“We’ve been in existence forever. Our purpose is to protect children from nightmares.”
Aspen swallowed awkwardly and looked around to make sure that they were out of earshot before hissing, “What are you talking about?”
“You haven’t been making this all up.” Sandy’s mouth quirked into a half smile. “We’ve been waiting for you for a while. A Dream Walker only gets their full powers after their sixteenth birthday, which means you should get your powers tomorrow.”
Aspen took a smaller bite of the huge sandwich in front of her. Other students chatted loudly around them, and an annoying fly tried to land on her bread. She shooed it away with her hand.
“My dreams, are you saying they’re real?” she asked in disbelief.
“Close your mouth before you swallow that fly.” Sandy laughed. “Yes, they’re real.” She lifted the dream catcher charm in her hand. “You’ll get a present for your birthday tomorrow. You’ll be wearing one of these soon. It’s a Dream Walker necklace.”
Aspen reached out and stroked the charm. A hum of energy spilled over into her hands from the trinket.
“You’ll be able to tell which clan we belong to by the pattern. We’re from the Power clan. We have the ability to control electricity, but there are other clans like the Water clan, the Wind clan, and the Fire clan. All are Dream Walkers too, just from different clans.”
Aspen continued to chew, although the bread could have been cardboard for all she cared.
“Each clan consists of people with similar looks. Our clan has fair-haired, blue-eyed girls and dark-haired boys. Members of the Fire clan have red hair and so on. Our goal is to fight and destroy Chancellors.”
“The people chasing us?” Aspen asked.
“Yes. They’re divided into groups themselves. Each group has a leader with a specific nightmare they’re meant to inflict on innocent children. When they succeed with their nightmare, they draw strength and form more Chancellors.”
Sandy picked up her juice and pulled a long drink through the straw before continuing. “We have to keep practicing and increasing our powers to stop them. The Chancellors have a small window of time to make a bad dream, only ten minutes, but they grow stronger when children wake up screaming. You’ll know when they are about to appear. The sky turns purple, or Lavendula, as we call it, and the temperature plummets.” She batted at the fly, and it sparked and sizzled into a tiny pile of ash on the table.
“If it’s Lemona, that’s when the sky is yellow, they can’t come out. We have about an hour between each period of Lavendula in order to find a way to stop them.” Sandy sat back in the chair, as if waiting for Aspen to process what she’d just said.
Aspen swallowed the last of her sandwich and said nothing, waiting impatiently as Sandy sucked at her juice.
“There’s so much to teach you,” Sandy went on. “It’s your birthday tomorrow and you’ll officially become a Dream Walker. We’ll welcome you into our clan, and I’ll tell you all about us then.”
“You can’t be serious,” Aspen wailed. “There’s still so much I need to know. You can’t stop now.”
“There’s plenty of time, my friend. Right now, we have to deal with someone unpleasant.” She motioned behind Aspen, who turned to see her stepsister barreling toward them with Amber, Justin, Doug, and Kyle in tow.
“Great.” Aspen sighed. “Just what I need now.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll show you how to take care of them.” Sandy winked at her.
Shrinking back in her seat, Aspen waited for the confrontation.
“So, if it isn’t Blondie and her sidekick,” Miriam huffed as she reached the table. “Did you think you could outsmart me?” she growled. “What did you do to my TV last night?” Grabbing Aspen’s wrist, she twisted it sharply. Aspen winced in pain and leaned forward.
Sandy reached over to touch her other arm, and in the next second, a spark of electricity snaked across Aspen’s shoulder right through to Miriam.
The surge hit her with a solid smack, forcing Miriam to fall back onto her bottom.
“Ouch! You little freak.” Shouting, she pulled herself up using Amber’s leg as a support. Amber grunted as Miriam stood up.
“Whatever game you’re playing isn’t working on me, you stupid dumbass,” she ranted.
Aspen didn’t say a word and smiled bravely. The air smelled like singed hair, and she wondered when her stepsister would notice that the fine hairs on her arms had been fried.
“Miriam.” Justin frowned. “Let’s go.” He turned around and everyone followed him.
Miriam’s face was thunderous and her cheeks were bright pink. “I’m not finished with you, not by a long shot.” With that, she stalked off after Justin.