Our Hopes and Dreams

by Kuyashii

3 Dreams and Macchiatos

Max stood in a clearing amid a sea of trees, bow in hand and an arrow notched to the string. His eyes darted from shadow to shadow.

It was gloomy, as though the sky were overcast. Except that when Max looked up through the tangle of tree branches he couldn't see anything. No clouds, no sun.

He saw only blackness. Thick, smothering blackness.

Max followed a thin path worn into the hillside, grass giving way to dark soil. He had no idea where he was. The forest was alien and unfamiliar to him. Oddly shaped trees leered down at him, and the colors around him felt mismatched and garish.

A flash of movement ahead through the trees caught his attention. Max didn't get a good look at it—whatever it was—but it seemed big. He thought he caught a glimpse of skittering legs and antennae. A giant ant?

Then he heard the beat of wings overhead. Broad, leathery wings. That was a sound Max knew. He was being hunted. If the creature were what he thought it was, his flimsy bow and arrow would prove to be of little use.

Movement in the trees again. This time accompanied by a flash of light.

Max raised a hand to shield his eyes, peering between his fingers. The light seemed to push back against the darkness, turning the gloomy scene into bright, sunny day in an instant. The sound of wings overhead faded as the forest brightened. The coloring of the forest was indeed peculiar, though now it seemed cheerful to Max. The lush greens of the grass and leaves contrasted with the deep browns and grays of tree trunks.

A magnificent stallion stepped out of the underbrush. Its mane and coat shimmered, seeming golden in the radiant light. After a moment Max realized that the light wasn't coming from the sun. It was coming from the stallion.

The stallion turned to look at him. Max's heart skipped a beat. His breath caught.

Then the dream dissolved around him.

*****

"Ugh," Max mumbled. "What happened last night?"

He sat up, rubbing at his temples beneath tousled brown hair. He was lying in the middle of his apartment's living room floor, surrounded by empty orange juice cartons, couch cushions, and plastic trays that once held chewy, store-bought cookies. He was cold and bare-chested, his shirt lying a short distance away covered in the dried remnants of snot and tears.

Oh, that's right. He spent the last night trying—and failing—not to think about breaking up with his girlfriend last week. Truthfully Lily broke up with him, but that felt worse to say.

Max groaned and staggered to his feet, then shuffled down the hall to the bathroom. He flipped on the light and examined himself in the mirror. Brown stubble heralded the coming of a patchy beard. Coupled with the bags and massive dark rings under his eyes, Max looked every bit as bad as he felt.

What did she say the reason was? His "flighty" behavior? His conspiracy theories about magic portals to parallel worlds filled with talking pastel-colored ponies? Some days it all still seemed crazy to him, too. He couldn't blame her. But he could blame himself for telling her, even if his heart was in the right place. He just wanted to be open and honest with her—the girl who he saw himself spending the rest of his life with.

Well, mission accomplished, he thought. You honest-ed her right out the door of your life.

Max leaned toward the mirror, his eyes moving to the massive scar in the middle of his body, just below his ribs. He ran a finger along the jagged edges around where the spike had punched through. It might be a crazy story, but this one was as real as they get.

The urge to mope washed over him like an old, familiar song. It was at once deep and dark, like standing at the edge of a pier and looking down into the depths of the ocean. Fists balled, knuckles pressed into the bathroom countertop, Max felt an overwhelming sense of nothing. And that scared him.

No, he wasn't going to give in again. He knew where this road would lead. This time he was going to fight it any way that he could. He turned and dashed down the hall to the bedroom like he was darting up the stairs out of a darkened basement. It was still neat and tidy in here, the bed made and the floor clear of clothes. Max wanted a place where he could retreat. Where everything felt right and set in order. He reached for his cell phone on the nightstand, but the picture beside it caught his eye.

It was a picture of Max and his father standing in front of an orange tree, limbs bowed and laden with fruit. They had big grins and arms over each other's shoulders, with Max reaching up to make bunny ears. That was the first harvest that Max felt like he truly participated in the family farm work, not just putting a few oranges in a basket for a pat on the back. His overalls were streaked with dirt, sticks and leaves nested in his hair, but he was happy. So was his father. That was one of the last times Max remembered seeing his father smile. Shortly after, Max's sister had passed away while still an infant. His father was never quite the same after that. None of them were. Max sighed and picked up the phone.

He had six text messages and seven missed calls. All from Twilight.

Max looked at the digital clock in a panic. It was much, much later than he thought. He grabbed a short sleeve button-down shirt from his closet and rushed out, leaving the hanger spinning around the wooden pole beside a dozen more, all devoid of clothing. Why hang something up when you had a perfectly good system of "clean" and "dirty" piles? He was still buttoning the shirt when there was a knock at the door.

Max opened it to find Shining standing on the porch, arms folded. He was about Max's age and built like the college football star he was, his shirt threatening to burst at the seams at any moment. Behind him, down the steps and parked along the curb, his younger sister Twilight sat in the open window of their family's Chrysler van, head and shoulders peeking over the roof. She pressed her glasses higher and brushed back a lock of purple-and-pink hair, waving to Max as Shining smiled and slapped Max on the shoulder.

"Hey, buddy. You ready to go?"

Max almost said yes, but the breeze through the open door felt just a little too cold on his feet. "I, uh, should probably get some shoes first."

"Yeah, maybe," Shining said, following him in. Max began hunting around the living room, kicking orange juice cartons aside with a hollow rattle as they tumbled away.

"How you holding up?" Shining asked from the entryway. "'Cause you look awful."

"I'm doing alright, I guess," Max said. He tossed a pile of clothes over his shoulder, finding only DVD cases beneath. Then Max turned to Shining and raised an eyebrow. "But you're one to talk about awful. You don't look so pretty yourself."

Shining smiled. "Got me there." He stooped over, picking up one of the DVDs. "Hey, you watched 'Them!' without me?"

"I felt like a monster movie might help me sleep."

"Makes sense."

Max threw an empty tray across the room like a frisbee. "I’ve been having trouble since before the break up too. Weird dreams lately. Not really nightmares, just weird."

"I see." Shining nodded sagely as he read the back of the DVD case. "Such a great movie. Freaky giant ants and flamethrowers, what's not to love?"

Max reached under the couch and felt his hand brush against laces. Success! He pulled the shoes on and hurried outside.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," Max said. He locked the door after Shining stepped out and started down the stairs.

"Nah, we only just got here. Twilight demanded that we stop for coffee."

"There's one for you!" she called, holding up a colorful paper coffee cup capped with a plastic lid. She wriggled her way back in through the window as Max opened the sliding side door and climbed into a seat. Shining started the van and pulled onto the street.

Twilight handed the coffee back with a smile. "You do like macchiatos, right?"

Max accepted it with a nod. "They're only the very, very best. How did you know?"

"You mentioned it the last time we got coffee, silly."

Shining took a swig from his own cup. "So where are we headed?"

Twilight set her coffee into the cup holder, fishing around in her backpack on the floor. "I think we should check the anomaly by the lake first," she said. "Then hit all the new hotspots counter-clockwise, ending up at the high school. That's where I've been getting the strongest readings. Save the best for last."

"New hotspots?" Max asked.

"They've been popping up all over the place," Twilight said. "There used to be a new one here or there, but the past week they started showing up like crazy. I'm not certain whether to be concerned, intrigued, or both."

Max brought the opening in the lid right up beneath his nose and breathed deep, savoring the smell. He tested the temperature, finding that it was cool enough to drink, then sipped it thoughtfully. Twilight's research carried her all around the city, chasing energy fluctuations and unstable pockets of space-time. Max didn't try to understand it all. He was just thankful to have some friends to keep his mind off things.

But were they friends by now? The three of them had only met a few months ago, stumbling into one another at the park down the street. Max was there as usual to see if the portal in the statue had reopened, when he found Twilight walking circles around it with an exceptionally complicated looking scanner in her hands. Her brother Shining was there to offer simple one word answers to her rhetorical questions. Max heard mention of an energy spike emanating from the statue, and it piqued his curiosity.

Though he didn't explain why at first, when he began asking good-natured questions about her research, she was only too eager to discuss her theories with someone else. After meeting coincidentally like that for a few days, Shining and Max found that they shared an interest in old, black-and-white television shows and movies. Soon they chatting amicably about favorite films like old friends. Then Shining and Twilight invited Max to join them on their next research expedition around town.

If studying metaphysical phenomena wasn't friendship, Max didn't know what was.

The last time they visited the coffee shop, Max told them his story in the hopes that it might be pertinent to Twilight's investigation. Although he left out the bulk of it, her eyes lit up when he mentioned the portal that carried him away to another place. In truth, Twilight and her brother were the first people he ever told. And they believed him. That gave him hope that he could share his story with Lily too.

False hope, it seemed.

Twilight poked a button on the radio. "—this breaking news alert. Multiple cases of missing persons have been reported now across the metropolitan area—"

Shining changed the station. Heavily distorted guitars and power chords flooded the van.

"Wait," Max said. "What was that about?"

Shining's brow furrowed. He flipped back to the news. "—late night disappearances leaving many residents fearful that they may be next. The mayor held a press conference today, encouraging residents to be vigilant and remain indoors after dark until the authorities have completed their investigation." The newscaster went on to give a phone number for reporting suspicious behavior and played pre-recorded interviews with concerned citizens.

"Disappearances?" Max said. "Creepy."

Twilight tapped her chin with a finger. "Interesting. I wonder if they have anything to do with the spike in activity lately."

"You mean, you think people are falling through these new hotspots?" Shining asked.

"I suppose there's a non-negligible chance that people could be stumbling across new, untethered portals. Hotspots are just energy concentrations though. They're not stable enough to enable transmission of matter across space and time. But untethered portals might be invisible to the naked eye and difficult to detect with my current equipment. You'd be walking along, minding your own business—then poof, you're in another world entirely."

She glanced at Max as if for confirmation.

Max took another sip. "I mean, I sure didn't see anything weird about the statue before I tripped into it, but everything happened so fast."

"It's probably just someone up to no good," Shining said. "You know, that one dude's razor."

"Occam's Razor," Twilight said, rolling her eyes. "And I suppose it's possible. But given the recent activity, the odds favor new and exciting phenomena. Either way, I'm going to need more data on the hotspots and known portals to continue my research. The pursuit of science is worth a little danger. And I'm sure that my big-brother-best-friend-forever can fend off any would-be ruffians, right?"

She folded her hands and peered over at Shining, grinning.

"If it's that important to you..." Shining said.

"Indeed it is. Science is the most important."

Max drained the rest of his coffee. "Then let's go get some data."