Or perhaps she was simply so exhausted from the day that she would have fallen asleep just as quickly even in the middle of a busy airport.
When her breathing evened out, I closed my eyes and focused, first on my own mind, on the small section of it far less empty than it should have been.
“He needs some furniture,” Kenyon said.
“His brain is like the inside of a college kid’s first apartment. He might as well put a TV on some empty moving boxes over there.” Carter gestured to a dark corner of the space they occupied.
Ingram had his hands on his hips, turning around in a circle as if to survey, despite the fact he couldn’t have possibly seen much of anything. “Well, I say we bring some artwork to put up. Let’s get posters of naked anime girls.”
“You should be thankful I even allow you here.” I took form behind them, enjoying the way they all jumped. Even if they could outclass me in many ways, here, in my own mind, they were little more than playthings. This was my world, my element, and they could do nothing against me.
“Don’t sneak up on people like that.” Ingram had his hand over his heart. “It’s rude!”
The fact he’d just said that, a stealth expert who constantly did just that… I could only shake my head in response.
“She sleeping?” Kenyon asked, uneasy.
“Yes. She fell asleep easily and has no idea what is going on.”
“So how does this work?” Carter asked. “We just click our heels or something?”
Again, I wondered how three powerful espers like these could be so childish at times.
At times meaning virtually all the time.
“I will bring you with me into her mind. Because she is asleep, I will help to keep her under, and she won’t recognize any of us. If she does notice us, she will assume it is a part of a dream.”
“Oh really?” Ingram hiked up one of his eyebrows like that was the best news he’d ever heard. I didn’t even need to read his mind to know that his thoughts had delved right into filthy ones, that he pictured all the ways he could play with her like that.
“That isn’t what we’re doing today,” I reminded him.
“Today? That means another day?”
“Maybe.”
They all turned toward me as though that were the last thing they expected. I shrugged, not seeing a reason to explain myself over it.
“When will we know if this is working?” Carter asked, getting us back on track.
“I’ll notice when the nightmare starts, and I should be able to tell if it’s a real connection or just a memory. Like I said, it could just be a manifestation of trauma, adding in with whatever parts of himself he left inside her. We won’t know until we’re there. Ready?”
Kenyon nodded, Carter gave me a thumbs up, and Ingram just flipped me off. I took them all as agreement, and used my powers to transfer us from that section of my own mind into Yun’s.
One look around said it appeared just like it always did. The darkness, the heaviness, the streaks in the sky that appeared not just in any dungeon, but The Pitt. Now that I understood more, I recognized more within her mind. Even at the outskirts werethe dim, slightly shining eyes of monsters, as though they waited there to tear her to bits.
“Fun place,” Carter said, but beneath the false cheer of his voice I heard the strain. He understood better than most just how dangerous a place like this was, and the truth that she’d been here in real life before.
“Why is her mind like this?” Kenyon asked.
“People’s minds are built by their own experiences. Most people have no idea what their own mind truly looks like inside, not unless a mentalist tells them or shows it to them.”
“What’s mine like?” Ingram asked. “I mean, you’ve played around in my head before, so you should know.”
I sighed, hating my powers being reduced to a cheap party trick. “Your mind is like a dark, empty club. And before either of you asks, Kenyon, yours is a farm, and Carter? Yours is a circus. It’s weird and uncomfortable and that is yet another reason I choose to stay out of your mind.”
Carter shrugged as though entirely unbothered by the quip. “What can I say? I’m a child at heart.”
I didn’t believe that for a moment. In fact, a part of me had always wondered if Carter had someone managed to create that facade to hide his true inner world. I wouldn’t have thought it possible for most espers, but I’d learned never to question Carter too much. He managed things that no normal esper could have ever done.
