Designed

Glin was attacked by the Dreamers, now made into a different person. Will she stay like this forever or when Liam and Kaylee help her out?

Glin goes to school the next day dazed and confused. She feels uncomfortable being herself, being human. The shadows had gotten to her last night. They had dragged her unwillingly into their world. She thought last night that she would witness and experience a few things and it would be over in a week or two. But no. She knows now that the shadows are apart of her. They had possessed her, taken over her, turned her into something that isn't the sixteen year old girl she was yesterday, or two weeks ago. She's been altered. Changed.

Transformed.

She got nearly no sleep last night. She walks around the school feeling - and probably looking - like a zombie. She feels shut down, like everything going on in her life from the moment she got out of bed this morning to now has been automatic. No feeling, no remorse or regret, just going along with the day. Taking whatever is thrown at her.

She wouldn't call the shadows a drug, necessarily. She can live without the shadows, but for now they are a part of her. Last night, they took over her. No dreams, no visions. They created something new of Glin. As if they were truly alive. As if they had feelings. As if they're feeding on her, on her trust in them, on her new found vulnerability.

Glin slowly realizes throughout the day that they made her this way. That she's not purposely being this way, she was compelled to act like this. Like a robot, automatically saying, doing, and thinking everything. She realizes she can't be any other way, the old Glin is gone and the new one is here to stay.

They didn't completely suck the happiness out of her. Did they take the life out of her? Her activeness? Yes. She feels like a robot, going through the day like she should. Walking, talking, working, interacting, it's all done manually. How it should, no differences and no risks. Everything stays the same.

Everything is based on the shadows.

~~~

Josh and Kaylee sit in the library once again, working on Josh's next lesson. Kaylee is now teaching him about the Dreamers - the Dark Ones' main opponent. Their main weapon.

"Dreamers are the shadows, as you know, that can move as they please. They are the Dark Ones' main weapon against us. They look like shadows, that is their illusion. It helps them camouflage. It's actually quite clever." Kaylee explains to Josh. He sits across from her at their usual table in the over-sized library. "They obviously transfer dreams, but Dreamers have two ways of attacking. They either transfer dreams or they don't."

Kaylee goes on about the Dreamers. She explains that there are two different dreams the Dreamers transfer: true or fake.

The true ones can either be from the past, from the future, or something happening in current time. The fake ones can be distractions, an act of trickery. The prey the Dreamers hunt will not know if the dream is true or fake, that is why the Dark Ones find them so powerful and useful.

She also explains the Dreamers' other way of attacking called Transforming. That's when the Dreamers attack you but don't give out any dreams of any kind. They basically turn you into a zombie, a robot, with no feeling at all. They make you confide in them, trust them, depend on them. And they feed off that. During the time that this is going on, you won't trust anyone else but the Dreamers. You trust their opinion, their advise, their orders. It wears off eventually, depending on how strong the Dreamer is. But that's the worst form of attack they use.

"The Dreamers attack quick using the element of surprise. It's hard to deflect them and hard to see them coming. Here's the trick to kn0wing if they're there or not. Josh, look over at that window." Kaylee points toward the large bay window a few feet away from them. It sends light into the room, illuminating it to every corner, every wall, every square inch. A quality the RCs' have and the Dark Ones will never acquire, the beauty of light.

Josh stares at the window and Kaylee continues, "The air seems still, correct? No movement, no nothing." Josh nods. Kaylee grins and stands up from her wooden chair. She walks over to a large, golden chest in the corner of the room. She unlocks it with the skeleton key that hangs from her belt - the key that can open any lock on any door or box in the RC's Institute. Inside is a Dreamer, one of the many the RC's have gotten a hold of and locked away. They use it for study purposes, demonstrations, or as a key to seeing into the future, past, or present.

Kaylee carefully grabs a hold of it, grasping its dark form in her hand, and making her way back to Josh. She lets the Dreamer go right in front of the window. It hangs there in mid-air, not moving but twitching a little. Soon it camouflages to make it look invisible, adapting to its environment. Now it looks as if it were never there.

Kaylee looks at Josh. "Keep looking. Concentrate on the space in front of you. Pretend you see something in front of you, something floating right there. Look for any signs of movement. Feel the Dreamer's twitches and turns, every move it makes."

Kaylee was not only coaching Josh, but herself as well. It felt so good to be able to say those things out loud. It made it easier for her to see the Dreamer too, even if it was camouflaged. Invisible. She was taught to say those things to herself internally. But to say it out loud made it easier, simpler, quicker.

And, suddenly, there it was. The quiver in the air, that ripple. As if it were water before them and someone had dropped a pebble in it. As if the Dreamer were shivering, shaking, quivering. That simple movement could tell you that there was something there, something you couldn't see but was incognito.

"Did - did you see that, too?" Josh asks. He looks at Kaylee then back to the invisible Dreamer that he now knows is really there.

"Yes, Josh. I saw it too. That's how you know that the Dreamers are there. That when you need to get ready. That's when you need to prepare. Because they attack fast, they won't hesitate." Kaylee says. She notices Josh gets tense, his body tightening and his eyes dropping.

"Kaylee, what if I'm not cut out for this stuff? What if I can't fight these things, the Dreamers?" He gestures toward the Dreamer, still twitching and moving and creating more ripples in the air. "And if I can't fight them, then what chance do I stand against the Dark Ones?"

Kaylee sighs and looks and Josh meaningfully. "Josh, sit down." She motions toward the table they were sitting at. Kaylee quickly puts away the Dreamer and locks to chest with her key. Then they both take a seat. "When I first found out what I am, I didn't think I was cut out for it either. I didn't believe in myself, or my abilities. I told our leader that I didn't want to be apart of this world, that I didn't get why things had to be this way and why I had to be apart of it.

"I was young back then, Josh. I didn't know the half of it. I didn't know how hard it would be but I also didn't know how much I could help as well. I thought the RC's would get along just fine without me."

"But you and Liam . . . are the people that run this place . . . How could you -" Josh starts.

"Our leader, Mr. Tamsammi, is a great man. He saw how in denial I was about myself when I first started, and he saw how much I'd progressed since then. He saw my strengths grow over time, he saw me start to believe in myself. He watched me, observed my maturity growing. And how much its grown since I first started. That why he made me the Head Teacher." Kaylee explains. "Liam, however, has always known that he could do it. That he would be a strong fighter, and believe me, he is."

"Is that why Mr. Tamsammi made him Head Teacher in Combat?" Josh asks.

"Liam was strong right from the start. He was willing to practice for days, willing to push himself to his limits and further. Mr. Tamsammi saw that immediately. Even though he didn't agree with the way Liam was training himself, he knew it would make him a great warrior, a great RC, in the end.

"He also saw how much patience Liam has. Liam messed up a lot when he first started out. But he asked questions and got better. He had patience for himself, and that's more than any of us could ever ask for. That's how Mr. Tamsammi knew he would be a great teacher. If you have patience for yourself, for your mistakes and your troubles, then 8 times out of 10 you're going to have patience for other people as well." Kaylee explains. "Liam proved that in himself."

Josh sits there for a while, taking in everything that Kaylee just told him. Kaylee can only imagine the things he's thinking about right now. "Josh, don't give up on yourself this early. There's still a lot more to learn and I'm here to help."

Josh looks at her and nods. "I'm going to keep trying." He decides. Kaylee feels a smile spread across her face. She knew he wouldn't give up.

Kaylee hears the door to the Library open quickly and she looks over to see Liam walk in. "Kaylee, may I speak with you for a moment?" He asks. From the look on his face, Kaylee knows it's serious. His battle gear is on and his hair is standing up straight as if he tried pulling it out. He just got back from somewhere and, from the looks of it, it wasn't pretty.

"Yes, of course." Kaylee stands up and looks at Josh. "I'll be right back."

She and Liam carry on their conversation outside the library, making sure no one else is around.

"What happened?" Kaylee asks once the door to the Library shuts.

"There was a call from Rob saying the Dreamers attacked a girl in her own home yesterday. Rob said they had been camping out inside her home for a long time, looking for the right them to attack. Rob kept an eye on her and found out that the Dreamers didn't transfer a dream or vision to her. They Transformed her." Liam explains.

"But . . . we haven't gotten reports on that for nearly five years. Who is this girl?" Kaylee asks.

A look of despair and pain crosses Liam's face. He looks away from Kaylee and at the ground, then back at Kaylee. He takes a deep, shaky breath, closes his eyes, opens them, then speaks.

"It was Glin, Kaylee. They found her and Transformed her."

Author's Note

More to come on what's happening with Glin - no worries. I wasn't sure about the bit with Kaylee and Josh when they were talking about Josh's insecurities with being an RC and how Kaylee and Liam powered through their doubts. I never really wanted the parts with Kaylee and Josh to ever have anything emotional or personal, I just added those parts so that there would be a way for me to explain the RC's world to the reader through something going on with the characters. So tell me what you think about Kaylee and Josh and if that bit fit in right with the chapter.

Reviews

[Jacques]

This is a very good chapter and does deliver more than i thought it could from the previous chapter . it was worthwhile but i also feel it could use some work on the training lesson bit as i did get confused in some bits but other than that really good . I'm loving the storylines and the progression and how you handle it . I like Kaylee and her story with Josh and with Liam . well done