Chapter Twenty-Nine
When Claire got home she collapsed into bed and cried herself to sleep, her talk with Thomas still weighing on her mind. But it seemed her night was only destined to be worse as she woke up in another nightmare.
The dream started very hazy and her head was killing her. Her vision was blurred and she heard someone singing but it seemed so far away.
"Come Josephine, in my flying machine, going up she goes!" the voice sang. As the lyrics neared toward the end, she felt her arms yanked up over her head by her wrists and she was forced on her knees off the floor.
"Up she goes!" Now she was forced on her tip toes and she could see a bit clearer. Her shoulders were stretched as far as they could go and she groaned in pain.
"Balance yourself like a bird on a beam! In the air she goes! There she goes!" He pulled her up higher and her feet could no longer touch the ground.
"Please," her feeble voice echoed in the concrete room. "It hurts." Her throat was parched from screaming earlier and she couldn't swallow.
"It hurts?" the man mocked. He came into her view and sneered. "You don't know what pain is yet, my friend."
x x x
Tommy sat down heavily on his bed and rubbed his eyes. His black heart hurt in a way that it had not hurt in a very long time. The hushed conversation he had with Claire had got him nowhere with her. He turned and looked at his pillow and then an idea came to him.
He needed to fall asleep and maybe, just maybe, he would slip into one of those dreams.
Trouble was, he had enough trouble falling asleep on his own, let alone when he felt pressured to do so. He stuck his hand under his pillow and felt the familiar velvet pouch he kept his pipe in and pulled it out.
As he set it up, he wondered to himself whether or not this would work if he was drugged, but he didn't have much of a choice.
When it was lit, he took a long drag and exhaled slowly then laid his head on the pillow and waited. It didn't take long before he was pulled under and fell asleep.
When Tommy opened his eyes again he was lying on a hard floor in a hallway. He sat up and then promptly slumped over. He felt heavy and slow. It seemed the opium didn't prohibit him from entering the dream, it just made it very difficult for him to move around in.
He took a breath and concentrated on sitting up again. Tommy then tried to get on his knees to stand, but he couldn't. It was as if gravity was forcing him down much harder than average. He would have to crawl. He was able to see a door at the end of the hallway and started making his way towards it.
It seemed to take an eternity, but when he finally made it, he struggled to reach his hand up to turn the handle. When he managed to do that, he crumpled to the floor exhausted. Tommy laid on the floor, his breath coming hard. The opium had been a terrible idea.
Suddenly, he heard a muffled scream. He snapped his head up as fast as he could. Claire, he thought. He pushed the door open and saw stairs that descended down into a basement. He narrowed his eyes and realized he was in the police station. And then he realized in order to get down to the bottom of the stairs he was going to have to throw himself down them because there was no way he was going to be able to climb down. He heard another muffled scream.
With as much strength as he could muster, Tommy threw himself forward and tumbled down. Even though it was a dream, it still hurt somehow and he struggled to get back into a climbing position. He was down in the center room with all of the cells and waited to hear something to let him know where Claire was.
It didn't take long for another scream, this one much louder than the previous two, to be heard. She was in the same cell that he had been locked in when he had been down here. He crawled as quick as he could to the door and tried to open the cell, but it wouldn't budge. He banged against the door and shouted, "Claire! Claire! What's happening?! Let me in!"
His plea was only met with more screams of terror and pain. He felt undeniably useless as he continued to bang on the door. "Claire! Leave her alone you bastard! Whoever you are, I'll kill you!"
The dream started to sway and he knew that meant Claire was waking up. "No, Claire! You mustn't wake up! I need to know so I can help! Let me in! Let me in!"
It was no use. The scenery around him was becoming black and before he knew it, he was in darkness and Claire was gone.
x x x
"Claire! Sissy, wake up!"
Claire felt her shoulders being shaken and her eyes flew open to stare up at her brother, Brady. "What? What's happening?" she said breathless.
"You were having a nightmare. Are you okay?" he asked, his voice filled with concern.
"Yes…yes, I'm alright," she answered as she sat up, the covers falling from her shoulders. "Haven't had that nightmare in a long time."
Brady rubbed her back and she turned to see the rest of her family at her door looking in anxiously. Ada was there, too, standing next to Daniel. She looked confused and worried.
Claire turned back to Brady. "I'm fine. Go back to sleep. It was only a nightmare."
After several more minutes of reassuring, they finally all went back to their separate rooms. Claire settled back down in her bed to think.
Truthfully, she was grateful to Brady for waking her up not only to get out of that horrid nightmare, but because she could hear Tommy banging on the other side of the cell door. She shut her eyes tightly.
He had come too close to her secret. She had to keep these nightmares at bay.
