Dreame, Chapter Three

Dreame, Chapter Three, Part One

Malik awoke in the same eerily familiar, yet completely alien circumstances he feared he would when he went to sleep. This time, he stood in a grand room, draped in rather beautiful scarlet and violet silks and cloth. Obviously a grand bedroom, although obvious not his own. The room was flawless, with nothing to mar the beauty of the room. Nothing like Malik’s own ratty, dirty room.

“I sense your presence again, human. What tricks are you using? Tell me, before I must resort to using some tricks of my own. Nobody disturbs Aledor the Empowered with impunity!” Malik felt and heard the body he was in say. As there was nobody else in the room, Malik knew that this Aledor, the man with the cheetah body, addressed him, and nobody else. However, Malik had no idea how he would respond to this, as he had no control, and could not speak. And he definitely didn’t want to learn what tricks this man, the one with magic, could do.

“Answer me, if you are capable! If not, leave my home and body at once!” He said, his voice loud, grand, and commanding. This was a man used to people obeying, and the disobedience Malik showed, even if unintentional, obviously upset the man to no end. Malik tried to speak, trying to activate muscles that normally responded to his commands, and spoke, but like always, control was kept away from him. He then tried to depart, but he had even less success, if that was possible, with that, as he had no idea what to do to “leave” a body. It was a bit of a foreign concept.

“In that case, I shall pry the knowledge from you, whether you like it or not!” Aledor cried out, reaching for a ornate wooden chest, covered in carvings, and glowing runes. He opened it, the runes flickering for but an instant, and pulled out a vial of some unknown liquid, and a cylinder filled with ground white crystals. “One last chance, before I will be torturing your very spirit for the information! Leave, or state your purpose!” Malik was panicking now, wondering what horrible things this man could do, if he could draw a spirit from a body.

Aledor emptied the vial onto the floor, likely ruining the violet rug covering, but Aledor didn’t seem to care, as afterwards, he simply set the vial on top of the liquid, before surrounding the wet spot on the carpet with the crystal. Malik was utterly terrified by now, scared that if he had control of his body, he would be shaking, worried for his life. Even his vision was dimming, as Malik saw the edge of his vision blur, and fade away. Gradually, as Aledor carefully set up his circle, the blurry edges grew inward, eventually obscuring his entire vision.

“Oh? Leaving already? Don’t return, or you will face this, this and much worse.” Aledor said, his voice growing distant, indistinct, as the world faded away for Malik. Malik was confused by these words. How was he leaving if the cheetah wizard was doing things to his spirit? Was he a spirit right now, simply clinging to a body, or in this case, Aledor? What happened? Why was everything so very, very black?

Dreame, Chapter Three, Part Two

Malik gasped, suddenly in his bed again. He remembered his dream with crystal clarity, and it sscared him. It wasn’t like he had a choice on whether he wanted to go into the dreamworld, it just happened, out of his control. But now, if he would do it again, the wizard man would do indescribable things to him. Malik didn’t actually know what he would do, but the wizard seemed to describe it as quite terrible.

Malik glanced over at the clock. 4:23. AM. Far too early for anyone to awaken normally, but Malik knew sleep would never find him again that night, not that he wanted it to. So Malik did what he would normally do when he had nothing else to do, he went for a walk. It was fairly nice outside, given that it was the middle of the night, and silent as a shadow, he slipped out.

Using his phone as a clock, Malik would be sure to be back inside before his parents woke up. If they woke and he was gone, bad things would happen. He also had school in the morning, but that was not the first thing on his mind, rather, it was his friends. How would they react? He was practically going insane, allowing dreams to control him like this, but they were so terrifying...

They had always been so understanding, but would that continue even now? After Fairie saw him collapse due to a simple dream? But it wasn’t that simple... It was back to the understanding bit again, and Malik didn’t know the answer to that. He hoped they would understand, but he honestly didn’t know.

Malik was a few blocks from his house, near a twenty four hour gas station by now. He felt in his pocket, feeling a few dollars. He needed something to eat now, some caffeine, something for him to think about, as he walked slowly through the silent streets of night. As he entered the store, his mind wandered to why he walked in the first place.

The world at night was so much more simple. His parents forbid him from walking at night, claiming it was dangerous, that the only people that would be out would be criminals and homeless people. Of course, when his mother stated that, she said it in a way that made it quite clear she didn’t distinguish between the two groups. She had opinions like that, something that Malik disliked, but couldn’t do much about.

But in the years Malik had spent time outside, he had never seen a criminal, violent or otherwise. In his secluded neighborhood, he rarely saw anyone at all. If he did, it was often some exhausted man or woman getting home from a long day of work. By this time, it was a similarly exhausted person getting ready for an early start. None of them were criminals, however.

Malik was wandering again, a can of soda and some chips in his hands as he left the store. 5:15, his phone read, which was time Malik headed home again. His father woke up at six, usually. That meant he had a while to get home. So Malik took his time, wandering back home, unconsciously eating and drinking the whole way.

Malik snuck inside, only to feel a cold feeling in his chest as he saw a light on. Somebody was awake, and that meant that he had arrived too late. If he was lucky, they wouldn’t notice him sneak into his bed, if not, he would have to come up with some reason on the spot. He had done that before, but he hated lying, despite his skill at it.

As Malik wandered towards his bed, doing his best to be silent, soft footsteps sounded through the hallway in front of him. In the silent house, combined with Malik’s fear, the footsteps were nothing short of thunder, pounding its way toward him. Malik had little escape as his father turned the corner, looking tired and sad. “Why are you up?” He said, his voice rough sounding.

“I...” Malik began, but his father held a hand up, signalling him to stop. Malik had been hopeful that his father would give his standard level of caring, and simply send him away. Evidently, that wasn’t the case, as he began talking again, even though this exchange had already had more words than he had spoken to his father in the past week.

“Bad dreams?” He asked, his voice sympathetic, an emotion Malik rarely felt in his father’s presence. Malik nodded dumbly, not sure what to say to his father, who never spoke to him, yet still knew exactly what was wrong. He knew of his collapse, but Malik didn’t know he cared enough to remember. “Well, get to bed before your mother wakes.” He muttered, as he wandered back to his own room. As Malik made his way to his own room to prepare for school, he could have sworn he heard his father mutter “I’m sorry...” as he walked away.