Read The Awakening for Free Online

murdered.”
    She blanches.
    “I have to get out of here. I have to get to Detroit.”
    “Detroit! Tess, Detroit is awful. It’s—it’s …” She twists up her face, as if searching for the proper description. “Well, if this evil stuff is real like you say it is, then Detroit is like hell. You can’t go there. You’ll be killed.”
    “We have to. Dr. Roth said there are others out there like us—people who can see the things we see. Luka and I think some of them live in Detroit. At least they did six years ago. We have to find them. In order to get there, we need fake IDs. Is there a way you can get a hold of my dad without the police catching on to you?” He’s a man who stands toward the top of the ladder at Safe Guard Security Systems. Surely, with those types of connections, he can get Luka and me a fake ID. “Maybe you can contact him at his work. I can give you the number.”
    Leela slides her hands from mine and looks down into her lap.
    “Is something wrong?”
    “Your dad … he’s on some sort of probation with Safe Guard. They didn’t fire him, but I don’t think he’s working right now.” She bites her lip. “I guess they aren’t letting him return to his job until you turn yourself in and get treatment.”
    My hope plummets. For my family. For me. What’s going to happen to them if he gets fired at Safe Guard? What’s going to happen to Luka and me if we can’t figure out a way to get out of here?
    Leela’s eyes light up. “Bobbi!”
    “Your cousin?”
    “Her dad’s the chief of police.”
    “You can’t tell him, Leela, he’ll come after us!”
    “I know that, but there’s a whole bunch of confiscated fake IDs at the station. Kids make them all the time. Bobbi and I used to look through them when we were younger. They’re put into Evidence, which is this small locker in the basement. Her dad keeps the key in the top drawer of his desk. I can find a way to get them.”
    “How?”
    “I’ll go visit him first thing in the morning.”
    “Has he questioned you about me?” I have to imagine she was interrogated more than anyone else. It was no secret that we were close.
    “Yes, but Bobbi told him we had a falling out. He told his officers to leave me alone. But Tess, they’re tracking your parents, twenty-four seven.”
    Which means I can’t see them. I can’t contact them. I can’t speak with them. Not until this is over. If it ever is. “You’re positive nobody’s following you?”
    “Not that I know of.”
    So maybe our falling out was a good thing. A silver lining. There’s a dragging sensation in my stomach, as if I’m about to wake up or go somewhere else. I grab onto Leela, wondering if I can bring her with me like I did with Luka. “I’m going to call you in the morning when we wake up.”
    She shakes her head slightly, as if grasping for clarity. “If you say so …”
    “If I say so?”
    “This is a dream. It’s not real. You’re not real.”
    “No, I’m real. This is me, in your dream.” Desperation stains each one of my words. She’s going to wake up and discredit all of this. I grapple for a solution. Something that won’t negate the progress I’ve been making while we sleep. “A password.”
    “What?”
    “We need a password. Something random. Something I wouldn’t know. You tell it to me now and when I call you, I’ll say it as proof that all of this was real.”
    I’m slipping … slipping … “Leela, a password!”
    “Jelly donuts.”
    The crowd erupts into cheering. Everybody jumps to their feet, Leela too. Whooping and clapping, because Matt Chesterson scored the winning touchdown.
    My eyes fly open. I’m awake in bed at Motel California. Shafts of light squeeze through the cracks in the blinds, turning a whole host of dust motes into floating sparkles. I sit upright. Did that really happen—me, visiting Leela in her dream, or was it some weird, hopeful dream of my own? The details begin to fade, like all dreams do. I