Nightmare's Edge

  A wretch I am, a wretch I’ll be,

  Till love unlocks my chains.

  As the notes echoed in Nathan’s mind, the figurines danced on. Each young man drew an image of Kelly closer and waltzed with more energy. Nathan eyed the male faces, perfect reproductions of his own.

  Kelly continued her song, her voice still wracked with pain.

  Could Nathan ever dance with one

  So foul, unclean, a liar?

  Will grace he plays on strings of ice

  Be wrought in hands of fire?

  Kelly’s clothes ignited. Fire swept across her sleeves and down her legs, raising showers of sparks as it consumed the bloodstains. As every dark thread sizzled away, spots of white appeared. Soon, a radiant gown covered her body, its long sleeves running to the heels of her hands, the hem brushing her ankles. Now, with her eyes sparkling, she played on, her voice louder, less tortured, yet filled with plaintive passion as she stretched out the final words.

  The girl I was is crucified,

  Impaled by God’s dear Lamb.

  Can Nathan purge the girl I was

  And love the girl I am?

  Trembling, Nathan backed away. Thousands of thoughts flooded his mind, battling each other until no single thought made sense. What could all this mean? Kelly had to be dreaming this, but where was she? How could his thoughts and feelings make their way into her mind?

  He swallowed hard and tried to slow his breathing, but the thoughts continued to storm. What about those lyrics? So beautiful and heartfelt! Yet, did they reflect a current reality? Or was she reaching out for a hope that glimmered in the distance?

  He leaped out of the hologram, the barrier’s splash of light again blinding him for a moment, a blindness that seemed to last longer than the previous episode. His eyes burned, yet not as if they had been scorched from the outside. The heat seemed to come from within, more like the scalding touch of ice than fire.

  As he rubbed his eyes, Solomon braced his shoulder. “That dream really shook you up, didn’t it?”

  “Yeah.” His eyes now clear, Nathan looked again at the dream. As it slowly faded away, Kelly seemed to stare at him directly, her eyes still sparkling.

  He mumbled, “Those eyes . . . they’re clear. And she’s dreaming in Earth Red.”

  “What?” Solomon asked.

  Nathan wagged his head and looked again. The Earth Red section was now dark. “How long was I in the hologram?” he asked. “I . . . I kind of lost my head in there.”

  Solomon glanced at his wristwatch. “Not long, maybe two minutes.”

  “Two minutes?” Nathan stole a glance at Solomon’s watch. “It seemed more like ten.”

  “Your mind adjusted to the time shift. The events in the dreams moved so quickly we couldn’t tell what was going on, so I waited for you here while the others looked around.” He nodded toward the Earth Yellow sector where Daryl stood with Tony, Molly, Amber, and Francesca. Snow continued to fall within the hologram, though the white blanket seemed no deeper than before.

  Nathan pointed at the Earth Red sector. “It had to be Kelly’s dream. Since she’s the interpreter, her signal is probably strong.”

  “That was my thinking as well.” Solomon turned toward the central core of the hologram and shouted, “Dr. Gordon! Any word on Kelly’s signal?”

  “It’s stronger,” came the echoing reply. “We’re still hunting it down.”

  Nathan pointed at the hologram. “Since Kelly’s dreaming there, doesn’t it mean she’s in Earth Red?”

  “Not necessarily. Apparently Felicity is able to dream in both the Yellow and Blue sectors, so the wounds must be allowing passage. Maybe someone in another world can dream in Earth Red.”

  Nathan pinched Solomon’s sleeve and pulled him closer. “Can Dr. Gordon send me to Earth Red? The least I can do is look for her. It’s better than staring at dreams — ”

  “Hey!” Daryl yelled. “You’d better get a look at this!”

  Nathan looked her way. “What is it?”

  “See for yourself!” Daryl waved an arm. “Hurry!”

  Nathan ran to Daryl and squeezed between her and Amber as they watched the Chicago snow scene from the edge of the hologram.

  Inside, a tall, lanky man stalked through the blanketed street, a white ponytail swinging behind him. Nearly as pale as the snow, he peeked into each car he passed, his eyes narrowing with every search. A red scar etched his cheek from ear to chin, stitched but still oozing blood.

  Nathan whispered, “Mictar!”

  “Yes.” Amber’s whisper sounded like a calm wind. “The stalkers heal quickly when they feed on life energy. I fear that he has murdered again.”

  “Any idea what he’s doing?” Nathan asked.

  “If I am reading his eyes correctly, he is looking for the dreamer.” Amber’s voice turned melancholy. “He seeks to murder the dreamer’s vision of himself. He has the power to reach through to the dreamer’s mind and deliver a mortal shock. Once he finds the dreamer, rarely does he fail to kill.”

  While Tony, Molly, and Solomon gathered around, Nathan kept his stare riveted on the stalker. With a bare hand, Mictar brushed snow away from a pickup truck’s windshield. Obviously he had physically entered the dream world. Even his breath raised clouds of white vapor that were quickly swept away by the wind.

  “Can he hear us?” Daryl whispered. “I mean, is he dangerous?”

  Solomon stepped close and peered into the dream. “He’s dangerous, all right. Just not to us. What we’re seeing is like a satellite broadcast of a movie. He has no idea we’re watching.”

  Daryl shuddered. “That might be, but if we could switch it to Pride and Prejudice, maybe I won’t hurl my breakfast.”

  “Then I’d hurl mine,” Nathan said. “That movie is so — ”

  “Look!” Daryl pointed at the hologram.

  Mictar yanked open a taxicab door, grabbed a man’s arm, and dragged him out onto the sidewalk, knocking a hat from his head in the process. He pushed his victim face-first into a snow drift and stepped on his neck. As snow swirled, Mictar appeared to be shouting something, but no sound came out.

  “It’s Jack!” Nathan leaped into the hologram and knelt at Jack’s side. Now aided by the transmitters, Nathan picked up the dream’s sounds.

  Jack grunted and cried out, but Mictar just laughed and twisted his heel into Jack’s neck.

  “No more playing with supplicants for you,” Mictar said. “If you’ll tell me where to find the gifted girl, I’ll let you live.”

  From his hands and knees, Nathan shouted, “Can we stop Mictar from killing him?”

  Amber strode into the hologram, carrying a lit candle. Standing toe to toe with Mictar, she stared at him through the flame. As her glow strengthened into a blinding aura, a deep frown marred her features. “This is not a portal. I could enter the dream world, but I have no way of knowing if I will be able to find this particular dream.”

  Laughing again, Mictar leaned over and laid a hand over Jack’s eyes.

  “We have to do something!” Nathan yelled, rising to his feet. “Mictar will kill him!”

  Solomon ran into the scene, shouting toward the computer desk. “Dr. Gordon, did you test the transport?”

  “I didn’t have the mirror.” Dr. Gordon’s voice sounded distant, warped. “It was impossible to conduct a test.”

  Sparks flew from the sides of Mictar’s hands. Jack’s body jerked, his arms and legs flailing.

  “Do you think it would work?” Solomon yelled.

  “So far every prediction has proven true, but transporting someone to the dream world is beyond the scope of predictable science.”

  Nathan grabbed Solomon’s arm. “I’ll go. Send me.”

  “You cannot defeat him,” Amber said. “I will go.”

  Solomon shook his head. “We can’t risk either of you. We have to — ”

  Another figure rushed into view — also tall, lanky, and pale. With a series of gruff pushes, he shove
d everyone else out of the hologram, making Nathan and Solomon stumble backwards and knocking Amber to the floor. “Send me,” he shouted. “You can risk my life.”

  Nathan righted himself and reached for Amber’s hand, but she had crawled back to the edge of the hologram, the candle still in her hand. “Patar,” Nathan said, “I thought you said I was supposed to — ”

  “Never mind!” Patar stood behind Mictar and looked toward the computer desk. “I demand that you send me immediately.”

  “A few seconds,” Dr. Gordon yelled. “I have to check the — ”

  “Now!” Patar screamed. “We have no seconds to spare!”

  Light flashed all around Patar, veiling the scene. The dream then returned with Patar still behind his brother, puffs of white blowing from the mouths of both stalkers.

  Nathan and the others walked to the very edge of the hologram and looked on. Patar grabbed Mictar’s ponytail and jerked him backwards. Mictar flew away from Jack, fell into a drift at the edge of the sidewalk, and banged his head against a snow-covered car.

  While Patar helped Jack to his feet, Mictar opened his mouth and spewed a jagged black bolt. Arching his body over Jack, Patar ducked and launched his own barrage of dark lightning.

  Mictar threw himself to the sidewalk. Patar’s blast splashed against the car, sending the snow scattering in a mix of black and white droplets.

  “I’d better listen,” Nathan said, straightening his glasses.

  “They might say something important.” He stepped back into the hologram and stood a few feet away from the struggle.

  Patar propped Jack up, then barked at Mictar. “Leave now before this dream dissolves. When I awaken this human, you will be left without a light.”

  Mictar sneered. “I know how to negotiate the dreamless gaps.”

  “The rifts are many. It is now hazardous to stalk the dreamscape.”

  Mictar pointed a long finger at him. “You feign concern, dear brother, but I know you all too well. One of the gifted humans hides here, and you are protecting her. You are playing the weakened mother bird and keeping me from locating my prize.”

  “Weakened mother bird?” Patar seemed ready to laugh. “Your metaphor eludes me.”

  “You are holding back. Using darkness against me instead of reversing my own energy is not your usual way. You are trying to keep me here.”

  Patar heaved a sigh. “A darkened heart has no ability to understand nobility.”

  “Ah, yes, this from the one who would have the boy slay the supplicants.” Mictar spat on the snow-covered sidewalk. “Such nobility is simply beyond my grasp.”

  “I have no need to explain myself to you!” Patar pointed a rigid finger of his own. “Be gone!”

  “Tell me where to find a mirror used by one of the gifted, and I will gladly go.”

  With blinding snow swirling around him, Patar folded his arms. “The gateways to Cerulean are out of your reach.” Patar lowered his head and muttered, “No thanks to the gifted ones who should have secured them.”

  Nathan shoulders slumped. Patar’s quiet words were obviously meant for him. Cerulean had said he would take care of the mirrors, but he might not have known enough about the real worlds to find a good hiding place.

  “So be it,” Mictar said, walking away and looking back with a scowl. “I will leave you and your nobility to die with the rodents you seem to admire.”

  Patar laid a hand over Jack’s eyes and spoke with a gentle voice. “Awake now, my friend. I heard your murmurings.”

  “Yes . . . I was tired. Had to sleep.”

  “How is it that you are dreaming in the Earth Yellow realm? Have you and Cerulean left the Earth Blue dream world?”

  “Cerulean found a wound and thought it best for me to sleep near it, hoping I’d search in other dream realms while I rested. It seems that the rift led me here.”

  “I see,” Patar said. “Is your real self with Cerulean now?”

  “I assume so. He was at my side when I went to sleep. He hoped to search here as well.”

  “You must arouse him immediately and send him to the dreams of his new charge.”

  “Where” — Jack squirmed in Patar’s grip — “where should he go?”

  “Cerulean knows that she dreams in Earth Blue, and I have seen her there, but that is not where she sleeps. If he goes to find her physical body, he will not be able to return.” Patar pulled his hand away from Jack’s eyes. They were whole, glowing like two phosphorescent marbles.

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Cerulean will. Tell him that Mictar is on the prowl and has grown strong again. He must find the gifted one before Mictar does.”

  Nathan looked up, searching for the ponytailed stalker. In the distance, at the boundary of the hologram’s central black section, Mictar stopped and stared at the dark wall. As if ripping a flaw in the fabric, he opened it with both hands and slid inside. The gap then sealed itself, hiding the stalker from view.

  Fixing his stare on the dark wall, Nathan remembered the Earth Blue dream world, where he and Cerulean had passed from dream to dream through a series of membranes. Each passage revealed a dark hole on one side. Was that void represented here by the hologram’s dark core?

  Nathan stepped out of the hologram and rejoined the others. “Mictar’s still on the move, but I have no idea where he went.”

  Solomon gave him a somber nod. “And we don’t know where Amber went either.”

  “She’s gone?” Nathan looked in every direction. “Where did you see her last?”

  “When Patar knocked her out of the hologram.” Solomon stooped at the spot where Amber had been crouching. “I saw her right here, but after that I was paying so much attention to the fight, I didn’t keep an eye on her.”

  “Could she have transported with Patar?”

  “I suppose so, but I never saw her in there.”

  “I’ll go take a look.” Nathan walked back into the snow scene and headed straight for the dark center, passing by Patar and Jack without a pause.

  When he came within a few paces of the central core’s wall, the entire city scene darkened. The dream was coming to an end. Only the old tree was still easily visible, standing like an ancient sentry just a step or two from the wall.

  A movement to his right caught Nathan’s eye. Amber skulked out from behind a car and, giving the tree a wide berth, came to a halt in front of the barrier, her candle raising a steady spherical glow on the black surface. Although her dress flapped violently, the flame stayed steady. Apparently unaware of Nathan’s presence, she ran searching fingers along the wall.

  A few seconds later, she pushed through a vertical flaw, covering her hand up to the heel. The material appeared to be similar to rubber from a tire, somewhat pliable but still tough. She set her candle down, then pulled with both hands to separate the two flaps, straining as if trying to open a stubborn pair of jaws.

  Finally, she created a narrow slit and stepped into it, leaving half her body barely visible in the candle’s light. Keeping one arm and a leg in the opening, she lunged for something in the darkness outside her candle’s faint glow, caught it in one hand, and reeled it toward herself as if she were pulling a rope.

  She reached to the ground and picked up her candle. After looking around once more at the darkened Earth Yellow dream world, she whispered, “Nathan, I hope you are still listening. Although the reasons are a mystery to me, I believe the cosmic wounds have allowed the vision stalker to use Sarah’s Womb as a portal to go from one dream world to another. If so, I will learn his secrets and perhaps use them to locate your father and Kelly. When I do, I will try to find a way to contact you. I am very concerned about Mictar’s new discovery. It could well mean that your loved ones are in great danger, so I have to follow him.” Her eyes shining with a light of their own, and the wind, fiercer than ever, blowing her hair into the void, she let out a sigh. “Please tell Francesca that I love her, and I hope to be able to supplicate for her through the
mirrors of the Yellow world.”

  Straining again, she pushed farther into the slit. With a final grunt, she popped through and disappeared from sight.

  Nathan turned, searching for Patar and Jack in the darkness, but they were gone. Unlike the other dreams he’d experienced where everything had been sucked away in a cyclone, this one just faded into nothingness. Could it be a difference of perspective? Maybe if he had actually been there, the swirling windstorm would have been easy to see.

  Now that this sector of the hologram had no dream to display, the observatory again filled his vision, and the echoing noises pounded into his ears.

  “We lost the signal,” Dr. Gordon called. “I will have to search for another dream in that realm.”

  With the dream gone, the futility of his position flooded Nathan’s mind. In reality, they had done nothing, nothing at all. They had simply sat in the bleachers watching dreams come and go, hoping that one would reveal what they were searching for. It was worse than looking for a needle in a haystack; it was looking for a tiny impulse in an ocean of overstimulated neurons.

  He hurried back to Solomon and jerked off the glasses. “We can’t just stand around here and watch nightmares all day! I’ve had enough of singing and dancing and roaming through dream worlds. My father is missing, Kelly got slurped into a manure-filled sandbox, and we’re just standing around here waiting for a computer to locate a signal when we’re not even sure Kelly’s holding the candle!” He pushed Solomon’s chest. “Send me into the dream world. I have to look for Kelly and my father!”

  “But that’s exactly what we’re doing.” Solomon pointed at the floor. “Searching from here is safe.”

  “Safe?” Clenching his fist again, Nathan tilted his head up and looked Solomon in the eye. Every feature was so much like his father’s — the eyes, the chin, the confident jaw. Yet, something was so different. He pointed at the graveyard. “My father would’ve risked his life to help that little blind girl, even if it meant getting sucked into that cyclone. My father would’ve moved heaven and earth to find me or Mom or Kelly! Instead, we’re sitting on our hands while the world is about to end. It’s just plain stupid!”

  Solomon laid a hand on Nathan’s shoulder. “What’s the bottom line, Nathan? What do you want to do?”