On a plane, the quiet would have been drowned out by a jet engine and babbling passengers, a static of noise ripping through the skies. But here, where we were alone, the silence was omnipresent: a beautiful emptiness of yellow sun and perfect clouds that made all the vast cities and shining coasts and bustling cars below seem insignificant.
She stopped to float as I tried to catch up. Her feet dangled lightly in the air, arms crossed now. I could see every line between the scales on her hands, like miniature black creases dividing tiny mirrors.
I took a labored breath of air and let it out in contentment.
10
Rebirth
I awoke to a gentle rain drizzling down the sides of my face: the misty spray of a storm coming to its close. It smelled of rot and acid and all the hideous chemicals that permeated the city air, and tasted even worse when it dripped through the corners of my lips and down my dehydrated throat. I rolled over, groaning in pain. My torn clothes were already soaked through to my skin. They squished miserably against the wet rock beneath my body.
I was disoriented but managed to force my eyelids open. My forehead rested on my arms, elbows covered in gray rock chips. So I wasn’t going to die in my dream this time? How lucky I was.
Even then, the final dream was blemished by memories of something else…a priest on a steeple. A gun pointed at my face. Chemicals that had forced me to sleep. Arms picking me up, carrying me into the sky. I couldn’t put them all together at first. Had my entire morning been a part of a dream all along?
I barely registered that I was outdoors. The rain poured harmlessly on me, cool at first, then warming like sweat when it ran down my back and through tears in my white undershirt. Had I fallen asleep in the yard? I lifted my head.
I wasn’t in my yard at all. I was at the top of a canyon somewhere, tall rock all around me and my body lying in the middle of a thin, open path. I sat up quickly, water falling from folds in my shirt. Everything was dark under the heavy clouds but even then I could tell I was far from home.
Something itched on my right hand. The ring was still there.
I was on my feet in an instant, the lethargic feeling dashed from my bones. I remembered! Brother James had handed me over to the Guardians. And now I was outside? Had something gone wrong, or had I escaped them somehow but couldn’t remember it? I’d already had enough experience with these Guardians to know I should get away while I could. I stumbled ahead in a stupor.
The opening in the rocks was not a path at all, but a sudden cliff drop-off that had been hidden in the mist. I came upon it too quickly to catch my balance and slipped as my shoes hit the wet rocks.
I fell over the edge.
For a moment I tumbled into nothing, unable to hold my balance, arms rushing in front of me to catch my fall. But then I wasn’t falling any longer. I found myself floating in midair, feet dangling inches away from the edge and an unfathomable distance from the rock-covered valley below. My hands were still frozen in front of me: hands now covered in silver scales.
The scales brushed against each other, feeling strangely natural. My hands simply trembled before me, some unfamiliar sensation coursing out of them that caused me to remain afloat. The energy came from the tops of my hands and burst invisibly through my skin and bones and out the other side with my palms. I was carried backwards to my feet again and dropped heavily to solid ground.
The moment I was safe again, the silver scales sudden drew back, hiding themselves beneath my skin as if they’d never been there at all. In seconds, I had once again returned to normal, except for my heart pounding louder than the rain. My hands were still out, frozen in the motion I’d have been found in if I’d tumbled to my death.
I shook. Was I still dreaming? I couldn’t be. I’d already awoken, and that sensation—that real, unmistakable feeling of something within me, fresh and powerful like the beating of a new heart.
“Try not to die so quickly,” I heard a male voice behind me. I spun around and my hands reacted again, the silver scales bursting forth in the same way they had seconds before. This time, however, ten long, curled silver claws slid from my fingers, bursting from the cuticle and covering my nails like armor with razor-sharp ends.
I don’t know what scared me more: the claws, or the person I saw across from me.
“You!” I gasped. I could hardly believe my own eyes—the boy who’d appeared in my nightmares was now sitting in front of me, deep in the shadow of the high stonewall beneath a tree that left him in a dry circle. His clothes were far more modern than before: a black tank top that left his muscled arms exposed, and faded blue jeans above navy-blue Converse scuffed by dirt stains. His hair was still long and black, tied behind his shoulders. There was a silver ring on his finger, exactly like mine. Not to mention the most unusual thing about him, which frankly was beginning to lose its novelty: silver scales on his hands and long claws on his fingers.
The moment I saw the silver, I panicked and stepped back. He looked at me and I at him, neither of us able to speak at first. Then, as if judging me no threat, he leaned back again, and the claws and scales withdrew back into his skin.
“I’m Thad,” he said calmly. “Stop that before you hurt yourself.”
“Did they send you to kill me?” I demanded, and at this accusation my fingers twitched. I wanted them to stop but I wasn’t controlling them, their movements involuntary.
Thad shrugged.
“I sure hope not,” he said. “You’ve been laying there for hours and I haven’t sliced you to bits. I’d be the worst assassin the world has ever seen.”
He regarded me with a slightly amused, crooked smile. I didn’t know how to respond to that, except to feel stupid. My claws retreated again, as if they could sense there was no danger. I tore my eyes from him slowly, looking down as they shriveled back and the scales vanished with them.
Impossible…
But too real for me to deny.
I studied Thad but was unable to voice any of the questions that I had—questions that only continued to compound.
Thad pushed himself up from his slouch and dusted his hands on the knees of his jeans.
“Maybe I should have left you back there,” he said in reflection. “I’d get a whole lot more appreciation from those Guardians.”
“I…I’m sorry,” I said, swallowing hard. “I just don’t know what’s going on. I don’t know who you are.” I stopped, correcting myself. “Actually I do. You’re the guy from my dreams.”
“That’s the first time I’ve heard that from another guy,” he murmured.
I wasn’t amused, even though Thad was fighting valiantly to end the heavy air between us. I was so confused that I didn’t know which reaction to go with, so I remained stuck, like a robot shutting down from too many commands.
He gestured to a dry spot next to him.
“You want to get out of the rain at least?” he suggested. As he spoke, he reached into his pocket for something, but finding that it wasn’t there, he glanced to his wristwatch swiftly.
“I’d give it about ten more minutes,” he said. “Then we’ve got to run. Just enough time to figure out how we both got into this mess.”
He tapped the dry spot again. “Come on, just a few minutes. I’ve been running all over the place trying to save you in time.”
I relented, but more because I felt that my knees would soon give out if I didn’t sit. I still wasn’t sure if I could trust him, but he had made a good point: I’d have been dead if he wanted me that way. I sat an arm’s length from him and shivered.
“What do you mean you saved me?” I finally mustered up the courage to ask. He huffed.