8. The Dream

Stones blanketed with lichens tickled the soles of Sofi's bare feet as she made her way to the riverbank. The moon hung above her, full and easily visible through the ceiling of mangrove trees. The pearly light revealed a figure that moved through the water with ease. Its movement slowed once it reached the shallows, as if waiting for Sofi to approach. Even in the darkness, Sofi could identify the red in Amancio's hair as he emerged onto shore.

    Sofi blinked and he was gone. She shuffled backwards into something – no, someone warm and solid. Hands settled onto her shoulders. Skin brushed her ear.

    "Flutter home, little mariposa."

    The voice, though male, did not belong to Amancio. Sofi turned to confront this new Encantado, but again, he had vanished. She stared into a leafy, vined sea of darkness. Such a darkness should have frightened her. Instead, she let it pull her along, draw her in as Amancio's song had.

    The echoes of the river faded at her back, only to give way to new sounds and scents. Saltwater clung to the air around her. The sound of a flute hitched a ride on the breeze. Sofi put her hands out and moved aside the black ferns and vines as they pressed in on her.

    The voice that did not belong to Amancio spoke again.

    Go home, butterfly. Stay away from this place.

    "Where are you?" Sofi gasped, surprising even herself. She did not wish to know the who or the why. All that mattered to her was where.

    "Take me to paradise," she demanded. That could be the only explanation behind the smell of the ocean, the sound of wind instruments, and the images that followed.

    She moved aside a leaf the size of an elephant's ear, and on the other side was a layer of reptilian skin pulled taut over muscle. She didn't know if she was looking at the tail or torso or both.

    Go back.

    She ducked left and dug past another veil of plants. A second set of skins interrupted the darkness. One was golden and spotted, while the other was bluish black. The skins vibrated as the air close to Sofi's ears carried a deep purr.

    This is not where you belong.

    Sofi stumbled and lost her footing. She fell backwards into water. The ocean closed in around her. The music from the flute became warbled and broken. Salt burned her nose.

    The next breath she took marked the end of the dream. As she lay there on her mattress, drenched in sweat, Sofi understood that this dream was not like the others. She remembered this one, while the ones before had all dissolved as soon as she regained consciousness.

A gentle knock on the door startled her.

Sofi's voice came out hoarse. "Not now."

The door opened anyway. Sofi glared at tia's face through the crack.

"I did not mean to wake you, but a young man is here for you."

    Sofi rolled over to face the wall. "Tell him to go away."

    Behind her, tia sighed. "I told him that you were resting, but he insists on talking to you. It's Antonio. You know, the poor boy who lost his sister?"

    For a moment, Sofi stopped thinking about the dream and actually paid attention to Maya's words. She turned her head away from the wall. "Toni? He wants to talk to me?"

    Tia pursed her lips. "He said he's not leaving until he sees you."

    Uncertain about what she was feeling in the moment, Sofi sat upright and nodded.

    "Okay. But I need to take a shower first."

    Tia dipped her chin. "I'll help him get comfortable while he waits."

    Sofi thought that a shower would give her enough time to think of the right words to say to Toni. But by the time she got out, dried off, and threw on a t-shirt dress, she still had no idea how to approach him. There were things she wanted to know: why he had lied about her involvement in Paola's abduction. Whether or not he intended to go after the Encantados.

According to the local gossip, Toni had undergone a complete personality change. Sofi knew they were just rumors, but no matter how it happened, you were never the same after losing a loved one. She knew that firsthand.

Sofi found him sitting on the common room sofa, staring at the coffee table, a cup of herbal tea in his hand. No doubt tia made it to keep him occupied until Sofi showed up, but it looked as though he hadn't touched it.

"Hi, Toni."

Sofi braced herself for when they made eye contact. Toni's appearance did not fit the textbook descriptions of grief. There were no bags under his eyes from crying or worrying. His posture didn't sag. The only major physical difference was that he hadn't shaved since the incident. Sofi decided that it made a fine distraction from the genuine signs of loss in his eyes. They were so empty now. There was once vitality and kindness, but that had all been erased.

And you helped do it.

That emptiness chilled Sofi to her core.

Toni didn't smile. "I need to talk to you."

    He glanced at Maya, who was preoccupied in the kitchen. He looked back at Sofi and silently mouthed the word, alone.

~

Sofi and Toni walked in silence through the town until they reached the bridge that crossed over the canal. The children that usually splashed in the shallow waterway and played soccer on the bridge were absent. Since Paola's abduction, the locals deemed even this spot to be too close to the Encantados' territory.

Toni hadn't said a single word during their walk. Sofi couldn't help thinking back to the rumors about his oddly reclusive behavior. Only then did she consider the risks of being out here alone with him.

Toni left Sofi's side, walked to the center of the bridge, and placed a hand on the wooden rail.

"I've been dreaming."

His words sparked the memory of the jungle reborn in black, the rolling flesh bathed in animal skins, and the combination of sea salt and harmonic flutes.

Sofi joined him on the bridge. Toni kept his gaze on the dirty canal.

"I was surrounded by –"

"Darkness," Sofi interrupted, "and the forest."

Toni's jaw went slack. "You too?"

Sofi shrugged and gripped the rail. "I had a feeling."

"Tell me." There was a certain edge in his voice that made Sofi want to take a step back.

But she stood her ground. "You first."

Toni hesitated before carrying on with his story. "I saw you too. You were running away, deeper into the forest it seemed. I called your name, tried to reach for your hand, but you paid me no mind. So I ran after you." He paused and chewed the inside of his cheek.

"And then what?" Sofi probed gently.

He blinked at her as if he had forgotten she was there.

"That's it. Then I woke up . . . . Any idea what it means?"

Sofi did her best to not sound rude. "How would I know? It was just a dream."

Toni looked anything but convinced. "Tell me about yours."

Toni's dream had been absent of the voices from hers. What would he think if she confessed about what she had seen and heard?

Sofi looked away. "There's nothing to tell. I was in the forest. It was dark and I was lost. That's all." She didn't give him time to process the lie. "Why didn't you tell anyone that I did it? That I'm the one who led Paola to the river?"

    A deep anger filled the empty pockets in Toni's eyes. He kept his voice soft, as if to somehow suppress it. "Believe me, I wanted to. I wanted everyone to know so they would run you out of town with their guns and machetes. They've done that before, you know. The superstition runs deep enough here."

    Sofi couldn't meet his eyes, but she felt the confrontation in his glare.

    "It wouldn't be just you that they would make leave. They would drive Arturo out too, and Maya, and your mamãe. Your family would have nowhere to go."

Sofi didn't know what good it would do, but she said it anyway. "I know I deserve it."

Without acknowledging her, he added, "I wanted to hurt you, Sofi . . . . Somehow you knew that Encantados would be waiting at the river. You knew and you brought my little sister along so you wouldn't feel alone in this sick game –"

"This is not a game to me!"

Again, Toni ignored her. "Imagine if someone did something like that to Arturo." Toni reached for something at his belt. Sofi hadn't seen it before. A knife belt.

This time she did take a step back.

He remained silent as he studied the ornate hunting knife sheathed in worn leather.

The warnings of her dream sounded off in her head one after the other.

Flutter home, little mariposa.

Go back.

This is not where you belong.

But like the voices in her dream and the day the Encantados took Paola, she did not run from this man.

"So what now? You want to take away my brother?" She asked. If someone did to Arturo what she had done to Paola . . . . She did not want to think of what she was capable of.

Toni's focus momentarily left the knife, as if perplexed that she would ask such a thing. Without breaking eye contact, he unsheathed the knife and rotated the flat of the blade between unprotected fingers.

"No. You lied to me. You led Paola into danger, but the Encantados are the ones who took my sister. And they manipulated you to do it."

Sofi finally understood why Toni brought her out here. This wasn't a confrontation. It was a confession.

"You cannot go after them, Toni. You have no idea –"

Toni jammed the knife into the rail, silencing her. Sofi looked down at the blade; it pierced the wood right between her index and middle finger.

The rumors were true. Toni's lost it.

"You are the last person who can tell me what to do."

Sofi didn't move her hand. Toni thought he was the only one who was angry?

This ends now.

She met his dark brown eyes, hoping that hers burned with more intensity than his.

"If you're going after them, then so am I."

"I can't stop you," he whispered, the softness in his voice betraying the intent in his posture. "I realized that a long time ago."

"I'm going to get Paola back," Sofi said. She didn't know how in the hell she would do it, but she meant every word.

"I know." Toni yanked the knife out of the wood and returned it to its belt. "Whatever Encantados you find, I'll kill. And I won't tell Arturo or Maya. Do we have a deal?"

I'll keep your secrets if you keep mine. That's what this was. The dream that linked them also brought them to this moment, this dark pact.

With Toni, Sofi consciously chose to plunge into that darkness. She wouldn't stop until she found some sort of redemption for what she had done. Or until, she admitted, she found paradise.

Whichever came first.