I found myself stumbling through a wood, heading down a steep embankment to a road below in the clearing. I was aware I was dreaming, and I was also aware of two silent figures watching me from higher up between the trees.
As I came out of the shrubbery I saw a woman crouched at the side of the road. She turned when she heard me approach. It was Anika. She jumped up and flung her arms around me. "Thank god!" she cried. She'd been weeping and I could feel her body trembling as I held her.
"What's the matter – what happened?"
"They took Kiefer."
"Who took him? Where?"
She broke away and pointed to a house that was standing alone in a field on the other side of the road. It was a weathered shack of a building, with boarded-up windows. Couldn't have had more than a couple of rooms inside. The remains of a crumbled porch led to the front door which was boarded up too with thick planks. The field was barren and dry, with traces of the crop that had once grown there – broken stalks of dead corn-plants stuck out of the ground like stubble on a badly-shaved chin. Similar fields stretched out to the horizon, but there wasn't another building anywhere to be seen.
"Tell me what happened."
"We were just walking," she sobbed, "then they appeared from nowhere, about six of them, they surrounded us. They snatched Kiefer and dragged him into the house. They told me not to follow or they would kill him. I didn't know what to do."
"Who were they?"
"I don't know, people... just people!"
"Right... I'm going in to get him."
"Be careful."
"Tell them that!"
I had no idea what to expect but I couldn't have cared less. I wasn't concerned about my own safety. They had my son, so now they'd have to deal with his father.
I got close to the house, ready to kick the front door right in, when I noticed a side-door that wasn't boarded up. I was taken completely by surprise when I opened it and walked in. I found myself in a small kitchen. An old coloured lady sat at a table shelling peas over a saucepan. She looked up as I entered, held my gaze for a moment, then nodded her head in the direction of the door behind her. I passed her and went through it.
I was in a long corridor – much too long to fit inside the space of the house. Closed doors lined the length on both sides. I walked to the end and turned into another long corridor. At the end of that, another. I was in a maze. Behind some of the closed doors I heard mumblings and groaning, sometimes squeals of the terrifying sort. Some doors were open – behind those I saw figures of wretched, lost individuals, rocking side to side in chairs, or standing motionless in corners and facing bare walls. Some watched me as I looked in, their eyes dead and soulless.
I called out Kiefer's name as I walked deeper into the maze, hoping to hear his reply. I didn't... but I did sense his presence. I let myself be guided by that sense, and it led me finally to the room he was in. I felt heartbroken when I saw him – six years old again, crouching under a table, scared and whimpering, clutching his favourite stuffed-toy cheetah...
"Papaaaaa!"
I scooped him up into my arms, almost crushing him with my embrace. All the emotions I'd felt from the times he was a child flooded through me. Even though my son is now a grown man, strong and independent, and even though I love him as much as ever, I still miss the child he once was. And despite knowing I was in a dream, the child in my arms right then was my son too, and I was responsible for him as much as I ever was.
I carried him out of the room, tried to find my way back through the maze of corridors, but I was lost. Suddenly Kiefer gave a cry. I spun around and saw a huge, shadowy figure drifting menacingly towards us.
If I'd been alone, I would have tackled it, but with Kiefer in my arms, I was more concerned with protecting him from his fear. We fled through the corridors, but the figure was always close behind. Then we came to a dead-end. The doors on either side were locked. The figure appeared again. It grew to fill the space around it from floor to ceiling and crept towards us. I put Kiefer down, hid him behind me, prepared myself to fight.
"Taylor..." A soft voice whispered my name from behind the wall. I looked to my right and saw a vision – the glowing, angelic face of a beautiful, blond-haired woman, bathed in light, smiling and beckoning to follow... "Taylor..."
I knew then what to do. I picked Kiefer up again, told him to close his eyes tight, and strode straight through the wall. We were in another corridor, one door. I pushed through it and we were back in the kitchen. The old lady glanced up briefly and pointed the way out.
Anika was waiting by the roadside. She saw us and ran towards us – I put Kiefer down and watched him run to her. They were hugging and twirling as I joined them and embraced them both. But I was distracted suddenly by a presence in the woods. I let them loose and turned to look, and noticed the two figures from earlier still watching from the woods. A moment later they disappeared just as a shaft of blinding sunlight from behind me poured down into the bushy shadows.
When I turned back around Anika and Kiefer were gone too, and I saw, instead of the ramshackle old house and desolate fields, an ornate pavilion standing in an endless garden, bathed in transcendent, heavenly light...
I woke from my dream with a deep, almost painful yearning to see my family.
-----
During breakfast, I told Ember about my dream. The intense longing for my family hadn't ebbed.
"Can you help me get to the Earth plane?" I asked. "I really need to see them. Kat warned me that the Durge can tune to me there, but maybe you can cloak my frequency as he did."
"I could, but only for a short time, my cloaking power is not as strong as Kats."
"I only need a short time. Just to check on how they are... just to see them again."
The way she looked at me told me she sensed and understood my longing and urgency.
"Okay," she said. "Let's do it now."
-----
We teleported first to Kiefer's apartment but he wasn't home. Maybe with his mother, I thought, but no-one was there either. We found them at last with my father and brother at my own apartment and it was comforting to see them all there together. They were safe and they had each other. Knowing this helped me deal with my own emotions. But I wished I could contact them... maybe in their dreams... though I doubted if they would believe they'd really seen me. Except for my brother. Aiden had also experienced lucid-dreaming and astral projection in the past, he'd believe it... but would they believe him?
I mentioned this to Ember but she reminded me that this could lead the Durge into their dreams.
A strange feeling drew me then to the window. I checked the sky for darkness – nothing. But it wasn't the Durge I sensed – something else. The street below was packed with parked cars. Nothing unusual there, except... one plain, white van with blackened windows caught my attention. It wasn't familiar to me and seemed suspiciously out of place, though I didn't feel it to be a direct danger – it wouldn't really surprise me if my family were under surveillance.
Ember was pushing to leave, but we had one more stop to make – at the hospital.
My body had been moved and was now in a ward with two other coma patients – one, a man in his thirties, the other a child no older than ten. It was a little strange to see my physical body again. I felt the connection immediately though – which was a good thing, because I realized how easy it would be to forget I had one. I wanted to see if I could get back in, but Ember stopped me. If I woke now, she reminded me, my time in the Astral could be over – what then of my promise to rescue Sayan? She was right, I had commitments there now, and I couldn't let her or Kat down.
I glanced over at the other two patients. If I managed to save Sayan, maybe I could bring these patients back too. And others. A sense of massive responsibility suddenly shot through me – imagine how much good I could do if I never woke up.
"We need to leave," Ember said.
I could sense the change in frequency too – threatening, cold – the Durge had gotten wind of me. My body was fine, but just one little thing left to do. I peeked out into the corridor and saw – not entirely unexpectedly – that the room was being guarded. So I really was important – a potential new asset for a Military/Government Agency. I actually didn't mind that, and I couldn't have done anything about it if I did. All part of the adventure, part of the higher plan – if there was one. So let them watch me – I had a feeling they were going to be as useful to me as they thought I was to them.
"We need to leave," Ember said again.
I kissed her. "Thank you for this," I said. "Let's go."
Author note
Chapters 13 and 14 tomorrow. Enjoy.