Allan Darby was nothing if not pragmatic. It had taken him years to be considered for a better paying job in the city that would allow him to keep his retirement and pension plans from the old factory in Norberton. The sleepy little town was a much longer stop gap than either he or his daughter Cali had bargained for, but it had served a purpose. Allan had wanted- no, needed a change of scenery after the loss of his clever, breathtaking wife Shui some ten years ago now. It still felt like hardly a week had passed. The feel of his daughters little hand in his as the casket was lowered into the cold earth still felt warm in his hand, but she was grown now, nearly a woman all her own, and she was so much like her mother.
San Diego had been their home from the day he and Shui had said "I do." It had been a great place to raise their daughter while they planned their future together, but the house near the marina now haunted Allan in ways that he never could have expected. In the months that followed her death, their lives were surrounded by mementos of the beach and sea life that his wife had been so very fond of. It was unbearable to live with, when every little thing reminded him of her. Allan had seen the shadows cast over his daughters eyes too- ones that no doubt matched his own- and had known it was time to go.
Norberton had been their escape from the ocean, and both then and now, most of his wife's life was packed away in boxes in the attic, giving him the space he needed to breathe as he raised their daughter. He knew deep down he was running from his problems, but he couldn't afford to deal with any of it. Not right now anyway, but.. surely some day. At this moment in time there were bigger priorities on his plate.
Now that they had made it to the big city, he was finally able to begin the next part of the plan- his plan, he thought, now that they had abandoned all the plans his wife had been a part of. He had found somewhere to raise their little girl where she could truly flourish, and become anything she wanted to be. Somewhere far, far away from the ocean. She would find so many more opportunities here in the city than the sleepy hollow of Norberton could ever hope to provide- and it was the best choice he could make for her, to try to provide the life she deserved.
The door creaked loudly as Cali entered the living room, just around the corner of the kitchen. Allan knew he still wasn't half the cook his wife had been, but he was doing his best to make her first day of a new school enjoyable. He couldn't give her a very good hug while his hands were covered in raw chicken, so he shuffled closer to the open door to check on her.
"How'd it go?"
"Fine. I'm going to my room. Smells great in here Dad."
"That's good. I'll come get you when it's ready."
Allan heard the stairs creaking and resumed slicing up the meat. The savory scents of chicken stuffing casse role would soon fill the house to the brim, and he left it to the oven to raise her spirits for the time being. Assuming he didn't burn it again. He washed up, set the dish to cook, and turned the timer volume to max, just to be safe.
* * * * *
Dad had made one of her favorites tonight, and by the time he had called up the stairs that dinner was ready, the smell already had her stomach growling. It made her feel awful knowing she would have to lie to him after he'd gone to all this trouble, but the last thing she wanted was for him to worry about her. Cali picked at a loose thread on her glove as she sat lost in thought at the dinner table. Besides, if everything went smoothly tonight, he wouldn't need to worry about her anyway.
"So, what's with the get up?" He said, chuckling as he shoveled the first bite into his mouth and immediately regretted it. He blew air out repeatedly to try to cool the food down from within his cheeks, a bit more goofily than usual. Maybe he was trying to make her laugh. "I wanted to see what I'd look like as a rock star." She said without looking up from her food, blowing it more carefully than her father had.
He was referring to the wardrobe change she'd had the moment she got home to hide the fresh bandages, finding a thick black velvet choker and striped fingerless sleeves to throw on. She'd had the forethought to add a black and red stripped dress for good measure, but what really sold it, or so she hoped, was that she'd spent the last half hour practicing on her nearly forgotten, midnight blue electric guitar. Her dad had gotten it for her years ago to encourage some sort of musical talent, but she had never taken to it. She could only play a few songs from memory and hated that he'd wasted the money on it while the bills had always been tight. She noted painfully that it was paying off now to help her sell the lie. Cali was kicking herself left and right, and the chicken was really good this time to boot.
"Anything to report?" He asked, and Cali nearly choked on her first bite. She was going to have to get better at deception quickly or the jig would be up. Her dad continued, "Any.. teachers that stood out? Make any friends? Any new bands maybe..?" He had no idea how to ask about a teenager's life, but he was trying. She on the other hand was just trying to keep chicken stuffing out of her airway. "Ya, um," she gulped and continued, "I talked to a girl named Rachel. She was great." Cali paused to mull something over, "She interviewed me for an article in the school paper, said it would help people get to know me better." She had purposefully left out the part where Rachel had also abandoned her to the wrath of the local psychopath, but dad didn't need to know that detail.
"Well that's certainly a start isn't it?" Her dad looked immensely pleased that she had gotten her foot in the door in such a profound way, and on her first day. Imagine the look on his face if he found out she only made it through one class period. Cali looked at the clock above the doorway. It was only 7:32, still a long while to go before she was due for her rendezvous. She hoped she would actually be able to get to sleep in time. Lately, it had been harder and harder for her to fall asleep when she wanted to, but she had a secret weapon tucked away if it came to that.
"Is there somewhere you need to be squirt?" Her father was watching her eye the clock as she tugged on her sleeve, and she quickly looked away again. "No. Can you pass the peas?"
* * * * *
Cali stared at the digital clock illuminating her face a shade of deep blue in the dark. It was 11:38 and she was wide awake, just as she had expected to be. The day had been far too stimulating, and compounding that with the fact that she already had fairly perpetual sleep problems, there was no way it was going to be this easy.
Cali pulled the drawer on her nightstand as far open as she could without letting it fall and reached into the very back. She felt around until her fingers touched velvet, and pulled out a small drawstring bag disguised to look like a dice jail, complete with a D20 on the outside. Inside was a hefty handful of pills. She palmed two, and put the bag back in it's hiding spot before cracking open a fresh water bottle from the lower shelf. She had long since kept a small case of them on the bottom of her nightstand for exactly this purpose.
There, she thought, if I'm late, it won't be by enough for him to notice. Then again, she would still have to find him even if this worked the way she wanted it to. Concern flooded her brain as she recognized the importance of sleeping tonight of all nights and kept her mind far too addled to fall asleep. The digital numbers ticked over, and Cali missed the sounds of the crickets that used to serenade her to sleep. The city had too many car horns and bright lights in place of the beautiful stars she had become accustomed to seeing out her bedroom window.
The minutes continued to tick over, one after another, and in spite of all of her fears she felt herself noticing them more slowly, as if they were more spaced out. When she looked to check how long it had been, she realized she was staring at her glowing clock without the ability to read it, the bright lines of light warping and swirling around as she tried to make sense of them, like coffee creamer settling on top of a fresh cup of coffee. Only then did she notice she was floating off the bed, just above her unconscious form. Alright, she thought to herself, filling with determination. Let's go find Felix.
Cali kicked off from the bed and floated up through the ceiling, and then the attic. Buildings were, as always, unable to contain her in this form, and she settled on the roof, looking around her new home. It was as busy as it had sounded, with cars driving on nearly every street despite the hour. They were a bit unsettling to her, as she had never really had to worry about whether the waking world could see her standing on her rooftop when they were living in the countryside, but she dismissed the thought, certain that despite the car lights no one would have any interest in looking up at a strangers house.
Cali turned towards the moon first, barely more than a quarter full tonight, to get her bearings. She had expected to start feeling the air waves for his 'signal', as she thought of it, like she had done so many times in the past, but to her surprise, the moment the thought struck her to look for him, there he was. She felt him deep within, like a warm spring breeze wrapping around her soul, pulling at her from across the night sky. It was almost too strong for her to keep her footing on the roof, until she relaxed the thought.
Cali was elated. It took her back to those summer nights when she was still in middle school. She could barely fly then, let alone move in any directions she actually wanted to, but the excitement of seeing her friend at night had kept her happy through the hard days, and given her something to look forward to. Now, she knew exactly how to ride the silver lines, as she had grown more powerful and capable in her abilities over the years, practicing every night by herself. Dream surfing was a breeze.
There was, however, one hard and fast rule and Cali had never broken it, not once to this day. It was something she had decided on as a child, when she first realized she could do something no one else could, and thought that it would put her at risk of being taken away from her father. Her mother's death was still fresh on her mind, and she was not going to do anything that might cause her to lose him too. So that's when she decided. She could leave her body and explore the world around her following the lines wherever she pleased, so long as she was careful to never jump into the mind of anyone from her waking life- lest they remember the encounter, and discover her secret.
With this rule guiding her actions, Cali had only ever jumped into the minds of strangers. A background character, most of the time, in some of the most extraordinary dream worlds. She had enjoyed a travelers life while never having to set foot away from home- though it did have it's limits. The lines she could pull were usually only within a certain distance of her spirit self, and she had to be careful to stay in a range where she could pull herself back home when she needed to. Similar to riding a bike as a child, you never wanted to go far enough away from home that you couldn't find your way back.
Cali felt more gently this time for the warm summer breeze. It pulled at her once more, and this time she rode the feeling, flying from the roof and across the night sky for miles, sailing with dips and spins, and occasionally skiing over the roofs towards her destination. When at last she arrived at a grand manor, well away from the hustle and bustle of the city, she stopped and floated for a moment to take it all in. Somewhere inside of this estate lay Felix's sleeping body- and that of several others, she noted, from the feeling of the silver lines coming from within. She had made it in time for her rendezvous.
The main building was something of a large L shape, with a small courtyard and garden expanse between the large iron gates and the furthest length of the house. Hedges covered in flowers and in all manor of fantastical shapes adorned the right side of the building, and a garden path laden with sleek stepping stones lead around it's edge to a stone wall, complete with a stone archway that looked as old, or even older than the grounds or the manor itself. Beyond the main garden, to the northwest corner, the driveway wrapped around to a large paved area for parking, though it seemed all the cars currently here were put away in some unseen garage.
Cali enjoyed the serene view a while longer before continuing her pull towards one of the second story windows. She landed on one of the many small stone balconies, surrounded in old, white painted wrought iron. The flowers hanging from the railing looked close to death, clearly unattended compared to those of the neighboring balconies, as if no one were allowed near them.
Within the balconies intricate double doors, the room was dark, and a black canopied bed took up most of the left side of the expansive room. Cali could see the sleeping form beneath the covers turned away from her. She smiled, seeing him with her own two eyes. In truth, when she had felt for him, she had been trying to tune in on the boy from her summer memories. It was oddly satisfying to now see Felix's familiar short cut blonde hair laid out on the black silk pillow under the moonlight. But she had already known it to be true, with very near certainty, from the moment she had sniffed his head in the classroom.
Cali wasn't sure that she could smell anything at all in this form- certainly not the flowers, though not for lack of trying. But she had noticed that there was definitely something distinctive about each of the silver lines connected to the dreamers she visited. Something about their very essence that shined through, and that she could use to hone in on them again in the future, so long as she remembered what she was looking for.
In the waking world, Cali couldn't feel the silver lines the way that she did while she was asleep, but she had noticed that the pull she got every night from her father's silver line was somehow identical to the smell that lingered on all of his sweaters. She didn't know how the two were connected, not exactly, but assumed it had something to do with how people processed memories. Back in Norberton, she had read somewhere that scents are closely linked to the memory portion of the brain, and that different scents could make one light up an EEG. So, somehow, it gave her a connection point between her two worlds. A way to tell who was who, and to find someone she knew, if she ever really wanted to, like she had tonight.
The room was simultaneously nothing like, and exactly like the person Felix appeared to be at school. There were no knives, or guns, or bats wrapped in barbed wire hanging out around the room. On the other hand, everything she could see looked like it cost more money than she'd ever had to her name at a single time. The dresser, dark and ornate, was covered in small wooden boxes full of velvet blocks; gold and platinum bracelets and chains gleamed beneath polished glass. His ties lay across several bars attached to the wall. Cali reached up to feel them, knowing they wouldn't budge, but watched her hand slip right through them anyway. The closet door was closed. It looked big, probably one of those deep walk in type, but Cali knew she wouldn't be able to see inside without the light of the moon penetrating it, and so she moved on. There wasn't much in the way of decorations, only a few posters of punk rock bands and shooter games hanging in frames. Nothing that really surprised her, at least.
In reality, she was most surprised to see an angled table in the corner nearest the balcony doors, covered in papers both on an above it. On closer inspection, Cali realized that they were heavily detailed drawings. Many of them were sketched images of what appeared to be modern day castles, while several others looked more like blueprints. The back most edge of the table was level, and had a long, clear sorting tray full of all manner or art supplies, though they seemed to be geared mostly towards drafting. Two folder briefcases sat on shelves to the left of the table, presumably full of previous works, though she couldn't open them, and the waste basket beneath the table was full of wads of discarded papers. She wished she could open a few of them to see what qualified as 'not good enough' since all the these images looked so professionally sketched. She had never imaged Felix could have such a skill for design.
Eventually satisfied that she'd seen everything she was going to, she floated to the far side of the bed where Felix laid and crouched down next to him. Felix's sleeping face held no anger, no resentment for anybody. He looked so peaceful, laid out on his side away from the moons light. It was incredibly hard to believe that such a sweet, gentle boy had maimed her earlier that very day. Gently, Cali reached a hand out and laid it on his shoulder. It was time.
* * * * * * * *
A note to my readers:
I dislike way this website works, and how I seem to have no visibility, so I apologize, but I'm only planning to update this story elsewhere until further notice.
To continue reading, please find Criminal Pursuit on either Wattpad or Royal Road. Best of wishes.
-Lady Kashi