Authors: Helen Harper
‘Travelodge, Tamar Street. Code 0.’ There’s a pause. ‘Get here now, damn it.’
I spy another door at the far end which looks different: it might be a closet. Right now, it’s the best we can do. ‘Come on.’
It takes seconds to reach it but it feels like an eternity. My heart pounds in my chest and I expect Dante to appear at any moment. We get to the door and push it open. There’s another flight of steps leading upwards and a faint gust of cold wind; the steps lead to the roof.
‘If we go up there, there’s nowhere we can hide.’
Rawlins looks grim. Behind us there’s a ping as the lift stops at our floor. There’s no choice. ‘Come on.’
The door clangs behind us. Rawlins takes the steps three at a time but I’m struggling; the pain from my earlier injuries is almost too much and I can feel my vision blurring. It’s too hard. He’s going to catch up.
Rawlins bounds back down and, in one swift motion, pulls me up and throws me over her back, fireman-style. I gasp aloud. ‘Quit your moaning,’ she says. ‘I’m trained and you’re slow.’
I suffer the indignity; compared to the alternative, it’s almost pleasant. Once we reach the roof, she drops me.
‘Ashley,’ I say. ‘We have to make sure she’s safe.’
‘She’s got a police guard. I checked already.’
I nod and back away, staring at the entrance to the stairs. Out here there’s nothing but some ancient heating units and a few discarded cigarette butts. The only way out of here is by jumping down ten storeys.
I knew it: I should never have left my house.
We hear a clank as the door on the floor below is opened. Rawlins and I glance at each other and I realise that she’s as scared as I am. She reaches for my hand and squeezes it. And then there’s the sound of sirens coming our way.
***
I stand in the rumour mill, surrounded by whispers. They rise up around me in swirls, some more urgent than others. The longer I wait, the more the indistinct ebb and flow becomes comforting.
I don’t have any desire to get closer and listen in to the specifics. Some things should be kept private. Knowing that the world is continuing outside of my own little life makes me feel better. Not everything is about me, even if it seems that way sometimes.
The door at the far end opens, drenching me in a golden sunbeam. I shield my eyes and squint. There’s no surprise as to who has followed me here.
‘Hi, Dante.’
‘Hello, Zoe.’ He walks in, closing the door behind him, and strides towards me, stopping less than a metre away. I drink him in. His jaw is covered in faint stubble and his eyes are hooded. He reaches out for me but, when I take a step back, he drops his hands.
‘Did you really think I’d allow the police to catch me?’ he asks.
I counter his faint sneer with one of my own. ‘Did you really think I’d just let you grab me like you did with Ashley?’ He doesn’t answer. I knit my fingers together. ‘Tell me one thing,’ I say, my voice dropping so that it’s barely audible over the whispers. ‘Why her? Why Ashley?’
A muscle jerks in his cheek. ‘She didn’t get hurt.’
‘That’s an interesting definition of not getting hurt. She was kept awake for three days, Dante. Hallucinations. Mania. Depression. All side-effects of lack of sleep.’
He doesn’t look away. ‘It was a calculated risk. She wouldn’t have come to any real harm.’
A tight ball of anger forms in my stomach. ‘Why? Was it all just a diversion to keep me busy?’
‘The Department was after you so I had to keep their men busy. I had to give them someone or they’d have been on to you like a shot.’
I shake my head. ‘Even when Kevin told them otherwise, they wouldn’t believe that Ashley was innocent. No wonder – they believed you.’
He runs a hand through his hair. ‘They had no reason not to. I kept you safe from them, Zoe, you should remember that. But the Department has more power than you can ever imagine. You needed to know what it’s capable of.’
‘You mean what
you’re
capable of. What power
you
have.’
‘If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.’
‘Fuck you!’ I burst out. ‘That was your plan? I can’t believe I was so stupid. I can’t believe you thought that would work.’
He sighs. ‘I’m not a monster. I’m not like those things from the Badlands.’
‘No,’ I say sadly. ‘They were under orders from the Sandman. You give the orders. Or you want to.’
‘It’s not as simple as that.’
I fold my arms across my chest. It’s not much of a barrier but it’s the best I can do. ‘Was it all lies?’
‘I’m not a bad person. I didn’t tell the others who you were,’ he repeats, as if getting Ashley tortured instead counts for something. ‘Don’t you remember that you told me I was a good person?’
‘I don’t care what you are!’ The high-pitched note in my voice belies my words but, right now, I don’t care. ‘I asked whether it was all lies. The girl you tried to rescue – Lacey. Was that true?’ His face tells me everything I need to know. My stomach roils queasily. How could I have been taken in so easily? ‘She was a lie. In fact, you were even lying to the people you supposedly work with. Was everything you said to me false?’
He steps towards me but this time I hold my ground. ‘No,’ he says finally. ‘I do care for you.’
I roll my eyes. ‘Really.’ My voice is flat.
A shaft of light from one of the upper windows hits his face. ‘You’re desirable.’ He laughs. ‘Don’t look so surprised. You know there’s a connection between us, there always has been. Even before I knew what you were, I wanted you. You desire me as much as I desire you. Together, we could be unstoppable.’
‘You pretended to Bron that you were on his side. You pretended to me. But you only helped bring down the Mayor because you wanted control of this zone. You skulked around the forest waiting for the best moment to destroy him. And when you met me, you sat back and watched me do it for you.’
He doesn’t disagree.
‘Did you even go to America?’
‘I wouldn’t have been able to track you in all those dreams if I had. If you’d thought about it, you’d have realised. The truth was staring you in the face all along.’
There’s a hollow ache where my heart used to be. I used to be good at noticing little details; I should have noticed that. Being with Dante clouded my thinking. It won’t happen again; I won’t let it.
I meet his eyes. ‘You only wanted me to go so I’d be out of the way when the Department arrived.’
‘Proving that I care about your safety. That I’m on your side.’
My mouth twists. ‘You want me on your side so you can use me. Everything you’ve done up to now was a ploy to get me to trust you. You wanted me to practise dreamweaving so I could become better at it, because unless I was skilled enough to change what was going on inside people’s heads, I was useless. You’ve been determined to stop me hurting myself not because you cared about me and my well-being, but because you needed me alive so you could use me. And then,’ I add, vibrating with rage, ‘when I pissed you off by showing up in Manchester, you helped me rescue Ashley so I believed that dreamweaving could be used for good.’
‘I’m not the Sandman. I’m not an evil mastermind, Zoe.’
‘Fuck you! Don’t you dare say my name! I don’t want to hear it on your lips ever again.’
His eyes glitter. ‘Zoe.’
I reach out and slap him once, hard round the face. He hisses but otherwise doesn’t react. ‘How do you think this ends, Zoe? You live out your days wandering through the Bubble and fixing people’s problems? How about you do something worthwhile and make the whole world a better place? I know what happened in the Badlands. You must have done something to stop the fungus. If we work together, it’ll be just like what you did there but on an even larger scale.’
‘Ha! Is that what the Department is doing? Helping people by keeping them in their place? Creating an atmosphere of terror? You want me to manipulate people to fulfil your every whim.’
‘And what’s wrong with that? Do you think letting Travellers wander in and out of the world’s dreams is really a good idea? Because without the Department, that’s what would happen. Not everyone is a damned saint. There are thirty thousand Travellers in this zone. Imagine them knowing everything about the people they meet, their secret desires and innermost thoughts. That’s not responsible; making sure that the power we wield isn’t abused is. That’s what we do. Someone has to be in charge.’
I gaze at him in dismay. ‘And that someone is you.’
‘Fucking hell!’ he explodes. ‘It’s not as simple as you make out, Zoe. There are lots of zones. They all have power.’
‘You told me there’s no single Department leader,’ I say slowly. ‘But really it’s you, isn’t it? You’re in charge.’
A muscle jerks in his cheek, and the scar there pulsates. ‘Actually no. I’m the only tracker. I’m more powerful than they are put together. But it wasn’t enough.’
‘If you had me, then it would be enough. You could convince everyone that the leader should be you.’ I shake my head. ‘I trusted you. I gave myself to you.’
‘And I wasn’t lying with that. I want you. I want Zoe, not the dreamweaver.’
‘You want me in your bed. You want the dreamweaver in your pocket.’
He throws his up his hands. ‘Don’t you get it? I’ll make the Department better! And if you don’t want to weave, then don’t! I won’t make you.’
For the first time, I understand the Sandman’s motives in attacking first. Power is apparently more desirable than I’d realised. ‘No,’ I say softly. ‘You won’t make me at first but you’ll sneak things in, won’t you? You’ll tell me there’s a kid that needs my help. Maybe that kid has powerful parents. You’ll ask me to help you change someone’s mind. Nothing serious to start off with. You’ll get me doing little things, and you’ll think I won’t be able to say no. Those little things will grow and sooner or later I’ll do whatever you want.’
‘You don’t think very highly of yourself if you believe I can manipulate you so easily.’
I stare at him. Despite his words, I know what I’m saying is true. ‘You want to have your cake and eat it. Me and the dreamweaving, all in one.’
‘Would that really be so bad? I can keep you safe from the others. They won’t dare to touch you if you’re with me.’
‘The others,’ I say dully. ‘You mean the other Department pricks.’
‘They’re not as bad as you think. I know I’ve said things about them but that was what you wanted to hear at the time. The truth is that we can work together, we can make things better. Just because someone’s in charge doesn’t mean they’re evil, for fuck’s sake.’
‘No,’ I say quietly. ‘But lying and kidnapping and subverting people’s dreams and threatening to murder them are pretty evil.’
‘The world is not black and white.’
I tilt my chin. ‘Sometimes it is.’
He grabs my shoulders. I try to escape but his grip is too strong. ‘Tell me where you are. We can talk about this in person in the real world. I’m not going to hurt you. I’m in love with you.’
‘Everything you’ve said is a lie, Dante,’ I say, pain colouring every word.
‘No. It’s not. Tell me where you are and I’ll prove it.’
‘No.’
‘Zoe, you know I’ll be able to find you whenever you sleep. You might as well tell me where you are in the real…’
I look upwards. Dante shouts but it’s too late. In a matter of seconds, I disapparate and wake myself up. Rawlins is sitting next to me, her expression worried. In the back of the car, I can hear the Chairman meow loudly. My mother hushes him.
‘I still don’t understand what’s going on,’ she says. ‘Why do we have to leave? I’m supposed to be meeting Henry for dinner tonight.’
I rub my eyes. ‘Henry is married. You need to stay away from him. It’s for the best.’ As long as I can convince myself of that then we’ll all be a lot happier.
‘One minute you won’t leave your house and the next you’re running away. What on earth is going on?’
I sigh. ‘It’s a long, long story.’ On the rushed journey back to Scotland to fetch everyone, Rawlins and I had discussed how to approach this and come up with squat. With Dante managing to melt away into the night leaving behind no trace of his existence, we’d been forced to use old evidence of my terror-stricken agoraphobia to get the Manchester police off our backs. They’d been suspicious but in the end had no choice but to let it pass. I know my mother won’t be taken in that easily. I’m not sure she’s ready for the truth though. ‘Everything’s going to be fine,’ I say aloud. ‘It’ll work out sooner or later. For now I just need you to trust me.’
‘I have a job to go to, Zoe,’ Adam complains. ‘I can’t just run away.’
‘It’s either this or stay at home and put us all in danger,’ I tell him calmly. ‘Believe me on that at least. The rest will take more time.’
Rawlins gives them both a reassuring smile. My mother sinks back and mutters. ‘I wish I had your confidence.’
Someone behind us honks loudly. There’s a man ahead waving us onto the ferry. Rawlins puts the car into gear and rolls forward. ‘Time to go,’ she says quietly.
I give her a brilliant smile. ‘Great.’
Thank you so much for reading Night Terrors. I sincerely hope you enjoyed it! It would mean a huge amount if you could take a minute or two to write a review. Not only is any feedback vastly helpful but reviews are vital for every independent author and can make a massive difference that is genuinely appreciated.
Look out for the final instalment in the Dreamweaver series, Night Light, coming in 2016.
All the best,
Helen x
Acknowledgments
As with any novel, there are so many people involved in so many different ways. I’d like to thank Clarissa Yeo for her wonderful cover art and Karen Holmes for her meticulous editing and words of encouragement. Sharon Bairden’s patience and help with my many questions concerning the horrors of sleep paralysis were invaluable and I am truly sorry for anyone who suffers from this terrible affliction. Adrianna Astle, Emily Grennan and Audra Najman deserve particular mention for always being available for a moan when things weren’t going my way, as do the feline ruffians, Scout, Lara and Mavis. Last but not least, the knowledgeable Women of Urban Fantasy have kept me on track with their banter and tips. If I have missed anyone, then the fault is mine and mine alone.