Of Dream; Lucid

02 - What happen in dream won't stay in dream

Chapter 2

“Why did I say that ‘I’m caught’? Not like they will know that I’m lucid dreamer” mention Luna inside as she partially listens to what Merrill says as a little briefing as trying to calm everyone. Her worried face changed a little into a calm one and Kain can clearly see it.

“Who are you? Are you her or not?” asked Kain as he looks at her, wondering. He has been facing Luna – the dream one – for 5 years already and the Luna in front of him bring a lot of question into him.

“The way you look, the length of your hair, the small finger, the moles on your jaw and your thin legs. There nothing that I can doubt. Are they the same person or did I make my Luna from the trace of her? If that is what happened, I might meet her before this. But I never realize that” and there more comes across on Kain mind.

He shakes his head and thinks inside of his head “No. I should calm myself. Today is Merrill turn and I shouldn’t pitch in” since he had been thinking to just take over today turn.

A few second then when he calmed down, he moves toward Merrill that he find talking way too much. And thus she can feel someone walking past her and see Kain walk to the front and stand next to Merrill.

“Rather than hear all explanation all day, we should start. And it reoccurring explanation” says Kain and Merrill who keep explaining shut up and listen to him. He cannot help it since Kain is the leader of the group and he also acknowledges he been talking way too much that day.

“You guys now can freely sleep for one hour,” says Kain and somehow there a cheer comes from everyone. It is not normal when a certain talk let students sleep. But since it is about a lucid dream, it is plausible.

“We will dim the light and you guys can get comfy all you want” and his sentences make some student makes a bad joke to want to lie down on the floor. The others laugh and his intention cut off by Qir – hottest researcher that all boys in the room somehow swoon for – saying “I hate that” and he quickly gets up and sit on his chair.

“There is one important thing you need to do. It is to not make noise and respect the others that sleeping. We don’t want to destroy other people chances to experience and if you guys can’t sleep, just raise your hand and we will excuse you guys from this slot”

“In another side, we will let you guys go home. But that hardly to happen” added Joseph with a smile. “Once the playlist is on, no one can stay awake to listen to the second song. It always happens in our research. I would love to see someone hold on but that just impossible”

“What about you guys?” asked one of the students that think they will go to sleep too and somehow challenge what Joseph says earlier. “Don’t worry, all of us use different playlist and others playlist won’t affect us much. It’s like each of us has different music to our liking” explain Kain and there no disagreement.

“The one we will use is my playlist…” says Merrill that stopped by a question.

“How you guys will know that we have a lucid dream?” a question comes from the stage that makes Kain looked back and see it is from Luna.

“There a five bed on this stage. Four for you guys and one is for one of us. And today Merrill will be the one sleeping and will step into your dream and see if you guys have a lucid dream without interfering your dream” Kain explain that makes Luna think “As long as it is not you, it won’t be hard on me, even though you’re not him. And I can always put on protection ward”

Kain later continues with “And in this process, if we find any of you guys who have a worrying dream, we will come forward and offer our help. That is the intention of our research. To help any student who has a problem with a dream. We will let you know it is a dream and fight it to create a better dream. The one who helped us usually learn to control their dream and become lucid dreamer”

“If any of you did have a nightmare or reoccurring negative life event in your dream and want to come out, we will accept you guys with an open hand. These people will personally attend by us” says Kain. But like always no one will really admit it in front of everyone.

“Also to anyone who wants to learn how to have a lucid dream can meet us. We have a room that we use in the main office, so come to us whenever we’re there”

“Kain… You talk too much” says Merrill giving back the taste of what he feels before and Kain can see his winning smile. He then comes close to Kain and whisper “Do you want to trade place? I can let you be the one who travels this time”

“No. I’m good. But you should be careful. If she is…” says Kain that want to warn Merrill but he doesn’t want to listen by walking away from him. Kain sighs slightly and collects himself.

“Okay, we should start now. The four of you can go to the bed” says Kain and they listen to them. Merrill also goes to the middle bed with Qir helping him setting a few wires to his head and heart.

“What that machine for?” asked someone from the crowd as it is the same question that comes in others mind. Kain starts to explain “It is for safety. Jumping from mind to mind is quite risky since he might exhaust himself. Even entering one mind is hard but he will do to all of you guys. This is used to monitor his condition and if there something worrying happens, we will wake him up”

“Don’t we need that too?” asked one of the student and there another one saying “It looks cool. I want to try it”

“No. You guys don’t and it not looks cool at all. It’s practical” Kain stop all useless agreement with his strong stare. And then he says “Shall we start then?” asking as the light is dimmed by Joseph.

“We will play the playlist now,” says Kain before he clicks the play button and the song start.

Everyone stayed silence and as the song goes on one by one go to sleep and Kain walked toward Luna bed to see if she sleeping or not and she does. “This is just the start”

From listening to the playlist, Luna falls asleep. Not because it is calming, but because she still needs some sleep. If it is another time she can stay awake from it and she actually would prefer something different as she has her own playlist that can put her to her dream.

It's just taken her a few brief minutes of sleep before she gets into her lucid dream. There nothing changed in her dream world; the blue sky, the green land, and the winds blowing still the same. She walks around; checking the wall of her dream and says “I should put up something more than the protection that I have now”

Luna protection ward at that time is the endless loop; Mobius strip that can trap everyone. Once people step it, they won’t come out unless they understand the concept. But looking at the one who will come to her dream is someone who understands a lucid dream, she cannot help want to put better ward; challenging one.

By what she says the whole place changed static – not moving – as card appears in front of her and she takes it to then checking each card. The card on her hand is not a simple deck or tarot card; it is a card of her mind manifesting a few – lot – of protection guard that she ever thinks of and some of them are applied before.

She throws the card one by one to the floor and it went into the ground. It is her elimination process and then what left on her hand is the ‘Heart Mirror’ card. “Looks like I will use this one,” she says and throws the card into the air and something like nothing changed. However, something did happen. The surrounding of her dream is coated with a thin mirror.

“Now, I should wait and watch,” she says and sits on a chair that appears suddenly as per her creation. “Not every day I can see something interesting”

But out of all, she didn’t think of something; that her action is the one that will bring others to the knowledge that she is a lucid dreamer.

Merrill looks around in someone dream of being a pirate and he cannot help to not laugh. “Oh my, how old are you?” he asked as he stays for a brief second and jumps into another dream as he deems this one won’t ever experience the lucid dream and also no need for any special care.

Another dream makes him laugh at it is a dream of a girl who wants to be a princess. Again another same question asking “How old are you?” is thrown. “No one dream to be a princess anymore unless they are an elementary student”

It is something normal and usually appears on their research and Merrill can just cross them off the list. He then enters another dream and sees the scene of someone chasing someone or it can be someone running from someone.

This type of dream is one of the potential candidate dreams of the lucid dreamer. That is what he always thought since as he did research the one who has this dream when trained properly can have a lucid dream. And he is one of them. “I should take note of him”

Hopped into another dream, Merrill suddenly interferes with the care about his original mission. All due to the owner of the dream want to cut his wrist. And Merrill quickly stops him from taking the knife away and it makes him bleed instead. And the course of action makes the others realize due to his rising heartbeat.

“I bet someone needs some attention,” says Joseph almost whispering and two of them nodded. All of them know what to do in this condition and thus walk around to find out which dream Merrill step into,

“What are you doing?” asked Merrill almost want to shout to the dream owner.

“I… I…” he doesn’t know what to say. Merrill takes a deep breath and asked “Tell me. Why did you resort to this?”

At that time without answering the dream changed; somehow showing the story behind what happening. “I used to be happy,” he says and continues “With someone that I love” and the dream manifest into a boy at the same age as him. He holds his hand and smiled.

“But not so long… My family hates me from steeping into another side. And his family too” he says and suddenly they're an old couple comes and pulls the boy away from him.

“They separate us,” he says as their hand that together pulled away. “He now on the other side of the world and I’m here”

“It’s hurt living without him. And I can’t contact him. There nothing that I can do to contact him and so does him… I think”

“Then you want to die because of this?” Merrill asked and he nodded. “I’ve been thinking which way is easier, is faster and is suitable for me”

“Do you realize this is a dream?” asked Merrill as the boy sound like he been experimenting things and it shows a potential lucid dreamer.

“Yes. I am. When you guys give a lecture I realize it. But I don’t mind or give a care about it. All I want is to die”

“You will regret dying. Stay alive. We will help you to grow your power of lucid dreaming. We will let you travel up to his dream. And thru that you can meet him” says Merrill and it open his eyes. “Can… Can I do something like that?”

“Aren’t I’m doing something like that?” asked Merrill back and he nodded. “My power is still limited and I can’t travel far. But with Kain, our leader watch, you will be able to do it and slowly thru dream we will teach the other person too”

The boy smiled and shows some glimmer that he doesn’t have earlier “Then no matter what, I will meet him?”

“Yeah. For now, how about you wake up and my friend will notice you. They will bring you to a room for talk and you can tell them everything. And Kain will definitely help you” explain Merrill and he nodded.

“Thanks,” he says before he wants to wake up but Merrill called him asking him “What’s your name?”

“Zane. My name is Zane” he says before he gone as he woken up from the dream. As he opens his eyes and looks around he sees someone walking toward him.

“Did Merrill tell you to wake up?” asked Joseph and he nodded. “Can you come with me for a talk, we don’t want to disturb the others, right?” says Joseph with a smile and he follows Joseph out of the room.

Joseph brings him to a room and they both talked as he tells everything that he told to Merrill before to Joseph. When he heard that Zane told “I’m a lucid dreamer” Joseph's eyes change brighter.

“Will I really be able to learn how to reach his dream?” he asked with tears falls on his cheek and Joseph cannot help to feel sad for him. He nodded and says with a smile on his lips “We will help you. For sure”

“Thanks. I really appreciate it”

The dream that he comes across after that are aren’t worth mentioning until he stops at the sight of a gloomy dream. The dream he steps into is of a 7 years old girl playing alone in her room before someone comes and torture her. There shocks on Merrill's eyes and at the same time, his heartbeat and brain reading show a fluctuation that alarms the others.

“Another one?” asked Qir that stayed with Kain.

Merrill walks toward the girl that crying from the torture she receives and hugged her, calming her down. He doesn’t want to step right when she being tortured since it not a wise thing to do. This is all from what he learns all these years. If he did, she will depend on him and won’t grow by herself.

She soon after that calmed down and looked at Merrill. Merrill gives a smile and says “If this happens again, you should know that it is just a dream. You have grown up into a beautiful lady that everyone wants and please… please cheer up”

“But no one wants me. I know how they look at me…” and she cannot finish her sentences as Merrill shush her to silence. “You can fight it. We can help you. So, now, you should wake up” says Merrill and soon after that, she went.

A few rows from where Qir is standing, she found her who woken up and looked around with tears on her cheek. Qir quickly approaches her and gives her a smile. “Will you come with me for a second?” asked Qir and she give a nod.

Both of them walked out of the hall into another small room used for rest. There Qir explains everything and asked her if she needs a help. She pours everything out and she listens to her heart. It takes a while before Qir come back without her as she excuses her to go back with a rule that she will come to meet her again for another session.

When Qir comes in, Joseph is still not back, and she headed toward Kain asking if there any more alarming students after she gone but there is no. Soon after that Joseph comes back with the boy from earlier. He heads to his seat while Joseph back to the stage.

“Is there anything happen when I’m gone?” asked Joseph and Qir shake her head. “How her?” asked he then.

“She calmed down, and I give her my card so we can meet her again for another session and I think she needs some counselling too”

“That’s good. Hope we can help her. What dream is she having?”

“Of her stepfather; torturing her” as Qir answer and then she asked “How about that boy?”

“He is good except he has a tendency of committing suicide. I talk to him about it” says Joseph before he approaches Kain and says “We got one”

“Lucid dreamer?” asked Kain and Joseph nodded. “It is the boy from earlier. His name is Zane. I talked to him and he gladly wants to learn more about how to control his dream. Mostly it is because of his problem. But we can kill two birds with one stone. By teaching him how to control lucid dream he can achieve his peace back”

“Okay. I will help him learn more about the lucid dream” says Kain as he looked toward the boy from earlier and gives him a smile. “Tell me the story later. I want to know the reason why” Kain says and at that Merrill once again gives another alarming move. And this time is way bigger and scarier than before that makes the machine beeping countlessly and some student woke up due to that.

“Professor, what happen?” asked some of them that worried and there also some who asked, “Aren’t lucid dream safe as you told?”

Kain didn’t answer and nor does the other two. The three of them sprint toward the stage; scared of what happened. When they are on the stage Qir is checking the machine with Joseph while Kain tries to wake Merrill up but he didn’t respond him. All students who wake up, start to show how scared they are at what happened.

“Merrill! Woke up!” shout Kain trying to makes Merrill open his eyes. Usually from a simple push Merrill can be woken up but not this time.

“Merrill can you hear me?” asked Kain again trying for another time.

“Kain. What should we do? Did he enter too much dream and exhaust himself?” asked Joseph worried but Kain answer with “This many is bearable. He has done thrice the count of the student from what we got now”

“Then what the problem?” asked Joseph before their attention taken by Qir.

“Should we medicate him?” asked Qir who is checking the emergency medicine that they have in case something happen during the trial. They always keep a medicine that can help them to wake up from a dream in case something happens. Not like something life-threatening will happen, but it just forms of precaution.

“No. Play the alarm for him,” says Kain and Joseph run to the computer and jump a few songs until it reaches the alarm song. It is a song that used by lucid dreamer to wake up from their sleep.

“Let’s wait for a while,” says Kain but there nothing change in Merrill and the machine is still beeping noisily; like the sound, we can hear in the hospital.

“Kain, I think we should really give him some injection,” says Qir taking out a syringe and want to open a bottle of adrenaline.

“No,” says Kain and Qir movement stopped. He then looked around and his action makes the two of them called his name. “Kain… What are you? We got no time to spend” comes from Qir mouth.

“Silence,” he says strictly like a leader and they stopped as well as the student.

“Everyone sits down and stay silence” he mentions to the student in which some of them stand up due to the shock. “Who is still sleeping?” asked Kain and everyone looked around but no one is sleeping; the beeping alarm is too loud and alarming for anyone to sleep. All students are sitting properly and no one got their head on the table anymore and none of their eyes closed.

Kain, Qir, and Joseph looked from the stage in which they can see everyone and they also cannot find anyone who still sleeping. At that times Qir remembers there four students that sleep on the bed, on the stage. She looked and her eyes fall on one figure that still on the bed.

“Kain…” called Qir and he looked back. “She is still sleeping,” she says and Kain's eyes drifted to Luna without even a need to tell who she is. There no one to suspect from the student on the bed except Luna.

Kain bites his lips and shouts “Joseph stops the playlist” By that order, he stops the playlist and looked at Kain.

He walks toward one of the bed and says to the one still sitting on it “Go” His charismatic and serious tone makes the guy step down quickly and Kain lies on it.

“Kain… What are you doing?” asked Qir who now stand next to the bed; worried.

“I need to get in,” says Kain as he pulls out his phone and put his earphone on his ears. He lies down and before he plays his playlist he says “I need to pull out Merrill from her ward”

“Ward?” asked Qir confuse. And Joseph is also on the same page asking “What is ward?”

“You guys are still new and you haven’t got enough skill for it yet. But lucid dreamer, we always put protection ward to keep our deepest dream”

“But you don’t” mention Qir and Kain shake his head “I did. It just you guys never step into my dream and if you did, it is with my invitation and you also never step into my deepest dream. If you did, you won’t want to find out what will happen and what you guys will experience”

“I need to counter her ward and pulled Merrill out. If she is her, she will allow me in” says Kain and the two of them cannot stop what Kain want to do. One because he is way experienced and two because Kain know Luna; if this Luna is his Luna.

“We will stop today session here, let everyone go except Zane, the boy from before. I will get Merrill as soon as possible and when he wakes up, give him some IV. He will need it” he says but the two of them blank on him.

“Did the two of you understand?” he asked and they snapped; both saying “Yes!”

“Good. I will go now” says Kain before he plays his playlist and soon after that he falls into sleep.

Both of them listen to Kain order and start to excuse everyone from the room. They also explain that there nothing for them too worried about and calm everyone. Students leave the room one by one and the only one leave is Zane, the boy from earlier and Luna friend; Seth.

“Why aren’t you going?” asked Joseph and Seth eyes on Luna. “Ah. You’re her friend” says him realize that he sees both of them together before.

“Can I wait?” she asks and Joseph looks at Qir. Qir nodded and Joseph gives a “Yes”

“Thank you”

In the huge room, the one who still there are Kain, Merrill, and Luna that still sleeping on the bed and Qir, Joseph, Seth, and Zane. The machine is still beeping at the same tone without stopping and worried still being carried by all of them.

“Merrill, hope you’re okay,” says Qir looking at the machine and then her eyes drift to Kain “Hope you can find him”