Hunted by Dean Murray

else while I was dreaming.
    "I
don't understand."
    The
light leaking out of his chest seemed to be getting stronger. It was
oddly beautiful, but I suspected that it meant he was getting weaker,
that his real body had started bleeding again.
    "I
can usually tell when someone is trying to project something other
than their real form. There is a haziness about them."
    "That's
how I knew you were there earlier. It looked like an empty corner,
but there was a weird kind of distortion in the air."
    "Indeed.
It's a sign that your gift is strong, potentially stronger even than
mine. You need training. Tell me your name and where you live. I'll
come to you as soon as I'm healed enough to travel."
    I
shook my head. "I'm not telling you anything of the sort. You're
some kind of monster and I'd be stupid to just blindly trust you.
Teach me what you can now and the next time we meet you can teach me
a little more."
    "I'd
be just as much of a fool to teach you what I knew without first
verifying that you are not more than you seem to be. There's not even
any guarantee that we'll run into each other again."
    I
wasn't normally very good about standing up for myself, but this was
different. The stakes this time were huge.
    "I'm
not telling you where I live."
    "Give
me a name then. Trust is a two-way street. We both must risk at least
a little if we're going to start earning each other's trust."
    "Fine,
my name is Adri. It's your turn now—teach me something useful,
something that will keep me alive."
    He
didn't look happy. Actually it was worse than that, it was like he
didn't appreciate being told what to do and was having to bite back a
response that would have escalated things.
    "Very
well. Escaping a dream is all about letting go of the alternate
version of reality that you or someone else has created. To leave you
need to focus on the real world and let what you're seeing in the
dream become less real. For me this takes the form of a kind of misty
impermanence. It may be different for you."
    He
paused for a moment before asking his follow-up question. "What
state do you live in?"
    My
insides tightened up. Every piece of information I gave out put him
that much closer to finding me. How many Adri's were there in the
United States? A thousand? Ten thousand maybe? Of those, how many
were my age and blonde? If I told him that I lived in Minnesota that
would drop the number down into the hundreds or maybe even a few
dozen. He probably didn't have access to any government databases.
That would make things harder for him, but still it seemed like too
big of a concession on my part.
    "No,
that's too much. Ask me something else."
    I
was sure it wasn't my imagination this time. His fists clenched hard
enough they turned white and it almost looked like he was shaking. I
needed to be more careful how I responded to him from here on out. I
didn't want to push him over the edge.
    "Fine.
Have you run into anyone else in your dreams since your power
awakened who was like you or me, someone who seemed in control of
their environment? Someone who noticed you, interacted with you in a
way that indicated that they knew you were more than just part of the
scenery of their dream?"
    "Is
that important?"
    "Answer
the question or we're done here."
    His
voice came out low, lower than mere anger could account for. It had
an almost bestial edge to it.
    "Yes.
There was someone—a woman, I think. I mean she was a woman, but
she might have been projecting a different appearance and I just
didn't know. She was fast, really, really fast. She wanted to know
who I was and when I didn't tell her she started choking me. The
weirdest thing was that just before I passed out she sent these odd
tendrils towards my face."
    "You're
going to need to be careful. Supernatural creatures are going to be
drawn to you, or maybe you to them, I'm not sure which. It will start
out as just dream encounters, but some of them will come hunting you
if you give them enough information to track