"Dreaming men are haunted men." –Stephen Vincent Benet
Nathan- Chicago, IL
We were all exhausted. There was really no reason for it, but I suppose that we were all just really worried. Once Jason stopped ogling at Ariadne, he was able to focus on our surroundings. Jason, Arthur and Cobb got a table in the bakery while Ariadne and I went up to casually question the young man behind the cash register under the cover that we were ordering some coffee. The young man whose nametag exclaimed "Toby", had no idea, as he hadn't been at work the previous day. I thanked him just the same.
We returned to the table with our coffees and everyone sat absolutely silent, absolutely motionless. Everyone was clearly distracted, but I couldn't help but notice Arthur and Ariadne. Arthur had made sure that they were going to sit next to each other. They seemed like they wanted to stay close, but every time they came in contact with each other, they flinched, like it burned to touch each other.
Then my phone rang. I looked down at the caller ID. "Darcy." Suddenly, everyone was huddled around the phone. I put it on speaker.
"Darcy, where are you?" I asked. I was hopeful that it would be her on the other end. My hopes were shattered.
"Darcy's not available right now. She and Eames are actually dreaming quite comfortably right now." The man on the other end of the phone said.
"How the hell could anyone abduct Eames?" Arthur whispered, clearly a little afraid of this man's power already.
"I've heard that if I use a strong enough sedative, then kill them while they're under, I can send the two of them to limbo. I've heard that if I do that, they might go crazy." The man on the line taunted. "And wouldn't it be a shame to lose one of the only forgers in the world, along with the sole heir to the Gilligan fortune." My hands balled up into fists and I saw Cobb's do the same.
"Here's my ultimatum. Come to the warehouse at 491 Washington Street. It's in the Industrial outskirts of town. With you, you must bring five million dollars in cash." The voice demanded. I decided that it would be best that I didn't point out how many bags of cash that would be. Whoever this was, they weren't thinking this through very well.
"Be there by no later than six o'clock tonight, or I'll drop them into limbo. Come without the money, and I'll drop them into limbo. Contact the authorities and I'll… well, you get the idea. I expect to see you soon." Then the line went dead and we all slumped back into our seats, Ariadne leaning into Arthur's shoulder. For once, neither moved away from the other.
"We can get the money from Sean, this is perfect," Jason said, looking at me to back him up. "Right?" He asked. I looked at Cobb and knew in an instant that we both knew what the other was thinking.
"I don't think that Sean can do much in this case." Cobb said quietly. Ariadne, Arthur, and Jason all looked surprised.
"He's like… a billionaire," Ariadne said. "What's five million dollars if it's to protect his daughter?" Cobb and I met each other's gazes again.
"Mr. Gilligan is not quite right in the head anymore, Ariadne," Cobb supplied. I clenched my jaw at the berating statement about my uncle. But it was true.
"He underwent a traumatic dreaming event about six years ago, and he hasn't been the same ever since. Since then, I've been Darcy's legally appointed guardian because her mother's been gone for years as well. Actually, physically gone, that is," I explained. "In fact, he's been inexplicably hostile towards Darcy ever since the incident. I don't think he'll pay for their release." I said, a little angrily. Uncle Sean was infuriating.
"So then we get to take this guy out our way?" Arthur asked. "Dream style?"
"I'll run point," Jason offered. Arthur looked at Jason as if he'd just beaten him over the head with a wooden mallet.
"I'm point man," Arthur said, almost angrily.
"Architect," Ariadne claimed. I shook my head at her.
"I'm the architect here, young lady," I corrected here. We all looked at Cobb.
"Well I suppose that since I'm the only thief here, that role goes to me. Although, I think this is going to have to be more of an inception job." I looked pointedly at Ariadne, silently staking my claim and she mirrored my look. Arthur and Jason both looked like they were trying to shoot lasers out of their eyes at each other.
I could tell that this temporary truce was going to cause some big problems.
Eames- First Level, Dream State
I opened my eyes and found myself on my back in a tangled jungle. Darcy was nowhere in sight, and neither was the guy who abducted us. I got to my feet quickly and spun around, looking for her.
"Darcy!" I yelled. I hadn't liked the way that our unknown man had been advancing on her, and I certainly hadn't liked the way he'd put the gun to her head. I started running in one direction when I thought I heard a noise.
"Darcy!" I yelled again. Very faintly in the distance, I heard a shout in response. It was coming from my left, so I immediately veered towards the noise.
"Eames?" It was Darcy, definitely Darcy. I broke into a run towards the sound of her voice.
"Dar?" I called again.
"Eames! Up here," I looked up and Darcy was poised up on a branch of a baobab tree. I don't know if you've ever seen a baobab, but it's this massive tree with a huge, wide trunk and big thick branches. It's pretty hard to climb and I wondered how Darcy had gotten up there in the first place, she was at least fifteen feet up, and she was on the lowest branch. She seemed to sense my confusion.
"I woke up here," she said, a small nervous smile on her lips. "I haven't gotten up the nerve to climb down." I smiled, a little relieved that this was the biggest of her worries.
"Well, love, it seems that the best way down would be to jump," I said, pretending analyze her situation very seriously. She laughed a little at this, then her face got serious.
"Really?" She asked a little apprehensively.
"Oh calm down, I'm right here. I won't let you land on your head or anything." I said. I shielded my eyes and looked up at her. She seemed to be considering.
"Alright," She said finally. She scooted over to an area where she could have a clear jump. "I'm going to jump," She informed me nervously, giving me the chance to stop her.
"I'm watching, sweetheart," I said, crossing my arms over my chest and smiling up cockily. She closed her eyes and leaned forwards. "No, no, open your eyes, Darcy," I instructed quickly. She jumped anyways. She landed on her hands and feet and rolled forwards in a somersault, ending up flat on her back. She cracked open her eyes and looked at me.
"I made it," she informed me.
"Maybe next time we'll keep our eyes open, yeah?" I suggested, laughing a bit. But I was serious. She rolled onto her hands and knees and I offered her a hand up. She took it and dusted herself off. Then she turned to survey the landscape her mind had conjured. Our hands never released their hold on each other.
I looked around too. We were on the very edge of the jungle now, there was a vast grassland stretching out beyond the foliage. The sky was a weird combination of nighttime and sunset- every horizon was painted with the pinks and oranges of a sunset, but then transitioned violently to dark blue when it got to the sky above. There was a smear of stars spread across the sky and a thin crescent moon. I looked at Darcy, impressed.
"This is nice." I told her simply. "But how do you keep someone within the limits of your dream with such openness? Wouldn't the target realize that they were in a dream right away if they hit a border?" I asked. This was one of Cobb's rules that he actually kept to, so I was surprised that it was the only rule that she broke.
"I've been doing this for as long as Mr. Dom, if not longer, and I specialize in big dreams. This dream is maybe ten square miles." Darcy said. Her tone implied that this was very run-of-the-mill. "It's harder to maintain, yes, but it's definitely worth the effort. Do you like the sky?"
"It's beautiful," I said honestly. "And why not have a beautiful horizon? I mean, where better a place to be while being held captive by a psychopath?" My tone got a little harder and I looked around us anxiously.
"About that…" Darcy started uneasily. She was wringing her hands and her expression was slightly pained.
"What?" I asked suspiciously. She bit her lip and looked up at me. If I wasn't so on-edge, I would've found her expression absolutely adorable.
"I think I know who our psycho is." She said, her voice quieter.
"Who is it?" I asked, stepping towards her quickly. She flinched a little before meeting my eyes.
"A man I used to train with. He disappeared off the map three years ago, and most speculated that he died. Even my father's sources were unable to find him. But I knew. If he'd died, there would be a body. The man who took us is named Raj Patel and he truly is crazy. That's why my father stopped training him. He was crazy enough that he wanted to experiment with limbo, using human test subjects." Darcy said this all very fast, as if she had memorized it from a script. Then she looked up at me, breathing shallowly.
"Dar, what did this man do? Why you so afraid?" I asked her. It was unusual for me to poke into someone's business like this, but I was keen to learn more about our kidnapper.
"He sent my father to limbo once in a coup at the lab. For one minute of real time. My father came back, and almost a year had passed in his head. Not to mention, he was going crazy from it all. I don't know what happens in limbo, Eames. I don't want to know. Because limbo changed the man that my father was into…" she shuddered. "He wasn't the same, especially after I told him why he went into limbo. He told Cobb and Raj to never come back, that their lessons were over. He told me to assemble a team, because I was going into the field. I was twelve." She looked saddened by this fact, if not frightened by our situation.
"It's alright, darling, it's alright." I assured her, squeezing her hand with my own. "I won't let this Raj kid get to you." To my surprise, my words of assurance seemed to calm her considerably. She nodded slowly, taking in a deep breath.
"I trust you, Eames," she said, catching my gaze and holding it.
"Touching, really," the man with the hoodie was back, his hood thrown down.
"Raj," Darcy said. She didn't sound angry, but scared.
"Hello there, little thief," Raj responded. His voice was cool and collected. He didn't sound surprised that she knew who he was. "You two get to spend a couple of days down here while I wait for your ransom to come from up above," Raj said dismissively.
"Don't lie to us. You're not going to let us go, will you Raj?" Darcy said. He voice was still unstable, afraid.
"You remember the incident from years back? I'm going to get you for telling your father, Darcy. In fact, everyone you know, every competition I've ever had will suffer because of what you did. Enjoy your time in this dream life, little thief, because you and your forger are going to spend a lifetime in Limbo."
A/N: I apologize for making the entire end of that chapter so dense, but I really needed to set stuff up in this chapter, kind of give a back-story as well as set up the ultimatum. The action will really start to kick in during the next few chapters, so bear with me! Again, thank you so much for reading, and please review to tell me your thoughts!