Chapter 16
Devon walked back into her kitchen, her brain still buzzing. She walks among the dead? She heard Camden and Stefan still talking in the background, but her mind was stunned, overwhelmed, and yet not surprised. Something in this mess made a certain kind of sense.
Camden came into the kitchen, still on the phone with Stefan. “Yeah, let me talk to her for a little bit, and we’ll get back to you.” He hung up, looked over at her, and asked, “How are you doing?” His voice was so gentle.
She shook her head and shrugged. “My world’s been blowing apart steadily for the last few hours. But, other than that, I’m doing just fine and dandy.”
He grinned. “That’s the spirit.”
She rolled her eyes at him. “I don’t know what to say to that or to what Stefan just shared,” she murmured, “but I will tell you that, in some way, his words made sense.”
He raised one eyebrow. “Made sense but …”
She nodded. “Yes. I get that’s probably the last thing you expected me to say,” she began, with a sigh.
“And I’m not even sure in what way it makes sense, but …
I often have visions of people who have died.
I don’t really talk to them or anything, but I dream a lot.
And it seems as if I’m walking through—I don’t want to say graveyards—but great big waiting rooms.” She turned to study his face. “If that makes sense.”
He nodded. “Continue.”
“And I just, I talk to them. I’m a person who comes from the heart.
And some of these people are sad. They’re lonely, and they don’t want to be where they are.
And I don’t know how to help them except that I spend a few minutes and just visit with them.
It’s always in my dreams though.” She sat down for a moment, frowning.
“I don’t know who they are. I’ve wondered because I had seen what I thought was a picture of somebody local who had died. That made me wonder, but I never really worried about it.” She looked at him and continued. “It’s not as if I have any way to follow up on that.”
“No, you can’t, but it is fascinating. Stefan saw you, by the way.”
She stared at him. “He saw me?”
“Yes. That’s … something Stefan can do. I already told you that he walks among the dead.
He can also dance through the backyards of people’s minds, and he sees things that other people don’t necessarily see.
And that’s how he knew what you were doing.
And you were doing it with a level of confidence and competency that makes sense to him as to why Tabitha chose you. ”
“You mean, besides the fact that we were friends already?”
“And were you great friends before?”
“We certainly got a lot closer when she got ill,” she noted. “I mean, we were long-time friends, but she had other friends.”
“And then, when she became very ill, you got even closer? Is that it?”
She frowned. “I don’t think that’s why she got closer.” He just studied her steadily, until she winced. “I presume, from the look on your face, you’re thinking her illness is what made us closer.”
“I would think it’s definitely a possibility. Yes.”
“Great,” she muttered. “So were we ever friends, or was this all just a long con?”
“I don’t know that she even recognized what she was doing, at least not at the beginning,” he began.
“Could have planned something way in advance, just didn’t know who else would be involved back then.
Maybe she recognized that you would be a friend in this situation and that you would be there for her.
” He stared at her. “Tabitha needed somebody to be there for her.”
Devon finally nodded. “Yes. I’m the person who would be there for someone in that situation,” she stated, “but you’re making me feel as if I’ve been more of a target than a friend.”
“I don’t know about that,” he said, “because, when you come from the heart, you can be of service to others. It means you come from compassion and love. And she took everything you had because she needed it.”
Devon shook her head, grimacing.
Camden continued. “The question is whether she was prepared to discard all that in order to get what she wanted. Would she have ever known that you did this walking with the dead when you slept?”
She shrugged. “I would sleep in her hospital room sometimes. So, it’s possible she may have seen me have a nightmare, but I don’t know that she would have known what I was doing. I’m still not sure I even know what I was doing.” She paused, frowning.
“As I mentioned earlier, there was definitely a time or two when I was like, Oh snap, I swear to God I saw that person in my dreams, and Tabitha would just eye me oddly and not say anything. It’s not as if that’s the conversation you can take anywhere.”
“And was she into all that psychic stuff?”
“Yes.” Devon snorted. “Now it seems I was only a friend because I was there to look after her and to make her life easier. And then apparently at some point, I popped up as being a really good person to be her victim, to be used and exploited instead.” She shook her head, staring at him. “How does one get past that?”
He shrugged. “First, we don’t worry about that because you weren’t a victim.
If you helped her willingly and out of love, it remains the actions of a compassionate friend,” he noted.
“And now, second, we’ll do our best to ensure that you do not become a victim from this point on. So, let’s not use that language.”
Devon shook her head. “All I saw was her chasing me. It was a nightmare,” she said defensively. Then she groaned, closed her eyes, and added, “Or it wasn’t.”
He gave her an intense look. “You just saw her now in that nightmare I woke you up from?” Devon nodded. “And what was she doing?” he asked.
“Initially I was overjoyed to see her and raced toward her, but then I saw her face. Something changed, and I hit the brakes, turned around, and ran away from her just as fast as I had been running toward her. I don’t know why.
” She checked her kitchen clock and realized it was only eleven o’clock.
She shook her head and pointed. “How can it just be eleven right now? I feel as if I’ve already gone through an entire day, and here it is, not even half done. ”
“On the other hand,” he suggested, “that gives you some time before the kids get in.”
She stared at him and then nodded. “Yes, that is very true.”
“Did you see the kids in your nightmare, or did Tabitha say anything about the kids?”
“We didn’t talk,” she replied absentmindedly.
“Do you ever talk in these dreams?”
“Sure.” She shrugged. “I talk a lot of the time. As I mentioned, the one lady was just really quiet, really lonely. She just wanted to go home, I guess.”
“Did you have any idea how to help her get home?”
She stared at him and shrugged again. “I told her that this big light was behind her, and maybe she could walk toward it.”
“Did that help?”
“She was scared. I held her hand, and I walked toward the light with her, and then she just disappeared, and I woke up.” She shrugged yet again. “Easy-peasy.”
*
Camden murmured into the silence, “I don’t think you realize how unusual that is.”
She shook her head. “It’s nothing. It’s just dreams, that’s all.”
He nodded and didn’t say anything.
She frowned and asked him, “You really think it’s more than that, don’t you?”
He asked her, “What is a dream state?”
She frowned and said, “When I’m sleeping and not consciously aware, I would call that a dream state.
I’m sure there’s some sort of”—she waved her hand in the air—“scientific explanation why one is one state and one is another, but I really don’t have an answer for that.
I just look at it as I’m not fully awake, and it’s a dream. ”
“How do you know you’re not fully awake when you’re having conversations and when you can remember lots of details?”
“Lots of people remember their dreams,” she stated, frowning at him. “I mean, what else would it be?”
He smiled. “Exactly what it is, … which is you crossing into another dimension—one where the dead walk and where you’re conversing with them.
Now, whether that conversation is to help them or it’s just to acknowledge that they exist doesn’t matter.
Still, it is interesting that you tell somebody you see the light behind them, and they go into it, and she leaves this void space that people are caught up in.
” Devon pursed her lips, and he nodded. “You’ve considered it, I assume. ”
“Sure. I mean, I’ve considered it because it’s so weird. And I’ve been having these kinds of dreams for a very long time,” she shared, “but it’s not as if I ever found out what this is.”
“And have you told Tabitha about it?”
She paused. “Maybe once in a while. It’s not shocking that I may have mentioned it,” she said defensively. “I really don’t like where you’re going with this.”
He nodded. “I’m not sure I’m going anywhere with it. I’m just trying to clarify what you are doing in this dream state.”
She relaxed a little bit at his use of dream state. “Are we really thinking that Tabitha is actively trying to set up a meeting in a dream?” she muttered, as she stared around the room.
He frowned at her. “You’ve heard the kids, and you know about this weird energy outside. What do you think is going on?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted, yet thinking about it.
“As for the kids, Tabby was very close to her mother, but she also had a little more, I don’t know, independence.
Toby was closer to his mother, and I think much more dependent on her.
So, I really don’t know what that level is for Tabby.
I mean, they all seemed to be a really close-knit family.
If her mom wanted Tabby to do something, maybe she’d question it.
Toby was more apt to just do as he was asked, without question. ”