly. Matt wasn't troubled, and opened the door without second thoughts.

  Needless to say, he wasn't greeted with such hospitality. Ian lashed out at Matt, hitting his nose and sending him back against the desk. Eli drew a small handgun from a pocket within his shoe, while Sara went with the less-than-glamorous paperweight. Matt gripped his nose, but held up a hand, and the two lowered their weapons.

  Matt closed his eyes for a moment and said, “Good morning Ian. Nice to see you too.”

  Ian didn't smile back, and that's was when Sara noticed that several others were behind Ian, waiting.

  “We're putting a stop to this madness now.” Ian narrowed his eyes on Matt. “Like it or not.”

  In an instant, Ian was flying at Eli, and knocked him down in an instant. He did likewise to Sara, but she managed to dodge him for a moment before he threw a low sweep kick at her, and she fell on her face.

  Ian pushed his forearm against Matt's throat and kept it there.

  “Now would be the time for great news.” Ian told him.

  Matt hadn't gotten angry up until that point, but at that moment, he countered Ian with a kick to the stomach. Ian fell down, clutching his gut.

  “Now that you mention it,” Matt said, rubbing his throat, “we do. Maybe next time you'll try the “asking nicely” approach. It’s been known to work.”

  Ian scowled at him, but got up without another word. Matt replayed the video, and as it ended, Ian, along with his three companions, was silent.

  “So that's it?” Maddie asked, “No more problems?”

  Matt nodded. “But there's something else.”

  Matt went on to fill them in on what he had seen: the horrible visions, and the feeling of pure terror. After he finished, no one spoke, and the only sound was the branches brushing against the window. Finally, Chloe spoke up.

  “So you’re saying that-that thing invaded your head and made you see those horrible things? Wha-what if it comes back and comes into one of us?”

  Everyone looked at each other, suddenly much more on edge. Suddenly, the room seemed to drop in temperature about 30 degrees.

  “I don't think that would happen.” Eli piped in, “If it did, someone would have obvious symptoms; like maybe some sort of fever or odd trauma. As far as I'm concerned, no one here has anything like that.”

  Sara agreed, and no one spoke up again for several minutes. With nothing left to say, everyone left the room to keep up with their day. Before Sara could leave, Matt called her back.

  He took a deep breath. “I, uh, just wanted to thank you.”

  Sara frowned. “What for?”

  “For coming here. If it hadn't been for you, well, I don't know if I could've pulled through this.”

  Sara felt herself blush, and she pushed back a few strands of stray hair. “I mean, I don't think I did all this. Eli was a huge help.”

  She felt a cold chill run down her spine, and she looked away.

  “Wait, is something wrong?”

  Sara thought hard. “I guess you could say that. When you were invaded yesterday, that thing said something.”

  She repeated what it had said, and Matt realized he had begun to sweat.

  “Ever since then, I've been thinking about what it said last: 'Give me her and I'll let this screwed up boy go. If you decide to keep her, then one dies, and two will help me.' If it wants me back and is willing to kill someone in order to do it, then I'm not sure I can stay here without causing problems.”

  Matt put his hand on top of hers. “Don't worry. It’s gone now. We can relax. If it really wanted you, it wouldn't have left last night.”

  Sara blushed. “I know, but I've been thinking about it, and I'm wondering if maybe it had meant that-”

  “I told you, “Matt smiled, “It’s over now.”

  They both stood up. As Sara went to the door, she said one final thing to Matt.

  “And you know, I am kind of glad that I came here.”

  When she left, Matt smiled to himself. In fact, he really had felt that last night had been a great triumph for the group.

  A moment later, Jackie came down. Her face was slightly paled, and she seemed extremely sleepy.

  “What happened?” Matt frowned.

  “Not much. I heard about last night, and I just wanted to say great job.”

  “No- well, thanks. But, what happened? It looks like you've came down with something.”

  Jackie shrugged. “It’s probably nothing; just a head cold. I'm sure it'll pass by tomorrow.”

  He nodded. “All right, let me know if it gets any worse.”

  She left, and Matt was suddenly reminded of what Eli had said; about strange symptoms. For a second, he almost called Jackie back, but he believed that it was probably a small illness passing through.

  That night, as Sara slept, she had a horrible nightmare that was so lifelike, she felt as she had been pulled into another place through her sleep.

  When she had slipped into her bed, it had started almost instantly. She found herself in Matt's office, but no one was in the room but her. The room wasn't as it should be: the desk was nothing but splinters, and the window frame was missing all the glass. The map was missing entirely, leaving nothing but several pins left on the rotting stage.

  The door creaked open, and Sara turned to see a man, roughly in his 40's, but he didn't seem to notice Sara.

  The man wore a matching gray suit, with a red hat. His face was covered in stubble, and his blue eyes had faded almost to gray. The patch on his left arm read something, but Sara couldn't read it.

  “It’s a shame.” he said, seemingly to himself. “Yup, it’s the sad truth.” He had a strange accent, possibly southern.

  Then he turned and looked at Sara. “You should've been there, Sara; was really a thing of beauty. No one survived it, 'course. Well, 'cept me naturally.” He waved his hand at the window. “Naw, they never stood a chance.”

  Sara spoke to him. “Who are you? And what am I doing here?”

  The man chuckled. “Fine question, miss. You see, dreams are mighty powerful things: the most deadly, as well. You ever see Wes Craven's “Nightmare on Elm Street”? No, you probably didn't. Since a few years ago, no one's seen a decent film. 'Course, you wouldn't even now what that is, not since the power was cut along just like everything else on the planet.”

  “You didn't answer the full question.” Sara became bolder. “Who are you?”

  The man cracked another toothy grin, revealing several missing teeth.

  “Sara,” he laughed, “You don't recognize your old man?”

  She didn't want to believe that this old man could be her father, but it dawned on her soon enough.”

  Her mouth hung open, still frozen in place in front of the broken window.

  He narrowed his eyes on Sara and started walking closer. “Didn't I tell you not to go anywhere, Sara? Didn't you hear what I said inside Matt? I wasn't fooling, doll, and I meant it when I said I'd kill 'em.”

  “No, get away from me.”

  Sara knew how to wake up. She threw one more hard punch to her forearm, but this time, nothing happened.

  “I'm not done yet.” Now, she could smell his rancid breath, and she could see the hate in its eyes. “You didn't listen to me. Now, you could've made me think that, but I always knew that you were just brushing me aside as a cruel joke. Let's see how funny you think I am now.”

 
Sara's eyes widened, and with one final jerk, she found herself sitting up in bed, surrounded by a puddle of sweat.

  What all that in the dream had just meant, Sara had no idea. It had been the smoke, in that human body. She couldn't help but wonder if that body it was in really was her dead father. But it still wasn't comforting to know that her father had been a scraggly old man in a gray suit with matching trousers.

  She knew that something was clearly going wrong. Again. Would Matt or Eli know what it had meant? Possibly.

  What time was it, 11 or so? Sara would deal with that part later. She went to her closet and pulled on a quick tee and new jeans. As Sara went down the stairs, the halls seemed sadder, maybe even darker. No one answered when she knocked.

  Sara opened Matt's door and expected to see him fast asleep on his desk.

  There was no one.

  And the door had been left unlocked.