I only need be…
“We must return,” my father said, coming around and sitting next to my mother.
Suddenly, around me, the world started to crumble. The frozen images outside the bedroom disappeared, replaced by a blinding light. Even corners of this very room started to be overtaken by the light. I looked at my parents, who held each other’s hands tightly.
“No!” I said. “I just came back to you—”
“You never came back,” my mother said. “You were always here. You just never realized it.”
I bit my lip. Mom... Dad…
“Our bodies are gone, but our spirit resides in both you and Lane,” my father said. “You must recognize this. And in doing so, you will find peace.”
“But Lucius—”
My mother smiled at me.
“Do not worry about what others may do to you,” she said. “You have everything you need inside of you.”
“But Mom—”
“Go forth, my son.”
* * *
“Wait!”
I jolted awake. I was staring at the ceiling of a small room. I sat up and looked around.
In a chair about two feet away was Lane. Sitting by his side were Phoenix and Patriot. Butch and Axle guarded the door.
“What the fuck…” I said. “What the hell happened?”
Lane smiled.
“You survived.”
“Survived what?”
Lane chuckled.
“Shit, you really don’t remember, huh?”
I sat up, but some serious dull, aching pain had me falling right back down. At least my head was free of any aches and pain—it was mostly just in my core and in my back.
But there was something more important than that. I could remember vividly what I had just dreamed, except “dream” felt like the wrong word. It felt like a conversation with my... soul? My spirit? My subconscious? My something…
And that conversation’s effects were carrying over.
“I remember, right before I passed out... I remember gunshots,” I said. “I remember someone throwing a Molotov cocktail into my apartment. Someone threw a gas bomb of some kind into my place. I tried to get... I don’t know. I want to say I tried to get to my bedroom, but it’s just as likely I lost control and went nowhere. And then…”
It won’t make sense. And besides…
That’s your dream. Not theirs.
“I just blacked out, I guess. Waking up just now. How long has it been?”
But no. Lane needs to know. You need to speak to him.
