I'm posting this today as part of The Dream Sequence Blogfest. The setting (warning--this contains mild spoilers! Purists can read the 60 pages that lead up to this scene in a PDF excerpt here): Sixteen-year-old Maddie Dunn has just started manifesting her telepathic ability at Ganzfield, a secret training facility for people with special abilities. A few days before this scene, three of her former classmates attacked her. She fought them off, but the experience still haunts her.Mike grabbed me and pulled me into the van. He punched
me in the jaw. Del held me by the arm then ripped my shirt down
the front.
Help! I bolted upright, jerked awake by the sound of screaming. The
light from the moon cast a blue-grey glow on one side of Rachel’s
face. She sat up as well, wide-eyed and breathing fast, clutching
the front of her nightshirt to her. In Rachel’s mind, I saw Del’s
drunken face as it had loomed over her.
No! In the moonlight, Hannah absentmindedly rubbed her jaw.
She still felt the phantom sting of the punch to the face.
Oh my God. I could feel thoughts from other rooms in the house—four
other girls in Blake House were suddenly awake, shaken by the
same nightmare.
My nightmare.
I watched as Rachel and Hannah both settled back to sleep.
Just a bad dream. They hadn’t noticed each other’s reactions. My
heart raced and I felt my hands trembling, although I couldn’t see
them. I hugged my arms tightly around myself, pressing my chin
to my chest and squeezing hard to make the shaking stop.
I’d sent them my dream. I must be able to send thoughts as
well as receive them, like Dr. Williamson did. That would be a
cool thing if I could control which thoughts I sent. The horror of
having my every private thought broadcast to the world filled me
with dread. No wonder Seth lived alone in a cabin in the middle
of nowhere.
I needed my own cabin, and I needed it soon.
Now. The sudden thought of the empty church had me on my feet
and looking for my shoes. There were even beds there; it’d be
perfect. No one would have to share my nightmares if I slept
there. It was getting colder and I was just wearing a t-shirt and PJ
pants, so I wrapped the blue and green quilt from my bed around
my shoulders. Stepping lightly on the stairs, I tried not to make
any noise as I left the building.
I remembered where to find the path and the moon was
bright enough for me to see where I was going. The white church
glowed faintly to my dark-adjusted eyes. I pushed open the inner
doors to the sanctuary.
My sanctuary. It was darker inside, but the glimmer of moonlight that fell
through the broken shutter was enough for me to see the outlines
of the empty beds against the wall next to me. I grabbed a sleeping
bag from the pile and unrolled it on the nearest cot. The pillow
had a musty, camping smell, but I could live with it. The silence
enveloped me and I felt the tension drain out of my body. With
the gentle touch of a few nocturnal animals fluttering against my
consciousness, I fell asleep.
Mike forced me down on the floor of the van. He punched me
in the face. Del grabbed my shirt and yanked. Mike reached for
the front of my jeans.
The van door squealed open. Mike suddenly flew backward
through the air, slamming hard against the far wall of the garage.
Shovels and rakes clattered to the cement floor. Del flipped end-
over-end, tumbling against the closed garage door. The impact
of his shoulder cracked the wooden panel. Carl, still huddled in
the corner, emitted a painful “oof” sound as something unseen
pinned him back.
Trevor stood in the doorway of the van, looking at Carl.
Trevor? What was Trevor doing here? His normally kind, brown
eyes glared at my attackers. They softened with concern as they
focused on me. “Are you alright?”
A wave of conflicting thoughts filled me as my worlds collided
in strange, surreal ways. I no longer felt the terror of the attack.
A dream. Oh, this was just a dream. Trevor was here and I was safe. I
didn’t like the idea of being a damsel in distress, but having a
white knight come to my rescue kinda worked for me right now.
Trevor tried to gauge my reaction. I exhaled a shaky breath
and nodded. He extended his hand to me. I held my torn shirt
closed with my other hand as I stood.
Behind him in the garage, Del got to his feet. He grabbed one
of the fallen shovels from the floor and rushed Trevor.
“Look out!” I cried.
Mike stopped mid-stride—like he’d hit an invisible wall.
After a quick moment, he flew backward and slammed against
the garage wall with a sickening thud.
A splintering clatter pulled me out of my subconscious. I
had only a second to look into Trevor’s eyes as the dream-world
disintegrated, leaving me breathing hard in a swirl of fading
images.
Something in the church rolled through the blackness with a
hollow, wooden sound, and the dream—
my dream—floated half-
remembered in someone else’s mind.
Trevor. Someone’s in here. I could feel the tingle of trepidation flow
through him.
“I am,” I said aloud, hearing my voice echo slightly. “I’m
here.”
“Maddie?” The threads of the dream revived slightly in his
head as he tried to figure out what was real. For my part, I had a
sudden rush of warmth as I realized that Trevor knew my name,
but it died as soon as I realized now he also knew my nightmare.
Minder will be released on June 18th from Spencer Hill Press, although
Amazon is shipping them already. There's more info and a book trailer at
Ganzfield.com.
Thanks for stopping by for the dream sequence blogfest!
My next book reading will be next week in Boston at ReaderCon. I'll be with the Broad Universe contingent (I simply LOVE that name for a group of female sci-fi writers!). We have a reading session scheduled, and I'll also be selling and signing copies of Minder at their table in the bookseller's room.
