Dream Killers - Complete Season 1 (The Dream Killers Book 3) Read online

  But he’d said he an idea.

  He picked up a shallow can and a brush, plastering shaving cream along his beard. “But I can tell you the winds have definitely changed.”

  Was that pirate slang for something I didn’t understand?

  His eyes lit with excitement as he turned to me, half his beard covered in white. “And I can’t wait to discover where you take me.”

  Bo took me around the ship and introduced me to her. Not his crew, mind you. They stayed away like I had a plague. Had they seen my eyes? Did they know I was different? Or was this how they treated all new people on their ship?

  “The idea,” he shouted over the screaming winds, the rain plastering us in sheets, “is to stay on the ship.” His hands gripped my soggy shirt.

  I held onto the rail the wave had nearly swept me over.

  He threw his head back and laughed, guiding me toward the helm.

  Night’s Cruelty dipped. My feet rose off the deck. Then, the ship rose sharply, connecting with my feet hard enough to make my knees crack. “We’re going to die.”

  Though, I had to wonder. The waves rolled off me like . . . well, like water. Where were the whispers or the ghost hands? Were we on a different sea? Were things simply that different out here?

  With another laugh, Bo threw me to a post sticking out of the deck. “Grab hold of the pole.”

  I rolled my eyes, adrenaline surging through me like a current. My fingers were going numb from the cold of the rain. I didn’t know how long I’d be able to hold on.

  He pushed the man at the wheel aside and grabbed the spokes. “Isn’t this fun?”

  Not really. No.

  He searched the sky, though for what I had no clue.

  The storm clouds were thick and green. The rain hit us like buckets being dumped. The sails were down, though I couldn’t tell if they were all the way down or if they’d been “trimmed” or whatever. Terms were surging to me, filling my brain. I vaguely knew that if the sails were down too much in these winds, we could break one or all three of the masts towering over us.

  “I hope you know what you’re doing!”

  I don’t think he even heard me over the roar of the wind.

  The ship paused, held in suspension.

  My stomach leapt into my throat. It felt like being on a roller coaster, going to the top of that first hill before you were sling-shotted through a wild array of twists and turns and bends. Only I didn’t have a safety harness and I was pretty sure I’d be dead. All I had was a stick to hold onto.

  The crew walked with purpose. They didn’t flinch. They didn’t falter. They worked the ropes and rigging and sails like this was an everyday occurrence.

  How could this be normal?

  Bo took in a deep breath, and looked over his shoulder with a grin. Then he twisted back around and threw the wheel to the left.

  I knew how to drive a car. Handling the wheel like that, he was going to flip the ship. What was it called when that happened to a boat? Oh, right. Capsized. We were about to capsize, only instead of landing on a road, we’d be dumped in the middle of an ocean—one that no one except for us sailed. There would be no coast guard to come and save us. We’d be toast.

  We sped down the other side of the wave we rode. My feet threatened to lift. My hair whipped around me. My neck hurt from holding on so tight.

  The crew stumbled a bit, but just grabbed hold of the nearest rope, their faces raised to the front of the ship.

  For the love of all things dreams! I closed my eyes. I didn’t want to die this way. I wanted to discover answers to my past. I doubted we’d find them at the bottom of the ocean.

  The ship slowed. It bobbed. The wind stopped. The rain tapered to a drizzle. The crew shouted to one another. The sails popped.

  I opened one eye and then the other. We were safe. We were miraculously safe. “How—” How had we survived?

  Bo’s face lit in a grin. He handed the wheel back to the helmsman and clapped me on the back. “Wasn’t that exciting?”

  Exciting. Right. Not what I’d call it.

  He pried my fingers loose, the one hand still on my shoulder. “I’ve never seen the sea react like that. She must like you.”

  “I’m pretty sure she was trying to kill us.”

  Bo’s forehead came close to mine as his laughter grew. “Oh, Riv, m’boy. You have so much to learn. So much to learn.” He turned away and gestured to the rest of the ship.

  I shook out my hands and legs. Yeah. I never wanted to live through that again.

  He walked to the stairs. “This is what we call the quarterdeck. It’s where the helm is.”

  He was going to give me a lesson on the ship? After what we’d just survived? Really?

  He stopped at the top of the stair and leaned against the wall, folding his arms over his chest. “I love this ship, River. She has a heartbeat, if you listen. She’ll talk to you, tell you when she’s in trouble.”

  “I didn’t hear her complaining back there.” I searched the storm clouds. They were gray and dark, but not nearly as thick as they were before. Had we moved? Or had the storm passed that quickly?

  “Oh, she was.” He took off his hat and ran his hand over his hair. “She was telling quite the story. You just weren’t listening.”

  I couldn’t get the sound of my heartbeat out of my ears.

  He took my shoulder and peered deep into my eyes. “Just pause, Riv, m’boy. Take a breath. Relax.”

  I wanted to tell him to go stuff a goose, but he was serious.

  Also, he was looking at me like I existed. And it hadn’t been missed that he’d called me his. I realize my time with the travelers probably scrambled a few things in my brain. Bo talked like a dreamer, and I know sometimes you dreamers call people nicknames without meaning anything by it.

  But I’d spent years yearning to hear someone call me theirs. Their son, brother, crew. Whatever. He was trying to make a connection to me, and I reached for it like a drowning man for air.

  I took in a deep breath, pushing away the rest of the fear pumping through me. Warmth returned to my fingers. My ears stopped pounding the beat of my heart.

  “There you go.” He closed his eyes, but didn’t let go of my shoulder. “Now listen to her, Riv. Just listen. What’s she telling you?”

  I focused on what I heard.

  Something snapped to my left.

  A moan sounded to my right and the floorboards beneath my feet vibrated.

  The crew sounded calm.

  I opened my eyes.

  Bo watched me, his eyes twinkling. “You heard her, didn’t you?”

  “Well, I guess. I mean, I heard things.”

  His teeth glinted in a ray of light shooting through the breaking storm. “You’ll see, River. This ship is freedom.”

  I raised my eyebrow, trying to imagine my life here.

  He looked at me, the corners of his eyes lowering. Sadness and loneliness entered his gaze. “I’m really glad you joined us, Riv. I really am.”

  Yeah. Well, I just hoped I wasn’t going to regret it.

  I didn’t think I would.

  THAT NIGHT, I dreamt for the first time.

  Shards of light stabbed the water. Bubbles drifted upward. Hands floated on other side of me—mine. I felt weightless.

  Beat.

  Muffled noises reached my ears. A song, sad and long, filled with yearning and dampened hope.

  Beat.

  A current brushed me, pushing me upwards. Another folded my body in half as it shoved me down. The streams of light were muted and replaced with a darkness that stretched into forever.

  I twisted, my hands jerking as I turned back to the light rippling above me in a hypnotic, peaceful pattern.

  I’m going to be someone my kids can be proud of.

  My body stopped as I searched for the source of the male voice.

  A rush of bubbles shot past my face, burbling in a long monologue.

  I’m going to show them I can be a dad. I
’ll fill this house with good memories. I’ll be better than my father. No way am I stooping to his level of failure.

  Why did she take them, anyway? Who threatens to take your children and never let you see them again? What did I do wrong? When did she become such a monster?

  My stomach twisted, bile rising into my throat as my heart wrenched.

  Never mind. I’ll get them back. I’m not my father’s son. I can do this.

  The bubbles disappeared into the darkness. I reached out, trying to touch them again. They were gone, but now I could see so many more. Lines of them, each filled with whispered emotions.

  I can make a difference, a man said as a new stream passed across my face. I can do this. I’ll go in there, show them what I can do and they’ll promote me. This is exactly what I need. Then I’ll buy Annie that house she’s always wanted.

  I reached out and stopped the stream. They filled my hand and light burst from them in tattered images.

  A man closed the door to his car, a backpack thrown over his shoulder. He smiled at the big brown and white house, and walked through the door.

  This is the house Annie always wanted.

  Inside, the walls were empty, the rooms echoing the sounds of his footsteps. Then in a blink, furniture filled the living room and the sound of an electric mixer met my ears. The man’s smile widened as he dropped his pack by the door and walked to the back of the house. Annie, I’m home.

  Ah, good. Annie’s voice was strong as she shut off the mixer. She looked up as soon as he entered the kitchen. She brushed her thick brown hair off her face with the back of her wrist. I’m trying to make bread. Might as well with this oven. My god, I’ve always dreamed of a kitchen like this.

  Laughter bubbled in my chest and I felt light.

  This is what I’ve always wanted to give you, the man said, pressing a kiss into Annie’s forehead.

  She laughed and threw flour at him.

  The sound of thundering footsteps reached me. I turned to watch two boys run into the kitchen.

  The man caught one of them and swung the boy into his arms. How was school today?

  Boring!

  The man laughed. Did you learn anything?

  Nope.

  He laughed, setting his son down, and tipped his head in Annie’s direction. I wonder why we even send them.

  She pecked a kiss on his cheek. Because, otherwise, I’d duct tape them and stick them in closet. Mommy needs alone time before insanity hits her.

  The man cupped Annie’s face in his hands. Do you know how happy you make me?

  She rubbed her nose to his. Not nearly as happy as you make me.

  The bubble stream drifted off and disappeared into the darkness of the ocean. All around me were bubble streams, dream on top of dream on top of dream. Voices, emotions, visions.

  My heart rose, becoming as weightless as my limbs. My head fell back, the light caressing me, filling me with warmth, rippling from my heart, traveling through my limbs to my fingers, my toes.

  A light bobbed in front of me. I watched it approach. Other lights joined it, and a beautiful face appeared out of the darkness. She opened her mouth, exposing rows of razor sharp teeth. A peaceful calm filled me. I will keep you safe, River. I will always keep you safe.

  Ropes surrounded me, lifting me from the water. Higher and higher I rose, unable to escape, unable to get away. Bright light stabbed at my eyes. The prow of a huge clipper ship filled my vision. Night’s Cruelty.

  River, the woman said, so familiar I could swear I’d known it my entire life. This wasn’t the glowing woman with the teeth, though. You must save them. You must save all of them.

  I woke with a start.

  Captain Bo stood on deck, surveying what little we could see of the horizon. Storm clouds rolled above us, green and blue and gray. They reminded me of bubbling lava.

  He glanced at me as I approached. “Look who woke up. You were sleeping like a rock in there.”

  “The, uh, hammock’s taking a bit to get used to.” I rubbed my stiff neck, unable to shake the dream, or the feeling something was wrong.

  He folded his looking glass, stashing it in his pocket. “Something’s wrong. What is it?”

  I stared up the main mast—the life’s blood for the ship, as Bo described it. “I dreamt last night.”

  “Should I get you a gold star?”

  I glanced at him, then back up the mast. I liked the perspective. It wasn’t something I’d seen every day. “I don’t dream. No one in Dreamland does, but last night, I did.”

  He took his hat off and set it on the barrel next to him. He rested his elbows on the rail. “What did you see?”

  “That’s . . .” I stopped, the words sticking in my chest. Was I having a hard time telling him because I didn’t feel I could trust him? Were my instincts trying to tell me something?

  No. I’d been an outcast my entire life. I’d had Mech as a friend, sure, but there were things I didn’t even tell him. Deep down, I’d always felt he’d been just as scared of me as the rest of the caravan. Bo accepted me for whatever I was, no matter how strange that might be.

  He squinted his eyes, his mouth twisted to the side. “Look, River.” He straightened. “I just want to be your friend. You’re one of us now. You belong here. You’re part of the family.”

  What did that mean to a drifter like me?

  Everything. He might as well have offered gold to a pirate.

  “You can tell me anything. It doesn’t matter. You’ll still be one of us.”

  After being surrounded by people who feared me because I breathed, that meant a lot. A lot more than I cared to admit. “I dreamt I was in the sea.”

  He leaned his elbows on the railing again, pursing his lips. “What was it like?”

  I leaned back and put one of my elbows on the rail. I loved watching the sails shift in the wind, the ropes and rigging drifting with the movement of the ship. “I could hear the dreams and when I touched them, I saw them unfold. But it was more than that. I lived them.”

  His expression twitched in interest as he shifted toward me. “How so?”

  “I—” I let out a dry chuckle. “I don’t even know how to explain it. I just—I just lived it. I felt it.” I put a hand to my chest and flung it out, and touched my other arm.

  He nodded, one eyebrow lowered.

  “I heard and saw it. I even smelled the bread baking.”

  He scratched his lower lip. “Wow. So, you didn’t hear the dreamers scream?”

  “What? No. There was no screaming.”

  He took in a deep breath and released it, looking out at the sea. “When I was in there, in the Sea of Dreams, all I heard was screaming. I saw—” He shook his head. “—such horrible things. People relived their worst fears, their experiences. It was the most unnerving thing I’d ever survived.”

  I licked my lips and frowned.

  He leaned his hip against the rail, and watched his crew. “You ask anyone else on this ship what their experience was like in the sea, and they’ll say the same thing.”

  “So what do you think happened? Why are you here?”

  “I think we’re failed nightmares. You know Dreamland brings dreamers here as dustmen.”

  “And as nightmares.”

  “Right. Well, they come to the Nightmare Realm through here. I think the first test to see if they’ll function as nightmares is to be surrounded by the terror of their dreamers.”

  “So you think you’re failures.”

  “It makes sense. Dreamland brought us here, thinking we’d be able to fill a major role for her and then we ended up not working out. She had nowhere else for us to go, so she just left us.”

  “So, what do you do here?”

  He gripped the rail as we rode up a steep wave.

  Something moved in the corner of my eye. I stopped and stared, blinking, trying to figure out if my eyes were simply playing tricks on me.

  A vision, like the one I’d seen in my dream, flashed alo
ng the surface of the on-coming wave. A man ran in the park with a woman in a flowing blue dress, throwing daisies at her as they both laughed.

  Bo continued as if he couldn’t see it. “We look out for the people left behind. There’s more of us than just this one ship. I can tell you that.”

  “How—” The hull of the ship sliced through the approaching vision. It dispersed and another one took its place—a little girl in a red raincoat stomping in puddles with a small, pink umbrella. “How many are you, do you think?”

  “It’s hard to say.” He twisted toward the ocean. “You seem distracted, Riv. What’s wrong?”

  I opened my mouth, tearing my eyes away from the water. How had I never seen this before? “Don’t you see that?”

  “See what? Ah. The dreams.”

  I peered over the rail. Three of them played on top of each other as we sailed through them.

  “Few actually see them.” He narrowed his eyes at me. “It would make sense you would. These waters are filled with the dreams people forgot.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “Forgotten? That doesn’t make sense. They don’t feel forgotten.”

  He lifted on shoulder. “The failed nightmares are the only ones who sail these waters. It makes sense these would be the dreams Dreamland no longer needs. Like her trash pile.”

  Except Dreamland found a way to reuse her trash. She had bashers and creators to recycle everything. “I think you’re making an assumption. Just because Dreamland didn’t send you back to Earth to be dead doesn’t mean she’s forgotten you or these dreams.”

  A bell ting-ting-tinged somewhere on the ship.

  He gripped my shoulder with a sad smile, grabbing his hat with his other hand. “I have something to show you.” He ran up to the quarter deck, his blue coat flaring with the wind.

  I ran after him like a boy—or a puppy. I slowed to a walk and rubbed my head. What had I turned into? He wasn’t my big brother. But he offered something I’d never had and he asked for nothing in return. Well, not yet anyway.

  What happened when he did?

  BO GRIPPED the wheel as I joined him on the quarterdeck. “Hold on to something. Sometimes, things can get a little bumpy.”