Once Noah’s brother told them the enforcers had left the building, Noah Stepped them back into the apartment. Like before, the move seemed to leave him hungry. He was already going through the bag of food his brother had given him.

  “So, what’re you going to do?” Zach asked.

  “My brother has been trying to get us to leave the Camp,” Noah answered around a mouthful of food. “He thinks now that I can look after myself, we’d have a better chance out there than most.”

  “But you disagree?”

  “We can’t leave,” he said firmly. “Deep down, he knows that, too. That’s why he’s never really pushed the topic.”

  “But your brother’s right, though. With your abilities, you wouldn’t have a hard time out there. You said you’ve taken other Dreamers beyond the camp.”

  When Zach tried to recall what exactly lay beyond the walls, the only word that came to him from Oliver’s recollections was demons. Though the Camp had never actually encountered one or been attacked by one, either.

  Strange.

  “It’s different with us,” Noah replied evasively.

  He shook his head, as if realizing he’d said too much.

  “Besides, I’m focused on the other Dreamers in the building. The ones who are still stuck transmuting through into the First. They can’t fend for themselves. They can’t even speak, let alone walk. They’ll be dead in less than a day.”

  He set the bag on the old table and sat himself on the couch, pulling out that small notebook from his pocket. Seeing the worry in his features, the slow way he chewed his food as he pondered the Dreamhold’s future, Zach couldn’t help but feel guilty.

  Lucas, Noah’s brother, had said the Head had called off Ava’s search, but that didn’t change the fact that he’d brought unwanted attention to the building.

  “I didn’t mean for any of this to happen,” he said softly. “I just wanted to go home. I thought the ritual could do that.”

  Noah glanced his way, chewing on the bread. “I want to help you—I’m interested in what you’ve got going on. But I can’t let my esoteric interest get in the way of my humanity or make me forget about everything else. I can’t let myself be like her. I just can’t.”

  The tone in his voice as he uttered the last few words made Zach feel like he was intruding on something personal. He wanted to ask who her was, but decided to keep the question to himself.

  “I can’t promise you that I’ll be able to send you home, but I know I’m the best shot you have. At least, in this region. Maybe there’ll be someone in Ardition, or Amnia, if those countries haven’t collapsed like Tettralis. But for now, I have to focus on helping the Dreamers in this building. Do you understand that?”

  Zach nodded, biting his lower lip. What else could he say? He had fears, of course. The glint in that man’s eyes back in Severity’s realm had promised death, never mind what he’d said. He’d known Zach was a transmigrator and had wanted to kill him.

  Noah, on the other hand, genuinely seemed interested in his predicament and actually wanted to help or at least try. Never mind if those countries he’d just mentioned had people who could help him; Noah was here now.

  Besides, with the world being what it was now after the war, with no linked traveling between countries, no communications between them either, it would be too much of a gamble.

  “I understand.”

  I understand I’m going to have to play at post-apocalyptic survival before I go home.

  “Of course, I could make all the plans I want, but none of it will help if I don’t know what this random stranger is saying. Maybe if I Step them away...”

  Noah continued to mutter different possibilities to himself, barely paying Zach any attention. Hearing him speak so freely and so confidently about his abilities, Zach wondered about his own.

  The speed with which he’d been running in that realm, even in the apartment when he’d been trying to avoid Ava, was clearly a result of that. Indeed, when he closed his eyes and tried to feel that presence stirring at the back of his mind, more of that strange knowledge entered his mind.

  He was in the early stages of transmuting into the First String. He couldn’t tell exactly what power was in this String, only that his strange speed was a result of it. And it wasn’t the only thing that would happen.

  It felt so odd, having knowledge that felt like it had always been a part of you when you knew only a few seconds ago it wasn’t there.

  That same alien knowledge told him that he would only progress if he could master a String at a time. There was no telling how long that would take. But mastering it might help me. I could protect myself if I ever ran into that man again.

  The way things were, it seemed the Forces were strange enough that they might very well hold the knowledge he needed to get home. Perhaps it would come to him like the knowledge of Severity’s First String, or the way he’d been able to identify that man as a Second String user.

  He sighed.

  There were far too many maybes for his liking. Unconsciously, he glanced around the room and found something pinned to the open door. Noah was still listing off all his possible plans, so Zach made his way over to the door.

  Someone had nailed a stack of pages to the door. He stared at the writing for a good minute before he registered the handwriting. It was his—Oliver’s, that is—though he had no memories of him writing any of it.

  If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  Hesitantly, he pulled the nail out of the wood and out of the pages, setting it on the side table behind the door. Had Ava left this here for him to find? But how could she, or anyone for that matter, have known they were living here?

  There was a subtle hint of cooked rabbit still clinging to the walls of the apartment. Perhaps she, or they, had used that.

  “More maybes,” he muttered in annoyance.

  “June 16th. I’ve started having dreams,” he read inwardly. “Leo thinks it means I’m sick, that the Knocking has me. But I don’t hear any knocking. He doesn’t want to believe me, but knocking isn’t causing my dreams. I know that. They’re different. Nothing is trying to possess me...

  “What’s that?” Noah asked from the couch.

  Zach turned, showing him the pages. “I found them on the door. I think... Oliver wrote this. You know, the real one. I remember that as my handwriting, but I don’t remember writing it.”

  “What does it say?” Noah asked, jumping to his feet.

  Zach reread the journal-like entry, aloud this time.

  “... I think I’d feel something like that—”

  “Wait, Oliver had the Dreams before Leo? And he managed to hide it for that long?”

  “That was the end of the entry.”

  “Well, read on.”

  Zach looked up at him, the level of curiosity in his tone almost comical. He walked to the couch, sat down, and turned the page over.

  “They’re getting stronger. Last night I dreamed of animals I’ve never seen before, lands I’ve never seen before. And it felt so real. I shouldn’t have said anything. Leo keeps saying I’m a trip away from a Dreamer trial, but I just had to tell someone. Why does it feel so real?”

  Zach lowered the pages and asked, “Do you think he’s talking about my world?”

  “People have dreams,” Noah said, shaking his head. “But given what happened between the two of you, who knows?”

  “I spoke with grandmother. I asked her about the kind of dreams the Dreamers get. She said that it usually starts with the knocking. A soft sound at first. The demons trying to get an invitation to steal your soul. That has to confirm it. Leo is wrong. I’m not hearing any knocking!”

  Next page.

  “I dreamed I had friends. Actual friends who weren’t forced to be with me because we shared the same blood. That was the best one so far. It’s the first one where I remember every little detail! We were in a strange tower that stood above the worlds. They told me that if I wanted to, I could join them. Are those the demons trying to possess me?”

  Zach shook his head, something about those words hitting him with the sort of blow only familiarity could bring. Was this Oliver’s crippling loneliness he was feeling, or was it his own, remembered from his own life behind that wall?

  Before he knew it, tears started rolling down his face. Feeling numb and cold, he wiped it away with the back of his hand. Noah gave him the space to deal with it discreetly, instead giving Oliver’s pages his full attention.

  Zach cleared his throat, swallowed the thickness there, and went on to the next entry.

  “I saw the tower again,” he read, his voice wavering at first. “Seven of them, floating high in the darkness of space. They gave me instructions. I can’t remember what they were exactly, but they said that would happen. They said when I need it, it will come to me. If I’m brave enough to try it. And, I think I am. There’s nothing for me here.”

  “I don’t know what to make of this,” Noah interrupted. “Towers? Instructions? Did you see any of this? Maybe you two were sharing the same dreams?”

  “I don’t remember...” Zach answered slowly. He waited for that sensation to kick in, that inkling that might’ve hinted these dreams sounded at all familiar, but there was nothing. “I don’t think so.”

  Zach flipped to the next page.

  “I heard the knocking. Of course, I heard it. Just as I was about to do something, take some action and control over my life, I heard the knocking. I see the shadows moving as well. In corners, on the ceiling, even in the sky. They’re just watching and waiting for me.

  “I finally make friends, and it’s getting harder to remember our conversations. But I remember enough. And no matter what, I will join them. I don’t care how risky they say it is. This is you making a promise to yourself. I WILL JOIN THEM!”

  Noah got up off the couch and walked to the boarded windows. He rested his hands against the covered frame, pressing his head against the loose board he must’ve put back during Zach’s drug-addled sleep. Slowly and softly, he started banging against it.

  “The exact same dream on different nights? Now that’s strange. He saw and interacted with the same people in every dream. I’ve never heard of something like that before.”

  “Everyone keeps talking about the Dreams we get before the execution trial. Is it the same thing, or is this something different?”

  Noah turned, leaning back against the boards, his frown present as always.

  “It’s not the same thing. As far as I’ve been able to gauge, the Dreams we see when the knocking first starts are the realms of whatever Creational Force is choosing you. We get paranoid and frightened because it’s our first encounter with the eldritch.”

  “So, this is something else. Do you know what he was seeing? And how do I fit into this?”

  “Are the entries finished?” Noah asked instead, his face looking deep in thought.

  There were two pages left. He turned to the next one.

  “I remember last night’s dream better than I usually do! They gave me a full tour of their tower. Surprisingly, they all look like medieval castles, but on a much, much grander scale. I’ve stopped trying to describe it because there are no words, not for those creations. I just know no human is capable of such. Then again, they’ve never claimed to be human.

  “Oh! And this time, I remember something I asked them. I asked how they found me, and they said it was when I visited the other reality. My only option is to ask—”

  “Ask who?” Noah demanded, already frustrated at being deprived of knowledge.

  “That’s the end. There’s nothing else,” Zach said, showing him the page where the rest of the entry had been torn out.

  “You have got to be kidding me,” Noah said, hurrying over.

  He took the stack, shuffling through the pages. He found the same thing. The rest of it had been torn out.

  “Oh, by the day,” he swore to himself. Zach frowned at the strange phrase before Oliver’s memory confirmed that it was a form of curse.

  “I hate that more than anything,” he continued. “If you’re going to tear pages from something, why not just keep the whole damn thing? If anything, this idiot’s just drawn more attention to themselves. Idiot. What’s that?”

  One of the pages had gotten loose. After a cursory glance, Zach had thought the page blank. However, at the back of that page were a few more words written in a different hand.

  “This is all I was able to get. He was already through your house, but I think I have his trail. I’m chasing after him now. Took you long enough to wake up. For a minute, you had me worried there. Glad you’re not dead, you moron. I also heard about your mom. I’m sorry.”

  “I thought he didn’t have any friends,” Noah muttered before he looked back at Zach and gave a weak apology. “Does this trigger anything?”

  “No,” Zach said.

  His face went sour. “I’ve known you for less than forty-eight hours, and you’ve brought nothing but mystery and questions. That’s very annoying.”

  For all his words, he looked the furthest thing from it.

  “We have to save the Dreamhold as fast as we can,” Zach said, staring at the pages. “There’s a lot to unpack here.”