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F I V E

"A good traveler is one who knows how to travel with the mind." 

At school, Charlie's attention was paid to the girl he searched for. She was not there inside the pupils flooding out from the school bus, neither at the classes he followed. So he entered the library after class once more, to see if she was there.

Isadora Monet, she wore black dresses with white belt that was not tight wrapping her waist, her hair was tied up in a ponytail, giving a new value in his sight. She sat on the long bench with a table, in front of her there was a little notebook and several torn pieces of paper. Charlie approached her, gulping, he was so nervous because from the distance she was already aware of his attendance and she stared at every one of his closer steps.

"You promised me you wanted to help," Charlie said. He took a seat across from her. "When?"

"Explain all you know about your dreams," she requested. Charlie then described the situation so much clearer than what he informed Madame Trevils a couple days ago. All about the pitch black space, the swarthy skinny boy, and how Jimmy was there, where he looked like prisoned, but there was nothing Charlie could do.

"Did it come every night?" Louise asked after the long explanation.

"Almost. But I didn't sleep last night, I couldn't."

"Good."

"Why good?"

She stood up suddenly, "Because we need to sleep together."

"Woah, woah. Hold on," Charlie was shocked. "You don't even know my name, right?"

She stared and gave a pause, "Charles Johnson, eleventh grade basketball team captain, winner of the science competition of the high elevation capital of Utah, second place of highest math score in whole grade."

Charlie was surprised, he chuckled. "I'm flattered."

"Don't be," She shut her eyes down and closed her notebook, prepared to leave.

"I didn't even know the last one. Did you stalk me?"

"No," She denied. "I'm in the first place."

Charlie went alarmed again, "Still we're not going to do that!"

Isadora stopped moving. She looked at him without saying anything, but Charlie felt the dickering on her glare. He gave up eventually, "Okay, but how?"

She suddenly grabbed his hand that laid on the desk across from her. "Can you sleep now?"

"I'm not sure... Why do we have to do this anyway?"

"This is the only way so I could notice your brother. Just try."

Charlie closed his eyes. He never tried to nap while sitting without the backrest on the bench. His heartbeat made its tempo faster. Luckily he was exhausted from staying up all night, and he was supported by the silence of the library. The noises he heard was soothing his brain as such as the paper flipping, pencil tip against the cheap, low-quality absorbent printing paper made from coarse wood pulp and used chiefly for newspapers. Less than five minutes brought him into drowsiness and he was hemmed by the dark mist again. Not long after he could spot his brother, Jimmy, seen in the distance, staring at him with tears.

His eyes were moistened and swollen. His knees seemed weak, he looked jaded. He did not shout his name anymore. Another boy that seemed demonic stood in front of him, watching Charles with his shining eyes like warning him to get no more steps closer.

Isadora watched him without a blink. She looked at the clock in the wall, it had lasted more than five minutes, and Charlie seemed to have a deep shut-eye already. Her eyes turned close and pursued him into her own slumber.

It was so bizarre, when Charlie caught Isa in his vision in the dream. He was shocked, it turned out his hand was already in her grip. The grasp felt warm and warmer, then her voice buzzed, "Can you talk?"

"I can't. I told you–"" It was unbelievable as he actually could do it. Their voices sounded echoing, buzzing. "Wait, I can! How?"

"I shared with you some of my ability," Isa shortly explained. Her glance wandered her surroundings. "You're right it's dark here..." She stepped away to explore, but she did not release Charlie's hand, which limited her to walk further. "Can you move?"

Charlie tried a bit, it was very heavy to just shift his foot in front of the others. "Urgh..! I don't think I can do better than you."

"Not enough ability to share, but at least you earned some," said Isa, recognizing he was now able to talk.

"Now there's Jimmy. You see him?" He pointed his brother at his east. Jimmy was not too far, he looked desperate. "Please let him back."

Isa stared at where Charlie directed. She narrowed her eyes to see deeper what was there, but nothing was caught in her vision. "...Where, Charles?"

"Th-there!" He pointed again, in the same direction Isadora had been staring at. "Don't you see him?"

She shook her head, there was no boy like he talked about. "I don't see anything—"

Charlie and Louise opened their eyes widely. When they looked to the left to check out the shadow on their sight, they saw Mr. Naoki standing next to the desk, watching them suspiciously. "What are you guys doing?! Isadora, you should stop inviting people to do your weird ritual!"

Isadora dismissed what he muttered, she rolled her eyes then looked at the clock and found out it was five already. "It's five."

"It's five!" Mr. Naoki recalled what was obvious.

"It's five?!" Charlie did not believe, so he twisted his body to see the clock. Two hours had passed even though he was just leaving for less than ten minutes. "I need to go home before I worry Sandra," He stood up, and rushed to leave. "Please, be here again tomorrow."

Isadora helped the librarian to collect all the books back, but she stopped while saying to him, "Hey, you have a skill. Try harder to move, since I can't see him."

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