Beneath the Bench

Crystal Towers

We walked up to a rise in the ceiling and a huge glass tower, split into flats, you could see the many people inside, busting about. "Whoa dude! You live here! Cool!" I said under my breath, he nodded and a cheeky smile spread over his face.
"It's pretty cool....." We walked through the towering glass doors and past a desk and receptionist who waved to us, everyone was so friendly here. "My flat is on the 7th floor so......we should take the lift." Agreeing, I stepped into the lift followed by Jake.
When we arrived in the long corridor of doors, the lift was flooded with light as we walked out and along the hallway. "Number 307." He pointed towards a red door and produced a key.
"Hello Trace! I'm Ellie, Jake's mum." I heard a voice say from behind me. I spun round to see a plump, kind faced woman with green eyes and long dark locks.
"Oh hi...." I said, being repeatedly embraced by Ms Howard.
"I've heard so much about you, Jake has been so excited about meeting you, finally...." She gushed as Jake flushed deep crimson.
That evening, after a late lunch, Jake's father and brothers returned home.
"Trace this is My dad John, my big brothers Sam and Ricky my little brother Dillon." They all waved and said in unison:
"Hi!" It was kind of creepy actually, I wondered how long Jake had wanted me to meet them for...
"Hi, I'm Trace but you probably already knew that from what I've heard." I shot a wide eyed expression at Jake, who was still red in the face, and smiled.
After breaking the ice with the Howard's, I was ushered back onto the now quiet streets.
"Why are we back out here?" I asked, wrapping my cardigan around my shoulders.
"We still have to talk to Asling, I can show you the generator and the rest of the office.....it's best we do it sooner rather than later, your rooms empty so we need to be sure Asling won't go and root around again." I nodded in agreement, reaching for Jake's hand which had snaked around my waist, grabbed it and pulled him to my body, he gasped then smirked as I lent towards him and our lips met. Our mouths moved perfectly together. It was so perfect but still important that we set the record straight to Asling so we parted and carried on walking to the office.
"Almost there....I'm not sure if Asling is going to take an unplanned meeting very well..." He bit his lip, scared to displease his boss.
'I can imagine' I looked at him, he smiled at my use of our special ability.
We approached a room with a lower ceiling, similar to that of the one we arrived in. It was baring a sign with Radiule Government written on it.
The walls were a red colour and the many windows were black tinted, the shadows swaying inside. There were several doors all leading in different directions, painted according to the red-black colour scheme, it was a menacing view of control and power, yet weirdly likeable-most things down here were.
"Pass!" A large woman boomed, Jake produced a small pass card and introduced me as his guest. Reluctantly, she let me through a small turn gate that led into a long corridor much like the one at crystal towers but darker, scarier.
Jake knocked on a door labeled 'Dr Wink' I laughed to myself, the name was so perfect for her profession. "Come in!" A soft, yet cold, voice said. We entered.
The same short, bob haired figure Jake had showed me that day in the woods, her eyes penetrated my hope as she looked me over and scowled. "Ah, it's the catcher....Trace is it Jake seemed to have quite a liking for you..." She looked into the air, thinking. "Tell me why did you have this in your room?" She held up my blue and purple dream catcher like evidence at a murder scene.
"Um well I bought it on holiday I thought I could keep it in my room, to keep away the repetitive crashing plane dream....." Why did she care so much? What could a little piece of net do to expose our world?
"Okay, but are you aware that this particular catcher has been charmed." She leaned over her desk, growling with fury.
"How come Jake hasn't been caught in my dream since I've had it up then? I must have had that thing at least 4 years....." She smiled a crooked smile.
"This is recently charmed my child, by one of our kind. A betrayal!" she stood up and spat these words in disbelief.
"Ms Blink, um I understand someone has tried to catch Jake in my dream but you have to believe it wasn't me!" I explained.
"She would never do something like that Asling." Jake defended me because he knew he would get the blame if anything else went wrong regarding this matter. He would be the one caught after all.
"I can see how a newly told child probably couldn't charm to this standard, I'm keeping a close eye on this matter. It would be a big deal if we were found out, it's not every day a regular human finds a civilisation underground producing dreams now is it?" We sighed at her unexpected understanding. "I'm keeping very close watch on you two and. I swear if something does end up happening, your fired Jake and you, girl, will never be able to come to Radiule again." I nodded and were shooed out of the office.
"Right so....I think we need to find out who is messing with your dream catcher......Aslings right it's not safe to have that anywhere where someone sleeps, I've come across that stuff before, I was caught but it was a family of Radiciers so they were just sent to prison straight away." Gasping I said:
"So....where do we start?"