When I opened my eyes, I wasn't greeted by the enthusiastic morning sun piercing the blinds entering my bedroom. Instead, all I could see was an endless pitch-black void spanning as far as the eye could see, perhaps even farther. It wasn't a scary kind of dark like space or the bottom of the ocean. It was more of a comforting kind of dark, like the bottom of a blanket during a thunderstorm is happening outside, it still makes you feel safe and protected, even though you know it doesn't really help. Somehow that was the same feeling the void gave me, even though I had no idea what was going on. I got the feeling I was safe. 

A lot of things gave me that feeling. Like the temperature, it was cold but not a freezing rigid cold. It was more like a cool Autumn breeze that let you know of the changing of seasons. Same thing with the landscape or lack thereof, it was a completely black starless night sky. It gave the odd impression of nothing being able to get through. The whole place had this sort of calming feeling to it, a calm I feel even now when writing about this. 

“What is this place?” Looking around at the vacant landscape. Oddly enough, I was able to stand straight upright, despite there being nothing to stand on.

This is either a dream or magic is involved. But I don't think this is a magic thing. I think we know about all the magic items out there. It could be a weird effect of Brad's book since it is based around thoughts. Maybe he figured out how to extend it to other people. No, no, that wouldn't make any sense. This has to be a dream, I'm probably just lucid dreaming. Maybe if I concentrate, I can get out. I thought to myself trying to get a sense of anything. 

I started to concentrate on getting out, leaving this weird void, and waking up. After what was probably only a couple minutes, nothing happened and I felt quite embarrassed, despite no one around to watch me fail. “Well, that didn't work, may as well walk around and try to find a way out or wait it out for when mom probably wakes me up.” I picked a random direction and started to walk looking for anything that wasn't the pitch-black empty space. 

I must've been walking for at least an hour, when I finally found something that wasn't pitch black darkness. Although I felt no fear from the absence of everything, that didn’t mean it wasn’t boring, so I was relieved when I finally stumbled upon it. It was a dark oak door with and a small plaque that had the number two hundred forty-two. A bright purple light radiated out from the keyhole of the doorknob. Inspecting around the door revealed it led nowhere, however I couldn't help but get an odd sense of nostalgia when looking at the door although I was unsure the reason. 

“Eh, screw it." shrugging my shoulders. “It's either enter the mystery door or keep walking around in the dark.” I opened the door only to reveal a bright almost blinding light. At this point, I heard a faint almost whisper of a sound. It sounded familiar, it was a strange chiking sound. I walked through the light to see what was on the other side.

When I walked through to the other side, I was greeted by an odd sight. It was me, or well more accurately, it was a younger version of me, maybe ten or eleven years old. I instantly recognized the place as the old one-bedroom apartment complex that, mom and I used to live in. I was sitting in the kitchen working on a familiar sight. It was a small traditional Chinese dragon. It was half done and still needed a couple coats of varnish. 

“Hey,” Trying to get the attention of my younger self. There was no reaction. “Hey, I'm talking to you,” I approached the mini me. Still no reaction, just kept on carving the scales of the dragon rather roughly and half haphazardly, to which I couldn't help but cringe at my poor technique Occasionally, I would gouge parts of the scales from using too much pressure. “Hey, be gentler,” Still no response, please just talk to me. This is really weird and you're really bad at this. I touched the younger me's shoulder, but when I tried, I found my arm just went straight through. Just like Brad's illusions. 

“Are these my memories?” I asked myself, to current me and younger me. I looked at the sculpture with admiration. This was the same sculpture I won my first competition with. As I reminisced, I started to focus more and more on the sculpture looking closer, and closer. The dragon's face was the only thing in my line of vision, all six of its wavy whiskers, its large nostrils, and sharp teeth. After a couple of moments, I realized I had been staring at the dragon for so long, my eyes started to sting as I had forgotten to blink since I was too enamored and mesmerized with my own work. When I blinked, my senses were quickly bombarded with several new sensations. 

My eyes now saw a coat of finish on the dragon and looking around, the building had changed. I was no longer in the dingy dirty apartment and instead, I was in another familiar place, it was my elementary school gymnasium, Spruceston Elementary. My dragon sculpture was no longer on the counter of the kitchen and instead on one of those cheap foldable tables along with another western dragon, notably of lesser quality. The whole room reeked of sweat, sawdust and varnish. My ears were filled with chatter from my old classmates and their parents. It was just how I remembered it. I was hanging out with Tyrone. 

My mom was standing next to my statue, making polite banter with some of the other parents who were impressed with my skill. Their children's creations were chunky and rough with very little detail, so much so that they were only be considered dragons because they were children. Now don't get me wrong, there were definitely some strong contenders, some made with actual skill and talent or maybe a parent but those were few and far between. The ones that were there are the ones that I remembered being nervous of.

I remembered I was so scared the judges would take one look at my sculpture and decide that it wasn't a real dragon, that they would disqualify me from the competition. After all, their dragons had big fat bellies and stood on four legs with massive wings that looked like they could black out the sun. While mine was more like a wavy line. The sharp angular jaws of the other dragons were contrasted by mines softer and circular structure. Were there’s had bulging legs mine were almost comically small. And were most had flames or some kind of element be expelled out of the dragons mouths the closet thing my Chinese dragon had was six long and wavy whiskers.

Looking at the judges, they were one table away currently inspecting one of the real contenders, a painted red clay dragon with bright yellow flames coming out of its nostrils. As the judges started to walk towards my table, I noticed something strange about them. It was their eyes, they were glowing. There were three judges, two middle aged looking men and a younger woman, maybe in her mid-thirties. Now granted I didn't remember the judges well, but these ones were odd. Their eyes weren't natural for one thing. The whites of their eyes were gone and instead were replaced with a singular colour. One of the men had bright crystal blue eyes and the other had yellow eyes that shined as bright as gold. The third judge had the nicest eyes out of all of them. Her eyes were purple, like a sunset in winter. As the three of them moved, it was hard to see, but I think I saw a faint glow coming from their eyes. 

“Hey, wait, are you guys real?” I called out. I started to walk in front of them trying to get their attention. “Hey, wait, please can you explain what's going on? I just woke up here and went through thi–” I tried to plead to them, yet they just walked straight through me like I was a ghost. I turned around. Instead of the gymnasium I was expecting, I turned around to the darkness, with another familiar door in front of me.

It was a steel door, painted a mint green with a thick glass pane in the top half of the door, with once again a bright purple light emanating from it. “Wait a minute I know this door. This is the door to the workshop? Why is it here… wow, mom’s right, I really do spend way too much time there. So, what's the deal here? Do you want me to go through this door and look at another memory of something?” I called out only to be met with silence. 

“Come on, all I want are answers… you abducted me from my home or dream... You guys are pricks… Fine, I'll head through the stupid door!” I grumbled, as I opened the door and took a step through, hearing the familiar hum of table saws, lathes, and exhaust fans.

As I walked through the door, I recognized it instantly. It was my magnum opus in all its splendid glory I was carefully working away. “Wow, I am so much paler." I looked at my younger form acknowledging how just like mom had pointed out my health really has taken a turn ever since the destruction of the sculpture. It wasn't just my complexion, it was everything, my arms and legs, while not on the exaggerated level Tulip described, but I was still noticeably thinner compared to my younger self. Even our postures were different. Younger me was sitting up straight, eyes full of joy. Were as I had taken to slouching and my eyes were filled with a dull emptiness. 

I started to walk around the table admiring the nearly completed creation. It was made to represent what Canada means to me. It was tall and rectangular with a space for a plaque near the bottom. It was a magnificent three-story townhouse painted bright red with a sign on top of the door that said, “The Yang Family Carpentry Emporium”. On the roof of the townhouse, was a traditional Chinese house. A Siheyuan Courtyard House. It's a series of small buildings in the shape of a square with a small courtyard in the center. The courtyard was filled with lush green grass, each induvial blade intricately carved to perfection. And in the center of the courtyard stood a cherry blossom tree, each branch had their own glorious purpose, with every leaf placement planned hours beforehand. It wasn't the actual kind of house we lived in back in China. In fact we used to live in a standard two-bedroom apartment complex. But mom thought the idea of Canada meaning home to me, would be more obvious with the courtyard house rather than another tall building. If you ask me, I think she was just worried that I would end up making it so big we wouldn't be able to get it out of the house.

As I admired the original version of the sculpture, I looked at some of the papers around it. The papers had rough working sketches of different designs of the sculpture. There were also various versions of the same quote I was planning on embedding onto a plague. The final version of the quote circled over and over again in red sharpie, read:

I came to this country to chase the American dream, to have opportunities that I would have back home. Although it has not been easy and often lonely, I wouldn't trade it for the world.

As I turned the corner where the sculpture would block my view of my younger self, I immediately stopped hearing the hum of the machines and instead I heard gentle knocking and the familiar voice of Tyrone. “Hey Ink! Are you there?” I quickly ran to the other side of the table and no longer saw myself working at the table. A realization hit me of what exactly this memory was. I quickly ran to the door, a useless attempt at trying to bar their entry, I pressed my body against the door only for it to swing through me and four figures walk through me as easily as you walk through the air. I stood behind them in horror as I watched the scene take place before me.

“I wonder what it is?” Brad asked. 

“I think he mentioned something about Canada." commented Guams. 

“Yeah, but how does a Chinese house on top of a condo connect to Canada?” Tyrone asked around to the others. 

“No clue but there's some papers here with some sketches.” Antonio called out, having found the preliminary designs. 

“Do you guys think he'll actually win the competition?” Tyrone asked. 

“I'm honestly not sure, I've seen the other competitors and there's some real tough opponents.” Brad commented. 

“I mean he's won most of them so far,” Antonio pointed out. 

“What happens if he does win?” Tyrone asked.

“Well, he would get a scholarship to Guelph,” Antonio explained.

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 “Good for him. This really is a once in a lifetime opportunity,” Brad acknowledged. “What do you guys’ plan to do after high school?” Brad asked.

“Dude were sixteen, I got no clue.” Guams answered.

“Same.” Empathized Antonio. “Maybe an engineer or a math teacher, if I had to pick something.”

“Well, you guys know the answer for me. I'm gonna try and become a football star!” Brad boasted while dramatically flexing, “What about you Tyrone?” 

“Eh, I'll probably still be working in my dad’s Auto shop. Stuck in this town, forever.” Tyrone confessed solemnly causing the others to adopt uncomfortable expressions. “Eh that's life." He swung his hands half-heartedly behind him on to the table, hitting the sculpture causing it to tip over. 

Everything happened in slow motion whether it was just the combination of shock and fear, or an effect of this strange place. Those few moments felt like an eternity as i got to see everyone's reactions to the what would be the end of our friendship. I watched how Brad tried to run over and stop it from hitting the ground, Antonio froze and just looked on in horror, Tyrone turned around to see what the others were looking at. Guams started to run towards the back door. When the tower finally fell it shattered into a hundred pieces the moment that lasted for hours was over. 

“CRAP! CRAP! CRAP!” Tyrone screamed. 

“WHAT DID YOU DO?” Brad screamed at him, as he ran to the wreckage trying desperately to put it back together. 

“Wait, where are you going?” Antonio screamed at Guams, who had now pushed up the door, trying to make his way out. 

“Anywhere but here. Do you have any idea how mad Ink is going to be when he finds this? It's not going to be good, I'm not sticking around.” He cried, exiting through the door. 

Tyrone turned to Antonio. “He's right. Ink could be back at any moment. Go to the shop and keep him out of this room until I can figure something out, please.” He pleaded with desperation in his voice. 

Antonio nodded and ran through me and out the door to the store. I watched with a mix of shock and anger at the two for the next ten or so minutes. They fumbled, trying to put it back together as if it was as simple as some jigsaw puzzle. They worked and worked in a useless attempt to make things right, to put things back together again when they heard a voice. 

“What do you mean I can't enter my own workshop?” 

“It's a surprise we, uh, did something to the sculpture we think you might like but you need to wait for it, its a surprise.” 

“Look, I appreciate the thought of you guys helping. I really do but it's already done. All I need to do is drill a plaque on and it should be finished.” 

“WAIT, NO DON'T GO IN!" Antonio screamed as the door swung through me and I came through me and laid witness to the sight before me.

“WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO!” I yelled. 

“Look Ink, we can explain it was an accident.” Antonio tried to explain. 

“Ink, please listen.” Tyrone pleaded I immediately bolted towards Tyrone slamming my fist into his jaw, causing him to fall to the floor. 

“DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU JUST COST ME?” I screamed as he started to try to pick himself off the ground but failed as I kicked him in the ribs so hard that the crack sounded more like thunder. “NO OF COURSE YOU WOULDN'T!” I roared as with both hands I picked him off the ground pulling him close, so that we were face to face. “You wouldn't know a thing about hard work! About dreams! About futures! I thought you of all people would understand! I thought you cared! How could you do this to me!” I yelled tears starting to form in the corners of my eyes. 

“THAT'S ENOUGH INK!” Brad yelled. I watched as I ran towards him charging so fast with so much force, so much rage that he was actually pushed from the impact. I watched how a fight started to break out between me and the others. I was wildly swinging at everything around me, drawing blood more than a couple times. Most of it was directed at Tyrone. Brad and Antonio had to hold me down until I couldn't breathe anymore, just so I wouldn't kill him. As I slowly got up, I saw how the three of them had run straight through me, tears and regret in their eyes. 

“IF I EVER SEE YOU BASTARDS AGAIN, I'LL KILL YOU. YOU HEAR ME I'LL KILL YOU ALL!” Were the last words spoken before they left. Watching the struggle I realized something. I had always assumed it was Brad and Tyrone who destroyed the sculpture, which was the main reason I was so angry at Brad this whole time. I assumed he was just as responsible for the destruction as Tyrone. If this is what really happened, then that means I have been unfairly angry at Brad, and by extension, Antonio who only lied to spare my feelings and tried to help fix my sculpture. It was a futile attempt, but did I really have a reason to be angry at him? 

Guams the coward and Tyrone is the careless buffoon deserve my hate. I turned around to go to the others, to see what happened next, only to be met with once again the dark emptiness of the void. 

“Do you still plan to kill them?” I heard a voice with a slight French accent colder than the grave speak from behind me. I whipped around only to be met with my younger self facing me with bright purple eyes. 

“What?” Was all I was able to muster out. 

“Your friends or former by the looks of it, you know the three who awakened Nature's Pandemonium?” 

“What are you talking about? What are you, where am I? What is going on?” My creepy copy stared back at me in confusion. And spoke not in my voice but a different, much more feminine one. That for some reason seemed familiar to me but to this day every time I have tried to figure out why I have only been met with a painful headache. 

“What do you mean? You should know the answers to all those questions?” 

“Look, I have no idea what's going on and if this is about all the magic stuff, I found out about that, like three or four days ago.” 

“You're not lying, that is clear but, how do you not know about... you know what? I'm confused, you're confused so how about we make a deal?” It snapped its fingers and a table and armchairs on either side of him appeared. “How about we sit down here, and we take turns asking questions to the other.”

Not seeing any real choice, I agreed. “Sure, but first, is there any way you can stop looking like me? It's a bit weird?” 

“Oh sure, I prefer my true form anyways.” As he spun around unleashing an overwhelming blinding purple light. If Tyrone, Antonio and Guams’ book was like a flashlight shining directly into my eyes, then this was like a lighthouse being shined directly at me. 

“Agh!” I screamed, slamming my eyes closed. 

“Yeah, I should've warned you, you should probably turn off your Shimmer Sense.” She explained as if this was common knowledge.

“My what!” I yelled, now trying to use my hands to block out the light that was still reaching my visions. 

“Your Shimmer Sense? Wait, were you never taught about it?” She questioned. 

“What are you talking about!” I yelled now fully turned away from the beacon of light. 

“Ok Ink, listen to me. I'm going to teach you a trick, so you don't go blind from me being here. Imagine a light bulb connected to a light switch. Think about all the shimmer you have ever seen up to this point and put it into the lightbulb. Keep doing that until the only thing in the lightbulb is a swirling mass of colours, chaos, and wonder. When you have done that, turn the switch off.” She explained sounding much more like a mother teaching her kid to ride a bike then some cryptid. 

I imagined the light switch to the workshop that connected to the overhead fluorescent lights and throw in all the auras or shimmers I had seen up to this point. Hachiko’s green, the books’ purple and all the orange of that hellish book. The collection of colours that made up our own stockpile of magical artifacts and this strange woman's blinding purple. Until the light bulbs held a swirl of majestic colours. I stared directly up at them and could see everything from small explosions to endless beautiful horizons. I turned off the light switch and opened my eyes. I was pleasantly met with the blank void. 

I turned around to see the tall, slender woman who had helped me. She had black hair styled to look like a cartoon thought bubble, dark skin, soft facial features, and brilliant purple eyes. She wore a dress that held all the colours of the sky, with small stars and elegant gold spiraling trimming along the edges. She looked at me with a caring and serious expression. “Ok now that that is handled shall we begin?" she said, taking a seat. 

“Uh sure,” I answered awkwardly, taking my seat, not fully understanding anything. 

“Now am I correct in my assumption you have been making plans in place to stop the people who unleashed Nature's Pandemonium?” 

“If that's the weird book Tyrone has been holding on to, then yes.” she nodded to my inquiry then held out her hand signalling me to ask my question. “Ok what is this place?” I asked gesturing to the darkness. 

“This is the Axis of Inner Collective Conscious. Its am mouthful, I know which is why we call it The Abyss for simplicity's sake. This is where we are connected, it is where we go when we dream and when we think or remember something. Most people don't realize or remember they've been here. There are a couple exceptions, those with special blood or the right magic item can remember their time here but that's another question altogether,” she explained mystified by the sight before us as if she saw so much more than the black void. “Now my question” all the wonder and awe turned to a serious in an instant, “are you prepared to kill your friends like you said you would?”

I thought about it for a couple minutes. I never really considered it, although I hated them for what they did to me. I didn't want to have to kill them or for them to get hurt, that was the reason I called the cops. “I don't want to kill them and the plans we've come up with were just to get them to stop, not to kill them. Since it's clear if I do nothing, innocent people will continue to get hurt.” 

She nodded and seemed disappointed. “Your turn to ask.” She said solemnly.

“Who or what are you?” 

“I will not give you my name as that is something that could pose a great danger to you and all you care about, I will give you my title which should be equivalent, I am the Lady of Dreams. I am the master of Purple magic, the magic of thought, dream, and the six senses. Now you said something interesting about finding out about magic, only a couple of days ago. Clearly that is not a lie but please explain to me your experience with magic.” 

I explained everything from the book, to Hachiko, to Brad, to the magic items to even Antonios plea. The Lady of Dreams looked shocked and started to mutter to herself rather poorly. “Wow, I thought you would have had a much different story… but you aren't lying. I would be able to tell for sure, even without my light… Wait did he never teach him?”

“Ok my turn” Grabbing her attention. “In the memory of my first art competition, there were two more sets of eyes, blue and yellow. Who are they?” 

“The yellow one as you call her, has the title of Sovereign Yellow. As the name suggests she is the master of Yellow Magic, the magic of healing and Augmentation. The blue one, although you should already know who he is, his title is the Guardian and he is a master of Blue magic, the magic of shapes.” she rattled off like it was common knowledge, even somewhat bored by my question before once again turning dead serious. “Know I want you to understand every time Nature's Pandemonium is unleashed, it creates a natural disaster that threatens to destroy the world as we know it. What do you plan to do with the book after you stop your friends by killing them or some other way?” 

”I'm not sure, I guess I plan to destroy the book since it can corrupt minds. Honestly, I haven't really thought that far ahead.” 

“Ok I see, a good aspiration to have, even if it is a futile one. Your turn.” 

“What has the book done in the past?” 

“Loads of stuff, tornados, floods, earthquakes it created Iceland and caused the eruption of Krakatoa. Every time that book is opened, it creates a new natural disaster sometime in the future. It's actually the reason we have tectonic plates.” 

“Wait what?” 

“We believe that when the book first came into existence it split the world into a hundred pieces and destroyed Pangea.” My mouth hung open in utter disbelief as she spoke with the same casualness that someone one would describe their meal. “It's the real reason the dinosaurs went extinct. Everyone thinks it was an asteroid but nope it was the book. It's also the reason the Yellowstone volcano exists. Wyoming used to just be a flat field, but the book was opened a couple thousand years ago and now we have Yellowstone. I will ask one final question or favour."

She stood up and walked towards me and gently grabbed my hands. “I understand what I am asking you. It is an impossible decision and one I have had to make myself. It made me who I am today. But please you need to kill Tyrone and Guams. I believe that you can trust Antonio, at least for now. But like you said innocent people are getting hurt and if you do not act fast enough many more will die. There are already victims you don't know about and if you don't kill them, there will be so many more.” Her voice held regret and sadness as if she knew more then she would ever tell.

“Wait kill them can’t I just knock them out and destroy the book why do I have to go that far?”

“Please listen to me, you need to stop them, and that dose means killing them. The overwhelming power the book possesses is too much for anyone. Thousands throughout history have tried and all have failed. It is the very essence of the wild itself and it must be stopped. The book cannot be destroyed, but if you kill your friends or get the book away from them, me and the rest of The Wardens can do the rest.” She stood up and looked down on me with pity I often wondered if she knew what would happen to me or if she simply knew the vague danger. “Please make the right decision. It will be the hardest decision you can make. But that is how you will know that it is the right one.” She tapped my forehead with her index finger causing my vision to start to go blurry. What I was seeing in the abyss was quickly being replaced with my bedroom. With the last thing I heard was. “Oh my god, I’m gonna kick your ass the next time you fall asleep. How could you never tell him! It's not like you never had the chance!”