The Dreamers' Club - Chapter 3

The Dreamers' Club - Chapter 3

Chapter 3 - Crystalline

Felicia felt herself drifting, her hair sliding around her face in slow motion. It was like lying face down on the surface of a calm pool, except that she was breathing. The only water around her was a cool drizzle. Opening her eyes, she could see the drizzle falling away into a vast darkness. The water gusted in her face, stinging her eyes.

Beneath her there two rows of lights, accented by sharp painted lines, merging into the darkness like railroad tracks. They became more and more pixellated as she descended. It reminded her of a runway. She swam through the air, floating close enough to the ground to touch it. It felt smoother than it looked, almost like ice with the drizzle. A glistening city nearby was almost blanked out by the gray of approaching rain. The drizzle collected on her jacket but did not soak through like it should have. The drops fell around her feet and scattered in little strings of pixels.

Suddenly, a flash of bright red caught her eye. An animal stalked out of the darkness, surveying the runway. Though its features were clouded by a red glow that covered its body, Felicia recognized the diamond shape of its head and its big paws. Its eyes, dull triangles, locked on her.

Muted footsteps broke the silence. Overcoat Girl and Mill dashed out from the darkness and stopped on opposite sides of the wolf. Mill took up a boxer's pose, her feet shifting under her, while Overcoat Girl stood absolutely still, with one hand in her pocket, the ends of her coat falling straight and even along her sides. Felicia was sure she had seen the girls a few minutes before, but she could not remember them being on the runway. The wolf had turned its attention to them, and Felicia floated up and over the wolf to get a better look.

The wolf raced at Mill. She sprang out of the way at the last second with a sliding, twirling motion that made her seem like she was figure skating. The wolf ran at her again and again, but Mill's fluid steps were too quick. Unbelievably quick, Felicia noted. It was almost as if she was simply disappearing and reappearing, but Felicia could see the whole movement.

The gray of the drizzle gave way as the heavier rain reached them. Overcoat Girl pulled a glassy object from inside her coat. She held it at arm's length, following the wolf's movements with it. The wolf's attention was drawn away from Mill and it rocketed at Overcoat Girl. Caught off-guard, she took the full force of the wolf's charge and went flying, through the steel wall of a hangar Felicia hadn't noticed before. The glassy object glinted in the city light as it flew from Overcoat Girl's hand. It handed on the fuzzy asphalt with a loud, resonating plink.

The sound awakened Felicia instantly. There wasn't a second thought in her mind as she plunged from the sky and slammed into the wolf. It crashed to the ground with her weight, writhing in her arms and gnashing its teeth. It gave a few sharp squirms, releasing itself from Felicia's grip and dropping her to her hands and knees. It whirled and growled in Felicia's face.

"You want a piece of this, moonbrains?" Felicia growled back. "Bring it! C'mon!"

It roared and streaked at her. Felicia shot up and kicked it in the nose. The wolf's head twisted back sharply with a high-pitched snarl, and it snapped at Felicia's foot and lunged at her again, this time claping its slick teeth around Felicia's neck. She gasped as she was bowled backwards, pinned until the wolf's weight.

Something was missing. Felicia knew something should have happened at this point in time, something big. She tried to lift her head, but the wolf growled and jerked her back down. Its teeth jammed deeper in her throat, the furry jaws strangling her. Its breath was warm on her skin, but clean and without odor, as if it were coming from a heating duct. Felicia's eyelids grew heavy.

Lookout, she heard someone yell. It was distant and blunted by some kind of aural static, like she was underwater. She could see that Overcoat Girl had retrieved the glassy object, a small pistol. The wolf released its grip and hissed in an unnatural, seething way, its fur bristling.

Light flared, and blue tendrils of electricity consumed the wolf. It gave a raspy yelp. Threads of light raced away from it, weaving off into the distance. As the wolf's weight was taken off and the wolf drawn away, Felicia could see threads of light all over the sky, glittering in a thousand colors. It was as if they were connecting the stars. Pretty, she thought.

Overcoat Girl made an elaborate gesture with her free hand. The air in front of her wavered and split. The wolf and the webs vanished, all drawn into the pistol in sticky rays of light. Overcoat Girl then aimed the pistol into the split and and pulled the trigger. Light blasted out into the void and it closed, with a ghostly howl that passed Felicia in slow motion.

The two girls gathered around Felicia, who could barely keep her eyes open. "Is she OK?" Mill asked, her voice still muffled.

Felicia's mouth formed words, but it was too much of an effort to raise her voice. Everything was becoming blurry, faint. The girls looked up in alarm. "We're losing her," Mill said. "Felicia! Get up! Move around!"

"Too late," Overcoat Girl said. Felicia noticed, for once, her voice wasn't hollow. "Get out. Now!"

~*~*~


Waking up this time wasn't like the jolt and rush of annoyance she'd get from the beeping of her alarm clock, or even the little spark of reality after a tense dream. It took Felicia forever to open her eyes, even longer to realize where she was.

Relissa was standing over her, illuminated by hot florescent light. Felicia's face was half-pressed into a small pillow, lodged between her head and the table. She raised her head and tried to blink her way back into reality. Overcoat Girl and Mill were in the motions of raising their heads as well. Overcoat Girl's eyes showed no whites, and Mill's were glassy. Mill yawned and shuddered. "I hate that stuff," she muttered. "Isn't there -"

"For the last time, no," Relissa snapped. "The chemical isn't what makes you feel that way."

Felicia's conscious mind came back to her in an instant. She screamed and jumped up from the table. The others sprang to their feet as well. Felicia started to back away, her lungs tightening and straining for breath. "What did you do to me?"

"Settle down," Relissa said, returning to her chemistry set. "We were just trying to help."

Her slight smile sent Felicia pacing backwards, towards the door.

"You can't leave yet," Overcoat Girl said.

"Oh, that's a great thing to say," Mill scoffed. "Freak her out even more. She didn't mean it like that," she said to Felicia. "We just want to talk."

"I'm sure." Felicia backed into the door and turned the knob. It did not turn, clicking as she tried to twist it every way she thought it would go. She thought of kicking the door. "Hold up," she said to herself, "The doors at this school don't lock from the outside."

"That one does," Addison said.

"Look" Mill approached Felicia. "Just give us a couple minutes to check something, and then we'll explain everything."

"You'll explain everything?" Relissa queried, raising an eyebrow. "Why?"

"Shut up and go get Greene."

"He's already on his way. The Apple in the corner was giving Miss Kitt trouble."

Just then, the knob turned, and the door pushed against Felicia's back. Felicia stepped forward, allowing it to open. She bolted for the opening, nearly knocking over the young man on his way in, and tore down the halls and out of the school. She sprinted the whole way home. She heard no footsteps following her, but didn't expect to. "No way any of them can run as fast as I can," she huffed. "No way, no way -- crap, what if they have a car?" She glanced back at the road. A rusting pickup filled with wood and blue tarp was rambling away from her.

The garage was closed. Felicia burst into the front door, tried her best to make it look locked, and shut herself up in her room. After a few minutes, her lungs were burning enough to force her out for some water. Her head swivelled constantly, watching for movement in every one of the kitchen windows, and holed back up in her room.

She couldn't remember what happened.

What had she been running from? All she could recall from the meeting was that the girls wanted to talk to her. The rest of the meeting was a blank. But she didn't run from everything like that.

The house seemed emptier and quieter by the moment, and she felt as if everything in her mind would come out at the walls if not a person. She could call her friends in New Windor, but they were likely out around town or hiding from the rain at the Tastee-Freez. Tastee-Freez didn't even exist in Silver Spring.

Her father could be home - no, not home. She couldn't remember if the old house was officially sold today or not. Still, she went with Aunt Jeanie's number, which was now taped to the kitchen whiteboard.

Much to Felicia's surprise, it was Aunt Jeanie herself who picked up the phone. "Felicia! Hi pumpkin," she squealed. Felicia mouthed the next question along with her aunt. "How's school going?"

"It's all right," Felicia replied, much more cheerfully than she felt. It was an automatic tone with Aunt Jeanie.

"Well, that's good. It's important you get good grades, you know."

Felicia felt bad cutting Aunt Jeanie off, especially without asking how she was doing, but her aunt would ramble on about grades for the next half-hour if she was allowed, and Felicia knew the rambling so well she could write a script. "I wanted to talk to Dad. Is he there?"

"Yes, he was down helping Jay in Galcrist. Hold on, I'll get him."

Her father must not have been very far away, because he picked up not more than a few seconds later. "Hello, Felicia?"

Felicia smiled. His voice always reminded her of her favorite superheroes, strong and free. It was a person who belonged in a place like New Windor.

"How's school going?"

"All right. I'm just having a little trouble, but I'm cool. Actually -"

She told him about the door incident, and as she had hoped, he broke out laughing. "Not that I mean anything by it," he said, "but if you can kick that door open in one shot, it needed to be replaced anyway."

Felicia giggled and sprawled out on a sofa. More detailed descriptions of school and the people there came to her, but she couldn't bring herself to talk about the Dreamers' Club as she intended. She remembered that the girls had made her very uncomfortable, enough to run from them.

"Well, don't worry about the door. I think, though, we're going to have to take some of your allowance to fix it."

Felicia cringed, but was still grateful he didn't get angry, as if that were possible.

The call ended on a sour note. He told Felicia that he saw the new family moved into the old house, and even with his strong, happy voice, he couldn't deliver the news in a was that would make Felicia feel the same. Her mother came home, and Felicia passed the phone off to her right away.

~*~*~

The pixellated airport was different tonight. The sky was clear indigo, illuminated by a gigantic silver moon and stars with a glitter that could only be found in a children's book, even with the city lights. A row of hangars could be seen further down the runway. An ocean gleamed noiselessly behind Felicia.

There was a soft mew, and a cat sauntered out in front of her. It was an ordinary house cat, with white fur up to its neck and black on the top of its head and back, and black rings above its paws. It had bold green eyes and a collar made of rough black crystal.

The first thing Felicia thought was it might be lost. A cat shouldn't have been on a runway, it could get flattened by a plane. It wasn't a stray, either, it had a somewhat uncomfortable but expensive-looking collar on. She took a step towards the cat. It approached her, and without so much as a glance or sniff, wound around her legs, purring loudly. Felicia beamed, then knelt and stroked its head. She ran her other hand along the surface of the collar, seeking out a tag. What she found was more like a medal, a gold and black one with a V and a more complex pattern of lines behind it.

The cat was suddenly gone. She was still holding the tag.

~*~*~

Felicia wasn't looking forward to chemistry. She had been searching for a way to skip. She had only heard about it on TV. Back in New Windor it was a difficult thing to cut class, because everyone knew who was supposed to be in school. She asked Kelli about it at lunch, but the reminder of all the trouble she had been in at home recently stopped her from going through with it.

Much to her and Mr. Kerrington's relief, Relissa was absent that day. Both of them kept their eyes on the door, even though Mr. Kerrington mentioned that Relissa showed up on time or not at all.

With chemistry over, Felicia loosened right up. She kept a smile up as she went to her locker and dropped her books off. A black flyer was hung on the wall nearest to her locker. The print, though tiny and unusually decorative, caught her eye. It said there was an informational meeting about the track team that same day. "Thirty minutes, detention room," Felicia noted. "Well, I got nothing to do right now."

The hallways emptied quickly as she started back towards the north side of the school. She wondered at the thought of a separate detention room for the school. At her old school they had simply used an empty classroom.

She came across a set of double doors that lead to a narrow hallway, and then to the room. Through the opening in the other end, she spied a row of the cheapest, most battered desks she had ever seen. She imagined the desk breaking to pieces when she sat down in it.

As soon as she stepped into the room, Mill's voice came from behind. "Sure. You should up late for our meeting, but you come here, like, really, really early."

Overcoat Girl was sitting in a corner desk. Felicia whirled and tried to leave, but Mill did her best to get in the way. Felicia loomed over her as well as she could. "We just want to talk," Mill said.

"I don't want anything to do with you," Felicia growled.

"You don't have any choice," Overcoat Girl said.

She rose from the desk, a movement that reminded Felicia of steam, her right arm extended towards Felicia. There was a glassy object in her hand, something that resembled a cheap water gun.

Suddenly everything came back to Felicia. The raging wolf, tangled in a web that enclosed the entire dreamworld, disappearing into a rift in that reality. It had been like they tried to help her in the dream, though. Here, the weapon was aimed at her.

"Let's go to the Dreamers' Club meeting," Overcoat Girl said.

"No," Felicia said firmly, but her expression wavered when the glass pistol clicked. "Come on, seriously. You're going to walk through school with that gun aimed at me?"

Overcoat Girl smiled an empty, horrific smile. "No one else can see it."

"Let's go," Mill urged.

The three walked quickly down the the special ed rooms. Felicia prayed silently that Kelli or one of her friends would make an appearance, but the hallways were deserted. The other two club members were waiting. Addison locked the door.

"Look, we're sorry," Mill said. "But you fell for this stuff pretty easily."

"Fell for this stuff? Excuse me? You're aiming a gun at me and feeding me tranquilizers and all you can say was I fell for it? I'm gonna get you all expelled!"

"With what proof?" Mill challenged.

"Please calm down," Overcoat Girl said. "We honestly don't mean you any harm. We won't hide anymore. We've been given permission to let you into the club."

"I don't want to be in your club, freak."

"My name is Mitzi."

Felicia tried the doorknob, but it wouldn't budge. "Let me out of here."

"You're not leaving until you hear us out," Mill said.

Felicia huffed and swatted a chair out from the round table. She sat with her arms and legs tightly crossed, her expression as angry as she could force it to be.

Relissa spoke up next. "OK. Somninemoputasodianaclemorapolymedolunaberatractomethanene is not an artificial sweetener. It's not quite a tranquilizer, either. It puts a person in a state we call dream projection."

"That's great. Doesn't make a difference to me."

"Quiet," Mill said, "We're trying to explain stuff."

"It'll be hard for you to accept," Addison murmured to Felicia, "But you will. That airport in your dreamscape? It's a starting point for travel. If we were in a fantasy world, you'd be an adventurer."

Felicia's expression softened at this, but she didn't let her guard down.

"You must play a lot of video games," Addison continued, "Everything in the dream looked digitized. Except the cat, right?"

"What cat?"

"A black and white house cat, with black rings of fur around the bottom of his legs, and big green eyes."

"It's a pretty common cat," Felicia sighed.

Addison went quiet, but Mitzi scribbled on a piece of looseleaf. "It had a collar with a medallion. The medallion had this seal."

She had drawn the symbol on the cat's tag, line for line.

There was a sound of a key in the door. Felicia vaguely recognized the person who walked in as the guy she nearly ran over when she escaped the last meeting. She was certain she had seen him in the hallways as well. His neon green and black hair would be a difficult thing to forget. "Oh, hey," he exclaimed as he saw Felicia. "You gonna stay with us now?"

"Not really," Felicia grumbled. "Mitzi and her invisible gun made up my mind for me?"

"Invisible?" the guy thought for a moment, then let out a short, snorted laugh. "They played that trick on you too? The gun isn't invisible, she just tells you that. I fell for that too, don't worry."

The door was wide open, and Felicia strongly considered walking out, but she wanted an explanation as well, and if she left, they might not invite her back.

"Greene," Relissa said sharply to the guy. "The IBM, please? We need to talk to Crystalline about Felicia."

Greene flashed an overly-friendly grin, held down a few keys on the nearest computer, and pressed the power button. Addison closed the door. "You got like AIM or something on here?" Felicia asked. "They wouldn't let me install it on the lab computers."

"It's not really an instant messenger," Greene said, "It's a little more advanced that that. And I'm the only one who can install it." He grinned smugly at the other girls.

"Doesn't look that hard," Mill scoffed.

"That's why you can't install it." The computer's desktop came up. Greene clicked on an icon in the corner Felicia noticed hadn't been on the other computers. It was the same symbol that was on the cat's tag.

The computer beeped rapidly, discordantly, and flashed a blue screen. Felicia backed away, but the other girls had gathered tightly behind her. Greene's fingers flew over the keys. A number of asterisks came up in white text over the blue. Then, there was a much more pleasant beep, and the blue screen faded smoothly into a mauve one. The cat's symbol was in the middle of it, with "Call transferring, stand by" in block letters on the bottom. "What is this, a Flash site?"

"You're going to talk to Crystalline," Relissa said.

A tan face under a round blue cap appeared on screen. Felicia admired the high-quality picture, unusual for such an old monitor. The woman onscreen looked away and Felicia could hear typing from the computer speakers. She had long, lavender hair, the most natural-looking lavender Felicia had ever seen, and narrow but vivid eyes of the same color. The cap had the cat's symbol on it, and the rest of her outfit somewhat reminded Felicia of a flight attendant. "Voice chat?" Felicia asked. "Where's the microphone? Who is that?"

"This is Crystalline," Mitzi told her.

"What's with the lavender hair? Where'd she get a dye like that?"

"People of my world can have hair of this color," the woman onscreen said sharply. "It's considered rude here to ask about such things. I'll thank you not to bring it up again."

Felicia blinked and turned to the club. "Where's the microphone, now? I don't see it."

"The computer is a little more well-equipped than you realize," Crystalline said, "But that's not important. I am here to welcome you to the Dreamers' Club."