Janet and I followed Ray deeper into his house. We eventually entered a room containing the latest video game consoles and a large PC monitor near an open closet filled with clothes and stacks of comic books.

“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” he sighed.

He sat in a black chair and started typing on the keyboard in front of his computer. “Sit on the bed or something. This may take a while since they change the security codes every week.”

Fortunately for us, Ray managed to hack into Obsidian’s servers within minutes.

“Got it,” he declared, getting up from his seat. “All of the folders with files are here. There’s one I haven’t been able to crack into ‘cause of the amount of protection it has, but everything else is available. You’ll have to look through them all ‘cause I don’t remember which one listed your last name.”

“Thank you,” Janet said, taking a seat in front of the desktop. “I appreciate it.”

“No problem. Hey, Aliyah, can we go back to why you’re here?”

“Yeah, sure.”

We walked back into the living room and stood near the fireplace. “That girl can be a real hothead, huh?” he asked.

“If you only knew.”

He smiled before his facial features grew stiff. “I hacked into Obsidian’s Dreamer files and made up a fake profile in order to get you to come here. I placed the fake profile at the top of the potential Dreamers list in hopes that whoever sent you to find the fake Dreamer would eventually lead you to the café like I planned.”

Not only was his plan risky, but it must’ve taken a lot of work just to get me to his house. The real question remained: what exactly did he want with me?

“Alright, so what specifically do you need me to do?”

“I need you to help my boyfriend. His name’s Aaron. I can tell something is really wrong with him, and a lot of students on his campus have died in the past few days. I’m not saying he’s the one murdering them, but I’m positive he’s being controlled by a Shadow that Dreamers like you can see. I’ve read multiple occurrences documented by the others who can sense them, and I’m sure what’s happening to my boyfriend is another case of a demon turning him to the dark side.”

This was my first time being asked by someone else to free the mind of a tortured soul. It almost made me feel like a paranormal investigator or a legit demon hunter.

“Are you sure you’re not just being paranoid?” I had to ask, making sure I knew what I was getting into.

“I’m sure. He’s never been like this. Please, I need you to snap him out of it. I’m begging you.”

Observing the misery shaping his face, there was only one response I could.

“I’ll do it. Under one condition.”

“Oh, great. What is it?”

“Can you hack into actual security systems, like locked doors?”

He gave me a perplexed look. “I’ve done it a few times before. Why?”

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“You know that Obsidian server outside of the city that you’ve been hacking? I think it’s connected to the laboratory where my friends are being held hostage. If I save your boyfriend from the demon that’s manipulating him, you have to help me get my friends and a bunch of other people out of there.”

He huffed and scratched the back of his head. “Man, you’re putting me in a tough spot. I’m positive my mom doesn’t work in that building, but if we’re caught, she’ll most likely lose her job, and I’ll be in some serious trouble. As much as I can’t stand her personally, I don’t know if I can take that risk.”

“Please, the guy and girl they’re holding captive are my best friends. I love them just as much as you love your boyfriend. Like you said, you wouldn’t have gone through all this trouble to get me here if he wasn’t special to you.”

His eyes fell to the floor, mumbling to himself before looking back up at me. “Damn. You know you’re asking me to go up against my own mother in a way, right? But it is what it is. She’s a tyrant anyway.” He smirked and hunched his shoulders. “Alright. I’m down for this.”

“Then let’s do it.”

With our agreement intact, we gave each other a fist bump before walking back to his room. When he opened the door, a wave of grief skimmed past me.

“Janet?” I called out.

She was peering down at the desktop, puzzled and bug-eyed. “T-they did it. All this time… They did it.”

I stepped inside the room and felt the intense heat circulating in the air. “Janet, what’s wrong?”

In a flash, the computer in front of her burst into flames. The blaze spread across the room and trailed through the walls of the house, causing sparks of wiring to flare. Smoke detectors started going off immediately.

“Janet, stop,” I shouted, backing out into the doorway.

“What the hell is she?” Ray yelled. “Do you know how much that stuff cost?”

Janet turned to face us with fiery eyes. “My parents. They were killed by Obsidian. Alvin ordered their deaths.”

I gaped at her discovery, standing at a loss for words until the fire grew larger.

“Janet, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, but you have to calm—”

“Don’t tell me to calm down.”

Her shriek was followed by multiple explosions coming from different sections of the house. I tried walking back into the room to comfort her, but the inferno was too hot to handle.

“Janet, you have to listen to me. Ray and I came up with a plan, okay? If it all works out, you can confront Alvin face-to-face. You can avenge your parents.”

Janet’s pupils returned to normal, but the fire failed to extinguish.

“Yo,” Ray hollered at her. “Put the fire out already before we die.”

“I’m trying,” she shouted back. She closed her eyes despite the heat of the moment and focused on extinguishing the flames. When the conflagration subsided, Ray fell to his knees and dropped his head into his hands.

“I’m a dead man walking. Another reason for Mom to hate me.”

Janet stepped out of the room and approached me. “If you’re serious, I’m in. Let’s do this as soon as possible.”

Teardrops slid down her cheeks before I held her close. Her exposed emotions were just as vulnerable as they were on the bridge.

“Both of my parents were neuropsychologists,” she told me. “A few months before they died, they were transferred to a new organization. I never bothered to ask about it ‘cause the transition meant more money for all of us. I was just happy my family would have a bigger income.”

She separated from our embrace before continuing. “I never knew that organization was Obsidian. I heard them mention the name a few times in secret, but I never imagined what they were getting into. I discovered on the files that Alvin was their boss, and after he found out my parents were going to reveal the virus to the public, he ordered someone to kill them and blame their deaths on an accidental house fire.”

My gaze never left her. I could feel every ounce of depression engulfing her heart as her sorrow began to take its toll on me. Never had I sensed so much heartache.

“That damn fire.” She looked down at the palm of her hand. “All this time, I thought I had killed my parents. I thought it was all my fault.”

“It’s not,” I told her. “It never was. We’ll get through this, Janet.”

“We will. As soon as Alvin is dead.”

Ray approached us with a wide-eyed expression. “So, which one of you is paying for all of this? My mom’s gonna be home in a couple of days.”

“I will,” Janet answered. “I don’t know if my savings will cover all the damages, but I’ll work extra shifts and pay off my debt, I promise. You can give your mother my information and blame it on me if you have to, but right now, let’s discuss this plan you two came up with.”

“Fine,” he accepted. “I guess I’ll pitch in, too. I’m sorry about your parents. I’m rooting for you to get back at the guy who set them up, but first, we need to get my boyfriend out of his funk.”

“Whatever.” She was fired up. “Let’s go.”