-Earth, present-day – or a month and one week after Lucille’s disappearance-

The blankets were warm and cosy. Even when the sunlight shone through his apartment window, he pulled the covers over his head and tried to block out the demands of the day, trying to ignore the constant sense of doom he had felt for the last month and a bit, ever since he discovered that she had disappeared-

The world’s most dreaded and annoying sound rang out: his alarm. He sighed and shifted the blankets so he could look at the green device on his wrist.

A holographic screen was projected into the air by his holowatch, showing a bright red digital clock face that throbbed in time with the alarm. The glow shone through his eyelids and blankets, not even allowing him to block out the sound for a few more moments. He tapped the projection and groaned as he sat up, rubbing his eyes blearily. Then he got up and walked past the automatic sliding door to enter his bathroom.

A tired face with bags under its eyes and messy blonde hair gazed back. It was not a face that suggested that he’d have an easy workday. He walked out of the bathroom and pressed a button next to what appeared to be a decorative dark wood wall. The wall split in two to reveal his wardrobe. He changed into his trousers and shirt, then slipped on the suit jacket.

When he had put on shoes and collected everything he needed to, he walked out into his kitchen and living room, got himself some coffee, and then sat down on one of the sunken lounges. He rested his head against the couch.

Stephen Lawrence was severely regretting his past actions. Like a sword hanging over his head, the memories of his interactions with that girl just over a month ago were a constant cause for stress over these weeks. While nothing had come from it and it seemed no information about his failed negotiation with the Goldcroft heir had leaked, her disappearance now meant he was one of many suspects in the disappearance case dubbed by the international media as the ‘First Major Failure of the World Government Since the Hijacking of the Showpiece Aeroplane Prototype at the New York Esper Generation Aeronautics Convention’.

In fact, Stephen recalled that had something to do with the missing Goldcroft heir too…

He shook his head with a sigh and stood up, his coffee finished. It was time he headed to work. He grabbed his briefcase off the coffee table and headed out the door.

…

The glass doors of his level of the apartment slid open and he walked out the front, standing beside a few others who were waiting for their local form of public transport. He rubbed his eyes to accustom himself to the neon views of modern London and tried to avoid looking at the several feet drop to the ground below his level.

Airships flew overhead, covered in fluorescent billboards with advertisements for the newest esper celebrities. Stephen heard a loud bang down the road and rolled his eyes when he saw a figure surrounded by drones, frustrated that someone had chosen his street to do a movie shoot. He checked his holowatch for the time and waited for another five minutes.

Then a slight electrical hum steadily grew closer and a hovering metal container covered in strips of neon lighting approached their apartment’s waiting bay at high speeds. It abruptly slowed to reveal a long train levitating far above the ground, windows letting him see the many people inside.

Stephen stepped aside to allow several people to get off the carriage closest to him through the train’s glass doors that had slid up, and then he hopped onto the Anti-Gravity Vehicular Connective Passenger Car Train, or ‘Anti-Grav’ as everyone referred to it. He stood beside one of the train’s windows and tapped on his holowatch to bring up a broadcast and the latest news on a Network page to entertain himself during the trip. The audio connected with his earpiece so he didn’t bother anyone around him.

“-and the search for the missing young awakeners of July continues, with Medallion CEO Marvin Goldcroft sparing no expense to find traces of his missing great-niece, Lucille Goldcroft. The World Government has kept their lips sealed unusually tight these last few weeks, and our journalists are currently still trying to gain access to the Esper Union to interview a few Agents right at the core of the issue-”

He stared at the broadcast and then with a quick tap of his finger he changed the channel. He internally sighed when the next projected broadcast had nothing to do with the disappearance event.

This disappearance thing has been haunting me for weeks with no end in sight. The only hint I managed to glean about all this is that Marvin Goldcroft seems to have submitted some strange clue or evidence to the Government.

He shook his head and refocused his attention on the new channel.

“-the conflict between the Fringe exploration teams and the Esper Union reached its peak this last week when the Fringe Special Forces unveiled the existence of a fifth S-grade Rift within the Fringe’s central zone. While the rising star Rift exploration teams of the Union keep campaigning for access to these supposed treasure troves of resources, the FSF has refused the Esper Union any access to their facilities and the central zones of the Fringes.”

Stephen continued watching the channel as the Anti-Grav shot past towering skyscrapers and circled the city, following along the path of the World Government British Division Branch’s sky rings above them. He avoided looking outside when the Anti-Grav did its dizzying move of twisting upside down to navigate through a tighter street. The motion dampers inside the train meant he didn’t feel the movement, but the sight outside could still be nauseating.

“-with all the members of the FSF adamantly stating that entry of the Fringe central zones will be the death of all the Esper Union’s newest upcoming espers. We’ll now show a segment of the interview with Matthew Whitlock, the Chief Executive of the mercenary Fringe Special Forces.”

The broadcast depicted an image of a young, pretty journalist standing next to a brown-haired man in his late thirties behind a podium. The man was dressed from the neck down in a dark exo-armour with red light escaping the segments of the black metal. On his chest was a glowing orb of the same colour, protected by a crystal plate.

“Mr Whitlock, what do you consider your strongest reason for refusing the entry of the Esper Union’s Tyro Teams?”

The man leaned forward to place his armoured palms on the table, looking stern. “My strongest reason? You’ve all asked me this time and time again, and I always reply with this: I will not be responsible for the death of those kids.”

“But you could you explain in more detail what you mean by their ‘death’?”

“I assume you don’t want me to go into the definition of ‘death’.” A dark smirk appeared on his face. “Then I’ll be frank. You city people, safe in your havens of technology and no monsters, have no idea what horrors lay beyond the borders of the Fringes,” he growled.

He pointed at the crowd. “It’s 2073 and everyone agrees Earth is entering its best-ever era. Technology is advancing at rapid speeds, a self-sustaining outpost has been built on Mars, and the fascinating ‘abilities’ we are now all born with have fused with every aspect of our lives. But we’re still not safe.”

He slammed his armoured hands on the podium. “Radiation, global warming, rising sea levels, acid rain. We’re responsible for so many disasters. But all of you have forgotten what our greatest crime was.” He raised his hands in the air. “Twenty-six states of America turned into radioactive wasteland! Two-thirds of Russia turned into a freezing atomic hell for all of eternity! Half of China gone! We lost four billion of the world’s population, reducing us to the eight billion we have today!”

He jabbed a finger at them. “When the Rifts came, it was like we were given a second chance. Abilities that allowed us to heal the earth, and a clean, free energy that completely erased all coal plants. But you know what else it gave us? Monsters.”

Matthew Whitlock’s face was dark. “Monsters are cunning, malicious entities. Most of you have never even seen one in person. But monsters adapted, accustomed themselves to the radioactive energies of the Fringes when humans couldn’t, and now we have lost part of the earth to them. Maybe forever. And whose fault was this?” He spread his hands. “Us. Humanity.”

He pointed at them all again. “The Tyro Teams are young and filled with vigour. But they’re ignorant of the real world outside the biodomes of the cities. It will be slaughter for them.” He let out a bark of laughter and gestured to himself. “Even I need to be fully covered by this exo-armour at all times when outside the facilities in the Fringes. The enhanced radioactivity would cook me alive without it.”

“But Mr Whitlock, one of the arguments presented by the Esper Union has been that while they are volunteering to aid the FSF, your platoons are mercenary forces, aren’t they? They’re arguing that it would be more beneficial for the World Government to use them instead of employing the FSF and wasting such a high budget on them.”

“That just proves they are as ignorant as I believe,” he stated shortly. “The World Government is employing us so it’s our lives and not the many lives of their inexperienced new espers that are being lost in the Fringes. We do the hard work, while they get to play their fancy battle games in those simulated arenas of theirs for sport, doing their part in society as being our precious little celebrities.”

Stephen’s holowatch buzzed as a notification to alert him that the Anti-Grav was pulling up to his stop sounded. He shut off the channel and the Network pages he was browsing, then hoisted his briefcase up. The glass doors of his carriage slid up and he quickly stepped over the gap between the bay’s edge and the train’s carriage.

The World Government advertised that the forcefield technology built into the train made it impossible for anyone to fall through the gap and down to the ground of the city below, but he wasn’t taking any risks. Especially as he knew some of the engineers who had worked on the train personally.

He moved to the side and followed the several hundred other people off the train. Many people walked into the carriages and with the hum of electricity, the Anti-Grav sped off again. Stephen sighed and used a moment to take in the appearance of the building before him.

The Esper Union was one of the most influential departments of the World Government. As an Elixir Agent, he worked for them, helping to distribute the powerful awakening elixirs to those the Esper Union believed had the highest potential. The towering skyscraper before him was made of white metal, one singular spire pointed directly up at the sky as two other structures coiled around it to form a double helix. A vibrant beam of neon purple light constantly pulsed from the top of the skyscraper, projecting the news and statuses of the most powerful and famous espers in the Union into the air.

Overshadowing the Esper Union was the dark body of the World Government’s branch headquarters behind it. The cylindrical structure was surrounded by three progressively larger rotating rings of black metal, the ‘sky rings’ as they were called, which artificially controlled the weather and environment of London City. From what he could see, the glow emanating from the rings appeared to be a dark blue. Stephen supposed that the citizens of London felt nostalgic for the country’s natural weather and voted for dreary drizzle on the night before’s poll.

He shook his head and walked through the pointed archway of the Esper Union. A fluorescent green wall appeared before him to block his path and he put his arm forward to let his holowatch contact the wall. The randomly generated quick response code projection on his watch was scanned by the wall and a gap opened up to let him past, allowing him into the main lobby of the Esper Union building.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

His holowatch connected with the network of the building and the lines on the ground lit up to lead him to his destination within the building. He followed the lines, barely even looking at them as he tracked his memorised path to the nearest lift.

Stephen stepped onto the platform and the glass walls of the lift slid down. Without him even needing to press a button, his holowatch automatically controlled the lift to take him to his level. He suppressed a yawn as he sped past the many stories of the building.

Then he frowned when the lift stopped on a level that wasn’t his usual workplace. He stepped out and looked at his holowatch to find out where he was.

“The Esper Union Inspection Office?” he murmured.

The lines on the floor lit up again, so while feeling unsure, he followed them through the level. His worry and confusion grew when he noticed quite a few members of the World Government branch headquarters were there, discussing various details with the white-uniformed Esper Union employees.

He relaxed slightly when he saw a familiar face – Ray Moore, his team leader.

The black-haired man looked up and waved to him when he saw Stephen. “Morning, Steve.”

“Ray, do you have any idea why I was led here?” Stephen asked, putting his briefcase on a table as he looked around with a frown. “There wasn’t any message left for me on my holowatch.”

“Oh… yeah, that.” Ray grimaced. “You know how the government has been dealing with media issues because of all those people who disappeared last month? Well, the witness interviews are finishing up.”

Stephen stared at him. “But I thought they had finished those last week?”

Ray sighed. “Well, it seems they want to do one last interview of each of the central witnesses before moving on to looking at alternative reasons for the disappearances.”

I barely got through the first one with them discovering the negotiation, but now a second one has sprung up?

Stephen checked his holowatch for the time. “When is mine scheduled?”

Before Ray could answer, a stern-looking woman with glasses, wearing a black uniform and glasses, walked up to them, a briefcase in her hand. Following behind was a young man with short white hair. He wore an ear cuff that featured the signature logo of the Esper Union’s espers.

“Is this him?” the woman asked Ray. Ray nodded and she turned to Stephen. “Stephen Lawrence, I need to ask you a few questions regarding the Lucille Goldcroft case. Follow me to the sound block room.”

The woman turned on her heels and swiftly walked away, the young man beside her. Stephen grimaced and picked up his briefcase as Ray walked beside him.

“Don’t worry, she looks harsh but I know her,” Ray said with a smirk. “If she doesn’t want to lose access to the Esper Union lounge beverage maker then she won’t go too hard on you.”

The woman turned to shoot Ray a flat look but pressed a button to open a door that led into a glass-walled room. “We’re here,” she said.

Stephen followed the woman and the white-haired man in. The white-haired man pressed a button on the inside of the room, turning the clear walls into frosted glass and subsequently blocking anyone from looking in, or him from looking out.

The woman walked over to the table in the centre of the room and gestured to the seat opposite her. “Sit there.”

Stephen did so, putting his case down as the white-haired young man stood behind the woman. The silence in the room was deafening.

The woman placed her briefcase on the table and opened it, taking out several folders. She flipped through them and took a pen out of her pocket. “Right then, Mr Lawrence. Introductions first. I am Sabrina Hills, a member of the World Government’s investigation division,” she said.

She placed down the folders and gestured to the young man behind her. “And this here is Zachary Dawson, who will be responsible for detecting if you lie using his ability. Have you met him before?”

Stephen raised an eyebrow. “I don’t think I have, no.”

“Good,” she stated curtly. “That means there will be no reason for him to cover for any lies.”

She opened up the folder in front of her. “Let’s begin with the basic information. Stephen Lawrence, age 32 years. Your parents belonged to the middle class and were able to afford a C-ranked elixir for you to awaken with.”

Stephen nodded.

Sabrina gave him a dull look. “Verbal replies please, Mr Lawrence.”

“Yes, that’s correct,” he said, feeling awkward. The eyes of the young man behind Sabrina glowed green for a brief moment.

She flipped to the next page. “Your ability was determined to be a rare Pre-ordinate type, which earned you a scholarship to go to a prestigious university in the United States. You returned to England when you were 23 and then joined the Esper Union as an employee.”

“Correct.” Stephen nodded.

Sabrina Hills steepled her fingers as she looked at him. “Describe the basic characteristics of your ability, Mr Lawrence.”

“My ability enables me to detect potential opportunities for myself,” he explained. “People, events, news, media, and text can all trigger it. When I take advantage of the opportunity, my benefits are vastly increased past what a person would normally receive.”

“But this ability still has limits.”

“Yes.” He nodded. “Some opportunities I cannot take advantage of with my current means, and provide opportunities that don’t apply to my needs right now. And I only receive the benefits when I correctly take advantage of the opportunity. If I purposely try to take advantage of the opportunity and fail to use the opportunity as my ability wants me to… the backlash can be pretty big.” He suppressed a grimace at that thought.

The most recent example would be the case with the Goldcroft heir. I assumed the opportunity was to gain her financial support without needing to give her my X-ranked elixir, but clearly, that was not what the world decided would happen.

Sabrina looked at the white-haired man and he nodded. She turned back to Stephen. “Then we’ll move on to the case at hand.”

She flipped to the next page of her folder. “Stephen Lawrence, how well did you know Lucille Goldcroft before you met her?”

He blinked. “I barely knew her at all, besides the rumours in the media. We only met once.”

“Tell me the rumours,” Sabrina Hills said, using her pen to scribble down notes.

“That Marvin Goldcroft doesn’t intend on letting her inherit Medallion, she was responsible for the destruction of a major shopping centre, and that she hates being part of a family in charge of business,” he listed. “I think I’ve also heard that she’s been publicly called a sociopath by a few major doctors.”

“I see.” Sabrina kept writing. “What was your purpose for meeting with her on the 1st of July?”

“To offer her a high-tier awakening elixir,” he replied, being careful with his words. “I wished to negotiate a deal with her in exchange for the elixir.”

Sabrina Hills shuffled the pages and looked up at him. “What tier of elixir did you give her?”

He hesitated for a moment and her eyes narrowed. He quickly came up with an answer. “I had originally intended to only give her the S-tiered elixir, but Lucille Goldcroft persuaded me to give her the X-tier elixir instead.”

The woman studied him and he hoped with all the fibres of his being that she wouldn’t ask how the Goldcroft heir had persuaded him. But she didn’t say anything, allowing Stephen to let out a sigh of relief.

“We’ll move on from the specifics of the elixir itself considering it seemed to have no relation to which individuals disappeared during July,” she said. “Instead, Stephen Lawrence… did Lucille Goldcroft say anything unusual to you before you departed from her study?”

He gazed at her, confused. “Unusual? In what way?”

She went silent, watching him with no expression on her face. She traded glances with the white-haired young man and then let out a short sigh. “Stephen Lawrence, what I’m about to tell you is strictly confidential and must not be shared with anyone. The only reason I am telling this to you is because you are an important core witness of this case.” She leaned forward and intertwined her fingers, looking solemn. “Marvin Goldcroft has submitted a letter to the World Government that we’ve proven was written by Lucille Goldcroft. As for the contents…”

Sabrina Hills leaned back. “It appears Lucille Goldcroft was aware of what would happen to her before the disappearance event occurred.”

Stephen felt his eyes widened. “What? But- How?”

She shook her head. “We don’t know.” She pointed at him. “That is why we need you to help us by telling us any information you can. Is there anything that struck you in her actions or words that day as particularly strange or noteworthy?”

Stephen frowned and crossed his arms as he considered it. This has nothing to do with his failed negotiation anymore. “There’s one detail I can think of… actually, maybe two.”

Sabrina nodded and gestured for him to continue.

“Lucille Goldcroft seemed to be aware of the characteristics of the X-ranked elixir because she specifically mentioned the colour to me.”

“What was the context of the conversation?” she asked, listening carefully.

He racked his brain for a truthful-ish answer. “I- uh, when the topic of the conversation was the difference between the two elixirs I made a comment about how as a young woman she might not have known much about the X-ranked elixir,” he answered awkwardly. It wasn’t a perfect answer but the woman only nodded and continued writing.

“And what was the other detail you noticed?”

“Well…” He rubbed his neck with a slight frown. “This is only my personal judgement and from what I’ve seen of the few videos and pieces of media about her, but… she was unusually expressive when we met.”

The scratching of the pen against paper stopped and Sabrina looked up. “Expressive?”

Stephen nodded. “All the images and videos on the Network depict her as very emotionless and neutral most of the time. I haven’t seen a single picture of her showing any sort of smile, anger, excitement, or any strong emotion. But when we met, she was sarcastic, smiled a lot, her tone was joking and occasionally she acted slightly smug.” He shrugged. “I guess it’s just proof that rumours about her aren’t very accurate.”

Sabrina Hills didn’t respond, tapping her hands against the table in thought. “That matches up with the observations Marvin Goldcroft and his secretary made…” she murmured.

Stephen blinked. “Sorry?”

She shook her head and after writing one last line on her page – which looked suspiciously like ‘Possession?’ to him – she stood up from her chair. Sabrina nodded to him. “Thank you for your time, Mr Lawrence. It’s unlikely we’ll see each other again any time soon, but if you recall any additional details, please drop by the World Government to report to us.”

“…Yes?” Stephen stared for a moment before he realised the interview was over. “Ah, yes, I will. I hope this case is resolved soon, Ms Hills.”

“As do I.” She gave him one last nod before opening the door and leaving. Stephen picked up his briefcase and exited the room, which had its walls turned back to normal clear glass.

His team leader walked up to him. “See? She wasn’t so bad,” Ray said with a smile.

“It was still more nerve-wracking having her interview me than the other man a few weeks ago.” Stephen sighed.

Ray patted him on the shoulder. “It’s all done and dusted now, so let’s get a move on and head up to the lounge to get our free fine dining experience for lunch, all paid for by our organisation,” he said with a wink.

Stephen followed after him, his thoughts still on the interview and his experience with Lucille Goldcroft in July. He shook his head and followed his outgoing team leader and the lines on the floor to go back to the lift.

Then he stopped in his tracks as he spotted someone he instantly recognised on the other side of the room, one of the most famous individuals in the world. Dressed in a white suit and red tie with white sideburns and black hair, Marvin Goldcroft was talking to a man Stephen knew to be the head of the Esper Union. Sabrina Hills walked up to Marvin and said something.

Stephen froze when Marvin Goldcroft glanced his way, but the man barely looked at him for a second before returning to his conversation.

Ray glanced over his shoulder to see what Stephen was looking at. “Why are you watching them, Steve? You cross paths with celebrities in this building every day. And besides, you know the Union head knows Marvin Goldcroft.”

“Let’s just say after last month I’ve been feeling a bit awkward when the topic of Medallion comes up,” Stephen muttered.

Ray shot him a look but continued walking. “Maybe a fancy meal will take your mind off things.”

…

His team leader gave Stephen the rest of the day off to let him destress. Stephen gladly took the opportunity and headed back home to his apartment where he instantly sat down on his soft lounge, breathing a deep sigh of relief. He glanced at his holowatch to check the time.

There’s nothing I want to do and it’s Friday, so I’ll just take a nap. This day has been tiring.

As his consciousness slipped away from the waking world, he felt his right-hand tingle slightly. His last thought as he left the waking world was that something… didn’t feel quite right…

…

“Agent Lawrence?”

His eyes snapped open as he was pulled back to alertness, the disturbingly familiar voice disrupting his sleep. He breathed heavily as he looked around and frowned when he realised where he was.

Roof-to-floor windows, a high viewpoint of London city, black walls, afternoon sunlight streaming in…

“Agent Lawrence, is everything alright?”

The voice drew his attention back to where he was sitting and he stared at the familiar figure sitting directly across from him behind a familiar desk.

Wrapped in a black shin-length trench coat, wearing heavy black boots and a black turtleneck was a young woman no older than eighteen. Her long straight hair was black and she had a fringe that reached her eyebrows. She was sitting sideways in her desk chair, her legs swung over one armrest and her back against another. Two strangely-coloured dark blue eyes gazed at him with what seemed to be slight worry.

“Agent Lawrence, you seemed to be a bit dazed.”

“I- uh, no, I’m fine, sorry. I just lost concentration for a second there,” he lied, answering her so he had more time to work out what was going on.

The girl who seemed to be Lucille Goldcroft blinked and then smiled. “That’s good then. I was worried something had gone wrong. This is the first time I’m using this specific application of it, after all.”

Unsure what she was talking about, he nodded weakly.

Lucille hummed and twisted her chair slightly to face him better. “Well then, Agent Lawrence, if you have nothing you’d like to discuss then how about I move on to the reason for you being here today?”

He gazed blankly at her until she tilted her head and he realised she wanted an answer from him. “Um, yes, yes! The reason for being here today, let’s discuss that.”

Lucille quirked an eyebrow at his response, making him wince, but she moved on.

Is this… a dream? I don’t think remember ever having a lucid dream before… but of all the people my subconsciousness could put in a dream, why did it have to be her?

“The topic of the conversation today is your willingness to agree to be my loyal and devoted helper for the rest of eternity, hereon and out!” she announced, spreading her arms.

He stared at her, so she added, “That was a joke.”

Lucy sat up straight. “What we are here to discuss is your ability to aid me for the next coming months,” she stated seriously. Then she smirked. “This is because I have the power to ruin your reputation, social life, employment and standing through the use of my recorded footage of our deal.”

Stephen didn’t respond and only gazed wordlessly at her for a while. He looked around the room. It was a perfect replica of the study he had visited on the first of July and the amount of detail that had been recreated was extremely high, to say the least. He didn’t know his own mind could conjure something that accurate.

Stephen got up out of his chair and headed over to the window. Lucille tilted her head. “Agent Lawrence?”

The view of London was also accurate. The sunlight glinted of the glass and metal and the sky rings of the World Government’s branch headquarters could be seen overhead. It was almost enough for him to believe he had been transported back to that study in the Medallion skyscraper five weeks ago.

He walked over to the door of the study and placed a hand on the doorknob.

“Ah, Agent Lawrence, I wouldn’t do that if I were you. Only a small portion of my consciousness has been slowed down to adjust to the time of the Cosmic Realm so you’ll find that the scenery outside the door is-”

He swiftly opened it to step out and stared at the view of an endless white expanse, with no end in sight. He leaned to look over the edge of the doorway but there was no London, no corridor, no person, place, or thing to be seen. It only descended into apparent nothingness. He glanced back over his shoulder, but the study was still there. Lucille was sitting at her desk, her head tilted as she watched him.

If this was a dream, then all he had to do was wake up.

Taking a deep breath to ready himself, he crouched, and launched his body into the air to jump down…

… when he tripped over the edge of the doorway and fell flat on his face. The floor of the space wasn’t miles below, but level with his own feet.

“I could have told you that the layer of imagination had no depth, you know,” a voice called out from the room behind him with amusement.

He groaned as he stood back up and gave the girl behind him a weary look. Then he tried to shut the door of the study. It closed, leaving only a door floating in mid-air.

He opened it again. Lucille Goldcroft was still there, behind her desk.

He closed it. Then opened it. She was still there. Nothing had changed.

Lucille huffed. “This is getting tiring. Fine then. If the game is up, then I may as well remove it all.”

With a snap of her fingers, the room and door disappeared, making Stephen stumble. A few seconds later she reappeared in the empty space, still sitting in her revolving desk chair behind her desk. She gestured to the chair opposite her. “Sit.”

He slowly sat back down as Lucy intertwined her fingers and studied him expressionlessly. Then she smiled. “Stephen Lawrence, I have a proposition. I want your help.” She smirked. “And I know you’ll give it to me.”

He stayed silent. When he next spoke, it was not a reply to what she had said. “This is a dream, isn’t it?” He gestured to her. “You’re not real.”

She tilted her head.

He gestured to the room. “All of this isn’t real.” He pointed at her again. “I don’t who you are or what you’re planning, but you’re not Lucille Goldcroft. I don’t care if you’re some person who’s awakened an ability relating to dreams and wants to mess with me.” He shook his head. “Any moment now I’ll wake up, and there’ll be nothing you can do about it.”

Lucille gained a strange smile. “You believe this is a dream?”

Stephen didn’t say anything. She hummed and then shrugged. “Well, that’s understandable. Perhaps if I was in your situation I’d believe the same, although in my case… dreams are impossible.”

She abruptly stood up, making him flinch. “Then I’ll prove that this isn’t some dream,” she said brightly. “I’ll give you irrefutable proof in real life that I’m capable of more than just giving you nightmares.” She spread her arms. “So, Stephen Lawrence, when you wake up, look down at your hand. And when you see that cube, break it.”

She clapped her hands together. “Enjoy your sleep.”

With a sense of relief, Stephen Lawrence felt his mind slip back into the darkness of sleep as the world disintegrated around him, believing it all to be a dream because he knew there was no way someone could affect him in his own house.