The Loop

Adam had explained the pieces of the plan he’d come up with so far, and while I was glad to have some guidance and not be operating completely in the dark, it wasn’t the sanest plan I’d ever heard. And anyway, we wouldn’t even be able to begin really carrying it out as long as we were stuck fighting these monstrous images from my mind. But fighting them was the first step, and weirdly it seemed easier than the rest.

“On your left,” shouted Adam, and I dove right, just as the Sarah-thing shot a bolt of black lightning through the spot I’d been standing in a moment before. The fight had been going on for a while, and I’d learned the hard way to trust his instructions immediately. My left knee still throbbed from where blue fire had licked it when I was too slow to get out of the way when he’d told me to.

Oneiros was commanding an army of the semi-sentient dream creations that other people had left behind in this part of his Dreamworld, sending robotic suits of armor and little metal birds marching and zipping through the air at the enemies. The Sarah-thing was knocking these dream things aside almost effortlessly, but it was costing her time, and slowly she was being pushed back and hemmed in by the telekinetic attacks from Adam that actually seemed to be able to affect her.

His entire focus was on her, and he was fighting to make sure her focus remained on him, giving me room to deal with the other three vile creatures that had emerged from my thoughts.

Those three remained focused on me, and that was just fine as far as I was concerned; they didn’t have any special powers, and neither did I. The only thing I had to worry about was listening when Adam told me to duck or dive or dodge to avoid getting hit by a stray shot from the Sarah-thing.

In my mind, she was still the Sarah-thing, even though I had to admit that she resembled Christine now more than she had ever resembled my dead friend. I still wasn’t clear on the logistics of how I’d ended up merging Sarah and Christine in my mind and spitting out this awful facsimile of both, but I had a working theory. I figured that my guilt over Sarah, my anger at Adam, and my obsession with uncovering Christine’s identity from the videos I had of her vigilante forays into Dallas had all combined and become muddled. Then they’d mixed up with whatever foul stuff had leaked, without his knowledge, from Adam’s brain into mine. And that malevolent influence had given life to this thing, had made its goals and desires separate from my own.

And since that last and most crucial bit had been drawn from the brain of a Hype, it allowed this thing to have Hype powers, too, at least within the Dreamworld. It was only a theory, and it was based on what little Adam had been able to explain to me while we were exchanging the early blows in the battle with these things, but all the pieces fit.

“Duck!” Adam shouted, and I ducked. At first nothing happened and I was nearly ready to stand back up, smug because he’d made a mistake, when another fireball flew over my head.

The dark mirror of my brother took the opportunity of my momentary distraction to rush me, and I forced myself to hold my ground, keeping Adam’s batshit plan in mind.

“Come at me,” I said to the thing, my voice shaky and uncertain.

He stopped short, and looked at me with his head tilted. “You want me to attack you now?”

We were standing in a large clearing in the middle of a circle of skyscrapers that were made of tree trunks. Way off to my left, Adam and two of Oneiros’s automatons were flanking the Sarah-thing. Their battle was punctuated by explosions and thunderclaps and occasionally the ground rumbled all the way between where they were fighting and here, like some massive force was moving beneath the surface. I wasn't sure which of their powers was causing that, and I wasn't sure I wanted to know. I'd lost sight of Oneiros.

Nearer to me, the Adam creature was standing ten feet away, staring cautiously. In my peripheral vision, I could see the two awful copies of my parents trying to flank around either side of me.

“Wasn’t that what you wanted?” I asked the thing. “Or are you as incapable of following through as the real Adam?”

That seemed to get the reaction I wanted. It started approaching me again, slow at first then gaining speed as it apparently decided I didn’t pose it any threat.

I really hope you’re right, Adam, I thought as it got within arms reach, stretching fingers that were more like claws toward my throat. And I really hope you’re watching, Oneiros.

With one sudden motion, I brought both of my hands up to either side of the thing’s face, and held it tightly. It dropped its arms to its sides and stared into my eyes with a mixture of surprise and fear.

“Back to where you belong, asshole,” I said, pressing my forehead to the thing’s. It screamed horribly, but briefly, as the point where our heads were connected glowed with an intense light and its scream turned to a muffled whimper.

I heard Oneiros’s voice, triumphant, shouting, “that’s one out of four! Good going, kid!”

I felt his power push the thing back inside my brain, which exploded in sudden and violent pain, as if a building had just been forced through a pinhole in my head. I collapsed to my knees, my hands now on either side of my own head, pushing back against the pressure that I was certain would cause it to burst. I pressed my eyes closed, afraid that the thing would force itself out through my head anyway it could.

The other two powerless creations were screaming now, too. They’d been moments away from rushing me from the left and right when the Adam-thing had gotten crushed back into me, but I could tell from their screams that they’d changed their minds.

The pain subsided enough for me to look around just in time to see the two of them turning around and starting to flee.

“Oh no, you don’t!” Oneiros was charging in on the back of a giant red dog, the one I'd seen earlier near the edge of the Dreamspace, and the father-thing stopped in its tracks, looked back at me, and seemed momentarily unsure whether it would rather be crushed back into my head or trampled under the beast’s massive scarlet paws.

Apparently deciding it would rather continue to exist in some form, it ran back to me, falling to its knees at my feet.

“Please,” it squeaked. “We were only fooling. It was really her, she’s the only one who …”

It trailed off as I put my forehead against its, suppressing a shudder in the process. Its papery skin was icy and slick with something that I wanted to convince myself very badly was only sweat.

Thankfully I didn’t have to endure the repulsive sensation for long, as Oneiros lifted his arms, chanted some nonsense, and sent the thing back into my brain. There was less pain this time, and I suppose that’s because it came willingly.

In the far, far distance now—Adam and more of Oneiros’s dream creations had forced the Sarah-thing back beyond the boundary of the skyscraper trees—I heard the monstrosity scream in frustration; her plan to get out was being crushed right in front of her and she was unable to do anything about it.

I looked around and couldn’t see the mother-thing anywhere. I found it hard to believe it could have gotten very far; its legs were uneven and its dwarfish proportions didn’t lend themselves well to distance running.

“Where’d she go?” I asked Oneiros, staring up at him where he sat atop his giant steed, which had sidled up next to me and looked down at me with the same sort of eyes that any dog gives a new person it wants desperately to meet. I reached out a tentative hand and scratched it beneath the chin, which was as far as I could reach, even standing on my tiptoes. The dog’s tail gave one massive wag, and the tip of his tongue came out, very delicately, and gave my cheek one tiny lick. Then he stood back up, looking stately and proud, as if he were above such things as human attention. His mouth remained open in a wide dog-grin, though, and the tip of his tail swished once, twice more.

“Here she comes now,” said Oneiros. “And she does not look happy.” His voice was full of good cheer. It was amazing what a difference had come over him. When he’d stood next to me ready to face down these nightmares before Adam’s arrival, he’d been determined but grim, resigned to failure.

Now, having been kicked out of his own Dreamworld, and having come back with backup and a new, righteous anger and determination to take back his sacred ground, he was fighting with spirit, and something close to joy. He was actually quipping. He’s actually having a good time, I realized. It made a strange sort of sense, though; it couldn’t have been often that something came along and really broke up the monotony of his power, creating new scenarios to play out, reigniting a novelty that must have long since worn off.

My eyes rolled in the direction he was pointing, and I saw the mother-thing being carried toward us by a giant flying Sphinx with a woman’s face.

“Master.” The sphinx’s voice was a great bass boom that shook my bones. It set the mother-thing down where Oneiros indicated, right at my feet. It then laid down and started licking its paws, purring like a jet engine. The dog's tail wagged furiously and he looked at the Sphinx with what I could only describe as playful longing. He got himself back under control at a gentle word from Oneiros.

“Let’s get this over with,” I said.

“Fuck you,” the thing hissed at me, its voice so high and distorted that the words were almost unintellegible. “You're an awful daughter, sister, frien—”

I didn't let it finish. I did the forehead thing and it was over in an instant, no pain this time.

“Only one to go,” said Oneiros, smiling at me. At some point he'd used his power to give himself a costume of golden armor and a velvet cape that blew even in the absence of wind, and he looked every bit the part of master of this world. “And somehow I don’t think she’ll go so easily,” he finished.

We both looked off to where we knew Adam was still battling the Sarah-thing. They were so far away now that I couldn’t see them anymore, but I still heard the occasional crack of thunder and saw great splits in the clouds where bolts of foul lightning shot up into the sky, pushing through the air and clouds as if the saner parts of the Dreamworld were actively trying to distance themselves from this vile incursion.

“How can we help him?” I asked. Then, glancing again at Oneiros, who looked profoundly powerful and in command, I amended, “how can I help him?”

“We each have a part to play, and yours is the most important. Remember what Adam said: his power can get your mind and the minds of these things into a compatible shape to merge, my power can force your creations back into your head, but you have to get close, and you have to be willing.”

“I know,” I said. And I did know, but I didn't like it. The three creatures I'd recaptured so far were one thing—they were monstrous, but they didn't pose any real threat—but the Sarah-thing had powers, somehow, and getting close to her wouldn't be easy.

“Let's go,” said Oneiros, reaching a hand down to lift me up onto the dog's back. When I'd situated myself, he said, “just hold on. I'll do the rest.” And then we were off.

As we got closer to Adam's location, the sounds of battle grew louder. It was a cacophony of crashes and booms that made my teeth jitter and my heart skip a beat every time it rang out across a landscape that seemed at war with itself. There were islands of corruption, where these dark things which shouldn't have existed had influenced the dream, changing ordinary and extraordinary things alike into awful, twisted versions of themselves. But Oneiros's power slowly seemed to be reshaping them, pushing them back. Still, I noticed he steered the dog well clear of them as we raced to my brother's aid.

When Adam came into view, he had the Sphinx who had helped us before fighting alongside him, but no one else. There were at least two dozen armored automatons and clockwork birds scattered on the ground, broken or charred or otherwise ruined. There was a ring of upturned earth in the ground around the place where they fought, and something was moving beneath it.

Is that her power? I wondered. Pushing some sort of energy into the ground to try to cause an earthquake or something?

The Sphinx was dodging through the air, diving at the Sarah-thing then feinting at the last minute, forcing her to commit some energy to trying to blast it away. It didn't pose any real danger to her, at least if my understanding of Christine's power was valid—and of any Hype, I felt I had a better grasp on her power than anyone else's, having pored over the myriad videos and photos of her in Dallas even before I realized who she was—and assuming, of course, that the Sarah-thing had a nearly perfect copy of her power. Still, it was running interference, acting to distract her, obstruct her view, and, if needed, to shield Adam from her attacks.

That they'd managed to push her back so far was impressive, and it had given us the time we needed to take care of the other three, so I felt a strong degree of gratitude toward the Sphinx. Oneiros had reminded me over and over that the normal dream creations weren't truly alive or sentient, that there was no reason to pity them when they fell in battle or to put myself in harm's way to try to save them. Besides, I could tell by the way he scratched behind the dog's ears that even he didn't really believe what he said about the creations.

His power might have prevented human level sentience, but dogs? Cats? I could believe he could create real versions of those things here.

Watching the Sphinx fighting on, despite all her fallen comrades, despite the fact that she was being treated as a tool, as nothing but a distraction while Adam used his telekinesis to do the real pushing, the real damage, I couldn't stop myself from wanting to thank her somehow, to protect her.

“Hey, you bitch!” I shouted at the top of my lungs as we drew ever closer to the danger. “Sarah! Christine! Whatever the fuck you want to be called, whatever the fuck you are. I’m the one you want, and I’m right here!”

At my voice, Adam turned, and so did the Sarah-thing. Adam frowned deeply, and the Sarah-thing donned a malicious grin. This close to her, I could see that there wasn’t a scratch on her. All Adam had managed to do was push her away from me, not actually hurt her. And if he couldn’t hurt her …

But I had to try.

Are you sure you’re ready? Adam’s voice spoke in my mind. I still couldn't really believe that he could speak directly into my mind, even though his telepathy was what had gotten us into this mess.

I’m ready, I replied, not really feeling it. Now stop using your telepathy. Weren’t you like just told not to do that?

“Right, sorry!” he shouted. “Habit.”

The Sphinx dove in for one final feint, distracting the Sarah-thing while Adam retreated in my direction. The monster barely registered the incoming dive, moving deftly out of the way and letting the Sphinx hit the ground with a spectacular crash, kicking up a huge cloud of dust.

Adam, me, and Oneiros, climbing down off the back of his dog, were positioned in a row facing the Sarah-thing now. She advanced toward us, the sick smile never departing her lips.

“I hope you both know what you’re doing,” said Oneiros.

“That’s funny,” I said. “I was just about to say the same thing.”

I looked over at Adam, who nodded. “Me too,” he said.

Alright, bitch, I thought. You came from my head. Time to go home.