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I’ll find something. I have to. I can’t let evil win over good. There has to be another way. Then it
dawned on her. That was what the angel was talking about. It was guarding her,
watching out for her, but since her dream lover had come into play it hadn’t been able
to watch over her. It wasn’t in him to change the course of destiny and tell her what
decisions she could or couldn’t make. Dread washed over her at that point. Does that
mean, my decision is already preordained? That I’m going to choose my dream lover’s help. No I
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won’t do that. I can’t do that. No matter what happens, I’ll die before I give into the evil that has
been plaguing my dreams no matter how he makes me feel. No matter what my subconscious
says. It won’t happen.
Valerie sighed and looked through the pages of her sister’s journal again. There was
nothing. She slipped the journal under the covers and laid her head against the pillows.
She closed her eyes for a moment listening to the sounds of the hospital. Nurses’
sneakers squeaked on the tile floor outside of her room. The beeping of her heart
monitor still echoed in her ear. A voice came over the loudspeaker summoning a doctor
to the floor. None of this was doing her any good. The creak of the door opening caused
her to open her eyes.
“James, is that you?” she asked of the shadows not able to break the obscurity of
her room. She squinted trying to see if it was another nurse coming to examine her or
not. The form got closer. A sense of foreboding washed over her. Niki’s form came into
view.
“Sis, what are you doing here?”
Her sister put her fingers to her lips. The light above her head suddenly snapped
on. It blinded her, so she had to put her hand to her forehead to see. Niki came another
step forward. It was at this point she saw the glint of something silver in the light. She
realized it was a syringe.
“Whoa, Niki. What are you doing with that?”
“Nothing you have to worry about, Val.” Her sister’s expression remained blank
and her tone flat. Her eyes were crazed. Valerie pulled the heart monitor from her
finger and pulled the blanket back from her body. She swung her legs over the hospital
bed. She tried to move, but her sister mirrored her movements. “You know that you
can’t get away from me. No matter what you have protecting you. And right now, it’s
not here.”
Valerie tried to duck around behind her sister, but Niki caught her arm. She tried to
yank away from her, but she was unable to break the hold. How can she suddenly be
stronger than I am? What was the other wish she made with the djinn? She yanked again, but
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wasn’t able to get free. Twisting and turning, her sister threw her back against the bed.
She held the syringe and kept it coming closer to her neck. Valerie’s eyes grew wide.
“You don’t want to do this. Stop and think about what you’re doing. You don’t
want to bring me back to the dark djinn. I read your journal. I know that you regret
everything that’s been going on. Come on, Nik,think.”
Her sister tilted her head to the side. A wide grin spread on her face, her features
twisted into something almost inhuman. Valerie stifled a cry. Her face seemed to
elongate. Her eyes took on a red tinge. The shadows of the room morphed and twisted
around her creating a halo of darkness. They wound around her arms and legs making
her seem bigger and swelling her aura. The evil radiating off her made Valerie gag. She
grabbed Niki’s arm, but her sister was faster. She felt a prick and then the coldness of
the drug inside of it washed through her. At once her vision began to blur and her head
went woozy. Her tongue was fat in her mouth and seemed to be filled with cotton.
Before she could even say anything, darkness descended over her.
* * * *
For Valerie to get back to consciousness, she had to claw her way through the
undertow of the drugs Niki injected her with. This time when the darkness took hold of
her, her dream lover wasn’t there to greet her. Relief filled her too. She was so used to
having him around when she fell asleep she wasn’t sure how to react to his absence. It
was good on one hand, but as her sister had said she wasn’t being protected. She felt so
alone now, she was coming into consciousness and it was disconcerting. But she had to
shake it off. It’s only a reaction to the drugs. It has nothing to do with my dream lover. Finally
the grogginess began to clear. She opened her eyes. Her head was pounding. It took a
moment for her eyes to adjust. Valerie glanced around. She was no longer in her
hospital room. Where ever she was, the room was dark except for a few lit candles. The
windows were covered with plastic sheets or boards in other places. Construction
equipment was scattered around the space. In a corner she could see stacks of old
wheelchairs and a filing cabinet. The shadows created by the flickering flames were not
empty. Faces thrust against the darkness trying to break out of the prison they were in.
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The darkness stretched and waited for it to rip. She tried to move her arms when she
realized she was sitting in a wheelchair. Her arms and legs were Duck Taped to the
chair. She only succeeded in rocking the chair. She had to stop because she was losing
her balance.
Wonderful. How am I going to get out of this? Her head began to pound from the
sudden movement. She closed her eyes and when she opened them her sister was
leering at her.
“Hello, sleepyhead. I wasn’t sure if you were going to wake up or not. I figured the
dose I gave you wasn’t that much. Guess that blow to the head really messed you up.”
“Niki, why are you doing this? Let me go and we can get beyond this.”
“We both know it’s gone too far for that. You saw me in your room. You know
what I’m capable of. My Master is so happy that you’re here. It’s good that you’re
compliant.”
“Where are we? What’s happened to you? The shadows at the hospital seemed as
though they were part of you.”
“It’s time. He’s given me my second wish. I have to obey. Doing so made me his
vessel. The shadows empower me. They are reading me and filling me with his
strength. It’s wonderful not to be alone. He wants you to be a vessel for another of his
kind. You’ll never be alone again. Even when we’ll both be djinn, I’ll still be able to find
you. That was my second wish.”
“Why would you wish to be able to find me when you can already do that? When
we were kids we used to play hide and seek all the time. We’re twins. We can always
find one another. How do you think I found you the other night?”
Her face twisted. “You’re trying to confuse me. We haven’t been that close in years.
You shut off the link that we have. Liar! Kennedy found me. You don’t have any sway
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