Dream Walker

Chapter 8 | Chlorine Makes the Head Spin Round

"Go, go, go!" Lyn cheered, putting her fingers in her mouth and letting out a shrill whistle. "Kick their asses, Quinn! My grandmother could swim faster than them!"

Arms and legs sliced through the water, and Callie could hardly tell the difference between the swimmers. At this point, they were just caps, goggles, and flailing limbs. She only knew which one was Quinn because she'd kept track of the lane he was in. His strong, muscled shoulders were identifiable even among the similar frames of the other competitors.

Quinn had gained a slight lead in the first two laps and was maintaining his status as the top seed. Lyn, a competitive swimmer in high school and a recreational swimmer now, understood what was going on better than Callie did, so she let her do all the trash talking.

Lyn and Callie had come to this home meet to support Quinn and Cameron. Luckily, the guys were fast enough to be in the last two heats, so Callie had been able to reduce her exposure to the strong chlorine smell by coming late. Despite only being there for half an hour, there was already a pounding behind her forehead. She couldn't blame it solely on the pool. The headache had started building long before that afternoon.

The morning after she sprinted home, running from that cold presence she felt behind her, the news had reported another savage attack. The victim, a man who had been walking through her neighborhood that night, had survived the attack and was being treated at the same hospital where she worked. It had taken all her resolve to resist the urge to search for his room during her shifts.

Based on the man's description of the attacker, which was clouded by his head injury and the dark night, the police were looking for some kind of wild animal. The fact that no one else had seen this giant, savage animal had left the investigators baffled.

The reporter covering the story, appropriately sober but with an obvious gleam in his eye, pronounced that an informant close to the investigation claimed the police were looking into the possibility of a person coordinating these attacks, potentially using a large dog. They had found no connection between the two victims, but that didn't dissuade the reporter's passion.

After watching that news story, Callie had dressed quickly and left for a run. There had been no particular route or intentions for her run, so she had continued looping around her neighborhood and local parks until she'd felt too tired to keep going.

The running hadn't tempered the overwhelming guilt she felt, knowing that the man had gone for a walk at the wrong time and had encountered a creature that was angered by her own narrow escape. She could no longer deny her knowledge of what was attacking people, but she couldn't exactly go to the police with what she knew. No one would believe her.

Another recent development was the change in her dreams the past few nights. The screams she heard in the maze were growing in frequency, their echoing sounds making her ears ring even after she woke. If she tried running away from them, there was still no change in the intensity. Though she kept waking up and falling asleep multiple times a night, she plunged immediately into the same dream each time. No amount of running or alcohol had done anything to block them out. So, by the time she breathed in the chlorine-soaked air at the swim meet, the headache was unavoidable.

Callie winced at Lyn's yelling but continued to watch the competition intently, sending silent prayers toward Quinn. Maira was cheering almost as loud from Lyn's phone. She was out of town and couldn't make it to the meet, so she was attending virtually. Lyn was keeping Maira updated with a running commentary, given between shouts and insults, on Quinn's lead compared to the performance of the others.

His win came without surprise, though the second finisher gave him a run for his money on the last lap. Callie and Lyn clapped when he got out of the pool, and he blew a kiss back their way. He and the other swimmers disappeared into the locker room to clean up before the results were posted. Waiting for Quinn to return, Callie and Lyn lounged on the metal bleachers and talked to Maira for a few minutes.