Chapter 11 by Green

Chapter 11

By Green

We entered the dark hallway and ran in the opposite direction of the interrogation room that I had first come from with Spencer. Rohan was in the lead, I was right behind him, Bluu behind me.

We stopped at a bolted door and Rohan started working away at the locks. I felt a hand on my shoulder.

“You really,” Bluu wheezed, trying to catch his breath, “had me scared for a second when you walked into the room like that.”

“Glad my acting was on par,” I joked. Bluu smiled but asked seriously, “What did that Spencer guy do to you?”

“His ability is brain freeze,” Rohan answered for me. One of the locks opened and he moved on to another. “Like Freya’s black tendrils can infect people’s minds, Spencer can infect their brains, freeze their thoughts, and control them like puppets.”

I shuddered. “If you put it that way…” R

ohan shrugged. The last lock fell to the ground and he pushed open the door.

“Guys!” Bluu cried out, running into the room full of kneeling, bound figures.

The dimly lit room revealed their haggard faces with eye-bags so prominent they looked like zombies. I had a hunch that Sunside had injected them all with the substance that prevented them from returning to their real body.

But their Dreamselves must be reflecting their physical bodies, I thought. Which also haven’t gotten any sleep. I knelt down next to one man while Bluu and Rohan started untying hostages from the other side of the room.

“What’s your name, sir?” I asked him as I undid his gag.

“Yanli,” he answered. “I’ve never seen you before.”

I smiled. “I’m new to the Wang Group. Name’s Jimmy Cartwright.”

“You’re the one that’s driving those Sunsiders nuts,” a woman said as I moved on to untie her after Yanli. “You could say that. But I really was just trying to get some sleep.”

Yanli chuckled. “Not the best world to wake up to, then. I’m glad Sunside didn’t get to you.”

I am too, I thought and remembered we had no time to waste. I checked to see how Bluu and Rohan were doing. Rohan was getting berated.

“—this Sunsider!” a man was shouting. “Being a traitor doesn’t make you any better!”

This man was untied and on his feet, looming over Rohan. Rohan looked a little pale but held his ground.

“Hey calm down, Lance,” Bluu said, pushing the man away. “Rohan risked everything to help us get back this lifesaver.” He held up the backpack of antidotes. “You owe him gratitude, not all this shouting.”

Lance grumbled, shooting Rohan another glare before stomping back to a group of other freed hostages who looked equally uncomfortable to have Rohan here. I didn’t need my emotion-sensing ability to know they didn’t trust Rohan.

“It’s alright, man,” Bluu said, patting Rohan’s shoulder. “When this is all over, you’ll get the appreciation you deserve.”

“By the way,” I said, turning back to Yanli. “Has Freya infected anyone? And where are they?”

Yanli’s face fell. “She has. They’re not here but...it’s bad, Jimmy. She did it to Roshani first and showed us the aftermath. Then she took Roshani’s body away and we never saw her again.”

“Roshani?!” Bluu almost pounced on Yanli. His eyes were wide with desperation. “How did she look?” he exclaimed. “How bad is she hurt?”

“She was unconscious,” said Yanli. “She looked sickly, drained of life. I couldn’t sense her Dreamself anymore.”

I gulped. I saw the solemn faces on the other Dreamers. I was surprised to see Rohan with a horrified and distressed expression. I couldn’t imagine the tough Roshani I knew looking as lifeless as Eric after his showdown with Freya. Neither could he, I suppose.

“How many more did she infect?” I asked.

“At least ten of us.”

I winced. That was just barely enough for all the antidotes we had.

“Rohan, do you know where the infected are?” I asked.

He nodded.

“Is it wise to follow him?” Lance called out, followed by a murmur of agreement here and there.

“Rohan brought us to you all,” I snapped back. “Unless you have a better way of finding them without getting caught, we follow his lead.”

“A few of you should stay here so you can get back to the real world once the drug wears off,” Bluu said.

In the end, Lance and Yanli came with us while the others stayed back. Bluu peaked his head out of the room. When the coast was clear, our group jogged down the hall again. I couldn’t hear the sounds of battle anymore; hopefully Frazer and Eric were doing okay.

Rohan was about to round a corner Yanli said, “Stop.”

“There is someone down the hall in that direction,” he explained.

I tried listening for footsteps. “How do you know?” I whispered.

“I have a proximity sensor ability,” Yanli said. “There is a Dreamer other than us nearby.”

“Can we go around?” Bluu asked.

“There’s no other way around,” said Rohan.

I heard footsteps now. Everyone around me got into a battle position. I crouched down a bit, not exactly sure what I was doing. My ability wasn’t exactly battle-ready; I struck a pose to blend in anyway. We held our breaths as the owner of the footsteps rounded the corner.

“Frazer?” Bluu yelped. “What are you doing here?”

“Thank goodness I found you guys,” Frazer said, wiping his brow. “And you freed everyone else!”

“Holy shit,” Lance exclaimed. “Is that Frazer?”

“No way,” gaped Yanli. “F-Frazer Maerd? You’re dead.”

“Presumed to be,” said Frazer. “Almost did die in that fight with Freya. But not quite.”

“Where’s Eric?” I asked, expecting him to appear.

“He’s still fighting. Looks like they can handle it though. He told me to come find you guys.”

“Great!” Bluu said. “Because we’re going to locate the—”

“How did you get in front of us?”

All eyes turned to Rohan. He had his arms crossed, staring at Frazer with a blank expression.

“A ton of confusing hallways, but I ran pretty fast,” Frazer said. He narrowed his eyes at Rohan. “Say, you’re a Sunside member aren’t you? One of the ones who turned to join us?”

Rohan nodded but his face was still stone cold as he said, “There’s only one hallway that could lead you here.”

“Really?” said Frazer. “It felt like a ton.”

“What’s up with the attitude, Rohan?” Lance finally butted in with a sneer. “Don’t talk to our leader like that!”

I gave Frazer a long, long look. He smiled at me. So I looked beyond the smile and felt— A blur and Frazer was on the ground with Rohan on top punching the living daylights out of him. Frazer shrieked and Bluu lunged forward to pull Rohan back. I stopped him.

“Everyone stay back,” I shouted at Yanli and Lance who were also rushing forward to help Frazer.

Bluu struggled. “Jimmy what—Rohan is—”

Rohan delivered one last blow to Frazer’s head and Frazer went still.

“You little—” Lance snarled at Rohan.

But then he froze. Frazer’s face began to distort. It became a different person’s face, although the nose was still bloody from where Rohan had broken it. Rohan straightened and dusted off his hands.

“A fake Frazer?” Bluu breathed in disbelief.

“His emotions felt off,” I said.

Yanli inspected the imposter Frazer’s body and asked Rohan, “How did you know?”

“There’s only one hallway that could lead here from the room Freya was in,” Rohan repeated. “It’s the hallway we’re currently walking through. He couldn’t have come in front of us without passing us first.”

“Damn, detective skills,” Bluu remarked. “Sorry for doubting you there.”

“Yeah,” Lance mumbled.

Rohan shrugged and we continued on our way. We got attacked by a couple Sunside members as we went but thanks to Yanli’s proximity sensor, we took care of them in no time. Rohan unlocked another door and we found the bodies. On one side of the room lay the unconscious figures. On the other side was a writhing black cloud of knots.

Bluu gulped. “What is that?”

“Infected Dreamselves,” I said.

That was one big puzzle to untangle. I saw Rohan wander over and kneel next to one of the bodies sleeping on the cold floor. It was Roshani’s. Bluu realized too and hurried over to her. The looks of distress on their faces made me turn towards the black mass. I realized it was a tangle of silhouettes with black blemishes all over their bodies.

“Whoa, little man,” Lance said as I took a step forward. “You sure about this? Do you have some kind of super ability to punch that thing with?”

“No,” I said. “Combat isn’t my specialty.”

Lance frowned. “Then what do you do?”

“I’m just a self-employed sleep therapist.”

With that, I approached the tangle and reached inside. Suddenly, black tendrils sprang from within and spiraled around my arms, pulling me towards the mass. I pulled back but the tendrils were strong and hungry. Lance reached out to grab me but I yelled at him to stay back. If he got sucked in here, we wouldn’t have enough antidotes. With my feet grounded and the tendrils still squeezing my arms, I began to work away at the first puzzle. I ignored the rest of the mess, focusing only one this one little knot that I quickly released. Then I moved on to the next one. Bit by bit, I freed the first silhouette figure and dragged it out of the mass.

“Lance, get the antidote!”

Lance grabbed the backpack. The freed silhouette was beginning to sprout more knots on its skin again. It drifted over to one of the bodies and urgently pointed at it. Lance administered the honey-like liquid. The body convulsed. I didn’t have time to see the outcome; I toiled away at the other knots while resisting the pull of the tendrils. One more silhouette. Then another. And another came free. The mass dwindled. Until there was one.

“Hey Roshani,” I whispered.

Her silhouette had been in the center of the mass, huddled on the ground with knees drawn up.

“Bluu’s here to see you,” I said as I untangled her knots. “And Rohan and Lance.”

The silhouette’s head perked up. As I finished the last blemish, the silhouette rose and drifted to the last body, where Bluu and Rohan were. Bluu poured the last antidote into Roshani’s mouth. Her body shook. Her silhouette disappeared. Bluu cried for her to come back to him.

He kept crying until a hand shot out and smacked him across the face.

Roshani cracked open one eye. “No,” she croaked, “sob stories.”

~

The aftermath wasn’t exactly a superhero ending. By the time we got back to the main battle, most of the Sunside members had scattered. We saw Frazer sitting by the wall and when we asked him what happened to Freya, he simply pointed at an unconscious body in a red jacket—and a silhouette blooming with knots floating over it.

He had used his sister’s own weapon against her. I had been hoping to give Freya a piece of my own mind for all the dangers she put me through. But I wasn’t going to get my final showdown, and I supposed it was only fitting that Frazer be the one to defeat her. Speaking of siblings, Roshani was reunited with her little brother Rohan—which caught us all by surprise—and Bluu was an even bigger sobbing mess to have her back. Wang Group was able to return to our—yes, our—headquarters and Sunside was, for the most part, dissolved without their leader. Lance gave all the Sunside Dreamers who joined Wang Group a hard time at first, though that didn’t stop Eric and Spencer from dating or Lance from eventually going out with a former Sunside girl. I had no doubt, however, that the remaining Sunside henchmen would continue to cause havoc on the streets in their own way.

As for me, I went back to my therapy business. With Wang Group’s help, I grew it to be a Dreamer magnet so we could keep track of potential and developing Dreamers. Funny, how starting this business had gotten me on Wang Group’s radar in the first place. I had thought my ability was special. It is. But it’s nice to know there are people like me, too.