Cold, hard, rough…

“Ouch, this kind of hurts.”

Lee opened her eyes, but they didn’t take in too much light. Once her pupils dilated, she was able to take in her surroundings. Gray. More specifically, stone. The floor seemed to be some sort of concrete with stone brick walls surrounding her. The room seemed to be flipped on its side.

Oh wait.

Lee lifted her scrunched cheek from the bitter floor, wiping off the sticking sediment. She sat up from her side, pushing her upper body up with her hands. The floor was now where the floor should be and the walls enclosed her in a small room. She quickly shook her head, trying to awaken both her body and mind. Her eyes and body protested, but she stood up to better take in her surroundings.

She was in a small room. The word room didn't describe it well. More like a closet. It barely gave her enough room to even lay down. Three of the walls were gray stone brick while the last one was closely spaced gray metal bars. She seemed to be in a cell of some sort. Beyond the bars were even more gray walls, holding a torch that dimly lit her cell. Below the torch sat…

“You’re here too?”

Lee looked quizzically at the figure outside her cell. It was the same figure that followed her all the way home from the graveyard. The black dog sat outside her cell, wagging its tail while lightly jingling large keys in its mouth.

“Now you take back those damn keys” Lee rolled her eyes.

Lightly shaking the bars to double check she was locked in, she reached her arm through the bars to the dog.

“I would appreciate those right now. You practically forced me to take them earlier. Come here.”

The dog sat just out of her reach, tilting its head at her request.

“C’mon dog, give it here. Keys. Here. Now.”

Its black eyes stared blankly back at her.

“Oh my god you’re infuriating.” her tone then lightened, as if she were talking to a baby, “Come here boy. Come here. Who's a good boy? You are. Now come here. Bring me the keys.”

Lee then attempted to whistle, but mostly just spit a bit while blowing air through her lips.

The dog let out a cough, maybe a wheeze? Whatever it was, it finally obeyed her orders and brought the keys. She snatched them before the dog could change its mind.

“I’m not baby talking you like that every time I need something from you. You better figure something out.”

The keys were just as big and rustic as before she went to sleep. She pressed one of her hands against the outside of her cell, feeling for a keyhole. There it is. They snuggly fit and with both of her hands, she twisted the keys. The lock came undone with a nice ker-chunk sound.

“I knew it would sound like that.”

Wearing a satisfactory smile much too rare for a girl of her beauty, Lee walked out of the cell next to the dog.

“It’s kind of weird that you’re here, but I guess I was petting you right before I fell asleep. I’m just glad it finally worked, although this dream is a bit disappointing.”

For the past couple of weeks, Lee had been overloading her potassium intake, eating multiple bananas a day. She had read somewhere that increasing your potassium intake would increase the chances of having a lucid dream. Never in her life had she had one , but she always wanted to (a lucid dream, not a banana). Complete control and freedom, that’s what lucid dreams mean, or at least what the internet said about them. Escaping her horrid life in a dream world that she controlled, a perfect paradise. Even if it cost her a couple extra dollars in bananas a week, it seemed to pay off and now she was having one, even if it was quite boring so far.

“Ok then, up up and away.”

With an arm pointed to the ceiling, Lee mustered all of her strength and jumped in the air. Sadly, she came crashing back down to earth and landed hard with her knees screaming in pain.

“Agh, is feeling pain in a dream normal? And why am I so tired? This is false advertising.”

She stretched her muscles, feeling as if she had just gone for a long hike.

“This is kind of a stupid lucid dream, but at least I’m conscious.”

Outside of her cell were long hallways that seemed to stretch down out of her sight. Her cell was just one of many. The hallways were quite cramped, with only about a foot of headspace above and the width only allowing maybe two people to stand side by side. Torches placed repeatedly down the hallways were the only source of light, illuminating the dull gray stone. The tightness of the hallways made her uncomfortable, even though she wasn’t claustrophobic.

She looked down at the floor and found her gray sweatpants blending into the gray stone ground. Everything around her seemed to be different shades of gray, except for the dog, who looked like a shadow against a gray background.

“Why is my dream so monochromatic? I’m much more creative than this.”

She sighed and looked at the dog.

“Now which way?”

The hallways outside her cell stretched out of her sight from both sides, each looking identical. She stood there for a few seconds before a phrase which belonged her brother dropped into her mind.

Right is right.

At face value, the words don’t seem all that profound. This would make sense since it came from her dimwit brother, but it was Lee’s interpretation of this saying that held value. She had seen her brother use it many times when making pointless decisions. Essentially, her interpretation was more around “When faced with a decision, it’s better to act promptly than to get stuck in indecisiveness.” She just used her brother’s short phrase to remind her of this.

You’re not completely useless Paul. Good for you!

Her steps echoed as she traversed down the narrow hallways to the right. The only other sounds were the crackle of the torch flames and the scratching of the dog’s nails against the hard floor.

Figures behind bars came into her peripheral vision as she passed more cells. All of them were laying down with their backs turned from the outside. Even if this was a dream, Lee still thought it would be weird to look at people sleeping, so she kept walking.

A couple cells ahead, there was a figure standing at the bars. The natural introvert in Lee kept her head down to avoid interacting with this unknown entity.

“Please wait. Is it really you? How’d you get out?”

Lee stopped. Every instinct in her was yelling at her to continue walking by, avoiding any social interaction with this stranger, but his gentle voice sounded like a grandpa calling out to their beloved grandchild. She stopped, turning her gaze towards the old man.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“Oh my God!” Lee covered her mouth gasping.

The man behind the cell, or maybe more appropriately, the talking corpse behind the cell had gray shriveled skin. A matted white beard hung all the way down to his waistline and his lips were cracked, now bleeding from talking. All of that was grotesque enough, but what made her gasp were his orbits. The man’s eyes, or lack thereof, were covered in scars. It looked as if a predatory bird had minced the upper half of his face.

Her heart broke looking at this crippled man.

“I’m sorry, I left the keys back in my cell, I can go get them…”

“There’s no time.” The man stuck his hands through the iron bars, grabbing onto Lee’s hands, “I must give you something with the last of my strength.”

“Nope.” Lee broke his weak grasp and quickly walked off.

“No, wait! I have to do this before I’m gone! It's for you!”

The old man’s yells started to awaken the entire cell block. Lee’s brisk walk turned to a jog that turned into a run as more and more prisoners awakened. Even with her sore body, she had been rejuvenated with a burst of energy, a fight or flight response. She made it to what seemed like the end of the hallway. Ducking around the corner light of breath, she checked to make sure it was truly the end of the cells. Once she had confirmed it was all clear, her hands fell against her knees as she hunched over gasping for air.

“W-why would my mind create that old, gross, perverted… thing! This dream sucks.”

She continued to sucking for air.

“I was not about to find out… what he was going to give me with ‘the last of his strength.’ Like what the hell? I was looking forward to my first lucid dream and so far all there had been is boring gray architecture and a perverted old dude.”

She looked at the dog, who had followed her, waiting for him to respond.

“Since this is a dream, I was expecting you to talk or something. Gah! This sucks!”

Now safe from the sight of prisoners, Lee looked at what was in front of her.

“You gotta be shitting me. More exercise?”

A long stone staircase seemed to go on for eternity in front of her. Counting the steps would be a futile exercise in counting to infinity. Her two options were either to walk past awakened prisoners or a hellish stairway to heaven.

“Wait, where are you going?”

The dog began to climb the stairs, leaving her behind.

“Please don’t leave me. Come back. Come here boy… Please? Agh!”

With reluctant legs, Lee followed the dog up the stairs.

###

Almost a half hour later, the dog reached the top of the staircase, stopping just a few steps short of the apex. It looked back at Lee, who was perhaps two to three flights behind.

“Don’t look so smugly you stupid mutt.”

Leaning against the wall, willing each leg up onto the next step, she followed the dog all the way to the top. Her tiredness was immeasurable and with the increase of fatigue grew frustration. That frustration ended up being directed at the only living things in sight.

“Dumb dog. Why’d you climb this shit?”

Rolling her eyes at the dog, she looked at what the stairs led to.

More gray hallways, are you serious!

Before she could verbalize her disappointment, her pupils shifted to the left.

“Oh shoot.”

Lee climbed a few steps back down the stairs, hiding herself from view. The dog followed her actions.

About twenty feet down the hallways was what seemed to be a prison guard. He was leaned up against the wall with his eyes closed. Full plate armor covered his body, but Lee almost didn’t notice at first because of how dull it was. Armor was supposed to be shiny, but this blended in with the walls.

“Can my mind really not muster up some better looking armor? Do I need to replace the graphics card in my brain or something?”

The guard began to stir from his nap. Lee ducked her head back down, laying on the stairs.

“What do I do?” she looked over to the dog, “What am I talking about? This is a dream, no need to be scared. I never get scared.”

Everything up until this point had been so fast paced, she had almost forgotten about one of her core traits. One that she was very proud of. She never got scared. Lee self proclaimed herself as the bravest person she knows. Nothing could phase her. What happened in the prison cells with the perverted old man… Well, that was just shock. She only ran away because it was the most logical thing to do at that moment, not because she was scared. Of course!

She stood up.

“Alright, I’m going in… Why am I still talking to you?”

The dog tilted its head back at her.

Ignoring the canine, she came to a quick decision and started walking towards the guard.

Right is right. You can get away with a lot in life if you just act like you know what you’re doing. Plus, it’s my dream. I can do whatever I want.

Her pace was constant, her steps firm. She exuded an aura of confidence. As she got closer, her vision collected more details. The guard had short blonde hair, with pointed ears. His face was slim, almost elongated.

An elf? At least there is finally something interesting in this dream.

She noted a metal spear and shield on the other side of him. The guard slowly opened his eyes, they squinted in her direction.

“Mornin’” Lee nodded.

“Erm…uh, morning.” The guard said, rubbing his eyes.

A smirk stretched across her face as she continued past him.

“W-wait.” A hand grasped her shoulder.

“Is there a problem sir?” she looked up at the guard.

The guard was still rubbing his tired eyes, but then they sprang open.

“P-prisoner! Loose!”

“I’m sorry, but you’re terribly conf-”

The guard reached down at a horn on his hip. Lee’s eyes darted to the spear leaning against the wall. She needed to act before he got a chance to blow his horn and alert more guards.

Damn this is heavy.

She brought the spear up to her shoulder, but stumbled backwards. This gave the guard enough time to inhale deeply then let out an ear rattling scream.

“Prisoner Loose!”

What? Why didn’t he use the horn?

She thrusted the spear at the guard but he batted it to the side as if it were made of paper. The guard then grabbed her and pushed her against the wall.

“How’d you get you? How many-”

The guard let go of Lee’s shoulder, and went tumbling backwards near the edge of the stairs. The dog was snarling down to her left. Her vision went back to the guard, who lifted himself to his knees and brought the horn to his lips, lightly blowing it. A light hum came from the horn, not even as loud as a muted trumpet.

His scream was more effective than that tiny thing.

After a moment of silence, a sound louder and more powerful than anything Lee had experienced blasted forth. Her whole body vibrated and the stone walls crumpled a bit.

“Wuh- what the hell was that?”

The dog leapt into action, tackling the guard down the stairs. They were out of Lee’s eyesight, but not earshot. High pitched male screams followed by the sound of tearing flesh and the cracking of bones.

Lee had seen her share of horror movies, hell, she even enjoyed them. No gore in any movie she had ever seen had bothered her. It was simply just interesting, not gross… but it was nothing compared to the real thing.

She leaned over and hurled from the sound of muscles and ligaments tearing apart. Her body uncontrollably shook.

Is this real? Is this really happening?

Her eyes darted back and forth, not really ever focusing or stopping on one particular thing. The scratching of the dog’s claws on the stone brought her back to reality.

Her vision still had trouble focusing, all she saw was a fuzzy black spot walking past her. It continued on down the hallway and she mindlessly followed it.

###

Lee had been following the black fuzzy spot for who knows how long, but the dog finally stopped in front of a wooden door with a large keyhole. It took one of its paws and gently scratched the door.

Coming back to her senses, she looked down at the dog.

“I-I forgot the keys in the cell,” her lifeless voice mumbled.

It continued to scratch at the door.

“I told you I can’t open it,” Lee grabbed the door handle, “See it’s lo- Oh, it's opened.”

To her surprise, the door opened without needing a key. It revealed what seemed to be a janitor's closet, about the same size as the cell she awoke in earlier. Although, this felt even smaller due to the clutter of supplies and putrid smell.

“I don’t think we can fit in here.”

Brooms, mops, buckets, rags, baskets, rope and more filled the entire closet. Theoretically it would be a decent hiding place, but practically it didn’t seem like it would work.

The dog nudged its way through the mess, knocking over some brooms. It disappeared into the darkness behind. Lee second guessed herself, and stepped to the side, allowing light to stretch into the closet. There was a small hole, just big enough for her to crawl in.

After picking up the fallen brooms, she shut herself inside the closet and followed the dog into the tight tunnel.

Five minutes of crawling in complete darkness passed until a faint light finally reached her eyes. Poking her head out into fresh air, the gentle shine of moonlight caressed her sullen face.