Grey Haven (Book 1: The Dreamer Chronicles)

It felt as if the dawn took forever to arrive. The minutes passed by like hours, taunting me with the future I had planned. While the dark seemed unmoving, my body was poised for action. The contradiction had me more on edge than I had ever felt before.

Packing didn’t take me long. Moving from the orphanage and from the streets to various foster homes had taught me how to pack in a matter of thirty minutes. I dumped my books out of my bag and threw everything I would need into it. My task finished, I spent the rest of the time on my bed waiting for Carrie to get up, unwilling to leave without a goodbye.

I alternated between anger and regret as I waited. I had been pushed beyond my limits. If Mrs. Z. had been honest with me from the start, I wouldn’t have felt so determined to break free of her command. But she was deliberately freezing me out even though my name was on the shade’s hitlist. I wasn’t as trained as other dreamers were, but I could fight my own battles. Her lack of trust was more unmanageable than her lies.

When it was eight o’clock, I went to Carrie’s room. I opened the door without knocking and sat down on the edge of the bed. As I sat, she woke up and jumped, still wound up from her night of fighting shades. She put a hand over her heart when she realized it was me. “What the hell?!” she chastised.

“I’m leaving,” I said.

“Again?” Carrie moaned, flopping back on her pillow.

“Mrs. Z. is taking me off dreamer duties because of last night,” I said. “She says it’s to protect me, but…”

“What good are you if you can’t dream?” Carrie guessed my logic.

“Yeah,” I agreed.

“And leaving is your only option?” Carrie asked. “There’s nothing else you can do?”

I hesitated. I couldn’t lie to Carrie, not about this. “Mrs. Z. said that there’s work to be done here,” I said. “But I think it was just a ploy. She’s trying to get me to stay out of a sense of obligation to the school, to ‘protect’ me.”

Carrie thought about it, a frown on her face. She finally met my gaze again. Her blue eyes were decided. “I don’t want you to go,” she said, “but if you think that there’s no other option…I know how it would feel. It would be torture to know everyone else was dreaming while I was safe.”

I felt my plan threatening to break. The hurt in her eyes was so strong, so full of worry. “Where will you go?” she asked.

“I’m not going to go far,” I said. “A shade is hunting dreamers. I’m going to find the person he’s possessed in this world and make sure he doesn’t hurt anyone else. If I can’t dream, I might as well protect those who can.”

For the first time, Carrie understood that I wasn’t simply leaving after not getting my way. I was going hunting. I was going to find the shade my way, without trusting a stranger to finish things. I would take the fight to the shade, instead of the other way around.

“I’m coming with you,” she said.

“No,” I said.

“Why not?” she asked.

“You can still make a difference here,” I said. “You can still dream.”

“There is more than one way to make a difference,” she said. She shoved her blankets away and stood. She pulled the sensors off her head and the monitor went black. She grabbed a bag off the floor and dumped her books out onto her bed. She frowned at the books, trying to decide which ones she wanted to take.

“Carrie…”

“I’m done discussing this,” Carrie said. “If you’re going to hunt down the shade, then I am too.”

After another minute of deliberation, she stacked six books into her bag then moved around the room, collecting things she would need. She went to the bathroom last, to get her toiletries and change. When she came back out, she was ready. I had spent the time seriously contemplating knocking her out so that she couldn’t follow me. The problem was that I wasn’t sure who would win the fight.

“What about your classes? Homework? The library?” I asked in a last-ditch effort to get her to stay.

She winced at my words but was no less determined to come with me. She had made up her mind. “Could I say anything to get you to stay if the situation was reversed?” she asked.

“No,” I admitted.

“That’s your answer,” Carrie said.

“What about Ben?” I asked.

“Would you be serious? Ben is a crush. You’re my best friend. I love you, and we’re wasting time.” She slung her bag across her shoulder and looked at me. Her expression brooked no room for argument. “We’re going by Tommy’s place to see if he wants to come as well,” she added.

“Why don’t we ask the whole school to come along while we’re at it?” I complained.

“He’s our friend, Julie,” Carrie scolded me.

“I know that,” I replied tightly, unable to stop the impulse of wanting to protect him all the same.

Carrie took my reply as agreement. She shuffled past me and marched down the hall. Resigned that there was no way to get rid of her without hurting her, I followed her.

It wasn’t hard to sneak out, mostly because no one cared where we were headed. Carrie and I rode our bikes to Tommy’s house. The roads were deserted and silent. His house was equally as still. We walked inside without knocking and moved quietly down the hall to Tommy’s room, holding our breath as we passed his guardian’s door. Carrie lightly knocked twice on Tommy’s door, a gentle rap that caught his attention.

“For the last freaking time, I am not going to do your chores, Mason!” Tommy called through the door. “I don’t care how much you pay me!”

“Open up,” Carrie whispered urgently.

The door opened abruptly.

Tommy was wearing only boxers. His hair was a tangled mess and sleep lingered on his face. His eyes were wide as he took in Carrie, who looked possessed, and me, who looked as if I had spent the night worrying obsessively.

“Who died?” Tommy asked seriously, assuming the worst.

I stepped inside his room, forcing him to move back with gentle presses of my hands, and Carrie closed the door behind us. Tommy seemed even more freaked out as we walked inside. He crossed his arms and rocked back on his heels impatiently.

“No one,” I said to alleviate his worry.

“Julie and I are leaving,” Carrie said.

“What? Why?” Tommy asked.

Carrie filled him in on the story. Then she told him about my desire to hunt down the shade and my reasons for going. By the time she was finished talking, Tommy had started to gather his things. “Where’re we going?” he asked.

My heart warmed at how easily they had my back. I loved them more than I thought possible in that moment.

“I haven’t gotten that far,” I admitted.

“Do you think your boyfriend will help us?” Tommy asked.

“Sully?” I asked.

“Is there more than one?” he asked back archly.

“I don’t know. Our last conversation was sort of…weird,” I admitted.

“Break-up weird, or something else?” Carrie asked.

I shrugged uncertainly.

“It wouldn’t hurt to see if he knows anywhere we can stay for cheap,” Tommy said. “It’s not like we have a lot of options.”

I nodded, though I was reluctant. I didn’t want to drag Sully deeper into this mess, but I didn’t see that we had anywhere else to turn. He was the only person I knew in town who wouldn’t mind helping. Sully wasn’t the type of person to abandon me because of one argument. He would help. I would just have to work harder to keep him out of danger.

“Fine,” I agreed.

“We’d better get going,” Tommy said, hopping his way into a pair of jeans. “My guardian is a hard-ass, and he’ll be making the rounds any second. If he sees you here, he’ll wring my neck.”

A door down the hall opened on cue, followed by heavy steps in the hall. Tommy finished stuffing clothes into his bag, pulled a shirt on, grabbed his jacket and shoes, and dashed to the window. He opened it and gestured for us to climb out first. I followed Carrie out the window and circled around to the front yard where we had left our bikes.

Tommy, his shoelaces untied, trailed after us with an excited grin on his face. When we were two streets away from his house, he started laughing. “This is the most fun I’ve had since I got here,” he said.

“Except that they might not let you back in,” I pointed out.

“Make her shut up,” Tommy said to Carrie.

“Shut up, Julie,” Carrie said obediently.

I clamped my mouth shut and pedaled faster, so that I was in front of them. We raced past the houses, the frigid wind dancing after us. The gate was just opening when we reached it. We cycled around it without slowing. The guard called after us, yelling that we weren’t allowed out during the week. We ignored him, knowing he wouldn’t follow us. It wasn’t his job to bring us back.

Sully wasn’t at the bridge to pick us up this time, so we were forced to ride our bikes into town. By the time we reached the road Honey’s was on, we were all drenched in sweat despite the cold.

At Honey’s, Tommy begged us to take a break. Carrie and I got off our bikes obligingly. Tommy held onto his handlebars and bent over to catch his breath.

“Damn mountains,” Tommy panted. “What happened to flat? This town needs to invest in it.”

“You’re not in Texas anymore,” I pointed out.

“Yeah, thanks for that,” Tommy snarked.

“Sully’s shop isn’t far from here,” Carrie said. “Do you think he’ll be there?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted.

“And you don’t know where he lives?” Carrie asked me.

“We didn’t really get around to discussing it,” I said.

Carrie rolled her eyes and started walking, pushing her bike next to her as she went. I followed her, thinking again about my strange night and what was coming next. Tommy groaned as we started walking and followed us at a much slower pace, feet dragging on the concrete.

“So, Chris said that the shade’s name was Bastian, right?” Carrie asked.

“Yeah,” I said.

“We have to assume that the shade isn’t going under the same name here. We also have to assume that he could be anyone. So where do we start looking?”

“Phone book,” Tommy said. “Under S – for shade.”

“Or under O – for oh shit,” I said.

“Funny,” Carrie said.

“What do you know about shades who can take over people?” I asked Carrie. I vaguely remembered a class on it months ago, but I had also been heavily invested in zoning out at the time.

“They’re linked to the body they take over. They need complete control over their host, so they don’t like to jump hosts. It costs a lot to open doors for most of them. They’re not as powerful in this world as they are in the dreamworld, and they tend to like people who are useful for their goals.”

“Useful how?” I asked.

“It depends on the need. Some want people who know how to create maximum damage to people; some want children so that people will be less likely to stop them. Someone like Bastian, who is trying to keep a low profile? Maybe people who won’t stick out if they move from town to town.”

“So, a drifter?” I asked.

“Or any kind of person that travels for work,” Carrie said.

“We’ll start with drifters and business people,” I said. “It’s as good a place as any.”

“Sweetbriar is pretty big,” Carrie said. “How are we going to find a single drifter or business person?”

“We’ll start with the hotels, motels, inns, and boarding houses,” I said. “Then we can move on to the Y and the shelters.”

“But we don’t know what he looks like or…” Carrie started to protest.

“I have a feeling I’ll know him when I see him,” I said.

She shrugged and dropped it.

We walked two more blocks until we reached Sully’s. It was a small building placed between a bank and a larger family restaurant. It had a yellow awning above the door and tall glass windows that showed off the interior. There was a tall table that ran the length of the windows, with stools so that people could sit and watch the street while they ate. More tables were in the center of the shop, and a lone counter was directly across from the door. The small shop was dated, but it had a warm atmosphere. It had been in the same spot since the 1960s, when Sully’s grandfather had first opened it. The lights were off, and I didn’t see Sully’s truck out front. I knocked on the glass door twice to be sure he wasn’t there. There was no reply.

“What now?” Tommy asked. “Do we wait for him?”

“I guess,” I said.

I searched the street for a good place to wait. As I did, I heard glass breaking. It was coming from inside Sully’s.

“Sully?!” I called through the door.

There was a grunt and the sound of flesh on bone. Afraid but controlled in my movements, I bent down and pulled my lock picks out of my pocket, angling them in the lock. It clicked open quickly, and I pushed the door back and ran inside. Carrie and Tommy followed me. I jumped over the counter and skidded into the door that was behind it. I heard another punch connect with flesh.

I kicked the second door open and stepped inside the backroom. Sully and a middle-aged man were on the floor. They were wrestling for control over a knife the second man held in his hand. The tip hovered over Sully’s face. Sully’s lip was bleeding, while the man had blood at his temple. Drinking glasses had fallen over in the fight, coating the floor with sharp edges.

The man caught sight of me and skittered away from Sully. He ran out the back door faster than I would have thought him possible, considering his weight and age. Tommy and Carrie brushed past me to run after him, and I bent down next to Sully.

“Ow,” Sully said, touching his lip.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“I’m fine,” Sully said. He sat up, then tried to stand but swayed. I helped him and led him to a desk that was against the wall, near the door to the front of the shop.

“Do you know that man?” I asked as Sully sat on the desk.

“No,” Sully said. “I’ve never seen him before.”

“What did he want?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” he replied. “He just jumped me. I was lucky. I saw his reflection in the refrigerator. It was the only thing that kept him from gutting me.” Sully gestured to the refrigerator that was at the back of the room near the broken glasses. He touched his lip again, wincing as he did.

“I’ll get you some ice,” I said.

Sully grabbed my hand. “Julie.”

“Yeah?” I asked.

“Is everything okay?” he asked. “Why are you here?”

“Let’s take care of you first.”

I pulled out a handful of ice from the refrigerator in the corner and put the ice into a plastic bag. I handed it to him and Sully put it against his lip. “Thanks for the rescue,” he said.

“Anytime,” I said.

Tommy and Carrie walked through the back door. “We lost him. He got into a black car and sped off,” Tommy said.

“Got his license plate though,” Carrie said smugly.

“We’ll call the cops,” I said.

“No,” Sully interjected swiftly.

“Why not?” I asked.

“I don’t need the trouble, and, from the looks of things, you don’t either,” Sully said.

“He almost killed you,” Carrie pointed out.

“Almost,” Sully said indifferently.

“Dude, I get being brave, but…” Tommy pointed at the knife the man had left behind.

“I don’t get along with the cops,” Sully said. “Let’s leave it at that.”

“So, would you like to forget about it then?” Carrie asked incredulously.

“No. What was the license plate?” Sully asked.

“TKX2365,” Carrie said.

“I have a friend at the DMV. She owes me a favor,” Sully said. He removed the ice from his lip. “So, why are you here?”

“We left school,” I admitted.

“For good?” Sully asked, surprised.

I didn’t reply. I wasn’t sure how long it would take to find the shade. Our determination and promises might be nothing more than a waste of time. If that was the case, our departure was more permanent than we wanted to believe.

“We were wondering if you knew of a cheap place we could stay,” Carrie said instead of answering.

Sully brown eyes held questions. It was the same questions that I had seen at the cemetery. He didn’t ask them, however. Our need put the questions on the back burner. For now. “You can stay here,” he said.

“In the backroom?” Tommy asked looking around at the broken glass, boxes, sinks, and heavy appliances. It wasn’t the most comfortable of atmospheres.

“There’s a room upstairs,” Sully said. “It has some junk in it, but it has a bathroom. Can I talk to you for a minute?” Sully asked me.

“Yeah,” I agreed.

Sully put the ice pack on the table and went outside. Carrie and Tommy gazed at me sympathetically, but they knew I had to face his questions alone. I was the only one who could deal with Sully.

The back of Sully’s building held a gravel lot, portioned off for people who worked at the bank and the surrounding buildings. Sully’s truck was the only vehicle in the lot. A large, stone church was across the street. The road that ran parallel to the backside of the building was narrow and broken. It was nowhere near as fancy as the main road in the front of Sully’s shop. Sully went to a wall that had been half torn down and sat. Glass and trash were scattered around the wall, but Sully didn’t seem to notice. He only had eyes for me.

“Are you in trouble?” he asked me.

“Sort of,” I said.

“Did you do something wrong, or is it because of us?” Sully asked. “Did our relationship get you kicked out?”

“No. It’s neither,” I said. I stepped closer to him and put a hand on his knee. “There are things that I can’t tell you, but you should know that we didn’t leave because we got tired of classes. People were murdered at Grey Haven, and we’re trying to find the killer.”

“The people who died last week?” Sully asked, suddenly understanding our task in town and the cryptic hints I had given him.

“Yeah,” I said.

“So why not stay at the school and look for the killer there?” Sully asked.

“Because the killer knows that I’m on to him,” I said. “It’s safer out here. You should know that it might mean trouble for you if we stay.”

“Like a man trying to gut me?” Sully asked dryly.

“Maybe worse,” I said.

“I can take care of myself,” Sully said. He put his hand over mine. “Just don’t do anything stupid.”

I smiled in reply.

Sully glanced at his watch. “I have to get the shop ready, then I have some errands to run. Will you be okay here?”

“Yep,” I said.

“I’ll show you the room you can use,” Sully said. He stood and led the way to a set of stairs that were on the back of the building. A small row of windows and a door were the only signs that there was more to the building than I had thought.

“It doesn’t have heating or cooling,” Sully said. “And the water in the shower tends to run on the cold side.”

“It’ll be fine,” I said. I had slept in worse places.

The room was exactly as he had described it. It was as long and wide as Sully’s shop, with only two rooms – the bathroom and the main room. Boxes were stacked without much organization in the space. There was an old couch in the corner of the room and a mattress stacked against the wall. There were also four cots stashed in the corner.

He handed me a key off his keychain. It was gold and fit the lock on the door. I stuck it in my pocket and followed him back down to the shop. Carrie and Tommy were talking near the sink. They stopped when we came in and stared at me. They had cleaned up the glass.

“I told him we were looking for the murderer,” I said.

Carrie and Tommy were able to read between the lines. “Oh, good,” Carrie said. “We should probably get started on that.”

Tommy eyed Sully. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’ve been in worse fights,” Sully said. “I’ll be fine.”

“If you get the guy’s name, we’ll help you track him down,” Tommy said. “It’s the least we can do.”

Carrie and I nodded in agreement.

Sully smiled. “I might take you up on that.” He eyed his watch again.

I took the gesture as a sign to get out of his way. I waved a quick goodbye and gestured for Tommy and Carrie to follow me. We started up the stairs to the room, to put our things away and to focus on a plan.

As we walked up, Tommy had a question. “Does anyone think that attack was random?”

“No,” Carrie said.

“You think the shade knows I’m involved with Sully?” I asked.

“I think it’s strange that Sully was attacked the night after you were almost killed,” Carrie said. “I think you pissed someone off.”

“If the guy who attacked Sully is the shade, or is working for the shades, we might have a way to track him down,” Tommy said.

“Yeah, if Sully isn’t lying about not knowing him,” I said.

“You think he was lying?” Carrie asked.

“I think that Sully has a lot of past,” I admitted. “I don’t know most of it.”

“We can’t ignore it,” Carrie said. “It’s too much of coincidence.”

“I know,” I said.

“In the meantime, we need breakfast,” Tommy said.

“And more information,” Carrie said, hefting her bag of books.

For the first time since the first attack, I felt as if I had some measure of control back. I wasn’t playing someone else’s game, engineered so that I was always a step behind. I had stepped outside the game to find a path that the shade couldn’t predict. I didn’t know if it would be worth it, but I knew that I had made my choice to make this stand. Tommy and Carrie set their things on the ground and surveyed our new home with a mixture of curiosity and determination. As I watched them, I realized they were risking everything. Because of me. Because they didn’t want me to be alone.

I hoped we could end this before the consequences got out of control and they paid for them with more than missing classes and an uncertain future.