Chapter two

 

Selma shivers, it’s only been twenty minutes but already she’s half asleep. She tries not to think about it but the visions are closing in.

Selma tosses down the Gameboy. Pulling out the blankets from under her knees, she puts them over her shoulders. Behind her a window is open to the woods where Selma could spend the night with less fear than in bed. Like she had the first night she’d found Kendra’s note when she’d seen Will’s scar. When she’d first realized what monsters ran the Center.

 

It had been a warm April night over a year ago when Kendra had been gone missing and with few leads and no evidence of foul play, the police had chalked it up to her being another runaway.

 

In their last conversation before she had left, Kendra gave Selma a warning.

“If I’m right about the Center then we’re in trouble.” She said with a serious glance. “Whatever you do Selma, don’t tell them about your dreams anymore. Not if Blackfly’s in charge.” She said playing with one of her braids.

“Ok sure, it’s not like I tell them everything anyways.” Selma said shrugging.

“I’m serious Selma. Until I know for sure, you can’t let them know about the future or the places you see or the people. ” Kendra said strangely grave.

“Fine, I get it.” Selma said in a voice filled with discomfort. “But how do you know Blackfly’s so bad anyways?”

 

“When was the last time you saw Will?” Kendra hissed.

“A while, I guess.” Selma hedged around the issue of her missing boyfriend.

“It’s been a month Selma. He’s been missing a month now and no one’s reported him. He’s not like us; he never runs away”

“Maybe that wasn’t the Center or Blackfly. We don’t actually know.” Selma said quietly.

“Selma, they had my sister institutionalized and then killed.” Kendra grabbed hold of Selma’s arm; her deep brown eyes had lost their usual jovial spark. They were dark with an anger Selma rarely saw. “Now they have Will. They’ll go after you next so you have to promise me. It’s life or death.”

 

Selma nodded and then swallowed slowly as Kendra loosened her hold on Selma’s arm. After a long moment, Kendra smiled and punched Selma, lightening up the mood. Selma laughed but frowned worriedly when Kendra turned her back.

 

“Well then, I’ll see you when I see you.” Kendra said as she stuffed her bag with snack food.

“You’re disappearing again?” Selma complained, watching Kendra overstuff what Selma recognized as a runaway bag. It was something they had in common, the urge to leave and never look back. That and the identical looking bag they used to do it with.

“You bet, I can’t do squat at home and this whole Center puzzle needs my whole attention. You know what my house is like.” Kendra’s voice sounded cheerful but the look on her face made Selma’s heart constrict.

“How long?” Selma said trying to sound casual.

“I have no idea but I wont be around, if I can help it.” She said scowling at Selma’s real question. Kendra knew Selma was really asking how long before she should call the cops.

“Be careful then.” Selma said awkwardly. She briefly wondered if two weeks was long enough for Kendra.

“Don’t worry about me, I always am. You’d just better not tell them about your visions.” She warned before walking out the door.

 

 

There were signs: the sounds, the lights, the exhaustion and most importantly, the feeling.

Selma could feel it coming like a big slow wave crashing in on her before pulling her out and into the sea.

She could feel it in her bones, on her skin, in her hair and in her lungs, days before it happened, getting stronger and closer to pulling her under.

 

She could feel it now.

 

The visions came when they came so Selma felt there wasn’t any reason to tell the Center. They were supposed to be the good guys; at least that’s what Selma kept telling herself.

Even when Kendra had discovered that people mysteriously went into the sublevels never to remerge, Selma hadn’t believed.

The people who disappeared had their names on a strange list.

Jenny had told her of the rooms under the Center but they weren’t supposed to be used for patients. The list kept getting longer and longer and the people on it kept on disappearing. Still Selma wouldn’t believe. Not even when Will’s name went on the list.

The Center couldn’t be evil.

She couldn’t have put Will or Jenny or any of the people she knew in danger. She couldn’t have let them give Will that God-awful scar.

 

 

Selma stands up on the couch and ducks to avoid the dream-catchers she and her cousin had hung up years ago and finally closed the window.

She stayed standing leaning to her right trying to get a glimpse of what used to be Kendra’s house before she had run away, over a year ago.

 

Selma steps off the couch, clutching on to a stack of boxes to help her now unsteady legs to the floor. She’s getting worse by the minute; she was barely holding on to consciousness. Suddenly Selma didn’t care, all she could think about was Kendra’s legacy. Selma crouched down to touch the sticky residue on the side of the couch.

 

 

Kendra had suspected the Center’s good intentions from the very beginning; she always said there was something wrong about the Center but then again, Kendra didn’t trust doctors, not since her sister had died, since she’d first heard the name Blackfly.

It had been two months when Selma’s promise was finally put to the test and she fell into a psychic coma. She awoke three weeks later screaming, ending her coma before its time.

Selma refused to say what she saw; only that Kendra was gone.

Whatever Selma saw haunted her every dream and every thought until she began to feel that her visions were threatening to pull her under again, threatening to give her the whole story.

Frightened, Selma had left the Center and went to where she could be alone to fight off the visions. Where she didn’t have to see her friends die.

 

When Selma walked into the clubhouse that night, her nurse had been waiting. Selma forced the old woman to stay the night, taking her car keys and cell phone from her. 

 

When Jenny finally fell asleep on the couch, Selma got up to get a blanket from the bin. It was only then she noticed the writing scrawled on a nearby box in red permanent marker.

 

It wasn’t written on just any box but the box full of things that the Center was looking for, things that were like Selma, special.

 

ICFD in the old whale

 

Selma pounded the dust out of the blanket, frowning. It was written in Kendra’s handwriting.

‘How long was that written there?’ Selma thought as she walked to the couch.

She squatted beside the couch, pausing to touch the sticky residue of where Kendra had once put a large whale sticker there before she began to look for the rip in the bottom of the couch.

 

The sticker had come off years ago but they still called the couch ‘the old whale’ because no one wanted to carry the heavy thing out of the clubhouse so it stayed but not before it earned its name and some battle scars from every attempt at moving it.

Selma found the tear and a letter tucked inside. She opened it and read it slowly and carefully. Halfway through the letter, her hand had begun to shake.

 

When she finished reading the letter, she calmly folded it up again, placing it back into the couch. She stayed crouched near the floor for a moment, wiping the tear running down her cheek.

 

Selma stood up and rushed out of the clubhouse, holding her stomach and clutching her mouth.

 

The fear was so strong then that it made her jump off the rotted porch. It pushed her through the minefield of junk she called a backyard. It compelled her to run down a path and urged her to climb a tree.

She spent the rest of the night sitting there, waiting for the lights to leave her eyes, waiting for the voices to be silent. She vowed not to have another vision as long she lived.

Selma shivered with fear, realizing that Kendra, who was the strongest and bravest person she knew, was likely already dead.

Each time her eyes had fluttered closed with sleep, she slipped further off the branch.

She slipped once, twice and then fell.

She climbed the tree again and sat there until she fell again; all night she kept herself awake that way and by morning, the light in her eyes and the voices in her mind were gone. She’d won against the alluring pull of sleep.

She made her way back when the sky was bright and her nurse was awake, sipping a can of iced tea on her aunt’s porch.

 

“Its over. It’ll be a long time before the lights comes back, I’m sure.” Selma had said tossing the car keys at the elderly woman. The old nurse caught the keys with one hand and raised a single white eyebrow.

“Does this mean I’m free to go now?” Nurse Jenny said sipping slowly. Jenny watched her carefully as she circled around the porch and staggered toward the Volkswagen.

 

 “Yes.” Selma said too tired to roll her eyes. “Okay look I’m sorry for stealing them, but if I let you go, you would’ve told them where I was.” Selma said opening the back door to Jenny’s car.

“And why would that be a bad thing?” Her nurse asked with a frown.

“Because they would drug me. When I fall asleep before the voices go away"things"happen. Like to Kendra and Doctor Ben.”

“That wasn’t your fault, Selma. You aren’t making these things happen; you’re just seeing them before they do.”

“How do you know that?” Selma snarled, slamming the car door shut, “You don’t know anything. I have a vision with Kendra in it, and now she’s gone"and what about when I dreamed about Doctor Ben, he went missing too. I’m making them disappear; it’s all my fault. They’re probably dead.” Selma said with a cracked voice.

 

“Selma, I think you’re running away for a different reason. You know you’re not making them disappear. You’re afraid of what you’ll see when you fall asleep.”

‘Or of how my visions will be used when I fall asleep,’ Selma thought but she only shrugged her shoulders at Jenny before dropping into the back seat of the classic Volkswagen.

Jenny stepped into the driver’s seat, balancing her drink, her sunglasses and car keys in her hands. She sighed before she started her car, which began bellowing a calming Jazz tune.

 

“Jenny, do they hurt them? Does the Center hurt the people I dream about?” Selma asks quietly after watching her nurse back out of the driveway.

“If you really want to know, all you have to do is let the visions in. You haven’t let them in since Kendra disappeared. Is there something going on?” Jenny said watching Selma in the rear view mirror.

Selma looked out the window at the house she used to call home, she didn’t answer Jenny’s question. Onto the car window, she traced the letters ICFD and quietly, she whispered the meaning of the old code: In Case of a Friend’s Death.

“Don’t worry, I’m certain Kendra is alright.”  Jenny sighed, patting Selma’s leg.

As Jenny drove Selma back to the Center that morning, Selma fell asleep without strange visions getting in the way.

 

 

The sound of a dog barking makes Selma jump. She has trouble feeling the fear she had that summer night. Now as she smells the damp air full of pine trees and fallen leaves, Selma only feels sleepiness.

She knew the moment she closed her eyes, none of it would seem real. The room, the blankets, the strange tasting drink and the cold wind would be far away.

‘Maybe the dark was the only thing real and this was all a dream my mind made up to make me feel better,’ she thinks darkly.

Selma tries to stand up, fighting the apathy but the effort throws her body into a violent spasm. She turns to steady herself against the couch, gripping the leather as tight as she could.

 

Selma feels a frightening numbness hold her; it wasn’t the sleep aids she was used to. It was something much stronger finally taking effect. Selma crashes into the couch face first.

"Jenny, are you there? Help me! I know you’re here. You’re always here." Selma says rolling over, trying to pull her self up but no one answers her call. 

For the first time Selma could remember, her nurse was late.

 

Selma rolls up her sleeve and pinches her arm. The pain helps and Selma break the sleeping spell but she can hardly sit up.

She sits forward as her nails dig into the couch, trying to force her body to stay up.

“I’m awake. It shouldn’t be possible but I’m awake.” She whispers to herself.

Selma brushes back her hair with a shaking hand. She looks up when she hears the sound of gravel scattering outside and the familiar click of the latch on the clubhouse door.

 

“Jenny, where were you? I just had a close call.” Selma says, turning her head in time to see a flash of something shiny at the door and feels a pin prick in her thigh.

Glancing down, Selma finds a dart protruding from her leg.

“How?” Selma yells out in shock.

As Selma fights the sedative, her leg drops out from under her, knocking her off the couch. She topples over her soda and stumbles into the crate. Selma looks around for her assailant but she couldn’t make anything out as the visions become blindingly strong.

 

“P-puh please, don’t let me fall asleep. I don’t want to go back. I promise I’ll do anything just please.” Selma begs as she sinks to the ground, gripping the crate.

 

Jenny steps into the room, tossing the dart gun to the side.

Reaching over, she silently lifts Selma back onto the couch and smiles at the young woman as she yanks out the dart out of her leg.

Her long grey hair was beginning to fall out of the tight bun she had tied earlier in the day. There were dark circles around her deep brown eyes, ones Selma never noticed before.

Selma tries to reach out and touch Jenny’s suddenly unfamiliar face, trying to understand her actions.

 

The nurse gently pats Selma’s pale cold hand with her warm wrinkled ones, pressing it down to Selma’s side.

"It’s okay, Selma. I know what I’m doing. Just relax and focus on the ticking of the watch. That’ll help you find him when you get there. It’s going to be okay. I’ve taken care of everything. All you have to do is watch out for Mr. Smith. His people will come after you.” The rest of her words were unintelligible as Selma finally falls asleep.

 

Her body feels as though it was dissolving. It took all her strength to keep her eyes open long enough see a blurry figure step into the room.

“No, stop.” Selma whispers, jerking awake.

 

Selma blinks and finds that time itself has folded. She’s lying outside in the grass as a hooded figure crouches over her.

He grips the back of her shirt and loops his arms under her knees.

 

In a last ditch effort, Selma screams and hits at the figure as he lifts her up and places her into the back of a car. Nurse Jenny’s car, Selma realizes. There was something familiar about the figure but Selma was in no state to figure out what.

 

“Where did they take them, Jenny? What do they do to the people in my dreams? Why do they all disappear? You know, don’t you?” Selma babbles in her half-sleep as she fights the sedatives with a supernatural strength.

 

She could open her eyes again, but she could only see two blurry figures in the car seat in front of her. Selma’s eyes close and this time they weren’t going to open for a very long time. Nurse Jenny glances back from the driver’s seat to the slouching teenage passenger.

“Even if I told you, sweetheart, you wouldn’t want to believe me.” Jenny said as she watched her head lull back into the seat.

“Will she be alright? Should I do something more?” Asks the hooded figure as he shuts the passenger side door. His voice is strained with worry.

 

“I don’t know but she does have an incredibly strong constitution for sleep aids. I think she’ll be fine. Will, don’t stress yourself out. She’s fine.” Jenny says when she notices Will looking back at Selma. Will grunts, turns and continues to frown.

 

Jenny's smile fades away as she remembers that all this was Will idea.

Jenny didn’t blame him; he’d been in a place where the darkest of night terrors were born and bred for what must of seemed like an eternity. 

“We’ve done all we can from our end. It’s all for nothing if the Center figures it out before she uses her real powers.” Jenny says, driving onto the main road.

 

“I see. This is far enough. I’ll find my way from here, Jenny. When you take her back there, watch your back, they’ll want to know why you took so long bringing her in.” The young man said as the car came to a stop. He opened the door but didn’t exit.

Instead, he turned to face her.

“You have something to say.” He says suddenly tilting his head. “We both know what it is but you don’t want to offend me because of what they did to me. Don’t worry Jenny Benny, you can say anything to me.”

 

“Was it necessary to send her back? She isn’t ready. You can see it. I know you see she isn’t ready. This is your plan, Will, and you know what kind of betrayal this will be to her when she finds out.”

“There’s no more time. She needs to fall asleep for it to all work. You think I’m selfish, demanding and manipulative. That I’m using my doppelganger to do my dirty work so when the time comes and Selma finds out what happened, she couldn’t be angry with me. That she couldn’t stop loving me. Jenny, I’ve given up everything. In comparison, this is only a small request.”

 

“The sacrifices that have to be made, I understand them…”

“No you don’t…but you still think she should have the choice. The choice is out of our hands; the Center made sure of that. This is the only way for all of us to be free.” Will says, touching Jenny’s arm. His sleeve fell away, revealing an array of scars on the back of his hand. Jenny knew that they reached well past his shoulder. Will pulled down his hood, further covering his face.

“Jenny, you will have to fight your way out so remember the plan. You have to be prepared to risk everything. That’s the only way this is going to work.”

 

“I’m prepared.” Jenny said, trying not to stare at the scar. There was a long silence as the car was filled with cool night air.

 

“It’s about time I get back. Liam doesn’t like switching back no matter how long. He thinks I’ll go back on the deal, like I could make that choice.” He laughs bitterly.  

 

“Goodbye Jenny, and thank you.” Will steps out of the car. He waves and in a flash of light, Liam appears where Will had been standing.

 

 

 

Selma falls deeper and deeper into a place where there is nothing at all. No sound. No smell. No taste. No anything " only memories of what was and what could be. A place where everything was mute and dull; a place like the bottom of the sea.

‘Welcome to Oblivion,’ thinks Selma as the sense of nothingness welcomed her like an old friend.

 

Selma fumes at her parents for abandoning her, at her aunt for letting the Center take her and at her nurse for betraying her.  She shouts into the void in frustration. She needed them to believe her, to protect her from places like the Center.

 

There was a time, Selma remembers, when none of it existed; when falling asleep would mean waking up the next morning with only a foggy dream. Then there were no secret agencies, no cursed objects, no lost friends and no psychic comas.

 

But one fateful night six years ago, everyone"the whole world"had the same dream. Selma vaguely remembers a grassy hill and a moon with red rings. Selma remembers reading in the newspaper that the dream was ‘a modern example of mass hysteria’ that ‘gripped entire continents’ like it was some disease.

A hysteria that could continue for weeks at a time, where there were regular and sudden sightings of mutants, monsters and fiends but not one ounce of proof.

 

The monsters, wherever they came from, and the powers they brought, rendered cameras and other recording devices useless and left most witnesses crazed with wonder or worse, fear.

Selma’s cousin Ashley, one the few people who knew the truth and was not crazy, infected or missing, was Selma’s only hope of ever escaping the Center’s clutches.

The problem is Selma hadn’t had time to tell her before she ran and was caught.

 

 As far as Selma’s friends knew, she would be another mysterious disappearance, another name on the list.

Another Will and Kendra. Selma assumed that she’d finally been transferred to the sublevels with the machine that read her dreams.

No cop or reporter would believe the stories and those who did were either crazy or working for the Center or Blackfly.

 

After what seems like an eternity, Selma hears someone whistling a song. The whistling breaks off and on and then off again like a wind was blowing the vision just out of reach.

The whistling breaks in again and Selma recognizes the song, and perhaps even the whistler. A bright light shaped like a crack appears in front of Selma.

“Will?” Selma calls out afraid.

Suddenly, Selma feels the weight of her necklace watch and the sound of its ticking.

 

“Will?” she asked again, but the feeling was gone. Instead, she heard something out in Oblivion. But that too disappeared when the vision opened up to her.