"Don't you find it odd that the only people we've met are somehow related?" I asked the two girls who were adamant about finding Hady's brother, Cameron. "I mean, you're both best friends, and I happen to know a little more about eversleep because of my sister-"
"Now that you mention it," Alex interrupted, "We met here after our little chat. And Cam-"
"And Cam after he screamed at me, mid-dream..." Hady continued wonderingly. "Do you think it's all connected, somehow?"
"Honestly, I really can't give a shit right about now. It's getting a bit much isn't it? There are so many things we don't know, where do we even begin?" Frustrated, Alex sat down on the ground.
"For one, get up." Hady commanded, "We're going to find Cam, like we promised, and take it from there."
"Yeah, don't get me wrong..." Alex said while dusting herself off after getting to her feet, "I was all for Cam but it would be so much easier keeping this small, rather than adopting every new stray that we bump into. Let's stop at Cam, okay?"
"That would be prudent," I agreed.
"Yeah, after Cam, we'll just focus on finding answers. Not more wasting time." Hady said determinedly. "Hey. Look." She pointed to the tree we were all gathered around. For a moment my heart leapt because I thought Dana was here, but upon turning around to face it, I realized a little addition to our note.
Alex had stabbed it to the tree with a pen, rationalizing that whoever it was might not have one and that was the quickest way for the person to notice it was to use it as an anchor. But they hardly needed the consideration. Right next to the note was an arrow lodged into the trunk of the tree with a parchment hanging from it.
"What the f..." Alex was the first one to move towards it and she ripped the message off, "Friend or foe?"
A cold finger ran up my arms and down my neck painfully slow.
"That's not funny, Alex." Hady chastised, grabbing the note from her. The silence that followed spoke volumes.
"Ok, how about we forget this little experiment-" I began.
"No, we should say we're definitely 'friend'." Alex argued. "We can't keep going slow. Who knows what might happen tomorrow? Maybe I wouldn't wake up, or you," She looked at Hady pointedly. "Or you." She turned to look daggers at me.
"Look, we can argue about everything and get nothing done, or we can just go with the flow." I watched as Hady walk up to the tree and add to the original message: which are you?
Alex shook her head and rolled her eyes in disagreement and I shrugged. Can't hurt.
"Shall we look for Cameron now, then?" I asked. Neither of them answered but both started trudging towards the direction of where we found Hady's brother.
It didn't take us long to backtrack to where we were, Hady's brother came through the mist just like she did - according to Alex.
"That's exactly how you are, when you come through." Alex told Hady, "Disoriented and just unaware, like you don't belong here."
I couldn't disagree. She did take a moment before snapping to.
"This. Is. Creepy." Cam said after the fog seemingly lifted from him, "Tell me this is creepy."
"It's creepy." I said with a small smile, acknowledging how different the two Stephens siblings are.
"But you get used to it." Alex supplied while Hady stayed silent.
We hurried him back to the clearing, explaining on the way what we've been doing and what we know for sure. We were answering his questions when I saw both girls fall.
"Are the both of you alright?"
"Hey what happened?"
Cameron and I asked at the same time.
"Alex tripped and grabbed me," Hady said.
We all turned to Alex for a response but she stayed frozen.
"Hey. Hey!" Hady grabbed her by the shoulder and we all saw how pale she was.
"I-I... I remember." She breathed and we waited. "I remember that day at school, I fell asleep because I was so goddamn tired and I woke up right here." She dropped her eyes to the ground, "I was not alone." Her next words came in a torrent.
"I was running, and there were people running with me or after me..." She stalled, as though trying to recall. "No, they were running from something and-" A gasp.
"Oh, Hady, do you remember that night? Our lost night? We said we'll finish our conversation in our dreams and we did. We did!"
Hady slid her hand down Alex's forearm and knelt beside her, "Calm down," She said soothingly. "Tell me."
Those dark eyes of Alex's trained themselves on Hady's light ones, as though they were a beacon of light, powering her concentration.
"The night when we couldn't remember our texts? I remember everything now. I heard you call my name, I woke up and texted you. Then we spoke on the phone and said we'd continued in our sleep, and we did. I woke up here, by the mist. You were there like a zombie, calling my name."
"Now there are zombies?" Cameron voiced aloud.
"What about the day you fell asleep in class?" Hady asked, urging her to continue.
Eyes still locked, she told us everything.
"I can't remember that as completely, but we were all running. I don't know who the others are, just shadows in the forest. I wasn't scared, though. Not the way you are when you've gotten sucked into a nightmare." She said meaningfully at Hady. She's got the worst night terrors out of all of us. Aside from Cameron, I can't speak for him.
"I was running because everyone else was. Kinda like doing track. But then I fell. Splat." Alex shoved her hands into the dirt. "And so a sleepsake was born." She finished with a flourish.
Now the both stood up, one smug and the other worried.
"Why are you remembering this just now? What's happened?" Hady asked, turning left and right, as though the answers would be there in neon signs - or at least, that there'd be a hint.
"This is all great and all," Cam started, "But can someone tell me why we're barefoot and dressed in our jammies?"
He was right, we did look extremely out of place.
"I'm just saying, I mean... Clothes are a sleepsake, right? So couldn't someone have told me to dress appropriately?"
"Now don't I feel like an idiot," Alex mumbled, "We did that experiment for nothing!"
"What experiment?" Cameron asked.
"We passed a note, between the both of us." Hady explained, gesturing between herself and Alex. "Hey, I remembered that all by myself! Maybe it just means we're getting better at this. That our dreams have finally been registered by our brains as conscious thought instead of just nothing important!" She said, sounding like she was trying to convince herself.
"Yeah, kinda like blacking out at a party!" Cameron supplied.
"Yeah, Cam. Kinda like pulling a Cam. Something only you would know." Hady said, not-so-tolerably.
"Why didn't I think of clothes?" Alex continued to rant, "How lame was passing a note?"
"It wasn't lame, it was more than what we thought of at the time." I said softly.
We continued our trek around the place and began to see more people. It was exciting at first, but then it started to get eerie because they did look like mindless zombies. Most of them, anyway. Some noticed us and exchanged a couple of pleasantries before moving on but the rest just walked on like they were dreaming.
"This doesn't seem too weird. Walking in a field of dreams, filled with dreamers." Cameron commented, after walking past another person who seemed fixated on something in the distance.
"That's exactly how you looked when we found you, big brother." Hady said.
Brother.
Something made me stop in my tracks, "What?"
"What what?" Alex responded.
"Nothing, I thought I heard-"
"Danny." I whipped around.
"Dana?"
"Danny, please. You must convince father and mother to untie me to your world."
"Never. No, never." I said back, "Where are you?"
"Between."
"Between where?"
But all that greeted me was silence.
"That was new." Cameron muttered, I can't tell if he was scared or awed. I was both.
"Dana!" I yelled, running back towards the clearing, confident that if I was going to find her anywhere, I would find her there. I could hear the others running after me and for a split second, wondered if this was how Alex felt in her dream. The rush of chasing after something as opposed to fleeing in fear.
I got to our spot and it was as empty as ever.
The rest caught up to me and wheezed. Alex was the only one to keep her composure, walking straight up to our old fashion message board and said out loud, "Neither and both. This guy sure likes to talk in riddles."
The siblings took their place beside her as they figured out what to do but all I could think about was Dana's voice in my head. She sounded so pitiful. Was she in pain? Why did she ask me to join her before? I wouldn't have been able to unhook her from the machines if I had, not that I would... But it didn't make any sense. Except it did. If I had decided to join her, I would have killed the horrid beeping. I would have made sure we were together, well and proper. There was no one who knew me better than she did.
Guilt weighed down on my heart. How many times have I let her down? Should I continue to?
"Hey," I felt the gentlest pressure on my back, "Don't beat yourself over it."
"It could be an illusion." Hady reasoned.
"Or it could be real." I sighed. And I would have let her down yet again. I let the words go unsaid, but Hady seemed to hear them all the same.
"I'm sure she wouldn't blame you. She would probably do the same if the roles were reversed, wouldn't she?"
She would do everything in her power to save me, that I know.
"Thanks Hady, you always know what to say." I gave a grim little smile, thankful for her words and companionship but I didn't want to be comforted. I wanted to bask in the admission of my own short-comings. I wanted my conscience to have a go at me.
"Alright lovebirds, how's this? Fuc-" Alex said outloud before she was cut off by Hady saying, "If you're going to cuss the person out, then, no."
There was something that sounded like a muted, "aw man!" and we both giggled a little.
"Try this one on for size," Alex hollered after a short discussion with Cameron, "Meet us here tomorrow and we'll decide."
"I don't think anyone's going to wait a whole day," Hady said thoughtfully.
"If he's smart, he'll know to be here during the time between replies." Alex answered, "Otherwise, maybe we should think twice about allying up with some dimwit."
Fair enough.
"Ok, remember our little exercise the other night? Deep breaths and let go." Alex closed her eyes, setting an example for Hady and Cameron. It seemed like only seconds passed before I could only hear the sound of her breathing.
Sure enough, when I opened my eyes, neither brother nor sister were there with us. Exhausted to the bone, I shut out the lightening sky and tried to block out the scent of jungle. Focusing on home, my bed...
"See you on the other side." I murmured, letting the warm glow take hold of me.
Just as I felt myself fading back to consciousness, I hear a gasp, but it was too late for me to turn back now.
"Alex?" I hollered, but my voice sounded sounded soft and weak despite the force I put into them. I tried to turn around but all that enshrouded me were blurs of mist and fog. "Alexis!!!" My voiceless yell ripped out of my throat, translating into a real scream as I opened my eyes.
I was bathed in cold sweat. I tried to sit up and calm myself from what now felt like an irrational fear. But I couldn't shake the feeling of being hunted. The feeling that Alex was screaming for help.