Nightmare's Edge

  “I’ll get you out.” He grabbed her hand. “Just hang on.”

  Her chilled fingers wrapped around his upper arm. She was solid, real, without a hint of fading.

  “Oh, thank you.” She leaned her head against his shoulder. “I told you never to leave me, not even for a minute. I felt so alone. So scared.”

  For a moment, dizziness flooded Nathan’s mind, but he shook it off. “Just stay with me. Cerulean will get us out of here.”

  “Nathan!” Cerulean warned again. “If you continue — ”

  “Let him go for a moment.” Patar’s voice was fading even further. Turning his attention away from Nathan, Patar poured out the contents of his bag into Cerulean’s hand. “When I wrestled with my brother, I recovered these from his energy reserves and was able to reconstitute them. You will find Jack approximately one hundred paces ahead. Restore these and get him and Nathan out of here with all speed.”

  Nathan stared at Cerulean’s transparent palm. Two eyeballs lay there, perfectly formed, with nerves and moist tissue attached. Nathan nearly gagged.

  “Have you found your new charge?” Patar asked.

  Cerulean gave him a pensive look. “So soon?”

  “Have you not been listening? She calls for help from this dream world. If I can hear her, surely you can.”

  “I have heard the song, but I was unsure of my responsibilities.”

  Patar laid a hand on Cerulean’s shoulder. “You are a supplicant. You chose this duty; you must complete it.”

  “Then my work with Nathan is finished,” Cerulean said. “I will have to find this new gifted one.”

  Patar gave him a firm nod. “Because Nathan broke the portal mirror, he will not be able to travel to my world to play the violin at Sarah’s Womb, at least not right now. You can, however, send him to Earth Yellow to find other options.”

  “Yes,” Cerulean replied. “As we speak, Nathan’s mother is playing ‘Foundation’s Key’ to see which mirror is the correct portal. While we were waiting, we decided to try to find Jack, since he entered the dream world from Earth Blue. I was unsure of how the dreamscape would affect Nathan, so this was a test.”

  “And he failed, just as he did when he allowed his desire for revenge against my brother to outweigh his wisdom. He had the power to escape with the mirror intact.”

  “Nathan,” Kelly said, her fingers growing warmer on his skin. “Don’t let him talk about you like that. You did the best you could. You were under a lot of pressure.”

  “You’re right.” Nathan stared at Kelly. Even with dirt smeared across her cheeks, black holes where her brown eyes should be, and grungy, tangled hair, she seemed lovelier than ever. “But I really didn’t have much of a choice.”

  “Then don’t listen. We’ll find our own way out.”

  “Go now,” Patar said, “before that rotting cadaver becomes more real to him than life itself. He will soon bond with it beyond all hope of reason.” With that, Patar faded out of sight.

  Cerulean put the eyeballs back into the bag and stuffed the top into his waistband. Then, lifting the candle, he pulled Nathan’s elbow. “Jack is ahead. Let us get him and flee this place.”

  Leading Kelly by the arm, Nathan followed Cerulean, now a blue ghost in his sight. “Did you hear that, Kelly? We’ll be out of here soon.”

  “Thank you, Nathan.” She staggered along, her empty sockets still wide. “I knew you wouldn’t leave me here.”

  With the moon shining brightly, the going was easier. It took only a few seconds to find Jack sitting on the ground, leaning against a tombstone. He seemed solid, though Cerulean was now as transparent as thinning fog.

  Jack looked around with his empty sockets while running his fingers through his thick beard. “Who’s there?” he asked.

  “He is losing his grip on reality as well,” Cerulean said as he crouched next to the tombstone. “I will have to work quickly.”

  “He looks fine. He’s not fading at all.” Nathan turned to Kelly. He almost said, “Right, Kelly?” forgetting for a moment that she couldn’t see anything.

  “Take this.” Cerulean handed Nathan the candle. “Watch me through the flame.”

  “Okay.” Feeling dizzy again, Nathan held the flame close to his nose and peered around both sides. Cerulean pulled the eyeballs from the bag. Then, while singing unintelligible words at a high pitch, he laid his palm over Jack’s empty sockets and pushed the eyeballs into place.

  Nathan stared, trying to focus as blue light seeped around the edges of Cerulean’s hand. Strange; the supplicant appeared to have an ability similar to Mictar’s, a powerful light that flashed from his palm. Would the mysteries surrounding these citizens of a misty world ever be explained?

  With every second Nathan peered through the candle, Cerulean grew more solid while Jack stayed the same. Nathan looked back at Kelly. Her face seemed fuzzier, distant. She angled her head as if listening.

  “What’s happening?” she asked.

  “Everything’s okay.” As he spoke, her features clarified again. “Cerulean is repairing Jack’s eyes. We’ll leave in a minute.”

  Nathan turned back to Cerulean, lowering the candle to see him better. Now ghostly blue again, Cerulean helped Jack to his feet.

  “Can you see?” Cerulean asked.

  “Very well, thank you.” Jack pulled a rumpled fedora from beneath his jacket and straightened it out. “Everything is clear, except for you.”

  “Your normal sight will be restored very soon.”

  “Excellent! Excellent! The end of a nightmare at last!” He put on his hat and turned toward Nathan, his restored eyes glistening. “Nathan! I’m so glad to see you.”

  “Same here.” Nathan gave the candle back to Cerulean and shook Jack’s hand with his left, grimacing at the older man’s grip. “Now let’s all get out of this place. I have to figure out what happened to Kelly and get some eyes for her, too.”

  “Nathan.” Cerulean pushed the candle closer. “You and Jack will come with me. You must leave Kelly behind.”

  “What?” Nathan shook his head hard. “I can’t leave her here.”

  Kelly’s arm locked around his. “No, Nathan! No!”

  Cerulean pulled Jack and Nathan together and held the candle’s flame near their eyes. His voice mellowed to a soothing chant. “Stare at the flame. It is the light of reality. The images around you are mere phantoms. Bring what is real back into focus, or you will not return to the ones you love.” He blew a puff of sweet-smelling air into Nathan’s face. “Think of your mother. Listen to her music. It is riding the breeze. She waits for you in the Earth Blue bedroom. You must go back and search for your father. The real Kelly is there as well. We must awaken her from this nightmare so the two of you can go to Earth Yellow and save two world populations from disaster.”

  The flame’s glow spread over Cerulean’s face, making his features clearer, almost crisp. He compressed Nathan’s chin with his hand, forcing him to keep his stare locked on the flame. “You must let this Kelly go, Nathan. She is not real. Night is over and dawn is breaking.”

  “No, Nathan!” Kelly’s voice spiked into a wail. “You promised to stay with me. This place is cold and dark, and I’m scared.”

  Ever so gently, Cerulean pulled on Nathan’s chin, drawing him forward, his voice now hypnotizing. “Release her, Nathan. All will be well. You will see the real Kelly in mere moments. We will awaken her, and she will escape this torture.”

  Heaving and exhaling shallow breaths, Nathan pried Kelly’s fingers loose and pulled away.

  “Nathan!” she cried. “What are you doing?”

  He turned. Kelly, now ghostly and floating backwards, reached for him with open hands. “I’ll be alone again. All alone in this cold, dark place.”

  “I . . . I can’t leave her,” Nathan said. “She’s — ”

  Cerulean twisted him back. His voice sharpened again. “She’s . . . not . . . real!”

  His mind now swimming, Nathan repeated the
words in a whisper. “She’s not real.”

  Cerulean blew out the candle. As the light faded, Kelly’s voice faded with it. “I’m so cold . . . so cold.”

  2

  PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORIES

  Light flooded Nathan’s vision. He blinked, trying to focus as the Earth Blue bedroom materialized around him. His mother stood near one wall, her violin in playing position, while Amber, the Earth Yellow supplicant, held a small square mirror in front of her. “Foundation’s Key” sang from the strings, its simple melody wiping away the remnants of the dark nightmare.

  On the floor, Kelly lay on a mattress, shivering. “So cold,” she cried out. “So cold.”

  Nathan dropped to his knees. He grabbed her arm and gave her a strong shake. “Kelly! Wake up! It’s just a bad dream.”

  Her eyes shot open, glassy and wild. “Nathan! Don’t leave me!”

  “I’m here.” He scooped her up and cradled her in his lap. “I won’t leave you. I promise.”

  She wrapped both arms around him. “But you did leave me! I begged you not to, but you left anyway!”

  Cerulean, his hair and skin glowing blue, crouched at Kelly’s opposite side and spoke to Nathan. “Invaded nightmares are the most vivid of all, and now you understand the danger. When you go to Earth Yellow, it will likely be worse. The nightmare epidemic has proven that the veil between dreams and reality is thinner there, and Mictar will also be watching for you. If you lose your grip on reality, you will fall into his clutches, for he can manipulate the dreams and lead you into a trap.”

  “But if I think something is real when it’s not, how can I ever be sure?”

  Cerulean held the extinguished candle in front of Nathan’s eyes. “You must focus on the light from the real world. It will keep you anchored.”

  Nathan set Kelly back on the floor and took her hand, ignoring the pain that shot through his still-injured palm. Kelly’s glassy eyes gave evidence of her damaged vision, a souvenir of an encounter with Mictar. A spot of blood on the white fabric of the Newton High School sweatshirt she had borrowed from Kelly Blue’s dresser told the tale of another wound she had suffered in the fight. Seeing her so afraid wrenched his heart. “I’d never really leave you in a graveyard, you know.”

  Tears now drying on her cheeks, she nodded. “I know.”

  Nathan’s mother lowered her violin. “What exactly happened in there?”

  After explaining his journey through Kelly’s nightmare, with Jack and Cerulean adding a few details he had forgotten, Nathan finished with a sigh. “So that’s why Cerulean’s worried about what might happen next time.”

  Amber set the mirror on a pile of matching squares. “We have searched through forty-one mirrors. If we are unable to find one leading to Earth Yellow, then surviving the dream world will be the least of our worries.”

  “I don’t want to drive five hours to the observatory,” Nathan said, “not with all the crazy problems going on. Even if we could get gas, who knows what the roads will be like?”

  He picked up the mirror with his unbandaged hand, still raw from the burns he’d received sliding down a rope while dangling over the void mysteriously called “Sarah’s Womb.” After playing the violin strings that had been stretched over the chasm and thrusting Earth Red away from the threat of the merging worlds, he had nearly plunged into the womb. Only Kelly’s courageous climb up the rope and her teamwork with Daryl Blue had saved his life, though in the process Daryl had plunged to her death.

  A dragging sound drew Nathan’s attention to the bedroom door. Cerulean pulled a wooden chair with a padded seat in from the hallway. “Here, Mrs. Shepherd,” he said, pushing the chair close. “It seems likely that your musical search will take a long time.”

  She gave him a thankful nod.

  Amber stooped and picked up the slender candle Cerulean had used during the dream world journey. She walked toward the wall where the mirror squares were once attached, her gait so graceful she seemed to glide. With her long blonde hair draped over her simple yellow dress and her skin shimmering like gold, she looked like a storybook fairy. Sitting on the trunk next to the wall, she said, “I will keep this taper for our journey to Earth Yellow. With all the dark places we are likely to encounter, perhaps even I will need this anchor to reality.”

  Lifting her head, she gazed upward, her face dreamy and her eyes far away. “I have been so long in my supplicant’s dome, I feel lost already. It is as if I am a goldfish released into a massive lake, one still trying to swim in a tight circle. While in prison I could watch and pray for my beloved as I listened to the music of her soul, but here the songs are many, and most are dissonant and troubling. If I do not find my beloved soon, I think I will drown in this sea.”

  “We’ll get back to work on that,” Nathan said. “The right mirror has to be around here somewhere.”

  His mother sat on the chair and laid the violin in her lap. “Do you see anything in that one?”

  He turned to the mirror in his hand. The reflection, altered by his mother’s performance of “Foundation’s Key,” showed a terrified boy, maybe five years old, standing with a shivering beagle on a snow-covered sheet of ice in the middle of a raging river.

  Nathan shook his head. Another crisis. Should he even tell everyone what was there? With all the terror on Earths Blue and Yellow caused by the approaching collision of the two worlds, they couldn’t afford to travel to each place and rescue every endangered person.

  He set the mirror back onto the stack of rejects. “Probably another Earth Blue scene.”

  Kelly pulled another square from the mirrors that hadn’t yet been tried. “How many more before you need a break?”

  Nathan looked at his mother. She had played “Foundation’s Key” more than forty times. He was beginning to regret smashing one of the mirrors in Mictar’s face, even if his action was probably the only reason the stalker hadn’t shown up at the bedroom door yet. Because that mirror was missing, they weren’t able to get the entire mosaic of mirrors operating, forcing them to pry off every square and play the tune for each one in order to find a portal to Earth Yellow. But what was done was done. “Mom? What do you think? Need a rest?”

  “Let’s make fifty mirrors our goal for now,” she said, lifting the violin again. “If they don’t show anything we can use, we should try to contact Daryl again.”

  Kelly sat next to Amber and propped up a mirror. Looking at Nathan, she asked, “If we find the right one, have you decided what to do with the others?”

  Nathan shook his head, his eyes focusing on the rejected stack. Assuming Mictar recovered from his wounds, this would be the most likely place for him to show up. Since he now knew that any of the squares a gifted person had used would work for his purposes, he would probably tear the house apart trying to find one. But they certainly couldn’t take almost four hundred mirrors with them to Earth Yellow.

  Nathan turned back to the mirror in Kelly’s hands. As his mother played the key, he watched as the mirror displayed a deserted city scene — closely packed multistory buildings, street lights illuminating empty sidewalks, and vacant newsstands with magazines and papers rippling in the breeze. A young woman, maybe twenty years old, dressed in a long coat, scarf, and ski cap stood at a corner. As windblown snow buffeted her face, she clasped a bundle close to her chest.

  He drew closer to the image. Could that bundle be a baby? Was she waiting for someone? Maybe a bus or a taxi? With the streets so empty and the snow mounting, it looked like she might have to wait for a long time.

  Jack leaned over and peered at the mirror with his newly restored eyes. “That’s Michigan Avenue in Chicago. I was a cab driver, so I know every corner in the city.”

  “But which color Earth is it?” Nathan turned toward the window on the far side of the bedroom. Outside, windblown snow raced across the front yard, blending with yellow leaves that had fallen from the now naked cottonwood tree next to the driveway.

  Jack pointed at the mirror. “Is t
here any way we can help this woman?”

  “Won’t she just go inside if she can’t get a ride?” Nathan asked.

  “Maybe not.” Jack ran the brim of his hat through his hands. “If she could go inside, why would she be standing in the snow with a baby?”

  “I don’t know, but we have to move on. While we’re standing here, Earth Yellow’s time is probably zooming by.”

  “But is there a choice?” Jack’s thick eyebrows bent toward his nose. “Is there a way to go there?”

  “Well, if we flashed a light, we could travel there.” Nathan touched the top of the reject pile. “But any one of these mirrors could lead us to a problem to solve. If we’re going to save the entire world, we can’t jump through every mirror that shows us a cold woman on the street.”

  “I suppose not.” Jack put his hat on his head. “Can you send me there? I’m not of much use in this world-saving business, but I want to do what I can to help in my little corner.”

  Kelly touched the glass near the woman’s face. “That’s strange. I can see her clearly.”

  “Then it must be Earth Yellow.” Nathan eyed the image. The woman was standing still and the snow was whipping across the viewport, making it impossible to figure out whether or not time was flying by. Should they go there? At least they would be on the right Earth, and then Amber could take them to the dream world. Or would it be better to search for a portal in the bedroom or maybe the future site of Earth Yellow’s observatory?

  Kelly held the mirror closer to her eyes. “She’s kind of far away, and there’s snow all around, but . . .”

  “But what?”

  She grabbed Nathan’s hand, making him wince. “Come with me. I’ll need your eyesight.”

  As she pulled him out of the bedroom and down the hall, Nathan had to jog to keep up. “Where are we going?”