One
Damien approached Jeremy, who was pacing trails into the carpet of our shitty motel. “It’s okay, buddy. Everything’s okay.”
We were all stimmed out, tired as all hell, and nervous to enter the Dream War. The alien bastards had come back. Ships upon ships had landed, and when the doors opened, nothing got out. Just like the first time they came.
“Not okay. Nothing’s okay.” Jeremy was on the brink of a hardcore meltdown, tapping out a rhythm onto his jeans to keep calm. We all felt awful for upsetting him, but we needed to move every twelve hours to stay away from the Feds. The FBI was looking for us and I had a sinking feeling it wasn’t to chat. After we’d exited the Dream War, Santiago and his men had said their goodbyes. He needed to go protect his sister and check on their families. Meanwhile, Damien had sent for a private plane to bring Jeremy, Ronnie, and the rest of our crew to reunite with us in Canada among the chaos. Including Luna, the dreaded cat that could do no wrong.
Ever since I’d found evidence that the human government had sold out the American people for alien oil, I no longer trusted a single member of the government. Not to mention Damien was at the top of their hit list. No way was I letting them catch up with us. But I’d lost count of how many days we’d been awake. Five? Six? We were going to crash soon. None of us had slept since I’d opened the portal and chucked the breeder through, watching her shrivel to a pile of ash. More ships meant more ghouls, and I didn’t want to go in to an unknown situation.
Why had they come?
Damien sidled up to me. “I’m so tired I can’t think straight. What do we do?”
I was still commander of this team. It was left to me to make the best decisions for keeping everyone alive and safe. Problem was, I was tired too and not armed with my normal sharp intellect. What was protocol? I needed to remember my time at the academy.
But no one had a protocol for this. No one had thought more would come.
My voice warbled: “We obviously need to sleep soon.”
“No!” Jeremy shrieked so loud my heart jackhammered in my chest faster than it already was. “There are more of them, they’ll kill us!” He started to pound on his thighs in big fast punches and I knew we were going to have to restrain him soon, possibly sedate him, if I couldn’t calm him. Jeremy being on the autism spectrum meant we had to work around his curveballs. I’d hate to restrain him again; it usually ended with everyone in tears. Including Damien. It had been a rough week.
I zoomed into Jeremy’s line of sight, standing up on my tiptoes and getting way more in his space than I normally would. “No. The Galadrias will help us. Dawn will help.”
Jeremy froze and made eye contact with me, which was so rare. “Skyhome.”
I nodded. I’d told Jeremy about Skyhome and he knew that Maxine, Nox, Master Aki, Brisk, Damien, and I had slept there and the Galadrias had kept us safe. “Skyhome. We will fall asleep and go to Skyhome where it’s safe while we make a bigger plan.”
That idea had come out of nowhere, but it was the only decent one we had.
Please let Dawn and Skyhome still be there.
The floating island paradise in the sky was the only thing I was clinging to right now.
Master Aki, who’d been sitting cross-legged in the corner of the room, stood and walked over to my toiletry kit in the bathroom.
“Master Aki, we’re going to sleep, okay?”
I needed my mentor to tell me it was okay, that it was a good plan. I was always seeking his guidance and approval, like a child would from her father.
“Yes, Kit. Let’s sleep. Get everyone ready and I’ll be there in a moment.” He pulled out my dental floss and started unwinding a long six-foot strand of it. I was too tired to ask questions, and ever since Master Aki’s revelation that hesawthings, like future things, I didn’t question him.
No one argued that we needed sleep. They all just crawled into the large set of king beds smashed up against each other and slipped on their dream bands. Nox and Maxine held each other, looking bleary eyed. Brisk and Ronnie did the same with that psycho kitten Luna right between them. Josephine was just positioning herself next to Jeremy when he cried out.
“I want to be next to Kit!” The panic in his voice was real. He’d never requested me before; it touched my heart.
“Of course, buddy.” Josephine rolled over, giving me room, and I sidled into Jeremy’s side, Damien on the other, and Mr. Hansen bringing up the end.
The moment my body settled into the bed, I felt sleep pulling at me.
Jeremy reached out and clasped my hand, something he’d never done before, and squeezed it, hard.
“You’ll protect me, right?” Jeremy whimpered. Being this close I could hear his heartbeat knocking against his chest. It brought tears to my eyes.
“With my life.”
Master Aki appeared over me then and tied the thin piece of the dental floss around my wrist and then to the front door knob of the hotel room.
What in the hell?Was this some kind of ghetto booby trap? It might be genius, but my mind was too tired to think right now, so I didn’t even ask about it. That’s the level of exhaustion I was at. Someone was tying dental floss around my arm and I didn’t even care as long as I could sleep.
