Free Fearsome Dreamer by Laure Eve Page A

do you think?’ he said.
    â€˜You can’t just leave. You can’t just abandon everyone.’
    White shifted the bag on his shoulder, defensive. ‘Look, I’m an adult now. I’m supposed to leave home now anyway, and find a job, and a house eventually, aren’t I? It’s better this way. You know it is. I’m sorry, okay? But you’ll be glad when I’m gone. You will.’
    â€˜What about Cho?’ said Jospen, his voice edged with anger. Was it? Or fear? ‘What about Mama? Don’t you have
any
loyalty?’
    He was actually trembling. One arm disappeared behind his back, as if he was holding something he was trying to hide.
    White felt the first trickle of fear.
    â€˜Jospen,’ he said. ‘What’s going on? What are you doing?’
    â€˜I can’t.’
    â€˜You can’t what?’
    Jospen brought his hand around and pointed something small and metallic at White’s chest.
    â€˜I can’t just let you go. They won’t just let you go, Jacob! Why are you being so stupid?’
    â€˜What –’ said White, before a tiny, white-hot flare on his shoulder caught his attention.
    He turned his head to look.
    There was something sticking out of his shoulder.
    There was a little dart sticking out of his shoulder.
    That wasn’t supposed to be there.
    He tried to bring his hand up to brush it off, but his arm, incredibly, weighed more than a building.
    His hands were giant poles of meat, telescoping off for ever.
    His legs were thin like razor cuts. Far too thin to hold up his body. Just how had he been walking around all this time?
    He fell. He fell into the stars. The sky opened up beneath him, black and black and black.
    Something banged against the side of his head.
    And again.
    And again. And then it melted away to a terrible, surging roar.
    * * *
    He opened his eyes.
    He thought he opened his eyes.
    Sound battered viciously at his ears.
    â€˜Stop shouting,’ he tried to say, but had no idea if the words had even left his mouth.
    The noise wavered; faltered.
    â€˜He’s awake,’ said a voice. ‘He shouldn’t be awake.’
    â€˜Well … the dart’s empty. It’s all in his bloodstream.’
    White strained. Shapes blurred, focused.
    Everything was all wrong. Everything was made of vertical lines.
    He was lying on the floor.
    â€˜He’s awake?’ said a tentative voice. Jospen’s voice.
    White sent frantic signals to his body.
    MOVE he said to his legs.
    â€˜Er … he’s moving. Someone give him another shot, please.’
    Oh no. Oh no no not again.
    PANIC, ordered his mind.
    He pushed everything he could feel outwards.
    â€˜Stop him!’
    â€˜I can’t –’
    â€˜Hold him down!’
    Thighs came into his vision. He bucked. He was hauled up, leant backwards against a body who hooked their arms over his, while someone else tried to push his legs to the ground with their hands.
    Police uniform.
    Police.
    Prison.
    GET UP GET UP GET UP
    He could hear himself. Incoherent. Screaming no.
    Jospen was against the wall, hugging his arms close, staring.
    â€˜I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘I’m sorry, okay?’ He kept saying it.
    I’m not going back there.
    You’re not going to make me go back! You can’t make me! I’ll die before you make me!
    He screeched in his utter fury. An explosion against everything that had ever, ever existed to stand against him.
    He felt the pressure on his legs release suddenly. His arms were free.
    â€˜What’s wrong with you all?!?’ screamed a man. ‘Hold him down!’
    White’s eyes locked with his brother’s.
    Then he Jumped.
    A moment of nothing, of in-between places. A vast void of empty, yawning black.
    A moment where he thought he was dead.
    Then he squirmed forwards, and found himself crouched in the back end of an alley.
    Its smell hit him like a punch.
    Noise and light and life.