A Union of Souls, Chapter Nine
"She came back." Shivering and hugging herself, Ami re-materialized half-way around the world, a mile beneath the surface of an uncharted desert island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. She stood surrounded by millennia old alien technology, a spaceship that was a living, knowing entity and the one place that she could always call home. The one place she could always feel safe. Only she didn't feel safe now.
The Ship buzzed and hummed, a telepathic lullaby meant to calm and soothe. Alien blue light filled the open chamber, pulsing and dimming in accordance with its soothing music.
Seated on the floor, Adam looked up expectantly at her sudden appearance. "Ami?"
"She came back," Ami repeated the words. The Ship's awareness touched her own, wrapping around her like a pair of loving arms. It enabled her to calm her breathing, to gather together the thoughts that had been scattered to the winds. "The woman from earlier, Adam. She came back."
Adam rose, his confusion immediately replaced by concern. She felt the concern rolling off of him in waves and it provided a comfort all its own. He touched her arm gently, rubbing lightly and with affection, "Are you certain?"
"Oh, yes, I am completely certain." Ami nodded, feeling tears suddenly begin to sting her eyes. The feeling of light headedness had not passed entirely, but it was fading. She was becoming more sure of herself with every passing moment; more certain that something terrible would have happened if Celia hadn't shown up when she did.
Something more terrible than what had already happened.
"She did something to me." Ami choked on the sobs she couldn't control. She lowered her head in embarrassment, hot tears streaming down her cheeks. "She got inside my head and I couldn't stop her."
"Are you all right?"
Ami shook her head, her words nearly lost to her sobs. "I don't know."
She gave over to her cries then, clinging to Adam and the comfort he provided while she bawled onto his shoulder. Adam didn't laugh or tease; he didn't even ask useless questions. He understood her pain and her fear. She had been violated, attacked. Ami felt vulnerable and helpless.
And she was deathly afraid.
Only when she recovered herself enough to talk coherently and when her thoughts were actually making sense, did Adam -- start asking questions. But always in a subdued tone, always being supportive and understanding, never making assumptions.
"What do you remember?" Adam asked. They were sitting against one of the bulk heads of the ship, drinking the juice provided by the Ship. She was sandwiched between Adam and Megabyte – who had teleported in sometime during her hysterical sobbing.
"I don't remember a lot of anything," Ami admitted.
"Try." Megabyte's words and attitude were devoid of his usual teasing and humor. When push came to shove, her fellow Tomorrow Person knew when to shelve the banter.
"I don't -- one minute I was talking to Pete and then Celia was acting like she had been trying to get my attention for hours."
Adam studied her. "Who's Pete?"
"Just a guy," she shook her head, and then realizing that Adam planned on leaving no stone unturned, she continued, "He's a sophomore, we have a class together and I guess he likes me." Somehow, she couldn't call up the same excitement and enthusiasm for Pete's interest as she had earlier.
"He was at the party?"
"No, he missed class because of a hang over. He was on his way to the library to study for a make-up quiz."
Megabyte frowned skeptically. "On a Friday night?"
Ami shrugged. "Stranger things have happened."
"Not that strange."
Adam toyed with the medallion that hung around his neck, his eyes distant. Ami knew that he was turning inward, analyzing and re-analyzing every single word she said and every detail that she gave him. "Was there anyone else there?"
"No, just –" Ami stopped, a vague image rising from the clouds of her memory. "Wait, there was – a girl. I thought she was just drunk so I started trying to ignore her but –"
Adam waited. When she said nothing else, he prompted her. "But?"
"I can't remember a lot about her," Ami admitted after a few frustrating moments of even failing to recall the girl's face. "I don't even remember what she looks like."
Ami watched her two friends exchange a glance.
"I think we have our mind-reader," Megabyte commented.
Adam nodded in agreement. "I think you're probably right. But if you don't remember anything, Ami, then we don't have a lot to go on."
"We could mind-merge," Megabyte suggested.
"Ami? Are you up to it?"
With a resigned sigh, Ami pushed herself to her feet. To be truthful, she wasn't really up to much of anything. The last thing she wanted was to have her mind wide open and exposed again so soon after what happened. On the other hand, however, she didn't want a repeat performance of tonight. It was the lesser of two evils. "Let's just get this over with."
Adam and Megabyte stood with her and in a matter of moments, the three had joined their minds, the two boys' thoughts merging with Ami's awareness and memories.
[Think about the party,] Adam instructed her.
It took some fumbling and mis-steps; her mind truly did not want to reflect on the party or what had happened. But then suddenly, they were there. Inside her mind. Inside what was forgotten.
Inside her dreams.
*****
Ami wandered the darkened stone corridors alone. She could see nothing in the pitch blackness that surrounded her, but somehow her feet, or perhaps it was instinct guided her along. She knew the corridors were stone because she could feel the cool roughness beneath her feet. She trailed her fingertips along unseen walls and felt the bumps and ridges of the stone there.
She was alone here. Utterly, completely and totally alone. There was not a single voice in her mind, not a single awareness other than her own. The silence was deafening. She tried not to think too much about it because each time she did it brought tears to her eyes. At least it had gotten easier to deal with. At first, awakening in the strange darkness, alone with only her thoughts for the first time in years, it had been nearly maddening. So accustomed she was to having the minds of the others, she almost could not handle it. Yet, somehow, she had found the strength to stand against the silence and the darkness. Somehow she found the strength to wander nameless, soundless corridors always seeking, but never finding.
Finding what? She didn't know anymore. Ami didn't know whether she wanted to find a way out or if she simply wanted to find another soul. All she knew was that she was trapped here. Here, in the absolute null space that was nowhere and made of nothing. Here, where if she allowed her imagination to roam long enough, she could feel her soul slipping away from her.
A light. That was new. She looked away from it. It was bright, it was glowing hot and red and it hurt her eyes. It hurt more than just her eyes. The light burned her and she backed away from it, making a whimpering sound. She stumbled over the hem of her gauzy white dress – for the first time she knew that it was white. Made of light lace. It reminded her of her baptismal gown.
But the light that burned like a flame was distracting. The more she moved away from it, the more it tried to reach for her. Phantom red and orange hands reached from the light, brushing across her skin, her arms, grabbing her legs. The phantom fingers hurt. They burned symbols into her flesh – onto her forehead and chest and arms. They cut into her very soul and she screamed in agonizing pain. No one heard her screams which echoed off the stone walls. She was alone; she was alone and she was being slowly and mercilessly killed.
She would die alone.
That thought was more frightening than any of her other ones. She fought and twisted in the grip of those phantom fingers. She fought against being pulled into the light.
"Fighting is useless," a voice whispered in her mind. "You belong to us now."
Ami fought harder.
The light blinded her. She scrambled away from it, back to the safety and haven that was the stone corridors. Rough hands caught her, glowing green eyes stripped away her shields and defenses, she was laid bare.
Ami screamed.
She was in the corridor again. Suddenly, abruptly. Without warning. But something was different this time. There was light; not the ghastly red light that seemed to burn from the inferno of hell itself, but a soft white and blue light that called to her and beckoned. A light that offered her safety.
"I won't let them have you." The voice came from the soft white light. The voice was soothing, familiar. She drifted closer and closer; Ami could see a figure bathed in the light, but it was too bright to make out the features. She could clearly make out the hand that extended towards her, a hand that was large and masculine. A strong hand. A hand that would help her find her way home. "Take my hand."
Ami hesitated, she didn't know why. This was the way home; this was the way to safety and freedom. Yet, she stared at that hand, stared at the mark of infinity that suddenly branded itself in the palm and hesitated. "There's no other way, is there?"
"There is. If you want to take it. I won't stop you."
Ami stared over his shoulder at the bright light. It scared her. She looked back at the hand of hope. "I'm not ready to die, Angel."
Angel. She looked up and saw his face clearly. Somehow her soul knew him before she did. He was here; he was her savior. "This way could be worse."
The blue light was fading now. Angel was fading. Her chances were fading.
"I'll take that chance." She took his hand.
The world fell away beneath them.
*****
Abruptly, Ami jerked out of the mind-merge. Her heart was pounding, her knees were shaking. She literally slumped to the floor as her legs gave way beneath her. The dream – the memory of the dream – was more potent than anything she had ever recalled in a mind-merge before. The red light, the cold hands – all of it played and replayed in her mind while she tried to make sense of it.
"Ami?" The young woman startled at the feeling of Megabyte's hand on her shoulder.
"Whoa," her friend's voice and touch were soothing, "You really are freaked aren't you?"
"It's all right," Adam took Ami's hand and gave it a soft squeeze. Comfort radiated from his touch, filtering through the mental shields that she had instinctively drawn around her when breaking the merge. "You're with us. It was just a dream."
Ami shook her head, body still trembling. "But it wasn't." As she said the words, she felt the ring of truth in them. It wasn't just a dream; it had been so much more than a dream. Everything there, every touch, every sound, had been real. The stone beneath her feet and the gown she wore were as real as the Ship and the clothes on her back.
It had all been vividly and hauntingly real.
And it meant something. She realized now that she had known what it meant when experiencing the dream. The dream-she, the person she was in that dream, knew what it meant and knew the true meaning behind her conversation with Angel. But Ami of the waking world didn't know; Ami of the waking world didn't even remember that dream.
And Ami of the waking world had no desire to go back and explore it any time soon.
She must have been projecting her thoughts, because Megabyte gave her shoulder a squeeze. "You don't have to, if you don't want to. No one is going to make you."
"It still doesn't tell us anything," Ami whispered, giving the American a grateful smile. For all that they tried to get under one another's skin – and usually succeeded – she was glad to have him as a friend and fellow Tomorrow Person.
"Yes, it does," Adam sat back on his haunches. "It tells us that we really need to talk to this Angel. If you're up to it?"
"Now?" Ami asked. She wasn't sure she was up to doing anything or going anywhere at the moment; but she wasn't sure that she would ever be up to it anytime soon. And she wasn't so daft to not understand that they had to get to the bottom of things – and quickly.
Angel was the only key.
"No time like the present, right?"
"Um, Adam," Megabyte checked his watch, "You know it's like late in LA, right? I mean, it's sort of past the nine to five hours?"
"Exactly, even better. Maybe we can take a look around his office. Find out something about him and what he's doing in Ami's suppressed dreams."
Megabyte shrugged and pushed himself to his feet. "I've never turned down a good misdemeanor. Why not?"
"Not you, Megabyte."
"Excuse me?"
"You're not going." Adam gave the other Tomorrow Person his very patented don't-even-think-about-arguing-with-me-look. Ami knew that look all too well. "Just me and Ami. He did contact her. You stay here, just in case."
"In case what?"
"Just in case," Adam repeated the words with a finality that earned him a dark glare from Megabyte. He extended his hand to Ami, helping her to her feet. "Are you up to this?"
"I better be." She flashed him what she hoped was her most confidant and reassuring smile.
"What if you need my help?" Megabyte protested.
"Then we'll call you," Adam answered right before they teleported away.