Prologue

Tommy Leighton’s sleep stalked him relentlessly, during the day, stealthily, creeping in his mind, unwelcome, at night, like bullets, and his sleep zeroed in on him on the third night of running.

He didn’t run from his sleep, but from what came with it. He fled from what happened in his dreams, not to him, but to his twin sister, Whitney.

His betrayal of Whitney set his mind to hiding, as if remaining awake for days on end would alter the decisions he was making, changing the quickly approaching deadline, removing his responsibility for the inevitable results. His dreams always came true. He couldn’t bear to watch them in his sleep. Reality’s version was bound to be worse.

Not again, he thought to himself as his consciousness crept away from him, not her eyes!

Whether he was thinking of Whitney; or of the girl he so desperately wanted to meet was unclear, even to him. The truth of it being that he didn’t want to lose either of them even though he hadn’t met the girl with the ostrich feathers woven delicately into place amongst her fluffy locks of blonde. He wanted to meet her. He wanted to experience, first hand, the smile that crested her face like a summer sunrise, warming the air, chasing away the morning dew, and making his heart feel like wings. He wanted to know what it was about dandelions that the girl loved so much. She spoke of them in his dreams. She talked about them with wide eyes and a bright summer smile.

He wanted her not to die, because she had such a lively heart, and lovely mind. He hadn’t met her, but he needed to, because meeting her—getting to know her and have her close to him, would make the coming world more bearable.

As the waking world faded to black, replaced by his subconscious predictions of what was to come, he began to see why he shouldn’t have begged for his aunt and uncle to let them go to Camp Tumbling Waters, for the very first dream that crept its way into his mind, was of Whitney, wrapped in a white sheet, lying next to Kat, the girl with the ostrich feathers. His sleeping heart sank, because his choice to go to the camp may cost them both their lives, and it seemed that there may not be any choices he could make to save them both.

The barriers were breaking down. They were running out of time.