A Dream to Reality

A meeting with Tim should've solved Tanya's dream problem. It actually exacerbated it. She just kept getting more vivid dreams, detailed and clear but still meaningless. Sometimes she would see Tim, other times she would see a man. He was probably in his late twenties and wore a hat almost all the time.

It took Tanya about a week of stalking to figure out where Tim was living. His reaction to seeing her was at first a little insipid.

"You've been avoiding me," Tanya said when she found him.

"I've been checking the area for more," he replied.

"More what? I have so many questions and I –"

"-You want all the answers?" he said cutting her off.

She gave him a nod as she sat down next to him.

"Well," he began, "you and I are what you would call special and we are not the only ones. I don't know what caused it, what gave us our powers but I do know that we are not safe,"

"Why," she asked, "shape-shifters?"

"Yes, except they're working with somebody. He calls himself Leonard. He has powers just like you and I except he wants to hunt down every single last one of us," Tanya had a mortified look on her face as she listened to Tim.

"Why is he so against us?" she asked.

"His mom was killed when he was a kid, by an energy surge. It's the same surge that gave him his immense powers. He has the ability to corrupt literally anyone within his reach and use them to annihilate others. Then he kills them and feeds off their power, uses it to strengthen himself. He became so bloodthirsty the moment he killed his mother's murderer and he decided to end all of us once and for all."

"How do I know that you're not with him?"

"Well he draws his power from someone's urge and desire. He corrupts you through your deepest fantasies and takes full control of your mind until you become a mindless drone living off his commands until he kills you and sucks the power out of you. Anyway, I've hated him since he murdered my cousin back when I was younger and my deepest fantasy is to see him dead and powerless. "

Tanya developed a subtle smile and went on to tell him about the dreams she's been having, how Leonard had been appearing and sometimes talking to her. She also told him the dreams she'd had of him, fighting against something, some dark powerful presence.

"If you've been dreaming about me then that means I'm in danger. I dreamt of you weeks before finding you here with that shape-shifter," he said.

"What are you gonna do about it?"

"There's nothing more I can do, besides watching my back I guess, he lurks around every corner."

"It wasn't him I saw with you in the dream, this dark presence loomed over the atmosphere and he even looked terrified,"

"Well we can never know what nonsense he puts in your head, the best I can do is teach you how to use your powers , one day you'll face him and we need to be ready for that,"

Spending almost a fortnight with Tim practicing her powers made her develop a liking for him. He'd been using his powers since his childhood and also knew a thing or two about the martial arts. He actually taught her how to handle the blood that would resiliently sneak out of her nostrils when she'd drained her energy by using her powers and he emanated an aura of pure confidence.

"You no longer come to your place after school," Chris said to Tanya a few days later during lunch break at school.

"Yeah I'm always practicing my powers with Tim," she said.

"It seems this just isn't about your powers," he grinned after seeing her blush, "do you like him?"

"What," she said trying to fight down a smile, "he is, amazing and so interesting to listen to but I don't like him I just like being around him,"

"Someone's got a crush," he said in a mocking tone.

"Stop it, Chris," she laughed as she brushed him off, "ok yes I sort of like him a little bit, like a very tiny bit," she rolled her eyes at him, "anyway just so you know he is teaching me to defend myself,"

"Against this guy you told me about earlier, Leonard?"

"Yes, Leonard murdered Tim's cousin when he was younger and has crazy mind control powers, I want to be a hundred percent ready to be up against someone like him,"

"But what does he want with you, you got your powers just recently but there was already a guy trying to kill you," Chris' tone had morphed into a more tense and serious form.

"He seeks vengeance for his dead mom by making sure he kills every single one of us that he comes across,"

Chris had the rest of his lunch in silence, Tanya, who had already finished hers, instead made her way to the library.

The school library was an empty sea of books during the lunch break. Normally you'd find a student or two besieged by a barricade of books but this time it was just Tanya. She sat down after picking a book which had peaked her interest. Immediately she did so the whole place became dull and dim. It was like she was in a dream. Looking around curiously she found out that she wasn't in the library anymore. The place seemed oddly familiar to her though she didn't know where exactly it was. She was seated on the floor of an empty, abandoned barn. All that could be seen was a few stacks of hay and dilapidated garden tools randomly littered on the dirty wooden floor. She heard footsteps coming from behind her and she stood up. Hardly had she looked behind when a boy passed right through her. He was breathing heavily and his feet pounded the ground with each step he took. She felt like a ghost, foreign to everything surrounding her. All she could identify from the boy was his short blonde hair. The rest was as only as clear as her vision permitted. The boy lifted up a rake. He grasped it and out of frustration started melting it. It dematerialized like melted butter on toast. The smell of smoke and smoldered metal drenched the air and the boy used his hand to wipe off a little blood flowing through his nostril before walking out. She followed him outside and immediately knew where he was. His house was just a few meters away from the barn, sitting at the top of a hill facing the suburbs where Tanya lived. Tanya tried to talk to him but her voice sounded muffled even in her own ears. She ran to him and actually passed through him once more before waking up a bit dizzily in her school's library. She touched her desk, her books and literally everything nearby just to make sure she wasn't in another dream. She felt calmer having made contact with solid objects. Many thoughts were lingering in her head but all she wanted to do was see the boy from her dream.