Nora~~
Through the windows of the hunting lodge—Charlie assures me there is no hunting—the jungle is less than an arm's length away. A breeze causes the branches to sway, bringing them into the lodge for a lazy moment, leaves rustling as the wind brushes through them.
People mill about dressed in khaki and linen and talking to one another, drinking beers and wines, playing chess. They act so human; it's hard to believe they're hardly more than animatronics.
The air isn't humid like I was expecting, nor is it too hot. The great wide blades of the fans spinning in slow circles provide more of a breeze than they should.
Charlie perches in front of the closest window, his back to me and arms resting on the sill. The floor creaks as I walk across it to join him. I keep to one side of the window. Even then there's barely more than a few inches between our arms. They may as well be touching for how much I tense up.
"How's Tye?" he asks.
"It's getting harder and harder to convince him that Radia would never leave us." I haven't shown Tye anymore of my abilities. I should, but after his reaction, I worry I'll push him too far, and he'll run away. "I haven't told him that I've seen you. I should though, now that I know you're not awful like I thought you were." Drumming my fingers on the sill, I wince at my words. "You two were something like friends. It's only right I clear things up."
"You were right though. I am awful."
I want to nudge him to reassure him he doesn't scare me, but that would place my skin up against his, so I hold myself back. "You're not. You gave my friend company when you hardly knew her. Have you . . .?"
"Yes."
I gave Charlie the message to pass on, hoping Radia would be able to understand I meant I found Raymond.
"She said that she'll always believe in you. But that you"—he tilts his neck, stretching it out until it cracks, and keeps his eyes on the jungle where a leopard stalks out of the bushes—"have to give up on seeing her again. She said it's the only way you'll be able to live."
My mouth goes dry, and I dig my nails into the wooden sill. She wants me to give up on her? Am I supposed to give up on all of my friends? Aaron, Radia . . . Tye. Are they really impossible to save?
The leopard sniffs the air and looks our way. It blinks, its body rising and falling as it breathes.
"What's bothering you?" I ask.
"I did something bad."
The leopard turns, slinking back into the bushes.
"My dad told me his plans for you. He wants you to be the next master dreamer."
"Master dreamer?" Those words snatch my breath away, and I can hardly get the words out. Since I shouldn't know what that is, I'm forced to hear the horror of that role again, this time from Charlie's lips. It doesn't get any less grim when he tells it, and now this is supposed to be my fate?
"This is because he thinks I'm a Class One?"
He wets his lips. "Yes. But he's been interested in knowing if being Lucid is a trait passed down from a parent. I . . . When I heard about his plan for you—another Class One—I was horrified. I snapped and—and said that I was shocked he wasn't interested in knowing whether your children would be Lucid."
Children. Babies. No one uses those words in Somnia. Teenager, yes. But no one should even know what calling us children means. "And?"
"He . . . he wants to test it. I'm so sorry, Nora." He grips the windowsill. "I should have just stayed quiet."
I blink, trying to process his words. "No. Don't be. At least I'll have a life this way. And it's not as if I didn't used to want children one day back before I fell asleep."
"The children, they would be mine as well."
Oh.
Oh.
Turning away from me rather than toward me, he rests his hips against the windowsill.
"At least we know each other." A nervous chuckle escapes me, and his eyes slide toward me, narrowed in a glare.
"Doesn't that make it worse?"
My stomach clenches, and my cheeks heat. "Does this mean he won't have me be the next master dreamer?"
"I don't know." He presses his palms into the edge of the sill.
Turning away from the window, I put a few extra inches of space between us.
Across the room a woman with long wavy red hair laughs, holding a glass of iced tea. She smiles our way—as if she's smiling at us.
Charlie's throat bobs.
"When does your dad expect . . ."
"He has to be sure you're a Class One. Not knowing whether he's making being a Class One a requirement for being the next master dreamer makes choosing how we proceed difficult. If we reveal what you are, do we doom you or save you from that role?" He buries his face in his hands and lets out a muffled grumble. "I just don't know."
"But he's not expecting me to have kids next week?"
He rubs the bridge of his nose. "It's so hard to know with him. He's ordered me to take you on a date tomorrow. I mentioned that you hated me—to try to buy us time. He told me he could have your memories altered so that you'd love me."
I cling to the sill to keep myself from hitting the ground. Charlie's hand wraps around my waist, his fingers splaying across my stomach.
He doesn't let me fall.
And I find myself leaning into him.
If Pace has already manipulated my memories, would I even know? Here I am with Charlie's arm fastened around me, and I'm not filled with revulsion or fear at being in his presence.
"I asked for a chance to speak with you before he does anything. But I've also done my best to ensure your memories won't be tampered with."
"If they were, would you tell me?"
His eyes soften. "Of course."
"You didn't when they were sealed off."
I know I've hurt him when he slips his hand along my back so that only his palm rests against my spine. Pain flashes in his eyes.
"You needed to remember on your own. I knew they would come back, but without your memories, you would never have believed they were gone."
"I was in the dark, Charlie. I needed something. I needed to know I wasn't alone in feeling the way I did." Heading over to the bar, I weave my way through the people Charlie's created. A pitcher of sweet tea sits on the counter. Grabbing a cup, I pour a glass.
Charlie stares at me from the window as I sip on the tea. Everything's fine. I'll figure this out. Raymond's still trying to get us the map. I can escape.
Even though with every day that goes by without hearing from him, escape feels farther and farther away.
Crossing the floor, Charlie slips past the woman with red hair, the floorboards creaking under his feet. He stations himself on the other end of the bar.
"My dad will be joining us for dinner tomorrow."
I choke on the tea.
Charlie moves toward me, but I hold up my hand.
"It's a good thing I don't already have plans then."
His lips twitch upward.
"Why is he going to be there? It doesn't really set a romantic atmosphere."
"To see if he has to alter your memories."
My chest tightens, and I take another sip, trying to swallow down my fear. "So, I need to act head over heels in love with you?"
He looks at me, his lips pressed into a thin line, his expression annoyed. "He'd probably be convinced we're conspiring together. Just act like you don't dislike me."
"And how do I treat your father?"
"With a healthy dose of fear. He knows you're aware that you're dreaming so you don't need to hide that."
"What about my powers? What if he wants to see them?"
He pours his own glass of sweet tea and rakes a hand through his hair, messing it up in the process. "I honestly don't know."
*****
When I later rift into Tye's office after leaving Charlie's menagerie, everything Charlie said comes crashing down on me. Tye isn't here and maybe a part of me hoped he would be so I would finally have to demonstrate my newly-discovered powers to him that will either cause him to believe me or run away for good.
I lean against the wall, replaying Charlie's and my conversation and all the possible horrors that await me.
I don't want kids like this. Would I be allowed to raise them or would Pace take them, raising them as nothing more than lab rats? I'm sixteen. A few months ago my greatest sources of stress were making good grades to go to college and wondering if Aaron liked me. Working with my father was the thing that would be a relief from studying and maybe a chance to get more time with Aaron.
Head in my hands to block out the dream world, I sink to the floor.
After Charlie told me about being the next master dreamer, I was ready to cling on to anything that was better than the fate of the master dreamer. I need to throw myself into escaping this dream—to feel like I'm doing something that will save me—to push the anxiety and fear down.
Charlie could get a map. Hell, he wouldn't even need one. But I can't trust him enough to ask. He could have known his dad's plan this whole time and is only trying to get me to comply with it. He's told me the injustices Pace has done to him, but for me to trust Charlie, I need to see them with my own eyes.
I want to control my own fate. And if Charlie is telling the truth, he should be able to control his too.
The door to the office slides open.
"Nora?" Tye drops down beside me. "What's wrong?"
"We need to talk."
*****
"I shouldn't believe you. I really shouldn't. But I'm here." Tye points at himself sitting on the couch in my cottage.
I suck in my bottom lip, waiting for him to get it all out.
"I didn't need to quit my job?"
I grasp for words but can't find them.
"A dream. Okay." He nods to himself. "Like a video game, right?"
"Yeah."
When Tye walked into his office, I told him about Charlie, what Pace has planned for me, that Charlie and I have to act like we're dating, and about Radia—the hardest part to share. I conjure different items for him including a cup of tea—he's always preferred it to coffee, and I've learned it's because he doesn't like the taste of coffee at all. Since no one in Somnia on needs it to gain energy, he has no reason to drink it. I'm sure he preferred tea to coffee in the outside world as well—that there's some story behind it—some memory he can't access. Maybe he tried tea before coffee. Maybe it was an afternoon ritual with friends.
Charlie must know something about his past.
I grab Tye's hand. "I'll find a way to get us out and you'll remember everything. And then we'll find Radia."
He places his other hand over mine. "Promise?"
"Promise."
So it seems like Nora and Charlie are officially teamed up in someway.