* * *

  Sarah moved the note where she’d written about Unicorn’s nephew further to the left and added a note to her wall saying that Mermaid was married.

  “Anything happen on your outing yesterday?” Pegasus asked from where he was sprawled on her couch.

  “Nothing useful.”

  She stepped back to look over the new distribution of notes. There was now a random assortment of non-ominous facts about the other world pasted along the bottom.

  Pegasus shifted in his seat. “You should take a break.”

  “I will.” There wasn’t much more to put up there. “I want to go over my notebook one more time and see if I missed anything.”

  “I’ll fetch you some water. Do you want anything else?”

  “No, thanks.” She gave him a quick kiss, moving on before he could pull her along with him.

  He had a point though. She should stop looking at these things and get some rest. But she couldn’t, not when so many ominous notes still remained.

  Fire. Explosion. Death. All the fun things.

  And not just that, but there was also the feeling that she was missing something. Something important. Something obvious.

  She sat at her desk, leaning her head forward onto the notebook as her eyes closed.

  * * *

  “Can I not do this anymore?” Sarah pressed her forehead onto her book. “I need a break.”

  Jeremy looked up at her from behind his own textbook. “You told me not to let you give up. Come on, you can do it.”

  “But I’m hungry. I can stop for food, right?”

  “I’ll go see what we have. Might have to order something.” Jeremy waved her off when she started getting up to follow. “You can stay there looking all cute and focused.”

  “You mean dead and tired?”

  Sarah stayed put, sure he was also dying for an excuse to take a break from his studies.

  Sarah pushed her book away, leaning over to drag her notebook forward. Distracted, her fingertips caressed the colorful phoenix on its cover. The mythical being drew her in and filled her with an inexplicable sense of loss.

  Wasn’t that weird? She hadn’t had any fascination with mythical creatures since her unicorn phase around age five.

  Jeremy stuck his head in. “We don’t have any food. Do you wanna head over to your place and raid the fridge or should we order something?”

  “Let’s do takeout.” There wasn’t much food back home either since Mom was working overtime this week and the rest of them were useless in the kitchen.

  “What do you want to get?”

  “Your pick.”

  “Don’t complain later.” He vanished from the doorway. “Where’s my phone?”

  She leaned her head back down, letting her eyes close. “I could go for pizza though.”

  “Not until we’re back home,” the reply came right in her ear.

  Sarah’s eyes snapped open as she moved back from the table. Lacking a table to lean on and even the chair that she’d been sitting in, she stumbled back, almost losing her balance. The only reason she hadn’t fallen down was because someone grabbed a hold of her.

  A shudder ran through her as she found her footing. She was once again in that dark corridor.

  Her companion, seemingly satisfied that she was again able to stand on her own two feet, released her. “You alright?”

  She nodded, but when he started moving forward, she grabbed his arm. A laugh that sounded on the verge of hysteria escaped her. “How do I wake up?”

  He took her hand and gave it a squeeze. “This isn’t a dream.”

  Sarah didn’t pull away, his voice comforting something within her.

  He drew her right hand towards him, gently pulling up her sleeve to shine his flashlight onto the inside of her wrist.

  Fading words scribbled in ink stood out against her skin.

  “You’re not dreaming,” she read aloud.

  As if she’d been electrocuted, she pulled her hand away. It was a dream, she had no doubt about it, but the message on her wrist shook her more than she’d like to admit. “I can’t be awake.”

  “We should get you out.” Concern was obvious in his voice.

  “Out?” she repeated, looking around the corridor.

  If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  It was an empty dark corridor, dirty and rundown as if it hadn’t been used in years. The detail on everything was perfect, down to the stain on the walls and the warmth of the light on her skin. As always, there was no telling it apart from reality.

  She realized her companion was speaking to someone. Most of what they’d said was lost to her, but he was saying she couldn’t go on.

  Blue eyes caught a hint of light from her flashlight. “Can you find your way back to the van?”

  She would have glared at him if she could, but she likely looked bewildered behind her mask. Her hand went to her face, feeling the fabric. Why would she be wearing a mask?

  “I’m taking Phoenix back.”

  The word caused a jolt to go through her. If she was Phoenix, then he was… The word was stuck in her throat, sounds melting away as she tried to form them.

  “Let’s go.” He grabbed her hand, pulling her along.

  “Where are we?”

  “Earth,” he muttered, stifling a laugh.

  She pulled away from his grasp, too tense to even respond to the ill-timed joke. “No, what are we doing here? And where is here?”

  “Tallulah shipping company. It’s a front for the New Nation,” he answered slowly.

  A voice came inside her ear, bringing one of the familiar harbingers of doom for this particular dream. “Ten minutes out.”

  “Ten minutes isn’t enough,” she quoted automatically. She grabbed his jacket, dragging him closer to stare intently into his eyes. “Stop them!”

  “Who?” he asked, taking her attitude in stride.

  She opened her mouth to answer, but the sound never came. Her mind went blank. But there was something they needed to stop.

  “I think I got it,” another voice said.

  “No!” she shouted. “Stop!”

  Sarah bolted awake, almost knocking her head against the table. Shutting her eyes tightly, she cradled her head on her folded arms. She struggled to calm her breathing, but at least she wasn’t crying.

  A muffled voice came from the other room, Jeremy was probably ordering their food, oblivious to this episode at least. She’d have some time to recompose herself. There was only so much she could expect him to put up with.

  A fragment of the dream flashed through her mind, burning brighter before it once again threatened to vanish into the dark. She held on to it, unwilling to see it gone. As horrible as it was, she didn’t want it to vanish into oblivion. Oblivion wouldn’t help her.

  She held on to the elements of the dream as they drifted away from the forefront of her mind. It had been the corridor again, the same damn corridor, the same horrible nightmare of knowing something bad will happen and being unable to stop it.

  What was it the man said?

  Without making any effort to move, she opened her eyes. Some of her notes were visible among strands of hair. She reached blindly for her pen and found a pencil instead.

  New Nation, she wrote down on the bottom of the page. Tallulah, she added, already unsure what that had been.

  It was almost all gone now.

  She closed her eyes again, focusing on her breathing. A tinge of fear that the corridor would once again be waiting for her made her unwilling to relax too much. Not that it couldn’t be worse. There was always that aseptic room where Robyn usually tried to kill her. She let out a frustrated breath. She heard Jeremy’s footsteps as he returned, but she refused to move, uncertain if her face would still look pale and frightened.

  Hands suddenly massaged her shoulders. She laughed, trying to relax her muscles as fingers diligently worked on the tension along her neck. He moved her hair out of the way, placing a gentle kiss on the back of her neck before continuing the steady motion of his hands.

  A breath eased out of her, taking with it some of the anxiety from the dream. “I didn’t know you were so good at that.”

  He chuckled. Another kiss on her neck as the hands withdrew brought a smile to her lips. Certain that her expression was under control, she sat up, opening her eyes as she turned around.

  She felt as if she’d been plunged into a freezing lake. A stranger was smiling back at her.

  Her gaze darted about, desperate. The small bedroom was unfamiliar to her, though its tiled surfaces were eerily reminiscent of the room in her dreams. “Where’s Jeremy?”

  The man froze, smile instantly gone. “Who’s Jeremy?”

  She stood up, almost knocking over the chair. She tried to take a reflexive step back, but she hit the desk, trapped.

  “Sarah, what’s wrong?” Genuine concern colored the blue in his eyes.

  Those eyes.

  He wasn’t exactly a stranger. It was the same worry-filled voice, same blue eyes staring at her as if she meant something to him… But that wasn’t right. It couldn’t be.

  * * *

  Sarah blinked at him rapidly.

  “Sarah?” Pegasus took a careful step towards her, his hand outstretched as if she were a wild animal about to bolt.

  The haze in her thoughts cleared slowly. Were they talking? She didn’t remember what he’d been saying. “What’s wrong?”

  “Who’s Jeremy?”

  She frowned at him. “I don’t know. Should I know a Jeremy?”

  “Sarah.” Finally taking her hand, he pulled her closer to him, cupping her chin. His eyes bore into hers. “Are you here with me?”

  She nodded, managing a smile. “Sorry, I think I had a glitch of some sort. Did I miss anything? Why do you look so worried?”

  “You don’t know any Jeremy?”

  “Not that I can think of.” She pressed her lips together, aware of how bad her next words would sound even before they came out of her mouth. “I might’ve had a dream about him.”

  Pegasus wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into his warmth. His breath travelled along her temple. “Do I want to know what kind of dream?”

  “You’re not taking this seriously, are you?”

  He shrugged, possibly the most consistent response she’d be getting from him.

  She suppressed her urge to smile, refusing to encourage him. “You are absolutely infuriating sometimes, you know?”

  “Yes, it takes quite a lot of practice.” He tried to draw her back into his arms, but she held her ground, glaring at him with doubled effort.

  He took a step towards her instead.

  “Just now, you looked at me as if you had no idea who I was.” He squeezed her hand repeatedly, tightly.

  Sarah intertwined their fingers, placing a kiss on the back of his hand. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what’s happening.”

  How could she have forgotten him? Could it be that it hadn’t been her at all? “What if the other Sarah is also having visions of us?”

  “It’s probably a good thing that your clearance is not that high then. In case she’s not on our side.”

  Sarah nodded, distracted. Would she have to start worrying about herself being a threat to the others as well? She hugged him tighter.

  “And about this Jeremy, it’s okay,” he whispered. “It could be a normal dream that we can ignore about some guy who doesn’t exist, or it could be a vision of the other world about some guy that might exist here as well.”

  Sarah pulled back to look at him. “Do you want to try and find him?”

  “We might as well try.” Mischief lit up his eyes. “Either he doesn’t exist, or I’ll look forward to locking him in the trunk of a car in the near future.”

  * * *

  Sarah looked desperately around the room, hand clasped over her mouth to stop from screaming this time. So much for being calm and collected. At least she was back where she should be, sitting at Jeremy’s living room table. No more corridor, no more strangers. A shuddering breath left her alongside a curse.

  “Did you say something?”

  Sarah whirled around before she could school her expression. Jeremy was holding his phone away from his ear, clearly having directed the earlier question at her.

  Still partly dazed, she shook her head.

  “Do you want any dessert?”

  She mouthed a ‘no’.

  He moved away again, back to the call.

  Sarah looked down at her notebook, frowning. She swore she’d written down the answer she’d gotten from her dream about where they’d been. The notebook was still closed, no pencil in sight. Pulse racing, she flipped through the pages with mounting unease.

  Nothing. It wasn’t there.