"Jack! Jack, wake up!"
He jolted awake, swearing he still had a glare in his eyes from the blinding lights of the cloud. Stryker forced him to sit up, glancing to be sure Zephyr was still asleep on the floor before sitting on the foot of Jack's bed.
"What happened?" he whispered, crossing his legs.
Jack squeezed his eyes shut, then sighed and shook his head.
"It's getting worse," he admitted. "Now I don't know what to expect. I rarely start in the toilet anymore, and I can't move as much as I usually can."
"That might be the way you're sleeping, kid," Stryker offered.
Jack nodded grudgingly. He appreciated that Stryker was keeping a level head, but he didn't know if it was something so simple as a sleeping position.
"Maybe. But...well now it isn't just this random face I'm seeing. Now it's actually my dad...and he's reaching for me."
"Yeah?"
Stryker saw that look in his friend's eyes again. This was getting to be too much for him, that much could be easily seen.
"Yeah," Jack hissed, fiddling with his blanket as he spoke. "And no matter how hard I try to reach back, I can't get to him. It's like whenever I try he just gets farther. Then this cloud came and...and everything just got weird..."
"Weird how?" Stryker asked.
"It...it had eyes."
Stryker furrowed his brow as Jack rubbed his hands across his face.
"It was raining, which never happens, and then this cloud came real close to me with these eyes...they were like lightning or something. And then there was this voice in my head telling me..."
He paused and grimaced.
"...It told me..."
"What's wrong?" Stryker asked as Jack clutched his head.
"I...I-I don't remember what it said..." Jack told him. "I just had it a second ago but..."
In fact, everything was suddenly fuzzy. He wasn't even sure he was awake at that moment.
"St-Stryke...?" he mumbled as Stryker put a hand on his shoulder and gently made him lay down.
"It's alright, kid," Stryker said, smiling at him. "Just get some sleep, 'kay?"
Jack relaxed and nodded, his eyes drooping shut almost immediately. Stryker gave his shoulder a squeeze, then stood and stepped over Zephyr to the other. He picked the Mind Reader Conch on the nightstand and put it in Stryker's ear, whispring its name to activate it. Stryker furrowed his brow and waved the noise away as Stryker straightened and walked out of the room. He stuffed his hands in his jean pockets as he went to the girls' room and checked that they were asleep. They were, so he slipped downstairs and straight out the door, leisurely strolling down the driveway. After a couple steps he pulled an object out and started twirling it by the chain; the inscription on the back was poinient even from afar.
To the dragon who'll change it all.
-Love, Dad