I wouldn’t be able to describe with enough accuracy how it was to dreamwalk through Hollow Creek, what I experienced was far beyond any of my dreams before, something that I quickly began to think couldn't be a product of my imagination.

So I started writing a diary after a couple of days, recording my incursions and finding. I would ward a place during the day, explore it in the night, and write about it through a few days, repeating the exploring cycle each time.

First I began exploring my neighborhood, fences, locked doors or even walls weren’t a problem, as long as I wanted it to be that way. Shortly after I realized I was able to bring things with me, this happened to me in a funny way, one day I tried a pair of sunglasses in someone else's dorm room, next thing I knew it was that they woke up with me the next morning, till this day I'm not really sure if I took them back.

There was something off about being able to enter other people's people's houses without being noticed and while they were in, to say so I realized how dangerous it could be very early, but I didn’t care.

The next few days as had happened before, I was able to see firsthand other’s memories walking around the neighborhood. It was a phenomenon that clicked on and off with no recognizable pattern for me at least. Sometimes I would recognize the spirit-like version of the people after visiting their homes, but mostly I wasn’t sure if they were people, memories, or spirits. Most of them looked like a gaze on the wind or fragments of a story, people discussing or walking around. The memory of someone's first ride on a bike, a kiss session in the ally, or even an old man cutting the grass.

Many of them weren’t that interesting, and now and then If I found one to be it, I would find its owner not so far away having a nice sleep. I was able to explore many of my neighborhoods' lifestyles in that way and eventually, I became bored.

I think I was in the middle of my exploration of Hollo Creek's Downtown when it happened, by that moment my diary had about a hundred entries. By this moment I had already done a fair amount of research both online and on my own. My intention was to take care of those dangers that may be there while I was doing what I call Nightwalking, another name for Dreamwalking. By that point, I was already tired of reading about the risk of getting lost or avoiding being outside your own body too many times.

I must have taken too lightly what I read in lack of evidence, I surely was too careless, too daring, too bold.

Till that day, I had always depended on my alarm to wake up, after all, I’m no little proud to be a very regular sleeper, unlike most people my age. Every day after washing my teeth and spending dealing with roundabouts inside my head, I go to bed between eleven and ten. Then, every morning I wake up by seven or eight, giving myself eight to nine hours of sleep per day. That keeps me awake up till the night feeling well enough to endure whatever the day brings in, but that night was different.

I remember being caught on what I was able to find in my summer school down in Hollow Park, or digging inside a pile of archives in the colliding library when no one was around. During these days, I would be stirring up my exploration till the very last minute, but that night, that terrific night after rushing into my room, I stood in front of my bed after having broken through my windows only to find nothing but an empty bed.

For the first time under the sunlight, I was Nightwalking, and it seemed that somehow, my body had woken up and started the day.

I fell prey to my reckless behavior, shocked by the circumstances and barely even able to imagine what could have happened. So hearing my mom's voice sneaking from the hallway, I quietly opened my room’s door and looked from its gap, to find myself duplicated in the hallroom.

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There was I, or what it looked to be me, taking breakfast with my family as if it were nothing. At that moment I thought, how could it be? I fell prey to the panic. I didn’t know what to do.

It took me a while to calm down, up to that point, what I had found in my explorations paled in front of what was ahead to come. It was just a matter of common sense, as I tried to low-down both my breath and heart rate, I had the certainty that I would be talking to that thing soon.

Somehow thought it took him about two hours to come back, and when he did it, I was sitting on my bed looking right at him. He didn’t show any sign of surprise, that should have been my first clue.

— Oh, hey, I was wondering when would you come back —

He said.

— ... —

I couldn't answer back.

— I hadn’t had a meal like that in a long, long time —

I tried to go straight to the point.

— What are you? and what are you doing with my body? —

I said, sounding bolder than I thought, I was angry it seemed, and for a good reason.

— I’m Oliver Strange, of course, this house's child —

He said, smiling.

Then, the strangest thing happened, and I jumped out of my bed grabbed him from the shirt, and shook him. Neither I was able to believe what was happening. But he was lying.

— Get the fuck out of my body and leave my family alone —

He looked at me funny and grabbing my left hand with an inhuman strength, said.

— You better watch out what you say, kid —

For a second, I thought and felt like he would break it. Instead and out of nowhere, an invisible force shook me out of my place, pulling me like a sandbag and throwing my body against the walk. A minute after while I was still resenting the blow, my mom’s voice asked behind the locked door.

— What was that Oli? Is everything ok? —

Almost immediately, he answered with a passive voice.

— Everything’s in order Mom, I’m just ordering my room —

While looking at me with pity, he came closer, and grabbing me by the hair, put me in such excruciating pain that I started to fear for my life.

— You understand now? I'm taking this body and everything else you have —

He said it strongly, and confident, like it was certain from the very start. And, how to blame him? It took me less than five minutes to realize, that whatever he was, it was very far from me to handle.

And I knew it, I had screwed it.

Many things happened inside my mind at that moment, if I hadn’t started to go Nightwalking in the first place. If I had only ignored it or taken more serious precautions on my walks. I didn’t know anything about what I had gotten into. And these were the consequences.

I spent the rest of that day locked in my room, waiting for Him to come back.

From the morning till after my sleep time, I remained in awe, thinking about what I was going to do when he arrived. When he finally crossed the door, I fell paralyzed under the fear again. I didn't know what was happening to me.

— Oh, you’re still here —

I was speechless, shaking in a corner for no reason. I felt under water, and found my breath heavy, as if there was not enough oxygen in the air. I was overwhelmed by his presence.

— What? — he insisted.

— What do you want from me? —

I managed to ask, he mocked me.

— You’ll eventually know Oli—

I didn't know what he meant.

— But there’s still something you can do for me, you can leave, right now —

He said, walking past me and getting into bed like I wasn’t even something to be worried about.

— What about if I tell... my mother, brother, or anyone else about you? — laying on my bed, I heard a snort.

— Do you really want to make your family that? —

He turned at me for a second, watched me with death-seeking eyes, and for a moment... I swear I was able to smell blood in the air.

— I thought you were smarter than that —

And he was right, to ask that was a very dumb idea.

If I hadn’t told anyone about my Nighwalks from the start it was because of the crazy it would sound, to explain how I had gotten into this situation was then, even crazier. What was worse, now I had an added risk, that he would have a pay-back on my family.

That same night, I left my house with nothing else than a bag filled with two pairs of pants, a few t-shirts, and a handful of things that I thought were relevant to survive. I ran away into the woods beyond our backyard and waited, awake and looking into my house from the distance.

There were no dreams that night, nor exploration, nor that safety feeling I had always enjoyed without knowing under my family’s roof.

I was alone in the dark, knowing that my whole life had been taken as a hostage, and full of questions.

Who or what was Him? What were his intentions? How did it find me? and most importantly... what was I now?