Dissonance: An Echo Trilogy Novella (Echo Trilogy, #2.5) Read Online Free PDF Page A

it’s the hormones, or what, but .  . .”
I shrugged. “The past few nights I’ve had this dream .  . .
about an accident that happened right there,” I said, pointing to the spot by
the road some fifty yards away. “I had the same dream last year—it was my first
echo, and it was of a possible future that never actually happened, but still .  . . the dream was troubling and I’ve been
on edge ever since, like I’m waiting for the accident to really happen, which
is ridiculous, because it was supposed to happen last winter, and it never did .” I hiked my bag up higher
on my shoulder. “And I guess being here is just making me antsier. So, yeah .  . .”
    “You dreamed of this bygone possibility last night, you said?”
Re-Nik asked.
    Biting my lip, I nodded.
    “Was it simply a regular dream, or an At-dream?”
    “ Well .  . .” I frowned.
“Honestly, it felt like an At-dream.”
    Re-Nik’s eyes narrowed, the corners of his mouth turning down in a
frown. “Such a thing should be impossible, and I do not use that word lightly.”
    “What do you mean?” I asked, not sure I wanted the answer.
    Re-Nik took his time, filling the silence with more thoughtful
squinting and a several-thousand-mile stare. “All unfulfilled future
possibilities disappear from the At the moment they
are passed by.” He paused for several heartbeats, and it felt like forever. “I
know this may sound confusing, but that echo—a bygone possibility of a future
that never happened—should not exist anymore.”
    “So it was just a dream then,” Kat said. “Case closed.”
    Both of them stared at me, waiting for a response I couldn’t give
them. Because I felt fairly certain that it had been an At-dream, and
that was precisely why it had been bothering me so much. According to Re, I
shouldn’t have been able to view an echo of Dr. Ramirez being hit by a car last
December because Dr. Ramirez hadn’t been
hit by a car, and the echo should have winked out of existence when the moment
passed. And yet .  . . “I, um—I’m not sure.”
    “You are not sure of what, Lex?” Dominic asked as he jogged around
the front of the car.
    “It’s a long story,” I said, frustration evident in my tone. I
could only think of one way to set my overactive imagination and buzzing nerves
to rest—I needed to venture into the At and examine
the echo in question. When it showed me making my solo, uneventful trip to get
coffee without Dr. Ramirez getting hit by a car, then I’d know once and
for all that it had truly been a dream and that I was getting myself worked up
over nothing.
    “I have to check the At ,” I told the
others. Upon taking in my companions’ question- and doubt-filled faces, I
added, “I can’t explain why, but I have to do this.”
    It was Nik who nodded first, then Kat. Dominic returned my stare,
his dark eyes hard, his expression set. “The At is
unstable; I will accompany you.”
    I wasn’t surprised and didn’t argue. I was anxious enough about
this particular trip into the At not to want to argue,
and it would go a long way to setting my jumpy nerves at ease to have him there
with me.
    “Alright,” I said, easing myself down onto the hot pavement and
sitting cross-legged. I reached up for Dominic to join me on the ground,
flashing him what I hoped was a reassuring smile. “Let’s get this over with.”
    Because I felt certain that as soon as I proved to myself that all
was as it should be, the mounting sense of waiting for something to happen
would evaporate. All of this echo-dream dread and confusion would be behind us,
and we’d be able to enjoy ourselves, worry free. I felt certain of it .  . . ish .

 
    4
    See & Believe

 
    “Oh my God, Dr. Ramirez!” Horrified and filled with disbelief so
intense it was verging on denial, I watched a past version of myself stumble
toward my graduate advisor’s lifeless body. This couldn’t be happening. There
was no way. Except it was happening.