Dream Eyes

there, Miss Psychic Counselor?”
    “You can’t change the past, but you can find a better way to deal with it.”
    “Damn. You sound like a real therapist,” he said. “The expensive kind. But you’re not a real one, are you?”
    “No, I’m just a psychic counselor, but I do know something about how to find things that are lost in dreamscapes. You’re going about it the wrong way.”
    “Yeah?” He was starting to sound bored.
    She was losing him.
    “Come back to the surface with me,” she said. “Later, when you’re fully rested, I’ll help you search this dreamscape.”
    “I don’t think so.”
    “Why not?”
    “You’re right,” he said. “I’ve come down too far this time. Never been this deep before. But I can see things here that I’ve never seen before. Maybe tonight I’ll find what I’m looking for.”
    “It won’t do you any good if you can’t get back to the surface. I was afraid of this. Listen up, Coppersmith. You went too deep into your dreamscape tonight because of that psi-burn at Louise’s house today.”
    “You were there, too. Why didn’t you crash and burn the way I did? Have you got some special psychic superpower?”
    “No, I’m okay tonight because you protected me from the worst effects of the storm in Louise’s house,” she said. “But you were also shielding Nicole and Max and yourself, as well. Heaven only knows how much energy you had to focus through your ring to save us all. But you temporarily exhausted your senses in the process. You need to be sleeping soundly now, not visiting this dreamscape.”
    “You should leave before you get trapped here with me.”
    “I’m not leaving without you,” she said. “Come back with me, Judson.”
    “I don’t think that’s possible. Too late.”
    There was no emotion in the words—neither regret nor despair. Judson sounded as if he was making an observation about the weather, detached.
Like one of the ghosts,
she thought. Another chill shivered through her. This was not going well. She had never dealt with anyone who had fallen this far down the rabbit hole of a dreamscape. She was out of her depth, as well, but she was very sure of one thing. She had to get Judson back to the surface before he went any deeper.
    “No, it is not too late,” she said. “We can get out of here, but we have to do this together. You’re not the only one who went too deep tonight. I had to come this far down to find you. I am trapped with you.”
    “I told you that you should not have come here.”
    This time she thought she heard a flicker of emotional intensity in Judson’s dreamscape voice. He sounded angry. She told herself that was a good sign.
    “Well, I did come here and now I’m stuck,” she said. “If you don’t come with me, I won’t be able to leave this place.”
    “You’re the psychic dreamer. Get out of this hell while you still can.”
    “Not without you. Stop arguing with me. This isn’t just an ordinary dream. This could become a coma. We have to leave. Now.”
    It was weird, but she was starting to lose her temper, too. That wasn’t supposed to happen to her in a dreamscape. She had trained herself to be the clinical observer and guide. It was her job to gently lead the client out of the closed loop of a recurring nightmare. Any strong emotion on her part caused distortions and confusion in the world of dreams—a world that was constructed of distorted and confusing images.
    “You don’t give up easily, do you?” Judson asked. He sounded intrigued by her stubbornness.
    “No,” she said. “Not when it comes to my clients.”
    “Is that what I am? A client?”
    “That’s what you are tonight. Take my hand, Judson.” She made it a command.
    For a harrowing eternity in dreamtime, she thought that he would not respond. Then, to her overwhelming relief, he reached for her hand. She knew the action was just her mind’s way of interpreting what was happening. In a very real sense she was dreaming, too. Judson was resurfacing. He wasn’t really reaching for her hand. She knew that. The hand-holding was a dream metaphor.
    Which was why it came as a physical as well as a psychic jolt when she felt his powerful fingers lock fiercely around her wrist in the waking world. The shock brought her instantly out of the dreamscape. Judson came with her.
    He opened his eyes. Simultaneously he tightened his hand around her wrist.
    “It’s okay, Judson, you’re awake.” She gave him what she hoped