Read Online In Dreams by Erica Orloff - Free Book Online Page A

asks. “What foundation?”
    “The one you’re going to establish. Teaching soccer to inner-city kids. Henry is going to fund the entire thing in eight years. He’ll purchase land for you upstate to build a summer camp. Trust me. Henry Wu is a dreamboat in disguise. You just need to look a little closer. Pay attention to what really counts.”
    Annie looks stunned. But I have more important matters to discuss than Henry Wu. “What about Sebastian?”
    “Ah, yes.” Aphrodite’s face grows serious. “The path from Annie to Henry Wu, while unlikely, is a simple one compared to yours. Tell me about how you feel when you see him.”
    My face flushes. It’s so stupid. He’s a dream . But I tell her anyway. “I had never actually seen him until the last two dreams. I’d just heard him. I’ve been hearing him for as long as I can remember. This voice. He would call for me to find him. Or sometimes, when I was having a nightmare, he would whisper to me not to be scared. I would hear that voice, and I would feel safe somehow. And even though I never saw him, I just knew deep down that the voice I heard was somehow . . .” I trail off.
    “Your destiny,” Aphrodite finishes.
    “Yeah. Crazy, huh?”
    “Not at all.”
    “And then, just a few days ago, I saw him.”
    “He’s beautiful.”
    I nod.
    “He loves you, Iris. He’s been hiding in your dreams for a long time. He knows you. Knows what you’re afraid of . . . your nightmares. Knows your hopes and dreams. It’s an intimate place, the world of dreams. Dreams are unique to each dreamer. Sure, some dreams are universal—ever have the one where your teeth fall out? Or the one where you’re falling?”
    Annie and I both nod.
    “I hate the teeth one,” Annie says.
    “But,” Aphrodite continues, “each dreamer’s dreams have symbols and clues uniquely theirs.”
    When I think about it, Sebastian knowing my dreams feels very strange—I feel exposed, almost like I’m naked. He knows so much about me, yet I know nothing about him.
    “So you are two young lovers who need to find a way to be together,” Aphrodite says.
    “I guess. I don’t really know him, but I . . . I want to. He said he wanted to come with me. Back here. But I don’t know how that’s possible. I’m . . . you know . . . human. Um, half human. And he’s . . . a dream. Immortal.”
    “The passage back is crossing the River of Sorrows. Epiales and his realm—it’s a vast, almost endless room of nightmares. What are your nightmares, Iris? What are you afraid of?”
    “That’s easy,” I say, holding up my hand and counting off my top-five things to fear. “One, clowns.”
    “Clowns?” Annie asks. “Really?”
    I shrug. “They freak me out.”
    “White paint, red noses, balloon animals.” Annie shakes her head. “Terrifying.” She rolls her eyes. “All right, keep going.”
    “Cockroaches. Spiders. The dark—I sleep with a light on,” I say. “And rats.”
    Aphrodite looks at me intently. “Iris, those aren’t nightmares.”
    “They are. I mean, those are the things I’m afraid of.”
    “No. For the god of nightmares, they’re nothing. Nightmares, the worst of nightmares, are things you cannot even imagine. And why can’t you imagine them right now? Because your mind just doesn’t go there. Those are the things Epiales will use against you. The unspoken fears. The things you won’t even breathe because they’re just too horrible.”
    “Like in horror movies?” I ask. “Serial killers and all that?”
    Aphrodite shakes her head. “Boogeymen are terrifying. That’s what a horror movie is, after all. Replacing that childhood fear of what’s hiding underneath the bed or in the closet with some awful imagining of it. But really? It doesn’t take much imagination to invent a slasher film. They’re not terribly clever.”
    “I hate them,” Annie says.
    “Take a woman and destroy her in the most sadistic way possible. Invent new ways to