.

..

… Pain, a whole lot of pain. It was the first sensation I felt, even before I had opened my eyes. I could also hear someone's constant screaming, alongside heavy panting coming from nearby. It really took me a while to realise that I was the one responsible for these sounds. When I opened them, I saw the now familiar, dirt ceiling. "Was it all just a dream…?" I asked myself in my confusion "...no. I'm certain it was a nightmare, in addition, the most horrible one, after the one in which I was being chased by a giant meatball… Uh. But, this certainly takes the first place."

Still panting a bit and a little sweaty, I decided to go out and check how much time I've just spent in the dreamland. I was still able to feel the phantoms of pain that I have experienced while sleeping. It was surreal, dreams don't work this way, we can barely remember what we were dreaming about and most of the time it's very vague. Then how can I even feel the suffering that happened inside of it? Guess, it's another question "for later" just like me being... squared, if I can call it that.

I could easily tell it was still daytime, due to the sunlight pouring into my hidey-hole through the hole. It took me some time to realise the mistake I've made, and when I did, Immediately slapped myself in the forehead as I realised my mistake. Why, by the usefulness of the F-word, did I leave this hole open!? If I had slept for longer, I would have been surely snatched and then eaten by whatever monstrosities that make those horrific sounds, and wander around these cursed lands at night…

"Well,..." I said on my way out, "...no need to cry over spilled milk,... At least I won't forget to close it next time,... at least I hope, that I didn't drifting away for too long, I still want to something before I'll have to listen to the horrors of the night again…", and when I eventually peaked outside I was surprised to see that the sun had barely even moved.

After some time of staring at the radiant cube in the sky, I came to a conclusion that… I've been sleeping for less than five minutes? It felt like a few hours! Aside from that fact, I also felt more exhausted than before I had taken a nap.

"Well,... maybe I should just try again to get to sleep. I really need to rest a bit." I declared out as I was heading back underground. This time however, I remembered to plug the entrance using the leftover dirt blocks - as I set on to call them - from my previous excavation. And as I finished putting the last block in its place, the light ceased to exist in my lil' bunker, and I was left with the now omnipresent darkness that I was a long acquaintance with, after many sleepless nights spent on studying.

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And so, I again went back to laying on slightly moist dirt with closed eyes, in hopes of getting back to sleep and finally getting some proper rest. As the time slowly passed, my still heavy breathing gradually got lighter, my racing heartbeat slowly went back to normal and my constant flow of thoughts ceased, as my consciousness lost control over my body and went back into the dreamland...

..

.

..

… When I finally could feel my body again, I slowly opened my heavy eyelids to see… the ceiling of my room,... again… Surprised by that, I stood up from my bed to see my bedroom, just like the last time,... except the door was actually whole and standing. This indeed is weird, dreams can repeat themselves I know it, but to be perfectly the same and happen twice, in a row? This isn't right…

I quickly went to the window, which once again turned out to be bricked, not just bricked, It perfectly resembled the one from the past dream. Not giving up, after discovering this fact, I immediately went for the last thing that I haven't checked yet - the door, which was still undisturbed. When I tried to open it, they turned out to be locked.

Shortly after the dream went on just like the last time, even after all my other efforts I had made to escape this prison in my dream. The punching started, the door was breached and a wave of agonising pain flooded me as my flesh was being torn apart…

… and then, again, there was nothing…

..

.

..

… I woke from that terrifying nightmare, panting and gasping for air as if I had been drowning. Once more I could still somewhat feel that terrible pain. There was no screaming this time, just me shouting. "What in the frozen hell was that!?"

I gradually calmed myself down by slowly counting to ten. That old trick saved me a lot of times. I was really glad that I've learnt it. Once I finally got a hold of myself, I muttered the only viable hypothesis I had: "... Guess it's insomnia or unnatural, surrealistic nightmares… Geez, what's wrong with this place… outside of resembling a child's game…"

I was happy with the simple conclusion I had made and decided to leave the questioning how the dreams here worked for later, as it would be a lot of pain just to think about it, especially with how little I knew.

Once I had finished philosophising on the laws of nature in this weird world, I swiftly headed towards the exit - or so I thought. I spent some time stumbling around in darkness, and poking the walls in search of the staircase I had made beforehand.

I quickly excavated the two blocks obstructing the exit; it was way faster than when I was cramped in then like a tuna in a can. After I had gone out, I checked the position of the "sun^3" and It moved a bit more than It had last time, but after deducting the time I spent underground after I woke up it seemed about right.

"Now it's time to think what am I supposed to do now…" I said to myself as I was wandering in the direction of the tree, that wasn’t too far away now.