Asleep

51 Outside Somnia

Nora~~

"It's beautiful." The sun beats down on me, warming me, chasing away the shadows left underneath my skin from the void. The meadow looks exactly how Charlie recreated it except with more flowers in many different colors and the grass is shorter.

            I'm outside the city.

            "Why doesn't anyone question why they can't leave the city?"

            Lying back in the grass, Charlie tucks his arms behind his head. "Do you remember how when you used to dream, you were able to overlook things that didn't make sense until you woke up? It's the same here. Since you're Lucid, you have a hard time looking around them unlike the other dreamers."

            I sit down beside him, crossing my legs. If I had been able to accept that nothing came before Somnia, it would have altered everything. I would have settled in, creating a second life for myself. I wouldn't have drawn attention to myself. Pace wouldn't have hurt me. Aaron would have stayed Ryann and probably my friend. Like Tye, I'd be slowly accepting the idea that Radia chose to leave us.

            Eventually, I'd be happy.

            Content even.

            Plucking a strand of grass, I tear it down the middle before turning my focus on Charlie. He's so still, save for the rise and fall of his chest, that I could almost swear he was napping. But this is Somnia; he can't be napping.

            Earlier when I let him inside my house, something was off about him. Almost as if he was ashamed to see me.

            "This probably isn't my place to ask, but are you all right? At my house you seemed troubled."

            His face tightens, his jaw locking. After a few moments pass, he says, "Yesterday I had to orient new dreamers. I had to then help put them under."

            The grass falls out of my hands.

            "I made a deal with my dad. That was the cost."

            "When I was forced under were you . . .?"   

            He rolls over onto his stomach, propping himself up on his arms and putting me out of sight. "No. Not then. Yesterday was the second time. Please, don't think that I enjoy it."

            Were the ones who forced me onto that table and connected me to the dream doing it because they didn't have a choice? They certainly seemed to enjoy it.

            "What deal?"

            Underneath his shirt, his shoulder blades tense. "My hands were forced, but I'd make it again if I had to."

            "Charlie, what happened?"

            "It's my burden."

            I'll do anything you want.

            Name it.

            Charlie . . . that day when I was taken, he did something. My memories of that hour are blurry. I only remember pieces.

            "Did you stop my interrogation?"

            Silence.

            "Charlie?"

            "I had to do something."

            "And that was the price?"

            He nods.