The Vendeleer Brothers Book 3: Nightmare on Holly
Chapter 11: Between a Dream and a Hard Place

Joey knew she was dreaming. She had realized it after she had started flying on a broom. At first, it was standard dream stuff, like getting two hundred fifty six doughnuts and not knowing what to with them, or seeing a light blue flame dancing around a familiar face that she wanted to forget. The dream suddenly shifted however, to something more clear. It all started to feel more like she awake no, but she was standing in a dark expanse.

Was she awake?

Joey had a trick to tell, where she looked at her hand. Whenever she was dreaming, the lines on her palm looked fuzzy and danced like a static television. So, she looked down at her hand, to see that it was indeed fuzzy. However, she was surprised as it started to become more clear, and the static on her hand went away.

Hmmm. This had certainly never happened before.

Joey looked up to see that in the dark expanse, a single door stood by itself, calling out to her. Slowly, she made her way to it, and then found herself hesitating at the doorknob. She could somehow sense that all of this different… That if she stepped through this door, she would be stepping into foreign territory. She wasn’t exactly sure what that meant, but she opened the door anyway.

Joey stepped into a bedroom, the door closing by itself. She looked around with interest at the lights strung up across the walls and the scientific and literary posters hung up everywhere. A stuffed dinosaur sat on the bed, as well as a young girl, who was now staring at her.

“Who the heck are you?!” the girl demanded. Instead of answering, Joey simply continued to look around.

“This isn’t my dream, is it?” she asked.

“What are you talking about? This isn’t a dream!” the girl exclaimed. “This is my safe place. How did you even get in her?”

Joey went over to a bookshelf and observed some of the books, noticing that they had common tastes.

“I think you’re right about this not being a dream, but I don’t think we’re awake either. This feels like… and odd in-between place.”

The girl frowned and folded her arms.

“You haven’t answered any of my questions lady.”

“Well, I’m still trying to decide if I can trust you or not.”

The girl narrowed her eyes.

“I’m Akaysha. What’s your name?”

“I’m Joey.” she said amiably. “To answer your question, I’m not sure how I got here. You said this was your… safe place?”

“Yeah.”

“Safe place from what?”

The thirteen year old’s face fell.

“I… can’t tell you that. It would put you in danger.”

The two of them were silent as Joey looked out the window to more dark expanse.

“Are you… real?” Akaysha asked hesitantly.

“I could ask you the same thing. After all, I’m pretty sure I’m asleep.”

“Well, I am too.” the girl replied. Joey regarded her with interest.

“So, we’re both asleep, and yet this is not a dream?”

Akaysha pulled her stuffed T-Rex close and looked up at her ceiling, which was dotted with glow in the dark stars.

“I think… maybe it’s some form of astral projection, but not exactly. My dad studied that for a time.”

“Interesting…”

She suddenly looked over as a bright green light started to shine from underneath the bedroom door.

“What’s that?” Joey asked curiously. Akaysha jumped up in a panic.

“Oh no-not again… You’ve got to get out of here!”

Joey looked from the teen to the door in concern.

“Why? What is that?”

“I said go!!” the girl exclaimed, pushing her. Joey felt like she was suddenly falling down into a deep hole, with Akaysha and the green light getting farther and farther away. She heard a familiar cackle, and then one word over and over again.

“Holly. Holly. Holly. Holly.”

Joey shot up from where she had fallen asleep at her desk. She looked around in confusion for a second. It could have been easy to just say that it was all just a dream, but… she knew it wasn’t. She looked down at the book she had been reading, feeling very confused.

What was going on with her?

Brian was in a world of monsters all contained in a PSP. He was currently trying to kill an Azure Rathalos with his light bowgun in one of his favorite video games while everyone took a bit of a break. Shannon had been working hard in practicing her ability, and Everett had been working with Jordyn and Shaq to see if he could broadcast his ability to other people. Meanwhile, Brian wandered between everything, tinkering with some of his gadgets and trying to figure out if there was a way he could possibly even replicate what he was seeing.

But at the moment, he was so involved with his game, that it took a whack from Jordyn to finally bring him out of it.

“Hey, we’re getting started again. Save your game.”

With a sigh, Brian did as he was told right as Ian ran up to them.

“I think we’ve figured out what’s going on around town!” he gasped. Jordyn gave a little snicker.

“Did you run all the way over here or something?”

In response to this, Ian narrowed his eyes at her.

“Well, excuse me for not being able to breathe in all of this stifling heat and humidity!”

“What did you find out Ian?” Brian asked as Shannon and Everett came forward with interest. Ian looked around when he realised someone was missing.

“Where’s Shaq?”

“Oh he just went to grab some food. He’ll be back soon.” Jordyn waved off.

“Oh. Ok. Well, we were doing some reading, and we came up on something interesting. Have you guys been getting a metallic taste in your mouth at any point?”

“I did!” Brian suddenly exclaimed. “At the burger place!”

“My kids were complaining about a penny taste in their mouth while we were there…” Shannon agreed mousily. “What does it mean?”

“It means there’s someone else in town with powers, and they’ve lost control of them.” Ian told them. “So we need to find them and get them some help.”

Jordyn nodded and whipped out her phone.

“I’ll give Shaq a call and let him know to be on the lookout for the copper taste.”

“How many more of us are out there?” Shannon asked in wonder as Jordyn started her phone call. “What are the odds that we would just so happen to find someone else with abilities here?”

Ian had to admit that this all seemed very coincidental. Was there something more to all this?

“Shaq wasn’t answering his phone.” Jordyn told them all, feeling unconcerned. “So I left him a mess-.”

BOOM!

No one was exactly sure what it was, but they all felt the rumble from somewhere nearby.

“Uh… What was that?” Everett asked nervously. They all looked at each other, and then without saying anything, Ian, Brian, and Jordyn took off running towards the entrance of the building to see what it was. Shannon and Everett exchanged glances, not sure why these people were so eager to see what the danger was, but followed them anyway. When they got outside, it was clear that they weren’t the only ones in the PDU building who had come to see what the commotion was. Out in the parking lot, another rumble was felt underneath their feet as an explosion was seen from over the trees.

“What’s going on over there?” Brian exclaimed.

Then, at that moment, they all tasted it.

The copper…

“Everyone-get in Brian’s van. We’re going over there!” Jordyn yelled, booking it for the purple ghost van.

“But-Everett and I haven’t really gained control of our own abilities yet!” Shannon squealed, running after them as they heard a car swere and honk somewhere beyond the trees.

“It’ll have to do!” Jordyn told her, jumping into the driver’s seat and reaching her hand out expectantly to Brian for the keys, which he gave up reluctantly. Ian barely had time to put on his seatbelt before Jordyn screeched out of the parking lot. It was at this moment, that Ian began to question his life choices and why he always seemed to be running towards things that could possibly kill him.

Jordyn followed the smoke and turned the corner only to drive into chaos. Men with guns were setting up a blockade while civilians ran for their lives. Things around them were on fire, and debris was everywhere. Jordyn started to slow down, trying to figure out what to do.

“What the hell is going on?!” she demanded, straining to find some sort of opening passed the barricade. They all sat there in silence for a moment, taking it all in, when Everett finally spoke up.

“So… what exactly are we looking at?”

The rest of them turned to him in disbelief.

“What are you talking about?! Is a war zone like this normal to you or something?” Brian exasperated. The old man seemed confused.

“Those fires don’t seem too out of hand. We could probably put them out ourselves.”

Jordyn looked from the barricade to Everett, and then finally pointed to it.

“Everett, can you not see that barricade right there? With all the scary looking guys with guns?”

“Uh… What barricade? There’s nothing there.”

Jordyn took in this information, staring at the chaos ahead while the van idled. She seemed to be considering something. Then, without consulting with anyone else, she slammed her foot on the gas and drove straight towards the cement barriers with debris piled on top.

“WHAT IN THE NAME OF ARCEUS ARE YOU DOING?!” Brian screamed as they sped up. Ian felt like yelling at her too for once again being so reckless, but he had a feeling that she knew more of what she was doing this time. So as Shannon and Brian screamed bloody murder, Jordyn drove right through the barrier. Right as they were about to crash, the picture before them rippled like it was a reflection in a pool of water, and they drove through the image without any problem. Jordyn slammed on the brakes again and they all looked behind them to see that it still looked like the barricade was there, even though they had driven right through it.

“So… it was… an illusion?” Shannon asked quietly.

No one answered her. No one had to. After all, they were all thinking the same thing. They all knew a certain someone who referred to himself as an “Illusionist,” and it was very unlikely that there were two such people in the same town with similar powers. Jordyn continued forward, now glaring at the road.

“Shaq better have a good explanation for all of this…” she growled.

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