Eerie (13 page)

“I would have read it, if I had gotten one,” she said in a voice of normal volume but increasing hostility. “There was no mention of earplugs in the letter I received, Fin, I would have remembered reading the word
Buzzdoodle,
” she told him, lifting her chin. “There was nothing about a Buzzdoodle or cargo plane or sleeping bags or packing lists or the incredible coincidence that you're also a student at the most remote school in world.”

Fin gave her a half smile and leaned toward her, playfully bumping her shoulder with his own.

“Buzzdoodles are new technology out of BTU. Noise canceling earplugs,” he told her kindly, and Hailey sighed, loving the sound of his friendly voice. “So you don't have to yell at me anymore,” he said with a wink.

Hailey wasn't sure if she was done yelling at him and debated the tone she wanted to use for what she said next.

“One second you're holding my hand next to Holly's grave, and then you were gone,” she said sadly, her eyes boring into his. “No explanation—you just disappeared. You left me.”

Fin bowed his head, biting his lip. “I'm sorry,” he said, meeting Hailey's eyes. He pressed his lips together, and she could tell he wanted to say more but for some reason, he didn't.

He raised his hand to touch her but then made a fist, shook his head and dropped his arm. “I'm sure Pix told you where I was . . .”

“Out chasing women and getting into trouble?”

“I wasn't chasing women.”

“Did you get into trouble?”

“A little,” Fin told her, and he glanced briefly at the student still sitting in his jump seat in the front of the plane.

“Who is that?” Hailey said.

“That,” he said, studying Hailey's reaction, “is Asher.”

Chapter Sixteen

ParaScience 101: An Introduction

“Those who believe in telekinetics, raise my hand.”

- Kurt Vonnegut

Hailey's breath caught.

That's Asher? The Envoy?

She didn't mean to, but she couldn't help but stare at him.

“He sort of works at the university. Like me.”

Why wouldn't he look at her?
He sat like a statue, his hood hiding his face. She silently willed him to turn so she could see him.

But he never moved. And Hailey's heart sank. Why was he ignoring her?

Maybe he's not interested in you, silly girl
, her good sense told her. But he had kissed her, hadn't he? Now she wasn't sure. Maybe he was suffering from “Tage Adams Syndrome” and could only see her when no one else was around.

Frowning, she shook her head, knitted her fingers together in her lap and studied them.
Did Fin know Asher was an Envoy? And—wait a second . . .

“You work at the university?”

“Yeah,” he said stiffly. “I'm a teaching assistant. For Dr. Woodfork.”

“I didn't mean for that to sound condescending.” Now Hailey couldn't stop smiling. It felt good to have a friend again. “Dr. Woodfork is the dean of the university, right?”

“He's the dean of the College of ParaScience,” he corrected, his voice was much kinder now. “There are three colleges at Bear Towne: ParaScience, Pre-Med, and Geology. You'll get all of this during your campus tour,” he said with a wave. “Did you check out your lunch?”

“Not yet . . .”

Feeling brave, she opened her metal lunchbox and, peeking inside, she sighed happily.
Good! No brains.

She certainly wouldn't go hungry. Hailey started nibbling through the contents: two giant sandwiches, a bag of chips, an apple, a banana, an assortment of cheeses, crackers, two candy bars, a bottle of water, and a can of pop.

“Do all the teaching assistants leave from Pittsburgh?” she asked as she polished off her first sandwich and looked around the cabin floor.

“No,” he smiled sarcastically. “I drew the short straw this year. The others are on flights leaving from LA, Chicago, Frankfurt, and Moscow.”

“Well, I'm glad you got the short straw. What's Alaska like?”

He drew a slow breath, humming as he formed his answer. “It's not Pennsylvania.”

“How so?”

“Well, for starters, there are only three seasons in Alaska: butt-ass cold, break-up, and mosquito.”

“Mosquito . . .oh . . .” Hailey sang. “Uncle Pix said Alaska was full of blood suckers.” She looked at Fin shamefaced. “I thought he meant vampires,” she admitted with a self-deprecating cringe. “And with the way things have been going lately . . .”

Fin only stared at her in response, and Hailey cocked her head as she contemplated the other seasons. “Why would Alaska reserve a time of year for ending relationships?”

Fin straightened up and looked at her sideways. He licked his lips, shook his paper very loudly, cleared his throat, and went back to reading, just as one of the gas masks slid past them carrying a giant wrench on his shoulder.

Hailey tugged Fin's sleeve. When that didn't get his attention, she barked a whisper. “Hey!” she hissed as loud as she could.

Fin peeked around his paper.

“Why are these guys wearing gas masks?”

They both watched the wrench wielder disappear behind a pallet.

“So they stay awake.”

“Oh.” That didn't make much sense to Hailey. Most folks drank coffee, but whatever. Different strokes for different folks, she guessed, and she imagined how nice a steaming cup of coffee would feel as she shivered in her seat.

It was getting colder inside the Luftzeug, and Hailey didn't have hats and coats and blankets and puffy sleeping bags like the other passengers. Fin unbuckled and unrolled a mummy bag while Hailey hugged herself and watched.

“Are you going to sleep?” she asked him.

“Yes. So are you.”

“I'm not tired.”

“You will be when they turn the gas on.”

“What gas?”

Fin shot a glance toward the front of the plane and lowered his voice. “Come on, chowder head,” he said almost under his breath. “You can use my bag. I'll grab a blanket from the crew.”

Hailey still wasn't sleepy, but she was hovering around hypothermia.

“Thanks,” she said, kicking off her shoes. She wiggled inside the most comfortable sleeping bag in the world. “Fin?” she said as he settled down next to her, wrapped in a navy blue wool blanket.

“What?”

She scooted closer to him, and he smiled. Not wanting to admit that she only wanted to hear his voice and didn't really have a question, she only closed her eyes and enjoyed her contentedness.

“Fin?” she said again, as sleeping gas hissed through the cabin.

“Mm.”

“I really missed you . . .” she told him, as she drifted to sleep.

“I missed you too,” he said, but she wasn't sure it was real.

Gas filled the airplane and knocked everyone out.

In the Aether, Hailey emerged on board the plane next to her jump seat. The Luftzeug:
Traumzeug
looked the same as it had when she was awake, except the roof was wide open, and sunlight poured in through it. The turbulence had stopped, and the plane sat parked in the clearing of a bright forest. In the distance, Hailey heard songbirds and a waterfall.

“Welcome to ParaSci 101,” a familiar voice announced. Fin stood at the front of the plane and held in his hand a CB-looking microphone connected to the plane's PA system.

“My name is Pádraig, and I'll be your course instructor. If you didn't already figure it out, you're asleep, and this is a dream. Right now, our souls are in the Aether, which is what you see and hear and smell and feel all around you. Pay attention, because you'll never share a dream with a living soul again, unless, like me,” he said in a voice laced with cynicism, “you're lucky enough to ride on board the
Traumzeug
over and over.”

A hand went up among the students.

“What?” Fin said to the boy in a way that let him know it was not the time for questions.

“I can't feel my hands!”

“You just
raised
your hand, doofus,” Fin told him, and another hand shot up.

Fin dropped the microphone, closed his eyes, and pinched his nose. “No more questions,” he said stiffly. Then he looked up. “In fact, everybody shut your mouths.”

When there was silence, he proceeded without the mike.

“Normally, the Aether messes with your memory. You don't always bring all you know in, and you don't always remember everything you've experienced here once you leave.

“This Luftzeug is a special piece of equipment used by the college and the US military to study the Aether. It allows those on board to share a common dream space, to take data, and most importantly, to remember our observations.”

Fin paused and looked around at each student until his eyes fell on Hailey. Smiling at her, he continued.

“Now, all of you listen up,” he barked. “It is very important that none of you panic.”

He looked directly at the guy who couldn't feel his hands.

“If you do panic, you risk dragging us all into your own personal nightmare. If any of you think you feel a panic coming, just close your eyes and count to eight, alright? I don't want to see your zombies or watch your teeth fall out . . .and I certainly don't want to see any of you naked.”

His eyes found Hailey again.

“Most of you, anyway,” he said, and he winked at her.

Hailey's chin dipped and her ears burned, but to her relief, nobody paid attention. The others wore expressions ranging from concern to alarm. Looking around, she noticed at least three students wide-eyed and close to hyperventilating, but Hailey felt perfectly at ease.

Until the man-eating spiders crept in through the ceiling.

“Ah, shit,” she heard Fin mutter, and a pandemonium inside the Luftzeug ensued.

Trying to stay calm, Hailey watched the spiders with increasing interest. They seemed more confused than aggressive, she told herself, though one had lifted a student with its hairy legs and another was scampering in Hailey's direction.

She closed her eyes and had counted to three when a powerful clamp gripped her shoulders and jerked her aside.

When she opened her eyes, she was standing in a forest outside the Luftzeug, listening to the muffled chaos coming from inside.

Turning around, she realized she stood in the woods of her favorite childhood place and collapsed on the soft grass, breathing in the crisp mountain air and watching violet skies swirl above her.

“How did you escape the
Traumzeug
?” An Envoy tilted his head as he appeared in the grass next to her.

Hailey bolted upright and stared at him speechless for several seconds.

“Asher,” she breathed, as his name dawned on her, and her belly fluttered. Taking a moment to gaze into his gorgeous eyes, she smiled uncertainly. “I would have guessed that you pulled me outside.”

“If you hadn't disappeared, I might have. It is exceptionally rare for a human to find its way out of the
Traumzeug
.” His gaze fell on her right eye for a moment and then her left.

“I find you . . .” he drew a sharp breath. “ . . .surprising and . . .lovely,” he said as if he struggled to find the right words.

“Asher,” Hailey repeated. “You're on that plane with me, aren't you?” She pointed at the Luftzeug, which suddenly tilted into a steep nose-down attitude.

Hailey jumped up and stumbled back.

“What's happening in there?”

Asher closed his eyes for a moment.

“Panic,” he said, rising up and once again trapping her in his gaze. “One of the students is afraid of falling, and though she doesn't mean to, she's about to send the
Traumzeug
into a nosedive.”

“Will they be alright?” Hailey was thinking about Fin.

“It's only a dream, Hailey. It will be uncomfortable, but they will wake up soon, and they will no longer be aboard the
Traumzeug
. They will be back inside the Luftzeug,” he explained, and Hailey finally realized the airplane was the Luftzeug on Earth, an airplane making its way from Pittsburgh to Alaska, but in the Aether, it was the
Traumzeug
, which looked like something out of a Salvador Dali painting.

“I'm going to remember this,” she said, her eyes fierce with determination. “And I'll remember you, right?”

Asher hesitated.

“You're outside the
Traumzeug
. It's hard to know. You may indeed remember—”

She held her arms out, throwing her head back.

“Finally!” she said with a laugh, and then she collapsed onto the grass once more.

“It is good to see you smile again,” he told her, and her smile widened. “I'll see you very soon, Hailey.”

“It'll be a dream come true, Asher.”

In front of her eyes, the eddying skies of the Aether morphed into the cold metal ceiling of the Luftzeug. She squeezed her eyes shut and opened them again, finding herself tucked warm and snug inside Fin's sleeping bag, while he snored with one arm draped lazily across her. As he stirred, he curled his arm and pulled her into a tight cuddle as if she were his own little teddy bear.

If she could have moved inside that mummy bag, she's not sure she would have. She woke up feeling like she was in love, so instead of shrugging Fin away, she relaxed and let him hug her, enjoying every second until he woke and let her go.

Groaning, he raised his arms in a great stretch. As he sat up and rubbed his eyes, Hailey feigned sleep and listened to him struggle against the turbulence to make his way to the front of the plane.

The PA clicked and made a brief feedback howl before Fin's voice rang through.

“That was absolutely pathetic,” he said, as lumps of sleeping bags stirred to life. “I should fail all of you. But the shame of walking into Chinook Hall in your current state should be punishment enough, so you'll all receive a C.”

A chorus of groans rose up.

“Everyone except for Hartley did exactly what I told you NOT to do, and now look at you.” Fin threw his hand up, and several students gasped and whimpered, clutching their sleeping bags. “It'll be a cold walk to campus if you lose your sleeping bag,” he warned.

Hailey saw many naked shoulders poking out of the floor. She wiggled her own shoulders out and was relieved to find herself still fully clothed. But she was one of few.

“Where are my clothes?” one of the female students cried.

“Probably in the Aether where you left them.” Fin answered her in his most caustic voice as the plane descended. “Be thankful none of you dreamed of losing your teeth.”