“How vividly do you remember me playing it for you?” he asked as he blushed slightly.
I gazed into his eyes and let the memories flood to the surface of my mind. “We were on the back deck. Everyone was inside, playing cards at the kitchen table. You pulled the guitar out from behind the swing and nervously began to play…you fumbled with the first few chords, but then you found your place and began to sing, to take my breath away.”
He raised his eyebrows and blushed slightly. “You took my breath away,” he said quietly, then he began to play again. “Stare into my eyes…remember everything about that place...the way it smelled...the air...what you saw…let your mind take you there.”
I held his gaze and listened to the chords come to life. At first he hummed the words, but then he let the lyrics come to life. I smiled slightly, noticing how much stronger his voice was now than it was then. Then the eyes I was staring into seemed to grow younger. I closed my eyes, sure I was going crazy – but then I told myself that going crazy may be the only way to figure this out. I focused on every part of that memory, then opened my eyes.
I wasn’t sitting in my room any longer; I was across the ocean, on his grandmother’s deck. Everything seemed so real. I could still hear the music Draven was playing and looked around to find him. He was right behind me without his guitar. My eyes grew wide with disbelief. The sun was rising here, and birds were singing. It was the same place - I just wasn’t in my memory; I was there...I was really there.
“How?” I asked as I gazed back at him.
“The how is something we may never know…it just is.”
“This is real? We’re here – like in real life? Are your grandparents inside?” I asked as my heart began to hammer against my chest.
He nodded.
“I still hear you playing...” I looked down and saw that I looked the same as I did moments ago. I was solid; not some ghostly image. “Are there two – how are we in two places at once?”
He stepped closer to me and reached his hands for my waist, then leaned his forehead against mine and began to sway me to the music I could still hear. “We are energy…always moving. Some might say that right now this is our soul standing here; others would say it’s a part of our mind….” He smiled slightly. “Some might even say that this is a wicked illusion; nevertheless, we can be in two places at once…if anyone would walk in your room right now, they’d see our eyes locked inside of each other and me playing this song for you.”
“What happens when the song ends?” I asked in a shaky voice as I glanced to my side to see his grandmother’s white cat staring at us from the kitchen window.
“Time is irrelevant. We’re using that song as a beacon, a way for us to remember that we’re really there, not here. It could end, and we could be staring at one another for countless moments - but we’ll still hear it here.”
The light in the kitchen came on, and I could see his grandfather sleepily walking to the coffee pot. “Can they see us?”
My favorite impish grin spread across his face. “They aren’t as open-minded as Nana, so I don’t know. I don’t think we should test it on him, though; let’s go back.”
I looked up at him with questioning eyes, afraid I wouldn’t know how.
“Fall into the music…the last thing you remember about your house... what you were doing.”
I did as he said, and in that moment I was sitting on the couch in my room, staring at him as if not a single moment had passed; in fact, he was still playing the same chord, singing the same words. He let the last lyrics roll off his tongue before he smiled at me and said, “Back.”
My heart was pounding against my chest, and my ears were blushing. I felt empowered and humbled all at once. I couldn’t understand if that was real or an illusion – or how he was able to do that.
“Try again?” he asked, then sat the guitar down next to the couch.
“I...I...I...I just don’t get it...should we be doing this? Playing with something we don’t understand? What if we get stuck somewhere? What if we can’t come back? I don’t know, Draven...this is wicked, and I don’t get it.”
He reached his hand for mine. “Do you fear dreams? Do you question if you’ll wake when you fall asleep?”
I slowly moved my head from side to side.
“It’s the same thing – only you’re awake…that dark place that chases me - the world that Britain and Bianca want to control - lies in a dream world, the place between.”
“How can they control someone else’s dreams?”
“They don’t. The way Grayson explained it to me is that when we dream, we open our minds – like a third eye or something – and in that state our energy can divide and move away from our bodies; that in fact, when we rest - really dream at night – our bodies are paralyzed so they won’t act out what our mind is doing. We’re different because we can go to that world awake, and we have enough awareness to tell our bodies to carry out an act while we’re gone – like an auto pilot. We not only dream lucidly, we do so with others at the same time.”
“How does he know? You trust him?”
“I do. He’s brilliant. What we are – what we can do – there’s no manual to tell us about it. All Grayson did was look at what’s known about energy, about dreams, and discovered how what we do is different.”
“What are we? Why are different?”
“We’re just awake, awake in a world that’s sound asleep.”
“Are you sure we’re not insane in a world that’s sane?”
A quiet laugh echoed inside of Draven. “I’m sure. I know what we do can be done by everyone.”
“How does this have to do with seeing the dead, the darkness? How does it fit together?”
“Still working on figuring that out. It plays into that dream world; I know that for sure.”
“Take me there,” I said as I leaned forward.
He reached to pull me against his chest. “Let’s practice moving to a place you’ve been before first.”
Hours went by. At first we went places we’d taken vacations to as children, then we moved on to concerts he’d either played at or that we’d been to. Eventually, we just started moving to places around Salem: his house, different parts of mine. I even tested how easy it was to move things when I was in one of these places. I moved picture frames in my house, then when I brought myself back into reality I’d go check to see if it was really moved or just some illusion. Each time, I found the change I’d made to exist. It was easy to see why Aden and Draven’s dad, Evan, were concerned about this new aspect of our gift; it was addicting and brought forth a since of invincibility. It was like the only limitations a mind or body had were the ones we placed there; you could literally go anywhere at anytime.
An uneasy feeling settled deep in my gut. I knew if people with a horrible intent knew they could do this, we’d never be safe – that no walls or locks could keep anyone away.
It was as if the real world were an illusion and moving my energy from one place to another was what my soul was meant to do. As I struggled with my thoughts, I stretched out on the couch, and Draven laid next to me. I wanted to debate this, what we were doing, how we could use this for good – to help others. I wanted to question if there really was life and death, if I was ever really safe or even in danger, but my mind was weak. Draven’s arms tightened around me, and he began to hum the lullaby he always used to put me to sleep. I fell into the addicting sound of his voice and let myself drift into a dream.
When I woke the next morning, Draven was gone. I stretched out on the couch and tried to understand what this power was. I could vividly remember Draven in the dreams I just had; it was as if we never parted throughout the night. It made me think of yesterday. I felt the same way when I woke up, like he was there in my dreams. The idea didn’t seemed too farfetched, not after last night. It was unbelievable – being able to go anywhere with a thought. I wondered where he was and raised up to find my phone. I remembered plugging it in downstairs in my old room and went to find it.
The shower in the bathroom cut off just as I landed on the bottom steps. I had no clue as to who was in there. The room was empty. Monroe’s bed was made, and all of her things were set neatly on her side of the room. She was nowhere to be seen. Madison’s side of the room couldn’t have been more opposite. Her bed was made, but it looked the same as it did last night; it was as if she laid on it but never actually slept. Her sketches were across the floor; new ones had been added, different versions of ankhs. My phone cord was stretched in the direction of her bed. I furrowed my eyebrows as I walked over to it.
There was a blue box lit up with a text from Draven that said: “Went to the school to help get it ready to play at - get you around 7?”
I was furious. Had I not proven myself? Why could I not help him move out shadows? I texted back: “I’m coming now I can handle the darkness.”
His response was almost instant: “not shadows – heavy amps.”
“what?!”
“The shadows are gone - getting equipment in here.”
I rolled my eyes. I don’t know why, but I was having a hard time trusting him; not in a bad way, but in the kind of way that made me think he wasn’t telling me everything in order to ‘keep me safe’ - which infuriated me.
I texted back: “fine.”
Then I made up my mind to find Bianca or Britain today and get to the bottom of this. I scrolled to Britain’s name, and my mouth fell open. There were over fifty texts between me and him – but he wasn’t talking to me; he was talking to Madison. They had literally talked all night long. I read every word. Madison told him it was her and not me; that I was with Draven. His responses were just as charismatic as they always were. They talked about why she didn’t like him, why he didn’t care for her at first, then they moved on to how they needed to talk about their dreams. Madison very carefully ignored his plea to talk to her.
I shook my head and texted: “Did you have fun last night? Talking to my bff?”
At that moment, Madison walked out of the bathroom, fully dressed for the day – at least I think she was. She had on yoga pants and a tank top with a hoodie over it. I shook my phone lightly in my hand as my eyes met hers. At that point, she knew I’d read the texts.
“If I wanted to hide it, I would have deleted them,” she said as she walked in the closet and started looking for her shoes.
Britain texted back at that minute: “jealous?”
My instant response was: “whatever.”
“Where are you going?” I asked Madison, assuming that she was up to something.
“We…where are we going,” she shouted from the closet.
“OK, we. Apparently, it’s a boys club at the school and we aren’t allowed there,” I said with deep disdain in my voice.
Madison came out of the closet. “Who wants to do the dirty work? Not me…besides, I thought you wanted to figure out how to go to that dream world?”
My eyes grew wide. “Like right now? Are you serious?”
She grinned. “I didn’t just talk to Britain all night. I researched meditation and dreams. We’re going to a yoga class, then lunch with my mom.”
“What? Yuck – no way.”
Madison smirked. “What - the class, or lunch with my mom?”
I made a face. I liked Madison’s mom, I really did - but she was just…different from my mom. She wasn’t a serious, hard core woman like my mom; she was more of a creative person who was always talking about the realm of the world we all chose to ignore. I mean, I knew she was right about that, but the way she talked about it made it seem too...too…just weird.
“Is your mom teaching the class?” I asked finally.
“No,” she said as she tried not to laugh. “She just wants to spend time with me. She said she feels I’m leaving soon.”
Instant jealousy absorbed me. Her mom may have been weird, but at least Madison never had to question where she stood with her mom. I couldn’t remember the last time I talked to my mom.
“Good feeling, bad feeling?” I asked as I looked down at my phone to read Britain’s latest text.
“Good in the long run,” Madison mumbled as she watched me make a face as I read: “did you not have fun in Europe with lover boy?”
“How the hell did he know that?” I mumbled as Madison came to my side.
I texted back: “Stalker tell me how you know that.”
I looked at Madison with accusing eyes. She raised her hands defensively. “Told you we needed to go to yoga. I want to meditate, learn to figure out what they know.”
“Like one class is gonna make a difference,” I argued.
“It’s a starting place. I just need someone to show me how so I can figure out the rest.”
I rolled my eyes as I looked down at my phone again. He had answered: “Your energy is so strong you leave a trail – not hard to see where you are – where you have been.”
I texted back: “We need to talk – face to face today. I’ll text later.”
I looked at Madison. “Yoga it is, and then while you’re having lunch with your mom, I have some other conversations I need to have.”
“You’re not talking to him alone.”
“Watch me,” I said shortly.
I went to the closet to get my clothes, then take a shower. I kept my phone with me - like it would make a difference. I knew if Britain wanted to talk to Madison, he’d find a way; in fact, I knew that if she wanted to talk to him, I couldn’t stop her.