Judaean | The Darkest Minds Fanfic

Chapter 3

I had a dream that night.

　　I wasn't even supposed to fall asleep. Two kids are going out in the morning on a covert mission to rescue...? Retrieve, the first lady, and to be honest, they don't exactly seem like the most cautious type. Another group of kids are heading out to find the tribes. I need to do some ground works for them, figuring out the troubles before they run into them... Also, it's not like I enjoy sleeping that much—comparing to the ghosts that chase me in nightmares, I much rather fight those in the light.

　　At least during the day, the people that hurt me don't have the faces of the people I used to love.

　　I dreamt of this scene often when I was younger—Lee's teddy bear burning in my hands, and I was so frantic, I dropped it on the lawn, onto the grass outside, but the fire didn't stop. My hands were still burning, so I ran for the kitchen, grabbing the glass of water on the counter, but it shattered, slitting my palms open. Blood started oozing out of the cuts, but as soon as it touched the fire, it browned and blackened, and it was a smell I'd never smelled before, but will never be allowed to forget since.

　　I can't remember much of the rest. I think in reality, I held my hands under the running water for a good hour, until I was sure the fire was out. I didn't even dare to let my hands out of the stream, even though the cuts were still bleeding profusely.

　　In this dream though, something else happened. Someone came, and when their hands touched mine, the fire was gone. They got a wet dishcloth, and held onto my hands, pressing on the wounds. Some said you can't feel pain in dreams—that was a lie; I had countless counterexamples for it, and now, this would be another one of them. The pressure on my hands made the cuts sting, but not in a bad way. It was tender and gentle, and for whatever reason, I felt safe.

　　I wanted to see their face, but before I could, I woke up.

　　When I finally dragged myself out of the horrible mud that cling onto my consciousness, I saw Nico by the door.

　　"Hey, Cole." He said, "There's something you should see."

　　As we go for the computer room, Nico gave me a quick brief of the situation—he found someone sending information through our network, and did a good work cleaning up their footprints afterward, meaning that whoever this was, was hiding from us.

　　My first instinct is Liam. He thinks he can keep whatever he's been cooking in the garage from me, but I know—even if I don't know the details of exactly what he is doing—that he's planning something, and I have a feeling that it has something to do with "spreading the words". So this is the method he chooses to do it.

　　But Nico disagrees. Because apparently this is too good of a cover up work for my brother, a Blue, and if it was indeed him or anyone who helped him, whatever it was he sent should already be making news now, but we didn't see anything.

　　So after sending off the kids in the morning, explaining this situation to Ruby, I went to feed the devil.

　　"I assume things are going according to plan?" was the first thing he said to me when I stepped into his view.

　　"More or less." I answered, dumping his food into his cell, "we'll see."

　　He let out an amused breath through his nose. "Where were we?"

　　"Numbers." I answered, "how many kids are in the entire Project Jamboree, how many PSFs are assigned to each camp... that sort of stuff."

　　"Ah, so, the boring part." He lied back down onto his bed.

　　"You can play once you've done your homework." I retorted.

　　He licks his lips, "I'm a bit tired of this roleplay of us." He announced, "The power dynamic is getting... monotonous."