Daughter of the Mara (The Mara Chronicles Book I)

Chapter 12

Later that night Jay and Harvey prowled the same neighborhood he had taken her to on their last nightmare outing. All of the houses were quiet and a dense fog had rolled in along the Columbia. Jay watched as Harvey examined each house they went by and tried to sense the inhabitants within as Harvey did. She felt a flicker of that sense as well if she concentrated but the anxiety of being so close to so many people dulled its usability. They wandered for about ten minutes before Harvey settled on a small craftsman style house at the end of the block.

He turned and glanced back at her. "This one should be good; only one person lives here."

Irritation flashed across her face. She knew what he really meant was that there would only be one witness if she freaked out again. Jay decided to let it slide. Showing him she could do it was far more important than getting into an argument about it.

"Sounds good," she replied, following him up the walk and into the house.

The house was dark and quiet as they moved through the tidy living room and down the hallway. Jay's feet moved noiselessly across the cream carpet as Harvey opened one of the doors on the right. She followed him into a young woman's bedroom, equally as tidy as the living room, with walls painted pale lavender. A queen sized bed covered in purple blankets sat in the far corner of the room and Jay spied a slight sleeping figure wrapped within the mound of bedding.

"Are you sure you're ready?" Harvey asked softly, moving towards the bed.

Jay tried her best to look confident and followed him to the side of the bed. "Yes, I'm ready. I can do this," she said, trying convince herself that it was so.

Harvey searched her eyes, which widened in unspoken challenge, before nodding in agreement. "Okay. If you need my help, I'll be right here. Vivian will be on the other side waiting for you."

Jay nodded and moved her gaze from Harvey to the girl in the bed. She looked to be in her late twenties and had short brown hair and olive skin. She looked like she might be a nice person.

Jay squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head. 'No', she reminded herself. 'I need to stay detached. They're just someone who needs a nightmare. It doesn't matter who they are.' Jay looked at her once more. 'Besides, she's probably a bitch.' She nodded once more in assurance before placing her hands on either side of the woman's head and plunging them both into the dreamscape.

Jay awoke to find Vivian standing above her, arms akimbo. "So are you finally ready to do this?" she asked, a wicked grin on her face.

Jay nodded slightly as she got to her feet. "I think so," she replied. She tried to sound confident but her voice ended up sounding strained.

"Well then hop to it, Atkinson," Vivian said, gesturing toward the prone figure next to them and the portal forming above it. "Let's see what you've got."

Jay hesitated a moment, but Vivian simply pushed her into the portal before stepping through herself. They tumbled through to the other side, although the transition was less disorienting than before. As soon as Jay regained her feet she threw a dirty look at Vivian, who returned it with a charming smile and two thumbs up. Jay rolled her eyes and began to set her nightmare in motion.

Amelia found herself sitting in a hard plastic chair in an almost empty airport terminal at Portland International, clutching a copy of US Magazine, and wondering why she was there. She didn't have any vacation time coming up and even if she did she wouldn't be jetting off anywhere. She could count the number of times she had been on a plane on one hand and had no desire to increase that number. This had to be a mistake. The last time she'd been in an airport, her father had dragged her there in tears. This time, however, she was alone. She glimpsed figures further down the terminal but the seating area surrounding her was completely empty.