Dreamcatcher (ONC 2020)

12

I'm not prepared for this.

It's obvious that a fight between Vera and I is a fight I'm bound to lose. I don't know how to make weapons out of pure essence, and in terms of hand-to-hand combat, I'm somewhere on the amateur spectrum. But what I'm most unprepared for is when Liam sweeps out Vera's legs from underneath in one deft motion, causing her to topple over on the ground like a domino.

"Oh my God," I breathe. "You actually know Jiu-Jitsu."

Liam doesn't have any time to reply, because soon the other dreamcatchers are pouring all over us. The psychics standing by the entrance raise their fists, which soon become emblazoned with the bright glow of essence.

"Dakota!" Hyacinth shouts. "Imagine the energy you felt from when you touched the essence building up in your fingertips. Then release that energy in the form of a weapon."

"Hyacinth," Vera spits out, "shut up."

Hyacinth opens up her mouth to protest, but it's futile. No words come out of her mouth. The scene has turned into a full-out brawl—with psychics and dreamcatchers alike making weapons out of essence or just using their fists to get at each other. Liam is like a hurricane, landing hits on one dreamcatcher after another, then zipping away before they get a chance to lay a finger on him.

Vera suddenly stands up and lunges at me once again. I frantically follow Hyacinth's directions and imagine the essence in me gathering up in my fingertips. Vera swings her knife at me. I raise my hand and imagine the essence turning into the hilt of a knife that blocks hers.

It works—well, sort of. Vera's knife does bounce off the hilt of mine, but the only thing my knife has is just that—a hilt. But Vera doesn't give me any time to keep experimenting. She swings her knife at me again and I try in vain to block it with my flimsy hilt, but this time I miscalculate and her knife slices through my shoulder. Fiery pain breaks out from the wound, and I instinctively cover it with my other hand. My fingers feel wet against my shoulder.

A high-pitched noise suddenly starts to fill the room. It seems to be coming from the ball of essence, so I sneak a glance over at the psychics. They're standing around the ball in circular formation, with their palms pressed against it. Purple essence blooms like flowers from their palms, making it look like the bright gold of the sphere is surrounded by a ring of purple.

"Hyacinth!" Vera screeches. "Stop those insolent psychics!"

With no hesitation, Hyacinth starts to sprint toward them, despite all she did earlier to help. "No!" I manage to gasp out, running after her. But Vera doesn't give me the chance to escape. She pushes me down and hits me in the head with the hilt of her knife. I stumble over, disoriented, and she raises the knife triumphantly, about to stab it through my chest—

Liam appears out of nowhere and slams into Vera, causing her to lose her balance. The knife slices through empty air.

"Thanks!" I shout. Vera screams in frustration and runs at Liam with her knife. But Liam is too quick. He grabs her arm and twists it behind her back, causing her to cry out in pain.

I hastily look around the room. Hyacinth, who was running over to disrupt the psychics' ritual, was stopped by another psychic before she could do so. But the psychic is obviously being overpowered, and soon she's lying on the floor with a knife buried in her back. I wince. The real Hyacinth would never do that.

Everyone else is busy fighting, so I race over to Hyacinth. I concentrate on what she said and imagine the essence in me turning into three strands, wrapping around each other into a braid. It works, and a braided rope soon appears in my hands. I creep up from behind and wrap the rope around her in an attempt to restrain her.