The Dreamjumper and The Dreamcatcher

Chapter 2: Dealing with the consequences

Reve

I'm a dead man. Lena is going to tell me I've gotten too cocky. Shit.

It takes me about 20 minutes to walk back to the apartment. I fumble with my keys as I try to get the door open, and before I can do it myself, Lena is there looking at me with an inquisitive look on her face.

"You're back early," she says.

"Yeah..." I say as I walk inside. The living room made into our work area is lit up with different monitors. Maps and faces fill the screens, and it seems like Lena was rewatching one of the recent dreams someone in our team had walked into.

"What did you do?"

"Why such an accusatory tone?"

"Because the only times you ever come back here early without a warning are when you screw up."

"Pshh... Not always."

"Just spill Reve!" From behind her oversized round spectacles I can read her brown eyes telling me that she isn't going to tolerate any shit.

Lena is sort of like a pixie-looking, scrawny Edna Mode. (Her words, not mine.) She's got the same bossy attitude and unfiltered genius. And she might be the shortest one out of all of us, but she's the most likely to whoop my ass. However, her style is totally different. Her bob cut is pink-colored instead of black. And she has these baggy camo pants with a black crop top under a purple bomber jacket.

Welp. Time to come out clean.

"Alora, the girl whose dreams I've been dreamjumping into can see me."

Lena's eyes grow wide. She uncrosses her arms and punches me in the arm.

"You stupid boy! Dunderhead, nimrod, thickhead, jackass..." As she continues to list off insults, she walks back into her workspace towards her computer.

"Ok. I get it! I screwed up."

"You did more than just that. You could be compromising our mission!" She plops down into her rose gamer chair and starts furiously typing on her Hello Kitty keyboard.

"Please don't report this back to the superiors."

"Screw that," she says. "I won't be saying anything because then I'm the one who has to pay for your mess up. No, you're going to have to fix it before they find out."

"How?"

"Figure it out. I can help you track her down, and give you more information on her." Suddenly the security footages from all over the city pop up on the screen. Lena's trying to follow the bus I take every morning where I see the girl.

"Then what? Wipe out her memory?"

"Listen, dipshit. If I could do that, then that would be the first thing I would do."

I lift my hands in defense. "Hey, it's better than killing her."

Lena punches my arm again. "You are not going to kill her! No one is disappearing mysteriously." She pauses for a moment. I can almost hear what is going through her mind. I hadn't meant it literally. We're better than the others.

"If anyone is disappearing," she continues, "it's going to be you. From her world."

"How do I do that?"

"I thought you were a conniving, quick-witted smart aleck. I don't know. Maybe use your slick bad-boy skills of persuasion and then crush her. Convince her into believing you never existed. And make sure she never speaks of you to anyone."

I exhale and place my hands in my jean pockets. "Right."

Let's just say I have a history... I'm not proud of it. It's all in the past, left behind with my teenage self and the life I had before I took this job. I might have used those skills a couple of times afterward as part of the job to cut connections. That's the hard part about my job. At first it was riveting to disappear like a secret agent. I was ready for it. But it also meant leaving behind everyone in my life. Even my family. Which created tensions I prefer not to attend to. I push the thought aside and try to focus again on what Lena is doing.