Victor by Sacha Black

Author:Sacha Black [Black, Sacha]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atlas Black Publishing
Published: 2018-07-04T16:00:00+00:00

Seventeen

‘Dream Share – The population and subsequent witnessing of a single dream by two or more Keepers.’

The Dictionary of Balance

I’m at the top of my home tower roof in Element City. My feet teeter on the edge of the parapet as a wave of horror chills my body. The sun is tinged maroon and black. Blood-red streaks dirty the clouds making the air thick and choking. The heat from the desert has gone, and cold winds whip around the building. In the distance, instead of golden waves of sand, the desert dunes are singed black. On the building next to us, I spot a lone figure, which I think is Sheridan.

My beautiful cube city is broken. The buildings closest to me have been sliced in half. Their innards: metal girders, cement, and steel rebar, are displayed like carcasses. Towers crumble, bricks splinter off and drop to the streets below as if the entire city is decaying. Bridges between the buildings are rotten and collapsing. Great chunks have been bitten out of the sides of the skyscrapers. What city-sized monster has eaten my home? Tears run down my cheeks. The ground beneath my feet wobbles as my home tower rots and collapses like the rest of them. I fall, not to the ground but into the darkness of sleep.

When I wake in my next dream, I’m standing in a dim corridor. The walls and floor are made of smooth white marble – we’re in the South. Inlaid in the floor is the Siren symbol. I kneel down to examine it. Our symbols are made of gold, but this is made of a creamy substance that ebbs and flows and sparkles like there are fragments of diamond in it. I’m in the corridor under Trey’s mansion; we’re near the heart.

I stand, noticing Sheridan standing someway down the corridor. She keeps her distance, observing rather than interrupting my dream. A sharp pain radiates in the fleshy part near my elbow. I stare at the inside of my arm, a hexagonal coin shape appearing on my skin. The fail-safe. I touch my trouser pocket where the real coin sits and smile. Father. The fail-safe is shaped like the coin Father found in London; it was on the same trip he brought Mustard, our dog, back with him.

Trey materializes, holding my hand. He tugs my arm and starts running, dragging me down the corridor. The wrought iron gates are already open.

A bolt of pain slams into my head, and I stumble forward letting go of his hand. The dream melts as I fall. When I land, it's on rock. I can’t breathe. My head’s swimming, my skin itching like it doesn’t belong to me. Nothing looks right, and everything’s tinged with a strange green hue. I roll around the rocky ground beneath me, scratching at my blistering skin until I remember: I’m dreaming. I sit bolt upright. This isn’t my dream. It’s Sheridan’s.

She’s walking, bare foot, across the rocks and down into the valley. Her trousers thwack against her legs as they jingle in the wind.

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