Chapter Six

For the second time this month, Cierra found herself jolting awake in the early hours of the morning. It took her eyes a few minutes to get used to the darkness and to remember that she was in her room. The inky blackness of night shaded every corner, so different from the naturally sunlit home she had just left.

She tried to recall the conversation she had with Goldie. Someone was going to contact her soon, but now that she thought on it, Goldie had said 'they' not 'he' or 'she.' She had also mentioned 'everyone.' Maybe this included the person who had named Goldie. The name hadn't seemed to bother Goldie herself, but the more Cierra thought on it, the more she felt bad for her. It was obvious that the name 'Goldie' was more for a pet than a person. Cierra sat up and Cid moved to lay in her lap, unwilling to open his eyes quite yet.

What was the best way to prepare for encountering a potentially not so friendly group of people? Would they meet in real life or in a dream somewhere? At least in a dream she had Cid and her ability to… do something.

Cierra was unsure what her ability even was.

It would be simple to call it healing, and she found herself tempted to take the easy route. Otherwise, she was afraid she might fall into thinking about time and time travel. Cierra ran her hands through her hair nervously, working out the knots as she came across them.

In the world with the Bringer of Nightmares, Cierra had thought she was healing the forest and tigers by recalling what it they looked like originally. Now though, after having healed herself, she wondered if that was really the case. Not only had she healed her scratches and fixed her shirt, but she had also relaxed her muscles back to when they had first arrived in the grassy plain and eased her breathing.

Cierra bit her lip, maybe she was overthinking it; maybe she had simply healed her entire body. That would be easier to understand at least.

Goldie had called the dream they were just in an 'abandoned dream.' Abandoned by who, Cierra wondered. The whole place did carry the heavy feel of being deserted, with the layers of dust and covered furniture. The house didn't show any signs of having been lived in recently, though Cierra remembered now how their footprints hadn't shown in the dust on the floor. Would the same be true if someone sat on the covered couch? How many people could have been meeting with Goldie before Cierra got there? Who did the bird belong to and how much of their conversation had it been able to understand?

Cierra had heard of birds learning to talk or learning to trade items with people who fed them, but she had never encountered a bird who seemed to understand what was being said around it. It made sense that it belonged to someone from the meeting, but the real question was if and how could it convey details about what was said to its owner.

What confused Cierra the most was what happened after the bird fled out the window.

Goldie had turned back to her, eyes still shut.

"This is only a meeting point. No one will be here if you come back."

"Wha—," Cierra had tried to find out what she meant, and how she already knew that Cierra was thinking about returning every night until she got the answers she was looking for. Instead, everything around her turned bright white, and the last thing she could recall was Goldie turning her back to her.

Cierra hit at the bed with her fists, finally giving up on her hair. Every time she moved one step forward it was as though she was pushed ten steps back. Every atom of her being wanted to go back to the time before the night with Menace. How could she not have realized how good she had it, simply going to sleep every night, enjoying her wanderings, and then waking up the next day with a clear mind?

Cid sat up, watching her.

"Do you know what's going on?" she asked, exasperated.

He meowed at her in a tone she had come to recognize as demanding.

"Of course…" she sighed. It was silly of her to think she would get any answers from a cat, skogkatt or not. He meowed again, flicking his tail. She knew what that meow meant.

She got out of bed.

"Well, come on." She said, tiptoeing to her bedroom door.

After feeding Cid and going back upstairs alone, she glanced at her phone. It was only 3:20 am. Plenty of time to go back to sleep and get more information, she thought.

She wasn't going to get answers by lying in bed playing with her hair.

Laying back down, she tried to focus on her breathing. She was tired of trekking through places following some unknown person and couldn't bear the thought of accumulating even more questions. This time she just wanted to sleep.

Beep, beep, beep.

The alarm on her phone blared. Groggy, Cierra tried to raise her arm to get her phone and turn off the alarm, but found it was too heavy to move.

"Cid," She pulled her arm out from under him, "move!"

For the first time Cierra could remember, she slept without having any dreams. The time between when she laid back down to now was just gone.

Her phone read 7:47 am. Already she had two messages from Dawn asking where she was.

She sprang out of bed; she had completely forgotten she had promised to take Dawn to class today. Throwing on whatever clothes were closest to her, she ran downstairs, Cid at her heels.

When she finally made it to Dawn's she had almost completely forgotten the events of last night.

"Have you," Dawn paused, strapping herself in the passenger seat, trying to find the right words, "looked in a mirror this morning?"

"What?" She looked in the little visor mirror, only noticing now that while she had brushed her teeth, she had completely forgotten about her hair. Even though Cierra had spent part of last night untangling her hair, it somehow now looked like a bird had made a nest in it. Cierra half-expected to find an egg as she tried desperately to pat it down and smooth it out.

"Here," Dawn started going through her bag, hunting down what Cierra hoped was a hairbrush. Dawn's bag was affectionately referred to as 'The Bag of Horrors;' there was no knowing what was in her bag at any given time. Even now, she was pulling out last year's Halloween face paint, a Goosebumps with a torn cover, empty candy wrappers, coins, highlighters missing caps, and crinkled bits of paper, making a growing trash pile in the backseat. All of it covered in pencil shavings so old they looked like sawdust; Cierra made a mental note to vacuum the inside of her car.

"Try this," Dawn said, handing her a fuchsia beanie hat with a large white 'D' sewn on the front.

Wiping off pencil shavings and a paper clip, Cierra groaned inwardly, vowing to go home and wash her hair when the day was done. She loved Dawn, but that didn't mean she had to love putting Dawn's dirty hat on her head.

"Thanks," and Cierra meant it.

By the time they reached school, Dawn was still putting things back in her bag.

"Hey, don't forget this one," Cierra said, pulling a discarded book from the backseat. On the cover was a boy turning into a hawk.

"Where's this from?"

Dawn glanced at it, "That's from an old series, Animorphs." She took it back and stuffed it in her bag. "These kids get alien powers and transform into different animals that they touch."