Dream Lord Wars - Chapter 5

BTS: Witchy Ways To Use Yarrow

Previously on Dream Lord Wars…

Teddie realizes that while she was in her dream architecture, she managed to record proof of her going to Dreamland. As she’s figuring out what to do with that, she’s kidnapped. Meanwhile, Harley tries to find a way out of the mess she’s in but fails. Somehow, she’s going to have to find a winning solution.

Big Lake, California, Para West

“Good morning, Teddie,” a bright young voice said, sun streaming through the large office windows of my top floor office. “Here are the preliminary readings of the last session.”

I took the readouts Wanda handed me, but didn’t thumb through them. “What did we find?”

Wanda shrugged, her blonde hair pulled up in a loose ponytail that suited her handsomely aging face. Her blue stripped button-up shirt was open, revealing a black blouse underneath. She looked comfortable and her expression approachable. “It was interesting, actually. It appears that you were trying to solve something last night while you were in the architecture. Tony’s interested in having you back to see if we can recreate it and maybe solve it.”

I didn’t remember what I’d been trying to solve the night before. I only remembered that it’d been important. “That sounds good. What else did the brain scans show?”

“Only that the trick seems to be in initiating the same areas of the brain that are used during game play and in physical activity. Somehow, your brain lit up both areas while you were in session. That has to mean something.”

It might, but what?

“If only the video had caught anything,” Wanda said as they caught the elevator down to the labs.

“They didn’t pick up anything?”

“No. Nothing.”

That didn’t make sense. I remembered they’d picked up—

Oh. Right. They’d picked up me on the roof top while it was raining and my eyes changing. But I was the only one who knew that. The last thing I remembered was leaving the lab and heading to my apartment, eating a pastrami on rye, and then…

Being kidnapped.

If I was in a dream, there was a good chance this was someone else’s architecture. There would be clues.

But I wasn’t looking for the back doors. I was looking at the architecture itself. I looked down at the papers in my hands to verify I was right.

The words were all backwards and jumbled, making no sense even though a feel of what the information was filled me. The question was, who? Whose lab was this and who was the leak? “Show me the scans.”

Wanda smiled as the elevator dinged to let us know we’d made it to our floor and opened.

My lab spilled out around me, looking all very familiar, though the people were slightly different.

Greg, who normally wore his clothes practically inside out was well-kept and had a ready smile on his face as I walked by. He didn’t usually even notice I was there. He was busy advancing his own work, which wasn’t progressing, and he’d been hyper focused.

Michelle who was normally well coifed and cool, now looked overly coifed and was practically stand-offish, glaring at me as I walked by.

Who was close to me that perceived everyone this way?

Tony spun in his chair, his normally rumpled lab coat hanging neatly by the door, his brown cardigan neatly buttoned. He folded his fingers over his belly and smiled. “Ms. Thorn, it’s good to see you.”

No one saw Tony this way. Emily didn’t. I didn’t. But this was probably the way he wanted to be seen. “Do you have some brain scans for me?”

I couldn’t take that clue at face value, however, because for all that Emily wasn’t super creative, she was subtle. It was possible that if this was her, she’d be trying to misdirect Teddie into thinking it was someone else.

“They’re here,” Tony said. “But I’d really like to get to the other information. So…” He gestured to my terminal. “Enter your password and we can get started.”

That wasn’t likely to happen.

In a dreamstate, often times, people forgot what had happened previously. They didn’t remember where or when they were and sometimes they didn’t remember people correctly. Memories would be rearranged with emotional baggage—Michelle, for instance, became a complete thorn of a person in the dream instead of the cool intellectual she was.

It seemed to me that someone was trying to get me into familiar ground in order to retrace my steps, give them the password that they could then use to gain real access to my real files or to see them here. The problem with seeing them here was that my dreaming self would only show the things that made sense to me and would be altered by how my emotions related to them. The glowing eyes, for instance, would be larger, brighter, more distinct.

The large screen at my station flickered for a moment, revealing that moment, but the only thing I could see was a flash before I shut it down.

I smiled at him. “Show me what you’ve got first.”

“We’ve already been over this, Ted.” Tony tipped his head to the side. “We need more information. Either unlock what we recorded last night or get in the chair. My vote?” He grinned good naturedly. “Get in the chair. Let’s see where we go this time. Let’s get more information. Let’s try to recreate it.”

Which was what I did. If I came close to finding something, I wanted to chase it. “Yeah.” If they sent me “in,” I might get access to their architecture. And that’s what I wanted. I wanted to see their code.

“All right!” He clapped his hands together and punched the initialization sequences. “What sim?”

Sim was another clue word. I would call what we did simulations. She would argue that they weren’t. Tony only called it the program.

Tapping into my computer console, I opened the command line and pulled up the programming, looking for Emily’s signature.

But I didn’t find it. I didn’t find Tony’s either, which was really odd because I knew both of their code. I knew how they both structured, how they layered, and how they put things together. It wasn’t a “signature” like in the movies.

“Hey,” a new voice said. “Get out of there.”

I knew this voice, though. I turned and glared at Barry Brady, CEO of DreamLink, Inc., stealer of my tech. “What are you doing?”

He shrugged, his dark and balding head tipping to the side momentarily. “You made a discovery and I want to know what it is.” He reached toward me. “You’re going to give it to me.”

I quickly tapped some new code, giving myself a backdoor. I just needed a bit more ti—

“Good morning, Teddie,” a bright young voice said, sun streaming through the large office windows of my top floor office. “We need to review the readings from your last session.”

I pulled my attention away from my computer screen, trying to remember what I’d been trying to do there. It had something to do with my code, but I didn’t remember what it was. I needed to get better at putting things on paper. Sticky notes should, at some point, become my new best friend. “What are you doing here?” 

Wanda shrugged, her blonde hair pulled up in a loose ponytail that suited her handsomely aging face. Her blue stripped button-up shirt was open, revealing a black blouse underneath. She looked comfortable and her expression approachable. “Being your assistant.”

“Uh-huh,” I said. “When was the last time you called me Teddie?”

She narrowed her eyes and tipped her head to the side.

Her hair flashed darker and balded in the back for a moment.

A back door. I had been coding a back door. This was DreamLink, Inc., and I needed to get out of there.

I smiled at Wanda. “What did our initial scans show?” I asked as I pulled up the command line and found the beginnings of the back door I’d started.

“Only that the trick seems to be in initiating the same areas of the brain that are used during game play and in physical activity. Somehow, your brain lit up both areas while you were in session. This is what we’ve been waiting for.”

This was what Barry was looking for. He needed me to give him my discovery and he was going to have me do it in his tech.

“If only the video had caught anything,” Wanda said, opening the door to my office and gesturing for me to follow.

They had and I wasn’t giving her the code to unlock the files either. If this wasn’t Emily or Tony, then… it had to be someone else in my lab, but who? “Were they working?”

“Remember? You passcoded it before you left for the night.” Wanda gestured for the door again. 

“Like I do every night.” That wasn’t true, though I had a feeling it might need to become that.

“Exactly.”

Whoever was feeding Barry information wasn’t close to me. “Give me one more sec.”

“What are you doing?”

“I had a thought on something that would help my research.”

“Joey is a lost cause, Teddie.”

I wasn’t going to correct Barry again by reminding him that Wanda never called me anything other than Ms. Thorn. I needed every slip I could get because I had no way of knowing how long it was going to take to get out.

“Oh, Teddie,” Wanda said with a sigh and then reached out with two fingers.

“Good morning, Ms. Thorn,” a bright young voice said, the light from the overhead light reflecting on her blonde hair that had been pulled back into a tight bun. “Are you ready for the next session?”

I shook my head, trying to remember something, but my thoughts felt like mud. Something wasn’t right here.

A red ladybug flitted past me.

I reached out and touched it.

My lab slipped away and a blank, white room replaced it. Slight shadows showed where walls started and others stopped. I needed a screen and a keyboard so I could tap into the programming.

 A door slid open and an old-time box monitor pulled itself out of the wall with a split keyboard. Interesting choice of old tech and new. That gave me a clue as to the status of the code.

Without wasting time, I opened the Code and really took a look. It would take me hours to decipher everything, but it was like reading a book.

Barry’s code was rudimentary. It was first gen and hadn’t progressed past what he’d stolen when he’d taken my tech the first time.

Which meant he couldn’t tap into Dreamland. Not yet. Not as long as I didn’t show him.

And the more I dug in, the more I realized that Emily and Tony couldn’t be the ones who’d given him the heads up. Someone else in my organization had, though, and it had to be someone somewhat close.

Wanda.

It had to be. There were too few people I allowed near me.

I closed my eyes and sighed. I’d used one backdoor and there was a good chance I’d need more, so while I was here, I made a few more. I didn’t know how I was going to wake myself up. If they’d drugged me, there was no waking up. I’d have to wait until the drugs wore off, which meant that I was trapped here in this ridiculously thin programming, until I either showed Barry how to get to Dreamland or… I tripped up and gave him more.

I couldn’t allow either to happen. I didn’t know Barry, but he was a thief and he made millions, so I had to assume that he was the type of person who would stop at nothing to get what he wanted.

“How did you get in here?” Barry demanded, coming up on me.

This time, I dodged. I’d managed to get in a few backdoors, but hadn’t included controls. I didn’t want to give him that code, even though that left me at a severe disadvantage. I pressed the wall and hoped the simulation would understand I was done with the terminal. It retreated into the wall. “Why did you kidnap me?”

“I thought that was obvious, Teddie,” Barry said with a sneer that twisted his face. “I want your code. You’re going to give me your code.”

“I don’t think so.”

“Even if I threaten dear Joey?”

“You can’t and you won’t,” I said, backing up. The security around my brother was pretty good mostly because the man was a charmer and had managed to get himself out of there a couple of times. The list of people who could get him out was small. Me, Emily, Tony, and….

Wanda.

“You’re clever, Teddie,” Barry said with a smug smile.

Walls came in behind me, stopping my backward movement.

I hated not being in control. I couldn’t reach out and change things the way I wanted. I couldn’t build the sim to suit my needs.

He reached out with two fingers. “But I’m smarter.”

“Good morning, Teddie,” Emily said, sun streaming through the large office windows of my top floor office. “Here are the preliminary readings of the last session.”

I took the readouts Emily handed me, but didn’t thumb through them. A nagging feeling rattled through me as if there was something important I’d forgotten. “What did we find?”

Emily shrugged, her dark hair pulled up in a loose ponytail that suited her pixie face. Her pink sweater cut off at her waist to reveal a black tank pulled over her blue jean skirt. “It was interesting, actually. It appears that you were trying to solve something last night while you were in the architecture.”

This sounded promising.

“I think you discovered the trick last night. You simply need to initiate the areas of the brain that are used during game play and in physical activity.”

“I did that last night?” I asked, grabbing a muffin from the rolling cart passing by.

“You did and that’s what we have to recreate. Somehow, your brain lit up both areas while you were in session. That has to mean something.”

That sounded plausible. I’d been working on a theory about how dreamwalking had to be connected to the inner workings of the complete mind, using the white and grey space and initiating the quiet synapses, those triggered by memories. It seemed like those firings could be short cuts to getting dreams to work the way Teddie wanted, to help with the healing and short cut the entire process.

“Is the bed ready?”

Emily nodded as the elevator dinged to let us know we’d made it to our floor and opened.

My lab spilled out around me, looking all very familiar. A feeling of security wrapped around me like a blanket. This was the place I’d built, maybe not specifically with my two hands, but close enough. Here, I could do anything.

And here, I could get back. This was the answer to helping so many people who were struggling without hope, who needed someone to take them by the hand and pull them from the edge and give them a reason to stay off it, to help them find reasons to build their own life boats.

Joey just needed a place to start and the resources to keep going. I could give him that.

“All right,” I said, strapping myself in. “Are the systems ready?”

Emily nodded, pulling up her terminal.

Something didn’t look right, though I couldn’t put my finger on what that was. But that didn’t matter. I was going to get my solution. Joey was going to be cured—well, saved. It could happen tonight. We might be able to go to lunch sometime soon, like old times, have conversations like used to before I’d left.

“All systems go, boss,” Tony said, giving me a thumbs up.

Another version of him blipped into place with a darker shirt and a darker expression giving me the same thumbs up.

He blipped again and another version of him appeared, with a goofier expression and the same thumbs up.

Emily put the VR headset on my head. “Let’s go,” she said with a smile.

That’s when I caught the words on one of her monitors, the words backwards and letters jumbled.

This was a dream.

The headset slipped on and the lab disappeared, a new scene pixelating to replace it.

My rooftop.

The dreamscape I’d built in Dreamland, the one place I couldn’t take Barry Brady to ever.

I reached with my mind and changed the code, pulling me out of my dreamplane and away. Anywhere but right here, anywhere safe, somewhere Barry Brady and his sensors couldn’t follow.

Water filled my mouth, drowning me in a bland salt. As my head broke the surface, wind buffeted tall, blue waves, spraying water into my face. I spat out the water and gasped for air, terror screaming through me as I kicked to keep my head above the swelling water, the hours of practice with Uncle Theo beating through me.

What was going on? Where was I?

And was Dreamland safe?

Harley, a female voice called.

Harley picked her head up, setting her magnifying goggle piece up on top of her head as she looked around the workshop. “Who’s there?”

Harley, the female voice called again, followed by a… well, it wasn’t a Who or a Place. It was more like…

Reaching toward that mysterious thought, Harley touched on it with her gift and felt the most incredible pull she’d ever felt in her life. It snagged her, wrangled her in, and pulled her through a painful ride through Place.

She staggered to her feet as the ride stopped, her arms and legs feeling like they were still on ice fire.

A jagged tear ripped through the air directly overhead as a dog barked in the distance, another answering further off. A siren wailed, drawing closer.

Opalescent black smoke slithered out of the rip and a feeling of brokenness overtook Harley, making her hands shake slightly. The tear was deep, having no discernable depth and the edges were getting wider and longer. Giant fingers reached through, gripping the edges and working at the opening, trying to make it bigger.

Help me, the female voice said loudly.

Harley cringed away from the power of the voice, but reached out with her gift. If this was Dreamland asking for her help, she would give it. The thing that was broken was a leachous connection, one that didn’t belong. Taking in a steadying breath, she pushed the fingers away and sealed the rift, pushing back against the leach as it tried to move forward repeatedly.

With the rift sealed, she sagged onto the flat rooftop, spent. She’d never used this much energy before.

“Cleaner Harley,” a high pitched voice said as Elder Evroul appeared beside her. “You are under arrest for unlawful entrance to a dreamplane.” He gripped her arm with his small fingers and smiled. “I’m finally being rid of you once and for all.”