Chapter Seven
Only I wasn’t. Not really. Not anymore. After the initial jolt of excitement, I started noticing the little things. Yeah, this was Cain’s room, but there were things here that didn’t belong. My leather jacket—the one Dad bought me for my sixteenth birthday. My sneakers—the black and white checkered Vans Dez used to rib me about. But the thing that did it? The thing that pulled it all into place? The skate wheel. It was sitting in the corner—still attached to my board.
I hadn’t fully come out of it like I’d thought. I’d only pulled myself from Devin’s dream and into my own. And apparently I’d brought her with me. That was new. Sheltie’s ability must be getting stronger.
“I’m Brandt,” I repeated, more confident. It felt amazing to use my real name—in my own voice. I couldn’t help the goofy smile I knew went from ear to ear.
Devin didn’t share my excitement, though. She stepped over to the dresser and picked up one of Cain’s shirts. A gaudy black thing with black-light-white vampire skulls all over the front. Waving it at me, she said, “This is Cain’s room. He’s the only one in this place with such a tragic wardrobe.”
Feet to the floor, I wiggled my toes, happier than any sane person would be, when the middle one snapped. I’d broken it when I was in fourth grade. It’d always bugged me, but now, for some reason, it made me smile. I’d missed it.
“Why are you staring at your feet?” she squealed. “I’m serious. If you don’t start talking, I’m going to start screaming.”
“I’ll level with ya,” I said. And by level, I meant lie through my teeth. “I don’t know where I am, how I got here—or who Cain is. No idea who you are, either.” I stepped around her to look in the mirror. With my index finger, I poked the side of my face, then ran a hand through my messy, sand-colored hair. The annoying cowlick in the back, the one I’d hated my entire life, was a sight for sore eyes.
Her shoulders relaxed a little. “How can you not know where you are?”
I turned to her, lips slipping into an easy grin. I felt like myself. For the first time since Sheltie had killed me, I felt like me. No one else’s thoughts poked around in my head, no one else’s personality fought with me. I not only looked like Brandt, I felt like Brandt. “Are you serious? Didn’t you just insinuate you had no idea where you were?”
She leaned back against the dresser. “I’m still sleeping. That’s the only explanation as to why I’d end up, of all places, back in Cain’s room.”
“I think you are still sleeping. Actually, I think we both are.”
“Both? So, you’re real?” She closed her eyes for a moment, and took a deep breath. Suspicion was etched all over her face. “How is that—wait.” Then understanding. “You’re a Six, aren’t you?”
“Yeah—you one too?”
There was a flash of anger in her eyes. Arms rigid, she took a step closer, and I couldn’t help feeling a swell of admiration. I’d walked her dreams in an attempt to figure Devin out. She was a serious Betty, but more than that, she was a fighter. Whoever Josh was, I had a sneaking suspicion he was real, and he’d terrorized her. Most people would have buckled under something like that. Not Devin. It made her stronger. “And you have the ability to invade people’s dreams?”
“Yeah, but it’s not like that. I wasn’t trying to invade anything. I’m not sure how we ended up here together. I’m not even sure whose dream we’re in.” The lies tasted bitter, but after seeing her dream and realizing what I’d accidentally done earlier, I wasn’t about to tell her the truth. She’d feel even more violated and I didn’t want that.
“Are you new to the boarding house?”
I settled back on the bed. The words tumbled out before I could even think twice. “Boarding house? I live in Parkview.”
She shook her head. “I don’t know where that is. So you—you have no idea how we got here?”
I shrugged. “My control is a little wonky sometimes. What’s your name?”
“Devin. And you’re Brandt?”
“Devin? That’s a new one for a girl.”
She graced me with a smile that tangled my stomach into knots. She was even more beautiful when she wasn’t glaring daggers of death at me. “I’m named after my dad. The doctors told my parents I was going to be a boy. Imagine their shock… I grew up with a lot of blue.” She looked around. “So, any idea how we get out?”
“Gotta wake up.”
“Oh,” she said, fiddling with the edge of Cain’s tacky shirt.
“So, this boarding house, is that where you are? What is it, like a home or something?”
She shook her head again, eyes still on mine. “This is weird.”
“Sorry. Just trying to pass the time.”
“No, I just mean—are you sure we haven’t met?”
That took me by surprise. “Met? Um, yeah I think I’d remember.”
“There’s something about you…”
I puffed out my chest and gave her my previously famous Lady-Killer Grin. “Well, I am quite the stud.”
There it was again. That brief smile. I resolved to see it more often. Whatever I had to do, I was determined to get this girl to grin like that in the waking world. “I can’t put my finger on it, but there’s something familiar about you.”
I motioned to the chair by Cain’s desk. “So you never answered my question. You a Six?”
“I am,” she said, sinking onto the chair. She pulled up both feet and tucked them close to her body, never taking her eyes off mine. I couldn’t blame her for being leery. If a strange girl showed up in my dreams—well—yeah, never mind. What seventeen-year-old guy would be upset about that?
She was wearing the socks again. The purple ones with the dancing mice on each toe. Picking at the edges of the left one, she said, “I can hack computers.”
She was being modest. Hack computers? I knew a lot of people that could do that. What she could do was something epic. “While the hacker-chick status is hot and everything, how does that make you a Six?”
She grinned and tapped the side of her head. “I can do it with my mind.”
“Ahh,” I said. “That’s more like it.”
“The boarding house is where I live.”
“So you’re what, an orphan or something?”
She giggled. The sound sent prickles across my skin. This could be bad. I didn’t have time for distractions right now. I was here to do a job, then get out. I’d dated my fair share when I was—well—me, but this girl was already getting under my skin in a way none of the others had. I couldn’t figure it out.
She shifted on the bed, hesitating for a moment. She was still suspicious, and that made me admire her all the more. I’d met too many girls that just bought whatever crap they were sold right off the bat. Give me cautious and smart over easy and dense any day of the year. “Not at all. It’s a place for people like us.”
Not how I’d planned this, but at least now we were getting somewhere. “What kind of place?”
“A place to start over. A place where we can be ourselves.”
“Start over? Were things bad at home?”
She said something vague, but I didn’t quite catch it. Something else—an odd ringing—drowned it out.
“What’s wrong?”
The noise again. Like a siren, or an alarm. It was distracting and getting louder every minute. I tried to ignore it, but it wouldn’t go away. “You don’t—”
I shot up, the sound of the alarm clock blaring in my ear. Yanking the cord from the wall, I knocked it off the dresser and sent it crashing to the ground. The unhealthy rattling sound it made on impact told me there was a good chance we’d never have this issue again.
I threw off the covers and padded over to the window. The early morning sun greeted me with annoying brightness. Time to get ready for work.