Chapter 83
Returning to the dorm after the big awards event, Joel immediately threw on comfy PJs and climbed into bed. Bobby was elsewhere, delaying slumber by binge-watching Friday Night Lights with a few of the other challengers out in the common room. The emotional weight of the night bore down on Joel. He looked over at Bobby’s empty bed, imagining a world where his new friend and roommate would be eliminated from the competition. He had come into this circus alone and rudderless. Now, he felt like he was forging strong relationships with people he otherwise would have never met if it weren’t for this show. It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, though. He felt close to a bunch of the contestants. Still, he didn’t know whom he could really trust. Most were not here to make friends. This thought exacerbated Joel’s already baked-in insecurity. He really needed to start his training with Athena now that the competition was becoming about more than just survival. It was imperative to earn his gold trophy before the final trial. Maybe he should start amplifying his meta-ability on his own, or even with Bobby, since coordinating with his roommate would be easier than waiting on Athena. Plus, he could always explore his dream-peeping ability solo.
Joel’s thoughts continued down this path as he drifted off to sleep, which is perhaps why the night’s events would play out the way they did.
***
This long nighttime adventure started with a dream. Like most dreams, Joel’s began in darkness at first. That was until four walls shot up from the ground around him, and he suddenly found himself sitting at a desk. Details began to snap into focus all around him, the surroundings were eerily reminiscent of an elementary school Religious artifacts dotted the walls, and harsh rays from rows of bright fluorescent lights beamed down on those sitting beneath them. A gaggle of similarly dressed children filled the room. As their faces came into focus, Joel surmised that they were probably around 10 or 11 years old. The mood was off, though. Joel noticed something off in their expressions. Every student sat perfectly still with vacant eyes locked on the chalkboard at the front of the schoolroom.
This was no mere dream. The whole experience was starting to feel very similar to the time Joel had wandered into Bobby’s drowning abyss nightmare. His head was on a swivel, scanning for his broody buddy. No one bore a resemblance to his favorite gothy rebel. Then Joel realized his mistake.
He locked his sights on a defiant, small, young girl with long gold hair and crystal blue eyes wiggling in her chair. The resemblance was too uncanny to be a coincidence. It was Ashley!
“Ashley?” Joel called out, but she didn’t react at all. In fact, no one did. It was as though nobody in the room had heard him.
The dream sequence progressed. A compelling figure clad all in white walked into the small classroom and stood front and center. Charisma radiated from this authority figure, which was all the more fascinating, considering he had no eyes or nose. This fact drew attention to his mouth, which was plastered onto his face in an oversized smile as if the Joker had just dosed his gin and tonic.
At this point, Joel realized he must have wandered into one of Ashley’s recurring nightmares. Maybe he could only dream-walk into people’s trauma-induced night terrors. Great. Leave it to the universe to grant Joel a power that basically forces him to relive everyone else’s trauma. As if he didn’t have enough trauma of his own to process. This realization prompted him to try a new tack. He was sick of having zero control over this aspect of his power and needed to use this opportunity to better direct it, even if it meant he also erred. This was probably a subconscious fear for Ashley- something she avoided even thinking about. So maybe if he forced her to consciously think about it, the dream would lose its power over her. Joel knew this was just a guess, but his gut was screaming that he was right.
Joel stood and walked over to little Ashley and tried to put a hand on her shoulder, but as he tried, his hand phased right through her. He was frustrated with the feeling of being a ghost in these dream worlds. If he couldn’t figure out how to interact with these mental constructs, his dream-walking ability would prove to be relatively useless. Maybe if he decided to pursue a career in therapy or counseling? He looked up at the faceless man at the front of the class, and then around at the other children.. They were sitting at their desks with perfect posture but tense, seemingly waiting for something bad to happen.
The aura of fear permeated the room as the man in white began pacing the aisles. Each child stiffened as he passed, but none so much as Ashley, who visibly bristled as he brushed against her table. The man stopped, looming over the blond child, and bent down as if to whisper in her ear. His mouth opened unnaturally wide, but instead of sound emitting from the orifice, a thick black smoke began pouring out. Ashley bolted from her seat and tried to move behind a fellow classmate. As she approached the small brown-haired boy, his mouth opened as well, and the same viscous smoke billowed out, right into Ashley’s face. Tears formed in her eyes and her face turned beet red. Joel felt her anguish deep down. His helplessness was infuriating. Why couldn’t he affect the dreams he entered? What good was this power if he couldn’t use it to help people?
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Ashley ran to the corner of the room as smoke began to fill the small space. As she passed, each student turned and began spewing smoke in her direction. Joel couldn’t take it anymore. He sprinted after her, arriving over her huddled figure just as she crouched in the corner of the schoolroom. Seeing her tortured, crouched form brought him back to his own childhood and the feeling of helpless inadequacy that used to petrify him.
Joel knelt next to Ashley’s dream self and tried unwavering eye contact, but she continued to stare at the floor. He couldn’t interact with her dream, but he could speak. Maybe his words would have some power to break through subconsciously. If not, they both would likely be overcome with the smoke.
“Hey, Ash. I don’t know if you can hear me. Seeing as how I have no control in these dreams I doubt you can. But I just want you to know that I get it. Adults don’t understand how much they can hurt us as kids.” He pointed at the smoke-spewing authority figure at the front of the classroom, “My mom wasn’t malicious like this asshat seems, but she didn’t make life easy, and my dad wasn’t around much. I think he would work long hours just to avoid coming home. See, my mom has severe depression, and it landed mostly on me to take care of her. I never really got a childhood, per se.” Joel made the statement sort of offhandedly, but for the first time while dreamwalking, his presence was somehow felt. Young Ashley’s eyes darted up to meet his gaze and widened. Still, the smoke continued to fill the room, so he continued, “But, you know what, it's that responsibility that allowed me to be someone who could roll with the punches and succeed in the Top Seed competition.” Joel and Ashley both coughed simultaneously, “I know I’m in over my head, but that’s how it’s been for me since I was a kid. And, correct me if I’m wrong, but I think you’ve had to be strong for your family from a young age too.” He paused to see if she would indeed voice agreement, but instead, he got a different kind of confirmation that his effort was bearing fruit. All of a sudden, he could sense a faint glow emanating from his own body, piercing the black cloud that was overtaking the classroom. He stood and tried to open a window to ventilate the area, but he still couldn’t physically interact with the dream world. Thankfully, the smoke was dissipating. As he moved through it, the light he was generating was neutralizing its effect.
So, Joel decided to keep talking. He kneeled once again and continued, “Look, I don’t know who this bastard is, but It’s clear to me that he is no good. But, Ashley, this is all a dream. It’s just a manifestation of your past experiences. He may have been big and scary back then, but the Ashley I know today would kick his ass in two seconds flat.” Her neck turned and she looked up at her own personal demon. Joel reached his hand out, “Here, take my hand. See, the smoke can’t touch me. I can protect you.” It was as though Joel had just spoken the magic words. All of a sudden the faint glow became a pulsing light. Ashley reached out and grabbed his hand. Holy shit. It was working! He was figuring out how his power worked in other people’s dreams… or nightmares. He didn’t want to let his power fade so he kept talking, kept trying to connect.
“You are going to be amazed at the grown-up you become. Grown up you is a fierce force of nature. Sure, you can be stubborn, but it comes from self-knowledge that is unmatched by anyone I know. I’ve never seen anyone stand their ground like you.” Now that they were holding hands, his moonlight energy had wrapped around them. Her tears had dried and she looked determined. “So, you have a choice now. Look at our power. Do you want to hide in the corner, or confront the man that held you down.” She nodded before raising an arm, aiming at the dark foreboding figure, and let loose a moonbeam straight at his torso. The light energy melded with his cloud of darkness. As the smoke was stripped away, the man’s form began to shift into that of a monster. But, Joel continued to encourage little Ashley, and she didn’t didn’t falter, even when the smoke monster doubled and tripled in size. Joel decided to try blasting the imposing figure as well, so he aimed his free hand and let loose a stream of moonlight energy that increased the diameter and intensity of Ashley’s moonbeam. They kept up the attack even when the gigantic hideous smoke monster flew towards them.
Both Ashley and Joel closed their eyes and braced for impact, but no impact came. Instead, the darkness was extinguished as it connected with their moonlit aura. Closing his eyes, Joel saw some flashes of an indistinguishable face and heard a voice speak three words, “Life. Death. Chaos,” and then heard a child’s voice say. “Thank you, moon man.”
***
Joel jolted upright in his bed, panting and covered in sweat; Bobby reacted, rushing over to his side, “Dude, what the fuck?”
“Uh…sorry. Bad dream,” Joel said quietly.
“Whose?” Bobby asked.
Joel looked around for prying eyes before remembering that they had some privacy from the cameras at the moment. Since they had been given the device, the two decided to keep the drone killer activated at night, just in case something came up unexpectedly that required secrecy. “Well, not mine. But before I reveal someone else’s private dreams, let me talk to them about it first.”
Bobby scanned Joel up and down and decided that Joel wasn’t hiding anything from him, so he nodded and walked a few steps away. But he stopped midway between their beds, turned around, walked back, and gave his roommate a small hug. “Sounds good, bud. Let’s try to get some rest, eh? I mean, I may not be here much longer, so we need to maximize our time together, and we don’t want to be tired from lack of sleep. That would put quite a damper on the shenanigans I have planned.”
Unfortunately, after Bobby had quickly drifted back to sleep, Joel stared out at nothing for a bit, trying to center himself back in the real world. Dreamwalking created quite an intense feeling of disassociation. When he finally felt like he was back in his own body, a river of tears flowed out of him. He cried for Ashley, who had had to endure such trauma at such a young age. Real or not, no one deserves to be subjected to that kind of horror. Joel wondered how long Ashley had been carrying that with her. It was these intrusive thoughts that kept Joel from finding rest that night and for the next several nights. With the intensity of this new aspect of his power, Joel was going to have to talk to someone about how to compartmentalize because he was dreading his next experience of sharing another friend’s night terror. As he finally drifted off to sleep, he held on to the faint hope that maybe, just maybe, the next dream he walked into would be more fantastical and less horror-filled.