Finn Arwr and the Spirits of Concept

Chapter One

Finn Arwr knew he was awake even before his eyes were open. He could hear his dog, Sebastian, snoring and could smell sweet air spilling into his room. He lay there; listening to his parents' muffled voices down stairs and the birds outside with his eyes shut.

He thought about the dream he'd just had, the recurring one about being in preschool and meeting a little girl and boy. It confused him, this dream. He knew it couldn't be a memory, because he somehow internally knew that it took place in Boston. Sure, he'd been there, but never lived anywhere but their small little cottage in Salem.

The most confusing part was the other recurring dreams that usually followed Finn and the two others-Eilie and Ethan, sometimes called E.T.-as they got older. He didn't know who they were, where they came from, or if they were even real people or not.

Ever so slowly, Finn opened his eyes. Seb had made a little nest for himself on the end of his bed. They'd tried giving the stubborn dog pillows and carpets and any other kind of blanket he could wish for to sleep on; but in the end, he always ended up on the end of Finn's bed.

Seb lifted his heavy, softly yellow head and carefully slid open his melted chocolate eyes when Finn shifted to a sitting position. He licked his snout, and his jowls swung around. Finn sat forward on his knees to pull and rub the Labrador's ears. Seb chuffed out his wet nose.

Finn looked around his room, and saw that one of the illustrations he'd made of his dreams had fallen off the wall. He swung his feet around, and slid off the bed. Walking to the other side of the space with Seb at his ankles, he picked up the sketch that had fallen onto the rocking chair he always crammed in front of his desk.

"I'm gonna find 'em," Finn promised to his panting dog waiting patiently at his side. "I'll find them..." He stuck the portrait back on his wall to join the rest covering up the blue paint, applied one more strip of masking tape, and walked out of his room.

***

The inside of Eilie Pahlawan's eyelids burned red. Her time for peace and escape had ended. She rolled over onto her stomach, and the acrid smell of rotting hay filled her nostrils. She opened her eyes. They seemed to glow green with malice in the early morning light streaming in through the singular, barred window that was too high to see out of.

Every night she dreamed of home, and every morning she woke up here, not even on the same planet as far as she knew. Sitting up and flopping down on the rancid hay in her corner, she watched a little boy snore in the cell across from hers. The stones that tiled the floor were cold on her bare feet, despite the sun making a valiant effort to heat them up.

She rubbed her forehead. Her eyes hurt. She had been having another dream about Ethan Laoch-the boy who lived in the next apartment over back home-and some guy named Finn she'd never even met. Every time she dreamed about the two boys and herself, they were all three best friends.

Always laughing, teasing each other, playing over a period of many years. It was like dreaming memories, but it couldn't be. Eilie and Ethan (whom everyone at school called E.T.) had never even spoken to each other, besides when he was dropping off the homework when she was sick or was borrowing one of her brother's comic books. Nobody had really talked to Eilie for that matter, not since they'd found out her dad died and her Grandmother had to live with her, her three brothers, and her mother.

Footsteps and shouts rang down the stone hallway, bringing her out of her reverie. The eyes of a few other kids turned to see who they were dragging in including Eilie's own curiously upturned face. She came forward and stuck her nose in between the bars to see a struggling girl about her own age being carried over. She wriggled and tried to yell, but one of her two captors covered her mouth. Finally, they came to a stop just before Eilie's door.