Time for more desperate measures. Ben closed his eyes and imagined a laser pistol. When he closed his hand, he would feel it, smooth and heavy, in his palm. One…two…three. Ben closed his hand.
It remained empty. Ben puffed out his cheeks. He had no experience-or, apparently, talent-at this. His mother could have probably whipped up a jackhammer or just imagined herself inside the block, and so it would be. But Ben was stuck here by himself, abandoned by Sejal, Kendi, even his mother. Not even entering the Dream had changed that about his No. That was the wrong way to think. Kendi was here. Ben could feel him. He closed his eyes and pressed his forehead to the block.
Kendi, he thought. Tell me how to reach you. I’m all alone out here just like you’re all alone in there.
A faint whisper of movement. Had the block shifted? Ben didn’t move. Instead he thought about Kendi, his jokes, his eyes, his laugh, how much Ben missed him.
Come on, Kendi. Let me in. I’m here for you now. I’ll always be here for you, even in the Dream.
The rock definitely shifted.
Kendi. Let me in the way I never let you in. I’m sorry I didn’t. Come on, Kendi. Dammit, Kendi, I love you. Now let me in!
The block opened. Ben stumbled forward in surprise, and his eyes popped open. Behind him, the block sealed itself shut, leaving a blank wall. Ben found himself in a dank, dimly-lit corridor. Barred prison cells lined the walls, and people moaned and muttered from their depths. Ben was wearing the black and scarlet uniform of the Unity guard, right down to boots and holstered pistol.
And then Ben knew what was going on. It should have been so obvious. Why hadn’t he seen it sooner?
Astonished and uncertain, Ben walked slowly down the corridor, peering into each cell as he went. The people inside were ill-defined, barely more than shades. Where was Kendi? He had to be here someplace.
A horrible scream chilled every drop of Ben’s blood. He ran toward the sound, boots thudding on the corridor floor, until he came to the final cell. When he peered inside, his gorge came up and he had to swallow hard. A transparent man was standing over the body of an equally transparent woman. The knife in his hand dripped scarlet blood. The woman was-had been-pregnant, but her belly had been slashed open. The baby lay on stone floor next to its mother, bleeding, dying. Ben involuntarily backed up a step.
“Keeennnddiiii,” the man with the knife said. “Want me to do you next?”
Kendi huddled on the floor against the bars, his back to Ben, and Ben realized that to Kendi the entire scene was real. The Silent did not-could not-create people in the Dream. Sentient behavior was too complex for even the subconscious mind to create and control. But shades like these were two-dimensional. Kendi, trapped in his own nightmare, didn’t seem to notice.
The man with the knife advanced a step. Before Ben could react, Kendi suddenly moved. With lightning speed, his hand flashed forward and dipped into the puddle of blood. He flicked it like water at the man, then smeared some on his own forehead. With a manic grin, he threw back his head and howled at the roof. The sound sent a chill down Ben’s back.
Another transparent man advanced out of the shadows of the cell. He put a restraining hand on the man with the knife.
“Leave him alone,” he said in a raspy voice. “He’s a lunatic. You attack him, he’ll go nuts. You stab a guy like that, he only gets madder.”
Kendi howled again as the two men retreated into the darkness of the cell. Then Kendi slumped to the floor to huddle once again against the bars.
Ben stepped closer and opened his mouth to speak. But before he could make a sound, the scene in the cell flickered like a hologram. The two corpses, one woman and one baby, vanished. In their place stood the woman, alive and pregnant but still transparent. The man brandished his knife. The woman screamed as he brought it down in a flashing arc. Blood flowed and the woman collapsed to the cell floor.
“Keeennndiii,” the knife man said. “Want me to do you next?”
Ben watched the entire scene play out again in exact, gruesome detail. At the end, Kendi gave his chilling howl and slumped back against the bars.
How many times has he replayed this? Ben thought in horror, even as his heart wrenched in sympathy and pain. How had Kendi survived this? How was he surviving it now?
Ben put a hand through the bars and grabbed Kendi’s shoulder before the scene could reset itself. Kendi let out a snarl and twisted like a cat.
“Kendi, it’s all right,” Ben soothed. “It’s me. Ben.”
Kendi blinked owlishly up at him. “Ben? All life-Ben you have to get out! They’ll catch you.”
He really thinks he’s in the Unity prison again, Ben thought. “I’ve come to get you out. Kendi, come on. You can do it.”
“Run, Ben,” Kendi pleaded hoarsely, his hands grasping the bars. “Run before they-”
“Keeeennnndiiii,” the knife man rasped. “Who’s your friend, Keeeennnddiiii?”
The scene hadn’t reset this time. The knife man stepped over his victims, ignoring the advice of his friend. Ben’s heart leaped into his mouth. If the man stabbed Kendi in the Dream, his real body would die as well.
“Kendi, come with me,” Ben said urgently. “This prison isn’t real. You can walk out anytime you want.”
“Run, Ben,” Kendi said. “Please! Don’t let them get you, too.”
The man loomed behind Kendi and raised the knife. Ben reacted. He yanked out the laser pistol holstered at his side, the one Kendi had unwittingly created for him, and fired into the cell. The knife man dropped his blade and fell to the floor, twitching and writhing in pain. Kendi stared with wide eyes. Blood was still smeared on his forehead.
Ben met Kendi’s gaze and held out his hand. “Come with me, Kendi.”
Kendi looked at Ben’s hand. “I can’t, Ben. I don’t deserve it.”
“No one deserves this, Kendi,” Ben told him. “Come with me.”
“I didn’t do anything to stop him,” Kendi whispered. “All life, I didn’t do a damn thing.”
“There wasn’t anything you could do,” Ben replied. “If you had, you would both have been dead instead of just her.”
“And the baby,” Kendi said. “I dipped my finger in the baby’s blood.”
“You did it to save yourself,” Ben said. “To make them think you were insane so they’d leave you alone. But that’s over now, Kendi. Come with me.”
But Kendi refused Ben’s hand. “I can’t.”
“Kendi,” Ben said in sudden inspiration. “I forgive you.”
Kendi continued to look at him.
“I forgive you,” Ben repeated.
“That’s not enough,” Kendi said.
“It’ll do,” Ben replied, “until you can forgive yourself. Come out of the cell, Kendi. Come out of the cell for me.”
With a low cry, Kendi snatched Ben’s hand. The bars vanished and the stone walls melted away, leaving Ben and Kendi alone on the empty plain. Kendi dropped to the ground, dragging Ben with him. Then he buried his face in Ben’s shoulder. He cried for what felt like a long time, great shuddering tears of relief. Ben just held him until the storm subsided. When it finally did, Kendi pushed himself upright.
“Wait a minute,” he said, sniffling. “What the hell are you doing here? How did you get in?”
Ben gave him a rakish grin. “Present from Sejal.”
A shuddering boom thundered through earth and air. As one, Ben and Kendi twisted around to look at the dark place just in time to see the darkness splinter and shatter into a thousand pieces.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
THE DREAM
