Dreamcatchers

iii

Haylei awoke to the Code 10 sirens. At first, she thought she'd gone back to the Dark Day, but her immediate surroundings told her otherwise. The soft beeping of machines and the quiet murmurings of the Healers in the infirmary let her breathe easy. This sense of ease lasted for about five seconds, because Bryce sat at her bedside, head resting in her blanket-covered lap, and she sighed. Going under was never fun, because even though it kept her occasional nightmares away, what was there was worse.

When you went under, there was unending nothingness. This looked different for each person, as they'd found out at the start of the Dreamcatcher organization, but to her it looked like the countryside. Haylei's spent her entire life in the city, finding a sense of solace amidst the business. The hustle and bustle made her a nobody, unlike how most of the other Dreamcatchers treated her. So when she went under for the first time at the end of the first month of training, Haylei'd found herself on top of a small cobblestone road. Acres and acres of land stretched around her, and the city of Coffslin, her home, loomed in the distance.

Try as she might, she could never reach it.

"Hey," Bryce murmured, and Haylei leaped back into the present only to find her hand absentmindedly stroking the back of his neck, "Didn't realize you were this touchy. I kinda like it."

He turned his head towards her, still keeping it in her lap, and Haylei shook her head. As much as she ached for the Healer, he was effectively the same as Max: one because every girl in this organization pined for him, and two because he was too close to her. It's true she did have the occasional wandering thought, especially when she watched his hands while he worked, but it would make her cringe away after a moment.

"Shut up."

"You kissed my hand, you know." There was something he wasn't saying. While she appreciated his tact, it didn't mean she couldn't tell when he was withholding something.

"So?" Something flickered in Bryce's expression, but it was so brief and was so convoluted that Haylei couldn't even begin to decipher it.

"Just wanted you to know that you didn't do anything too weird," he teased, and the mix of emotions was gone. They stayed like that for a moment, Haylei's fingers brushing through his strands of soft brown hair, and she watched silently as Bryce closed his eyes. "Wanna stay like this."

Haylei wished she could echo that thought aloud.

"Good morning, Miss Park." Bryce leaped up and out of the chair, smoothing out the wrinkles in his shirt and slacks as Commander Young stepped into her curtained-off room. Junhui Young was the youngest Commander of Healers the organization had ever seen, and was one of the only Commanders who believed Haylei, who wasn't scared of her. He always chalked this up to their being fairly close in age, and she always laughed at this.

"If you saw any of that, forget that you did," she replied, hoping that the air conditioning would cool down her tomato-red face.

"That'll be hard to do." Bryce groaned and plopped back into his chair.

"Don't tell anyone," he mumbled, and Commander Young chuckled.

"No promises. Anyway, I'm here to clear you to return to normal duties. Ah," Commander Young glanced over his glasses towards Bryce, "except for strenuous activity."

Haylei blinked once, twice, and then threw one of her pillows at the Healer. He caught it with ease, and she buried her face in her hands. "I hate you."

"Ah, also," Junhui continued, passing over his tablet towards her, "I thought I'd let you know what was on that needle. It's... not anything we've seen before." The Code 10 sirens had stopped blaring, and Bryce stood, rolling out his neck and then his shoulders. Haylei knew it was time for him to work, but she didn't want him to go just yet.

But duty called. In a few minutes, Dreamcatchers and normal citizens alike would be streaming in, requiring medical assistance that the normal hospitals couldn't provide, and Bryce was currently one of the few Healers in headquarters now. "Don't miss me too much, little one."

"Likewise, you big idiot."

Once he was gone, Junhui sighed. "You're quite obvious." Haylei startled. Only Max knew about her affections towards Bryce. So how did the Healer know- "If you need any... preventative measures, they're in the cabinet marked Miscellaneous."

Oh. This matched up with what he'd said earlier, but it didn't make the shame any less appalling. At the very least, Haylei pondered, the good doctor didn't know she actually had romantic feelings for Bryce. "Anyway, the scientists ran some tests and found that the drug was something like a truth serum."

She raised an eyebrow, and Junhui held up his hands. "Truth serum isn't real."

"That's what we thought, but we've been proven wrong."

Wait. Truth serum. "So does that mean whatever I did just before I went under supposedly displayed any true emotions I have?"

The Commander paused in thought. "Yes and no. Emotions or, uh, desires. Oh, and I had to brief Healer Kim and Maximum on this as well."

"They were with me, they needed to know," Haylei replied, a small smile forcing its way onto her face to mask how she wanted to scream into the void. That's why Bryce had looked at her funny, because he knew now that her kissing his hand had at least something to do with pent up feelings. Much like most things, Haylei decided, she wouldn't speak of this ever again until eventually it went away.

Commander Young hummed in agreement. "Your clothes are in the lab. Maximum dropped off a new pair," he explained as he turned to leave.

"I'll make sure to thank him. And thank you, Commander."

Junhui scoffed. "I know you at least consider me by my first name. Might as well call me it."

Haylei rolled her eyes.

"Remember now," he began as he moved the curtains aside, "No strenuous activity!"