The Magic Wakes (9 page)

“I’m sure you are as busy as I am so I’ll keep this brief. What medical condition did Talia Zaryn have? Why did she see you,” Landry pulled up the file on his hand-held computer so he could scan the summary, “for almost a year?”

“Nothing, really. We never found anything wrong with the child. As you can see, she came to the sleep clinic several nights a month. There should be video files attached as well.”

Landry opened a video file. The video showed a tiny girl, no more than one or two years old. She had soft golden curls framing her baby face. Her eyes seemed huge for her petite face, perhaps because she looked terrified as a technician hooked her up to a series of electrodes and wires. She lay perfectly still as she was placed in a glass observation box.

“Her mother claimed the child was having night terrors that caused her temperature to fluctuate and send her into seizures. We never saw or recorded any evidence of that. My final diagnosis was a croupy baby and an overprotective mother.”

Dr. Morin shrugged his shoulders.

“That’s it?” Landry deflated. He had hoped to find out more to explain how a child could be marked so different from everyone else. The only thing he had learned was she had violet eyes, and he could see that for himself.

“How did her parents die?”

“Donnelly Zaryn had the normal health problems associated with a man of his age, and he refused to slow down. One day he had a heart attack out in the protected lands. I believe the daughter actually found him. She was only sixteen at the time.

“Helen, the mother, seemed to fade after her husband’s death and she developed respiratory problems. She could have survived the illness if she had let me do the lung replacement.”

He leaned back and closed his eyes a moment. “I will never forget the daughter’s face when Helen died. She was utterly lost. Luckily, her brother came to get her the next day.”

“Why were their deaths not recorded? This slip in procedure led to an offense that was unnecessary.”

Landry could not bring himself to admit how he had used it to accuse Talia.

“I don’t know. We have records of their deaths in the paper files, but it seems the clerk never scanned them into the online database. I promise you that will be taken care of today, Major Sutton.”

The sound of screams filled the air. A man sat across from Talia in an aeroflyer with heavily tinted windows. Through the course of her dreams, she had met many people but could not remember meeting this particular man.

“Who are you?” She glanced at him and then peered through the windows, trying to see which part of the city they were in.

“Lynel Geofrey. We’re going to die, aren’t we?” The man barely whispered, making it hard for Talia to hear him over the screaming outside the vehicle.

The aeroflyer rested on the ground, slightly tilted, and Talia gripped the seat to keep from sliding out. The sky was a dusky gray and stars fell to the ground throughout the city.

Wherever they fell, smoke rose and people died. People ran to escape with their children and possessions. Some tried to get into aeroflyers, but those who succeeded became grid-locked before take-off.

As Talia looked through the sky window, she saw thousands of aeroflyers bumping into each other as they tried to escape.

There was a new sound and Talia and Lynel looked down the south end of the street. They could hear a low buzzing followed by short high-pitched bursts. Just the sound made Talia’s heart race, and then she saw the streaks of red light flying through the crowd. Each time the light found a target, someone exploded into a fiery ball.

Lynel’s eyes grew huge at the sight of the Dragumon clearing the street before them. Before she could stop him, he reached out, opened the door and hit the ground running. Talia didn’t want to watch him die, but she looked away too late.

Once all the people on the ground were dead, the Dragumon turned their attention to the sky. As they shot down aeroflyers, some broke free and escaped, but the falling wreckage brought down just as many tansports as the plasma beams. Fires spread as the wreckage crashed into the buildings.

The ground rumbled and Talia ducked for cover.

Paralyzed by fear, she waited alone inside the aeroflyer. She was always alone in the end.

Wake up!

Once all life on the street had been wiped out, the Dragumon turned to her hiding place, and smiled. They knew where she hid. They had been searching for her all along.

Why? Why me?

Her resolution to wait out the dream shattered. Even though she knew it was futile, her survival instinct kicked in and she slid through the open door and ran.

The Dragumon aimed and fired, and in the way that only dreams allow, Talia floated above the scene and watched herself burst into red and orange flames before melting into nothing.

Stifling a scream, she sat up in bed. Perspiration soaked her clothing and she shivered uncontrollably. Keeta’s head popped up from his nest of blankets at the foot of her bed. The fur along his neck stood on end, and his bulging eyes swiveled around the room as if to clear it of danger. The fur relaxed as he padded his way over her legs. Talia extended her arm so he could climb up to her shoulder and lick the tears that streamed down her face.

She hadn’t cried after a dream in years because she knew how useless it was, but Major Sutton’s words had shaken her. He had stripped away what had comforted her, the things that held her together, and left her naked with the fear.

I’m cursed. That’s the only explanation for these dreams.

She almost wished the creatures would find her and get it over with. Just thinking of giving in sparked the fire deep in Talia’s soul. Even if there was relief in death, she didn’t want to die. She never had.

Talia leaned back into her pillows with a sigh.

“I haven’t really lived since Roan died, have I?”

Keeta trilled at her soothingly and curled up on her chest. She placed her hand over his small body to feel him breathe. Dreams tainted her life, but what did normal people hope and dream? What would it feel like to spend time with someone outside of the office; to know someone loved her?

“Poor Keeta, it’s not that I don’t appreciate you, but it would be nice to have someone that could talk back to me.”

Keeta fanned his tail out at the mention of his name. It had been so long since her family died that she couldn’t remember what human love felt like any more. All she had was this tiny warm body that loved her because his very life depended on her.

Trust, joy, laughter, security among people were gone from her memory.

Talia needed to remember. To feel something other than pain and fear. She scooped Keeta up in her hand and set him on the pillow beside her and then retrieved her first dream journal.

Her mother had started this journal before Talia could speak and she never traveled without it. She climbed back under the blanket and opened the first page while Keeta softly snored. Just the sight of her mother’s small and sometimes jumbled handwriting started the tears anew. She waited until she could focus to read even though she knew it by heart.

My dearest Talia,

You’re a little more than a year old now and the best baby I’ve ever seen, during the day. You are calm, even-tempered, and very curious. I can’t keep you in the house! If I turn around for a minute, you’re out the door and in the forest.

At night, you have these episodes, not every night, but five or six times a month, less often when we’re lucky.

At first, we thought it was something the doctors called night terrors, but I don’t think that any more. Nightmares would not bring on fever and chills. And sometimes there are cuts and blisters.

Oh my sweet baby! I hate to see you hurting. The doctors aren’t trying anymore, but they don’t have to hold you at night while you scream and writhe in pain. They don’t feel your tiny body trembling as it burns with fever and then shakes with the chills. I want to make it better, but I don’t know how.

Love, your mom.

But she had helped.

Talia let her mind drift over the memories of sitting under the trees in the moonslight together. She would describe the dreams and her mom would write.

Helen had learned that taking Talia outside after a dream helped calm her down faster than anything else. Talia’s dad thought it was the way the moonslight filtered through the trees. He was right in a way, but her parents never knew the extent of it. Sadness pricked her as she thought of the secrets she had kept from her loved ones.

Will I ever share those secrets
? A shudder ran through her as she thought of the consequences it could bring. She could never share them.

Sighing, Talia closed the journal and reached for her current notebook and pen from the table drawer. She wrote the date and the time, wishing her mother was there to write for her.

“Message processed and sent.” The computer voice sounded softly feminine.

“Computer, send a message to Talia Zaryn, SEF offices on the University of Joharadin campus. Begin: Miss Zaryn, I have confirmed your family status and wish to apologize for my rudeness. Would you allow me the honor of taking you to lunch next week to make up for the one I ruined? Thank you, Major Sutton. End.”

“Message processed and sent.”

Morning brought the sunsrise, but no relief from the nightmares. Physically tired and an emotional mess, Talia considered sneaking up to the little garden on the roof again, but she couldn’t risk it. Instead, she carefully treated the blistered skin and applied make-up to the areas of her face she couldn’t fully heal.

She opened her computer and found a brief message from Major Sutton. It was simple enough, polite enough, but for some reason it made Talia bristle. His voice sounded confident and matter of fact, as if he thought lunch would be enough to make her forgive his earlier rudeness.

Although he sounded arrogant, Talia admitted to herself that she had overreacted. Major Sutton was simply doing his job. That was all.

The fear and insecurity that she normally kept buried, now waited close to the surface. She had started falling apart the day she arrived in the city; blaming Major Sutton was easier than focusing on the real problem.

She was living in the city where she would die.

After years of searching for life beyond Sendek, she had nothing to show which direction the attack would come from. There were no clues of how to protect herself or anyone else from the Dragumon’s attack. Knowing her time grew short made her jumpy and irritated.