Chapter 5: I Never Weep at Night, I call Your Name...

		February 10, 2016

	    Bobby lay in his sleeping bag, dreaming of hideous things. 

            A man in a black hood that covered his whole face, with slits only to show tiny, black eyes, towered over a chair that someone was strapped into . . . but who?

            “Tell me! Tell me now, and I’ll let you die quickly now, without any more pain.” the man in the hood advised. “Or, if you like, I’ll just keep up with the uh . . . treatment.”

            Someone’s voice that Bobby now knew without even having to think shouted back, a little wary, “Never,” And then, she spat on the hooded man’s shoes. “When Commander Stevens is on your side, that’s when I’ll tell you where he is. Torture me all you want. Kill me, if you want.”

            The man snorted. “Like I’d kill you, that’s exactly what you want me to do.” He whipped off the spit, as if it didn’t faze him that he’d been spat upon.

What bothered Bobby the most was how familiar the voice of the one torturing Paperback was. But, the voice seemed to be trying to disguise itself. Like the hooded man was faking an accent as to not be caught for who he truly was.

“One last chance, mongrel; where is the agent and the gem?” The man was in her face now.

“I will NEVER TELL YOU!” Paperback screamed at him.

“Very well,” Bobby then noticed, as the hooded man bent, all the wires connected to the chair Paperback was strapped to. He reached down, and grabbed something like a one-buttoned remote, smiled, and said, “As you wish.” And then he pushed the button.

Bobby woke with a start, covered in sweat. The first realization that hit was that there was an awful, shrill screaming coming from the right of him. The second was that he was tangled in the zipper of his sleeping bag.

As he freed himself, he looked for the source of the noise and found it: Paperback.

She was tossing in her sleeping bag, screaming. Bobby began to hear a few intelligible words in her screams, such as, “NO! NO! PLEASE, JUST STOP! AHHHH! NO, NO MORE! GOD, MAKE IT STOP! NO!”

Bobby finally detangled himself, and started toward Paperback, saying, “Shh, calm down. Paperback, it’s alright, you’re dreaming.”  

He was trying to shake off how real his dream had been as he gently rustled Paperback, but stopped in his tracks when she muttered one word: “Bobby.” 

He quickly started shaking her again as her screams grew louder still, and she started to clutch at her chest harshly. 

“IT HURTS! IT HURTS SO BAD! STOP, MAKE IT STOP! PLEASE, MAKE IT STOP! NO, NO, NO, NO!” She continued to scream. 

Finally, Bobby bent down until he was right next to her ear, and shouted, “PAPERBACK! WAKE UP!”

Her eyes flew open.

Her hands were still clutching at her chest, right over her heart, and she was sweating just as well as Bobby, her hair matted every which way so it looked like a birds nest, though Bobby didn’t say this. His own hair was thrown about in all different directions anyway.

She breathed in quick, sharp breaths that seemed to hurt her, squinting her eyes shut about as quickly as she’d opened them.

“Paperback,” Bobby crooned, feeling a bit out of place, comforting her like this. “It was just a dream, okay?”

“I-I . . . I know that, Bobby, I know. I’m just . . .” She forced her eyes open. “I’m just not feeling well, that’s all. Okay?”

She scrambled out of her bag, tearing her hands away from her chest, grabbing her small bag of belongings, and heading down the hill, towards the stream. 

“I’m going to get ready.” she announced, turning and wobbling down the hill.

 

Bobby had been waiting for about an hour for Paperback, and decided that was plenty time to bathe and dress. After all, he’d gone to the small river just a ways away, and gotten himself ready, and he was now back, and had been waiting. 

            He decided to climb the hill noisily, so that Bryn would hear him coming if she was . . . indecent, and be able to scream at him to get away.

            He walked down the hill to find Paperback, dressed with her dark, damp hair trailing down her t-shirted back, sitting in front of the stream. Bobby's face began to turn red again.

            Before he could speak, she did, “It’s happened before, you know.”

            “I—what?” Bobby said, sitting down beside her.

            “My dream,” she admitted. “It’s happened before. Bobby, my dream . . . it’ll come true. I know it will. I can feel it.”

            Bobby had a horrible feeling in the pit of his stomach, something he was sure was a fact. He gulped before asking. “What was your dream?”

            “I . . . I . . .” She didn’t seem to want to tell him.

            Bobby did it for her. “You were being tortured by someone in a black hood.”

            She looked up at him then, shocked. 

            “I dreamt the same thing. They were torturing you because you wouldn’t tell them—” Another feeling hit Bobby, that he was somehow sure of. “. . . Where I was.”

            “And the gem; he wanted to know where the gem was.” Paperback said, matter-of-factly.

            “What gem?” Bobby asked, clueless.

            “The Gem of Life or Death.” Paperback said, as if that was all the answer he needed.

            “Uh,” said Bobby, “What’s the Gem of Life or Death?”

            She rolled her eyes, as if he should know; Bobby was glad to see a bit of the old Bryn. “The Gem of Life or Death is ancient. It’s as old as time. A scientist named Joan Handoff discovered it about ten years ago. Buried in the spot she believes to be the Garden of Eden.”

            “Like from the Bible?” Bobby asked, excited now. He was a Christian, and loved anything to do with his past.

            “Like from the Bible,” she continued. “The gem got buried really deep in the earth, and Joan thinks that the power radiating off the gem acted as heat, and molded sand around a fruit. To make a gem. Oh, but not any fruit. A fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. It somehow got left behind, and buried, as I said before, deep in the ground. The gem is a color that only Joan herself knew.”

            “Hold on a second,” Bobby said, holding up a finger. “Joan knew?”

            Paperback bit her lip nervously. “Joan died last year. She’s said to have hidden the gem, and only told one soul where it’s hidden.”

            “So,” said Bobby, nervous himself. “We have to find this gem, don’t we?”

            She sighed. “There’s more to it, Bobby. More to my dream.”

            Bobby gulped, hard. “What more?”

            “he man pushed the button on the remote, and it shocked me.” she said, closing her eyes. “And I died.”

	    Bobby's eyes widened.

		. . .

	    The next day, the two agents knocked on the door of Harbin Clogging Academy. Bobby glanced at Paperback, and she smiled back at him, and they turned back just as the door opened.

	    A young girl, about Paperback's age, greeted them. "Can I help you?"

	    "Yes, you can," Paperback responded, showing her badge. "FBI, we need a word with you."

	    The girl closes the door and turns back to them. "What do you need?"

	    Bobby responded before Paperback could. "You're name is Tiffany Harbin, correct?"

	    The girl looks at him, smiling. "Impressive detective skills, short stuff," she sarcastically responds, scruffing up his hair. "Yes, that's me, and I founded this Academy." 

	    "We know," he shoots back, smiling slightly.

	    "We need to know about a certain gem," Paperback said, solemnly.

	    The girl slipped her shoes off, standing barefoot before the two agents. "The Gem of Life or Death, I presume?"

	    "That's right," Bobby responded, fists clenching in agony of the memory of his dream.

	    The girl took this the wrong way.

	   Suddenly, she striked him in the jaw, her foot appearing as a blur, sending him flying into the air. She jumped up to meet him there, delivering a kick to the face, sending them both rocketing downward, hitting the ground of the front courtyard. She stood triumphantly, arms crossed, one foot on his chest, the other on his face. "No fighting in my Academy," she said, wryly.

	    "Wasn't going to," he said, her toes nearly poking him in the eye.

	    "I thought not," she responded smugly, shifting her weight to the foot on his face, causing the ball of her foot to slide down right over his eyes.

	    "We need to find that gem, Tiffany," Paperback said, a bit of frustration in her voice.

	    "Yeah, yeah, I'll take you to it," she said, smiling in an amused way.

	    "Hey, can you get off, please?" Bobby said.

	    "Eh, maybe later," she replied, shifting her foot so that her heel kept his mouth shut.

	    Paperback sighed, thinking to herself, *This is gonna be a long trip...*