Dating : Realm Runners Chapter 2

When Gavin opened his eyes, he was standing in the middle of a desert. In another dream. The scene looked very familiar. It looks as if this is the dream he had been having a lot lately. The one he wanted to warn Mrs. Harmen about before she had to get off the phone. As Gavin looked around, he could see the rune off in the distance that has been haunting him for a few weeks. The T with the crooked line through the middle. As he starts walking through the desert, his body begins to burn up. He looks up in the sky to see the orange flash he has seen before. In a short time, it will engulf and burn everything in the world. He could feel the intensity increasing as it grew closer. It would eventually engulf everything, including Gavin in it.

The wind picked up and the sand was whipping around viciously. It was blowing all around Gavin, almost like a tornado surrounding him. He could feel it pelting his skin and his face. Gavin closed his eyes hoping to avoid having the sand blow into them. All he could do was stand there and let it run its course right now.

He immediately tried to retract from the dream and awaken, but it was no use. Gavin was stuck. The energy from the blast was holding him down, stuck in this dream. This hasn’t happened to him before, he wondered. He focused on the energy pulses of the heat and the grip which held him down. He began to sense a weak point in it. After catching on to the pattern of when it would go weakest, on it’s third pulsation, he snapped out of it and immediately retracted. Awakening in his bed abruptly, very worried by what had just occurred.

Forgetting he was flying home later that night, he pulled out his phone and booked a flight home back to London for that evening. He then grabbed his bag and started off for the studio art room. Gavin walked into the classroom, Leo following close behind him. He sat down and glared at the wall, not fully prepared to talk about it with his best friend.

“Hey man you okay? You look a little pale.” Leo asked worried.

“I’ll be okay. Don’t really want to talk about it.” Gavin countered. Maybe he should talk to him about it? No, he can’t. Don’t want to worry the big guy too much. Just endure class until the end of the day, then we’re homebound after. I can do this, Gavin thought. Just hang in there.

“I know what’ll pick you up, man. Let’s go out on the town tonight and celebrate yesterday’s victory? Whaddya say?” Leo was just trying to be a friend. Gavin felt bad for letting him down this weekend.

“I’m going back to London this weekend, Leo. I’m sorry. How about the weekend after I get back? We can hang out then and go to that bar we always point out and walk by, but never went? What’s the name of it?” Gavin wanted to make it up to him somehow. They always walked past the bar and said they would go one day. That should get Leo off of his back for now.

“The Lion’s Fountain. Yeah, that’d be awesome actually!” Leo got that big grin again across his entire face after that.

“Alright then it’s settled!” They shook hands and agreed to it as class was coming to a close.

“Keep in touch while you’re there, okay? I’ll be texting Mae too, so no avoiding it, alright?” Leo said as they walked back to their dorms. They got to the separation in the hall and stopped and turned to each other.

“Alright, you know it Leo.” They waved goodbye and went their own ways. Leo looked like he headed for the cafeteria. Gavin was back in his own room. Back where it was most comforting for him. At least right now. Looking at his phone, it was four thirty p.m. His plane left in three hours. He hurriedly grabbed everything he had prepared already, his travel suitcase and a duffel bag full of clothes and hygiene items. Gavin rolled the wheels out on the suitcase and set the duffel bag on top of it and continued to wheel it out to the curb.

From there, he hailed a cab, and ended up rushing through traffic. Traffic that was in the streets and in the airport as well. He managed to make it to the gate with fifteen minutes to spare. Usually they were letting people board by now, but no one was doing so at the moment. He glanced around and saw people still sitting out in the boarding area. Not questioning anything, he sat down and decided to survey the area. He left his bags by where had sat down, away from everyone else. He then got up and walked up to the window. A plane was taxiing over to the gate currently.

Glancing over at the gate, he saw the gate workers communicating. A couple pointed his way. Gavin could tell he had never seen them before, but have they seen him? A few seconds later a voice came over the PA and announced open for boarding. Gavin grabbed his luggage, his ticket, and he headed for the gate. When he approached the woman at the door, she stared at him a second or two too long before telling him to go on through.

He boarded the plane locating the letter and seat combination that was assigned to him. Carrying his luggage, he lifted it up into the assigned space for it above his seat. He then closed the luggage door and sat down. He wasn’t going to buckle in until his neighboring seat passengers were aboard, or unless they were getting ready to leave. Gavin waited until the doors were shut, then buckled in to the seat nearest the window, which no one had claimed. This would help him during the flight to avoid all of the other people in the center of the crowd.

He wasn’t too keen on crowds. Gavin could feel all the energy and emotion coming out of them, so he tended to avoid them when possible. If it wasn’t possible, he had to block it out as much as he could. It just felt so chaotic to him. Like a maelstrom of everyone else’s problems picking him up off of his feet and carrying him to their ocean of pain, then tossing him in and watching him drown in their endless waves of despair.

Gavin looked out of the window and changed his focus to the moving scenery. After about fifteen minutes of taking it in, he began to doze off. He didn’t wake up until an announcement rang out saying they’d be landing soon. Looking out of his window he could see it. Oh the beauty of it, he thought, looking out onto the city of London from above, all lit up to light the city. It was like a beacon calling out to Gavin. He was home, and also that he had a lot to think about this time back.

As the passengers got up and started grabbing their belongings, Gavin waited back for people to clear out before following them out. He wheeled his bags down the hallway, and down an escalator. Approaching the pickup area, he could make out his Aunt’s Ford Expedition waiting outside, with her standing beside it. Gavin came out of the door and was attacked by his Aunt who grabbed him and hugged him immediately.

“There he is! It’s so good to see you, Gavin” she said as she finally released him. He could breathe now.

“Hello Mae, same to you!” as he hugged her back and took his belongings to the trunk. She climbed in the driver’s seat, and began fidgeting with something in the middle console.

“How was the flight? Leo says hi by the way, I just texted him and told him I got the package.” She said amusingly.

“Well, I slept the whole way so it was good. Unless something happened while I slept but who knows?” Gavin joked back at her, as he climbed into the passenger seat and buckled in.

Aunt Mae started the SUV and drove off towards home. The only home Gavin has known for the last thirteen years he’s been under Mae’s supervision. She had begun rambling on about something involving birds and windmills. Gavin was acting like he was listening while he stared out of the window, as the rain had begun to fall. Not heavy, but just light enough to be seen that it was wet outside. Gavin leaned further and put his head against the glass.

He couldn’t shake the feeling of seeing his parents in the dream, he dwelled on the memories just like anyone would. Then he began to miss his childhood home, he was sure that would make him feel better. He decided then to visit the house while he was around. It had been marked off and condemned even though there was visibly nothing wrong with it. He could easily get in to have another look. Gavin felt like it was calling out to him.

“Gavin! Gavin, earth to Gavin?!?” it was actually Aunt Mae. He turned to her as they approached their home.

“Home, sweet home!” Aunt Mae said as she receded from the SUV into the front door. Gavin gathered his belongings and went right into the living room to settle down for a moment. Mae stood in the doorway and had her arms folded. Gavin knew this meant business. As great as she could be, she could be very stern and serious. The folding of the arms was a foreshadowing.

“Are you in any hurry? Can we talk?” she asked Gavin. Either way, she was already going to sit by him on the couch.

“Of course, Mae.” he said as she scooted closer.

“Gavin, you remember when your parents passed and you inherited some stuff, right? A few things from your mother and your father?” she grabbed his hand, and was looking directly into his eyes. He could feel her reading him. What he is feeling, but why?

“Yes, I do.” Gavin nodded as he peered back into her eyes as well. Green eyes. Very powerful, trance inducing eyes.

“Okay well it might sound weird, but I have something else for you. Your parents left it to me when they passed. All it said was to keep taking care of you, and also that one day, when you seem at your lowest and you need something to get you going again, I’m supposed to give this to you. Gavin the way things have been going, I think that time is now.” she had started crying as she reached into her left jean pocket and pulled out an envelope. A very small manila envelope, folded up in half. Whatever was inside was avoiding detection at the moment.

“Here, open it.” she said as she handed it to him. He could feel something metallic in the side he missed earlier. He opened the slit and turned it upside down. After giving it a shake, a golden key fell into Gavin’s hand. He immediately put it to his face and began to look for something familiar about it, but it was not there.

“A key? Did they say what it goes to?” Gavin asked curiously. Still investigating the details between his fingers.

“No. The letter said that I would know when, and that you would take care of the rest. Maybe it’s for something you had passed down to you is what I had always assumed.” She was looking at the key curiously as well. Thinking about what she said, Gavin tried to remember what he had gotten, and if any of them had locks. Then he remembered the curious looking box he had received after the accident, and wondered how someone could leave a loved one something they couldn’t open. This had to be the answer, he thought.

“That’s it! Thank you Mae, you are the best. They were right to give it to you, you know?” Gavin said, leaping up from the couch, he picked her up and embraced her. He then pecked her on the cheek, and said good night before heading to his room to do some digging. When he inherited these things, he had put them away in a box and left them for dead because he had not known what to do with them, or that they just brought too much pain with seeing them out in the room.

Gavin dug in the back of his closet in his room to get the box. He lifted it to the front of the closet and then slowly and carefully dumped everything out onto the floor of his room. He also had a few things they bought for him when he was very young and in their care, a few of them had locks too. A journal, a small chest, and a small jewelry case. From what he inherited he had a briefcase, another journal, and of course, the box. He threw them all on the bed and grabbed the key, then position himself beside them.

First, let’s try the journals, he was thinking. Putting the key in lock of the first journal, no luck. The second journal felt promising, but gave nothing as well. Gavin felt this disappointment through all of his things he tried the key on, until there was nothing left to try. He repeated it again hoping he had missed something, but again he was let down.

How could he have something so valuable from his parents, that he didn’t know what it was for? He laid there fiddling with the key between his fingers until he thought of something. Since he planned on going back to the old house tomorrow, let’s bring the key there. If there is nothing here, maybe he will find what is needed there. He then agreed with himself to carry this out, and went to sleep anxious about what the next day could bring.

As he fell asleep, he was awakened in a dream. Gavin was back in his house. He had a feeling that this dream would be meaningful, so he sit back and let it play out in front of him. As he watched, his father was coming in from a business trip, carrying the briefcase Gavin now possessed. Following his father into the master bedroom, he watched as his father opened a lock by a drawer in the end table beside their bed. When he did so, a secret compartment dropped from the back of the end table and showed somewhere to hide things, books, papers, in this case, an entire briefcase.

Gavin approached the area and looked in his father’s hand. Immediately he recognized the key he was given the previous night. Now knowing what needed to be done, he began to retract from the dream. As he began, his father seemed to be staring off into nothing, but this nothing happened to be directly aimed at Gavin. It felt like they were making eye contact, but it couldn’t be possible. As he was retracting the rest of the way, he could see his father’s smiling face fading away into the emptiness.

He then awoke smiling as well at these latest revelations. Gavin jumped up, key already in hand and went out to his car. A Ford Mustang. The Ford tradition had been going since his parents gave birth to him and even his Aunt was in on it. He started the pony up and let it run, just to sit and listen for a minute before heading off towards the house.

He then finally arrived, after taking backroads and relaxing from the cruise, about an hour later. When he visited, he always parked a couple blocks way because the house was condemned. Even though nothing was wrong with it, inside or out, the city had condemned it and forgotten about it, it seemed. He tucked the key into his pants pocket and exited the car.

As he was walking his mind was racing with everything he might possibly find in the drawer. Money, maybe? A bunch of NASA secrets? Maybe even the full explanation of what happened to his parents. Gavin was always told it was a work accident involving both his parents. He always felt like he knew better than that, though. His parents were too smart to have accidents, he always thought.

He finally reached the block the house was located. Slipping behind the alley, he had taken a shortcut not many others knew about, and ended right in the backyard. Approaching the house, he pushed the tarp to the side and entered through the backdoor. Once inside, he took a moment to remember all the good things that had been here previously. Now down to nothing. Standing in the living room where he had so often gone back in his dreams to see them again. He headed upstairs for the master bedroom.

When he got there, it seemed different than last time he visited. All of the furniture coverings were removed and it was a mess. Almost like someone had stopped in, but who else would? As Gavin reached the end table he recognized from the dream, he got down on his knees and inspected it a little more closely. Definitely a locking mechanism, and most definitely a drop down hidden drawer.

He took the key and placed it in the lock, and turned it to the right. To his delight it clicked and fell open. He reached his arm in there and near the bottom, he grazed what felt like leather. He reached further down and pulled it out. A leather journal. Very excited to find out what is hidden in it, he sits down on the bed and slowly opens the journal, as if doing it faster could catastrophically damage it and it’s contents.

He looked down on the first page, and nothing. He started flipping page by page, just looking for something to be in there somewhere, anywhere. About three quarters of the way through the book, he found a page. All that was there was this one rune symbol. Given it did look familiar to him, he could not place it in his angst right now. He looked through the rest of the pages and came up empty. Meaning all of that he just went through the past twelve hours, lead him here, for this? Something isn’t right, Gavin said as he got back in the car, journal in hand.

After pulling over from driving on his way home, he tried for the life of him to figure out what any of this meant. This crooked T shaped letter is all he has to go on from things left to him by his parents. Thinking of who could help him, he immediately took a picture of the symbol. As he went to send it to Mrs. Harmen, he saw something familiar. In his sent messages to Mrs. Harmen, last time they had spoken, he had sent her the picture of the same exact ruin!

“What an idiot!” Gavin exclaimed. He immediately sent the picture again to Mrs. Harmen and told her the story about where it was in his father’s belongings and how it was locked up until Gavin was ready. If anyone knew these runes, Mrs. Harmen did. Gavin sat and contemplated for a minute before she finally texted him back.

“Incredible. I am still looking for what it means. Busy here at the store, call you when I can, be safe Gavin.” As disappointed as he was, he knew whatever she would find would be worth the wait, it always was with her.