The Dimension Break

FOURTEEN

In my mind again. With no sign of Belamy.

It was the soggy and dreamlike environment I hadn't seen since I was young, the one where I was half blind and everything moved slowly. A good, old fashioned dream. Not a vision, or a visitation, or the guilt nightmares. But a beautiful plane where nothing made sense!

I floated foreward so slowly, and the dizzy world became foggy and thobbed around me. I was completely aware of my surroundings, so I hardly had to turn to know that a man was standing behind me. He was only a flash of an image, like you normally get from a dream. A photograph that your mind's eye could piece together but not see.

He touched my shoulder. I knew he did it rather than felt it. And when he spoke, his dream voice broke waved through my skull and brok me into reality. The world was still fuxxy, but not in a dream state... More like a vision state. I turned to the man. I could see him now. The features on his face were strung and stressed.

"What did you do?" With a word, reality became final. His face was clar. "Wha..."

Gary Bluethorne said, "Yeah, I know. I'm sorry. But you have to listen, please. I'm going to attack your camp with a small group of demons. I'm warning you in advance... Your friends do know about your power, right?"

"Damn it, Gary!" I couldn't name the emotion I felt when I was with him. Yeah, I kept saying rthat blood didn't matter, but I did feel a daughtely love towards him - even before I knew for sure. Gary was the devil to us high schoolers, but I loved debating and talking with him. Not only was that si, but I hated him as both a person and an enemy. And I understood him, yet I didn't. I yearned to truly be his daughter, and I yearned to kill him. Something complex and strange bubbled in my chest. "I know I'm your daughter or whatever and I guess that makes it okay to betray the Dark in your mind... But why don't you chose a side?"

A sad smile made as much sense as a happy frown, but he pulled it off. "It isn't that easy. I'm caught between family or friends. If I chose one, I'm helping the other possibly die."

I crossed my arms. "I can handle myself without you handing out warnings like candy. Thanks, though. Now let me wake up."

Gary bit his lip. "O-or maybe you could stay a while. Dreams pass very slowly. We could, uh, catch up."

"On what? We never had a bond." Although I sort of wanted to have one.

Yet, he ignored my words. "How are you and your Apotropaic? I know that Extants and Apotropaics normally have strong bonds. Yours was Oliver, right?"

I hesitated before answering, "Yes." Mom and Dad were dead... Gary was all I technically had, right? Not without hesitance or awkwardnes, I moved closer. "He and I have a very strong bond." It could have just been the urge to tell someone what had been on my mind, or to tell Gary something, or... I didn't know what. I just wanted him to know things, to have me in his mind "Though I'm afraid my bonds with everyone else is weakening at its expense."

What am I doing? It's his fault Mom and Dad are dead to begind with! He sighed. The tussle of black hair flicked at his own breath. "I have no advice to offer, Emma. But I can say that I understand."

"Gary?"

"Yes?"

"Did you possess my mom?" Thinking the question was easier than verbalizing it. Out loud, my voice cracked and my eye stung wearily. Gary avoided my gaze, and that was all that I needed to know the answer. "Why the FUCKING HELL would you make me do that?! Do you know how much that shit fucked me up?! Go ahead and spit shit about caring about me or my mom! You're just... just..."

I would have fought Gary, but a hand shook me out of the dream. I wasn't prepared to be snapped back into real life, so the anger still boiled in my eyes a few seconds after they opened. Oliver was sitting above me, hand steadikly nudging my shoulder. He still sat a distance from me, as advised from the Divines. "Don't wake her up," they'd said, "If you have to wake her up, keep a distance. Same ruled as PTSD."