“… I didn’t realize it … all those years … until it was gone. That’s why the last fifteen years … been so great … the weight lifted … now it’s back. What we’re feeling … control. Something’s controlling us.”

SIX

Once again, he was in the storm.

The wind struck with such force that it burned. William’s ears rang from the muscular howls, forcing him to want to cower. But his limbs refused to move, like the pole of a battered flag enduring the worst of a churning squall. He immediately regretted looking down, for among the choppy whitecaps, something slithered, spreading out like black veins in the deep.

In the far distance, as always, was the bracing city. And even from this distance he could see the hint of white, the eyes of someone watching the impending catastrophe.

He blinked, and was in flames. The hills upon which he stood were scorched of any life, blackened and beaten by the flames. A closer examination did reveal movement among the ashes. Something writhed and twisted, moving like moles beneath the ash, rushing towards two singular eyes that stood out like missing pieces in a puzzle of smoke that was void of any colors but black and gray.

He knew what came next. Brutal violence, the sound of gunshots, tears of pain and fear, around another set of eyes.

Then gurneys rushing with unmoving bodies, desperate pleas for help. Through the windows of the hospital he could see towering rocks on the horizon.

A moment later he was inside that stone, as scales slid across his arms and legs and around his neck, moving over his chin and nearing his lips. Barely, he could see the eyes, full of fear and horror, lost in the creeping, shining tendrils—

His own scream brought him from the dream, and to a frantic face looking down at him. Ash blond hair fell down shoulders to meet a bandana hanging around her neck. His last glimpse of the woman had been behind the wheel of a van, frantically driving through the predawn light.

“What’s wrong?” she demanded.

He tried to catch his breath. It always took him a few minutes to fully awaken after the dreams.

“Calm down.” She placed a firm hand on his chest, holding him down. “There’s nowhere for you to go at the moment.”

It all came back: the sharp pain in his arm, the collapse of Lily, and then Quincy fighting in the seat behind him.

“You drugged us,” he managed to say.

“Had no choice,” she responded in a quiet voice. “The sedative must have given you some hell of a nightmare. But it’s over now, and we need you to be quiet. Don’t want to wake up the others.”

He looked over to see another double bed in the room, where Quincy and Lily lay side by side.