The Dark Between Dreams | ✔️

Chapter 25 🔻 The Long-lost Lucid Dreamers

Webb and I watched as she fished things from her cloak's pockets. "Made these."

"Wow," the boy said as Vale tied bracelets of black woven cords around our wrists. Each bracelet had a single small nugget of lux woven into it. "Always got time for arts and crafts, huh?"

Vale just laughed and raised her hand, showing off her own corded bracelet. "We all match!"

I poked the ethereal red stone that glowed happily on my wrist, right next to my wristband from Earth.

Vale strutted over to where Crow waited for us. "Oy! Birdlord! Give me your wrist!"

The man sputtered. "What for? Are you going to bind me again? Wait. What in Erṣetu is this?"

Vale laughed as he pawed in confusion at the bracelet she'd tied to him. "We all match," she said before heading for the bike.

Webb hurried to the trailer and jumped aboard, ready to go. "Let's go, dreamers! We got a city to save!"

I laughed and followed my friends.

Crow continued to toy with his wristband on his right arm—the one without his brand. He reached out to stop me as I passed him. "Do your friends know?" he whispered to me.

I gave him a confused look. "Know what?"

"That you are lying to them, little anchored ghost?" He kept his voice low, so the others wouldn't hear. "That you want to leave them."

"I..." my hand fell to my side as if the weight of both armbands was too much to carry. "I'm anchored to my boyfriend, Dominic." I found myself admitting to him. I gestured weakly toward my friends. "They can't understand it, but..." I clutched a hand to my aching heart. "It hurts. I need to find out if there's a way to survive in the Light. To go back home..." I swallowed a lump in my throat. "Who were you anchored to, Crow?"

I'd been inside his head. I didn't think he had any connections to be anchored to, not with the life he had.

"I do not remember," was his answer. "I just know that I am not anchored. At least, not anymore. So they tell me. But...I do remember...holding someone as they died in my arms. I think I was the reason they died." He stretched out his arms, as if cradling a corpse. His eyes, though white and star-filled, looked more distant than ever. He sighed and crossed his arms beneath his cloak. "My memories are...scrambled. Not even I can make sense of what is left in my head. And I do not know why I am this way."

Webb and Vale waved for us from the bike. I waved back, mouthing, "Just a second!"

To Crow, I asked, "Maybe they can come with me. We can all live on Earth together, as ghosts. No more monsters. No more kings. We'll be at peace. We'll all be safe."

"I do not know if this is possible for you." Then he added, quieter, "I am sorry."

I laughed wryly to myself. "I was told you had all the answers."

Crow just shrugged. "Ech. Those who have all the answers are not to be trusted."

I looked at him. Really looked at him. I'd been told he was a monster, and, though he insisted he craved the end of After, he didn't strike as a monster. He just looked like a sad, lonely, and slightly strange man with an affinity for birds and an aversion to shoes. "I want to trust you, Crow." I want to believe that you're not a cold-blooded killer, like everyone says.

Crow just pursed his lips. "Hm. Not many pray to the Prince of Light and Shadows." He pulled something out from beneath his cloak. "But I make a point to listen to those who do, for only the truly lost seek the guidance of monsters. I have known all this time that you have been seeking me. I even got your offering." My heart skipped a beat when he raised the vial I'd stolen from Blackburne. "Do you know what this is, fledgling?"

I couldn't look away from the slug listlessly slumbering in its own slime. "No. Do you?"

He gave me a crooked grin. "What if I told you this was the key to my undoing? What would you do?" He held the vial out to me, ever so slightly.

He was testing me. He expected me to snatch it from him.

And, for the briefest of seconds, I did consider that notion. But I stepped away from him and said, voice firm, "I trust you, Crow."

The other hollow smiled, fully this time. He pocketed the vial. "And the feeling is shared. Come. We are close to the ruins. Not far now. I hope we will find what we both seek." He left me standing there and whistled again. His flock returned to the sky to guide us on the last leg of our journey.

"Skye! Quit day-dreaming and get your ass over here!" Webb yelled.

"We've got a monster to kill!" Vale added.

I spun on my heels to rejoin my friends.

My heart pounded with every step.

I was certain the kusarikku had already awoken.

I am a shadow, I am cold
And now I seek for warmth
Stitch your skin on to my skin
And we won't be alone
Don't forget who you are even though you're in need
Like a bird in the night, your emotions deserve to be freed