Page 18 of A Barista's Guide to Love & Larceny
“Halloween is your birthday?” Dani repeated incredulously. He nodded. “You’re aScorpio?”
That elicited a laugh from him, a bright vocal applause. “Guiltyas charged. I hope that won’t stop you from coming. You can bring a friend, if you want.”
“Is it a Halloween party?”
“Not officially,” he said with a touch of weariness. “But if you have your birthday on Halloween, it always ends up turning into a Halloween party. Come in costume, don’t come in costume, I’ll be happy to see you either way.”
“I’m actually off on Friday night,” she said. Was she really about to agree to go to a party? A social event at which she knew next to no one—on Halloween, no less? It boggled the mind. “I can look past the Scorpio thing for one night—since it’s your birthday and all.”
“Cool. Great.” He looked like he really did think it was coolandgreat. “Write down your quartzID for me? I’ll send you the address.” He dug in his backpack for a piece of paper and pencil, then handed both to her. “It starts at eight, but I doubt anyone will be there till nine.”
“Hot tip,” Dani said, scribbling down her QID and passing the materials back. “Thanks.” To their right, the ghost yowled as the door admitted a couple holding hands.
“That’s my cue.” Kass slung his backpack over one shoulder. “I’ll message you later, okay?”
“Okay,” she said happily. “Have a nice night.”
Dani returned to the register, watching him as he bounced past the window and out of sight. She realized he hadn’t said whether he’d be back at the café again this week, and felt a sag of disappointment at the possibility of not seeing him for three days.
Friday, she reassured herself as she turned her attention to the customers in front of her.At his party.If she could work up the courage to attend.
Six
Kass did not, in fact, message her later. Nor did he write her the following morning, even though Dani checked her quartzpad obsessively every three minutes. She wished she’d gotten his QID, too, but she’d been too caught up in the moment.
He invited you to his birthday party, she told herself in the afternoon as she made her way through the drizzly campus to the OS building.He wouldn’t have done that if he wasn’t interested.
Those thoughts fizzled from her brain when she found herself in front of Silva’s door once again, before the OneiroLabs interview. She didn’t exactly feel prepared for the task ahead. It was the promise of the remaining one hundred and fifty dollars that lifted her fist to the door—but she paused when she heard voices from the other side. Who else had Silva invited to this little tête-à-tête?
“Come in,” Silva called when Dani finally worked up the courage to knock. She opened the door to see Oliver sitting in front of Silva’s desk. They gave her a friendly wave. “Close the door behind you, please, Miss Lionet.”
“What’s going on?” Dani asked as she obeyed.
“I decided I had to do something,” Oliver said. “NDA or no NDA, I just couldn’t take it anymore. So I followed your advice and came to Professor Silva.”
“And I’m glad you did,” Silva said. “You shouldn’t have to go through this alone. OneiroLabs abandoned you, knowing full well what they were doing. I shudder to think how many other people walked away from that trial with the wires crossed in their brain.”
Dani wifted to the vacant chair next to Oliver and perched on the edge. “Do you think everyone who did the study is having the same side effects?”
“I don’t know,” Oliver said. “I can only speak for myself, and—and it’s bad.” They glanced at Silva, who gave them an encouraging nod. Oliver turned toward Dani and addressed her straight on. “I told you at the café that I’ve been getting trapped in my dreams. That was putting it lightly. They’re the most vivid nightmares I’ve ever had. They start out like a normal day, but then get twisted fast. It’s different every time, but usually ends with shadow creatures coming out of the walls, demons possessing my siblings, shit like that. It’s like something out of a horror movie, or a video game I can’t control.”
Silva snorted. “Ironic, considering that the whole point of the product is to control your dreams.”
“For real,” Oliver said. “The only time the product worked for me was the night I took it. My dream was pretty cool at first, I’m not going to lie. I was exploring this city that looked a lot like ancient Rome—I don’t know if that came from my subconscious or if it’s baked into the product. I could go where I wanted in the city for a while. Then I lost control, and they brought me out of it. Their lab assistant said I wasn’t a good candidate for the full trial and sent me home. My dreams started going wonky, like, two days later.”
“How long ago was that?” Dani asked.
Oliver closed one eye as they calculated. “I signed up as soon as I saw the flyer around the beginning of the month. They called me after less than a week. I wish I had given it a little more thought, but I didn’t want to miss my chance in case they had too much interest.”
“It isn’t your fault,” Silva said with an edge that clearly wasn’t meant for them. “It should have been a safe environment for you, no matter how much thought you put into it.”
“Exactly.” Dani paused. “So how do you wake up when you’re in one of the dreams?”
“My roommate Sadie managed to wake me up the first couple of times,” Oliver said. “But it’s been getting progressively worse. She had to call campus security one night because I broke the window in our room while I was sleeping. They took me to the clinic, and the doctors had to wake me with a spell. They did a scan of my brain, but they couldn’t see anything and said it was probably stress. Or that I could try a sleep specialist, which I can’t afford. They tried to call my brother, but I didn’t want to bother him, so I—” Oliver cut themself off as a trickle of blue crept into, then retreated from, Dani’s mind. “So here I am.”
“Hecate’s bones,” Dani said, shaken. That could have so easily been her if she’d never spoken to Silva. “That’s pretty fucked up.”
“Yeah. So I can only nap for about an hour at a time, and I have to set, like, a thousand alarms to wake up even then. Sadie’s been super nice about it, but I know it’s been rough for her, too.”
