James Axler – The Mars Arena

Mildred shook her head. “I can’t do that. You’re going to believe in whatever you want to believe in.”

“If I may” Doc interrupted.

Krysty looked at the old man, seeing him raise an eyebrow at Mildred.

“Go ahead,” the doctor said.

Doc leaned in closer, his eyes locked on Krysty’s. “Are you sure Dean was dead in your vision?”

“He looked that way.”

“Then he could have just as well been asleep.”

“Not asleep,” Krysty argued. “I’ve seen him asleep. It wasn’t anything like this. He was too pale, barely breathing. And he was outside somewhere.”

“Then mayhap he was sick and you saw him at that time. It might not be something that is going on now at all.”

Krysty wanted to believe that. At least it was something better than believing he was dead, a chance to get to Dean before it was too late.

“You might be able to find out,” Doc said.

She looked at him, knowing what he was going to say. “I don’t know if I can do that. I lost him, and I couldn’t hang on to that image anymore.”

“Don’t try for an image,” Doc said. “You yourself have said if anything happened to Ryan you would know. And you believe that tie goes beyond just yourself and Ryan.”

Krysty nodded, not feeling so lost. It was a thought to hold on to.

Doc reached out and took one of her hands. “To allay your feelings and fears, you should try to reach out to Dean.”

“But what if I can’t feel him?”

“That’s not the question you should be asking yourself,” Doc admonished. “You should instead be asking yourself what if you can feel him.”

She nodded, feeling her fear shove icy tendrils through her brain. “I know you’re right, Doc, but I’m still afraid.”

“The only thing to fear is the unknown,” the old man said. “Not the truth. I know not what happened to my own family, and I would give anything to have that peace of knowing for sure. There comes a time when what you’re supposed to do is lay down the burdens you’ve been carrying. And fear, dear lady, is a huge burden to bear. You’ve been given enough of them of late.”

Reluctantly Krysty closed her eyes and concentrated on Dean. She built his face in her mind, the way she’d seen it thousands of times, so like Ryan that she could see part of what her lover had to have been like as a child. Despite Ryan’s irritation with Dean over behavior on occasion, there wasn’t so much separating the father and son.

Electricity grazed her mind, sharp and insistent. Then Dean was there, his presence not as strong and as vibrant as it normally was, but that might have been because of the distance and her own fatigue. She reached out to him, felt his aliveness.

“Krysty,” Doc said.

“It’s okay, Doc.” Feeling weak, Krysty wiped a shirtsleeve across her face to dry the fresh tears. “He’s there.”

“Alive?”

“Yes.”

“And you’re sure?”

“Yes. The only thing I really felt in him was tiredness and that he was afraid.”

“Kind of sums up a normal day for a youngster if you ask me,” J.B. commented.

Doc patted Krysty’s hand. “Just you rest easy, dear lady. Ryan will return in a short while, and things will seem better.”

“Guess so.” Krysty pulled the blanket around her tighter, trying to stave off the chill still threatening to consume her. A headache dawned in the back of her head and lingered as a dull throb. She kept her gaze focused on the dark and forbidding forest around them, afraid to close her eyes because of what she might find there. “Gaia,” she whispered, “stand by me. I don’t know what you’re trying to show me, don’t know what it all means. But keep me strong enough to endure. And hold dear to you all that I hold dear, please.”

“I CHECKED, Baron, and the boys appear to be all right. No permanent injuries, nothing that would keep them from being of service to you.”

Full consciousness returned to Dean slowly, flickering in by dribs and drabs. His head hurt, and he could feel his heartbeat throbbing in his ears and his neck.