Maghen was exactly like her mother. Right down to the white tips at the ends of her nails, which she tapped on the table as they finished dessert. Dressed in a fashionable black dress, she'd expressed disapproval of his jeans and hoodie. It was true he might be a little underdressed for the restaurant, but she was certainly overdressed. Then again, Maghen didn't seem to mind standing out. Their table was in the middle of the long, busy, candlelit restaurant, and Hazen had lost track of how many men glanced Maghen's way.
She'd spent dinner talking about the boutique where she'd spent two grand before coming to dinner. Hazen had zoned out but tried to recover by mentioning a brand of shirts he liked. He'd apparently mispronounced the name, and Maghen's expression suggested she thought he was an idiot. That had led to their lengthy silence now.
"So," Hazen tried, "do you read much?"
She perked up. "Yeah, lots. I love Fantasy. Anything with magic, hunky heroes, love triangles, that kind of thing." She took a drink of her wine and tried to look smart. "But I'm so sick of clichés in books these days."
"Like what?"
"You know. Magicians, elves, loyal sidekicks, prophecies of the future."
Hazen flinched. He covered with a chuckle. "Think predicting the future's nonsense, huh?"
Maghen rolled her eye. "It's so overdone."
He reached for his water. "It is annoying when you see them everywhere. But-"
"Right? If a book has a prophecy in it, I stop reading. Or, like if there's a quest or an evil lord or-"
With an exaggerated groan, a dark-skinned, young woman seated behind Maghen turned to face them. "Those aren't necessarily clichés! Those are just things in Fantasy stories! They're tropes. They only become clichés when they're used the same way they've been used hundreds of times. If a writer puts a twist on the trope, the magicians or prophecies or quests or whatever aren't clichés. If you see a trope and automatically stop reading, how will you know if things get more interesting? That's pretty shallow reading, Miss Chick-Lit Critic. It's all subjective, anyway. Some people love tropes that other people think are cliché – you said you like love triangles, which in my opinion-"
"Who asked you?" Maghen made a face at the woman. Then her gaze moved to a notebook beside the woman's wineglass. "Oh. You're a writer, aren't you? You all act like it's so hard." She made an exaggerated eye roll.
Hazen inspected the lone woman. She was his age, around thirty. Her dark hair was buzzed almost as short as his. Her eyes were beautiful. She wore retro gold earrings, which stood out because of her short hair. Her nose held a small gold stud. Her blue, satin shirt and black pants hugged her lean frame.
The woman inhaled to calm herself. "Sorry, but I couldn't sit by and listen anymore. First you order the most expensive thing on the menu – I saw you checking before your date got here. Who does that? Then you go on and on about shopping. Then you judge this poor guy for not being as shallow. And now you act like you're a literary expert. You're entitled to like what you like, but you were hurting my Creative Writing degree's heart when you got all uppity about it. And if you hate clichés so much, you could try to be less of a stereotypical rich girl."
"I don't have to listen to this!" Maghen looked around for the maitre d'. Then she caught Hazen trying not to laugh. "You think this harassment is funny?"
He held up his hands. "I didn't know you'd get so riled up."
"You're not going to defend me?"
"Well, you're being kind of mean. And you didn't seem to need assistance."
Maghen's phone went off where she'd left it face-up on the table. She looked at the screen and forgot everything else. "Oh, awesome! Kip is free!"
Hazen blinked. "Who?"
"My boyfriend." Maghen scooched her chair back and grabbed her purse under her seat.
"Your..." Hazen made a face.
Maghen stood and smoothed out her dress, then smiled at him like nothing was wrong with this development. "Thanks for dinner. I gotta go." And with that, she walked off through the restaurant toward the exit.
Hazen sighed and rested his head in his hands, elbows on the table. A glass being set on the table drew his attention back to the chair across from him. He looked up to see the Creative Writing defender taking Maghen's seat. She set her notebook and clutch purse on the table and smiled at him.
"Uh. Hi?"
She smiled. "Hi. Hazen, right?"
"Yeah. And you are?"
"Renny Nado. Nice to meet you." She reached across the table to shake his hand, then leaned back in her chair to inspect him.
He blinked at her. "Thanks for saving me from Maghen, but..."
"Sorry if I was bitchy to your date, but she really bugged me." Renny motioned behind her to where she'd been sitting. "I was minding my own business until I heard her talking on the phone before you got here. Kip sounds fascinating, by the way." She rolled her eyes, grinned, and took a drink from her wineglass. "Anyway..."
They entered a weird pause, and Hazen wondered if he should follow through on Maghen's attempt to flag down the maitre d'.
"There's no easy way into this, Hazen." Renny glanced at their nearby diners and lowered her voice. "Unlike Maghen, I don't think predicting the future is nonsense."
Any amusement Hazen felt over this situation was immediately gone. He swallowed. "I don't know what you're-"
"I had a dream about this restaurant. About sitting at that table, by myself, eavesdropping on your blind date."
He paused, unsure what to do with this. "Why should I believe you?"
"Because you see things too." She met his eyes, then smirked. "You're the man of my dreams, and I'm your better half."
He snorted a laugh, but he shook his head.
Okay, he thought, maybe she is crazy.
"When you have nightmares," she said with a point over her glass, "I have dreams. You foresee events that would happen if you didn't prevent them. I see the same events, but the alternative, better path you create. Or, if you like, I see the happy version that becomes reality after you change them from being nightmares."
Hazen took a breath. "Listen, I don't know who you are-"
"Like with the tattoo artist earlier today."
Hazen froze.
She lifted an eyebrow, seeing his reaction. "I dreamed of you saving him. Between these two dreams I've had of you in the same city, that's how I finally tracked you down." She made a disturbed face. "I'm guessing you saw the tattooist get smacked by the delivery truck?"
He paused again. "Yes."
Could this be real? he thought. I've never met anyone else who...
After a look around at the other diners, he leaned forward. "You had a dream about what I did with the tattoo artist? Do you mean you've seen other things I've changed?"
"Yeah. I've lost count how many. Your visions started when you were a teenager, right?"
He nodded.
"That's when mine started too. It was so weird to see you over and over again in my dreams, and I didn't know why it was happening. But then, one day back home in L.A., I saw a news story about cops who'd apprehended a teenage shoplifter. The cops took the boy back to the store right as two men tried to rob the place. I'd dreamed that exact thing, and I realized I was somehow dreaming of real things that happened in the future."
Hazen smiled. "I remember that one. The cops didn't exactly believe I'd know the robbers were coming, but they didn't know what else to do with me, so they let me go. 'Bigger fish to fry,' they said."
Renny returned his smile. "After that, I started looking up news stories about my dreams. Of course, you never stuck around to take credit for your heroics, so I never actually learned your name. But with every dream and every news story, you'd done exactly what I'd seen. I saw you tell the police in time to stop the terrorist attack in Chicago. I saw you beg a family to leave their house before the flood swept it away in New Orleans. You reported the fire before it happened in Tokyo."
He grinned in memory.
She hesitated. "But since I always envision the happy endings of things, I never worried about any of this. It was cool to track your heroics, but I never thought you needed my help for anything. I assumed your visions were like mine, and I thought you knew what to do because you saw yourself doing it."
Hazen nodded. It made sense. He couldn't blame her.
"Eventually a few news stories did get your name. Then I set up alerts on my computer to collect any story mentioning Hazen Stephenson." She looked at him with sympathy. "That's when I heard the news story about your brother. I'm sorry to bring it up."
Oh, God, he thought.
He almost couldn't get out his question. "What did you see? Could I have stopped-"
"No." Her eyes widened, and she shook her head, causing her earrings to jingle. "No, I'm sorry. I didn't mean I saw anything. It's just... When I heard about your brother's accident, I felt bad for you and wanted to see if you were okay. That's when I learned your mom checked you into the hospital for psychiatric treatment. And that's when I realized maybe your visions weren't always as happy as mine."
Hazen took a drink of water to steady himself.
I can finally talk about this, he thought. She won't think I'm crazy.
"When I was seventeen, I had a nightmare where I saw Chuck die in a car accident. I tried everything to stop it. I begged him not to go out that night. I hid his keys. He told me he'd stay home. But I woke up the next morning and heard my mom screaming and crying. I knew immediately I hadn't stopped the nightmare from coming true. I was so traumatized I told my mom about it... Big mistake."
Renny gave him a second.
He took a breath. "So, yeah. I have nightmares and try to stop them. But I can't stop all of them. The problem is, I never know which can be changed and which can't." He rubbed his sweaty hands on his jeans. "Do you think what happened to my brother was for sure a nightmare I couldn't have changed?"
It was a sick thing to hope was true, but...
Renny nodded, her expression again conveying sympathy. "Like I said, I only see events you can turn into happy endings. For years, I never knew you had different dreams from mine, more dreams than mine. I've never seen anything you couldn't prevent. I didn't see your brother's accident at all. I don't think it was something you were allowed to change."
Hazen sighed. He looked down at the crumbs on his dessert plate and tried to collect himself.
Renny opened her clutch, took out a few bills, and tossed them on her original table. "Come on. Let's get some air."
Hazen had already paid, so he stood from the table as Renny gathered her things. Together, they exited the restaurant and stepped onto the dark sidewalk along the lakefront.
It was windy but not too cold, and the streetlights along the cement path shone the way into the city. Renny was as tall as he was, and they walked in step along the sidewalk.
"So," he asked, "you don't see my nightmares?"
"No. Never."
He tried to make sense of this. "If you don't see a correlating dream, my nightmares are what will happen. But if you see a dream, that's what will happen."
"I think so, yeah. That's why I finally realized I should find you. I can tell you which visions you can do something about." Renny looked over at him as they went by a streetlight. "When you can't change something, it's not your fault. For whatever reason, I guess some of your nightmares are meant to happen."
Hazen took a second with this unexpected, life-changing relief.
For years, he thought, I've wrestled with the guilt. The responsibility. Not knowing if I wasn't doing enough... Now I have a partner. I'm not alone.
He exhaled a long breath into the dark night. With another thought, he looked at Renny. "Do you get other visions without me in them?"
"Yeah, though not as often. Those dreams..." She whistled. "They're not from any near future."
Again, relief washed over him. "They're weird, right? Snippets that don't make sense. And they're far in the future. It's cool to see things like hover cars, palm scanners, new glowing money. But things are wrong too. I see pollution, decay, whole cities in ruins. I keep seeing people's faces, and they all look scared. And there's this horrible virus that turns the infected into..." He studied her face. "Is that like your dreams?"
"Somewhat, but I don't see anything scary." She scrunched her face in thought. "It must be like how you have nightmares and I have dreams. You see the bad stuff; I see happier things. I mean, from what I can tell, the future itself isn't great, but I always feel a sense of hope, love, loyalty. I can't explain it very well. Nothing's ever decipherable. My dreams of the distant future are way more jumbled than my normal dreams. I see faces, buildings..."
He nodded. "And sometimes there's this swirling red and yellow light."
"Yes! And this..." Renny pulled back her sleeve.
Hazen was only slightly surprised she'd tattooed the Mark on her arm. He pulled up the sleeve of his hoodie to show her his fresh, wrapped Mark.
Renny smiled. "You see the kids too?"
"Yeah. Four of them. Mostly when they're really little. But also some when they're grown up. They seem...important."
And, thought Hazen, like they might be the whole reason I – we – have these visions.
He scowled. "Do you have any idea why this happens to us?"
"Nope, but I might know people who do. In college, I went on a mission trip to Africa with a group called the Kota. Three of the Kota mentors were particularly kind to me, and we've stayed in touch. I told them about my dreams, and they've helped me a lot. They actually paid for my trip here because they thought it was important I find you." She looked like she expected him to freak out. "Sorry to spring this on you, but they want me to bring you to them. They won't tell me anything specific, but I have a feeling this is important, Hazen. They say we're not the only ones with visions."
"There are others? Do the Kota have visions themselves?"
Renny shook her head. "I don't think so. At least, my mentors don't. But they've been looking into this for a while. And I think they can give us answers, maybe help us with whatever future we're being shown." She looked at him as they crossed a street. "I feel like something big is coming. Do you?"
"Yeah. I mean, I've been doing what I can with my nightmares for years, but there's always something more with those stranger visions of the future. I just don't have all the pieces."
She nodded and bit her lip in thought. "I know it's asking a lot, Hazen, but would you come with me to meet the Kota? If this is as important as we think... Let's hope the Kota can help."
He let out a breath as he spotted his parked car. "So where are the Kota? Where do we go next?"
Renny laughed. "Vegas."
"Okay... Why's that funny?"
"You'll understand when you meet them."
He didn't get this, but he motioned to his car. "This is me. Can I give you a ride somewhere?"
"Yes, please. I walked from my hotel." She looked relieved he accepted all this.
But why shouldn't I? he thought. This is so weird, but I trust her. She might turn out to be the best friend I've ever had. We're like each other's yin and yang, or something. I'm not alone anymore. And if these Kota people have even more answers, you bet your butt I'm going to meet them.
As they climbed in the car, Renny smiled at him. "So, Hazen, what kind of books do you read?"