Nightmare Stalkers

Chapter 2

2

I materialized in a bedroom next to a twin bed. I transported myself out of the dream so fast I couldn't control my speed.

I crashed into a closet and bounced off, falling back on the floor.

A flapping sound made me look up.

A brown falcon on a bird post next to the bed.

Destiny, my cousin, in falcon form. She stared at me with lightning-yellow eyes, and she shrieked. Then she slipped out of a window behind her and flew into the dark, snowy night.

Allegra sprang up, gasping. Her skin was covered in thick beads of sweat, and her blue tank top was soaked. Even her hair was drenched. She was covered in white pads that were hooked up to an EEG machine in the corner of the room.

The room was crazy hot. Thank God Darius had opened a window to let some of the wintry air in.

She started to remove the pads.

“Did you…see it all?” she asked.

“Saw it all,” I said.

A black hand offered to help me up.

I grabbed it and my cousin, Darius, pulled me up. He shook his cornrowed head at me.

“You all right, Allegra?” Darius asked, handing her a towel. “I've seen a lot of people sleep. But I ain't seen nobody sweat like you. Damn.”

Allegra wiped her face.

I checked the essential oil diffuser next to the bed. It was almost empty, so I grabbed a vial of orange oil and put a few drops in. Soon, the room smelled like citrus. Hopefully, that would calm her down.

“That was intense,” Allegra said. “I mean, my other dreams were bad, but that—”

“It's a’ight,” Darius said. “We monitored everything. No need to worry or relive it.”

“Darius is right,” I said, smoothing out my leather jacket. “You leave the dream interpretation to us.”

Allegra nodded and smiled.

“Shower is down the hall and to the left,” I said, opening the door.

Allegra slipped out of bed and out of the room.

Darius tilted his head at her curvy frame and put his fist to his mouth and bit it.

He shut the door quickly.

“Gaaaaaaah-DAMN she is fine,” he said, shaking his head. “Ain't never seen an ass like that.”

I punched him on the shoulder.

“She's a client,” I said.

“I know, I know,” Darius said. “That's why I shut the door.”

Then he frowned at me.

“You realize how close you cut it this time?” he asked.

He held up a stopwatch. It read: two point five seconds.

“This is your margin,” he said. “If you had stayed in there this much longer, you might not have come back.”

“I live on the margin,” I said.

We had agreed on five seconds. I had cut it pretty close.

“Just don’t give a damn, do you?” he asked.

“If you saw what I saw, you would have stayed as long as I did,” I said.

“You say that every time,” Darius said.

Downstairs, the front door to the shop slammed and the bell over the shop door rang. Hard footsteps stomped across the floor and up the stairs.

The door opened and my cousin, Destiny, barreled in, wearing a pink sweater, yoga pants, and furry boots.

She slammed the door behind her.

She opened her mouth to speak, but I held up a hand.

We paused, listening to make sure that Allegra was in the shower.

The water was running.

“What the hell is your problem?” Destiny asked.

“We agreed to help her,” I said.

“Help her by dying?” Destiny asked.

“I wasn't going to die,” I said. “I know what I'm doing.”

“We set ground rules,” Destiny said. “Rules don't mean s**t if you don't follow them.”

“Because you seem to have forgotten,” Darius said, “if I sense any danger, I tell Destiny. If I think the dreamer is gonna wake up, I tell Destiny. I don't just whisper s**t in her ear because I'm bored, cuz.”

“And I don't warn you when I don't think there's danger,” Destiny said.

“And I don't stick around in a dream unless I have a good reason to,” I said. “So why don't we all agree to drop it?”

I really, really didn't feel like arguing with my cousins tonight. But it looked like I didn't have a choice.

“Naw, I'm not dropping it this time,” Darius said. “What did you see in there that made the risk of death worth it?”

“Still thinking on it,” I said. “There was a lot to process.”

“Because I can tell you what I saw,” Darius said. “A woman who ain't quite right.”

“In the head?” I asked.

“Naw, physiologically,” he said. “Her vitals are all kinds of f****d up. Her heart rate jumped to unsafe levels. If she had kept dreaming, I'm pretty sure she would have had a heart attack.”

“This isn't the first time she's had a dream like this,” I said.

“But who knows when it will be the last?” Darius asked. “I want to help her. You know I do—”

“Mmm hmm,” Destiny said, folding her arms. “You want to help her, all right.”

Darius swatted her away.

“I want to help,” he said, “but we’re getting into the unauthorized practice of medicine here. She needs medical attention. If something happens while she's in our care, it ain't gonna be good. I don't think we can help her. I say we decode her dream, give her our best report, and let her down gently.”

“We don't know the whole story yet,” I said. “I can't take her money in good conscience if we let her go now.”

Darius shook his head.

“Wizard tech basics,” he said. “Never mess with the physics of the human body. My teachers taught me a lot about this. We’re messing around with something we don't understand. We need to have her go to Kemiston Memorial Hospital. The FBI Magical Crimes Unit can take her case if the doctors call.”

Typical Darius, chickening out on me.

Had to sweet talk him. Make it worth his while.

“You sound like a chicken,” I said. “Scared of a challenge?”

“Ain't scared of nothin’,” he said. “But all of this ain't worth the price we agreed on, I can tell you that.”

“We help people,” I said. “Sure, we need the money. We’ll get the money. But it's not good for business if we half-do the jobs that come in the door.”

Darius turned and started packing the EEG sensors in a plastic bag.

“Darius,” I said.

“I'm cool,” he said.

“No, you're not,” I said.

“We gonna continue,” he said. “It don't matter what I say. It's a’ight, cuz. It's a’ight.”

“D, quit being like that,” Destiny said.

“Like what?” Darius asked. “I'm all in, sis. Sounds like I don't have much of a f*****g choice anyway.”

I sighed.

“D, if you don't wanna be part of this, don't be part of it,” I said. “But I thought we were a team. You were all kinds of ready to help her last night when she walked through the door.”

Darius jammed the EEG into the closet.

“Got it,” he said. “I'm a team player.”

“Allegra’s gotta sleep,” I said. “After a lucid dream like this one, she should be pretty dreamless.”

Allegra had no place else to go. I told her she could sleep on our couch in the basement.

“That reminds me,” Destiny said. “I need to take her some blankets.”

We exited our dream room, a bedroom on the second floor of our brownstone.

Allegra exited the bathroom at the same time, wearing a white towel. Her black hair hung down on her shoulders, and steam rose from her skin. She was definitely beautiful in a Brazilian model kind of way. She looked far more relaxed now.

“Sorry,” she said, sidestepping.

“We’re sorry,” I said. “Had a good shower?”

“Nice and warm,” she said.

Damn. That probably meant there wouldn't be any warm water left for the rest of us.

“Good to hear,” I said.

I glanced back at Darius, who was staring with his jaw open.

“Yeah, we uh, you need anything, I mean, uh, yeah, that's g-g-g-good, yep—”

I smacked him upside his head.

“We’ll leave you alone,” I said, dragging Darius down the stairs. “Come and see us in the kitchen when you're dressed.”

Allegra smiled shyly.

Darius tripped on the bottom step and fell on his knees.

“Just can't get a good look, can ya?” Destiny asked.

“Shut up,” Darius said. “Shut. Up.”

“You like that Brazilian ass,” Destiny said, “and the breasts. And the legs. And the face. And the hair. You were lookin’ at her like she was the last woman on Earth.”

“Thought I told you to shut up,” Darius said.

“You probably imagined all kinds of thangs,” Destiny said. “You sooo predictable.”

“So are you,” Darius said. “Look: she's a good-looking lady. Nothing wrong with that. Can't get mad at a brother for admiring, can you?”

I chuckled as we started to clean the shop. I tossed Darius a broom.

“For the record,” I said, “you've only spoken one coherent phrase to her.”

“One day, when you're in the presence of true beauty, you'll understand,” Darius said.

Destiny beat him with a mop.

“You was supposed to say you in the presence of true beauty every day,” she said. “You live with two women, you know.”

Darius shielded his face.

“Damn, stop!” he said.

Destiny paused, raising her mop.

“True beauty,” she said. “You live with true beauty.”

“Yeah, Aisha,” Darius said, tilting his head at me. “Teach her a thing or two about true beauty.”

Destiny hit him again.

“Well, your dream girl is going to be wearing some of my clothes, so picture that when you undress her…” Destiny said.

“That's cold,” Darius said. “You done messed up my mental imagery.”

Destiny laughed. “Can't you just hear his d**k shriveling up now?”

Darius pursed his lips as he swept the floor.

I wiped down the front counter and slid on my snow boots and my blue peacoat.

Through the shop window, the snowy street outside looked cold.

“I need some time to think,” I said. “Thinking I might do a bit of shoveling.”

“Remember what happened the last time you did that,” Darius warned.

It was true.

The last time I shoveled the sidewalk in front of the shop, evil demons showed up and derailed my entire night.

But life had been pretty quiet lately.

“I'll be fine,” I said. “Besides, I'm tired of listening to you two bicker.”

“It's not bickering,” Destiny said. “I'm just trying to stop my dear brother here from making a total and utter ass of himself. Sister’s love.”

“So that's what they call it,” Darius said.

I grabbed the shovel and slipped out the back door, into the night.