Chapter 2

We get to the hotel that I agree with. Saito and Ariadne kept me in between them the whole ride. I don't know how I got into this mess, but I know that I cannot get out of it. I try to keep myself calm. Okay, girl, don't panic. It'll get you nowhere. However, to tell you the truth, I am shaking, my heart is racing, it feels as if I'm in trouble with the cops, and I can feel my hands moisten up with stress sweat.

Mr. Cobb goes in and checks us in. Though we have separate rooms, Mr. Cobb, Ariadne, Saito, and Yusuf lead me into room 129. Saito is showing a sickeningly scary smile as I sit down in a chair, trying to keep calm. "Please lay down on one of the beds."

I sigh as I get up and lay down on the silky smooth comforter. No need to tick off my new set of bosses. I'm still nervous. Is this a test?

"Good girl."

Is that it? Just lie down on the bed and be praised? I can hardly call that a "job". More like a slavery chain.

Then I hear a knock at the door. "Is she ready, Dom?"

Ariadne opens the door. "Yes, Eames."

"Oh, good… I have Yusuf's formula. Do you want to use it?"

"No. Let's try a milder formula first."

My eyes widen as I get nervous. They're going to rape me. I'm about to lose my virginity.

"Just relax, Cassidy," Mr. Cobb is laying right beside me. Are we… Oh perish it. This man's older than he looks. He knows better…I think. "We're not going to rape you."

Eames opens up the suitcase Mr. Cobb was carrying earlier and unravels some clear tubing. As I've seen it twice in my lifetime, I instantly know what the tubing is for. My eyes widen, but then relax. It's of no use to panic, I sigh to myself. They've got this place covered, front and back. Yusuf's at happy hour (where they serve beer, wine, and other alcoholic beverages). Arthur's outside of the room, guarding the door. Ariadne is in front of the bathroom in the room, eyes scanning for movement.

Eames and Saito come to us on either side of the bed. Saito is on my side (the right, as Mr. Cobb wanted left), while Eames is with the man next to me. I give him a look that says "Do what you must."

"It's not as bad as all that," he tries to sympathize, or sympathizes. The jury is out today.

"And how do you know that?" I try not to glower.

"Because I've been in your position before," He smiles. It does seem that he knows.

I hand him my right wrist. Right away his rough, calloused fingers start rubbing it. I try to hold back a shiver. His hands are cold. Suddenly, his finger feels at a point at the top of my right wrist. He looks up at me. "Surgery?"

At first I'm stunned at how he found out so quickly. Then I cower. "Um…"

He lowers his gaze. Then he asks, "Where?"

"Down my throat. Tiny esophagus. I don't…"

"Ah…you don't wish to talk about it," Saito looks up again.

"Yeah, maybe later."

He carefully inserts the needle and attaches the cuff. I wince slightly. The drug feels like nothing I've ever experienced. It strikes to my heart and brain like lightning. My senses scramble, only to find themselves in a dead slumber long before my thoughts turn incoherent.

111

I find myself in a world that feels so cold at one end of the spectrum, and yet it feels so different. I look around, but sigh. I've been here before in dreams. Suddenly, before I can describe what sector I am in, I explode into a million pixels, finding myself in a sort of scanner room. I see Mr. Cobb looking at me.

"You should never dream from memory," he scolds me gently.

"Sorry for misunderstanding the rules," I turn away sheepishly.

"That is why Ariadne is our Architect. You are not the first one to do this mistake."

A small crowd starts to emerge from out of nowhere. Most I recognize; others I've either forgotten or don't know them as well as I hope.

"These are projections, mostly harmless, all of them."

I look to him. "Are you sure?"

He smiles a little. "Yep. If they were intending to seriously harm us, one of the first signs is that they would be staring at us."

I see a woman staring at us. She looks like Marion Cotillard. "Like that one?"

Mr. Cobb's eyes widen. "No. Not her. Not Mal."

"Who is Mal?"

"Now's not a good time to ask."

"Should we run?"

"You should. This is almost how Ariadne's second dream ended in disaster. She never forgave me after that."

"RUN!" I race up the ladder into the lab. A blond kid with glasses is typing away at the keyboard. I don't have time to greet him, so I race past him and jump into the elevator.

I press the UP button and watch as the metal doors close. Since I think this is a dream, I have no reason to pant in exertion, right? Wrong. I start to wheeze, wondering why she has a grudge against people around Mr. Cobb. The metal grinds and whirs until it comes to a halt. A metal door behind me opens and Mr. Cobb is waiting for me. I look around frantically. "What the—?! I mean you…and she…"

"You forget that you are the dreamer here."

"I'm dreaming?"

"Yes. Just relax. You have been doing so well so far. Aside from Arthur, Nash, and Eames, I have never seen someone last so long in their first time before." His eyes cloud, as if Nash met a gruesome fate.

"No wonder I'm in the factory in France. I'm dreaming," I try to smile. "Thank you for the job offer. I can accept."

Suddenly, bomb charges materialize on the beams. "I told you to relax, Cassidy."

"Oops." I take a few deep breaths, and they disappear. "Sorry."

"I'm impressed that you can make things disappear just by taking the steps to relax. Maybe you can make Mal disappear."

"I'm not an expert yet."

"Soon you'll be able. Right now, let's keep running."

We race up the ramp, which I put my OC on because she is afraid of the ropes, and into the outside. "She's a madwoman," I spit.

"We need a place to hide. Make something up. Make the impossible."

I close my eyes, concentrating, when suddenly my body slams up against a wall.

"You really need to manifest objects with your eyes open someday."

I open them, and look up. My heart heats up with inner joy and excitement that my finger pops up into the air and I yell excitedly, "That's it! This is it! I did it! I can't believe it. I did it!"

"What is this building?"

"Kadic's dormitory building. It's a perfect place to hide! I can't believe I manifested this building. Holy cow!" I start to race inside. The interior around us builds. Stairs start to pop in and we race up to the girls' dorm. I hope to God that I didn't manifest Jim Morales. If he caught Mr. Cobb, who knows what the outcome would be? I know that I am the girl with the magic mind-remote-control, but Mr. Cobb is not one to be controlled.

I look around and we race toward the door that I believe is Aelita's room. I open it and gawk at the detail. It's just what my fan fiction Return to the Past, NOW had depicted. A two-person dormitory, with a long table at the end near the windows, two closets, one computer, and notebooks full of visions is right before my eyes. I sit on the left bed. "We should be safe here."

Mr. Cobb spins a tiny top. Instead of toppling, it keeps on spinning. He soon catches it mid-spin.

"We are still in my dream. No wonder I didn't feel pain or dizziness," I figure.

Mr. Cobb looks around the room and opens Aelita's drawer on her bed. I react as any girl would. "Hey! That's Aelita's stuff! Don't rummage it!"

"Easy… I found what I was looking for." He lifts up the silver suitcase from reality.

"How does that pop up from out of nowhere?"

"It just does."

"Really?" I am intrigued.

"Yes. Now, levels. There are 4 levels of a dream. Do you want to go down to level 2?"

"I didn't know that I was on level 1."

"You are. You were in reality when this dream began. Now, do you want to go to level 2?"

"What about that madwoman?"

"I'll handle her. I promise."

I sigh and lay down on the bed in a way that my right wrist is shown to him. "Okay."

He opens the case and unravels the tubing. "You're going in alone. You won't be able to go to levels 3 or 4."

"I understand. I'm…"

"I know you are scared of hurting yourself or drugging yourself unless you end up sick."

"Thank you." I lift up my pink sleeve. It was strange, because I was wearing a yellow shirt after I got off work.

He rubs my wrist and touches that point. "Perfect," he smiles.

I close my eyes. Here we go. Level 2 of dreaming. I hear the suitcase hiss with steam before the needle touches my skin. I grimace a little, not used to the drug. My senses frenzy, but again, the sleep overtakes them. My thoughts start to slowly fall incoherent.

222

I find myself at…home, circa 1999. There is dark brown carpeting in the room across the living room and the kitchen that would be Grandpa's office in later years. But there is an uninvited guest.

Mal.