Asleep

67 Staking

Nora~~

In my kitchen, I grab a jug of pomegranate tea from the fridge and pour it into a glass over ice. As I drink it, I let the coolness and sweetness calm me. Charlie should be here any moment with news of Radia. He said he was going to see her today. After his update, I'll ask him to make a pocket in the dream. He's done so much for me, and I've felt as if I have nothing I can give him in return.

I promised to show him the world.

Why can't I start now?

Ever since I said goodnight to Charlie yesterday, I've been making a list of the places I could create for him if we were in the void. The void terrifies me, but once it's filled by a dream, most of that fear evaporates. After many pros and cons, I decided to start with the beach at Hilton Head where my family vacationed every other year. Then I'll show him Charleston—shouldn't he see his own state?

I haven't traveled much, but I've seen enough movies and documentaries that I feel I should be able to recreate Stonehenge—albeit a shoddy recreation.

As I'm taking another sip, Charlie appears in the center of my living room, and I choke on the tea.

Concern passes over his face, but when I shake my head, clearing my throat, the confusion is replaced with an expression that looks like apprehension.

"What happened?"

Charlie's already pale face is somehow paler. "We need to shut down the dream sooner than we thought."

*****

A few hours later, we're all gathered in the basement of the Den. Tye, having now been introduced to everyone, works with Ricky to practice using weapons that Avery and I created for them. Charlie, Raymond, and I hover over the table studying a map Charlie has drawn up of the dream's headquarters for OneirTech. Earlier he showed us again . . . and again how to wake the master dreamer, and Charlie explained to me how to shut off the fabricated reality.

When Charlie told me about Radia, all my desires to create landmarks for him vanished. We rifted right to the Den's basement and contacted everyone to get here as soon as they could.

"What about some spikes?" Avery suggests already holding one in her hand.

Ricky looks unimpressed. "I agree that the scientists are monsters but staking them? They're not going to shrivel up or explode from a stake to the heart."

Tye rubs his arm. "Staking?"

Ricky gives him the side-eye. "It's how you kill a vampire."

"Kill?"

"Defeat," I call out. Dreamers know about vampires but not that they're considered undead. They're a fun legend—something to scare one another with.

Avery draws back her arm and lets the metal spike fly. It embeds itself in the wall. Ricky's lips form a thin line.

"Charlie can fix it. Not that it will matter if we wake up." I haven't wondered what it means to Ricky to wake up. He'll be leaving behind everything he's worked for. Has he come to terms with that?

Charlie points at a location on the map. "I'll rift the three of you here," he says to Ricky, Avery, and Tye. "It's a supply closet." From there they'll create a distraction while Charlie and I go into the control room. He points it out on the map and then to a spot just down the hallway from us. "I'll have to rift us here, Nora. There's fabricated reality not only in the room but in the area outside of it."

On the table are masks that will come up to our nose, just below our eyes. We'll use them to delay the scientists from learning who we are. If they know our identity, they know who to wake up.

After Charlie's done speaking, Tye and Ricky return to where they were practicing. Avery pats Charlie's shoulder with a smile before joining them.

My eyes on the map, I lean against the table. "If there are too many guards, I don't know if one of us will be enough."

"Probably not." He rubs the spot between his eyes. "We'll have to make it work."

"Your animatronic things . . ."

"Animas. That's what I call them."

"They're on a loop, right?"

Nodding, he lifts his eyes to mine.

"What if you created one to wake the master dreamer?"

There's a spark in his green eyes, and he straightens. "We'd have to get rid of the fabricated reality, but it could work." He nods more. "I don't know why it wouldn't. If I . . ." He starts murmuring to himself, and I can't help the smile that forms as I watch him piece together how he's going to conjure his most important creation yet.

Let's hope they don't fail.