The Dream Catchers

Yellow

Oh. No. 

"Candice, wake up!" she heard her mother calling her from downstairs. "You'll be late for school. Again."

"I'm uup."

Candice got up reluctantly, but the fresh smell of pancakes and coffee quickly woke her up. 

Last night had been a bit tiring.

 An old lady couldn't remember where she lived and none of her family knew where she was.

The woman was seconds away from getting hit by a moving car while trying to cross the street when Candice found her. The old woman's terror and pleads were still ringing loudly in her head. 

It still hadn't been that bad, compared to previous nightmares she'd entered. The rule remained- it could always get crazy real fast and you could rarely be prepared for everything. 

 Candice took a quick cold shower to clear her head, got dressed in her usual jeans and a band T-shirt and went downstairs. 

Her long auburn hair would look messy despite all efforts, so she decided she couldn't be bothered to fix it and just left it the way it was.

"Someone forgot how hair brushing works, I guess."

Tyler said behind his plate.

The plate which was now overflowing with muffins, bread and eggs and whatever else her brother had managed to fit in there.

With his 6.8’ ft he was huge and always ate a lot.

Her oldest brother was one of the strongest hunters and when he had to fight any of the few creatures that tried to get in their world, he usually didn’t need the others’ help.

After the war the Hunters protected people and maintained the balance here on Earth. 

Candice hadn’t been born when all that had  happened, but she’d heard the stories of her great grandfather’s bravery and how Specials fought against the Order.

 But good as he was, Candice’s other brother- Jamie was going to be the next Head of Hunters, after their father stepped off.

The Head Hunter was always someone from the Eddison family.

Always.

They'd always been the strongest and had lead most of the battles during the war. 

“If we were that strong, we would’ve saved her, and not just…”

Candice thought, but quickly tried to push the thought away.

There wasn’t a day that passed without her thinking about her Guardian.

And the day she'd been killed.

Or what Candice could’ve done to save her.

She reminded herself that was her mission now - to protect people.

“And you don’t have to stuff your mouth like that, Ty.”

Candice teased while taking her seat.

“Shut up, kid.”

Tyler was twenty and even though he was only three years older than her, he still treated her like she was still just a small child.

“Manners, both of you.”

Their mother said while pouring herself a cup of coffee.

“Where are Jamie and Dad?”

Candice asked while putting an unsurmountable amount of chocolate over her pancakes. 

“They had to leave early to secure the woods for the coming Samhain.”

"Right."

"Did you forget about it," her brother asked.

"I didn't."

She had.

Even though Samhain was one of the four festivals they celebrated.

They gathered in the woods close to the Yorkshire each year for appreciating the darker half of the year. If she had to choose, she'd say it was her favorite of all four celebrations they had.

It was always celebrated on the 31st of October.

According to the legend Samhain was a time when the 'doorways' to the Other World opened, allowing supernatural beings and the souls of the dead to come into our world.

People celebrated it differently, but it was because they didn’t have the knowledge and powers Specials had.

No one among her friends knew what her family was, or what the Catchers did except for Mia;

but her best friend had always kept the secret as her own, because she knew the importance of keeping the balance the way it was.

“Are your friends from the Tinkerbelle squad coming with you, by the way?”

Tyler snorted.

“Dream Catchers and stop making fun of us."

" I'm not. "

"Yes, you are."

He just shook his head and Candice continued" But yes, I guess they are. And if Eadan doesn't come, I'll kill him."

She stabbed a piece of pancake with her fork and heard the clatter of Tyler's falling on the floor.

Then it was him bumping his head on the table while trying to retrieve it.

Tyler adjusted his chair at least four times before he said

“I was just saying. Although, I still don’t know why your waste your time with any of that, when…”

“OK, never mind. I'm not listening to another lecture. I’m late, I’ll see you later.”

Candice grabbed her bag and gave her mom a kiss goodbye.

“Say “hi” to your boyfriend.”

Her brother shouted when she was almost out the front door.

“He’s not my boyfriend!” she replied and slammed the door shut. 

Why was Tyler constantly teasing her about Eadan?

It was true- her and Ed were very close, because they both specialized in the dreams the others from the Dream Catchers avoided, but still- they were only close friends.

Plus, Candice was not exactly what Eadan was normally attracted to.

And that was- nothing.

Eadan stood away from everything.

Candice headed for the bus stop where her friend was already waiting for her. His black hair, almost blue in the sunlight and even darker eyes were easily spotted from the distance.

A smile spread on his face when he saw her and started to take off his headphones while pushing away from the wall he’d been leaning on.

Candice heard the loud music coming from the speakers as she approached.

“Tough night?”

“Kind of,”

he said, squinting his eyes as he looked up at the morning sky.

Each Dream Catcher specialized in a different type of dream.

Candice’s were normally the ones about death and grief, while Eadan specialized in nightmares.

Also- nighterrors.

She sometimes shivered at the very thought of it. 

“Just the usual guy repeatedly cutting off a finger on the metal machine.”

He said, still looking up.

“Jesus, Ead. Are you all right?”

He nodded.

"Really?"

“Oh, yeah, yeah."

I'm better now- me and Lockjaw helped him break the repeating patterns.” 

He said absently and looked back at her.

All the others from her group had a guardian animal each.

Her family were Hunters and they didn’t have ones;

Hers had been an exception.

Eadan’s was a magpie and he’d named him Lockjaw because the first time he was given the bird, it pecked him real hard and left a scar on his wrist.

Candice had seen the magpie a few times and had to admit - Jockjaw was definitely a guardian with attitude.

“Anyway. How was yours?” Eadan asked.

“Definitely better than what you saw.”

“I’m a lucky guy, you know me. It's always 'one for sorrow, right?' ”

The both laughed.

According to the old legend, one magpie was a sign for sorrow.

Eadan was often joking about it, especially after something he couldn't have changed happened.

They headed for the coming bus, Candice telling him about exactly what had happened the night before.

After classes Candice, Eadan and Mia sat in the small park close to school, enjoying the last sunny days of October. The sun was low in the sky and it already smelled like autumn.

“You should really drop those.” Mia told Eadan as he was lightning his cigarette.

“Nah, don’t worry- I’ll die saving a man, who’s actually trying to stab me in the meantime or something.”

He said solemnly and exhaled the smoke from his nostrils.

“Idiot.”

She muttered and punched him on the shoulder.

“Are ryker and Felix skipping again?”

“You bet they are” he said.

"For how long?"

"No clue, you know it's different every time. Could be a day, or it could be a month. Although Ryker's a slacker, he's also an easily bored one, so it might be just a day with him."

Ryker and Felix were Dream Catchers too, same age as her second brother Jamie.

They were graduating this year.

Ryker specialized in lucid dreams and Felix was a healer; they often skipped classes – Ryker because he couldn’t be bothered with school overall.

Felix- because it sometimes took him a bit longer to recover.

He almost never talked about the dreams he visited and the people he saved, but Candice could easily guess a dream didn't have to be a straightforward horror in order for it to be horrible. 

“What about the festival?”

Candice beamed, trying to change the direction of her thoughts.

“I already chose a dress, you guys are coming, right?”

"I'm.. I don't know."

Mia was the friend Candice’d had the longest and everyone knew her, she'd basically grown up with her, so the "no humans" rule didn't refer to her.

  “Jamie will be there too” she teased. Mia and Jamie had been dancing around each other for years, and even though unions between humans and specials were not allowed, Candice saw nothing wrong with them spending time together.

“Yeah, well... He doesn’t even notice me.”

Mia muttered and hugged her knees.

“Oh, I can assure you he does.” 

Eadan said and before Mia could protest, he stubbed out his cigarette out and got up.

“Right, guys. I’ll see you tomorrow.."

"Where are you going?"

"I have to go home before my insane Guardian gets bored and comes up with ideas of stealing s**t from the store again.”

"Again?"

"Again."

'What did he take this time?"

"A pink key holder."

Both Candice and Mia looked at him.

 "What? ...But why?"

"He likes pink I guess."

The girls laughed and Mia said

“Okay, but we all gotta go- we have a maths test tomorrow.”

“Shit.” said Candice “I mean, yeah. Was it really tomorrow? "

" God, Candice, "

" Okay, okay. Let’s go. Still - are you guys coming?”

Eadan rolled his eyes and Mia only smiled

"I guess I can't refuse you anything."

"Me or my brother?"

They stayed for at least an hour longer than they were supposed to, just talking and teasing each other.

Candice was sure there was no point in trying to study for tomorrow, as they had already wasted most of their afternoon in the park.

Another thing was she didn't even remember anything that had been taught during their classes.