Ch. 79: The Collective

CHAPTER SEVENTY-NINE:
Ally~
The longer Kyle stayed around us, he seemed to get both better and worse. His body looked healthier. Color was returning to his skin, his deep dark circles under his eyes were lightening. He seemed a little rested. Not nearly like the skeleton version of himself I had found stumbling outside. But while he appeared healthier that way, his mind… it seemed like it was getting worse.
The first night he tried sleeping alone in our guest room, but my mom and I woke up to his cries and now we both camp out in sleeping bags on the floor of my mom’s room, since it was the biggest. It’s been hard trying to gage what to push him on and what to just let be. My mom has been on the ‘let it be’ train. She’s been filling him up with all kinds of meals and desserts. She’s encouraged him to take long baths and set up these amazing spa-level bubble baths for him. Lavender candles, fizzy stuff, bubbles all over. She wants him to relax, but she hasn’t dared ask him any questions - or even said anything about his condition to me. She’s just going full momma-bear. Comfort and warmth.
I’m struggling and have been talking with my grandmother’s spirit, trying to figure out how to best help him. All I know for sure is what I saw when I projected to him, what he looked like when he showed up here, and what he muttered in his sleep his first night here. I know he’s haunted by it. He spaces out a lot. I know he misses his grandma, she’s gone. She was everything to him. I can’t imagine what it would be like to lose my mom - to have her taken from me. She’s my everything too.
“You’re not focused,” Kyle mentions in a cavalier tone from his spot on the floor next to me.
I cracked an eye open to see him looking at the wall in front of us. We’ve been sitting on pillows on the living room floor. Me, practicing projection and trying to get back to where I had found Kyle, to maybe see something that could help us figure out where he had been kept, or better yet, who took him. Kyle - well I’m not sure what he was doing. Meditating, maybe? Well not super well either if he could see or feel me not focusing well enough.
I stretched and yawned, twisting my back and hearing a satisfying pop before exhaling and trying again. After some time I opened my eyes, unsuccessful again, to see him looking right at me.
“Can I try something?” he asked me.
“Sure, what?” I asked back.
“I think - I want to see if I can help you,” he said. “I remember my gra-,” he stopped. “I remember learning that sometimes in the past Dream Walkers could interact with others, like their abilities.”
I nodded and he reached out his hand, I put my hand in his and immediately felt something cool and relaxing come over me. I felt so tired. I'm so tired. My head rolled to the side and he let go. It took me a few moments to shake off the sleepiness.
“Crab apples - sorry,” Kyle looked at me sheepishly. “That was too much. Why don’t you try again, feel the ‘pull’ and when you do, squeeze my hand.”
I raised my brow at him but saw the seriousness there.
“Okay,” I reached for his hand away and did my breathing.
I let go of it all, the feels and sounds around me, and I focused on my breath until nothing else remained. I chanted the incantation in my mind along the way, losing myself in it. I felt a pull and almost forgot to flinch my hand in his, but then I felt it, the coolness came over me. In much less intensity this time. I felt a pull, a breeze of sorts, come over me and I let it carry me.
I was in a cloud. No - not a cloud. Sitting up and looking around, I saw trees and mountains covered in white dust. Snow. I looked down. I was sitting in the snow. But I couldn’t feel anything. There was a crow watching me intensely on a boulder a few feet away. It turned its head in my direction, asking me a silent question. It took off flying towards the mountain. I got up and walked after it. Passing between two pines, I found myself inside a home. A cabin. A log cabin, old school one. Like the kinds you rent in Tahoe or the mountains in Big Bend. I heard voices coming from around the corner and followed them. Walking slowly, I found myself walking towards a kitchen. Careful to stay out of view, I waited, listening to the sounds of someone cooking on a stove. Why was I here? Who was this?
I felt a cool squeeze in my hand. Kyle. On the other side.
They can’t see this, see you. We’re not astral projecting, this is something else, he said in my ear.
I trusted him and cautiously walked further in.
“Marina!” a woman called from the stove. “Dinner’s nearly ready, call your sisters!”
“Yeah!” someone answered from down the hall.
I watched this woman for a few minutes and walked around cautiously. I didn’t recognize her face. Who was this woman? Why was I seeing her?
A young woman who shared her features appeared in the hall.
“I called, they’re on their way from Callum’s cabin,” she explained, reaching for something in the fridge.
A moment later another girl, this one a young teen, came through the door. The three spoke to each other for a few minutes about getting the table set.
“We asked Callum if we could host him tomorrow for dinner and he agreed!” the younger girl squealed.
The mother and older daughter, Marina, beamed at the information, they were straight-up fangirling.
“That’s fantastic!” the older daughter exclaimed then turned to her mother, “Maybe one of us will be chosen!”
Their mother clapped her hands in delight.
“After dinner we will try on different dresses,” she creened. “Marina,” she said seriously, moving her hair up in an updo, “this could be your moment. Callum could make you the vessel.”
“You think so?” she asked in awe.
Her mom nodded and carefully moved Marina’s hair back in its original place along her shoulders.
They began to sit at the dinner table when the door opened again. A figure stood in the doorway, a small one.
“Did you hear?!” the female voice called from the doorway.
It sounded familiar…
Suddenly I was encased in bright light. Air roared around me. I looked around but nothing was very discernible.
And then I was in a forest. At night. I looked down the mountain and saw the ocean. I must be along the coast somewhere.
Up ahead was a crow, and I followed it again. Past some bushes. There was a tent. Voices coming from inside. I walked forward and listened in. Female voices. And an older husky male one.
“Are you sure they’re ready?” the older man’s voice asked.
“Of course, Callum. They’ve been training for this. They’re ready,” a female voice said.
I leaned forward more, and noticed my hand could slip through the tent. I walked through to see over one hundred women and some young boys sitting around a fire, inside this huge tent. It had looked from the outside like it could maybe fit four people, but the inside was like a circus tent.
I looked back at the wall of the tent and stuck my hand through once more before turning back around. They were gathering, before a very pale, tall man with dark black hair that shone purple in the firelight. His large eyes seemed to swallow me whole and I swore he could see me. But then he blinked and turned to address the audience.
“You all know what is at stake here. This preemptive strike on these dogs will help protect our children, and our children’s children for generations to come. Your sacrifice is valued by our collective, and by the Blood Mother who watches over us all. We honor her tonight,” he waved a hand toward the tent exit. “We know what must be done.”
A group of young girls, including Marina and her sister walked forward joining a group walking towards the exit.
I didn’t know for sure what was happening, but it couldn’t be good. I knew I needed to follow them.
The girls walked out with their hoods raised. They continued walking on and slowly we came upon a ginormous garage. In the distance I could see other lights, from a house and maybe a campfire. What was this place?
“This is it,” hissed Marina from right next to me.
The girls raised a vial of something and swallowed it down in unison before they raised their right hands to the moon, a shining dagger in their left hands. They cut their right arm in one fluid motion, wrist to elbow. And then they licked up the cut on their arm.
My face contorted in disgust. Ew. Blood is nasty, it tastes like metal. Yuck.
Then I saw their blood splatter on the ground start to rise, like we were in space and not on earth. Gravity seemed to no longer apply.
I heard howling far off.
They raised both arms from the ground to the sky above and that’s when the flames erupted. I looked at these girls again, shocked at what I was seeing. Blood pooled under their eyes, like they were crying red tears.
Thunderous footsteps came bounding our way, and I saw a hoard of huge wolves charge at the girls.
The first one knocked a girl clean off her feet, my eyes following her smash into the nearby tree. Her hood came off as she stood up again to fight, and my jaw dropped. I couldn’t breathe. It couldn’t be. I blinked again, getting another good look - at Maxine’s face as it contorted in rage as she threw a wall of fire at the wolves in front of her.