Light cascaded through holes and tears in the thick curtains, sending bubbles and rays across the room.

Ani and Ranch’s stomachs rose and fell as they slept. Faint stones came from the bed behind. Unsure of what time it was, I carefully pried my hand from my side, sliding it out from the blanket to dig through my backpack. A sharp flash of pain shot down my hand as something caught on my finger.

I abandoned my backpack, pulling my hand in close. Inspecting it, I noticed a tiny splinter at the tip of my insect finger. Strange, I didn’t recall getting— oh, the dream.

Somehow, I’d interacted with the objects inside the dream.

Leaving that particular revelation alone, I worked cautiously to yank the splinter from my finger, wiggling the splice back and forth until it came free with a jolt of pain. A small prick of blood floated to the surface.

I went back to digging through my backpack, accidentally bumping Ani and Ranch with my shoulder as I leaned to get a better view. Ani stirred, giving an annoyed meow, but didn’t get up. When I found the cool tempered glass of my phone, I pulled it out, unlocking it. The default Home Screen stared back at me, clock numbers ticking away at the top of the screen. I pulled up a notes app, my fingers hovering above the keyboard as I thought about where to start.

Slowly, I typed in the details of the dream I’d just had, emphasizing the splinter’s mysterious appearance in the waking world. The realization that any injury occurring in my dream could carry over to the waking world was unsettling, and I hoped I’d somehow caught it on the floor. Something told me that wasn’t the case.

Cove had taught me a lot, but he’d never so much as suggested this was a possibility.

The whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth, and I felt a pang of regret that I’d agreed to do this in the first place. The whole setup had been suspicious, with my pictures moving and reappearing all over my apartment. Why had I agreed to this?

“You won’t be able to save them all. You need to try anyway. If you don’t, you’ll never be able to forgive yourself.”

I closed my eyes and pressed my face into the soft fur of the rug. I agreed to this because a dream told me to. Without the context of magic, it sounded a little stupid. Even with the context of magic, it sounded stupid. I pressed my palms into my eyelids as ifI could push all the stupidity out of my head. It didn’t work, only sending red flashes across my vision.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Red, like blood. Images of the body doubles and the broken bodies of chimeras flashed across my vision. I quickly removed my palms from my eyes, shoving the thoughts away into the deep recesses of my mind.

I let out a low, frustrated groan and rolled over onto my back, tossing my arm across my forehead to stare at the ceiling. The room went silent.

A sleepy voice popped up from the bed. “Are you okay?”

I flung my hand up, waving it in a so-so motion. “We need to talk.”

The sheets on the bed rustled as Cove went silent, and I felt his eyes dig into the side of my face.

“As soon as we won’t be overheard.” He promised, pressing his heels into the floor and rising easily into a stretch. Ranch and Ani shuffled against me, poking their heads out from the blanket. Ranch squirmed, crawling out to trot over to Cove’s side, rubbing against his legs in a greeting, like the sweet cat she was. Ani took a look at my face and suddenly jabbed a clawed paw into it. I shot up, my hand going to the painful pricks.

When I looked back down at Ani, his tail was swishing back and forth, and he looked proud of himself. “Ani!”

I heard a stifled laugh from where Cove was standing and shoved the rest of the blankets off, moving to stand all the way up. My back popped as I stood. I stepped to the side, my toes landing on cold glass.

Right. My phone.

Footsteps echoed outside the door, and I moved quickly, bending over and shoving it back in the bag just as Mattie flung the door open. Upon seeing our disheveled state, she flushed, the color burning down beneath her plaid shirt, reaching past the sleeves and to her fingertips. Once again, her eyes lingered on Cove, trailing to the muscle just barely visible in the morning light underneath his thin white shirt.

I tugged the zipper shut, feeling somewhat grateful for the distraction Cove provided. To Mattie’s credit, she tried to play it off well. Her eyes snapped back up to meet Cove’s as she pressed forward into the room. “Good morning! I cooked you guys some eggs for breakfast. Theyr’e in the kitchen.”

I nodded as Cove offered her a polite “Thank you.”

“Great,” she said, backtracking out of the door. “Don’t take too long!” She slammed the door shut behind her, her footsteps pounding away.

Mattie’s parents were conspicuously absent during breakfast, bringing an awkward atmosphere to hang over the table. Cove and Mattie, both far more outgoing than I, kept up a polite conversation, but it was a far cry from our easy banter in the forest yesterday. We helped her clean up the dishes–they did have soap and running (cold) water, thankfully.

Apparently, bans on technology didn’t count when it was convenient.

“I’ll take you back to the city.” Mattie offered, putting the last clean plate away in the cabinet.

Cove gave another polite smile. “That’s alright. We can manage.” He said.

Mattie looked at us doubtfully. “But you didn’t even know about the robots?”

“We’ll be fine.”- My words sounded far surer than I felt, but I was confident in Cove’s ability to handle them, if not my own.

Maybe I'd bring a gun next time we went on one of these trips. It seemed far more dependable than the fickleness of magic.

“Will you, though?” Mattie asked. Her words were teasing, but her tone was serious.

Cove reached for her shoulder. Grabbing it gently, he said, “We will. Thank you.”

Her blush returned.

We didn’t have much to pack and were ready to leave the city in a matter of minutes. Mattie handed us a few husk-wrapped parcels along with two slingshots. Our polite refusals were shot down, Mattie insisting that we don’t insult her by refusing her generosity. The food I stuffed atop the stones in my backpack while Cove and I stuffed the slingshots in our pockets, offering her thanks.

We headed out of the city shortly after the sun had washed away the oranges or the dawn; I had the feeling that our time here was only just beginning.