The next day me and Eddie were on the road. I didn't know what Castile had told his boss but somehow he was allowed to leave without telling the big shots what we were going to do. Fine by me. Jill had been sad that she couldn't come with us but she was a good sport and promised not to tell Rose or anyone else about our recent discovery. We couldn't risk them coming after us and putting the alchemists on the job instead. We had the usual cover story, I felt like partying and Eddie was tagging along to keep me safe. I mean come on, who wouldn't believe that? It was a long drive to San Francisco, we would have to stop for the night on some motel or something, not that I was complaining. I was at last on my way to finding her. Hopefully. Something felt wrong though. If she was alive, and judging by my visits from the ghost-Sage she kind of was, she would have contacted me by now. The photo I had seen painted a picture of a casual and calm Sage, it didn't seem like she was under a capture's influence. What if the ghost-Sage was just an hallucination and she was actually on the run by free will? What if she chose to leave me and everyone else behind? Would she even do that? The last time I saw her, she was a perfect alchemist (Well, at least apart from the fact that she actually liked hanging out with us creatures of the night.), the Sage I last saw would never run. She was too proud of her job and too careful of not ruining her reputation once again, she was focused. Maybe she was held against her will, but why? What need would someone have for an alchemist? An alchemist without any contact with her superiors. Why didn't the captors demand a ransom? Or a trade? Anything. Why did they just keep her? For fun? Something wasn't adding up. I could feel it. I was missing a piece.
I looked out the passenger window. Eddie was driving my mustang, the car Sage loved so much. The sky was turning dark and it was time to find a place to crash over the night. Preferably something with a hint of class. Even I had standards. We had been sitting quietly throughout most of the trip, except for some casual attempts to conversation now and then. My mind was in a different place and after an hour or so when Castile kept trying to strike up conversation, it seemed like he understood that I wasn't really in the car with him. After that, he leaned back and relaxed. I had driven the car in the morning and early afternoon while Castile drove at the moment. I had spent most of my passenger-time trying to find Sage in a spirit dream. I knew in my heart that someday, it had to work. I would pull her into one of my dreams, it was just a matter of time. Her captors couldn't hide her forever. Sometime along that trail of thoughts, I had closed my eyes. Ihad been alone with my thoughts in the soft darkness in my mind but since I now felt the car drive off the highway, I opened my eyes again. In front of me was a motel. Judging from the look of it, it had seen better days, but it didn't look half as bad as the ones we'd passed so far. It was a red brick building with the traditional neon sign that told us that we were now at 'Lucky Star Motel'. Fitting. I could use some help from my own lucky star. We parked the car and Eddie went and got us a room. When he came out with the key I was leaning against the side of my yellow car with our bags at my feet. Castile took his bag and showed me the way to room number 10 which was a white door quite close to the car. The furniture inside the room wasn't anything special. Two single beds with white sheets, a dresser and a small tv on a bench at the foot of the beds. The bathroom was small but surprisingly clean and when I lied down on the bed it wasn't too hard. I lied there, staring at the ceiling, and trying to comprehend the situation. I was almost with her. I was almost in her presence again. I could barely believe it.
"Believe what?", Castile suddenly spoke. Did I say that out loud?
"Just, that I found her.", I confessed.
"I can't believe it either. Maybe I should take you as an example and never give up on anything ever again.", Eddie joked, but I could sense a hint of truth in it.
"Yeah, just don't take after me in any other aspect of your life, wouldn't want to be the one who made you a party boy.", I joked back. It felt good, it felt like we knew each other better than we actually did. I had never really gotten to know Eddie. Not in depth anyway.
"Trust me, I would never go that far.", Castile contoured and went into the bathroom. I was left alone in the room, still staring at the ceiling. As usual when I was alone, the insanity I was getting closer to started appearing. The darkness and the shadows grew and turned into horrible sights, but by now I was used to it. Most of the time I knew how to ignore it. The shadows had a favorite game, I liked to call it; 'Scare the moroi boy by killing the love of his life in different ways' or 'How many ways can we kill Sydney before he looses it?'. They played that a lot. I had seen Sage getting drained of her blood by a thirsty strigoi, I had seen her burn alive in a building that caught on fire and I had also seen her getting her throat slit by a psycho killer. And that was just a few. I hated the shadows but since I was staying away from my vices, I couldn't stop them. I just had to keep it together and try to think of happier things. I usually ended up thinking about how the sun reflected in her eyes and hair or how my golden-girl looked when she was concentrating really hard on something. I even missed the look she gave me when she was disappointed in me. I missed everything.
After another uneventful day of car driving, we finally arrived in San Francisco. Finally here, the city where the girl of my dreams hopefully still were. Me and Castile had gotten settled at our hotel and were now making up a plan on how we would find her. Eddie was sitting by a laptop searching through the internet after more leads that involved the picture I had found while still at court. He kept reading the article and looking up places and persons that were being mentioned to try and narrow down our search a bit. He also put me on the job of calling different moroi to hopefully find a feeder. I mean, I couldn't really be without blood. After a while with pulling all my different contacts I finally found a feeder that was in San Francisco and that I could use. After that I had nothing more to do. I ended up staring at the ceiling like the night before while Eddie worked. I could barely wait until I could go out on the streets and actually begin searching. I guess I was pretty tired because I fell asleep almost instantly, and in my sleep, I dreamed.
It started of with just me. Just me and darkness. Suddenly a golden flame sparked to my right and I looked at it. I was plunged into a dream. I was in my old apartment in Palm Springs, the one with the bright yellow walls and the plaid sofa. The apartment looked exactly like the time before she disappeared. Even the paintings that was stood around the room was the same ones that I had painted a week or so before the kidnapping, which was odd since the last time I had seen it, it was filled with paintings of everything that reminded me of Sage. Before I left it, every empty piece of wall had had at least one painting leaning on it with either a painting of the actual Sage or a painting of something golden on it. But as I said, this time it was filled with my usual boring art that I made for my classes. It was like being transported back in time. Back to a happier time. Well, I was a bit heartbroken back then, after being rejected the second time around, but she had at least been a phone call away. Oh god I missed her. While I stood there in the middle of the room in some old clothing I had worn in Palm Springs, just reminiscing, I felt the presence of somebody else. Suddenly I got the feeling that this wasn't my usual kind of dream. Everything seemed to detailed, to real. When I turned around I stood face to face with the ghost Sage. She gave me a weak smile and something that looked like a wave, but her eyes only screamed sadness. It seemed like she could never become happy.
"Well, hello there not-really-Sage-but-still-Sage.", I said with the most cheering tone I could muster. The old apartment, ghost Sage and all the memories became too much for me. I had a hard time holding back tears and waves of sadness that washed over me like it was tidal and I was the shore. The Sage in front of me nodded as a greeting.
"So, you're doing this dream thingy?", She nodded and seemed almost proud of herself, but at the same time, she seemed scared. Scared of everything really. She kept her arms close to her body like she was afraid to touch anything and she kept looking around her with a sort of panicked expression.
"I guess you didn't want to talk to me around Castile huh?", I questioned. I could understand her though, it wouldn't have been fun to explain to Eddie why a gray Sage was standing in front of him. Like I thought, Sage nodded.
"Well, okay. Are we even close to finding you?", It was best to ask the most obvious questions first. My ghostly Sage did that thing with her hand again which I interpreted as 'kind of'. It gave me hope. She didn't Sage yes, but she didn't say no either. Maybe I wasn't that far away.
"Awesome, Will it be hard finding you? I mean, are you like holed up somewhere?", Suddenly I was ecstatic. I was going to rescue her. I was going to be her knight in shining armor. The pale Sage in front of me started by shrugging and then she shook her head.
"Okay, you don't know if it will be hard finding you and you're not holed up somewhere, correct?", I needed things clear or else I would get confused. She nodded and looked pleased so I guessed that was good.
"Um, okay. Is it- How did you even learn how to dream walk? I thought it was trademarked for us spirit lunatics or something.", As usual, I chose jokes to be my defense walls when I couldn't handle my feelings and I felt that I was coming off as something I didn't want to be. Sage just shook her head as if saying 'I don't know how I do this.'. It kind of freaked me out. First I'm seeing a Sage ghost who isn't really Sage but still is her, and then the ghost starts initiating spirit dreams. Something was off here. Maybe it was just insanity playing mind games on me. What if I finally had lost track of reality? What if I was locked up at a mental hospital? How would I even know? It scared me. It scared me so much. Even more than the thought of dying. Not quite as much as the thought of Sage dying though, but still. I was starting to panic, and somehow Sage seemed to start to panic too. Before I knew it, the dream was over.
I shot straight up to a sitting position on my bed in the hotel. My heart was pounding, my hands shaking and my whole body was drenched in sweat. Castile sat a few feet away by the coffee table, staring at me with a scared look.
"God Adrian, you scared the hell out of me!", The dhampir exclaimed and his panicked expression changed to something that might've been concern but was so dulled down that it was hard to see. "Bad dream?", he simply asked while returning to his search. I felt like I was mute. I couldn't find my voice. The panic still had it's cold grip around my body and it was forcing my heart to beat faster. I felt like it was going to explode in my chest. Excactly when I started seeing concern and worry break free and intensify in Castile's aura, the panic left. My heart slowed down and at the same time Eddie started turning his gaze back to me, I found my voice.
"Horrible dream.", I simply stated, a bit of fear leaking into my voice. However, Eddie didn't seem to think that was anything to worry about since he returned to his search once again while I got up and walked into the bathroom. I needed to freshen up. Spirit was ruining my life.