The Extractor

Chapter 3- Do You Dream

Chapter 3- Do You Dream

Annaliea went to bed that night feeling empty. Missing a person to say goodnight to. Missing a memory to dream on. Missing a life to remember.

Whatever the reason may be, Annaliea felt like she needed something before she went to sleep. Something other than Krissi blaring in her ear.

For that reason, and that reason alone, Annaliea snuck out of her room and started exploring The Castel.

The insides of The Castel are really only rooms and numbers. On the ground floor is a mess hall and a few rooms for practicing the talents, but nothing else. At the end of each long hallway there was another passage running parallel, and along that, were rows upon rows of more corridors, leading to more rooms.

Annaliea was worried that she might get lost.

Third floor, fifth row, tenth door on the right. She repeated to herself so as not to forget her room.

She wandered the halls, staring at the names and numbers on the doors, reading them off in her head. Reaching stairs at the end of each parallel corridor she tromped down them as silent as she could and reached the ground floor.

That’s when she heard a scream.

Annaliea slammed herself against the wall so as not to be seen. Her heart began pounding in her throat and her stomach tightened. After a minute she peaked around the corner and watched.

In a space Annaliea assumed was a weight room, stood a girl. No, not one girl. Two.

The one standing had long, white hair that reached her hips, and was at least six feet tall. She seemed to emanate a glow around her and her feet didn’t seem to be touching the ground.

The girl on the ground was crumpled in a beaten heap. Sobbing quietly to herself.

Before Annaliea could figure out much more she heard a thump behind her. She whirled around and found a small boy with messy brown hair and a cast around his leg about ten steps above her.

“James,” Annaliea breathed and rushed up to him.

As soon as James saw her, his eyes grew wide in recognition. “You!”  he said taking his hand off the railing to point at her.

 He slipped off the stair, the railing no longer there to support the dead weight of his foot, he slide down the steps with a loud thunk.

James had recognized her. But he wasn’t sure from where.

Annaliea bolted up the stairs before the glowing menace could catch her with James. She had no idea what that thing could do to her, and she didn’t intend to find out. Her heart was beating like a humming bird at this point and her head started to hurt again.

Still, this boy interested her greatly and she stayed hidden at the top of the stairs to watch.

The glowing being spun around to find James rubbing his good leg at the bottom of the stairs. She floated over to him with a look of annoyance etched across her face. When James saw her he tried to run but his casted leg wouldn’t allow him to.

“What do we have here?” it mocked. “A Worthless out of bed.” Its gaze shot up to where Annaliea was watching at the top of the stairs. No doubt it saw her. Bongos played in her head to the beat of her heart and thrumming headache. “Come down from there. Don’t try and hide from me.”

Annaliea took tentative steps down the stairs and stood next to James, terrified. She felt sick to her stomach and the ache in her head turned into a stinging pain. Her arms had a heavy weight too them that she had not noticed before. The being stood with its gaze attached to Annaliea, her arms grew steadily heavier until she was forced to sit down to relieve the weight. Only once she was seated did the being remove its gaze.

“There, now isn’t that better than standing up?”

James and Annaliea kept silent.

The girl on the floor let out a cry and the being turned around with a hiss, “Quite girl.”

When it turned back to the pair it smiled. Both grew wide eyed at the sight.

“Tell me, Worthless,” it spat at James, “Valuable,” it snapped at Annaliea, “What are you two doing out of bed?”

James spoke first. “I was bored.”

“And you?” I inquired to Annaliea.

She didn’t speak at first. “I wanted something to dream on.”

The woman laughed. “You can’t dream. Without your subconscious mind, you are incapable of dreams.” The luminescent thing moved in close to the pairs faces then pressed its index finger to both their foreheads. Annaliea stared at its finger cross-eyed and James yawned.

Then both their eye lids started to close. With a thud, both collapsed on the stairs, completely passed out.

***

“Krissi,” Annaliea asked poking at her breakfast.

“Yeah,” Krissi answered with her mouth half full of toast. “What’s your problem?”

“Do you ever dream?”

Krissi stared at Annaliea with a confused look on her face. “No one here dreams. Don’t ask me why, that’s just how it works.” She continued shoving toast into her mouth.

Annaliea pushed her plate away from her, too contemplative to eat. “I think I had a dream last night.”

Krissi nearly spit orange juice all over Annaliea, “Impossible. You can’t dream.”

Annaliea wasn’t sure if last night had really happened. It’s as if there was a hole in her brain that wouldn’t allow her to revisit last night. It ate at her. She wanted to know why.

“My head hurts again.” She complained to Krissi. The stinging in her head from last night had carried over into this morning as a migraine.

 “We can get you something for it later.” She said and waved it off.

No. Annaliea couldn’t wait. The pain was growing stronger. Everything seemed brighter, louder, more annoying. Everything made her head hurt. The more her head hurt the more Annaliea felt unable to sit straight or even stay awake.  Soon she felt her eyes close, then the floor at her back and Krissi at her side.

The last voice she heard was a comforting voice of a young boy named James.

“Hey, you okay?”