1 The Dream Rider (2 page)

“I wouldn’t worry about it,” he continued. “Those kinds of
things happen. I’m sure it’s nothing.”

I nodded, faking agreement. I couldn’t tell him about the
message. He would probably ask what I’d been smoking or make some other
wisecrack.

“You going to the party tonight?” he asked, changing the
subject.

I shook my head. “I doubt it, man. I don’t really feel
like it. Got a lot of studying to catch up on,” I lied again, at least about
the studying part.

“Dude,” he stopped and turned to me, grabbing both my
shoulders. We had finished the climb and were standing just outside the
Psychology building. Twenty feet away, a group of four girls were loitering,
chattering away. “You are going to this party tonight. I need you to go. You’re
my wingman.”

“You don’t need me to go,” I replied. “And I’m not your
wingman. You’ll probably get hammered and forget I’m even there.”
 
I gave him a look that told him I knew
better.

“That’s not true,” he pleaded.

“Really? What about Bowen’s party last month? You ran into
some chick and disappeared. I never even saw you the rest of the night.”

“Come on, man,” his begging was actually kind of
entertaining to watch. “It will be fun. You look like you need to unwind a
little bit anyway.”

He was right about that. I did need to unplug and relax,
not just because of the bad dream. But I still wasn’t convinced. “I don’t know.
I appreciate it but—“

“You’re coming,” he insisted, making a sad puppy-dog face.

“You look ridiculous when you do that,” I said and started
to walk away.

“So, you’re in?” he pressed.

“Yeah, I’ll come,” he smiled as I answered. “But just for
a little while.”

He put up his hands in triumph and yelled, “Did you hear
that ladies?”
 
His proclamation
startled the girls at the corner of the building as we entered the lobby. “Finn
McClaren will be attending tonight’s party. You’re welcome!”

“You’re an idiot,” I said to him, passing the giggling
girls. “I’m glad you’re my friend. But you’re an idiot.”

Heavy bass pounded from subwoofers on the porch. The host of
the party had turned the entire concrete patio into a dance floor, and it was
packed with drunken revelers, blowing off steam from their week of study. The
guy throwing the party had produced four kegs of beer, all of which were being
used at various spots on the property.

There were no houses next to the home so, playing the
music at full volume and having four hundred guests was no problem.

Nate had done exactly what I’d said he would. He’d offered
me a few beers early on, which I turned down, before he wandered off. Some
people thought it odd that I didn’t drink. One friend from high school had
asked me how it was possible that I was half Mexican, half Irish, and didn’t
drink alcohol. I told them I’d just never acquired the taste.

For the most part, I was relatively invisible. I’d been
sitting on a log near one of the bonfires for the last hour, the only person
who’d said anything to me was Nate, right before he stumbled away yelling
something about the greatest night of his life.

I didn’t mind being alone. But I did mind being invisible.
My whole life, I’d always lived in other peoples’ shadows. Everyone always paid
attention to people I hung out with. I was always the sidekick. It was like
that with girls, too. They all went after the guys who were older, stronger,
richer
.

My train of thought returned to the present.
Why had I even
come to this stupid party?
Nate always talked me into doing things I didn’t
want to do. I stared into the fire, gazing into the orange coals, getting more
annoyed the longer I sat there. I decided to leave before I got any angrier. No
one would notice. Well, Nate might when he sobered up. But the campus was
within walking distance. He’d be fine.

Just as I was about to stand up, I felt someone sit down
next to me. I turned my head to see a young woman beside me on the log. She was
gorgeous, wearing a black vinyl jacket and skin tight, matching pants. Long,
curly brown hair framed a pale face with a gently sloping nose. I couldn’t see
her eyes until she turned to face me. When she did, they were greener than the
fields of Ireland.

“Hello, Finn,” as she spoke I was instantly locked into
her deep, mesmerizing eyes.

“Hello?” I struggled to get the word out. I panicked.
Who was this
beautiful girl and why was she talking to me? Me?
I started to say
something that was probably going to be cheesy or cliché, but the words never
made it past my mouth.

“Don’t talk. Just listen,” she ordered, motioning me to be
quiet with a delicate finger. I frowned, confused. But I obeyed. “They’re coming
for you, Finn. You may not have much time.”

“What?” I asked. “Who’s coming for me?”
 
I laughed as I said it.

She grabbed my leg just above the knee, and I suddenly
felt a horrible numbness surge through my entire body. I couldn’t move. I was
completely paralyzed. All of the things going on around me, the party, the
people dancing, students stumbling around, everything became a blur. All I
could focus on was the girl and her hypnotic eyes.

When she spoke, it was if her voice was coming from inside
my head. “You know who they are, Finn. They came after you last night. They
will come again.”
 

The men in the trench coats?
She nodded as if hearing my
thoughts.

“They will come after you again,” she repeated. “And they
will keep coming until they finish what they have started.”

“What? What have they started? Why me?” I asked, fairly
certain my lips weren’t moving, though I could hear the sound of my voice.

“Because they are afraid,” she said. “Soon, you will
realize who you really are, Finn.”

“Who I am?” I asked. “Who are you? And what do you want
with me?”

“You are far more important than you think, Finn.”

“How do you know my name?” I wanted to scream, but I
couldn’t.

She looked deeply into my eyes. “You are meant for a glory
you couldn’t possibly imagine. You will save the lives of millions of people,
and lead them to a life they never imagined.”

“Glory? What are you talking about? I can’t save anyone.”

“You do not yet know what you are truly capable of, but
soon you will see, Dream Rider.”

She let go of my leg, and I was immediately able to feel
my extremities again. It all came back so quickly that I felt a little dizzy
for a moment and had to brace myself by putting my elbows on my knees. After a
few seconds, the vertigo dissipated and I sat up. Everything was clear again.
No one was looking at me, like I was afraid they might. The party continued as
if nothing had happened. I looked around frantically; a million thoughts
swirled in my head. And the girl was gone.

I stood up, cautiously, making sure I could still use my
legs, and walked around for a few minutes to see if I could find Nate. There
was no sign of him anywhere. So, I left and walked quickly through the crowd of
reveling students to my car. I plopped down into the driver’s seat and sat still
for a minute or two, trying desperately to process what was going on. My hands
shook on the steering wheel. Too many weird things had happened over the last
twenty-four hours. I shifted the car into gear and steered it out onto the road
back to the dorm.

The building was quiet when I arrived. It was like the
entire campus was at the party. The only person I saw as I walked through the
lobby was the resident assistant at the desk who never looked up as I passed.

It was past 1:00 in the morning by the time I crawled into
bed. I was tired but my eyes were wide open. The experience I’d had with the
strange girl was still fresh in my mind. It was like she’d used some kind of
spell or black magic on me. For a few minutes, I thought that I might have been
dreaming. Somehow, though, I knew that wasn’t the case.

After lying there in my bed for what seemed like an hour,
my eyes finally started getting heavy. Just as I was about to fall asleep, I
heard a knock at my door. The noise startled me, and I jumped out of my bed. I
looked around for a weapon, anything I could use.
Weapon? Why would I need a weapon? It was
probably just Nate. But why would he come to my room?

I found my baseball bat conveniently sitting next to the
door and hoisted it onto my shoulder. “Who is it?” I asked.

No one answered so I spoke louder the second time. “Hello?
Who is it?”
 
Nothing again.

I stepped closer to the door as quietly as possible,
careful not to make a noise and unlocked it just as cautiously. I swung it open
quickly, hoping to surprise whoever was there. But
I was
greeted by an empty hallway
. I looked down both ends to see if there was
anyone lurking, but the corridor was empty.

“Hello?” I said again. “Nate, stop screwin’ around.”
 
I hoped it was my friend messing with
me in a drunken stupor.
Maybe he was pissed that I’d left him at the party. Doubtful. He
wouldn’t care. He probably wouldn’t even remember.

I stepped out into the hall, still holding the bat, and
walked a few dozen feet in one direction, double-checking to see if anyone was
hiding in the recesses of the other doorways. Nothing. Resigned, I turned
around to return to my room, but was horrified at what I found blocking my way.

The bald-headed man from before was standing in the middle
of the area. He wore a long, black coat that hung down to his calves, making
him more intimidating than I remembered. He still had on the sunglasses I
recalled from the dream, but there was no gun this time.

Wait.
It’s a dream. I know it’s a dream. He’s the guy from the night before. I can
wake up.
The
thoughts flooded me with relief. Only problem was I wasn’t waking up.

“Hello, Finn,” the man’s voice boomed through the
passageway as he took a step towards me.

“Who are you?” I managed to blurt out, trying not to sound
terrified.

He laughed wickedly and shook his head as he continued
moving towards me. “My name isn’t important,” he replied. “But my mission is.”

“Mission? What mission?”

“To kill you.”

I shook my head. “I don’t know what this is about. Just
leave me alone,” I said, holding the bat up menacingly.

He cocked his head to the side, giving me a look that made
me feel pathetic. “Now what do you think you are going to do with that?”

The stranger was within range now so I swung as hard as I
could at his head. Unfortunately, his right hand shot up quickly and stopped
it, just inches from his temple. His hand had moved so quickly, I hadn’t even
seen it.

He shook his head and made a clicking sound with his
tongue. “You should have died yesterday. We shot you. I watched the bullet go
into your brain. I saw you die,” his voice was laden with contempt. “No matter.
You’ll die soon enough.”
 
He yanked
the bat out of my hand and tossed it down the hall in the other direction.

I wasn’t going to wait for him to say anything else. I
turned and took off, running towards the stair well at the closest end of the
building. When I reached the door I barreled through it and flew down the steps
towards the main floor, taking them three at a time.

I burst through the door into the lobby of the dorm, but
no one was there. The resident assistant on duty wasn’t at his normal spot
behind the information desk. I could hear the bald man coming down the stairs
so I sprinted through the front door and out into the courtyard.

Outside, the air was freezing. I stopped to look around
for the briefest of seconds. When I looked back, the man was walking calmly
through the door. Only he didn’t open the door. He literally walked through the
glass and metal, as if it were an illusion.

I darted towards the center of campus and through the
quad, making my way through a little park area. I passed a large stone fountain
in the middle of the quad and noticed that lights were on in the girls’ dorm
lobby. It wouldn’t have been my first choice, but I figured I just needed to
find someone, anyone who could help me.

I bounded up the steps when I reached the five-story
building and leapt through the entrance. There was no one around. How could the
place be empty? A quick look back revealed the bald man was still stalking
towards me. I wondered how he was gaining on me when I was sprinting at full
speed while he was just walking. It didn’t make sense, but I didn’t have time
to think about that.

I flung open the nearby stairwell door and started racing
upwards. My leg muscles burned more and more with each floor I ascended, and
became heavier with every successive step. By the time I’d reached the top,
they felt like lead weights. I opened a door that had the words “roof access”
on it
and
staggered through it, out onto the top of the building. Something wasn’t right,
though.

The door slammed shut behind me. I lunged back and tried
to open it, but the thing wouldn’t budge. More alarming than the sealed portal
was the fact that I wasn’t on the roof of the girls’ dorm. I was downtown in
the city on the roof of a much taller building. Off in the distance a
thunderstorm was moving in my direction, flashing and rumbling as it rolled
quickly through the sky. Cold droplets of rain began to patter the hard surface
of the roof. Lightning flashed again, crackling through the sky like an
electrical spider web. My breathing was still coming in labored gasps and my
leg muscles still ached from the run.

I heard a sickeningly familiar voice come from around the
corner of a tall, metal antenna in the center of the area. “Where you gonna go
now, Finn?”
 
The bald man appeared
from behind a block wall at the base of the tower. He walked slowly towards me.
His eyes had turned dark, almost completely black, like onyx orbs set in each
socket.

“That’s impossible!” I yelled as I stumbled backwards,
tripping over a hump in the roof. I guess I thought that if I screamed it loud
enough, the man would disappear. He didn’t.

“What’s not possible, Finn?” he asked as he drew closer.
“That I’m here? That we are on this roof?”
 
The man displayed his arms out in grand fashion. “All of
this? The fact that we are on the roof of a building nowhere near your campus?”

I kept moving back as he spoke. I didn’t know where I was going
or how I could get away. Then I felt something terrifying hit my heel. I looked
back and saw that I’d reached the end of the rooftop. My foot had struck the
edge. The vision of the empty street far below caused me to waver momentarily.
It was a dizzying height, and heights were something I’d always been afraid of.

A gust of wind whipped around me. Flashes of lightning
seemed to be getting closer by the second as the storm moved in quickly. Dark,
rolling clouds blotted out the stars above leaving the city in shadow.

When I returned my attention to the bald man, he was only
a few feet away from me. The rain was coming down harder and my jeans and
jacket were already soaked. They sky was scorched for a second with an
explosion of lightning. I was cornered with no way to escape. The hard wind
blew the man’s coat up wildly. I saw his silver gun, strapped to his side.