“I can’t believe she’d be that cruel,” Peter said as they walked into the old mall building, the others going their separate ways in the parking lot behind him. “I’m telling you now, there’s no way they did that without her approval.”

  “She still surprises you?” John asked.

  Zach couldn’t stop glancing back over his shoulder at the Function heads. Being what he was—that is, a Dreamer—could he honestly blame them? Noah had tried to warn him. Their acceptance wouldn’t come easily.

  “Don’t worry about it, alright?” John asked. “It’s not what I had in mind for you. I know you’ve always had your heart set on Agriculture, just like your mother did when she was your age, but it isn’t all bad. I promise you.”

  Zach said nothing as he tried breaking down John’s words. So, Oliver had been interested in working on the farm? Whether or not he remembered his own past life, it was almost instinctual that Zach knew he had no such interest. At all.

  Working under the sun? The grass making you itchy and uncomfortable? The back-breaking labor it took, bending, kneeling, and stooping, all for long hours at a time. Not to mention all the insects that seemed intent on punishing you for being in their territory.

  No. If he’d had to make his own decision, it would’ve been the Expedition or Security Functions, though he knew next to nothing about the guns the enforcers carried everywhere.

  “I know,” he responded. A heartbeat later, he added, “Dad.”

  John looked at him, his eyes searching Zach’s face. Zach knew he kept his panic well under wraps, but he asked himself, What did I say wrong? Am I leaning into the dynamic too hard?

  If that were the case, he couldn’t very well say, “I’m sorry, I take it back.” All he could do was withstand that scrutinizing gaze and keep walking. He purposefully distracted himself in the mall’s design.

  Like the houses in the residential district, the building had been built to honor the country’s founding religion. The edge of the roof facing them was curved up in a half-circle, the curve done to give praise to Creation. The result looked like a crown affixed to the building.

  Like the others, this curve was painted black, though under the baking hot sun of Tettralis, the paint job was more than chipped.

  Is it any wonder this planet lost itself in a religious war, when even a mall building has to be constructed to honor their god?

  Zach kept his thoughts to himself as they walked through an entrance that had no doors or any kind of barricade. The place had long since been cleared out; whatever shops these rundown lots had been were now forever lost to history.

  Even Oliver’s memories yielded nothing, beyond the fact that it might have been some shoe shop. Now the place was empty, the shelves stripped bare. What must’ve been the checkout counter was covered in stacks of paper, which immediately caught John’s attention.

  “Unfortunately, with an expedition coming up soon, you’ll be expected to go on it,” Pete said to him, gripping his shoulder.

  Right. I have to earn my keep.

  “Also, since you’re one of us now, I guess we have to tell you the truth.”

  “The truth?” Zach asked.

  By the old checkout counter, John paused, setting the page in his hand down. “Pete, can I speak to him alone? It’s best if I do it.”

  Peter nodded, his grip tightening briefly before he let go. “I’ll go tally with the smiths.”

  Zach watched as he walked over to the counter, quickly sorted through the pages there, and walked out the same way they’d come in. Whatever John was about to tell him, there was no denying the atmosphere had changed.

  John took a deep breath, closing his eyes and turning his head to the ceiling. “Oli, what about I’m about to tell you... I know you had your... obsession... with the creatures before you were sent to the hold.”

  He turned around, finally opening his eyes.

  “As you might’ve noticed, our Function isn’t anywhere close to the numbers of the others. We have just over a hundred. The reason for that is that people believe the demons are beyond our walls, waiting to kill and eat us the minute we step outside.”

  “I know that,” Zach said with a nod, Oliver’s memories confirming every word.

  “Well, the truth is, we discovered the demons never actually crossed over from Erosa. The creatures originate at the site of the Last War; every report we’ve heard confirms this. The few demon stragglers we do have, well, they all come from... well, they come from Dreamers.”

  Zach didn’t know what to say. His mind told him Erosa was the main northern continent, often considered the birthplace of humanity, and also the site where a good portion of the Last War had been fought.

  John took his silence for shock.

  “The Head thought it best that everybody believed there were demons right outside our walls. That fear would help us build a functional society. One where everyone would be focused on surviving together. On creating a community.”

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  “What reports?” Zach asked, genuinely curious.

  “The few people we’ve allowed into our camp all confirm that none of them ran into demons on this continent. Apparently, people are pouring in from the north by boat, trying to escape the creatures.

  “But a few days ago, we received two strangers. One of them was the man who cleared you on the platform. Says his name is B. The other was the leader of a rival camp north and west of Twelve, who said his entire camp was wiped out by demons.

  “They didn’t have our defenses, but they were far from weak. The few demons we’re supposed to have could never have wiped out an entire camp like that.”

  “Which makes your previous estimates wrong,” he said. John frowned slightly at his words and delivery. “Our estimates, I mean,” he corrected, glancing at the stack of papers to avoid John’s eyes.

  “We’ll have to investigate that. Still, on all the expeditions we’ve ever been on, we have only ever encountered one demon. But it was weak. We believe there is a difference between the demons coming in from the war site and the Dreamers’.”

  He sighed, closing his eyes as if he were steeling himself. He walked behind the counter, squatting out of sight. Zach heard the rattle of keys before they went into what sounded like a safe. Again, the ruffling of paper, then his father came back up, a small stack in his hands.

  “This is not to feed your obsession,” he said, coming back around. “But the Head made Pete and I study the creature we found. Like I said, it was weak and alone. But this is what we have on the creatures.”

  He handed over the stack. Zach took them, wondering about this obsession John had twice mentioned now. Had that been part of those strange dreams Oliver had written about? Were the demons linked to his transmigration?

  Oddly enough, there was nothing in Oliver’s memories about any obsession with those creatures. Of course not.

  He flipped through the pages, reading the sprawling handwriting.

  ‘Once they’ve crawled out of a Dreamer, they can’t survive long without a host. The Dream demons can’t breed, though people from Erosa have mentioned that they’ve seen small demons back home. So, somehow they do have offspring.’

  Oliver hadn’t known that, at least, he thought so. Those memories were nothing but a gray fuzz when he tried picking at them. As he read on, his mind couldn’t help but go back to the dark creatures he’d seen back on the platform, or in the apartment with him.

  He’d heard often enough now that they crawled out of a Dreamer, but what did that actually look like? Or was it a metaphor, as in Dreamers attracted them? He shuddered to think he’d invited them in. Still, why hadn’t one of them crawled through him? Or tried to find him, if that’s how it worked?

  He read on about their diet, their shape, their behaviors, all of which were noted in frighteningly little detail. He could only take so much before his fear that it could be him at any moment became unbearable.

  Instead of tossing the pages away like he wanted to—after John had mentioned his supposed previous obsession with them, that would be too much of a character change—he decided to ask a question that had just occurred to him.

  “I’ve been meaning to ask,” he began. “Before the hold, did I ever tell you about my dreams?”

  His father grew still. Oliver’s experience told him this was as close to outright shock as he would show. “Oliver, you don’t talk about your Dreams. None of the Dreamers are allowed to do that. You’ll just make people more terrified of you.”

  “I don’t mean the Knocking,” Zach explained, finally setting the pages down, and glad John paid it no mind. “I mean, before that, you know? My normal dreams? There’s a dream I’m trying to remember.” He finished with a frown, pretending as though he were trying to recall the dream at that moment.

  “No, you never spoke about your dreams,” John replied warily. “Why would you? You’re a quiet person, not the type to speak about your dreams. I’m sure you never even mentioned them to Emily.”

  Zach gasped at the mention of that name. A face swam up from the depths of Oliver’s mind. She was smiling, her brown eyes sparkling with delight, her mouth curved in that sly smile of hers that she always seemed to wear.

  The feelings and emotions that came with her freckled face nearly sent him stumbling to his knees. He had to brace his hands against the counter, closing his eyes as the memory of her became clearer and clearer.

  Again, she stood in the sun, her hair a mess from the wind, her face turned toward him, mouthing words he couldn’t make out. They were too distorted, blending in perfectly with the wind.

  But he saw her so vividly.

  “Oli?” John asked. “You alright?”

  He nodded, the subtle motion all he could manage right now.

  “Then you’ve heard,” John said softly. “I’m sorry. No one really knows why she left. I never really thought she’d go. After she lost her parents like that... To take off alone. Brave girl,” John sounded like brave wasn’t the word he really wanted to use.

  “She left?” Zach asked the question stemming more from the emotional fallout of Oliver’s memories.

  John cleared his throat, busying himself with picking up the pages Zach had sent flying during his stumble.

  “Maybe she just couldn’t stand you being in the Dreamhold,” he offered. The words were clearly meant to be comforting, but they came out stiff. Like he wasn’t well-practiced with consolations.

  Emily Crea... Just left... Is she the one who left the mysterious note on the door?

  It was the strangest thing. A few minutes ago, he hadn’t even been aware of her existence. But now that he knew the name, the compound emotions and experiences Oliver had built up with her filled him like nothing else.

  Like a mosquito bite that had always been there, but that you only noticed once you scratched at it.

  What were they up to?

  One thing was clear. Whether or not he’d told her about the dreams, she knew about them as she must’ve read the entries she’d brought to him. If she was the same person, she’d left in pursuit of yet another unknown party.

  When he tried to remember her in relation to Oliver’s last days, he came up empty. As powerful as the emotions relating to her were now, he couldn’t remember her during those last days at all.

  I have to find his journal...

  “By the way, Oliver,” John added. “Now that you’re one of us, you’ll have to go to regular training sessions, so you at least have a feel for weapons. The first time you shoot a gun can’t be out there if something’s chasing you. The training happens at the military bases.”

  From outside the old shop, they heard the scuff of boots. A few seconds later, Peter rounded the corner, his face lit up with the biggest smile Zach had so far seen from anyone in this camp.

  “What happened?” John asked as he stood there, breathing rapidly.

  “They just sent a messenger up from the medical ward,” Pete said, the smile getting even bigger. “Eve’s awake.”