Realm of the Dream Walker

A tale I wove for honors english, I just couldn't bring myself to leave it unpublished

Vengeance is an odd thing, when one seeks it they become susceptible to the slightest manipulation, even the most suspicious of people becomes blind when seeking revenge.  

"How long has it been, since I learned of this power? How long has it been since I claimed it for my own? But if i must recount the tale, let it begin from the beginning.

 it was so long ago, centuries by now, when my mother told me the tale of the Dream Walker, a being who wandered the sleeping minds of man, and manipulated his thoughts to its will, oh how naive I was at the time, if only I had known the these stories were more that just frightful tales to keep me under my sheets at night, If only I had known of the monster I would become. 

 'This will keep the Dreamwraith out of your mind' she had said, as she hung the charm above my bed. It was a simple thing really, the charm, just a ring of wood, sanded smooth, with pieces of string tied at various niches in the wood, with some turkey feathers hanging down the bottom, a 'dream catcher' they're called nowadays. It was supposed to keep him away, and it did, at least for a while. It was a dark and stormy night, when I first encountered him, he wore an old British army coat, and spoke with the voices of thousands echoing behind him, in such a way you could never really tell witch voice was his. He was kind though, and gentle. He spoke to me of wondrous places, and things born of pure imagination. But eventually, he said he had to go, I begged him to stay, but he said I had to awaken, and that he had a life as well, but he agreed to visit me again soon. Reluctantly we parted ways, and then I woke up, to find that thunder had shaken the charm off my wall.

 He kept his promise, and soon I was once more in his world, the vast nothingness, framed beautifully by the perpetually setting sun, and we stayed and we chatted, we talked of wondrous things, things man could only dream of... and I suppose thats why we talked, in this realm unbridled by the chains of reality anything was possible, and I would find that out all to soon. 'Don't wake up' he said suddenly, I was confused of corse, but I trusted him, Looking back, I suppose there wasn't anything I could do to stop what happened, I was weak. 

 

there, in my sleep that night, that was the first time I died. 

 'Its time to awake' he said eventually 'Ill be here when you need me' and my eyes fluttered open. It was black... and cold... and cramped I had no idea where I was, so, doing what a 16 year old girl would do in this situation, I started to scream. It wasn't long before the black was severed by a thin blade of light, the light expanded and suddenly I realized where I was, It was a morgue. The man who'd opened my drawer stared wide eyed as I sat up and yawned, I suppose I can't blame him, corpses aren't supposed to yawn. It was later, I was told I, as well as the rest of my family, had been shot by a group of runaway convicts, looking for a place to hide. It was a medical medical, the girl who survived a bullet through the head, but that didn't matter to me, I understood what Dream had meant when he said 'don't wake up', or at least I thought I did at the time I furious at him for it, and for a brief moment, I believed he truly was the monster my mother said he was. The day had been long, full of police, detectives, and reporters, I was a celebrity, 'the girl who lived' they called me, and by the end of the day I was just happy to rest in a bed, even if it wasn't my own. 

 suddenly I was there again, and so was he. 'Why?' I shouted, 'Why did you keep me from waking up? Why did you keep me from saving my family?' Dream only sighed 'While in this state, all your brain power, save basic survival functions, breathing and what not, are transfers to my realm, so the brain stem runs on its own circuit. When I told you not to wake up... it was already to late, the bullet had passed through your brain, but you where here. Had you left the dreamstate, your conciseness would have died along with your body, however the brain stem remained intact cause of the closed circuit effect that takes place when one enters the dreamstate, and your dead body began to bring itself back to life.' It went something like that, but it was long, and so long ago.... I wouldn't be surprised if I got it wrong, the brain tends forget things, as I've learned these past few centuries. Regardless of what he actually said I felt horrible, he kept me here to save my life not to kill my family. Then my thoughts turned to revenge 'can you help me get back at them?' after that question he began to change, his thousands of voices collapsed into one, a single grating voice, his military uniform went from British to Russian, and the dreamscape turned from a pleasant sunset, to a black hellscape, complemented by tormented screams. 'That can be arranged'. 

And that was the second time I died, this time in a less literal sense.

 I awoke to find myself upon a wooden ship on a vicious sea, 'You truly want vengeance?' Dream... no, he wasn't Dream anymore, Nightmare said as he appeared beside me. And with a single nod I sold my soul. 'Drop the topsail!' He cried, and two skeletons appeared on the deck and climbed the rigging, more appeared and began to man the lines 'Take the helm' he said, stepping aside to reveal a ghastly wheel, dirty and misshapen, my hands closed around the grimy handles, and as if on cue the ship lurched forward. Nightmare jumped from the helm and landed in front of it, then he began to lead the skeletons in a shanty 

'On seas of dreams, we set our sails   

Hunting those who did us wrong'

'Upon the nightmare sea we sail, O' hear our frightful song, 

We darken this pure scape of dreams, it shan't be very long

'you cannot run, you cannot hide, there is no where you can abide, 

that we shall not be far behind'

'Upon the nightmare sea we sail, O' heed our frightful song,

Dreams are cleaved, nightmare takes lead, it shan't be very long,

'Waters black, and skies of grey, we'll steal from you the light of day,

Never to wake, and never to sleep, eternal pain your soul shall keep'

'Upon the nightmare sea we sail, O' fear our frightful song, 

And 'unerneath these blackened skies you soon shall sing along'

By the time the song was finished, a second, more modern, ship was in view. 'Where are we?' I remember asking 'were in the dream of mister Damion Sanders, a naval captan, and one of the men who killed your family, what will you do I wonder.' I turned the old Man O' War to the side, yelled FIRE, and the cannons went off right on cue, tearing holes through the warship's steel hull, making a loud groan as it was thrown off corse by the impact. The skeletons let out a loud, wordless battlecry and began to swing onto the ship, I remember Nightmare grabbing me by the waste, and following suite, gripping a rope and swinging onto the ship of steel and iron. He looked so out of place, his soviet coat easily distinguished from the tatters worn by the skeletal crew, and different still from the uniforms of the sailors aboard the ship, but he fought as one of them, a broadsword in one hand and pistol in the other, carving a path forward through the bloody chaos, me following like a lost puppy, soaked in the all-to-real gore of the dream sailors. We reached a relatively intact cabin. The door creaked open revealing the ship's cowering captan "Please" he pleaded, he had fear in his eyes, but that didn't matter to me, he didn't think when he shot my mother, and I didn't think when I shot him. 

 the scene shifted, the sounds of battle faded into the ether, replaced by the sounds of bubbling flasks accented by clocks that ticked perfectly to the beat of a soft orchestral song playing in the background and tempered by a crackling fire. The room itself was an odd mix between a library, a lab, and an old-fashioned sitting room, beakers full of bubbling concoctions and books of advanced alchemy haphazardly strewn about on tables, important looking chemical recipes jotted down on tissues or napkins, complex mathematical equations scrawled on the wallpaper, a sweet aroma could be smelled throughout the room... it smelt like a memory, if that makes any sense. As we progressed down winding corridors, It felt as I was going deeper and deeper into a rabbit hole, the architecture of the rooms becoming more and more impossible, things you would expect to see at R'lyeh, not in a lab. After what seemed like an eternity of aimless wandering nightmare pulled me into a hallway, ahead of the path stood two figures, there was a man and a woman, the man looked like an alchemist, a white lab coat and goggles, the woman wore a black trench dress, with a single-bladed sword at her waste, and they where arguing about something. 'I haven't one! It is illogical for something such as that to exist, so you, by your definition, Must be a figment of my imagination' The man said, the woman simply sighed and left. Nightmare stepped out and pulled me along, the alchemist turned to us grinned 'you must be the people who killed my compatriot, but I assure you, that you wont find me as easy a target.' With a snap of his fingers an ornate short sword appeared in his hand, but before the alchemist could do anything, a black blade burst through his chest, once again splattering me in gore.... it was an unpleasant feeling to say the least. The black-clothed woman dislodged her sword from the alchemist's chest, and pulled off the crystal that had gotten stuck on the tip of her blade 'I hate this place...', for a moment our eyes met, they were black where they should have been white, and they glowed a hellish red, she gave me a warm smile before turning around "back through the looking-glass I go, tell the hatter I said hi" a foghorn marked her departure from the dreamscape. Nightmare was terrified, so I thought it was best not to ask who the girl who just stabbed our mark was. Wait... you know who she was don't you? Of corse, you know everyone, now back to my story. I walked up to the fallen alchemist and picked up the short sword he had dropped in the madness, his eyes showed no remorse as he gazed weakly at me "I did what I did..... for the good of humanity.... there is no shame in that..." "You killed my family, how was the for the good humanity!?" I shouted, stabbing the blade into him in my anger, and he to fell silent.

 The scene shifted one last time, the library melting into nothingness, replaced by blackness "Clever boy" Nightmare whispered "I was expecting you, Wraith" a man dressed in white appeared before us, "and who's your little friend?" "She-" I cut him of "I am Clare Vadreemer, the girl who's family you-" "silence you insolent whelp" Nightmare growled "It doesn't matter who she is! All you need to know is Ive absorbed enough of her power to do this!" Nightmare charged forward, shattering an invisible glass wall and grabbing the man by the through "But.... how?" The man barely managed to whisper through is collapsing wind pipe "Her name isn't Vadreemer, Its von dreamer" the man gaged "Morp....heus......Kin" and then like all the rest, he fell silent. Nightmare shifted forms again, not into dream, not into nightmare, but something in between... "Thank you my dear" He laughed. it was at that moment I realized "I never woke up did I?" The wraith laughed even harder "my family is still alive... WHAT DID YOU DO?" His laughter died down "The dreamscape is divided into billions of tiny plots, each one belonging to a single human, and in his plot he has complete and utter control, but outside of his plot he is powerless, but long ago I was blessed with a fraction of the power of Morpheus, and I became this. But the mortals became aware of my presence, and sent people to contain me, and they did. I needed the power of the dreamer to shatter the barriers, but he was silent, so I found the next best thing, his daughter. You helped me kill the fools that where holding me back, the Black one's bride showing up was... a rather unexpected convenience as was the thunder that knocked that pesky charm off your wall, but now, thanks to you. the dreamscape is mine to rule once more! But there is one more loose end to remove I suppose, goodby Morpheus kin" he summoned a small knife and lunged at me... I can still see the surprise on his face as the alchemist's sword sunk deep into his chest, and the pain I felt as I watched his essence flow into me, as I claimed his power for my own... that happened so long ago, what has become of my family? What has become of those who I knew? Those who I loved? How long ago did you come for them? The dreamscape is so vast... I couldn't find their plot even if I tried. So I wander, searching for something, anything, that will lead me back home, but it seems my search has come to an end... thats why your here isn't it?"  

Quotes used for inspiration:

<Humans do this thing, inside their brains-- a sort of mad firing-off of synapses, controlled insanity. While they're asleep. The part of their brain that records sight or sound, it's firing off every hour or two while they sleep, even when all the sights and sounds are complete random nonsense, their brains just keep on trying to assemble it into something sensible. They try to make stories out of it. It's complete random nonsense with no possible correlation to the real world, and yet they turn it into these crazy stories. And then they forget them. All that work, coming up with these stories, and when they wake up they forget almost all of them. But when they do remember, then they try to make stories about those crazy stories, trying to fit them into their real lives> -Orson Scott Card 

"It is absolutely necessary, for the peace and safety of mankind, that some of earth's dark, dead corners and unplumbed depths be let alone; lest sleeping abnormalities wake to resurgent life, and blasphemously surviving nightmares squirm and splash out of their black lairs to newer and wider conquests". -H. P. Lovecraft

“You learned to run from what you feel, and that's why you have nightmares. To deny is to invite madness. To accept is to control.” 

― Megan Chance,

"On this plain of mortals there reside you humans and Demi-humans, as well as countless other types of life that you find almost everywhere you look, not to mention its various layers. in the next plane reside dreams, the hopes and fears of every man or woman, where your minds go to rest. the one after that holds demons and angels, held back from unending war for fear of the beats of purgatory, the fierce guard dogs who reside in the no-mans land between hell and heaven. in the world beyond that rests even darker things, the Lovecraftian stuff of legends that creep into your dreams and nightmares, clawing desperately to escape, grasping for a handhold in the realm of dreams, in witch to invade the realm of the waking, unknowing that no human has power enough to grant them that. And in the world beyond even that, is the abyss, the vast emptiness from witch we were formed, and to whence we return upon our death, where our power, our souls bide their time, awaiting our next reincarnation. and then there are even deeper pits, very few have seen the world beyond the abyss, God, and perhaps the primordials, but one is silent to us and the other two are long dead, so no one knows for certain what lies behind that unending nothingness, there are theory's yes, but I refuse to put my faith in abject speculation, or the mad ravings of those who believe that therein resides a higher power, even if there was a higher power than god himself, it forsook us long before he did." -Grimlock  

Vengeance is an odd thing, when one seeks it they become susceptible to the slightest manipulation, even the most suspicious of people becomes blind when seeking revenge. -Zach Hess 

Reviews

[TheRavensWoods]

Wow this story was really incredible. I was completely drawn into your world. The only thing I saw were a few grammar or punctuation errors but nothing big. Awesome job!

[Wayward Soul]

I thank you for your kind words, and I apologize for takeing so long to respond, I am actively working on punctuation issues and hope to have the issue completely resolved in the future.

[TheRavensWoods]

That’s awesome! I think learning as you go is the best way. Don’t stop writing! You’re good!