Subnova: Dream Walker

Chapter 4 - Leon

His breath was catching. Every sharp intake scratched his throat and swelled his lungs. He couldn't stop running, they were behind him, they were always behind him no matter how many walls he ran through. Leon pushed over the tray of medical supplies to block the path of his pursuers. The glass syringes smashed against the pristine marble floor, but they didn't do much to slow the guards down. Invisibility, he thought, why couldn't I have invisibility. He'd be gone before they knew he was even there.

He shook his head. He was thinking about invisibility and superpowers as if they were normal. Once upon a time they were normal, back in the days of the Novohuman. Now the Novohuman were dead and gone, all they left behind were bones and starlight. And a giant fricking meteor slap bang in the centre of Havencrest.

The sound of crunching glass snapped Leon from his thoughts. He turned a corner and was relieved to find another empty corridor, lined by many doors. He chose to run through the one in the far left corner, or rather phased straight through it like it wasn't even there. He did a quick scan of the room, searching for any presence. Slamming his back against the wall in relief, he almost stumbled backwards through the door again, somehow managing to catch himself on the doorframe and pull his incorporeal body back through the metal door. "I need to figure out how I do that," he mumbled with awe.

Leon blindly searched the wall for a light switch, his hand fumbling across the smooth plaster until eventually it met a switch. After flicking it on, he had to squint his eyes at the white lights that illuminated the room. When his eyes eventually adjusted, he glanced at his surroundings. The room was wide and bare, with white walls that only increased the brightness. He stumbled over to the only prop, one table against a black glass wall.

A flat computer screen was embedded in the surface of the table, with a familiar clipboard to its right. He picked up the clipboard and stared at the nonsensical charts. The first page was littered with dates and times, a black line highlighting 2 to 3 hour periods. Leon looked at the title at the top of the chart, 'Subject Sleeping Patterns'. Leon frowned, whoever's sleep patterns these were, they were very chaotic and without a doubt not the required amount of sleep a person should have. He flicked the page only to find more words he didn't understand; a list of drugs with numbers next to them for each day, the note '600mg Provigil to be administered in case of dreamwalking' handwritten at the bottom of the page.

Putting the clipboard down he turned back to the computer screen. It was as black as the glass in front of him. Out of habit he swiped his finger across the screen, expecting no type of reaction. Instead the screen lit up, but his attention was caught by something else, the gradually increasing brightness as the large black glass window slowly filled with pigmentation. Within a minute, he was staring into another room similar to the cage that they had kept him in, only the lights were much brighter and instead of seeing himself reflected in the glass, Leon saw a pale stranger asleep on the bed.

Leon stared at the stranger.

The boy was a lot older than Leon, in his late teens with straight black hair that curled under his ear. Self-consciously Leon ran his hand over his short hair that once shaved was now starting to grow into thick dark curls. He liked it when it was long, he would have asked for dreadlocks if he could, but the orphanage always demanded that it was shaved. If he could just get out of here, he could grow it as long as he wanted, as long as the sleeping stranger's.

Leon wondered how many others they kept in this facility. Did the government know about this activity, did anyone know? Did anyone care? Back at the orphanage it had seemed like he could sink into the earth's core and disappear forever, and no one would even notice. He might as well have been invisible.

Leon barely had time to react when there was a click on the door as a keycard was swiped and it swung open to reveal three intruders. Like the ones who had attacked him back in his room, one stayed back while two approached. He couldn't see a needle this time, he couldn't see anything but the figures closing in on him. He pushed back against the desk, his hands pressing into the side. He needed to get away from them. If he could pass through this room, maybe wake the boy...

He searched inside him, for something that could activate his powers again, but he didn't know what he was looking for. Leon pressed his eyes shut and took in a deep breath, but he felt empty. When he opened his eyes again, the figure were closer and his hands were still pressed against the table. There was no freedom to move. The feeling that swelled into him every time he passed through solid matter was absent, the only thing he could feel was a faint buzz in the room, a low noise like a whisper. Panic shot through him as he realised he couldn't rely on his power to get out of this fix.

"It's working," one of the guards said. Before Leon had a chance to react, he was slammed into the ground, his face pressing against the cold vinyl. He cried out as they yanked his arms behind his back.

"Get off me!" he managed, struggling beneath his attacker's grip. "If you don't let go, your fat arse is going to crush me to death." But no one took any notice of his words. There was nothing Leon could do, nothing he could do...all of a sudden Leon slumped to the ground. He let his shoulders droop and his head loll onto the ground. He used to play dead a lot at the orphanage, when he'd tried everything else to get somebody's attention. The guard loosened his grip, and cried out to the others.

"Something's wrong," he gripped Leon's shoulders and shook them but Leon kept as lifeless as he possibly could. "I didn't do anything to him, I was just trying to stop him from getting up." Leon tried to suppress the urge to laugh as the panic was clear in the guard's voice which was getting higher and higher in pitch. "Someone call the doctor."

"What's wrong?" called another guard who was standing by.

"I think I've killed him. I think I've killed him with..."

Leon couldn't take it any longer. "With your fat arse," he finished. It was too much of a good opportunity to miss, even if it meant they'd catch him again. Leon rolled over and burst out laughing. He thought he couldn't laugh any harder but when he caught sight of the red flush of the humiliated guard, he laughed so hard his ribs hurt.

His giddiness evaporated as quickly as it had come when he could hear the sound of footsteps. The guard took this opportunity to pin him down again, but was careful not to put too much weight on the boy. Leon was certain the doctor was approaching now, a sharp needle in their hand. He squinted his eyes awaiting the impact but instead there was a pause. "Doctor, hurry up. We can't be sure he won't phase again," said one of the guards.

"Sorry," replied the doctor, his voice distant. "It's Darren, he's dreamwalking again." He sighed. Leon strained his neck to peep at the boy through the glass, but he couldn't see anything before a sharp spike slid into his neck. "Let's just put this one to sleep and then we'll wake up the Dreamwalker." Despite his resistance, Leon felt himself consumed by oblivion.