Free Forsaken by Sophia Sharp Page A

Nora asked worriedly. “What happened back there?”
    Hunter didn’t answer. He kept pacing back and forth.
    “Hunter, tell me what’s going on!” Nora demanded.
    “I’m not supposed to bring you there,” he said, half to himself. Then he spoke louder. “Get in the car.”
    He unlocked the door and climbed in before Nora even had a chance to get off the hood. She jumped down, opened the door, sat inside, and looked at Hunter as she slammed the door shut. He looked worried, uncertain, troubled, and conflicted all at once.
    Without speaking, he started the engine and backed the car up.
    “Where are we going?” Nora asked.
    “I need to get you home.”
    “Why? Hunter, what’s going on?”
    “I need time to think.” He turned the car around and sped down the dirt road away from the lake.
    “Does it have to do with that man I saw?” Nora asked.
    “Maybe,” he said quietly. “I’m not sure.”
    “Hunter, look at me!” Nora practically screamed the words. His behavior had her on edge. He hit the brakes hard, causing her to fly forward and hit the dashboard. She grunted on impact. “Why did you do that?” she demanded angrily.
    “You told me to look at you.” Hunter turned his head to stare right at her.
    “I didn’t mean it literally,” Nora said under her breath, but returned his stare. “Hunter, you have to tell me. Is this…any of this…dangerous?”
    “I’m not sure.” He sighed. “I can’t say.”
    “Well, what can you say?” she demanded furiously. “You brought me into this, and if there’s any danger, I need to know!”
    “What can I say?” he repeated. “Not much. Not much that would make sense to you. But…this might. There are others…like me. My kind. They’re dream walkers. Where we just went, Nora, that was your dream. To access it, I needed your touch. To bring you into it. Everybody has their own dreams. Most occur in the safety of their own imagination, but from time to time, people access the same place we went to. That place is the same for everyone, and yet everyone has their own version of it. I…” He paused, obviously struggling for a way to explain. She waited, without interrupting him.
    “I know I’m not making much sense. Think of…of a Blu-ray disk. If you have a movie on one, and I have another disk of the same movie, the two disks exist as separate objects. But if you put them into a player, they’ll both output the same thing. They’ll play the same movie. But one of the disks is mine, and the other is yours. It’s the same thing with the dream world. A person can’t access another person’s dream world like we just did…not consciously, anyway, and not at all most of the time.
    “But there are some who can transcend that limitation. They don’t need the touch. I never thought they’d notice if we went into your dream. But they jump from person to person’s dreams like frogs jump from lily to lily over a pond. In between the dreams…an abyss exists. We touched it briefly when we left. But that’s the only time you or I reach that abyss. To go to it consciously, to jump from dream to dream…” He shivered. “To go to it consciously means you might lose yourself forever. But dream walkers can do that.”
    “Wait.” Nora held up a hand. “Are you telling me somebody else was in my dream?”
    “Maybe. I can’t be sure. I need time to think. I don’t know what attracted his attention. I was sure that our trip would be inconspicuous. I was sure , dammit!” Then he shoved the car into gear and continued driving forward. But something he said stuck out in Nora’s mind.
    “What did you mean when you said ‘your kind’?”
    “Others like me,” he replied absently. Then he looked at her. “Where do you live? I need to get you home.”
    She told him the address. Before she knew it, they were on the highway, heading toward her house.
    They spent the drive in silence. Every time Nora looked over at Hunter, he appeared to be even more