You were just an ordinary teenage boy. You were 16 years old and had some
good friends, not popular but definitely not a dork. Just average. You had no
siblings, but your aunt and her son lived with your family due to a nasty divorce.
Nothing too strange went on in your life. Until tonight.
You had gone to bed as normally as any other night, but in the middle of the
night you woke up in a cold sweat. You thought you had heard something. Sure
enough, there was a quiet noise under your bed. You weren't sure whether to
stay in bed or go turn the light on and investigate. When whatever was under
there bumped the bed from underneath, you knew you had to get out of there.
You got up and leapt from the bed, but before you could even touch the ground,
something caught you in midair.
To your horror, you turned to face a giant snake. It was as thick as an oil barrel
and longer than two buses! How it had gotten into your house and fit under the
bed, you had no idea. However, you were more concerned with the fact that
you were caught in its coils and the caution cone sized fangs dripping venom
and ready to strike.
Suddenly, you heard a loud crack. Both you and the snake turned your heads
towards the noise. It was a young boy, maybe 12 or 13 years old. He had jet
black hair cut short and brilliantly bright green eyes. He wore a tuxedo, dress
pants and shoes, white gloves, and a top hat. A black cape hung from his
shoulders and he held a straight black cane in one hand.
The snake moved you behind it and hissed at the boy. It lunged towards him,
but the boy didn't even flinch. He snapped his fingers and the snake was gone,
leaving you to drop a couple feet to the ground. You were sure this had to be a
dream, but it certainly hurt like the real thing.
The boy propped his cane against the wall and removed his gloves. He then
walked towards you as you picked yourself up and extended his hand. You
raise an eyebrow, but shake hands with the strange boy.
"Greetings, mortal," he spoke in a mature voice unbefitting his young form. "I
see you've been taken into the world of dreams. And I'll bet a leprechaun's
fortune you want an explanation."
You meekly nod your head.
"Well, first off, let me introduce myself. I am Alp, Master of Dreams."
"Seem more like nightmares to me," you say.
"A nightmare is simply a dream with more power. But yes, this is a darker
circumstance. It would appear that someone is interfering in my realm.
Recently, my scarier dreams have been disobeying me. Someone has gained a
power they should not have. I must find whoever this person is and put an end
to it before someone gets truly hurt or even dies."
"But wait," you ask him, "If this is a dream, how could someone die?"
"Did you feel pain when you fell?"
"Yes."
"Normally, you do not feel pain in a dream; dreams are just emotions playing
out in your mind. Pain is a real thing and so are these nightmares. As it stands
now, you are stuck in the dream realm and whatever happens to you here will
happen to your body in the outside world."
This information hits you hard; "But, my family..."
"Yes, your family will most likely find you tomorrow in a comatose state. They'll
take you to a hospital where no doctor will be able to tell them what's wrong.
That is why I would like to ask for your help. Since you are stuck here, you
would be much more useful by helping me find whoever is doing this. And by
staying with me you would be a great deal safer."
You weakly agree and follow Alp to your bedroom door. But when he opens it,
you are gazing out across a strange place. It appears to be a field, but the
grass is black and the sky a dark red. Everything is in silhouette until you are
right next to it. Then it turns out to not be what you thought it was.
A tree becomes a massive spider web. The thing that made the web sits at its
base, but does not attack you. It bows to Alp as he walks by, who tips his hat in
salute.
"I thought you said the scary dreams didn't listen to you?"
"Most don't. Some do. The scarier it is, the more likely it won't obey and vice
versa. But it is mostly based on personal fears. Obviously, you hold no great
fear for spiders, so it did not attack you. Believe me, there are more horrifying
and dangerous things in this realm than giant spiders."
You come to a stone wall. Alp jumps up on top and looks upward towards the
red sky.
"That's normally blue. Red means things are out of order. I can feel the conflict
growing between good and bad."
Alp is quite for a long time.
"Aren't you worried about other people getting trapped here?" you ask.
"Oh, no, I have sent my most benevolent dreams across the realm to protect
whoever dreams. I came to you specifically to recruit you."
"Why me?"
"I can sense in you great courage and cunning. Though you were afraid of that
snake, you were not paralyzed with it. Those who can act self-consciously in
dreams are those I need. I have recruited others as well. They are, even now,
searching for the source of this chaos."
"So how can I help you?"
"Well, all I really need you to do is to go into other peoples' dreams and try to
track the source of their nightmares. Unfortunately, this is easier said than
done. When you enter another's dream, you adapt to that person's mind. I
appear to you as a child in magician's garb because that is what your
subconscious felt was appropriate. Although I must admit it is rather charming,
which is why I haven't changed back to my true form now that we are in the true
dream realm."
Here, Alp jumped down and led you to another freestanding door in the middle
of the field.
"This is your first assignment. Inside is another's dream. You must stop the
nightmare from hurting them and then track it through the realm it flees to. Be
prepared for anything to happen as you cross this threshold. Good luck and
don't get killed. Wounds I can heal, but if you die you will remain here forever."