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Chapter 1: A Dream of a Perfect World.
🕑 Added 2024-07-15 12:23:32 +0000 UTCChapter 1: A Dream of a Perfect World.
The sheets were warm and comfortable. Their fluffy mass doing a fantastic job of holding in the heat from my body in just the perfect way to make me want to snuggle, without making me sweat.
I buried my head deeper into the pillow as I began to stir. Relishing the sensation and not wanting it to end prematurely.
My mind kept buzzing though. Coming alive with a distant echo that reverberated within my skull. At first, I thought it was due to my alarm and that I must have set my phone to vibrating last night. But a quick inspection revealed that my phone wasn’t there.
Neither was my nightstand for that matter.
Indeed, the rest of my dorm room was changed. The space I found myself in being distantly familiar. One that gave me an eerie feeling of faint recognition without standing out from within my memories.
I got off the bed and noted that I was smaller now. My body wrapped up in Thunder Fist pajamas instead of my current eveningwear.
“Man, this is trippy.” I said. Immediately noting that my voice was that of a child’s too.
Then I sighed.
“I really should ease up on the booze.”
Even saying the words felt surreal.
The faint impressions of a rapidly emerging hangover dulling my attention. I didn’t usually remember my dreams and the few standouts were never good.
It was always something messed up.
Like trying to fly but falling into someone’s backyard. Or being chased around by cartoon characters. Floating off the bed while the bed also floated. Freezing to death in my bed.
Being unprepared for a surprise exam. Having an extra exam on top of the one I just finished. Having surprise essays after the surprise exam. Cartoon characters chasing me with failed essays; yelling that I should have been prepared to write at least two papers after my surprise exams.
That sort of thing.
Well, that and Doris.
I never remembered being able to feel small things like the goosebumps in my skin or the cold breeze coming from the open window striking out against my face, or even the coldness spreading into my exposed feet. These small details simply didn’t surface when Funny Bunny was out for blood.
No, they only came out when I thought about the monster shelter and I’d been doing a great job repressing those memories.
I felt a headache coming to me and winced as I brought my hand to my forehead. It didn’t feel like a normal hangover. Instead, it felt as though someone had bashed me over the head with a shovel or some other blunt object. My brain throbbing intensely as if I was seconds away from passing out.
Yet I didn’t lose consciousness and the aching redoubled.
“Damn it. This dreams sucks. What even brought it on?”
I dimly recalled the exams, despite the last of them having been finished only yesterday. Then my thoughts drifted to Henry. To the talk we’d had near the window. To the things that woman had been saying before the ambulance took her away.
There was, something about delusions? Burning skies and eyes that hadn’t opened?
My body started shaking. My stomach churning as I felt my intestines turning and writhing like serpents. I rushed to the bathroom connected to my room. Forcing open the door and trying to heave into the toilet, only for nothing to come out. Worse, the pain redoubled. Travelling from my stomach and up my spine until it rang my head like a church bell.
“Sully?” A voice called out from outside the bedroom. “Sully? Are you okay?”
“No mom.” I said.
Knowing that it was only a dream, but unable to keep myself from reassuring her.
I stayed there. Heaving and clutching my stomach, until I heard the door opening behind me.
I turned with tears in my eyes and almost jumped backwards in surprise.
This person, was not my mother. I mean, she looked like her. As she had some 15 or so years ago. Yet there was an underlying wrongness about her. Her features were somehow off. Too relaxed and placid, with a glazed-over expression that seemed to see right past me and out into nothingness. As if it was someone wearing a mask of my mother, instead of the real deal.
“Uh. I’m, okay?” I said. Partly paralyzed by fear.
“That is lovely dear.” She answered. With that same glossy gaze that wasn’t particularly focused on anything.
She then lowered her head a little. Too slowly for it to be anything like a normal human expression. I squinted and barely made out a humanoid shape sitting on her shoulder. Two cold blue eyes. Like chips of dirty ice, straddling a mouth bearing a wide grin. That impish smile grew slightly wider and the figure waved once before the outline dissipated like morning mist.
“Yes. Lovely. Lovely, lovely, lovely. Come down and have some breakfast.”
‘Yeah. No. I think I’d like to wake up now.’
I pinched myself. Hard. Then did it again. Even harder. To no avail.
It wasn’t that big of a problem, since I would be waking up eventually, but that knowledge didn’t make the present situation any less uncomfortable.
“I don’t think I’ll be having breakfast today mom.” I told the creepy facsimile.
She nodded slowly. Without any hint of emotion. I felt the twisting in my stomach worsening and I even went so far as to take a couple of steps back. Fearing that the outline might return.
It didn’t.
“That’s fine. Will you be going to school today?”
I had to blink. Several times in quick succession.
“Uh, is today a school day?”
“Yes.” She confirmed with a small smile. “It is.”
‘Ah. There we go. It really is a regular nightmare after all. Only, I’m not in Uni taking an exam, but rather, back in school taking an exam. How very, odd.’
It was still weird for the dream to be so lifelike, but it made some kind of sense now.
“No.” I told her. Wanting to see how far I could push my choices. “I won’t be going to school today.”
She bobbed her head up and down like a broken doll and her empty eyes found mine.
“Whatever you think is best Sully. I love you.”
Then she turned around and strolled right back down the stairs. Failing to close the door behind her.
‘Huh? Wait, really? I don’t have to go?’
I shouldn’t have surprised me in the slightest. This was a dream after all, and nonsensical things happened in dreams all the time.
And yet, there was something deeply disconcerting with my mom agreeing so, easily. Even within a dream. It felt wrong. Extremely wrong and unsettling. To the point where I felt the headache redoubling in intensity as I tried to rationalize my unease.
It felt as though there were thousands, or hundreds of thousands of voices calling out to me from all around the room. Whispers sneaking in from the corners in the ceiling and from underneath the bed. From within the walk-in closet and beneath the desk. From all the books on the bookshelf and the posters on the walls.
They were an incessant chorus assaulting me. Pleading for me to let them out. To allow them the freedom to wake up. Their voices sounded young and old and they came in all kinds of accents. All begging. Pleading. To be let out.
“Jeez. That’s what I want. I don’t want to be here any more than they do.”
Yet the buzzing did not end. They kept assaulting me when I tried to crawl back into bed and they kept assaulting me when I pulled the pillow over my head and they kept going and going no matter how much I willed them away.
All while my stomach kept turning and twisting.
‘Oh, my goodness. How long is this going to last? End already and let me out! I have things to do and people to see! I want to go out with Henry and the boys! Let me out!’
The voices did not relent. Neither did the pain for that matter. It all swirled around me like some thick, gaseous soup. A fog that permeated the insides of my mind.
“Sully? Will you be having breakfast?” The dream version of my mom asked from behind the door.
I threw aside the pillow and decided that I might as well. Perhaps then the dream would let me out.
I walked down the stairs in sullen silence. Not bothering to change out of my pajamas.
Dad was down there. Eating a healthy breakfast of eggs and some assorted vegetables. He had the same vacant expression that mom had plastered on his face. His eyes seeming to drift off into the air without any rhyme or reason.
“I heard that you didn’t go to school today.” He said. Not sounding angry in the slightest.
“No.” I confirmed. “I figured that I might try something different here in the dream. For once at least.”
He didn’t comment on my words, but merely kept nodding. A fact that sent even more chills up my spine.
“Very well.” He said after a while. “What would you like to do today?”
I shrugged. Trying to ward off the worst of the headache. And failing.
“Well, since I’m here. An ice-cream breakfast would be nice.”
Mom smiled. Clapping her hands awkwardly as if to congratulate me on my choice.
“Of course, dear. What kind of flavour would you like? How many bowls? Would you like me to pour chocolate syrup on top? Or would you prefer to have it with some cake?”
I blinked at her. Several times in quick succession. Again, it shouldn’t have bothered me, but it did for some reason. My spine practically vibrating with all the chills going up and down its length. My stomach turning into a boulder that still managed to squirm in place.
That was when I heard the singing.
I turned to look out the front windows and saw them there. Birds of all kinds and colours. Even ones that obviously weren’t native to Canada. All signing their little songs in front of the glass. With no regard for each other.
Their movements were inexplicably stiff and robotic in nature. As if they weren’t truly birds at all, but rather, some creepy contraption rigged up to play music in the likeness of birds.
Worse yet, were their eyes. Their tiny, beady eyes.
They tracked me as I walked along the table’s edge. Somehow coming across as hateful, desperate and terrified, all at once.
The TV turned on by itself then and I was greeted by a sleepy-eyed news anchor I didn’t recognize. Smiling in a way that suggested he’d had several hits of morphine before coming on the air and staring out into nothingness in the exact same way that my parents were.
“And now for the morning news. Everything is perfect today. There is no crime. There is no scandal. Everyone has housing and everyone has a job. The economy is stable. New toys are being made with the cool moving arms. The government is handing out kittens and puppies. Everyone is happy. This is another perfect day in our perfect world. Now back to you Sean.”
“Thank you, Tom. There were a lot of sports teams playing last night. Half of them won and half of them lost. It was very exciting. In other news, there were 1, 233 Rifts appearing in the past week. All the monsters tore themselves to pieces or otherwise mysteriously disappeared. No one got hurt.”
“How wonderful Sean. Now, could you tell us about the mysterious disappearances?”
“No Tom. We don’t talk about those.”
“Okay Sean. You look great. I definitely don’t hold a grudge over you keying my car.”
“Thank you, Tom. It means a lot. I was very stressed and had to let it out before you-know-who made me mysteriously disappear for having bad thoughts.”
“My pleasure Sean. I for one, live in constant terror that you-know-who will get me too. I’ve actually been pooping blood for the past couple of months.”
“Uh-oh.”
“Exactly what I thought. So, I understand where you’re coming from and I assure you that in no way do I wish harm on you. A little vandalism is okay if it keeps you around.”
“That’s very nice of you Tom. I certainty have changed for the better since then. I love you. Please let me go. Please let my wife and children go. Please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please…”
“Stay strong Sean. I love you. Now, lets check on the weather….”
Dad turned the TV off then. His vacant expression turning to me.
“Sorry about that Sully. It looked like the news was upsetting you.”
I had to shake my head. Wincing as the singing of the birds and the voices streaming in from the corners of the room came together to beat me down further.
“You know what? I will go to school after all. Let’s get this over with.”
“Okay dear. I love you.” Mom and dad said in unison. Both still wearing those same blank faces.
In the end, dad ended up taking me to school. His old car starting up with a rumble outside our old driveway. It would have been a nostalgic, almost pleasant moment, if it weren’t for my neighbours. All of them were lined up outside their own houses. All waving goodbyes at me as we drove down the street.
“Have a good day, Sully! We love you!” They all said as one. Repeating the words over and over again as we travelled out of the roundabout.
Things did not improve at school. Everyone, even Henry had these same empty stares. Smiling without any mirth and, weirdly enough, agreeing with whatever I said.
“Henry, I think that Telepath might have done something to me when she was having her fit.” I told the younger version of my friend.
“Of course, Sully. You’re always right. You’re so smart Sully.”
I narrowed my eyes at him.
“Yeah. I guess I am. And you’re going to be in for a lecture when I finally get out of here.”
“Of course, Sully. You’re always right. You’re so smart Sully.”
“I mean, what kind of idiot goes around fraternizing with Telepaths anyway? Do you have any idea what her powers were? What she might be able to do?”
“No, Sully. You’re always right. You’re so smart Sully.”
I stopped trying to talk to him. Asking the teacher to distribute the tests so that I could get this whole thing over with.
She did so. Stating that, since I wanted to do a test, we would all be doing a test today. Out in the real world, that would have resulted in the other children administering a rather vicious beating to me later. But not in here.
All of the other children there agreed that it was a good idea and that I was very smart for wanting to do a test.
I was shivering again by that point. So violently that I feared my real body might fall off the bed.
“Okay. No. I have had enough of this. Let’s get the test done and be out of here.”
The test was normal for the second grade. All normal addition and subtraction questions with laughably small numbers. I filled them out with a sigh, hoping that this would be the end of it.
I was left disappointed. Forced to suffer through the whole day with that same, excruciating headache and all those voices that pleaded for release.
Worse still, was the fact that everyone seemed utterly delighted to see me. To the point where I was actively avoiding people by the end of the day. Sighing in relief as I found my old bed again.
‘Yes. It must have been her.’ I thought to myself. ‘She was a high-Ranker. She must have done something to the neighbourhood while they were taking her away. I’m probably not the only one this has happened to.’
There was a rage building up within me at that notion. A black, billowing pyre of resentment aimed at Espers who couldn’t control themselves. Espers like Mason or that Cassandra woman. Granted, this wasn’t a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but the experience had still been thoroughly unpleasant.
‘I’ll file a formal complaint in the morning. At the very least. That should be enough to see her reprimanded. I can’t be the only one going through this.’
I calmed myself down with those reassurances and felt myself drifting back into a feeling that felt somewhat like sleep and somewhat like an awakening.
A sharp, unceremonious thud took me straight out of my coziness.
I registered a hard, uneven surface beneath me. Small jagged stones bit at my back, their sting taking away my drowsiness in an instant. My bed was gone. Vanished like a midsummer fling. The blankets were gone as well. Leaving me in loose fitting pajamas that still held on to some vestige of heat.
I opened my eyes at once, seeing uneven cave surfaces surrounding me. Glowing vines and mushrooms lined the walls and ceiling, giving off a pale green glow that drove away the shadows.
Beneath them buzzed a menagerie of smaller insects. All with different body shapes and sizes. The only trait they shared was an overly enlarged thorax that glowed blue and red in distinctive patterns.
The smallest was the size of a very fat fruit fly. The largest might very well have been capable of hunting small birds. What with the ominous mandibles and the needle-tipped legs hanging loosely in the air.
None had noticed me yet.
That, or none cared to do anything about me. Instead, one of the largest specimens shot to the side in an instant. Fast as a bullet. Landing on the outline of a…
Silver-coloured fish.
One that had been flapping thin wing-like membranes to soar through the air moments before. It too was glowing. The victorious predator rejoiced, clacking its mandibles in jubilation. Until a giant armored otter literally teleported next to it and swallowed bug and fish at once.
The animal looked my way with four curious eyes. Then it blinked and disappeared with a loud pop and a sudden displacement of air.
As a breeze swept over the cave, my mind finally began adjusting, despite the lingering hangover.
“I must still be in the dream.” I reasoned. “I only imagined waking up.”
My musings were suddenly interrupted. My whole attention was held by three small, translucent screens that appeared in front of me.
Greetings, Student. Welcome to the Labyrinth Tutorial. Elite Difficulty. (1000 / 1000).
Due to the Labyrinth’s community policies, all profanity will be censored and replaced with whatever non-offensive word inspires the most negative feelings within individual Students.
Name:
Solomon Carter
Psy:
55/55
Type:
Telepath Level 1
Abilities:
[Sense Thoughts] 1 / [Message] 1 / [Mental Bolt] 1
Ability Points:
0
