Light (8 page)

My mother let out a huge breath before taking another sip of her brandy.

“Before we begin, I need you to answer me one thing, Chas.”

I nodded.

“What color was the sand in your dreams?”

.

“WHAT?”

“The color of the sand, Chas. The sand coming from your hands?”

I closed my eyes and shook my head. “How in the world do you know what I dreamt about?”

“Chastity, I need to know. It’s very important.”

“No, mom. I need to know what the hell is going on.”

“Fine!” she sighed again. She pulled her black glove resting on the table back over her hand and pick up the small green bag – was far from a coin bag – opened it and took out pure golden dust again. It sparkled, and the contrast against the black glove made the sand even more sparkling. “This belonged to your father,” she said as she played with the golden dust with her index finger. She smiled at a memory forming on her mind and then it disappeared with another sigh.

“What is that, Mom?”

“Sand, golden sand that has the ability to do whatever you want it to.”

She looked up from the dust in her palm at me and smiled.

“Sand that can do what?” I said, knowing that it wasn’t as farfetched as it would have been a day ago, I’d witnessed it myself at the lake and saw how she’d stacked the food cupboards filled with goodies in a matter of seconds. Even Leigh told me what I was, but I really thought that it was just a dream. The image of Derek and Jake falling flat on their faces, snoring jumped into my mind. “Wait. Sand as in sleeping sand?”

“One of the things they can do.”

“So what, you guys ware like the Sandman?”

Mom laughed. “Sorry,” she said. “The Sandman is just a kids version of what we used to do, or let’s say he used to do. What the Seekers said are true. Revera does exist and it’s real.”

“Mom, you know how crazy this sounds, right?”

“I know.” She smiled.

“So what is it exactly we can do?”

“That’s a lot to explain with one cup of coffee. But I think the basics are needed. We are what people would call Dream Casters.”

Leigh told me the same and here my mom was confirming it. I wasn’t crazy. “That I got from Beavis and Butthead.”

Mom laughed. “Chas, they are far from Beavis and Butthead, that I can assure you. They are very smart and they will send others more scary than them soon.”

“So the place they spoke about, it’s real?”

“The dream world, known as Revera, yes. It’s real. For many millenniums, Revera was peaceful. It was ruled by three Somniums. They were what you would call the royals of this world, the best at everything, almost like gods. Magdalena Sodivic, Darius and Selene Faline. They were siblings. Then one day Magdalena’s sand turned dark. We don’t really know what caused it, but it started to have a different effect on Revera. Some of the smaller towns started to disappear and the Faline’s knew she had to be cast out. It only aggravated Magdalena more that they didn’t understand or try to understand and help her figure out how to control it, and she became so angry that her dark sand became stronger. To make a long story short, Revera was almost destroyed and Darius sacrificed himself to overpower Magdalena. She disappeared and through her bloodline, the Shadow Casters were born.”

“The Shadow Casters?”

“Who do you think creates all the bad dreams sweetheart? Doubt? Lost dreams?”

“You mean like nightmares?”

Mom nodded and she placed the golden sand back into the green bag.
“What does any of this have to do with my dream?”

“When Dream Caster children turn sixteen, they became Initiates. It always starts with the dream. The dream reveals what color sand you will have, and a couple of days later, it will start appearing.”

Couple of days later… I didn’t say it out loud. I got up and started to pace around. Leigh said that I could choose. This must be what he meant.

“What is it Chastity?”

I shook my head. “I was in a bad place, mom. Everything was dark, smelled awful, there was no sign of anything alive.”

Mom’s facial features changed and she looked sad, defeated. “It’s the Oblivion.”

A small smile played on the corner of my mind. “Yeah, I know. Leigh told me.”

“Leigh?” she asked. “Who’s Leigh, sweetheart?”

“The guy, in the dream. He helped me escape, kept a lot of Shadow dogs from me.”

“No,” Vinique shook her head. “The Initiation dream is something you have to go through alone.”

“Mom, if I had to do that alone, believe me, I wouldn’t be here today.”

Creases between Mom’s eyebrows appeared. She thought really hard about something. “It doesn’t make any sense. Did he tell you who he was?”

I shook my head. I wanted to tell her he was hot, but it didn’t seem like the right time.

“There were Nimgolians?” Mom asked another question.

“Are those the animals that turns into heaps of black sand when you shoot them?”

Mom nodded.

“They weren’t the friendliest puppies either.”

“Tell me about the dream.” She didn’t smile or giggle at all.

I closed my eyes and started to tell my mother everything. It was so vivid, I could still see it playing like a movie behind my closed eyelids. I stopped with the white light that appeared in the middle of a deserted square with millions of Shadow hounds that tried to rip out your flesh if they could. “My leg was badly injured when I woke up. I tried to clean it but my linen was soaked with a lot of blood. It’s why I chucked it in the washing this morning. When I woke up again, it was gone, which only freaked me out more.”

“Why didn’t you wake me up, sweetheart?”

“And tell you what?”

“The truth. I would’ve never sent you to school this morning and Beavis and Butthead wouldn’t have found us either.”

“So why is it bad that they know about us?”

“They’re like your father, good. Their dust is golden and they’re the only ones welcomed inside Revera. The Oblivion is no place for a Dream Caster, it was no place for a baby either.”

“A baby?”

She smiled. “Seventeen years ago a Shadow Caster fell in love with a Dream Caster. She almost killed him, and he would’ve died if it wasn’t love at first sight for him. His friends took him to a healer, and they saved his life, but he couldn’t stop dreaming about this girl.” She got up and went to the kitchen as she kept telling the story.

“One day, he got his chance. She, on the other hand was surprised that he was still alive, but there was something about this guy that took her breath away. He wasn’t like the other Light Casters. He was kind and thought twice about who he killed.” She came back with another drink in her hand and looked at me. “In Revera, they teach all the Level One Light Casters about what they should do when they come face to face with a Shadow Caster. Destroy.” She looked back at the ground. “It’s been a war that will never be won. Still this Dream Caster went out of his way to be with the Shadow Caster. They would meet in secret and they fell in love. She fell pregnant and was scared of what Selene and her father would do with the fetus, so they tried to escape Revera.” She had tears in her eyes, something Chastity didn’t understand. “He didn’t make it, but she found a way out. He made sure of it, before he died.”

A tear rolled over her cheek and a horrible feeling made me feel as if my air pipe was going to close. “Mom, what aren’t you telling me?”

Mom looked at me. “Remember when I told you that your father was the saint?”

I nodded.

“I was the Shadow Caster.”

OKAY THAT WAS SOMETHING I SHOULD’VE SEEN BUT for some reason I didn’t. The story about my parents was a typical Romeo and Juliette story, the only difference was that Juliette fell pregnant in this one and she couldn’t die with her love because of her unborn baby.

We sat at that table, just staring at one another. I tried to make sense of this. Mom was a Shadow Caster. Something I knew wasn’t good. “Your father was so excited when I told him that I was pregnant, but a day later he was crazy with paranoia. Not knowing what you will be, or how we were going to raise you in Revera, so we decided to raise you in the Domain. It wasn’t easy because nobody could see Dream Casters in this world and we had to go through a lot of pain in order to become what people would call normal.”

She didn’t make sense at all, speaking about becoming normal and being invisible was kind of confusing so my mind skipped over that part and lingered on another.

“So I take it I’m not Dream Caster material?”

“I didn’t think you were going to become one, that is why I didn’t want to raise you like one.” She gave me another guilty look.

“So, I’m half good, half evil.”

Mom shook her head. “In Revera, there is no grey area. It’s either black or white. Good or evil, Chastity. That’s why I asked you what the color of your sand in the dream was.”

“Black is bad, isn’t it?”

Mom hold out her hand. The black glove was off and I just stared at it. Then a swirl of black sand started spinning like a whirlwind in mom’s palm. “I came from a very dark bloodline. One that would never forgive me if I ever had to return to the Oblivion.”

I nodded. “That’s why my sand in the dream was black, wasn’t it?”

Vinique sucked in a breath. Tears filled her eyes and then she closed them. She bit hard on her lower lip and I knew it was to keep the tears from rolling down her cheeks.

“But the sand at the lake was gold.”

Vinique’s eyes flew open. “What happened Chas?”

“I’m sorry I lied. I did get lost though, but it was because of me turning into some sandy freak.”

“Tell me everything and don’t leave a single detail out,” Mom said and led me over to one of the couches. We took the love seat and I started to tell her everything. How Clare was still mad at me and what happened that day at the lake.

“Derek really scared me mom, and then…” I took a deep breath. “ I thought my heart was going to explode, and I found golden light brown sand in my palms. I didn’t know where it came from or anything and when Mark went for me, I threw it in his eyes. Derek and Jake were next, and the sand just kept coming.”

“They all fell asleep?” Vinique asked.

I nodded with a slightly raised, worried eyebrow.

“And you’re sure your sand was gold in color?”

“It doesn’t look like Dad’s but I’m pretty sure.”

Mom sighed. “That’s good.”

“Leigh said I can choose. What did he mean?”

“I don’t know this Leigh you are talking about, but I’m grateful that he was there to help you through this.”

“Could this dream maybe be about you and Dad? Telling me that I am sort-of both.”

“I don’t know, baby.”

“Then how did he know, Mom? What did he mean by choosing?”

“I don’t know.”

“You think it’s what he meant?”

“Remember there is no grey in Revera. Only black and white. You can’t tell anyone Chas. I don’t know what they would do to you if they found out, but from the look on your father’s face and the way he acted after the excitement of the pregnancy was over, it’s not good.”

I sighed. This was all so confusing.

“Can you show me your sand?” Mom asked.

“I don’t know how to, Mom.”

She smiled. “Close your eyes and listen to my voice.”

I did what she said.

“Imagine yourself in a field with flowers. You are lying on your back and soaking up the sun.”

My eyes flew open. “Seriously?”

“Do as I say. Close your eyes.”

“Fine.” I closed my eyes again and think about the field with the flowers again. I imagined myself lying between tall grass with little purple flowers around me. The warmth of the sun started to make me feel tired, lazy.

“Clouds are busy moving in front of the sun, feel the slight change in temperature.” Mom’s voice carried on.

For some reason I imagined them dark. Images of the oblivion flashed in between the vision of me lying in the field, feeling lazy.
My heart started to rise.

“You hear a sound, it’s not the wind.”

It was a deep growl that I heard that night. It belonged to a shadow hound. My eyes flew opened and I found myself stranded in my vision. The clouds were dark, only a few of the sun beams streamed through them. The wind was blowing like mad. I couldn’t hear mother’s voice anymore and for some reason I was searching, scanning the grounds for …Leigh.