Mostly Normal: Magic Cannot Cure Sickness

Chapter Thirteen: The Dreamscape

Nothingness stretched ahead of the confused boy, allowing him to see throbbing lights and resonating walls that were keeping him trapped in his own mind. Voices shouted over each other, allowing a headache to attack his already fragile state. He gripped his head on his head with his nails digging into his scalp.

Then, a voice broke through, it was masculine, and sturdy, "Jackie," it rang out through the corridor of his mindscape, "You're okay. Come with me."

Jackie whimpered, overwhelmed. "Wh-who are you?" he asked, "Where are you?"

"Don't panic," said the male voice, "if you follow me, I can show you something special."

Jackie still didn't trust the voice very much, but he followed it anyway, eager to get away from the horrible shouting voices around him. A smooth, warm hand took his and led him farther and farther away from the nothingness.

They entered a small room that opened up as soon as the son of Hecate had grabbed the other male's hand. As they crossed into it, the bright light fading and showing a small amount of light. Colors filled the room from the sunset outside of the large glass windows. The room was large and full of others, who were all sitting and lightly chatting with each other.

It was here that Jackie first glimpsed his guide. What he saw made him gasp.

The boy was only a little taller than Jackie himself, with stylishly messy black hair and dancing green eyes. His skin was a light brown color. He smiled at Jackie.

Oh my gods, he's gorgeous, thought Jackie.

"Hey, we can talk now," the boy's voice was like a warm scarf on a cold winter's morning. It wrapped around Jackie and swam through his ear into his head and stuck there. He dumbly nodded, too busy admiring his savior to speak.

Finally he found his voice. "Who are you?" he asked in a breathless voice. The boy laughed, his smile was the most gorgeous thing that the son of Hecate had ever seen.

"My name's Liam, nice to meet you Jackie."

Jackie managed a smile. His eyes were still locked on the beautiful boy in front of him.

Liam laughed again. "Don't you want to know where we are?" he asked in a teasing voice.

"I-wha-uh," Jackie stuttered, blood flushing into his cheeks. The fact that they were still holding hands became very evident to him, and he quickly pulled away. "Yes," he whispered. "Yes. I would like to know where we are."

Liam's gorgeous eyes twinkled. "We're in your dreamscape now," he said, "It's safer here than where you were before. Stay in there too long, and you'll go insane."

"How are you even here?" asked Jackie. Liam winked at him.

"I'm a son of Hypnos," he replied.

"Oh," Jackie said. "Wait. If this is MY dreamscape, then who are all these people? And what in Tartarus was that out of the door?" he added, pressing his hands together behind his back as he remembered the feeling of Liam's hand in his.

"That was your subconscious, people you cared about were calling out to you and trying to get you to do something. We can go back later and find out what that was but for now all you need to know is you're safe," Liam said, his tone turning soft, "as for all the people in here, this is a safe haven that all people have in their mindscape. You can stay here almost forever without going mad. Most of the people in here are in comas or under spells. Others are just asleep. Now come with me, I want you to meet someone."

"Okay," said Jackie, hesitantly taking Liam's hand again. An electric current went between them and Jackie yanked his hand away, feeling himself blush again. Liam raised his eyebrows but didn't object as Jackie settled for following behind him.

They walked through the hall, darting around sleeping bodies and small children playing games. "Who am I going to meet?" Jackie asked, his eyebrows raised as they walked.

"Someone you knew a long, long time ago," Liam replied, his voice growing softer until they reached the corner of the room that had been turned into a small reading loft. Books littered the floor and pillows lined the window seat.

She was so small, Jackie almost didn't notice her at first.

A little girl sat snuggled in the pillows on the window seat, reading an especially large tome. When the two boys approached she looked up.

"Oh my gods," he whispered, rushing over to the tiny girl. "Evelyn, oh gods I missed you so much." Tears streamed down his cheeks as he held her tightly in his arms. She hugged him back, blubbering into his chest.

"I love you, big brother," she said when they finally pulled apart. Jackie pulled her into his lap and hugged her again, rocking them back and forth as he made sure she was really there, in his arms.

Liam was watching the siblings with a wistful smile on his face. Jackie glanced up at him. "What's up, Liam?"

Liam blinked. "H'm? Oh, um, nothing. I just, well, I used to have a sister like that."

"What happened to her?" asked Evelyn, "Did she die?"

Liam nodded, his eyes downcast now. "I checked with Nico and--"

"You know Nico?" asked Jackie. Liam rolled his eyes.

"Well, everyone knows Nico, don't they?" he said. "Now as I was saying, I checked with Nico and she did make it to Elysium, but still, never seeing her again..." he cleared his throat self-consciously. "Sorry, I'm ruining your moment."

"Sit!" Evelyn demanded, smacking her childish hand down on the pillow next to her. Liam laughed, which sent chills up Jackie's spine. The son of Hypnos sat down next to the siblings and then pulled a small book out from under the cushion.

It took almost an hour for Evelyn to let either of them leave to do what they needed to. Jackie watched his sister reluctantly from the corner of his eye as he walked away, making sure she did not disappear. "You want to talk?" he asked the other male, who simply nodded.

"So," said Jackie, "What happened to Evelyn? Why is she here of all places?"

Liam sighed. "She's in an extended coma, induced by a strange illness called Orange Cough. You may have heard of it?"

"No," said Jackie, straining to remember.

"Well, you will eventually. Also, I wanted to go see what those voices wanted. I should tell you that call them Promises, by the way. Come on, we need to solve them all before we actually get you out of here," Liam said, his shoulders dropping when it came to letting Jackie return to the waking world.

Jackie wasn't looking forward to it either, but he nodded and followed Liam past all the chatting people and to the door they had first come through.