Shattered (6 page)

– it doesn’t even make much sense to me – but I think that’s sort of how this place works.”

“So our real world is the piece of paper with the drawing,” Laura said slowly, “… and
this
world is the second sheet, with the shadow fal ing onto it?”

“Yea, exactly. That’s the best way I can explain it. I know it’s not very elegant, but it’s been useful to me. A bit hard to grasp though, right?”

“No, no, I think I got it. I have another question, though.”

“Ask away.”

“How did we
get
here? How did you bring me here?”

“Ah.” Logan smiled. “That. That has to do with what I showed you at school.”

“With your mind-reading ability?”

“Hah. I wouldn’t cal it quite that, but yes, it has to do with my ability. When we touched hands in the real world, a sort of… wrinkle… occurred. It happened right before al the thoughts come flooding into your head. That wrinkle, I think, has to do with reality
shifting
slightly right before the thoughts come. But I learned that if I timed it right – if I let you experience that flood of thoughts
just
as you’re fal ing asleep – in that last split-second, your mind, and mine as wel , shifts into this realm. And you come here. The world of dreams.”

“That’s amazing,” Laura breathed.

“Yes, it’s very interesting, isn’t it? Oh, one more thing. Time flows differently here. Sometimes much faster than in the real world, sometimes – much slower. Usual y, though, it’s much faster. So everything we’ve experienced so far – from me jumping off the car al the way to this conversation –

has occurred in the span of only a few seconds in the real world.”

“Wait, so in the
real world
,” Laura emphasized for clarification, “we’re both asleep? On top of your car?”

“That’s right. And as soon as we go back, we wake up.”

“How do we go back?”

“I’l show you. Not just yet, though. What I was just saying, about time flowing differently, that’s more important. Now, do you remember when you took your first step, and you stumbled towards me?”

“Yes, I do.”

“What’d you feel, when it happened?”

“What did I feel?”

“Yea, like what was that like for you?”

“Um… I felt dizzy, I think. Like I lost my sense of gravity. Kind of like I couldn’t say which way was up and which was down.”

“Did objects kind of… streak together for you?”

“Oh that’s right! Yea, my vision blurred a bit and al the colors merged.”

“Ok, wel , I cal that a
glitch
. And what it is, I think, is your body protesting you entering this realm. It’s nothing to worry about. Unless it happens in rapid succession, and doesn’t stop.”

“Does that happen often?”

“No,” Logan admitted. “But when it does, you have to watch out for it. Like I said, sometimes time flows faster here than in the real world, but – sometimes –

much slower. It’s rare when it flows slower, but you be careful then.”

“How come?”

“Because if it flows slower here, you might get caught sleeping for a very long time in the real world. Days, weeks, or even months can pass in seconds. Years, maybe, I think, if you don’t get out fast enough.”

Laura gasped. “Years?”

“Yes. And nothing wil wake you. Your only clue to that happening is if those glitches occur, over and over, right when you get in.

“If that happens, you need to get out as fast as you can. You never know – every second you stay here longer might be another few hours you’re asleep for –

or more – in the real world.”

“Has that… ever happened to you?”

“Once, when I was much younger. I came here, and wave after wave of those glitches attacked me. I didn’t know what was going on. I didn’t think too much of it, though, once they stopped, and stayed for maybe half an hour. When I got up in the real world, nearly ten days had passed.”

“You were out for
ten days
?” Laura marveled.

“Yea,” Logan grinned. “I found myself in the hospital when I woke up, and I had no idea what was going on. The doctors thought I had fal en into a coma in my sleep. I gave the nurse quite a scare when I shot to life in the middle of the night.” He laughed. “That’s the only danger for you here. Getting caught when time flows slowly.”

“But you said that doesn’t happen very often?”

“No, it doesn’t. Usual y it’s flowing a lot faster, like right now. It al comes in waves, I think. Maybe the best way to think of it is… the scale of time oscil ating back and forth. Like a pendulum.” He made a sign with his hands designating one. “When it swings to the very right—” he brought a finger to the right, “—

time here is much slower than in real life. And as it fal s back and swings to the left—” he motioned with his finger to the left “—time here gets faster and faster, until it peaks as it hits the very left. And then it goes back. On and on again, back and forth, in a cycle.

“Now, one thing I’ve realized is that it’s not a perfectly even pendulum. Most of the swing is spent in the zone where time is faster here. Only a smal sliver—” again, he motioned with his finger “—of the pendulum’s swing is spent in the zone when time is slower here.”

“I think I get it,” Laura said. Then she smiled. “You explain it very wel .”

“Nah,” he said, waving the compliment away. “You just pick it up very quickly.”

“Maybe. So, what else does this place do? …Now that I’ve gotten the entire airplane safety lecture,” she added with a wink.

“Oh, I can show you,” Logan replied, with a mischievous twinkle in his eye.

~A Watcher~

Laura felt exhilarated. She’d spent the last few hours exploring this world together with Logan. Reality real y
wa s
mutable here, and she couldn’t believe the things they could do.

What stood out most to her was that you could go anywhere.
Really
anywhere. You had to know your spot to get to it, though, which meant you have to have been there in real life. Unfortunately for Laura, she hadn’t been much further than the border of the town where she grew up. Fortunately, Logan had.

“Ready?” he asked after explaining how traveling would work. She nodded, and took his hand. Instantly, everything around her started streaking in one direction. Landscapes raced by, towns and cities and mountains and highways and rivers and fields, al flashing by her in the blink of an eye. It didn’t
feel
like she was moving – there was no wind in her face, no resistance from the air like when you put your hand out the window of a speeding car. But everything around her changed, rushing by.

She couldn’t do it by herself, yet, which was why she needed to take Logan’s hand. It was the only way he could bring her along where he went. Final y they stopped, and Laura found herself atop a lush green hil , where wild flowers and grasses grew as far as the eye could see. The sun shone brightly above them, radiating heat onto Laura’s body.

She laughed and twirled around, spreading her hands to feel the flora brush against them. Logan laughed too, and sped down the hil , taunting Laura to fol ow. She ran after him, right through the tal grass and colorful flowers. Her toe caught and she tripped, but the soft dirt cushioned her fal , and she didn’t even bother to get up as she rol ed down the hil laughing and giggling.

At the bottom, Logan was waiting. She landed right at his feet, and another fit of giggles overtook her. He pul ed her up, laughing alongside her.

“This is wonderful!” she exclaimed for what must have been the tenth time thus far. “Everything about this place! The feeling of freedom, the absolute control, the endless possibilities… it’s wonderful!”

“Glad you like it,” Logan smiled.

“Although I’ve been wondering,” Laura added, “is it possible to bring things into this world?”

“Like what?”

“Objects, maybe?”

“You have to know it very wel . Like…” he thought for a moment, and Laura jumped as his Volvo fel down behind her.

“Your car?” she said, raising an eyebrow.

He spread his hands defensively and smiled. “I’ve been working on it for a very long time. You try.”

“On what?” Laura asked.

“Something simple, at first. A purse maybe. It’s just like anything else here, you have to picture it down to its finest details.”

“Hmm. Ok.” Laura thought for a second, and then a heavy book appeared in her hands.

“A book?” This time, Logan rose an eyebrow.

“No, not just any book,” she said, and threw it to him. He caught it, and flipped it over in his hands.

“Our
math
book,” he chuckled.

“That’s how al this started, after al .”

“That’s right,” Logan said.

Just then, Laura felt a shiver run down her spine. She turned back, wondering what caused it. Logan caught her movement.

“What is it?” he asked.

“I thought I felt something,” she said slowly, then shook her head. “Never mind. It’s gone now.”

“Are you sure?”

“I think so, yes.”

“Ok,” Logan said. Then he extended his hand to her. “Want to see something real y cool?”

“Of course,” Laura replied, and took it.

Again, landscapes raced by, streaking alongside Laura. And then they stopped, and Laura found herself standing with Logan before a beautiful lake. It was hidden deep in the crest of a mountain, the far side cradled by cliffs of ragged stone. The water was crystal clear, casting perfect reflections of the sun’s rays, and the shore contained only the smoothest blue-gray pebbles.

“I found this place once after walking for an entire day through the dream world,” Logan explained. “I come here sometimes to think.”

“I can see why,” Laura said. The air here felt even fresher than at the lake they began at. A bird sang in the distance, and the rustle of trees came from behind them. The only thing that foiled the il usion was the slight edge of fuzziness that lay upon al the items of this world.

Logan let go of her hand, and strol ed up to the lake. He bent down to dangle his fingers in the water, then, picking out a round stone, got up and skipped it across the lake.

“Can you skip rocks, Laura?” he asked.

“Uh… no, not real y,” she admitted.

“Come on over, then. I’l teach you.” He smiled at her. “It’s easy, real y.”

Laura walked to him, but as she got closer, that feeling of being watched returned. She glanced back, but, on seeing nothing, continued on. Logan tossed her a stone, and she stumbled catching it.

“Come on now, that’s the easy part,” he teased. Laura grinned at him devilishly, and chucked the rock as hard as she could into the lake. It fel lifelessly into the water without a single skip.

“Wel , you sure have the strength for it,” Logan laughed, and threw another rock himself. His skipped
five
times before sinking. Then he came over to help. For the next twenty minutes, Logan tried teaching Laura how to duplicate his feat – without much success. Stil , they was having fun, and they both laughed at her attempts while playful y poking fun at one another. By the end of it, Laura’s arm was absolutely exhausted, and her shoulder kind of hurt, so she col apsed, defeated but laughing, onto the ground.

Right when she fel , that feeling of unseen eyes returned, stronger than ever before. This time, she was sure somebody was there. Just as Logan threw one last stone across the water, she looked back –

and froze as she saw a man, dressed in al black, peek out from a faraway tree. Their eyes met for an instant, and then the man disappeared.

Suddenly Logan was at her side. “What’s wrong?”

he asked.

“I just saw somebody.”

“What do you mean?” His tone was grave, and his face serious.

“At that tree, over there,” she pointed. “He disappeared right when I saw him.”

He relaxed visibly. “Sometimes people drift in here, coming to places they know,” he explained.

“They only stay a moment, and then return to their regular dreams.”

“This man was looking right at me, though. I felt his gaze.”

“What?” His eyes became laser sharp, and he focused on her. “Are you sure?”

“Yes. I felt it before, too, but I didn’t think anything of it.”

“This man,” Logan said, “what did he look like?”

“I didn’t get a very good look at him,” Laura admitted. “And he was far away. But he had a black coat on, and a black hat. Everything about him was black. Except his skin, it was pale white, much like…

yours.” Laura gulped the words.

“What?” Logan demanded. “Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“Shit.” Logan got up, looking over his shoulder, looking al around. “Take my hand,” he said to her urgently.

“Why?”

“We need to leave. Now.”

Laura reached up to grasp his hand. On contact, a blast of cold jolted through her bones, and everything around her turned dark. She felt herself fading away, felt her body begin to disintegrate as the world around her started to crumble. The only thing she was sure of was Logan’s hand, gripping her own tightly. Then she felt heat, the flare of molten-hot rock churning down a river of lava, and she started to fal . Direction became meaningless, and she fel for infinity, for eons, in no direction and in them al , with no sense of time or space to guide her. She fel through layers of heat and layers of cold, and the frost from al the world’s glacier’s froze her body as the heat of a thousand suns coursed through her veins. She fel … and was ripped back into her body, on top of Logan’s gray Volvo in front of the lake.

Her eyes popped open. A light rain had begun to fal while they were asleep, and her clothing was slightly damp. She felt Logan’s hard body at her side, and looked up. He was blinking, coming to as she had. He looked down, and his eyes met hers momentarily. Then he pushed her aside and leapt off the car. He started to pace back and forth in front of her, and he looked troubled.

“Logan, what’s wrong?” Laura worriedly. “What happened back there?”

Logan looked at her, but didn’t answer. He kept pacing back and forth in front of her.

“Logan, tel me what’s going on!” Laura

demanded.

“I’m not supposed to bring you there,” he said, half to himself. Then he spoke louder, “Get in the car.”

Precipitating his own words, he had unlocked the door and climbed in before Laura even had a chance to get off the hood. She opened the door and sat inside, and looked at Logan. He looked worried, uncertain, troubled, and conflicted al in one. Without speaking, he started the engine, and backed the car up in reverse.

“Where are we going?” Laura asked.

“I need to get you home.”

“Why? Logan, what’s going on?”

“I need time to think,” he answered. He turned the car around, and sped down the dirt road, away from the lake.

“Does it have to do with that man I saw?” Laura asked.

“Maybe,” he said quietly. “I’m not sure.”

“Logan, look at me!” Laura practical y screamed the words. His behavior had her on edge, and she wasn’t getting any answers. He hit the brakes hard, causing her to fly forward and hit the dashboard. She grunted on impact. “Why did you do that?” she demanded angrily.

“You told me to look at you.” Logan turned his head to stare right at her.

“I didn’t mean it literal y,” Laura said under her breath, but returned his stare. “Logan, you have to tel me. Is this… any of this… dangerous?”

“I’m not sure.” He sighed. “I can’t say.”

“Wel , what
can
you say?” she said furiously. “You brought me into this, and if there’s any danger, I need to know!”

“What can I say?” he repeated. “Not much. Not much that would make sense to you. But… this might. There are others… like me. My kind. They’re dream walkers. Where we just went, Laura, that was
your
dream. To access it, I needed your touch. To bring you into it. Everybody has their own dreams. Most occur in the safety of their own imagination, but from time to time, people access the same place we went to. That place is the same for everyone, and yet everyone has their own version of it. I…” he paused, struggling, “… I know I’m not making much sense. Think of… of a movie DVD. If you have a movie on a disk, and I have another disk of the same movie, the two disks exist as separate objects. But if you put them into a player, they’l both output the same thing. They’l play the same movie. But one of the disks is mine, and the other is yours. It’s the same thing with the dream world. A person can’t access another person’s dream world like we just did… not consciously, anyway, and not at al most of the time.

“But there are some… that can transcend that limitation. They don’t need the touch. I wouldn’t think they’d notice, if we went into your dreams. But they jump from people’s to people’s dreams like a frog jumps from lily to lily over a pond. In between the dreams… an abyss exists. We touched it briefly when we left. But that’s the only time we reach that abyss. To go to it consciously, to jump from dream to dream…” he shivered. “To go to it consciously means you might lose yourself forever. But the dream walkers can do that.”

“Wait,” Laura said, “are you tel ing me that somebody else was in my dream?”

“Maybe. I can’t be sure. But I need time to think. I don’t know what attracted his attention. I was sure that our trip was going to be inconspicuous. I was
sure
, dammit!” Then he started the car again, and continued driving forward. But something he said stuck out in Laura’s mind.

“What did you mean,” she asked, “when you said

‘your kind’?”

“Others like me,” he replied absently. Then he looked at her. “Where do you live? I need to get you home.”

She told him the address. Before she knew it, they were on the right road, heading towards her house. The drive was spent in silence; every time Laura looked over at Logan, he appeared to be even more concentrated on the road ahead. Soon enough, he pul ed up in front of her house. She got out of the car, and told him thank you for the drive. As he drove off, she realized something: she didn’t give him any directions to her home.