Hollis and the mysterious young man jumped from the roof of one of the machiya and dashed off into the woods. As they sped through the trees and foliage at a speed Hollis had no idea was possible to attain by foot, they reached that familiar light.

"Here we go!"

With a leap, the two left the ground and, once again, Hollis found himself falling into an empty abyss. This time though, that young man Ambrose was there, a sly smirk spreading over his lips as he eyed the bottomless void below.

"Is this your first jump?"

"J-jump?" Hollis had to force his voice out, the wind rushing past made it feel as if his breath was being sucked out of him. Ambrose seemed to be aware of this. He pointed down and tilted his body. His hand was still grasping Hollis's wrist and as a result, the two moved in sync.

Hollis had only barely noticed when that feeling of force pressed against his body again.

Then, he felt spikes against his exposed flesh.

No, it wasn't spikes.

Grass?

He blinked his eyes open. Once, twice.

"You really aren't used to this, are you?"

Hollis peered up. The youth was staring down at him, his expression showed sincere curiosity as his head tilted from side to side. Hollis stood up, brushing dirt and grass from his body. "I don't even know what this is."

"Right." Ambrose chuckled as he spoke, stretching his arms as he grinned.

The shorter brunette blinked. He hadn't noticed at first, but Ambrose's clothes had completely changed. He went from his blue and red traditional Japanese clothing to some typical fantasy outfit. A sleeveless teal shirt with intricately sewn patterns along the left. He had bandages on his arms, paddings on his elbows. He had a hilt for a sword and a bandage on his face, and he had on roughly worn boots. How could he have changed so quickly?

Hollis wanted to ask, but the youth interrupted before he could so much as breath.

"So, where do you want me to start? I mean, this should all be common knowledge so..." The sandy-haired boy took a seat on a nicely sized stone, waving his hand around as he spoke. Hollis stood where he had fallen. While he had intended on speaking to Ambrose, his attention was drawn away by the area surrounding them. It appeared to be a massive field, green grass as far as the eye could see stopped only by the large mountains in the distance. A singular tree stood out by a small road in the middle of the field leading to who knows where.

Above was a clear, cloudless sky spanning broader than Hollis could imagine. A few dark shadows flew above which Hollis had initially assumed were birds, but they were far too big and long. Soon after he noticed these three creatures, he felt a rumbling in the earth. His entire body began to shake and before he could ask what this was, from above them, a large head appeared over the mountains. It was a dragon!

Hollis's breath caught in his throat at the sheer size of this creature. A massive dragon whose wings extended to nearly the width of the field as it flew over them.

"Wha..." No matter how he tried, he couldn't put his feelings into words. What was he going to ask? There was too much!

Ambrose chuckled softly. The earth's rumble calmed as the dragon faded off into the distance.

"Perfect timing, huh?" The boy stretched again before exhaling. "Alright. Questions?"

"Y-yeah! I've got questions! What is this place? What's going on? How did I get here? Who are you?"

Ambrose's fingers had been up, counting each question as it came at him. He paused as he counted them. When he was done, he dropped his hands onto his thighs and leaned forward. "Alright. I got this. Let's get this started."

Hollis froze briefly before sitting down on the grass in front of the taller boy.

"Okay, so to start...you know about the chips, right?"

Hollis shook his head.

It went quiet.

"You're joking, right? I wasn't asking that seriously, it was rhetorical."

"Well, sorry." Hollis snapped. "I told you; I really don't know anything!"

Ambrose groaned, rubbing his bare forehead with the palm of his hand. "Okay then," his voice came out strained. "Alright, alright... You know...the chips that connect everyone to the internet. Here." He pointed to the back of his neck. "They're implanted around here, right? At the base of our skulls." He smiled; a hint of mischief present as it always seemed to be.

Hollis knew this kid was the only lead he had, but the unusual shine in his oddly yellow-brown eyes gave him a strange feeling. They were sharp and intense, yet naive and childish.

"So," Hollis began, "I have a chip here?" He rubbed his hand across the back of his neck and up his skull. He couldn't feel anything, but of course that meant nothing.

Ambrose nodded. "You'd have to, to be here, guy. A few years after these things were released," he explained, expression tense, "there were a wide range of hackings. People found a backdoor in the chips and were able to invade users. It was pretty scary at the time." He chuckled softly as he spoke. "Security was tightened up and the backdoor problem was seemingly handled. But," His smirk grew to the point that Hollis couldn't help but think that the boy resembled a troublesome feline. "The Somnium exist."

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"Somnium?" Hollis crossed his arms and sighed. Ambrose nodded. His expression said that he forgot he needed to explain everything. Everything.

"That's the name we've picked for ourselves. Remember?"

Hollis shook his head. "When I said I—"

"Yeah, yeah." He swiped his hand to and fro. "People that can dream jump." He pushed himself up from the stone he had sat upon and pressed his hands to his back as he was stretching.

"So," the smaller youth began, "this is...these are dreams is what you're saying?"

"Exactly. I can't believe you don't remember any of that." He looked like he wanted to laugh but didn't. "Come on. Let's look around this one. Maybe seeing all of the weird crap people think up will jog your memory of something."

Without any attempts to dissuade the taller boy, Hollis went along. He didn't know how much longer he wanted to continue going around with him. He didn't know truly what kind of character this boy had, and if what he had told him was true, he could be potential trouble, right?

'Hackers'? 'Backdoors'? 'Implanted chips'? None of this rings a bell. He realized at this point that all he had to go on was the words of this stranger. It was all he could do, he thought.

"So, I take it you don't remember how to use pajamas, huh?"

"What?"

Ambrose chuckled as he led Hollis through the grassy field. "It's what we like to call this." With a confident spin, he turned back to the shorter youth, hand on his hip and free hand pointing at himself. "Not many people like to go around showing off their real faces here. Considering what we're doing is illegal."

The hairs over Hollis's neck stood up. Seeing this, the smug youth chuckled. "Here, alright. Let me show you how it works."

With a solid tone, the young man explained the process of procuring a 'pajama'. "You just gotta envision it real good, you know?" He smirked, his teeth baring in an ornery way. "If you wanna get girls to check you out, make sure you go for a real winner of a look, ya hear?"

Is he taking a jab at my appearance? Hollis wondered but found no reason to think about it any further. Just looking at the appearance this man chose, Hollis could only assume he was after women day and night. He wanted to say this, but decided things would go better if he kept his mouth shut.

Ambrose explained in further detail to help Hollis along. In only a moment, a shimmering, pixelated light encompassed the boy's form. It remained put for a few seconds longer before fading out in shimmering sparks. His clothing was now closer to those of his companion's; a simple top and satchel, a scarf wrapped around his neck. Despite successfully changing clothes, his form overall remained exactly the same.

Since this guy already knows what I look like he might just try and make fun of me for changing my face. I'll just stay as I am for now...

"Good job, guy!" Ambrose clapped his hands in a somewhat sarcastic manner, his slick smile only enforcing this idea.

"Right..." Hollis sighed. "So, if this is all dreams...well, how did I even get here?"

Ambrose strolled past Hollis who eventually followed after. "Well, you're a Somnium. A person who, for whatever reason, has the ability to tap into the technology in the chip and flip through other people's chips." He puckered his lips as his eyes turned upwards. "I don't know all the fine details, but I do know...we're just doing this for fun." Pausing, he peered back at Hollis, who stopped abruptly. "Don't think we're doing all of this for bad reasons. So far, no one's found a way to stop us Somnium from having our fun, so...why not just enjoy it, huh?"

Hollis wasn't sure how to respond to this. It almost felt like he had been seen right through.

"You know," Ambrose turned, leaning forward so as to stand eye to eye with Hollis. "There's a whole forum run by us Somnium online. If you can't remember it, I'll give you the link." His odd eyes squinted, adding to the mischievous tone that was already so heavy in his voice.

"Ah, no thanks. I'd honestly just like to get back to, uh..." Hollis had totally forgotten about his void.

So, if this was a dream, why wasn't he waking up? Instead, he was always in that black void watching other people's dreams. That didn't mean that...

Am I dead?

He felt his stomach grow tight. He couldn't ask that.

"Uh... How do I get back to..."

"Your mindspace?"

"My what?"

"Where you go when you fall asleep." He placed his hands around the sides of his head. "You know, it's your dream place. That's where all your dreams happen. But!" He held up a finger dramatically, startling Hollis. "When you're a Somnium like us, we can do what we want with our mindspaces! We even hold contests online to see who can make the coolest mindspace!"

Is he literally sparkling? Can you do that?

Ambrose side-eyed Hollis, a sly smirk spreading over his face. "Say," he began, "Is Hollis your real name?"

He gulped. He hadn't thought it would lead to any trouble to tell him that. But still, he wasn't even sure if it was his real name or not. He shrugged in response. Ambrose's expression seemed to fall for a moment, but it returned back to its beamy, overly confident allure in no time. "Whatever. I was just wondering... If you had entered the Somnium forums maybe we could find someone on there who would recognize you... But..." He shrugged back.

Hollis wasn't sure how to take this. He wasn't sure he liked this guy all that much either. He just wanted to get back to his so-called 'mindspace'.

"L-look, I'm sure it's really fun and all, but I'm just interested in getting back to my dream."

"Oh?" With his hands behind his head, he leaned to the side, as if he was examining Hollis with the utmost commitment. "Alright, got it." As if the energy had been drained from him, he reached out with his hand in a sluggish fashion. "It's basically the same as creating your pajama, you know? Just do this where you want it aaand..." He glanced back to Hollis, like he was waiting for him to do it. Taking the cue, Hollis did exactly as told and before he knew it, an intricate, yet simultaneously simple door popped up before them.

"Waao..."

Hollis rose a brow at the lazy sound that Ambrose had just made.

"And there you go. Just go through there and the door will close behind you."

"It's really that simple?"

"Pheh! You act like you've never dreamt before." A lopsided sneer passed his lips as he turned. "Well, if you're done here, imma get going. I have some fun things to go and watch before morning hits, you know?" There was a particularly malevolent tone etched into his voice as he said this, before, in the blink of an eye, he was gone. It was as if he had never been there in the first place.

Hollis stared at the spot for a moment longer before looking back at the door. All it took was one man and everything seemed completely different. It wasn't at all what he had thought.

Grabbing the very solid handle, he turned it and the dusty pink door opened up. When he stepped inside, it was exactly what he was hoping it was. That large, vast emptiness filled with only blinking lights and the dreams of others broadcast to him at all times of the day.

This was his life.

There's no way he'd only been here for one night. It had to have been multiple, more than multiple, at least a year's worth!

Glancing back, just as Ambrose had said, the door was gone. It was him and his solitude again.

What was he going to do?

"Okay," he started, "I know this is a dream. I know those are all dreams. I know this is my...'mindspace'? Yeah. And..." He paused.

Maybe this was all he knew.

Put like that, he didn't really know all that much still. In fact, he still knew next to nothing about himself! The only new information he had was a name and this 'Somnium' thing.

He dropped onto the ground and let out a heavy sigh. For some reason, he felt even more confused.

"If this is a dream, and this has always been a dream...maybe I really am dead already."