17 Dreams

Chapter 11: Confront Your Demons

You have moments when you sulk, when you crib and cry and feel that, 'why me and why all these things are happening with me.' We are only human. It's about facing your fear and not giving up because you are the only person who will support yourself at the end of the day and if you don't do that then nobody else will - Vaani Kapoor

I woke up and saw Jake and Claire asleep as well. I guess watching over me made them tired. I looked at the time and saw it was almost noon. I had to get to the hospital to do another test to see what my dreams can do to help. I didn't want to wake up Claire or Jake so I just quietly left the room and headed to the hospital. When I got there they already had everything set up. I won't lie, I'm pretty nervous. The first attempt at this, the killer was 1 step ahead of us. I'm still confused about how that was possible. But I was confident this time.

"You ready?" Laura asked.

"Time to bring this killer to justice."

"You know the drill."

"1...2...3...4...5..."

I opened my eyes and saw myself in Jason's office. I had to find out who Jason's brother was. I saw the list of names Jason was planning to have murdered. I saw Janice's name crossed out. I'm having a hard time believing she's dead. I didn't know her, obviously. But I knew she was dead for a reason. And that reason being me. I couldn't lose focus, not when there were still people who needed to live. I looked through the book and saw another name. But this time, it was a name I knew.

"Heather Waters. Who's Heather?" Laura asked.

"She was a classmate of South. She helped Jason Ambrose find South, not knowing he planned to kill and rape her. They're actually friends now." Michael said.

"Does Jason Ambrose know this?"

"I don't know. South never visited him when he was put away for 20 years."

Why was Heather's name on this list? We;re good now, we're friends now. She did her time and realized her mistakes. She has no other reason to be targeted. This was now personal. Who's ever doing this has gone back deeper into the past. Maybe Heather's just...old news or something. Jason could've killed her, and maybe he did plan to kill her. But we stopped him before he could. Heather, she's unfinished business. I continued looking around to find who Json's brother was. I saw the framed photo of Jason with his family, mother and father and 2 younger siblings. Jason was the oldest, no doubt about it. I knew the little boy next to him was his brother, all grown up, and killing people. I took a deep breath and looked very closely at the boy. I thought maybe there was something about him that would help me find out who it was.

"Come on, give me something. He has to be someone I know. Or at least seen before."

I knew just staring at the photo wouldn't help, so I took it out of the frame and looked at the back of the photo. There had to be some sort of information about the day that picture was taken.

"Sacramento, Summer of 2020."

"Summer of 2020? Does that year mean anything to you?" Laura asked.

"I wouldn't know. I didn't know about South until a few months ago."

Summer of 2020. That summer...was terrible. That was the summer when Jason...that was the summer I was held hostage and tortured. That was a day I tried so hard to forget about. I was about to put the photo away when I noticed something about Jason's little brother. He had a birthmark on his chin...the same one Gary had. It was in the same spot and in the same shape. It couldn't...Gary can't be...and then it dawned on me. Why Gary was so infested in knowing things about me, because he was gathering information, information for Jason. But how did Gary know about my dreams? And then it dawned on me again. I fell asleep in class before, and Gary sits right next to me. I must talk in my sleep and Gary heard me talking about the victims. But what about the hospital? How was Gary able to kill Janice Ian before we could even get her out of the house? Unless...he was there. Gary was smart, I knew that. But I didn't think he was this smart. I don't know how to tell Laura and my dad about this. Can they hear me talk in my dream? I grabbed a piece of paper.

"What's she doing?" Laura asked.

"She's writing something." Michael said.

South wrote something down in black marker and made sure they can see what she wrote.

Gary Summers

"Gary Summers? Who's that?" Laura asked.

Classmate

Songwriting class

"I think she means Gary Summers is her classmate in her songwriter class." Michael said.

The detectives immediately ran out of the room to look for Gary. Laura and Michael continued to look at the screen. South still seemed to be writing something.

Protect Heather

Unfinished business

She's next

Michael then left to call Heather and Laura tried to bring South back to the real world, but she seemed to be having trouble.

"No, no, no. This can't be happening."

Michael came back.

"I called Heather, she's coming here. What's wrong?"

"The machine...it's broken."

"Broken?! Broken how?!"

"I don't know! But with it broken, we can't bring her back. Not even music will save her."

Laura and Michael looked at a sleeping South, completely unaware that she's trapped in her dream.