Chapter 23 #2
She shrugs, still smiling. “Don’t worry about it.
I know I can be a bit pushy. I probably should’ve just taken the hint and left you alone.
” Her eyes flick between me and Dylan. My cheeks redden when I realize that at some point, I’d taken his hand again.
Impossibly, her grin widens. “At least, one good thing seems to have come from my meddling.”
My words catch in my throat, and all I can manage is a shaky nod.
“So, what happens next?” she asks.
“Um…I haven’t really thought that far ahead,” I admit. “I sort of hoped that if I woke you up here, you’d wake up in the real world.”
She raises one arm, then the other. Bright sunlight casts her shifting shadow across me and the nearby hilltop as she moves. “I don’t feel any different than usual.”
“What about your memories?” I press, racking my brain for another avenue to pursue. “Do you recall anything that’s happened since your accident?”
After a brief hesitation, she shakes her head.
“Only broken pieces—flashes of emotion or muddled images. I…I remember feeling so lost. It’s all been one long blur, hard to piece together.
Like a half-remembered dream.” Her smile is a touch sad, the sight making my heart ache despite the serene backdrop.
“Which I suppose isn’t too far from the truth. ”
“Well, this is your dream,” Dylan says. “Right, Ash?” He waits for my nod before continuing. “So, you’re the one in charge here. Try willing yourself awake.”
She closes her eyes, hunkering down and widening her stance atop the grassy hillside as though prepping for a fight. After a moment, she opens her eyes and sighs. “Sorry, guys—nothing. If I’m in control here, I don’t know how to take advantage of it.”
Dylan glances over at me. “And you can’t, you know, work your magic?”
Frowning, I try to alter the dream further, but the veiled mountains and sweeping valley remain unchanged. Freeing Greta seems to have exhausted whatever limited control I had.
I shake my head, frustration clawing at me. I hadn’t come all this way to stop with the job only half-finished. What good was waking Greta up here if she remained trapped in a dream?
Silence stretches around us. It’s Greta who breaks it, long grass swishing about her as she strides to the edge of the hill, gazing out over the valley.
“Well, if I’m going to be stuck here, at least I’ve got a great view. I always imagined visiting a place like this someday, surrounded by mountains and nature. Things could definitely be—”
She cuts off suddenly as her form flickers, turning briefly transparent before resolidifying. The entire dream roils like an ocean in the middle of a storm. In the distance, the line of mountains fades, vanishing entirely from view as if it had simply ceased to be.
“W-what’s happening?” Dylan asks, his voice trembling.
“I don’t know.” I cast my frantic gaze about, eyes wide with panic. I try again to exert control over the dream, to influence it the way I usually can, and again, I fail. “It’s like the dream is slipping right through my fingers.”
Another quake sends me careening into Dylan. The two of us clutch onto each other to keep our balance as more of the scene crumbles apart, fading away to a blank white like a canvas wiped clean.
I search for Greta and find her still standing where she’d been. Even as the ground shakes beneath our feet, she alone appears unaffected, as steady on her feet as ever despite the slightly transparent sheen to her skin.
“Greta! Are you all right?” I call. “Can you sense what’s happening?” A thought occurs to me then, faint hope blossoming. “Are you waking up?”
“In a manner of speaking.” She turns to face us, her half-faded face reminiscent of a ghost. My breath catches at the sad smile she wears, the terrible meaning of her words sinking in.
“No!” I manage a single shaky step toward her before the bucking ground brings me to my knees. “You can’t!”
“I have to.” She faces away, gesturing to the dying dream as it continues to crumble, details blurring and becoming indistinct before fading altogether. “I can feel it—it’s my time.”
“No!” Desperation claws my chest. “I didn’t do all this just to kill you!”
“It’s okay, Ash.” Greta turns back to us, stepping softly over the trembling earth. Behind her, the dreamscape hastens its demise, the blank white almost up to our hill. “This was what I needed to let go and move on. You’re not killing me—if anything, you’re setting me free.”
Dylan grabs my arm, his voice imploring. “Is there anything you can do to stop this? To hold the dream together or…or something?”
Despair grips me as I shake my head. “This is her dream. We’re only guests. Normally, I’d be able to influence it with her help, but…”
Dylan’s hold on me tightens. He’s quiet for a moment, before turning back to Greta, his face determined. “Is…is there anything you’d like us to tell your parents?” he asks, his voice wavering.
After a brief hesitation, she shakes her head.
“They know how much I loved them. That’s enough.
” She’s nearly see-through now as she meets our eyes, smiling.
“Goodbye, Ash. Goodbye, Dylan. Don’t be afraid to rely on each other.
If there’s one thing I’m certain of, it’s that we’re all so much stronger when we have a helping hand. ”
Her body flickers, fading until only the outline of her kind smile remains. Then, that too is gone, and the hill along with it. Reality lurches, and just like that, Dylan and I are back in the proto-dream, enveloped by a multihued whirlpool full of infinite possibilities.
Except for the one we’d just watch slip away.
A shudder racks me as my hands clench into fists. I can feel my control beginning to slip, and I snap us awake before it does, returning us to my bedroom. Dylan is there in an instant, wrapping me in his arms and murmuring what comfort he can. But the words wash over me, a meaningless deluge.
Despite all our efforts, we’d failed. I’d told Dylan I knew that was a possibility, and I had. Yet, the reality of it hurts so much more than I’d expected. All that practice, risking Dylan—it had all been for nothing.
My numbness cracks, splintering, and I collapse against Dylan, clutching at him with desperate need while I sob.