Dreamwalkers: The Awakening

CHAPTER 5

Fear rushes through me as it clicks in my brain that I didn't create this change. Someone else is here. Why didn't I listen? I should have left the second I arrived. I turn around, expecting to see someone cryptic and terrifying prepared to capture me. Instead, I find myself surrounded by what looks and feels like something straight from the pages of a fairytale.

Everything from my Charlie memorial has disappeared. I now stand at the edge of a tree line at the bottom of a small hill, a glowing silver light illuminating the night sky on the other side of it.

Feeling compelled by the magnetic energy of what lies beyond the hill, I move closer.

As I take my first steps up the hill, lustrous snowflakes fall from a cloudless sky. They're larger than in reality but melt just the same when they come in contact with my warm skin.

When I reach the top of the hill, what I see before me takes my breath away.

A large castle, isolated from everything else in existence, sits abandoned in a valley. Vines of ivy and moonflower climb from the moss-covered moat to the pinnacle of the keep. Hefty sequoias surround the outer wall, adding an additional layer of protection.

Far beyond the scope of my imagination, it's nothing I've created on my own. There has to be someone else here I'm interacting with.

I've never connected with anyone besides my dad or Zoë on a dreamwalk. There's no way Zoë and I could possibly connect with the great physical distance between us and my dad would never make anything that looks like this. Jonah can't dreamwalk, and I'm pretty sure if he could, he'd be blowing things up, not building castles.

Losing all sense of looming danger, I cross the permanently lowered drawbridge. Just be smart about it, I say to myself. Keep focused and alert. Expect danger and be prepared to escape it.

As I pass through the gate and enter the courtyard, I navigate through prehistoric looking flowers, shrubs, and vines that fill the vast enclosure. Enormous dew drops covering the petals and leaves glisten in the moonlight like little mirrored balls.

My surroundings are full of imagination and over-the-top beauty mixed with a perfect amount of fairytale. This has to be the work of a child. The prospect of meeting someone new to this world has me excited, probably more than I should be. Maybe my theory is right and whomever it is that created this lives near me and we're connecting based on proximity. Or maybe what my dad said is right—this could be a dark walker setting a trap for me to walk right into.

Out of nowhere, the delicate voice of a small girl grabs my attention. She giggles softly as she talks to a snow-white bird perched on the branch of a weeping cherry tree.

Scurrying behind a large shrub unlike anything I've ever known in reality, I hope to remain unnoticed so I can continue to share in her spectacular dream world.

She dances around the courtyard while snowflakes land on her light brown hair and twinkle in the moonlight. The layers of her gray tulle skirt whirl around her as she spins in a circle, unabashedly exuding happiness. I can't help but smile. The purity of her dreamwalk is spectacular. For the first time in a long time, I feel innocent and unblemished.

My guard slips away like melting snow falling from a roof as I surrender to her creativity.

Just as I begin to relax, our time together comes crashing to a halt.

A massive bolt of lightning brazenly erupts across the faultless sky, darkening it with ominous clouds in its wake. At the same time, a roaring clap of thunder rages through the air, bringing with it streaks of bitterly cold wind. This is it. The dark walker. I did everything I wasn't supposed to do, leading the dark walker right to me.