Dream Walker

Chapter 45 | All Hell Breaks Loose

For a few moments, there was only silence and blackness. The pain of the veil's energy fighting back against her efforts to open it had disappeared. Callie feared she had pushed herself beyond her limits, that her spirit would never be able to reunite with her body. Or perhaps she was already dead, and this void was the afterlife.

All of a sudden, sensation rushed back in, and she felt her body hit the ground. The pain of the crash landing was a welcome relief after the nothingness she had felt before. There was a heavy weight laying across her chest. Her weak arms pushed at it, and, surprisingly, it moved.

Now that she had returned to her physical self, she could hear Alex's frantic words. "Callie, wake up. Callie!"

Her eyelids felt like lead weights, but she managed to force them open. She felt more exhausted than ever before, and there was no hum of electric energy rushing through her veins. She gazed up at the dark sky, with its normal set of stars, wondering how they got back home. Alex must have pushed them through.

Her tired eyes locked on his, and the worry lines decorating his brow eased. Alex helped her up to a seated position. Blood rushed to Callie's head and she felt dizzy. She planted her hands firmly on the ground beside her and tried not to let the black spots in her eyes drag her into unconsciousness.

"Are we safe?" she asked in a hoarse croak.

His eyes darted to the tall stalks surrounding them, then returned to hers. "I think so—for now. The shadow creatures did not cross with us." A puzzled expression twisted his features. "I don't understand why..."

He continued talking, but Callie couldn't hear the words anymore over the pounding of her pulse. Over his shoulder, she could see the maze. Not just a small glimpse, but a vertical tear several feet in height. The hole was slowly growing in width, as if invisible hands were drawing back both sides of a curtain. It was the same way she had imagined opening the veil in her mind, but it couldn't still be her controlling it. Unless...no, it couldn't be her, right?

Alex noticed her lack of response and followed her gaze to the unnatural sight behind him. As his body moved out of the way, she could see the silhouettes of several dog-like creatures beyond the intact portion of the shimmering veil. They were standing still, waiting for some sort of cue.

"I—I'm not opening the veil anymore. And I don't think I can stop it."

They watched the progress of the widening tear in shock, unable to comprehend what they were seeing. Alex broke the awed silence and said, "That should be impossible. The Order has dream walkers monitoring the barrier at all times. They would not let this happen."

"Well, it's happening."

Callie's mind spun, imagining the consequences of what she had begun. How far would the opening go? Would there be any barrier between Earth and this other world when it was done?

The weak reserves of energy left in her body thrummed suddenly. Almost like—a disturbance in the Force. If she kept finding reasons to reference Star Wars, she should just start calling herself a Jedi.

A burst of energy stole the life from the half-dead corn stalks, and they crumpled to the ground. In their absence, Callie saw ten—no, twenty—people standing in the field around them. They were not close enough for her to see clearly, but she had a feeling these people were part of The Order. Alex's face confirmed her suspicion.

"Julien?" he asked, voice tinged with hope and desperation.

"Si, Alex, c'est moi." The voice came from someone standing in the circle, but the face was shadowed.

The name tickled something in Callie's memory. Maybe that was his brother? The brother that had been friends with Arabella? Either way, her stomach was roiling with tension. She was unsure whether The Order was there to save them or kill them. Both options seemed equally likely.