Chapter One
After he was briefed by a stiff, senior Emptier, Austin was sent out. He pin pointed the Dawson house on a map. It was in Miami, a city Austin didn't mind visiting. He tied the Dream Stealer to the belt loop in his white jeans and tapped on the ping for Ally's house.
He was shuttled there, landscapes whipping past him like wind until he arrived inside a small, cramped room that showed little to no personality and spirit. He shrugged it off and figured Ally wasn't one much for personalization.
Austin saw the bed with yellow, thread bare sheets, a tiny yellow and red dream catcher hanging from a thumb tack above it. It was simple and much smaller than standard, but it still did it's job. He prepared the little bag to empty the dreams into and smiled as he hooked up the syphon.
It took less than two minutes and pulled out his little map to take him back to HQ.
The flight back to the Cloud City ttoo long for his liking. He was eager to dispose of the dreams. You see, whenever you forget your dream from the previous night it means your emptier is doing their job, but if you remember the dream they didn't dispose of the dream, they didn't empty your catcher, or they watched your dream.
He walked to the little Dream Tumbler inside the Emptier office and dumped in Ally's dream, feeling accomplished. He jotted it down on the log book he was forced to keep and jogged off to the coffee shop where he was due to meet Dez. Dez had just been assigned a girl named Trish Delarosa, and he was pretty excited about it.
Dez was an experienced Emptier, but his old Dreamer had recently thrown out his old dream catcher and gotten a new one, so Emptier Waters got a new assignment.
He reached the coffee shop and spotted Dez talking to a fish in the tank at the front of the café.
"Hey Dez, you beat me here." Austin sat down lazily in a booth before ordering a coffee and a stack of pancakes.
"Yeah. Trish didn't dream last night. Didn't get enough sleep I guess. But who cares, I spotted a llama on my way to her house, and I got a picture with it." He reached into his pocket and took out his photographer, meant to capture things like a new dream catcher for records.
Austin got back to his little apartment and flung off his white button down, and made himself a bowl of cereal.
He got to thinking about who he was supposed to be watching. He pulled out his videoer, used to make sure his assignment went to bed at a sufficient time. He looked for Ally, but she was already asleep, so all he could see was black, but he noticed Ally felt cold, like she was sleeping on tile.
He shrugged it off and figured he would just look in on her tomorrow.
If he'd know why she was cold he wouldn't have waited until tomorrow.
Austin pinged himself to Ally's room and emptied her dream catcher, but the bag felt extra heavy, like a nightmare. He looked in on Ally, who was walking to school, and he heard fear racing through her mind. He wondered briefly if he should check on her, but he ignored it. He flew back to Cloud City, but hesitated before putting the profits of the day's venture into the tumbler.
What could have scared her so bad?