Dream Casters: Shadow

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FOUR

REMEMBRANCE

When my eyes opened, I stared at my surroundings, unable to react.

It was a weird feeling. Like someone had switched on the lights and my eyes were filled with black spots.

I felt dizzy, kind of woozy, but something else too. It was hard to put it into words with my fuzzy mind.

I blinked a few times and shook my head, and suddenly, my mind awakened.

I looked around. I was standing against a tree, but it wasn’t Leigh’s and my tree.

This tree was thin and tall. I had to arch my neck back to see to the top.

Something was off. When I lifted my arm, the movement was sluggish. My thoughts were also sluggish; I struggled to get them in order.

Wake up, Chas.

I looked around again, and after a few moments, realization came back to me.

My senses started reliving this place. The smell of pine, the humidity, the touch of the moss—I knew this place. I’d been here before, a long time ago.

“Mom,” I yelled and started to walk in the direction where I assumed the cabin was.

“Mom!” She didn’t answer, but this was the same place. I passed the rocks where I had waited for her to wake up from the blow my father’s shield had caused.

If I closed my eyes, I could still see her lying right beneath the tree with her head on my lap. I had been terrified.

It felt like eons ago, but I remembered it like it had happened yesterday.

“Mom,” I yelled louder. There was no sign of my mother.

The bushes to my left rustled and I darted my eyes over to them.

I should’ve run, but something inside me didn’t want to move. Whether it was fear or adrenaline, I didn’t know.

A figure emerged from the bushes.

“Leigh?” Confusion laced my voice and I managed to smile. It felt like I hadn’t seen him in a long time, but something stirred in my memory. The audio room… the scientists discovering he was still alive.

The message he’d had for me.

This was all real. The last four months hadn’t been my own doing. It was real.

I ran to him and kissed him like I’d never kissed him before.

We broke apart, out of breath, and a grin stretched across my face.

Leigh frowned at me. Something was wrong.

My smile vanished. “Are you okay?”

“Yes, I am. Why did you wake up?”

I frown. “Wake up? What are you talking about?”

Leigh started rambling on about me not paying any attention to what he had said, and that when I had covered my ears and closed my eyes, he’d known something was wrong. He was freaking out and I was having a hard time keeping up with the words flowing from his mouth.

“Leigh, calm down.” Then something hit me. I had no recollection of falling asleep.

It felt so wrong. So out of place.

My hand brushed through my hair. What had I been doing before waking up here?

“Chas, look at me.” He took my chin between his thumb and his forefinger and looked deeply into my eyes as if he was trying to see into my soul, but the look that came from him wasn’t the dreamy look he usually gave me. This look was a hard one, filled with concern and questions I couldn’t answer. And just like that, it seemed Leigh found what he was looking for. Resolve was written all over his face.

“What’s the last thing you remember?”

“The room, scientists finding you, they spoke to you, you said the cat is always right, and…” What happened afterwards? When did I fall asleep?

I didn’t even remember getting to my room.

I didn’t like this. My eyes trailed back to Leigh. “What’s going on?”

He shook his head. “You’re not going to like this, but I’m pretty sure someone wiped at least twelve hours from your mind, Chas.”

“What?” my voice broke, my breath hitching at the revelation.

“It’s a very old incantation and only a powerful caster can do it.”

“A Level Four caster?” I asked.

“More like a Somnium.”

I let it sink in. What was he saying? “You want to tell me that Selene isn’t the only Somnium out there?”

He shook his head. “I’m saying that Selene was the one who did this to you.”

My jaw dropped open. I burst out laughing.

“Are you messing with me? I haven’t seen Selene in months.”

“That would be wrong, Chas. You must have seen her tonight. What happened? What woke you?”

“Nothing woke me.” I was annoyed, frustrated. I had no idea what Leigh was talking about.

“We met earlier at our regular spot. You mentioned the audio room, said you thought us—our relationship—was your doing. You told me the reason you didn’t ask me about the Virtual Realm, since that would answer your question of whether the dreams were real or all in your imagination.”

My mouth dropped open again. How the hell did he know that? The last thing I remembered was the audio lab. Unless he was telling the truth. Leigh had never lied to me before.

I doubled over, resting my hands on my knees. My chest was tight and I struggled to breathe.

Had someone wiped the last twelve hours from my mind? It couldn’t have been Selene. Why would she do that?

So many questions clamored in my mind that I wasn’t paying attention to anything Leigh was saying.

He pulled me up and forced me to look at him.

“Deep breaths, Chas.” He rubbed my back. “That’s it. Deep breaths.”

When I felt a bit better, when the string of thoughts started to recede and my lungs opened wide enough for air to actually get through, the rapid pounding of my heart lessened to a slow and steady beat.

“I promise I’ll find out why she did this. I’ll find out what she didn’t want you to know.”

“How do you plan on doing that?” I didn’t even know where the hell he was now. How was he going to investigate or find out the truth?

What the hell was going on?

He pulled me in for a hug. “I’ll figure something out. Just promise me you’ll be careful. I don’t like this. Not one bit.”

“Me neither.” Selene must have found out about my sand. But why would she take my memory of that away? It didn’t make any sense. Unless she was trying to coax it out and she didn’t want me to know she was on to me.

The panic attack started up again.

“What if she knows about me? What if she’s trying to hide the fact that she’s trying to coax out my shadow—” I couldn’t finish. I exhaled heavily, my stomach roiling.

“Shh, deep breaths. If Selene was on to you, Chas, she wouldn’t do this in secret. I’ve seen it before.”

He sighed and broke the hug to look at me. “Be careful, Chas, and please keep this to yourself. If Selene did this, you have to be careful who you trust. She definitely didn’t act alone. I’ll speak to you soon.” He brushed his lips against mine and then started walking away.

“Oh, before I forget… You’ll want to take a shower when you wake up,” he called over his shoulder.

I frowned. Did I smell bad in my dream?

I lifted my arm and brought it toward my nose. I smelled like me, not at all sweaty or stale. I took a handful of hair and lay it over my nose. Strawberries, the fading smell of strawberries, but not a bad smell.

I shrugged and turned around. I closed my eyes and when I opened them, I was lying on my back.

I was flat on my back looking up at the spinning ceiling of a carousel. A carousel?

Where the hell was I?

There were no large plastic horses I could concentrate on to stop the spinning. There was nothing that wasn’t moving.

Bile pushed up from my gut to my throat. I closed my eyes as I got up.

I blinked a few times when I opened my eyes. The objects were still out of focus, but I could make out the door of my bathroom.

The light was on.

The minute I started moving, the spinning intensified. I fell on all fours and crawled toward the toilet. I barely made it before I threw up my stomach’s contents.

Even when my stomach was empty, I kept gagging. I couldn’t stop. The nausea wouldn’t go away. My body ached from the heaving. I spit into the toilet and eyed the shower. For some reason, I really wanted one.

Crawling to the shower, I climbed in with my clothes on. I reached up to the tap and turned it on.

My body was tired, weak.

I was exhausted. I wanted to sleep. I curled up on the floor of the shower, the curtain barely grazing my body, as the warm water poured down on me.

I must have dozed off, because when I opened my eyes again, the water had lost its heat.

To my surprise, I felt better. Not like I had been puking my guts out a while ago.

I stood up and stripped off my wet clothes, still under the stream of chilly water.

None of this felt real. It felt like I’d just woken up from one heck of a dream or as if someone was playing an epic prank on me.

I brushed my teeth to get rid of the stale taste in my mouth and washed my hair before scrubbing myself from head to toe.

Was this what he had meant went he’d said I’d want to take a long shower? Had he known the water would clear my mind and help me feel better? Was water the antidote to whatever had made me so violently sick?

It made no sense whatsoever, but it had worked. I was finally feeling normal again. There for a moment I had been certain I was dying.

I stepped out of the shower and pulled a towel around my body, wrapping another around my head as I walked into my room.

Blotches of whatever had been in Mr. Grey’s stomach was spread all over my carpet, and I could feel his sickness through our connection.

I swallowed past the bile that wanted to come up again and rushed over to my cat. His soft grunts sounded in my head.

I picked him up and he groaned in protest. His body ached with the same stiff muscles I’d experienced a few moments ago.

What happened?

It’s going to be okay? You will be okay. I said.

He’s not going to like me very much, I thought as I took him to the bathroom.

What are you mumbling about? Mr. Grey asked in a drowsily as I reached for the tap. I stepped into the shower, clutching Mr. Grey against the towel wrapped around me.

“I’m sorry,” I said as the water hit both of us again.

Mr. Grey clawed at me, hissing and growling at me. Through our bond, I tried to convey to him that the water would help him feel better, that it was the antidote, but he didn’t want to listen. I held him tighter against me, stoically taking each claw and scratch.

I kept repeating that the water was the antidote until the scratching reduced to just a low growl from his belly.

Didn’t you get the memo? he cried inside my head. Cats don’t like water.

I held Mr. Grey under the water until I sensed the sick feeling dissipating.

He was starting to speak in very clear syllables too. Cussing and moaning about the wetness of his body, how cold he was, how I owed him bigtime. Of course, he wanted me to make it up to him by giving him a can of tuna and warm cream—and it couldn’t be half-and-half, either.

I couldn’t help but smile. He was such a baby.

I’m not a baby, he hissed. I don’t like water. I don’t care if it is the antidote. I just don’t like it.

I shut off the water and grabbed another towel to wrap him in, and deposited him on bed.

Grabbing clothes and another dry towel from the cupboard, I hurried back to the bathroom to dress.

When I came out, Mr. Grey was licking himself dry.

It would take him forever if he had to do it by himself.

I plugged in my hair dryer and pointed the hot air in his direction.

If I didn’t know Mr. Grey wasn’t an ordinary cat, this grooming session would’ve given it away. He sat there, enjoying the heat from the dryer and twisting his face toward the air. Any other cat would have scattered the second I switched on the dryer.

Once he was completely dry, he picked a spot in the sun on my windowsill as I dried my hair.

I hoped Natalie would give me a hand in cleaning up the mess that was my room. I ran a hand through my hair before heading to the door to plead my case.

When I opened my door, the entire floor was dark and the curtains were pulled closed.

I look down the staircase. Not a single light shone through the house. It was eerily quiet, almost as if I was the only here.

This is just plain freaky, Mr. Grey said, echoing my thoughts.

Ditto.

He followed me downstairs. It was so dark, I struggled to make my way to the kitchen.

I felt around on the wall for the light switch and flicked it the moment I found it. I nearly jumped out of my skin when my eyes fell on Mrs. Irwin sitting at the kitchen table.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean…” I stopped. “What’s going on? Why’s the whole house dark?”

Mrs. Irwin stared unblinkingly at me as if I had sprouted another head or something.

“Mrs. Irwin?” I said and walked closer to her.

She finally snapped out of her stupor.

“Chastity, what are you doing up?” She sounded surprised but somewhat relieved as well. She got up from her chair, took two long strides to me, and put a hand on my head. “How is this possible? It’s only been two days. How do you feel?”

“I feel fine. Wait, what has been two days?”

“You all somehow managed to get the most horrid flu. The doctor said I’m somehow immune to it. All you poor girls have been so sick. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen.”

“Two days?” I asked. That strange feeling I’d had when I had woken up, like I couldn’t remember what had happened before feeling sick.

Leigh’s warning shot through my head. Mr. Grey looked up at me. He knew about the dreams and Leigh’s warning not to trust anyone.

“I’m so glad you’re okay,” Mrs. Irwin carried on, bending down and scratching Mr. Grey’s head at my feet.

If Lover Boy said that crazy witch did something, you know I have to find out what it is, Mr. Grey said. He’d been calling Selene a crazy witch lately, and I had no idea why. Even though our bond was strong, if Mr. Grey wanted to hide something from me, something he believed would hurt me, he could. He was strong enough to guard himself from me. He wasn’t impressed with Mrs. Irwin’s sudden and overly enthusiastic friendliness. As much as I hoped she wasn’t the grownup in on what Selene did to us, I had to be cautious.

Whatever you do, don’t tell her about the water. Lie if you must.

Okay, I said in my head while Mrs. Irwin carried on about the doctor trying to find a way to heal us and that he’d suggested medicine and rest.

I smiled as she finished. “This doesn’t surprise me,” I said as Mr. Grey slipped away to go investigate. “I’ve always just caught a hint of any illnesses. My friends would be down for the count but I’d just sneeze a couple of times and that was that,” I lied.

If Leigh was right and someone—though I still couldn’t believe it was Selene—had taken our memories away, then Mrs. Irwin—as hard as it was to believe—knew all about it, and she was okay with whatever was happening to us now. It also meant she was lying to me, ever so convincingly.

I didn’t even feel a twinge of guilt over the lies anymore.

“You want me to make you a sandwich?” Mrs. Irwin asked, and for a small moment her offer felt like a death sentence.

She wouldn’t.

I smiled. “That would be nice. Thank you, Mrs. Irwin.” I walked to the door. “Mind if I check on Natalie?”

“Of course, but please be careful. You might still be able to catch the whole dose.”

I nodded and rushed to Natalie’s room.

How did Leigh know about all this stuff? Where had he learned about incantations only Somniums could do? About spells that had this effect and could take away memories? That water was the antidote?

And what did my cat have to do with it?

The cat is always right.