Asleep

44 His Eighth Son

Charlie~~

At the bottom of the stairs, locked behind a clear wall and seated on the green-gray carpet is Radia, staring down at her hands, her legs crossed.

She can't see me. The area I'm in is tucked in darkness, the only light in the room comes from her side of the wall.

Confined to eternal boredom. All for being different.

I press my hand against the wall, and the first step, similar in shape to a honeycomb, lights up.

Radia tilts her head back, aware that she's not alone but unable to tell it's me, cloaked in the shadows as I am.

The next step lights up and the next and the next. The previous step's light shutting off when it no longer bears my weight.

Once I'm in front of the clear wall, Radia can see me.

"Charlie."

"Are you surprised?"

She stares down at her hands again, her shoulders sagging forward before pressing her hands into the floor and standing up. "I had no reason to think you'd care to come see me. You already know I gathered you were related to Doctor Pace. So are you his son?"

"His eighth son."

"Did he send you?"

"No. I just thought you deserve to have someone come visit you." Someone to break the endless monotony. Her cell is comprised of her. No furniture.

Dad can shut off their needs. He doesn't need to provide a toilet or a bed. Not even food. If he wanted to test if someone was a Class One, he could turn their hunger need on and wait to see if they create food to satisfy their hunger.

Being in one of these cells is basically being trapped in your mind. Filled with thoughts but ultimately alone.

Dad only programs fabricated reality into the cells of dreamers he knows to be Class Ones, even then he isn't worried about them escaping. He doesn't allow them to see anywhere else in this dream, meaning the only place they could rift to is the other side of the clear wall. And if they did, he'd simply wake them up and put them back in. The same goes for if they were to create a pocket—a void in the dream.

"Nora. How is she?"

"She knows she's dreaming."

Radia sags against the wall, her forehead resting up against it. "She must be terrified. Does your father know?"

"I told him."

Her eyes snap up, and she steps back. "You promised me you'd keep her safe. She told me you were there when she was taken, when your father had her beaten. Is it only a matter of time before she ends up in one of these cells?"

"I'm doing what I can to prevent that. And I was there that day to try to stop it from happening."

Radia pulled me aside that day Nora and I went to the conservatory and told me she knew I was one of the oneirologists because I shared Richard Pace's last name and because Nora told her that I worked with him. But I guess she saw that I was trying to help Nora and made me promise to help look out for her.

"Doctor Pace came to my work to interview for a news story," she said. "I knew I was dreaming the moment I saw him."

"What's your endgame?"

I stare at her confused.

"It's not to win her love. You lost that possibility. So what is it?"

"The day you and Nora were put under, Nora tried to escape. I was in awe." I tried escaping once. Security tackled me, and I was kept in the dream for a full six months before Dad summoned me back to the real world. I wanted her to make it.  "Dad assigned her to me to watch. I knew how interested he was in her. I was scared about what he would do to her. He was behind her working for me, behind Tye and me showing up at your apartment on your first night. He pulls all the strings. I don't know if he intended for me to care for her—I can hardly tell what he has and doesn't have his hands in—but she became my friend." I sink to the floor, crossing my legs and placing my elbows on my thighs, my face in my hands. "I want to keep her out of his hands."

Radia joins me on the floor becoming my mirror.

"He controls everything. It's only a matter of time before he'll get whatever it is he wants from her."

"Would you ever try to help her escape?"

The last time someone escaped, I was the one punished for it. "I could never get her out of the Hall. No one has been able to get a dreamer out of the facility who was being kept in there." Whoever is helping them has to wait the minute for the em-pen to kick in so that the dreamer could even walk. It takes up too much time.

"Is Tye okay?"

"He quit working for me the night you were taken."

She bows her head. "And me? What's going to happen?"

"Nothing as long as your father doesn't retaliate against mine." With my eyes open, I imagine a couch against the wall to the left and a coffee table in front of it. I add a blanket, draped over the couch.

Radia twists to see what I'm looking at.

"I can send you books if you'd like."

She chews on her bottom lip. "Your dad—he wouldn't approve."

"I've done it for others. He doesn't take issue with it."

She wipes her eyes. "Then I'll take whatever books you can get."

There are about a hundred books uploaded to the dream, banned words removed and all settings changed to be in Somnia. Then there are the books dreamers have written. "I'll have them brought to you tomorrow."

So yes, Radia is a Lucid!