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one layer.
    I didn’t think it possible: a single-layer dream. But it was so calm and real. It was like life, but enhanced somehow. Everything felt more vibrant.
    But it wasn’t just what was happening in her head that was different; it was what was happening in mine. I could feel it in some inexplicable way, a freedom in my thoughts—a flexibility in the way my mind wandered.
    Hope seeped through the cracks of my carefully constructed wall. At that moment, Megan could’ve been Picasso and I still wouldn’t have watched her any longer. If there was any dream I could sleep in—the true deep sleep I needed—this would be it.
    I walked to a shady spot nearby. Rubbing my hands together to still their shaking, I took a deep breath. I could handle the disappointment if this attempt failed like all the others. It wouldn’t hurt me anymore. Forcing my muscles to move, I reclined on the soft red grass, closed my eyes …
    And slept.

five
    Waking up after a night in Megan’s dreams—no, of actual sleep and my own dreams—was an incredible thing. I tried to hold on to pieces of the experience, the strange images floating through my own fragmented dreams. Finn had been there, and I think Addie and my dad. We were by an ocean. I wanted to tuck every detail away somewhere safe where no one could ever take them from me again.
    It’d been so long since my brain had slept that I couldn’t remember any of my dreams from before I became a Watcher. Now I knew what I’d been missing. Every part of my body felt rested and alive instead of dragging with the exhaustion I’d become accustomed to. Megan had somehow made it possible.
    I lay on my bed, reveling in the refreshed feeling and dreamy oblivion. Sleeping was good. I loved sleep. Best. Thing. Ever.
    Stretched out against my dark blue sheets, I didn’t want to get up. I didn’t want to ever move again. It was nearly impossible to think about doing anything except going back to sleep.
    Thud. Thud. Thud.
    “Parker!” Mom’s shout shattered my happy haze like a bazooka. “Your alarm went off thirty minutes ago. You up yet?”
    I bolted out of bed, fully alert for the first time in months—
probably years.
    “I’m up.” A small grin crept across my face. I’d slept through my alarm? How … normal .
    Tugging a gray long-sleeved shirt and jeans out of the closet, I was through the door, past my Mom, and into the shower in under a minute. I would be late for school, but the sudden urgency that filled me had nothing to do with that.
    It was Megan. I had to find her and make eye contact again. I had to find out if all her dreams were like the one last night.
    My brain whirred as it sorted the information: her approx-
imate age, where I’d seen her, what direction she was heading in and why. She didn’t seem older than me, but I knew I’d never seen her before. That meant she could be new in town. She was old enough to drive, so chances were fifty/fifty she’d be attending my high school. I would find her.
    Doubt flooded me as I stepped out of the shower. I forced aside nagging thoughts that maybe it wouldn’t be that easy, maybe she was only passing through town. Maybe I’d never see her again. No matter what it took, though, I had to find her.
    Why could I sleep in her dream? Could I do it again?
    For a moment, the whirring in my mind stopped and my stomach clenched. What was I planning to do? Hunt her down? Force her to make eye contact with me? It felt wrong. But something else inside me spoke, something deep-rooted and instinctual. This was a possible means of survival. It could mean a real life for me.
    I had to find out, but I’d need to be careful.

    I ran through the front doors of Oakville High School. Fifteen minutes late wasn’t too bad. Everything seemed oddly hushed, though. I peered in the classrooms as I jogged down the hall, but they were all empty.
    By the time I got to my locker, I wondered if it was some kind of holiday I’d forgotten about. My