Enter The Dream Room

Dr. Birindelli is an aging scientist with a dark job. Within a hidden room in his laboratory is another world. One where all its inhabitants were born from dreams. But, can they be trusted?

   “Earth,” said Dr. Birindelli from the frozen chambers of his laboratory, “It’s remarkable, isn’t it? We humans can learn so much about this very own planet we call our home, but at the same time know so little.”

   “What do you mean?” Asked his student. “I believe mankind has done quite a lot in our relatively short time here.”

   “Yes. Yes, we have, I suppose. But we have still left so much... undiscovered.”

The doctor crossed the room to a large door sealed off by a series of thick, titanium latches. A computer sat on a post; connected to the locks by an intricate series of wires. Apart from the sound of shivering from the perplexed student and the clicking of plastic on a keyboard, the room was silent. Dr. Birindelli hit enter following a series of numbers and digits, and a red light�"like a laser�"emerged from where the camera would be on the computer.

   “Doctor, what�"”

   Dr. Birindelli gently shushed him; simultaneously placing his eye in the path of the laser. “We must be silent for this part. You wouldn’t want the system to think I’m an intruder and incinerate my retina, now would you, Adams?”

   The young man shook his head. “Sorry,” he whispered.

   

   After a moment, the laser turned green before vanishing with a low-pitched ding. Cogs began to spin on the door as the first pair of latches were raised like cranes carrying boxes in a warehouse. The module lit up as the outline of a hand appeared onscreen. Dr. Birindelli placed his dominant hand against the warm glow of the glass, held it for precisely four seconds, then ripped it away suddenly as if burned. On the screen, the outline of the hand held a myriad of colors; a vibrant red in the center, followed by a Summer-orange in the middle and a faint daisy-shaded yellow on the outskirt. It was a heat-sensor, Adams realized. By this point, his fascination had grown. The scientist whom he had known for years was unlocking the door to what he called his Dream Room. Adams couldn’t believe it. He had always longed to know what hid behind those doors, yet the doctor had kept it under wraps as if it contained the plague; growing defensive if Adams so much as even mentioned it.

   Wondering if the man had forgotten he was in the room with him, Adams said, “Do you mean to open the doors?”

Dr. Birindelli cast him an odd look as the final lock broke and a fog-like smoke danced from the cracks. “No, Adams, what do you mean?” He asked rhetorically before breaking the sarcasm. “Of course I do. I’ve grown quite old during my time on the plane of existence, Adams, and I fear that I may not have much longer to enjoy this side of the cosmos. I need someone I have taken under my wing to pick up where I left off when I’m gone. Someone I trust.”

   “Oh, wow,” Escaped the young man’s lips. Was this finally happening? Was Dr. Birindelli finally going to show him the interior chambers of his laboratory? Surely this was simply another vivid dream. Adams had experienced quite a few of those in the days leading up to this moment, “I don’t know what to say... I’m honored.”

   “Keep your honor. That’s for the knights of King Arthur, and they’ve been long gone by 2,025,” The doctor seized the latch to the door with his wrinkled and liver-spotted hands, then turned back to the young man. “Let me ask you before I change your life forever: do you consider yourself a skeptic, Adams?”

   The doctor’s successor thought about it for a moment, then said, “Well... of course, all men of science should consider themselves so.”

   “You won’t be after this,” Dr. Birindelli forced the latch down and swung the door open.

₪

   A group of men sat huddled by a fire. It had grown awfully cold in these lands as it always did around this time of the Celestial Year. Most of the group held the anatomy of normal humans. However, there were still a few “freaks” among them. A man resembling a cyclops but on a much more disappointing scale of five-foot-six used a stick to prod at something in the flames. A dwarf clad in armor looking to be straight out of a video game sat by the tiny cyclops. Several small and disfigured goblin children�"each’s skin of a varying shade of green�"ran rampant after an improvised soccer ball. However, despite the many peculiar differences in each of the men and creatures’ appearances, they all shared one similar trait: their eyes were a smooth silver; void of any sparkle of life that was commonly seen in humans.

   Suddenly, their world seemed to grow dimmer as the large rectangular shape of a door opened behind the camp. The goblin children stopped playing, the short cyclops dropped his stick, and the rest of the group jumped up�"some running for cover; others cautiously approaching the door in the air as if to make a mad dash for the opening in an attempt to escape to the other side. However, before they could get a second glimpse of the portal, the old and haggard silhouette of the man they had fearfully named Venandi emerged in the doorway, preventing their escape. However, he wasn’t alone, they saw. He had younger company with him�"no doubt the next Venandi who would terrorize them and their children for generations to come.

₪

   Adams’s mouth dropped open in surprise upon crossing into the bright light of Dr. Birindelli’s Dream Room. This wasn’t a room at all. It was another land�"another world�"hidden between the cracks of reality. The elderly intellectual of eighty-four was right; suddenly, all skepticism and understanding of earth as he knew it evaporated from Adams’s mind.

   Dr. Birindelli looked back at Adams with a look that said I told you so painted across his face, then he quickly turned back to the humanoid creatures before them. “This, Adams, is the Dreamscape.”

   Adams didn’t speak. For a brief moment, he had forgotten how to do so. His mind and its vision of reality was crumbling with every passing second spent in this alien world. Finally, after a long pause, he opened his cracked lips and said, “What the Hell is the Dreamscape?”

   “Do you believe in an afterlife?”

   “I... I guess I do now,” Adams said.

   Suddenly, laughter erupted from the doctor, “Oh, my dear boy, this is not the afterlife. It is but one of the four layers stitched into the fabric of existence.”

   The strange human-like creatures remained frozen like statues; their silver eyes jumping back and forth between the old Venandi and the new one. The old man was here for another one of them�"or two, or three.

“Think of our world as a pyramid. The top level of the structure�"the peak�"is earth. Reality as we know it. The second level is this place: The Dreamscape. As the name implies, this is where dreams are born�"literally.”

     “So... those people?"

     “It’s best if you don’t call them people, Adams.”

     “Why not? That’s what they look like,” The young man’s eyes fell to the green children staring at him with fear in their large, puppy dog eyes. “Well, what most of them look like.”

     “Whenever you dream of a person or creature, that thought manifests itself in physical form here. Fortunately, my door is a portal into this side of the Dreamscape and not the edge where the nightmares reside,” Dr. Birindelli shivered as if cold, “These creatures are nightmarish enough on their own. I would hate to see what lives past the horizon.”

     He gestured out towards the end of the sunless sky. A dark cloud blanketed over what appeared to be trees, except they weren’t trees, they were giant creatures moving slowly across the landscape. They were too far away for either Adams or Dr. Birindelli to get a clear look at what they were, and Adams felt thankful for that. 

     The young man turned his attention to the armor-clad dwarf, “Do any of you speak?”

     The dwarf’s bushy orange beard drew upwards as his eyes narrowed distrustfully. It remained silent.

     “Yes, they can speak, Adams,” The doctor slid a subtle hand into the side of his stainless lab coat. “But it’s best if you don’t give them the opportunity. You wouldn’t want their tainted words to influence your judgment,” He rose his voice menacingly at the creatures, “None of you savages speak up.”

      Adams’s curiosity shifted into a growing sense of unease, and a new form of skepticism: one aimed at his teacher, “You said you had a job here. What do you do?”

      Before Dr. Birindelli could answer, one of the creatures spoke first. This creature had an arched back and green skin, slightly resembling the goblin children but a good deal older, “He’s killing us.”

      A moment later, the figure’s wart-caked head burst with a bang. A final muffled sigh escaped the creature’s disfigured mouth before it collapsed lifelessly to the dirt. The goblin children began to scream as they rushed to the body of their parent. Adams turned a head slowly back to the doctor; eyes wide and face soaked with a panicked sweat. A long-barreled pistol was held in a firm grip by the old man. On his face, opposite to Adams, was a look of callousness.

     “I know it’s hard to witness, but it had to be done,” Dr. Birindelli said emotionlessly, never taking his eyes off the cowering group of dream-people.”

     “That didn’t have to be done, he posed no threat to you!” Adams shouted. His voice had risen an octave higher. It always did so when he was frightened.

     “But it did,” the gun lowered; its sights falling on the dwarf. The redheaded man closed his eyes and whispered something under his breath. A prayer. Dr. Birindelli’s gun went off for a second time. The dwarf’s face twisted into a look one gets when they smell an unpleasant odor. Sparks erupted from the chest plate as the bullet pierced the metal. The short man was thrown back five feet as if struck by a car, then he landed on his back with a grunt. Blood sprayed from the geyser in the dwarf’s armor as a final breath escaped his lips.

     “Stop, Leonard, stop!” Adams shouted.

      Dr. Birindelli paused, “Calling your old teacher by his first name?” he laughed, “That’s quite unorthodox, wouldn’t you say?”

    “Why are you doing this to them?”

    “Because I can’t risk them getting through the portal.”

    “But, the door behind it is locked, Dr. Birindelli. Even if they got through, who cares? They’re not a threat to anyone.”

    “He’s right, we mean you no harm,” The cyclops squeaked from his whimpering position balled up on the ground. Dr. Birindelli aimed the pistol at the creature and fired. The bullet went off target. Adams had shoved the gun down as the doctor pulled the trigger. Suddenly, a look of disgust came across the man’s wrinkled face. He turned back to his student.

    “How could you do that, Adams?”

    “You have no right taking innocent life!”

    “Those things don’t deserve life! They’re a threat to society. If they got through, that would be detrimental to how mankind as a whole views and understands the process of being!”

       

     Dr. Birindelli quickly raised the gun back towards the cowering cyclops and pulled the trigger as he received a hard shove from the young man. He was thrown off balance but managed to hit the creature in the gut. The cyclops cried out as his abdomen became a crater, then fell to the side shaking uncontrollably in pain.

     

    “Adams, you fool!” Dr. Birindelli cursed as he regained his footing. “I am playing a vital role in protecting the sanity of mankind! Think of the chaos that will ensue if and when those things get into our world! What will we scientists say? That these creatures who seemingly popped out of thin air were simply born out of a dream? That they are figments of our imagination but real? It doesn’t make sense, Adams. Nothing does! I have enough trouble coming to terms with that horrid realization, and I’m a man of intellect! How do you think the common people that make up ninety-percent of the earth’s population will handle this revelation if we sit by and let these abominations reach them? I am doing what is necessary! I’m doing God’s work!”

  

   “Please,” moaned the cyclops as he clutched his wound, as if trying to stuff his intestines back into the cavity. His eye had begun to gloss over and his orange skin had become void of color, “We don’t want into your world. We simply want to live in peace.”

    Dr. Birindelli stepped quickly away from Adams and aimed the gun at the dying creature’s head and said, “Liar,” then pulled the trigger.

    “It’s been done before! You creatures don’t change, there’s no teaching you! My very own experiment has proven that to be a fact,” Dr. Birindelli’s eyes fell on Adams. His face had grown gaunt and grim. Suddenly, Adams found the gun fixed on his own chest. “Adams,” the old man moaned; a hint of regret in his voice.

    “Easy now,” Adams said softly, his hands raised in a don’t shoot gesture, “You want to look where you’re pointing that thing, Dr. Birindelli.”

            

    Suddenly, the old man broke into tears, “Don’t you Dr. Birindelli me!”

    Adams had slowly begun walking towards the old man. A tactic often used to get close enough to disarm a gunman without startling him with a sudden movement.

“I wasn’t always like this! I tried the experiment before; letting one of the dream figures cross over,” Dr. Birindelli didn’t seem to notice his student steadily closing the distance between them, “Many years ago my pregnant wife was killed in a car accident. We had dreamed of having a child for years up to that fateful day. I still wanted a child, but I never wanted to remarry and adoption didn’t seem right. I wanted one that came from me. Years later I had a dream that I had a son. A dream that he would become just like me. So, I went into the Dreamscape and sought out that son then brought him back to earth, because I couldn’t bear to let him die in this wasteland.”

   Adams was now just a few mere feet from the gunman. The surviving creatures sat silently on their knees like hostages; watching the altercation unfold before them with a nervous uncertainty. “What happened to him?” Adams asked to keep the doctor’s focus away from him.

   With a few final whimpers, Dr. Birindelli’s tear-filled eyes met Adams’s. His finger fell to the trigger, and he said, “It was you.”

    The silver eyes of Adams went wide. He lunged for Dr. Birindelli and seized his hands, attempting to pry his finger from the trigger. “It’s not me!” He shouted.

    “It is, Adams, it is!” Dr. Birindelli was weak. He could feel the gun slowly being stripped away from him.

    “How come I can’t remember this place, then?”

    “Because,” Dr. Birindelli grunted, being whipped to the side by his student, but still maintaining enough of a grip on the gun to keep from being cast to the ground. “Those who cross over can’t remember doing so. Like how we humans can’t remember the act of leaving the womb to become a part of the war-torn planet we call earth. You were the one I brought over�"you were the exception, but even just one person appearing out of the blue raised quite a few eyebrows. Especially because you were so different than the other students, and not just because of your eyes. It’s like they could tell you weren’t of their genes�"could sense it. Imagine the damage it would do if hundreds, or thousands even, crossed over at once! I’m doing what is right, Adams! Maybe not for the individuals I’m erasing from existence, but for the greater good!”

   Suddenly, the old man sunk his crooked yellow teeth into Adams’s hand. The young man let out a howl like a dog whose tail had been stepped on and reflexively loosened his grip on the gun. Dr. Birindelli was just able to tear the pistol free from his student’s grip. He turned to the open door less than ten feet back and dashed for it. Adams lunged out and caught the doctor by the feet and pulled him to the ground. The gun slipped from Dr. Birindelli’s grasp but was quickly reobtained by him. As Adams came upon him, Dr. Birindelli threw his gun-wielding arm back blindly and pulled the trigger.

           

    Adams collapsed to the ground in a huff; unable to stand on his wounded leg. Bright red blood spurted from the hole on the inside of his thigh, two inches above the knee.

    “I’m sorry, Adams,” Dr. Birindelli huffed, “It had to be done. You were the bridge that would have let those things into our world,” the doctor climbed to his feet and brushed dirt off his uneven and torn coat.

     “You’re wrong,” Adams said lethargically. He had been hit in the femoral artery and was losing blood fast. He began to feel heavy�"his body a biodegradable sack of meat being pulled through the ground. “Wrong to kill them. They�"or we�"didn’t asked to be created this way. If you dreamed of me, that makes me your son, right? How could you let your own son die?”
      Dr. Birindelli crossed to the portal then stopped in the doorway. He turned back to Adams. His son was already dead. Feeling a sense of remorse that was then overshadowed by a sense of heroism, Dr. Birindelli said, “Dreams don’t die. They simply cease to be.”

     Then, the doctor exited his Dream Room and closed the door behind him. 

Reviews

[Ariana Omnomnom]

This was a whole rollercoaster of emotions. That plot twist at the end was fantastic, this was so engaging to read. I almost never have the patience to read through a whole story and when I can it has to be very captivating. This was amazing. Keep on writing like this! This story could easily be turned into a movie. I'm sure many people would love the concept!

[Unspoken poet]

Wow, lots of vivid imagery and detail in your story, lots of emotion, very well written.

[A.E. Surdam]

I immensely enjoyed "Enter the Dream Room". At first, I thought when they entered the Dream Room that they would find a room full of experiments and possibly corpses. After they walked in, I would have never guessed that they would be in another dimension-like place based on dreams. I read through it very quickly and was quite sad to see that the son ceased to exist. Great job!

[Ellis Hastings]

Thanks very much :)