Grey Haven (Book 1: The Dreamer Chronicles)

I was in space. Stars shone brightly through a glass window in front of me. The horizon was lit up by bright moonlight, and the earth was below us, large and spectacular. Blue and white took shape in a way I thought I would never see personally. Carrie and Tommy were equally as transfixed as they gazed through the window. The expanse of space and the size of the earth made me feel small, but, somehow, there was peace in that feeling, like my worries would be settled if I just waited.

“Coolest dream ever,” Tommy breathed.

“Yeah,” I agreed, awed.

Carrie frowned and turned away from the window. “Do you think Dana can face Bastian alone?”

“I don’t think she’ll reach him first,” I said.

“Why is that?” Carrie asked.

“Because he’ll find us first,” I said. “He’s holding a little bit of a grudge.”

“Awesome,” Tommy said dryly.

I eyed my surroundings with more attention to what was directly in front of me instead of the alluring expanse of space. The room we were in was small and had a single door directly to my left. The door and the walls were the same dull grey. The door was shut, closed tight. I wasn’t sure if it was a door to space or a larger part of a station or ship. There were no windows to give away what was beyond the wall.

“Where’s the dreamer?” I asked them. “Have you seen anyone?”

Carrie and Tommy shook their heads. Carrie had an opinion though. “I think this might be a junk dream,” she said.

“Come again?” I said.

“Don’t you ever read?” Carrie asked in exasperation.

“No,” I said, like it was obvious because it was.

“Not all dreams disappear when we wake up. Some remain in the collective space of the dreamworld. They get stuck. They serve as a weigh station for shades and dreamers. Not all of them are occupied.”

“And those that are?” Tommy asked.

“Usually have crawlers and shades in them,” Carrie said. “The shades that grow in places such as these tend to be more stable…”

“You mean they’re stronger,” I said.

“Yeah,” Carrie agreed.

“Great,” I said.

I eyed the door. There was a large button on the wall next to it. It was the only way out and our only option to move forward. “What do you think?” I asked.

Carrie and Tommy pointed their weapons at the door. “Do it,” Carrie said.

I pushed the button and stepped back. The door slid open with a hiss of compressed air and, thankfully led to another small room and not to space. The room had control panels on the far wall, and there was a helm of some sort directly in the middle of it all. Blood was on the floor near the panel closest to us. It was a moving trail and was fresh. I tracked the blood, while Carrie and Tommy made a sharp right to investigate the rest of the room. As we turned, we saw the reason for the blood.

We paused collectively at the sight of Ben. A bloody sword was leaning against the panel he was standing next to. He was trying to bandage his arm, which had a nasty graze on the elbow and forearm. He calmly looked up at us when we entered, as if he had been expecting us. “Oh. Hey.”

“Hi,” I said.

“You three trapped, too?” he asked.

“Not exactly,” I said.

“A shade cut off the way back,” Carrie rushed to explain. “We’re trying to find and kill him.”

“I figured it was something along those lines,” Ben said, still casual. He wrapped the bandage around his arm and picked up his sword.

“What are you doing here?” I asked suspiciously. He was the first dreamer we had encountered that hadn’t been wrapped up in a nightmare or happily oblivious to the fact that they were dreaming.

“Same thing you are,” Ben said. “I’m looking for a way out. I figured that something was keeping me from waking up, especially when a guardian didn’t pull me out, so I went looking for the source. Didn’t figure I’d see you here, though.”

“So, you’ve been leapfrogging through dreamer’s dreams?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Ben said. “I haven’t met anyone yet that seemed to be any good though. Didn’t even know they were asleep.”

“What’s with the sword then?” Carrie asked, pointing at the bloody weapon.

“I had to fight my way out of my dream. There was a shade with a grudge...long story. Got caught in a rock slide,” he added, gesturing at his arm. “I only barely made a door in time.”

“Oh…” I said.

Ben stared, forming his own conclusions. “This has to do with the reason you left, doesn’t it?” he asked.

“Yes,” Carrie replied.

“Can I have the whole truth now?” Ben asked. “Or do I have to keep guessing?”

“Uh, guys?” Tommy asked from somewhere behind us.

“In a minute,” I said, still eyeing Ben suspiciously.

“I don’t think we have a minute,” Tommy said, voice strangled.

Carrie and I turned to see the reason behind the tremor of fear in Tommy’s voice, trusting he had a good reason. My stomach sank. The horizon had brightened alarmingly with a white-hot light. It was as if someone had exploded the sun. The wave of light was headed directly for us, moving fast.

Ben stepped forward to look. His eyes widened, but he was decisive. “Tommy, come here,” he commanded.

Tommy ran over, his eyes wide. As he moved, Ben focused, and a trap door formed in the floor. He kicked the door open and gestured for us to jump. There was darkness on the other side. It was impossible to tell if it was the deadly expanse of space or another rift between dreams.

Carrie and Tommy jumped without hesitation. I eyed the wall of light headed for us, then Ben, measuring the odds. There was no other choice. I followed them down.

There was a sensation of falling, then I landed softly in a large garden. A small girl was running around the flowers. A boy chased her, taking joy in making her giggle. The boy was old enough to be a dreamer, while the girl was too young. Carrie watched the trapdoor above us for Ben while Tommy stared at the little girl, expression complicated. Ben landed next to me and the trapdoor above our heads closed with a flash of white light.

“What was that?” I asked the group.

“You haven’t made any powerful shades mad, have you?” Ben asked.

“Why?” I asked.

“Don’t you read?” Ben asked me.

Carrie smirked.

“Could you just tell me?” I asked with a sigh.

“Some powerful shades – and dreamers for that matter – can manipulate dreams,” Ben explained. “The junk dreams are easiest to manipulate because they belong to no one. If a shade is powerful enough, they can destroy a junk dream or even manipulate a dream from a long distance. Someone just tried to kill you in that dream…someone powerful.”

“Oh,” I said. “I guess Bastian knows we’re here,” I said to Carrie and Tommy.

Carrie nodded, while Tommy refocused on the little girl racing in circles around us. “I hope his next visit is face-to-face,” Tommy said absently. “The sun blowing up is only fun once.”

“Amen,” I said.

“So, what’s going on?” Ben asked.

“Carrie can tell you,” I said, not interested in an explanation.

Ben stared at Carrie expectantly. She blushed, then tried to hide her blush. Face burning, she filled him in on the facts. At the end of the story, he nodded as if he had known the truth all along. “This shade…Bastian…he’ll come looking for you,” Ben said.

“Most likely,” I said.

“Why not sit still and wait for him?” Ben asked.

“Two reasons,” I said. “The main reason is that he won’t come looking for me if I burrow down in a safe dream and wait for him. He’s too smart. And I’m afraid it’ll start killing off dreamers to lure me out.”

“So, you’re going to walk into a trap?” Ben asked.

“Yep,” I agreed.

“And if you find the traitor’s dream first?” Ben asked. “The fight will be impossible to win.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Listen, we’re doing this, so if you want to go your own way, I understand.”

Ben frowned at me. I saw him thinking seriously about what I had planned. “What’s the second reason?” he asked.

“The more we move, the closer we’ll get to the truth,” I said.

“The subtext of that is that Julie is too impatient to sit still and let things unravel around her,” Tommy said. I shrugged. It was true.

“I’m sticking with you three,” Ben decided. “I have a feeling you’ll need the help.”

“That was ominous,” Tommy said.

I ignored Tommy and stared at Ben. He had a reputation for knowing what he was doing. He wasn’t a superstar at Grey Haven because he was dating Dana. He had earned his reputation. I wasn’t stupid enough to turn down such good help. Too, it would be an easy way to keep an eye on him. If he were the traitor, it was best to keep him close.

“Okay,” I said to Ben.

“We should keep moving,” Ben added. “We don’t want to draw the shade’s attention to this dream if we can help it.”

Ben gestured at the boy and girl. They had stopped running to examine a butterfly that was resting on one of the many flowers. I nodded, and Ben closed his eyes. A door appeared in the middle of the garden. It was oak, the sort of door I would expect to see at the castle in Grey Haven. I stepped through it first, a question burning a hole in my mind.

When Ben followed me into the next dream, the question was on the tip of my tongue. “How can you forge doors?” I asked as Carrie and Tommy joined us.

“Training,” Ben said. “Practice.”

“I think Julie meant how – as in what it takes,” Carrie said.

“You focus,” Ben said. “It’s like how we can change dreams inside of people’s heads once the shade is dead, only you focus on moving out of the dream instead of within it.”

“That easy?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Ben said. “There are always natural cracks in a dream, so you just take advantage of those weak points and make your own way.”

“And it works all the time?” I asked.

“No,” he said. “There can’t be any powerful shades in the dream.”

“Kill the shade to make the door?” Tommy asked.

“Yeah,” Ben agreed.

“Doesn’t seem like a great escape method,” Tommy said dryly.

“Nope,” I agreed.

“It’s the way it works,” Ben said with a shrug. “We’re visitors here, so we have to abide by the dreamworld’s rules.”

Carrie cleared her throat from behind us. We turned and saw that her face was as bright red as her hair. “Think we can move along?” she asked. She pointed to our left and I saw what had made her so uncomfortable.

We were in a dark room lit only by moonlight. The room held a bed, a dresser, and two doors. Two people were on the bed. They were making passionate love, the moving streaks of their flesh highlighted by the moon. I didn’t recognize the people, but, then, I wasn’t eager to look closer either. Tommy and Ben were uncomfortable and blushing. They resolutely stared at the floor. Fighting my laughter at the expressions on their faces, I waved them through the door with a smirk.

The next dream was just as free of shades, but I didn’t find it nearly as funny. Sully was on a bed. I had never seen the room before, but I knew it had to be his bedroom at his house. He had two pieces of furniture – a bed and a dresser. There was nothing in the room to suggest he did more than sleep there.

He was lying down on the bed when we entered, but he sat up when Ben walked in, almost as if he knew we were there. Sully looked directly at me, but there was no recognition in his eyes.

A woman appeared out of nothing behind us and walked through us as if she were a ghost. She had black hair and hazel eyes. She wore ruby-red lipstick and a summer dress. She sat on the bed next to Sully.

“I can’t do this anymore,” Sully told her.

The woman smiled reassuringly. “Think of your mother,” she said.

“I am thinking of her,” Sully said in a frosty voice.

“Then you know that the only way…”

“There has to be another way,” Sully said.

“There isn’t,” the woman replied.

She put a hand on his shoulder, a smile on her face. “It’ll be over soon.”

“I don’t like lying to her,” Sully said. “It isn’t right.”

“The girl?” the woman replied.

“She has a name,” Sully said, pushing away her hand.

“Julie can live with the lie. You know it. You know she lives with plenty of them…think of your mother…” the woman urged again.

I was shocked into immobility by their words. I was equal parts fascinated and horrified. Was Sully lying to me about seeing another woman? Was it something else? Why did it feel like something else?

The dream faded to black and another one took its place. It was our spot at the bridge, the place Sully and I always met. He waited by a warm fire for me, his expression peaceful. The image of him at the fire forced me to push aside the questions and the doubt. I didn’t want the others to see what normally happened when we met. They had already been embarrassed enough.

“Ben…a door,” I said.

Ben radiated curiosity, but he didn’t hesitate. He created the same solid door as before, and I opened it for the others, pushing them through. As I did, a version of me appeared through the woods. Sully’s dream made the forest look surreal, but my face was clear and focused. His peacefulness changed to happy expectation.

Tommy and Carrie had concerned looks on their faces. They weren’t sure what they had witnessed, but they knew one thing for certain – Sully was lying to me about something and a beautiful woman was involved. I ignored their expressions, finally got them through the door, and followed them quickly, not wanting the vision of Sully and me together to confuse me further.

The doubt and hurt lingered through the darkness and into a new dream. The dream wasn’t unusual, though we were in a room pulled out of a Picasso painting. Around the melted furniture and off-kilter feel, there were no shades clouding things. I almost wished for danger. It would have been a good distraction.

Ben, Carrie, and Tommy stared at me.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” I said decisively.

“I’m sure it’s nothing,” Carrie said.

“You know how dreams can be,” Tommy added. “Our brains twist things.”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” I repeated.

I eyed our surroundings, found nothing to keep my attention, and struggled to move beyond my emotions. I had to keep my focus, keep my boxes in tidy corners. I would think about what I had seen when I was awake, when the lives of others weren’t in the balance.

“We need to keep moving,” I said.

Ben formed a new door for us. He and Tommy walked through it quickly, but Carrie stopped me with a hand on my arm. She didn’t say anything, but her expression told me not to jump to conclusions I would regret. I nodded, to show her I understood, and she let go of my arm.

The dreams were consistently normal as we traveled through one door to the next. They were of adolescent make-believe and mundane matters of classes, training, and family matters. None of the dreamers were aware that they were dreaming. They were not trained enough to know the difference. The silence and normalcy of the dreams was unsettling. I had expected more shades. I had expected Bastian to move faster. It made me feel as if I was steadily moving toward a trap, put into a state of false complacency.

With Ben’s help, we were able to move faster. He opened door after door in endless succession, never tiring, always moving forward. The dreams became a blur of color and motion. He was confident and in control. I felt a subtle shift in the others as Ben took charge. They thought our odds of success had improved dramatically with his help. I didn’t blame them; I felt some of the same emotions. In the back of my mind, however, I maintained suspicion, wondering if he was taking us in circles. It was difficult to let it go. Suspicious minds were more likely to survive.

He opened another door, leaving behind a theme park full of rides that went nowhere. The second we stepped through the door, I felt the change in the air.

The dream was full of shaped metal and nautical décor. We were on a ship, but it was all wrong. Not only was there a sense of decay, as if the ship had been abandoned long ago, everything was upside down. It appeared to have been a cruise ship at one point, with grandiose levels, elegant furniture, and features designed with nothing beyond entertainment in mind. We were on an exposed balcony that surrounded a large ballroom. The ballroom floor was above us; the half-broken chandelier that had once hung in splendor above the room, rocked slightly in time to the waves I felt pushing against the ship.

Hissing and shrieking echoed around the metal walls. The sound of sharp claws digging into the elegant walls and ceiling was close. We crouched down at the sound and snuck over to the edge of the balcony to look out. The crawlers had taken over the space below us. Some of them crawled on the walls, hissing at the others that got too close, while others were playfully fighting on the ground level. They didn’t know we had arrived, but it wouldn’t take them long to figure it out if we hung around.

Without speaking, we backed away and headed for the closest door. I closed and locked it behind us, then turned to Ben. “I think we need another door,” I said.

Ben concentrated. He winced and shook his head. “There are strong shades here.”

“This is a junk dream, though, right?” Carrie asked.

“Right,” Ben said.

“Do we have to go pick a fight with the shade to get out, then?” Tommy asked.

“Not necessarily,” Carrie said. “There are too many ways in and out on a dream like this. Maybe we can find a way out without getting noticed.”

As soon as she said it, gunfire broke out, breaking through the quiet. The hall we had walked into was darker than the ballroom, but it was still broad and tall. The lights had changed to a dull green color that cast strange shadows on the walls. Not far from us, another hall intersected ours. The gunfire was coming from there. I ran toward the sound, Ben at my heels.

Thirty feet down the hall, there was a group of people. They were slowly retreating toward us, doing their best to keep twenty or so crawlers at bay. The crawlers skittered along the floor, the walls, even the ceiling.

At the front of the group were Dana, Jen, and Lisa. Dana was shooting at the crawlers, while Jen fought with a hatchet and Lisa with a metal whip. The others in the group held weapons, but the hall was too narrow for them to do anything but keep up their slow retreat.

A boy at the back of the group called out when he saw Ben. “Ben!”

“Trouble?” Ben called back.

“A bit,” the boy admitted.

“Dana?” Ben asked.

Dana didn’t turn away from the crawlers or look at her boyfriend. “We’ve got it,” she said, determined to kill the crawlers herself.

She fired two more shots then, without warning, the crawlers ran away. Their shrieks turned panicked. Dana smiled in a self-satisfied way. She was convinced she had scared them into retreat. I was less convinced. Something was wrong. The rocking of the ship had changed. It was no longer the gentle sway of a ship in the water. It was the slow groan of a ship starting to sink.

Tommy was also aware of the change. “Run!” he yelled. He pushed at Carrie and me, to force us forward. As he did, I heard water sloshing against the corridor we had just left. It was moving fast.

Trusting him, Carrie and I pushed past the others, who were frowning skeptically, and sprinted down the corridor. Ben followed. As he passed Dana, he grabbed her hand, forcing her to run with us. The others fell in line behind them.