Elsewhere is a very different story. It’s less of a dream and more of a world, one that doesn’t work the same as ours. What happens here may not touch our reality, at least not physically, but the dangers are real, and not everyone who goes there comes back. When you visit Elsewhere, you don’t see its ‘pure’ form – you see an interpretation, shaped either by yourself or by another. In this case, the version of Elsewhere that I was seeing was shaped by Anne. Anne spent a long time here when she was younger – maybe too long – and her Elsewhere feels more real than mine, more detailed and vivid.
I couldn’t see through the forest cover, but I knew where I was. Over to my left were the great trees, spiralling behemoths the size of small mountains, with houses and platforms built around their branches. The times I’ve visited Anne, that’s where I’ve met her, and I’ve always found it beautiful. This time, though, I had a different destination in mind. I turned right and started walking.
Normally when you visit another person’s Elsewhere you always find them, or a doorway to their dreams. It doesn’t matter what direction you go in, the place reshapes itself around you. With the dreamstone and my newfound skill, though, I could shape my own path, finding the destination that I wanted. The trees ended at a wall of black glass, mirror-smooth and darkly reflective. I jumped up to the top.
The inside of the wall was as different from the outside as night and day. Outside was forest, the green canopy stretching on and on for ever; inside was black glass, perfect and lifeless, straight lines and smooth curves. The wall had a parapet, but despite its neatness, there was something wrong with the design. There were no stairs, no gates or towers, nothing that would make the wall useful to living people, as though it had been sketched in abstract and left unfinished.
The wall formed a circle, and at the centre was a tower, rising up into the grey sky. Looking up, I could see a balcony. Once upon a time I would have gone looking for a staircase or a door, or some other way inside. This time I fixed my eyes on the tower, focused and walked forward. There was a moment’s resistance, then my foot came down on black stone.
I was standing on the balcony. The view was amazing, seeming to stretch out for ever, but I didn’t pause to look; I’d seen it before. High arches led into a sitting room of dark wood and green glass. It was empty.
I frowned. Where is she?
I walked across the room and opened the door at the end to reveal a corridor with white sphere lights glowing from the walls. I kept going deeper, my footsteps echoing inside the tower. They were the only sound; the stillness was absolute. I climbed a flight of stairs, picked out a door and opened it.
Inside was a bedroom. The far wall was open, a line of arched windows following the curve of the tower and giving a view out onto the landscape beyond. A storm was raging in the distance, sparks of lightning flashing at the base of a vast anvil-shaped cloud.
To the left was a double bed, the sheets and duvet rumpled, and it was occupied. Lying on it was Anne … or someone who looked just like her. She had her hands behind her head and one knee up, long hair spread over the pillow, and was wearing a red chemise with black lace, cut long with slits in the side to leave her legs bare. ‘Long time no see,’ she said with a smile.
‘Last time you met me downstairs.’
‘Last time I was the one who needed to talk to you,’ the girl who looked like Anne said. She patted the bed next to her. ‘Come on, don’t be shy.’
I looked around for a chair; there wasn’t one. I crossed the room and sat on the bed, a little distance away. The girl raised her eyebrows but made no move to close the distance. ‘I’ve wondered,’ I said. ‘What should I call you?’
‘Just “Anne” is fine.’
‘That feels a little misleading.’
‘But I am Anne,’ the girl said. ‘Just not a part she likes to think about.’ She tilted her head. ‘You can keep thinking of me as “not-Anne” if it makes you feel better.’
How did she know that? I’d never used that name to Anne, not once. ‘Should I give you time to dress?’
She laughed. ‘I never know whether you’re serious when you do that. It’s funny either way.’
I paused, looking at not-Anne. She looked back at me.
‘So,’ I said.
‘So?’
‘Last time you came to the point a lot faster.’
‘Last time we were in a little more of a rush.’ She smiled at me. ‘Sure you’re in such a hurry to talk? We can always do that after.’
‘I … think I’d like to settle this first.’
Not-Anne rolled her eyes. ‘God, you’re slow. How many invitations do you need?’
I raised my eyebrows. ‘I’m slow?’
‘What do you think?’
‘I think …’ I looked at Anne, or this reflection of her. The more I looked at her, the harder it was to remember that she wasn’t Anne. And she had all of Anne’s slender beauty, posed in a way that made it hard not to look. I knew exactly what she was implying, and it was more tempting than it should have been. ‘I think you’re trying to distract me.’
Not-Anne laughed again. Her mood seemed to shift more quickly than Anne’s, amusement to annoyance and back again in an instant. ‘Okay, sometimes you’re quick. Though you’d be more fun if you were a little easier to manipulate.’ She sighed, stretching in a way that made her body shift under the chemise. ‘Go on, ask it.’
‘Today, in Anne’s flat, when I spoke mind-to-mind,’ I said. ‘It was you I was talking to, wasn’t it?’
‘Ding ding, advance to round two.’
‘Except it wasn’t just you. You were sharing space with the jinn.’
‘Ding ding, round three.’
‘So where is it?’ I said. I looked around the tower. ‘Here?’
‘Bzzt. Sorry, you are not a winner. Weren’t you listening to Dr Shirland? This tower is single occupancy. I like my privacy, thank you very much.’
‘It sure as hell wasn’t single occupancy today,’ I said. ‘Okay, so the jinn’s not a permanent resident. But somehow, it’s getting in. And if it’s getting in, then it’s also getting out. So how exactly is that happening?’
‘Answers on a postcard?’
I took an angry step towards her. ‘Stop playing around and answer the question!’
‘Or what?’ Not-Anne stretched, crossing her wrists above her head with a smile. ‘You’ll punish me?’
I glared at not-Anne, took a breath. She’s playing like this is a game. I tried not to think about the fact that if it was a game, then I was pretty sure I was losing.
The problem was that it was Anne. This kind of thing is usually something I’m good at, but it was too easy for her to put me off-balance. ‘That jinn is getting in. And you know what? I’m pretty sure you’ve got something to do with it.’
Not-Anne shrugged.
‘Are you going to say anything?’
‘Why?’ Not-Anne sat up and hopped off the bed, then walked past me. I turned to watch as she opened the wardrobe, talking over her shoulder. ‘It’s not my job to find things out for you.’
‘I’d say it concerns you in a fairly major way.’
‘Oh, not disagreeing.’ Not-Anne took out a blue velvet dressing gown and slipped it on, then turned to face me, tying the belt around her waist. ‘I just don’t see the problem.’
‘You don’t have a problem with some incredibly powerful disembodied entity possessing you?’
‘Who says we’re being possessed?’
‘That seems to be what’s happening.’
‘No, that’s what’s happening to that Anne.’ Not-Anne pointed through the windows into the distance. ‘I, on the other hand, am doing just fine.’