Rose's tent.
"We have no other way before us, Rose, you must do it." Peter said to her. Right next to her, the doctor sat in a helpless state.
"The things I told you, start doing them tomorrow itself. I am going back. It won't be right if I stay here any longer." Saying this, Peter went to his tent.
The doctor sat close to her. On the timepiece, the alarm was set for four o'clock.
"Doctor, I feel afraid," Rose said without looking at his face. The doctor held her hand tightly.
"Don't be afraid, I am with you in everything. Fear will drive a person insane." The doctor's words gave her comfort.
"At four in the morning, I will come. Try to get some sleep until then." The doctor slowly stood up. He looked at her once more, then pulled aside the tent curtain and stepped outside. He closed his eyes. The sound of the wind and the waves pressed into his mind, but none of it brought him peace. To find sleep, the doctor went into his tent, lay down, and closed his eyes.
...
Francis woke up from his sleep feeling as if he were suffocating. Needing to urinate, he stepped outside. As he was about to return after relieving himself, he saw the doctor coming out of his tent and heading toward Rose's tent. Francis noticed that the doctor was holding a book in his hand.
Francis immediately went back inside his tent and looked at the watch lying there.
The time was 4:10 A.M.
"Why is he going to her at this hour?" This thought pierced Francis's mind. After drinking some water from the bottle, he lay down. He soon became lost in thought. Having made some decision in his mind, Francis slowly closed his eyes.
As soon as the doctor entered Rose's tent, he saw that her eyes were already open. The nightmare had awakened her even before the alarm rang. The doctor gave her some water. The fear of that dream was still visible in her eyes. He allowed her a moment to catch her breath. Only after making sure that she had regained her composure did he open the diary in his hand to record the dream she had seen.
There wasn't the slightest difference between today's dream and the one she had described before. The fear inside her was clear to him through her eyes.
"Where did the spirit world leave its red mark on you today?" he asked, noticing that there were no new wounds on her face. She slowly lifted her dress. On both sides of her abdomen, fresh red marks were visible. The doctor quickly turned his face away, deeply pained by her condition.
After a brief silence, he said to her,
"Do you remember what Peter told you? The method you choose it has to be your own decision."
Rose sank into thought, weighing the choice she had to make. After a while, her lips moved softly.
"I will choose the W.I.L.D method," she whispered.
The doctor looked into her eyes. She stood firm in her decision, and he understood that clearly. He gave her another glass of water and said, "I'll see you in the morning," before returning to his tent. For when one practices lucid dreaming, the dreamer must remain alone in that space.
After the doctor left, Rose closed her eyes. She began meditation, the first step of the W.I.L.D method. Through her breathing rhythm, she absorbed every sound around her. In her mind, she started repeating the mantra Peter had given her.
"Tonight, I will lucid dream."
She kept repeating it silently. To perform a reality check, Rose opened her eyes. First, she looked at her hands everything was in its proper place. She scanned the entire tent no changes there either. She realized she hadn't entered a lucid dream. Rose also understood that it was never an easy thing to achieve. Accepting that tonight's attempt had failed, she closed her eyes and tried to sleep normally.
By six in the morning, the doctor woke and went to check on her. She was still in a deep sleep. Two questions rose in his mind:
"Has Rose entered a lucid dream, or is she just in ordinary sleep?"
To find the answer, he gently tapped her. The moment his hand touched her, Rose's eyes opened. Nothing had happened, and the doctor understood the truth. He gave her some water.
As they were speaking, a noise stirred outside. The doctor assumed it was Peter and called for him to come in. But when the curtain lifted, it was Francis who stepped inside.
Dr. John froze in shock at the sight of him.
"Doctor, did I disturb you?" Francis asked. Yet his face didn't carry the expression of someone apologizing instead, it looked more like he was mocking, smiling playfully.
"She's one of our group, isn't she, Rose? That's why I thought I'd drop by and see how things are going." As he said this, Francis moved closer to the doctor.
"I also came to have the bandage on my wound changed," he added, extending his hand toward the doctor. For a moment, Dr. John stood still, then slowly began untying the cloth wrapped around Francis's wound. Dipping cotton into spirit, he cleaned the dirt away.
Francis, meanwhile, noticed the red marks on Rose's hands and face. He turned to the doctor and asked about them.
"It's nothing serious," the doctor quickly lied. "Those red marks appear because the wounds on her head and arms are at risk of infection."
Taking his time, he finished cleaning Francis's wound and wrapped it carefully with a fresh bandage.
"If you take better care of the wound, it will heal faster and you'll be able to remove the bandage sooner," Francis said. Thanking the doctor, he stood up. He hadn't paid the slightest attention to what the doctor had just told him.
"Doctor, you should get some rest. The side effects of sleeplessness are already visible beneath your eyes. Remember, your life is the most important one here." With those words, Francis pushed aside the tent's curtain and walked off toward Robert.
The doctor's body trembled and broke into a sweat at Francis's remark. A few moments later, the curtain was drawn open again. This time, it was Peter. He gently tapped the doctor on the shoulder to call his attention.
"Francis has grown suspicious of us," the doctor said, looking straight into Peter's face.
"Yes, we'll need to keep a closer eye on him. If he finds out what we're doing, and the others learn of it, they'll all turn against us." Peter's tone carried the weight of the situation as he sat down beside the doctor.
"I was certain she wouldn't enter the dream world tonight. A few more days of training will be necessary. One day, Rose, you'll manage to deceive the spirit realm and step fully into the dream world." He paused, then continued, his voice lowering as if revealing something vital.
"There's one more thing about the dream world that I hadn't told you yet time. Even if you spend days there, in reality only hours will have passed. This is the exact opposite of the spirit realm. In the spirit world, every moment you remain takes away your time here. But in the dream world, it isn't so. You'll only have three days in this world the time we can let you sleep. After that, we'll wake you. I'm still trying to find a way to pull you out without causing harm."
Peter leaned forward, his eyes gleaming with a strange gravity. "I don't know how many years might pass for you in that other place while only three days slip by here. Perhaps, while the real world counts three days, you might live out an entire lifetime in there. That is what I failed to mention earlier."
At Peter's words, both Doctor John and Rose felt the weight of dread settle over them. Their expressions shifted, betraying the storm rising in their hearts.
"A whole human lifetime? I can't believe this," the doctor said to Peter in confusion.
"Yes, what I said is true. I know it's difficult to believe, but I cannot state the reality with complete certainty because I myself have never experienced it," Peter replied.
"Then… does that mean I could live an entire lifetime in the dream world, just as I wish?" Rose expressed her doubt to Peter.
"Yes. You can live a life of your desire. But remember, you can only shape the world itself—you won't be the one to create the living beings or the dangers within it. That is the dream world's work. And once you enter, you will forget everything and live as one of its people. If you can return with full health, you will gain the experience of two lifetimes. That is the greatest gift a human being could ever receive. If I stay here any longer, Francis's suspicions will double."
Peter said this and left. A smile spread across Rose's face. She had always loved reading fantasy stories, and now, the thought of creating her own fantasy world and living an entire lifetime inside it filled her with delight. She became lost in thought.
"If I manage to enter the dream world, what kind of world should I create?" One by one, the fantasy tales she had read flickered through her mind.
In Peter's heart, there was joy the joy of seeing his long experiment close to success. In the doctor's heart, there was only one thought: to protect her. Meanwhile, inside her own mind, Rose was already building the kind of fantasy world she loved, preparing to live within it.
To be continued.....