Synergy (See #3)(74)

“I can’t lose myself in the music right now.” Or him for that matter. “I’m waiting on Madison to come back. She needs me.”

“Just a few chords...show me...show me so I can feel it. It’s your song, baby. You have to change it before we can play it.”

Shyly, I reached for the guitar by him. When my fingertips touched the neck of the guitar, I felt all the tension leave my body. I closed my eyes and played the chords, changing the ones that were meant to be altered; it was as if I were closing one chapter of my life and opening a new one. I opened my eyes when the song was over to see Draven’s seductive eyes peering into me.

“Perfect,” he whispered.

I slowly took the guitar off and handed it to him. “Your turn,” I whispered.

He smiled innocently and handed a bass guitar to Brady. “Time to come back to the music. You may not play it there, but if you remember the song, it will give you a foothold, let you not fall too far into the illusions you’re sure to see.”

Brady took the guitar without hesitation, and I could swear I could see the stress wash away from him. Draven angled the amp toward the bed so that the sound would go that way, then he and Brady took a seat on the couches that centered the sitting area. Aden sat on the opposite couch from them. His eyes expanded, then between his legs his acoustic drum appeared.

I listened as they hashed out the sound. Draven and Aden had played it so much the other way that they kept forgetting to change the fifth chord. Brady seemed rusty, but he was grasping the song really fast. I could tell he had a natural talent; one that he’d explored at one time, but then let go dormant. They played the song at least five times before it was changed, before it felt natural again.

I glanced up and saw a man coming into the room. It was Jason, Willow’s father in this life. He smiled warmly at me, then glanced at Brady, and his grin grew even more. He nodded once, then went to the bed to check on Landen and Drake.

I was growing anxious. I had no idea where Madison was or why it was taking so long for her to come back. I walked to the threshold of the door.

Outside, away from the music, I thought I heard whispers. I glanced to the shadows along the wall, then stepped out so I could hear them more clearly. It sounded like they were saying, “Run, Charlie”, but I couldn't be sure. I wasn’t afraid; even if they were saying to run, they were just reflecting my thoughts.

I wanted to run, but I couldn’t; I was deep in whatever this was now. I was crouched down by one of the long tables in the hall. It was dark under there, and I was waiting for the shadows to move. I felt useless right now, and I figured helping a few more of them would take my anxieties away, keep me awake. I felt someone touch my shoulder and jumped. When I looked back, I saw Madison behind me.

“Just call them out if you want to help them,” she said blankly.

I stood up slowly. “Are you OK?”

She glanced away. “Maybe I would have been if you’d just told me.”

“I tried.”

“Not hard enough, apparently.”

“Whatever,” I mumbled, looking away and crossing my arms in a shameful way.

Madison began to pace in front of me. “These people are jacked up.” She rubbed her hands across her face as her pace quickened. “I told her everything, every philosophy I knew, every idea, every notion on The Realm, this place, or lives in general - but she still wouldn’t move past this Drake thing.”

“Have you?” I said in a daring gasp.

“Are you serious?” she said, stopping in front of me. “He was a dream, not some lost love; he was a warning. Am I freaked out that he’s real? Yes! Hell yes! Do I care that I look like the girl he’s in love with? YES.” She let out a sigh. “But I’m not going to love him...”

Sure. I believed that. Not. “Show me your dreams.”

“Why?”

“So I can see if you’re hiding from this or if this really was a warning. So I can figure out how we all connect and why we aren’t living ordinary lives with ordinary problems.”

“You’re not going to find those answers in my dreams.”

“So you’re going to keep them sealed off. I know what that means.”

“What, Charlie? What does it mean?!”

“That you’re scared. Scared that fate has led you to that boy. You’re scared that you won’t be able to stop yourself from falling for him.”

She gasped as she fought back tears. I’d never seen her this unraveled. That boy was inside of her, pulling at her heart and whispering in her thoughts. Whether he knew he was or not. Drake had invaded Madison on a very personal level. “What do you think?” she spouted. “That this is some kind of reverse Sleeping Beauty thing? That I’m going to wake him up and we’re going to live happily ever after in some dream world?”

Good way to look at it, I guess. “No. I think you’re going to wake him up and protect him from becoming a host for a demon. A demon that we’ll have to kill. That will kill him. Love him or not, you won’t let someone just die.”

Her eyes expanded. I knew she was looking for a reason that I’d said that, what Perodine had said to me. I bit my bottom lip, knowing I didn’t know much.

“You fell more than once?” she asked as confusion and anger for what we were fighting came to her.