More Than Imagined

Chapter 14

Stuffy. That was the best way to describe these Techromancer types, in Somni's mind at least. Life-ruining and tyrannical came in a close second. The house their leader ordered them to scope out was definitely of the pompous variety. It was all vaulted ceilings, marble floors, and overly adorned furniture. It reeked of expensive cologne and privilege. But Somni had to look past her displeasure and into every nook and cranny of this place until they found what they were looking for.

Somni and Narco were on a mission and not the belly-filling kind. This was more like a treasure hunt. Their leader—a Mare who remained nameless to those as low in the ranks as they were—sent them out in search of this thing, this trinket. They called it a dreamcatcher. It was supposed to be some fix-all. Something that would save them from their constant hunger. Something that would make them human again. Normal again. But Somni didn't think she wanted to be normal. It was better to be stronger if you wanted revenge, and she definitely wanted that.

She remembered the dreamcatcher being described as soft. She hated soft. It was synonymous with weak, and Somni swore she was anything but. Rem said it was rather tiny too, not more than the size of either of their palms. No way were they going to find something like that in a place as big as this.

Somni and Narco made their way into the kitchen where it was cold. Quiet. The fumes of old science projects permeated the surrounding air, and Somni was almost afraid to breathe them in. There was no telling what concoctions were being brewed before they got here. Her eyes, rimmed with the red of irritation, watered and when she glanced at Narco, she noticed his eyes were the same. But Narco didn't seem too bothered by it, because the only thing on his mind was probably who would be his next meal.

"You think she'll get us a nice one after this?" Narco asked, bouncing on the balls of his feet at the mere thought of tasting some Apex DNA.

"Since when does she get food for us? She's never even spoken to us," Somni sighed.

"I just thought, since we started doing all these favors for her, she might consider it. We're putting our necks on the line just to steal some trinket, and we can't even be welcomed home with a nice, juicy Apex guy to eat?"

"We aren't just doing this because she wants to, Narco. This trinket is our ticket out of The Fringe for good. You know, vengeance and all that?"

"And what's so wrong with The Fringe? Our families are there."

"Yeah, but so are those Imaginaries. You know the ones that steal and KILL US!" Somni emphasized, fingers opening dusty cabinet doors.

"They only kill us when we're weak. And we're only weak when we don't have enough food. And we don't have enough food because we don't have enough Apex folks around. And we don't have enough Apex folks around because our leader won't find any for us. She doesn't even like when we steal them for ourselves," Narco whined, stomach burbling. He shuffled through yet another closet, tipping over beakers and blowing his breath onto the shinning glass so he can draw small pictures in the fog left behind.

"Well, we can't gorge until we know there won't be any retaliation. And for that to happen, we need that dreamcatcher."

"You think she'll be pretty?" Narco asked, running his fingers over a portrait of a woman with a toddler nestled in her arms.

"I don't care if she's pretty. I just care if she's right. If she can get us out of this mess once and for all," Somni groaned, digging through a rancid trash can.

"Yeah, but wouldn't it be better if she was right and pretty? Leaders should be pretty if they want people to follow them, shouldn't they? Maybe that's why she won't show herself."

Somni rolled her eyes as she checked beneath a vase, "I swear all that sand has completely suffocated your brain."

"Nu-uh, my sand can't reach that far in," Narco argued, sticking out a golden, grainy tongue.

"Put that thing away and help me look, idiot."

"I'm looking. I'm looking."

They settled into the monotonous rhythm of picking up couch cushions and peeking under rugs. Overturning bedsheets and tripping over wall plugs. But the dreamcatcher just didn't want to make an appearance, and by the way Narco was shuffling on his toes, he was definitely getting antsy.

"Maybe we should just throw in the towel. These Techromancer guys are smart, right? Why would they leave the thing here?" Narco asked.

"I don't know. Before she went to that stupid training match, Rem said it would be somewhere in this Techromancer's house, so it has to be."

"Then why don't we see it. I've looked under this chair three times and it still isn't showing up." Narco pouted, twirling a round, wreath-looking object by a string. It catches Somni's eye, looking almost identical to the dreamcatcher that REM described to her. All that was missing was the... oh.

"Where did you get that?" Somni asked through clenched teeth.

"What? Oh, this? I thought it looked cool, so I snagged it off the door down the hall. I think it was a kid's room or som-"

"That's the dreamcatcher, you dolt." With lithe fingers, Somni snatched the trinket from Narco, watching as the silver-lined fibers glinted as she twirled it.

"You should be thanking me for finding it." When Somni didn't reply, Narco took it as his cue to keep jabbering. "I was thinking we could make a quick stop into Site 2 to get some dinner. How about it?"

"How about no," Somni declined, pocketing the dreamcatcher. She checked the time on the clover-shaped clock hanging in the kitchen. "Let's get back to the hideout before we have some unwanted visitors."

"Who says they're unwanted," Narco complained under his breath, but the smack against the side of his head let him know that Somni was listening.

"I said let's go."

The two left the Techromancer's home with everything set in exactly the same place it was before they arrived. Blending into the crowds of people returning home before curfew, they slipped down a few side streets and back into the safety of their hideout—Narco's stomach grumbling all the way back.