"Daddy, when I grow up, I want to be just like you."
"Oh, really, and what am I like?"
"Strong and kind and smart."
"Well, if you want to be strong and kind and smart, don't forget these three things."
"What things?"
"Never give up, no matter how hard the situation may be. Never be cruel, no matter how much pain is thrown onto you. And never be lazy, always strive for more knowledge until you die. And then you can be just like daddy."
"I love you!"
"I love you too, sweetie."
My eyes flung open as I stared into the sky, noticing that day, and had turned to night. My body felt heavy as I let out a small groan from the injuries I had accumulated before my death. Rubble covered my body as if I had been buried into the Earth. The world seemed to slow down as I felt lightheaded. Lifting myself up, I moved bits of the rubble to move my arms freely as I stared around at my surroundings.
What was that dream?
I thought to myself, placing my hand on my face. Standing up, I brushed off pieces of rocks and dust of my clothes before looking around. The lack of sunlight and stars in the sky made it impossible for me to see, so I resulted to blindly walking with my arms stretched out in front of me.
Placing my hand over the wall on my right, I navigated my way forward in the pitch black carefully, making sure that nothing would take me by surprise. I continued to walk for ages, my legs becoming sore. Taking a rest, my throat felt dry as I yearned for water. Suddenly, I could feel cold rain falling from the clouds.
What in the hell...Can he just control these types of things without even being here? This makes no sense. But who am I to judge?
I thought as I drank bits of the water. After quenching my thirst, I began to continue walking in the rain. The cold, sharp droplets piercing into my skin at immense pace, causing my movement to slow down. The rain didn't seem to stop as it poured much faster as time progressed. Soon, I realised the consequences of such a thing. The floor below me had been covered by a small layer of water, which only continued to grow more and more.
This may seem bad, but it also means that this pathway isn't that long. And I could use the water to get back to the surface. Before that, I need to see if there is anything of use, though, down here.
Continuing my walk, the water had risen to just below my knees, making it harder to move. Using all the strength in my legs, I continued forward, hoping that this journey would end soon. After what felt like hours, my outstretched arms finally hit a dead end. Staring in front of me, I could make an outline of a wall.
Rain dripped down it slowly helping me come to the conclusion that this was the end of the pathway. Placing my hand all over the wall in front of me, I searched for any hidden openings or things that I could hold onto. Realising that there was nothing, I waited for the water to continue rising.
Guess that walk was useless at the end of the day.
I thought to myself, leaning against the wall. Suddenly, I could hear a faint buzz similar to a fly but uniquely different. I squinted my eyes and moved forward carefully to make sure that I was not caught by surprise. The buzzing grew louder the closer I got. And louder. And closer. And louder. And closer. Until I was standing so close that it felt like my ears would explode off any second. Covering my ears, I continued forward, trying to locate the sound.
It's too dark. I can't see anything.
And then, in the corner of my eye, a faint glow flickered on and off. Turning around, I noticed it was coming from under the water. By now, the water had reached the bottom of my stomach, making it incredibly hard to make out what the glow was. Taking a deep breath, I plunged into the cold darkness searching for the glow. The ice-cold liquid froze parts of my face as the cold air made it much worse.
I searched around in corners and small gaps, looking for the glow I had seen before. Then, in a small hole, I saw another glow. Making my way towards it, I looked inside to see an unusual ball of light. Reaching my fingers into the hole, I held onto it and yanked it out. Resurfacing backup, I let out a deep gasp for air, taking some time to regain my energy back.
Opening my hand, I stared at the ball of light that glowed brightly, illuminating my surroundings. I could see the water clearly as well as my own reflection. The hope that being able to see in the darkness brought onto me was astonishing. It was as if all my worries and troubles had been stripped and thrown away.
I stared at the light like a caveman that had just discovered fire. My eyes glistened with its reflection etched into my pupils. My mind had wandered off so much that I had not realised the water and reached up to my chest. As the light was engulfed by the water, I popped back into my senses as I assessed the situation. Slowly lifting my feet, I began to float.
Those swimming lessons in the 6th and 7th grade are really helping me.
I thought to myself. As the water continued to rise, the rain became faster and heavier as I could hear thunder striking above me.
Splash.
Staring to my right, a medium-sized rock had fallen from above. And then another in the distance. And then one in front of me.
The thunder! It's breaking the rocks, and the force is making them fly into here.
Looking up, I braced myself, ready to swim away in case any made its way to me. Instantly, I was pelted by small rocks that hit my head and hand, and I tried to swim away. Escaping in time before the injuries started to worsen, I looked around, realising I had dropped the ball of light. Throwing my head into the water, I searched eagerly for it. But I couldn't find it.
Maybe a rock has covered it?
I thought. Lifting my head up for a gasp of air, I felt a gust of wind wash over me as I stared up into the sky. Tiny speckles of stars made it so that I could barely see above of me. My eyes flew wide open as a huge boulder came hurtling my way. I knew I didn't have enough time to swim out of the way, so I dove into the water, and the splash sent me flying across. My head hit the walls multiple times, as I tried to grab onto something to stop me from being washed away, but the continuous falling of rocks made it impossible.
Splash. Splash. Splash.
Three more huge boulders fell right in front of me as my arm had taken a crucial hit. I let out a muffled scream under the water as I flailed my body. Swimming to the surface, I coughed up water as I gasped for air. However, before I could get enough oxygen back in another rock, it came my way. Diving back in, I tried to swim away from it as quickly as possible.
In an instant, I was flung deep into the water with the rock. Looking down, I saw that my leg had been hit and I was being tugged in. Grabbing onto the rock, I pushed away, releasing my leg a second before it struck the floor, the shockwave sending me flying. Swimming around, I searched for the light. After a while, I found it wedged between two huge boulders. Cautiously, I swam towards it, reaching my hand for it.
Splash. Another boulder! And above me! Great timing.
I thought to myself as I hurried to grab onto the ball. Seconds passed as I failed to hold onto it as the boulder inched closer. Nervousness built up within me as I knew that this would be a close call.
Come on. Come on! Grab onto it! Hurry! Got it!
Instantly, I retracted my hand as the boulder struck the other as I braced myself for another shockwave. Hurtling across the violent body of water, I collided with multiple falling rocks as well as ones that had already sunk. Slashes covered my body, as the once blue water started to become tainted with red. The current had picked up its pace as I couldn't find anything to slow myself down. I was being swept away without my will. My head felt dizzy as I felt my brain striking my skull nonstop.
I started to lose consciousness as the continuous swirling had brought me to the point of puking. My lungs felt like they were about to burst from the vast amount of intake of water, making it hard to breathe. I moved my legs and arms randomly like a child, hoping that I would be able to gain control in some miraculous way. But I didn't.
After a while, I saw a wall right in front of me, and I braced myself as I collided with a loud thump. Clutching onto the rocks, I regained control of my body as I moved my arms to swim up to the surface. After ages, I finally escaped the clutches of the water as I gasped for air intensely.
Looking around, the water had nearly risen to the surface. Hope filled me as all I needed to do was wait for a little more rain to fill this crack, and then I would be able to escape. But my hopes were soon shattered as the rain suddenly stooped. My once hopeful expression now turned into a mortified look as my escape was only inches away. Clenching my teeth, I slammed my fist on the wall as I knew that I was being toyed with.
I let out a scream of anger as I continued to pummel the rock-solid wall in front of me. My hands were covered in blood. After a while, the ball of light in my hand started to flicker on and off. Holding it out, I tried to keep it alive.
No. No. No. Don't go out now. Come on! Stay with me!
I prayed and prayed and prayed. But to no avail. The light went out, and I was left alone in the darkness with my escape out of reach. The moon illuminated into the night sky as the water glowed in its reflection. I was filled with despair after coming so close to freedom.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
What was that? It came from above. It sounded like footsteps.
Moving back a bit, I stared up into the darkness to try and see what was approaching me. The moonlight aided me a bit, but all I could see was a silhouette of what appeared to be a female walking towards me. As the moonlight shined over her, my eyes flew wide open as I couldn't believe who it was. My throat felt dry as a small tear rolled down my cheek.
"Jolynn?" I said finally.
"Hey, Harold." She said, crouching down. "Man, you seem rough." She chuckled.
"What... How are you here?" I asked.
"Hmm, that's a good question. I don't know." She said, tapping her head and winking at me, a small chuckle exiting her mouth.
"Still childish as ever." I replied, smiling.
"Well, I am still seventeen." She retorted, crossing her arms. "Fine, if you're just going to be mean, then I won't help you."
"I'm just joking, Jolynn. Come on, don't be like that." I replied, quickly pleading.
"Say you're sorry." She smirked.
"I'm sorry." I replied grudgingly.
She smiled and laughed before reaching her hand out. Grabbing onto it, she helped me as I lifted myself up, falling onto the ground.
"Oh, how I missed you ground." I said, holding onto it.
"Wow, this is just sad." She said, shaking her head.
Standing up, I let out a cough and stared at her. She seemed perfectly fine as if The Scientist had not harmed her in any way. My mind immediately went back to the scream I had heard, but seeing her in front of me, I waved it off as someone else. She wore a black leather jacket and blue jeans. Under her jacket, she wore a red cropped shirt, and her hair was braided beautifully.
"So, what do we do now?" I asked.
"Let's follow the light." She said, pointing behind me.
Turning around, a large beam of light shot down from the sky miles away. Seeing such a marvel was a once in a lifetime experience as I stood there in awe, watching the light shine so brightly. We made our way towards it hastily, conversing about what we had been through. I had learnt about all of Jolynn's dreams and how she had met her mother as a child as well as the aliens in her dreams.
"That's...a lot." I said, trying to wrap my head around it all. "So, these aliens gave him the power to put us into these dreams, and they have interfered because you have some weird part in it." I said out loud to explain it to myself.
"Pretty much. But him kidnapping your daughter is something I had never expected. That guy! I can't wait to sock him in the face." She said, holding up a fist.
"I would love to see that." I chuckled.
"Looks like we made it." She spoke.
Staring at the beam, we stared at it, hesitant to touch it. Slowly, Jolynn placed her hand on it, and nothing happened. Seeing that it was safe, I placed my hand beside her as we waited for something to happen. Time passed, and all we did was just stand there. Suddenly, Jolynn was sucked into it. Screaming her name, before I could react and move my hand, I was sucked in as well. Before long, I was hurtling in an infinite room of light.
My eyes didn't dare to open in fear that I would be blinded indefinitely, and so I hurtled through light in darkness. I could feel it burning my skin, a strong hissing sound leaving my body. I could feel my flesh tearing off as I tried my best to cover my naked skin. I could feel my head getting dizzier by the second as I wondered how much longer I had to suffer. My skin had turned bright red as my clothes started to catch on fire. The pain was immeasurable as I let out a terrible scream.
Immediately, I felt a hand latch onto me as I was pulled out into a dimly lit room. Holding onto my chest, sweat dropped from my face as I tried to control my breathing. Staring up, I saw Jolynn watching me, her eyes emotionless as she stared at me with such intent. It reminded me of The Scientist. Her posture and her behaviour, that emotionless expression gleaming with insanity.
Blink.
Her face had returned back to her happy, childish face as she asked if I was okay. Picking me up, she seemed concerned by all the red patches on my skin.
What was that? Did the light distort my perceptions? She resembled him eerily similar. Somethings off.
"Thanks for helping me, Jolynn." I said, smiling.
"Anytime." She said, giving me a thumbs up.
"So, what is this place?" I asked.
"I'm not sure. Let's go through that door." She spoke.
Making our way through, we entered a large dining hall. The design was much more medieval, and statues were lined up on the outskirts of the room, all facing inwards. As we walked up, we made sure that we would not be caught by surprise and stayed close. Walking up into the middle of the hall, a throne sat at the end perched up higher than the rest of the tables.
As we made our way up to it, I felt a weird chill crawling down my spine like an insect slithering across your body, its legs trickling on your skin and the quiet chittering of its teeth as it gnaws away on your flesh. The atmosphere grew darker, and I could feel myself start to suffocate in this place. My eyes darted left to right, sensing that something was watching me.
From the shadows, staring deep into my soul. Staring at Jolynn, she has the same expression and feeling as I did. I could see her leg visibly shaking. It was as if the intense pressure of whatever was watching us from the darkness.
Patter. Patter. Patter.
Tilting our heads, we stared around the dark corners of the room.
What the hell was that? Footsteps? Judging from Jolynn's expressions, she also heard it. Where the hell are we, and what was that?
Suddenly, I felt a hand grip my shoulder firmly. Turning around, I screamed as a skeleton stared directly at me, its eyeballs drooping out of its face as its jaw hung down to its chest. Moving back, Jolynn held onto me tightly as the skeleton walked towards us sluggishly. Its jaw swung from side to side as its arms hung in front of its body, unable to move. Every step it took, it was as if the bones were breaking over and over again.
Crunch.
From the darkness, another skeleton approached. It moved the same as the one in front of us, but one of its eyeballs was missing.
Crunch.
And another one appeared.
Crunch.
And another one.
Crunch.
And another.
Soon, an army of skeletons appeared and surrounded us. Eyeballs popped out as well as jaws falling all over the place. Their movements were in sync yet so slow that the suspense started to kill us. Jolynn held onto my hand tightly as her eyes were filled with fear. Her body shook intensely as she hid her face into my shoulder.
Damn. We're surrounded. And he brought a child here as well. I need to protect her. Somehow.
The skeletons held out their hands towards us as they inched closer and closer. Grabbing a chair, I struck any of the skeletons that came closer to us. Their bones scattered across the floor before vibrating intensely and colliding back together, becoming alive again. But I kept striking each and every one of the skeletons.
"AHHH!"
Turning around, a skeleton had creeped up to Jolynn and held onto her arm, tugging it vigorously. Dropping the chair, I rushed towards it, punching it with all my might as it went flying onto one of the pillars, breaking into pieces.
"You alright?" I asked.
"Mhm. Thanks." She replied. "Sorry. I slipped up."
"Don't worry." I said, patting her head. "Just keep punching."
Our back to each other, we began to pummel at every skeleton that came our way. Hitting its jaws, legs, stomach, arms, head, chest, all over its body. We kept punching and punching and punching. But the numbers kept growing.
Fighting an immortal, relentless army of skeletons was tiring. We both had started to realise that we were nearing our limits, but the fear of being devoured by them was too high for us to stop. So, we kept punching.
Punching our way through the army of skeletons. Skeletons continued to march towards us with hunger. Hunger that drove them into becoming such beasts. Jolynn suddenly collapsed to the floor, breathing heavily. She had reached her limit as the skeletons from her side inched closer, seizing the opportunity.
Rushing to her side, I grabbed another chair that was nearby and started to swing it in circles, destroying all the approaching skeletons. After a while, the chair finally broke after all the damage it had taken.
Are there any more chairs?
I thought to myself. But there was no more. I had used all the ones in our proximity, and the skeletons were as relentless as ever. Holding up my fists, which had started to bleed now because of all the fighting, I rushed towards the skeletons, taking their attention of Jolynn and all onto me. In an instance, they rushed towards me, their jaws gaping wide open as drool fell from their mouth. But I did not waver as I pummelled through all of them with my brute strength.
Hungrily, the skeletons continued to tower over me, trying to engulf my whole body, but with the will to live as well as Jolynn's cries of motivation, I continued to power through destroying them all. After an hour of fighting, I gasped for air as my arms hung in front of me, all bloodied up as my knuckles had teared off. Around me, a graveyard of bones lay idly. Weirdly, they didn't collide together anymore.
Are we finally done?
I thought, falling to my knees. Jolynn rushed over towards me, holding me up as she asked if I was okay. Too tired to speak, I replied with a smile to which she smiled back with tears in her eyes.
"I'm surprised." A distorted voice said, making us look up.
In front of us was a black robotic figure, with a long white robe and a staff in its hand. It made its way towards us as Jolynn helped me to stand up.
"Who are you?" I asked.
"Just call me The Creator." It replied.
"What do you want with us?" Jolynn asked.
"Nothing. It's just something to cure our boredom." It replied back.
"Is that all? Fun? You did all this for fun?" I said angrily.
"You have the same anger as the other one, but you are much rasher than Annabeth." It spoke.
"Annabeth was here?" Jolynn asked.
"Yes, she completed my maze and made her way here. I'm surprised, however, that you were able to defeat all those skeletons that easily. Well, done." It continued.
"So this is your place?" I asked, to which it nodded.
"Then, what do you want with us now?" I asked.
"You three...are remarkably interesting. Something about you three causes our dream worlds to have such unusual effects. But more importantly..." It said reaching its hand out. "... you always seem to appear in other dreams. How do you accomplish such a feat?" It said, pointing at Jolynn.
"M...Me?" She asked, flustered. "I'm not sure, but I don't remember appearing in any of Annabeth's dreams." She spoke.
"Weird. Very weird. There is something about you. Something particularly important that we do not know of... yet. But alas, we have a long time ahead of us to find out." It explained.
"Maybe it has something to do with The Scientist? You gave him these powers, so maybe it evolved as they were given to someone like him." I added.
"Perhaps, but a human wouldn't be capable of sending multiple people into the same dream. Maybe your consciousness, I don't know how, but somehow is able to transfer across worlds." It proposed.
"How would that be possible?" She asked.
"I'm not sure, but I would so love to experiment on you. However, as you can see, your very presence is destroying this world." It spoke.
Around us, the objects started to zip in and out of reality, distorting and morphing into multiple shapes. It was very unusual to witness. The table disappeared and reappeared in another position as the room changed from a hall to a theatre and then to a cinema.
"The world is collapsing." It said as it placed its hands on our heads. "I'm giving you two the abilities to enter into this world when you fall asleep on your own accords now. When you go to rest, you will be sent here as we will need to find out more about Jolynn and her uniqueness. Do not tell the scientist. A man of his calibre and knowledge is dangerous. If he found out about Jolynn's uniqueness before us, the consequences may be severe." It explained.
"I was hoping to imbue Annabeth with the same power, but as I had sent her back before doing so, I shall do it the next time we meet. Another thing is that The Scientist cannot see anything that happens in this room. We have ensured that, using our powers, it would be impossible for any human to enter." It added.
"You underestimate him." I spoke. "He is truly a terrifying person, but for now, I shall trust you."
"Thank you." It said, bowing its head slightly. "Now I shall send you back. Remember, do not speak of this matter. Good luck, and may you survive whatever dangers he brings onto you."
And then a bright light surrounded us both. Taking one last glance at each other, Jolynn and I smiled before we disappeared. Jolting up, I stared around the room as I saw Alissa laying on the bed fast asleep. Sitting on the sofa, I recouped my thoughts as I tried to process everything. However, I could hear a faint humming sound coming from my pocket.
Placing my hand in my pocket, I grabbed out something that was shaped like a ball. Opening my hand, my eyes shot wide open, as the same exact ball of light was right in front of me. However, this time, it was pitch black. I couldn't believe that something could follow me from the dream world to reality as I quickly placed it back in my pocket before I was caught. Walking over to Alissa, I sat beside her smiling as I stroked her hair whilst she slept.
What an insane dream. I hope Jolynn and Annabeth are okay. Now we have a new mystery to solve.
Onwards!