Page 130 of In Somnis

“A shared psychosis?”

“That’s what psychologists say, yeah.” His mouth curves slightly. “A… friend of mine has a whole theory about it.” He pulls a flower from the ground beside him and turns it between his fingers. “I don’t buy it.”

“Then what do you think he is?”

Ridge is quiet for a moment, which is unusual enough that I look up from his nails.

“That he’s real. That he can move through dreamscape the way I do, except he’s been doing it longer, he’s better at it, and he doesn’t have the same…” Ridge pauses, choosing the word carefully, “… limitations that we do.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning he doesn’t have or doesn’t need a tether. Doesn’t need anything to anchor him or anyone to hold onto. He simply moves, wherever he wants, whenever he wants… which sounds like freedom until you think about what it actually means.”

“What does it mean?”

“It means nothing holds him.” He drops the flower. “Not guilt, love, or consequence. He can be exactly what you need him to be, right up until the moment it suits him not to be.”

Cold moves through me. “And what does he want from Tessa?”

“I think she went looking for something in her dreams, but he found her first.”

“Maybe he’s lonely,” I say quietly, still focused on his nails. I don’t know why I’m defending a man who sounds like a nightmare in expensive shoes, but here we are. “If he’s been in here long enough, maybe he doesn’t want to be alone in it anymore.”

Ridge looks at me.

“I mean it,” I say. “I’d go completely crazy in here if I couldn’t leave. If I didn’t have—” I stop.

If I didn’t have you.

“Hmm,” Ridge says, and his tone has shifted, less dismissive than I expected.

“You think I’m wrong.”

“I think,” he says slowly. “That lonely things can still be dangerous things. More dangerous, maybe.” He watches the flowers moving around us. “A thing that wants company badly enough will do whatever it takes to keep it.” He glances over at me from the corner of his eye.

“So he found her,” I start, trying to sort my thoughts. “And gave her everything she wanted, told her she’d have everything in 5D. But she can’t step into it fully, because of me, and now she’s caught between here and there, and he’s been doing something that she can’t wake up either.”

The flowers move around us in a slow wave, and I focus on keeping my lines clean and my breathing even.

“I don’t think the last part is correct. She’s been choosing to stay. That’s what I can’t figure out.” He looks down at me. “Dreams run on desire, Lennon. You can’t trap someone in 4D against their will, not permanently. No matter how bad the nightmare, no matter how deep the sleep paralysis goes, there’s always a way back. Your own mind eventually fights for the surface… Unless you stop fighting.”

“She wants to come back,” I argue. “I know she does.”

“You sure about that?”

“Yes.” I don’t hesitate. “Underneath everything tonight, that was still Tessa. She’s just…” I search for the right word, “… confused about what she wants more. She’s been in here so long, she’s forgotten what reality feels like. That it’s better than what she can dream up.” I look up at him. “We just have to remind her. Find the thing that’s stronger than what he’s offering her.”

Ridge says nothing, which is its own kind of answer. Not a comforting one.

I wonder if his mind went to his cousin, as mine did.

“All done,” I say, sitting back and clicking the brush back into the bottle.

He lifts both hands and wiggles his fingers at me.

There are three on one hand and six on the other.

I stare at them. “Those are not⁠—”