Break Away (Away, Book 1) (30 page)

“Is the Garden of Wandering Souls past that
edge?”

“Yes. That is the lower point of access,” he
said, glancing at that green area again. “If you go up, you'll risk
being seen. Once in the garden, you'll have to walk down very
quickly to get as far away as possible from the tower. But when the
night falls, if you haven't found your sister—which is more
likely—you can go up and look for her. Since it'll be dark, the
guards won't be able to see you,” he said, resting his hands on his
hip. “Like I said before, it could take you forever to find her.
The garden is really long and vast, and the souls wandering in
there even bigger in numbers. You'll have to look for the one that
feels warm to touch and call her name.”

“Wait,” I said, pausing to formulate into
words an emerging fear. “You mean I won't be able to
see
her, like her shape or…something visual that will tell me it's
her?”

“I never said this quest of yours was easy,
human girl,” he said with a look. “Souls don't have physical shape,
but they do have colors—colors that match up to the main theme of
the dream that soul is having—yellow for friendship, blue for
family, purple for nightmares, pink for love, red for”—he cleared
his throat soundly—“passion dreams, just to name a few.”

For a second, I imagined myself locked in a
“passion dream” with Andras and a blush crept up my cheeks. I
rushed to speak before the pink shade in my face deepened further.
“So I have to look up for one that feels warm to me and call her
name,” I said, making it sound like a question.

He nodded and looked up at the tower. “We
better get going. Every minute that passes here in the open is a
chance to be discovered.” He glanced at me. “If you follow
everything I've said, you shouldn't be having any problem.”

“Aside from maybe being 'electrocuted,'
right?” I said, sarcasm lacing my voice.

“Right,” he said softly, laying his eyes on
me.

He gave me a long, long stare, as if he was
studying every plane of my face, frowning from time to time with
traces of recognition. At least, that's what I think I saw lighting
up in his eyes.

“What?” I told him with a smile. Was he
finally going to make a move and tell me how beautiful and
wonderful he thought I was?

“It's just that…” He shook his head, waggling
away the thought that'd narrowed his eyes before. “Nothing, I…I was
just wondering how you were able to get into Chimera, that's all.”
Though his answer sounded sincere, I knew this was half of the
truth.

Anyway, what did it matter how I got here?
This was a dream, and this beautiful place I'd created as Chimera
was nothing but a place in my mind's eye. Thumbs up for crafting
all this mercury-and-quartz conducting stuff. Double thumbs up for
making the sexy and stoic blond standing at an arm's length away
from me.

“We should go,” Andras said and turned to
look at Smooch with a wave of his head, motioning Smooch to follow
him.

Andras took off, his long legs setting a fast
and determined pace, as if each step was loaded with resolution.
Smooch, taking the chance of not being seen by Tall and Blond and
Sexy, run up to me and wrapped his flabby arms around my hip.

“Good luck, Dafne girl,” Smooch whispered. “I
hope see you in human world some time.”

Before I could answer, he sped up to join
Andras. Watching Smooch run was weird and kind of creepy. It was
like watching a lizard running on water, though a bit slower. I
didn't know how those toothpick-thin legs of his could take the
bouncing weight of his belly.

“Hey Blondie!” I called to Andras before he
would get out of my sight.

He brought his legs to a halt and turned to
look at me.

“What? No good bye kiss?” I tilted my head to
the side with a small smile. I couldn't let this dream to end
without tasting those curvy lips.

The corners of his mouth twitched up slowly
into a smile. “I don't kiss humans,” he said. Although his answer
wasn't optimistic, the amusement playing in his voice lightened it
up greatly, drawing a grin in my face.

“But I'm a special human,” I said. “You
hinted at it yourself.”

Smooch's eyes looked like two wide tennis
balls, going back and forth between us, expectant and excited at
the same time.

Andras released a deep laugh, turning my
insides into jelly. I had to find a way to conjure him again in a
dream. He gazed at me with bright eyes for a few seconds more and
said with an edge of sadness, “Good luck, human girl.”

I let out a big sigh as I watched him leave.
That guy was pure, undiluted dynamite.

The Garden of Wandering Souls was everything
I'd expected. I stopped by the edge of the tree line and watched,
mesmerized, by the sight stretching beyond the breathing, mercury
laced trunks. Vapory masses of different colors floated and moved
above a field of neon-green grass, widening and elongating like
blobs in a lava lamp. Crystal quartz points jutted out from the
ground, sometimes in clusters and sometimes in single, six-sided
prisms with pyramid-like tips. All of it was a surreal display of
colors and materials.

I neared the border and lifted a hand.

It seems Andras forgot to tell me
something crucial
, I thought as I touched the invisible barrier
that separated the garden from the line of clustered trees. Its
surface was rubbery and wobbled like jelly when my fingers made
contact with it, making the garden look like a giant, multicolored
jelly.

How was I going to be able to get past this
thing? My watch, which, surprisingly enough, still worked in here,
indicated it was close to the twenty-minute mark. Tension started
kicking in unrelentingly.

I closed my eyes and took in a large breath.
“You can do this,” I said under my breath. “You can do this.”

I pushed my hand into the surface, but like a
rubber band, it only sank under the pressure and never penetrated.
I grunted in exasperation, stomping my foot.
So what now?
We
never talked about the possibility of me not being able to enter
the Garden of Wandering Souls. What a couple of masterminds we
were.

I flicked my wrist to check the time. Twenty
minutes.

Shoot.
I shut my eyes again and
concentrated on my breathing, just like Comus had shown me to
relax. Once my heartbeats steadied, I opened my eyes and thought
with a loud and clear voice in my head,
Let me in. I want to go
inside the Garden
.

I pushed my hand into the surface once more
and, suddenly, I felt how the barrier softened around my skin and,
progressively, turned into air and granted me entrance.
Wow
,
I said inwardly.
That was kind of easy
.

I slipped inside the garden with my chest
tightened in fear and opened my eyes. Huh. I wasn't combusting or
anything like that. I waited a few more seconds and nothing
happened, so I decided to take a few steps into the garden. Andras
hadn’t lied when he said this place was vast and long, as in
I-couldn't-see-where-the-end-of-the-garden-was long. Until now it
looked infinite, which was definitely bad news. Some quartz
crystals were taller than me, catching and reflecting light as
pristine, magnificent diamonds, and some were really small, no
bigger than my foot.

While standing there in awe, an elongated
vapory mass of a yellow color reached my side and moved through me.
I gasped at the lack of sensation that incited in me. It was as if
a cloud had slipped through me instead of a human soul. The echo of
Andras words streamed into my mind.
You'll have to look for the
one that feels warm to touch.
The yellow one definitely hadn't
been Buffy. It'd whooshed past me like a fresh breeze.

Without further interruptions, I strode down
the garden, passing through a concerto of vapory colored blobs—none
of them warm—while making sure my hands and feet didn’t touch the
crystals. I didn't stop until the tower had shrunk in size and the
sky dimmed to grayish hues of purple and pink.

Since combustion or electrocution hadn't
presented itself, my immunity to the floating energy was pretty
obvious and not a worry anymore. What was indeed a worry, however,
was the size of this garden. How was I going to find Buffy in
here?

Not wanting to lose any more time, I started
the hunt in a whirl of despair that seemed to get worse as time
flowed by and the skies darkened to deep gray. Apparently, Chimera
didn't know the pitch black nights the human world did. In a way it
was similar to our night skies when they were lit by a full moon,
only in this case, there was no radiant orb shedding light up
there. Chimera didn't have a moon, but it did have stars—stars that
glided up and down, and left to right in linear motions, as if they
were giant fireflies. The galactic effect had me hypnotized and
gaping for a moment, until I remembered what I was doing.

Luckily, the vapory blobs of energy glowed in
the night, each of them a dazzling bright color that allowed me to
distinguish them one from another. I could imagine how the garden
looked from the shimmering tower—a wide river crowded with
prismatic, glowing globules, like a giant lava lamp. It was
mesmerizing.

I willed my feet to keep going, lifting my
hands to touch the souls that floated higher. None of them held
warmth. I walked and walked, sinking myself deeper into the garden,
veering to different directions and chasing some vapory blobs that
felt like potential Buffys. Yet nothing. I didn't know how much
time I spent like that, moving to every direction like a lost ant,
until I sank to my knees with a heavy sigh and dropped my head into
my hands.

So stupid of me to think this was going to be
easy. Comus had told me and Andras had warned me, but deep down I'd
always thought I was going to find her at first glance, like some
kickass girl with superpowers. This was, after all, my dream. It
should've been easy, not complicated. To my regret, I was starting
to see the impossibility of finding my sister amid this glowing sea
of souls.

For a moment, I wished all this energy would
electrocute me and finish with this dream once and for all. But
that would've meant giving up, and I couldn't give up, not even in
a dream.

I looked up at the gray skies and its
hyperactive stars amid occasional open spaces between high-floating
colored blobs and hunched in exhaustion.
Sis where are you?
I thought with her image in my mind.
Please, come to me Buffy.
Just come.

I glanced at the far-away shimmering tower
and dropped my gaze to the neon-grass beneath me in defeat. I don't
know what it was that changed in the atmosphere—a shift in the
pressure or temperature—but something felt entirely different. A
light sensation, like my chest was suddenly being lifted by wings,
saturated my heart. I looked up and floating in front of me, still,
was a blue soul. An invisible ring seemed to be cast around us,
making the two of us the only ones in that circular space.

I gasped at the swift insight that flashed
into my mind. “
Buffy?
” I whispered, my voice flooded with
uncertainty and hope. “Is it you?”

The long, blue blob remained still, as if
expecting something.

I stood up and closed the distance between
us. Could it be? Could Buffy have heard my calling? Only one way to
find out, I guessed.

I swallowed and stretched out my hand. My
breath caught when my fingers found the soothing embrace of warmth.
“
Buffy
,” I murmured, my eyes brimmed with tears and
happiness. “You're here. You're really here.” I stepped into the
blue vapory mass and felt a soft pull at the back of my head.

Then, everything blurred.

I
was standing in a
beautiful sunlit garden, facing a tall round fountain. The sky
above was deep blue, filled with puffy white clouds, and the
normal-looking grass was littered with friendly daisies.

I wasn't in Chimera anymore, that much was
obvious.

Across from the fountain, two wide and low
wooden chairs sat underneath the comforting shadow of a tree, and a
couple of feet away, a blue and white picnic blanket was spread on
top of the bladed grass. I walked, circling the fountain, and froze
with a clench in my heart because of what I spotted sitting on the
edge. Buffy.

Since the central pillar of the fountain was
thick, I hadn't been able to see her from behind. She was wearing a
yellow summer dress, its flowy skirt stopping below her knees, and
a book was splayed wide open in her hands. This Buffy didn't look
pain-stricken or sad like I'd expected; this Buffy was radiant and
content. Could have Andras been right?

At the sound of my footsteps, she raised her
gaze and looked at me. “You're here early,” she said with a smile,
her blonde hair shining with strings of gold.

That bowled me over a bit. “What?”

She snapped her book shut and gave me a look.
“You said you were going to shop for something, remember?”

Oh
, I thought to myself.
Somehow
I ended up inside her dream
. The dream-Dafne
must've left to buy something. What was I supposed to say?

“Uh…Buffy, I—”

“And what are you doing dressed like that?”
She shot me a disapproving look.

I looked down at my snug Rolling Stones
t-shirt and stretch black jeans with a frown. “I've always dressed
like this.”

“Not since you took my fashion advice,” she
said with her chin high.

Is this what you dream about? About me
changing my wardrobe?

“I—I just had a slip, I guess,” I stuttered
at a loss of words. “You know how hard is to change…bad habits.”
Not that I thought my style was one, but I was way too
thunderstruck to contradict her in that moment.