Chapter 5 Attack!

Chapter 5: Attack!


Asuka watched as Mosh prepared himself for bed. In his thoughts, she heard him say something about wanting to take her to his inner world. She knew he meant his dream home. Despite the fact that she had already been there, she decided to play along. It seemed like a kind gesture, she thought; that he wanted to be serious with her. At least they might be able to get physical. They'd only been going out for a week in Mosh's time, but to her, it had already been three weeks. Far too long! There had been so many crazy distractions lately, they had barely gotten any quality time together.

At the same time, she silently hoped she could help him remember at least something.

It didn't take very long for Mosh to fall asleep. Asuka helped direct his dream body to an old dreamscape that, though he didn’t remember, he once dreamed in...

 ***

Mosh was walking on the main floor of an oneiric school. He had spent an hour trying to find his classroom. He stopped and leaned against a wall next to a water fountain, looking down again at the paper in his hand. "Classroom #E3."

He let out a heavy sigh. Last time it was E4. Before that it was B6. It changes every time. Why does the classroom number change every time? He chucked the paper into a waste basket and decided to walk around the school once more.

He wandered down the hallway until he reached two glass doors leading to a staircase. With a brief look at the steps heading downwards, he shrugged and decided to head up.

About halfway up the first flight, a tremendously short woman with brown hair down to her chin and big brown eyes passed, heading down. As she walked past, he paused to steal a glance at her from behind. Now she was much taller, with flowing blonde hair. Perplexed, he continued up the steps until he reached the top floor.
 
At the top of the stairs, he passed through another set of glass doors into a dark hallway. Crumpled papers blew down the hall in a seemingly non-existent wind. The yellow lights flickered, cutting out sporadically only to buzz back to life moments later. Just then, someone emerged from a classroom to his right.

I know that brown hair anywhere, he thought.

"Hey, Nomad!" he called out as he waved.

"Mosh!" Nomad exclaimed as he turned towards him. "What are you doing here?”

He didn’t get a chance to answer before Nomad continued.

“I have something great to tell you! Let's sit down and chat a while, eh?"

Mosh obliged. They walked to a bench at the side of the corridor and sat.

"What is it, Nomad?" The curiosity was biting at him.

"Umm...you know Selene right?"

"Yeah. She's my sister from another dimension or something, right? How does that work? It’s all very confusing."

"I know, I'm not sure I understand all of this myself," Nomad said as he compulsively lit a smoke. Not a moment passed before he realized what he was doing and threw it away. "D****t!” Nomad cursed. “She wouldn't want me to smoke."

"Who wouldn't?” Mosh asked. “Selene?"

"Yeah, Selene,” he replied. “But not the one we know. I found a version of Selene in waking life. Her name is Angel."

Mosh was a bit surprised.

"How do you know she's Selene?" he asked, beginning to sway his feet on the floor.

Nomad sighed. "Well, she's not exactly Selene. More like a twinner of her on our waking plane."

 "Twinner? What's a twinner?"

"In dreams, we access all sorts of parallel realities and dimensions,” Nomad explained. “People and entities we meet in dreams have twinners in different dimensions. Some have twinners on our waking plane " sometimes even multiple twinners on our waking plane!"

Looking as if he had an idea, Nomad pulled out a book and started flipping through the pages. It looked like a book a kindergartner would have. On one page was a crude drawing of one of Nomad's childhood dreams. It depicted Nomad standing by a large caterpillar, with the word "Mom" written above the caterpillar and an arrow pointing to the insect. He quickly thumbed through a few more pages. There was a picture of a woman that looked like Selene, with a caption that read "Rachel" above her photo.

"Who's Rachel?" Mosh asked, summoning a can of soda. He handed the first can to Nomad and summoned another for himself. After a quick thought, he summoned a burrito and began munching while Nomad continued.

"Rachel was one of the first twinners I met of Selene; I met her before I even became aware of Selene. This was years ago,” he said with muted enthusiasm. “We were very clairvoyant with one another. She also said she was Telekinetic so, I asked her to show me. She did. I was amazed!  We had a mutual attraction, but never really hooked up.”

Mosh realized his eyes were already wide with surprise as Nomad took a quick sip of his soda.

“She had a fantastic sense of humour,” Nomad continued. “But things never turned out well.

“When I first became interested in shared dreaming, I wanted to try it with her. I asked her, 'Tonight can I come into your dream?' And she said, 'Yes!' That night I had a dream where I was standing with her in a checkered-floor room, across from her and her mother. Rachel was a young girl in the dream, holding her mother's hand. The next day, I mentioned it to her, and she freaked out on me! She began yelling. 'GET OUT OF MY HEAD! GET OUT OF MY HEAD!'

“At first I thought she was joking. I mean, I had no idea that dream sharing would actually scare her. I think she only said yes to humor me. And for some reason, our friendship rapidly deteriorated after that. It actually came to the point where I had to cut her out of my life. It was hard for me to do. I NEVER do anything like that " even with most ex girlfriends " but with her it was just strange. She was like a much darker twinner of Selene."

Mosh was amazed by Nomad's story. He didn't even know how to respond.

Nomad flipped to another page in his book. On this one was another picture of a woman who also looked a lot like Selene, but with blonde hair. There was no word above her head; only a question mark.

"This woman..." Nomad said. "I first met her in a dream. I saw her shortly after when I was awake. In my dream, I was lucid, walking around on a busy street. I was asking everyone I came across, ‘Are you a Dream Character?’ Most were only DCs; ignored my question and continued walking. It agitated them. I did this for several minutes until I spotted her. She had an aura that stuck out like a sore thumb. All the other DCs were just illusions. But I was certain that she was real. She was watching me ask around, my silly question. I saw her she was smiling at me. I walked straight up to her and I asked her: 'Are you a dream character?'

"She shook her head and said 'No.' She kept smiling. Before I knew it, we were kissing.

“Then I woke up.”

He took another sip of his soda, not even pausing to look at Mosh’s obvious astonishment.

“The next day my friend invited me to a nightclub. On my way in, while we were walking down the steps into the main area, I saw that same woman. She looked exactly the same, with Selene's face and blonde hair. She was walking between two of her friends, shot me a glance like she recognized me and gave me a warm smile. But I was walking in and she was leaving with her friends, I never got a chance to talk to her. I did a few reality checks right then and there to make sure I wasn't dreaming for real. And it did almost feel like it was a dream. But I was definitely awake."

"Wow!" Mosh couldn’t contain his awe. "How long ago was that?"

"A couple of weeks ago." Nomad summoned a second soda and cracked it before turning the page. On the next page was a photo of a woman that looked even more like Selene. She had the same shape of face, the same large eyes; the same long, flowing brown hair. Above her head was the word "Angel," written in neat letters. But the part that stood out to Mosh was her necklace. It held a small stone, which was circled with the same marker.

"Why is that circled?" Mosh asked, pointing inquisitively to the stone.

"That's a moonstone," Nomad said. "I had no idea what a moonstone was until I met Angel just a couple days ago. The thing is, I've seen Selene wearing the same necklace with the same moonstone in dreams before I even met Angel.”

"That's bizarre."

"Tell me about it."

Mosh took a moment to think, absent-mindedly gnawing at a taco. "Hey, do you think " I mean, if all goes well with Asuka " that I'd be able to find her twinner in waking life?"

"It's certainly possible. At least my experience says so."

"So how did you find these twinners?"

"I'm not sure," Nomad said, looking at his feet " which had, at some point, become webbed. "I just sort of ran into them. It seemed to start happening more when I became aware of the waking life’s own dream-state. Our waking lives are only a dream, too, you know. I try to become lucid in the waking life as well as being lucid in my dreams."

"How do you become more aware of the waking life dream?" Mosh asked.

"Simple things, I guess. I started to notice impossible coincidences in my waking life, just tried to be more aware of it."

"It’s not easy, is it."

"I'm afraid not,” Nomad answered. “Wait, isn't this a dream?" His face lit up suddenly, making it apparent that he had forgotten until the impromptu realization. He drew in a deep breath, closed his mouth and raised his hand to pinch his nostrils together. And he exhaled. "So it is!”

"You’re dreaming, too, then?" Mosh asked.

"Oh yes, dumb a*s," Nomad said as he punched Mosh's arm. "To the moon! See you later, Mosh!"

In one smooth motion, he rolled forward from his slouched position on the bench and jumped towards the opposite wall. A small portal seemed to blink into existence from nowhere, swallowing Nomad and disappearing just as quickly.

And Mosh sat, alone in the dark hallway on the top floor.

Deciding he should look for Asuka, he began walking down to the far end of the hallway. He glanced through the small window on the door before pushing through to the second staircase. It was darker than the set of stairs he had come up, with the lights flickering at random as they had been in the hallway.

Looking down from the ceiling halfway down the second flight of steps, he stopped in his tracks.

There, entwined on the landing in front of him, a couple stood kissing fervently. Taking a few steps closer to see who they were, his heart almost stopped. It’s Asuka, he thought. And she’s kissing Poet.

Damn it, Mosh thought. I waited too long to make a move…

He could feel rage climbing up his body. His hairs felt as if they were standing on edge.

“Damn women anyway!” He felt as if he were screaming without making a sound. “Always running to some a*****e just because I take it slow. DAMN IT TO HELL! A little hesitation on my part and now she's with all over that d****e!”

Mosh's train of thought simultaneously sped up and stopped to fester in anger. His legs began to shake. His right hand curled to a tight fist.

I’m going to smash them.

Just as he unlocked himself from his stance on the stairs to lunge towards them, a hand grasped his shoulder firmly from behind.

"Mosh?"

He had no doubt who was gripping his shoulder. It sounded like Asuka's voice. Is this a trick?

He looked at the Asuka kissing Poet. She stopped, turning her head to look back at him from below. She let out a taunting laugh. Poet turned to join in. And Mosh’s fists clenched tighter. He wanted to give Poet a pounding.

"MOSH!" Asuka called from behind again. He spun around and gave a raspy yell.

"WHAT?!"

"Um. That's...not me standing down there."

He knew she was there, but he still felt surprised to see Asuka, standing just a stair above him. He looked at her, then at the Asuka at the bottom of the stairs, who had resumed groping with Poet. Poet was unbuttoning her shirt. When he turned back to Asuka on the stairs, she could see tears in his eyes.

"No need to get upset,” she said gently. “That's not me down there. Look closer."

Mosh looked at the scene again. The couple, now half naked, were rolling on the floor. He remembered reading in a Carlos Castaneda book that if you point your pinky at something in a dream, you can see energy. He wondered if it would work with dispelling an illusion.

So he raised his hand and pointed his pinky towards the couple below. Nothing. Concentrating harder, the Asuka below turned to look at him and she stuck out her tongue. Mosh ignored this childish gesture and focused harder.

Suddenly her face began to change; mostly her eyes. And in them, he saw...Aeona!

What?

"Hey, what the Hell!" Mosh yelled down at them. "Why are you trying to mess with my dreams?"

Silently, they stood and turned towards Mosh and Asuka. Their feet left the ground as the pair began floating into the air. Asuka grabbed Mosh's arm and turned to run back up the stairs. He hesitated for a second, dumbstruck and overwhelmed, before following Asuka.

Aeona and Poet took off, flying towards them at speed. Asuka conjured a portal to Mosh's house in his inner world and the two hastily moved to dive in. As Mosh leapt up, Poet blasted a shock-wave that hit the two of them just as they were entering the glowing field of energy. Once inside, Asuka took off in one direction and Mosh in the other. Looking behind, he watched the portal close on Aeona and Poet before they were able to enter.

On the other side. Mosh found himself on another floor of the school, which now looked more like and office building of some sort. The hum of electricity and the din of typing filled his ears as he scanned the rows of people sitting in front of computers at office desks. They hardly looked as he appeared amongst them out of no where.

"Why aren't you in class young man?" The yell came from within a dark office to his right, the words ‘Principal Wogan’ etched into the glass on the door. Wogan, a tall, menacing figure, stepped out of the shadows. Mosh instantly recognized Poet's eyes.

He spun and bolted for the door out of the office area, Poet laughing from behind. He found himself in what seemed to be a waiting area, where several students were sitting at tables writing lines. Their words sublimated from the pages like smoke as they wrote.

"I will respect authority," some read; others "I will do whatever my teachers tell me to do without question.”

The students were moaning, coughing and choking on the smoke as it left the paper. Horrified, Mosh’s eyes darted around the room in search of a door to the hallway. Suddenly, he heard banging on the window between the two rooms. He turned to see Asuka, still in the office he had just left. She had dreadlocks and her face vaguely resembled an ex-girlfriend of his, but he could tell it was her. She was mouthing the word "help," but he heard no sound.

Sound-proof glass?

Before he even had time for the situation to process in his mind, Aeona lunged at him out of nowhere. Mosh took off, slamming the door in her face as he passed to the hallway. His attention was so focused on running towards the secret passage he remembered down the hall that he didn’t notice as she disappeared in a puff of black smoke.

Luckily, he found the hidden door in the same place it had been before, and knocked three times on the wall to open it. He rushed in, starting up the shadowy staircase he remembered leading up to the school’s psych ward. Turning the sharp corner at the top of the stairs, he was relieved to see he was right.

He stepped out into the gymnasium, where strange-looking people in hospital robes were slowly stumbling through a game of basketball. Some stopped to stare as he walked through the middle of the court; others seemed to be focused on the game, moving at a geriatric pace, wrestling for the ball.

On the other end of the gym, he pulled open the door to the library. His gaze fell to an exterior window perched open across the room.

***
"Mosh... MOSH!" Asuka screamed, pounding on the glass. Her eyes were fixed on him, standing in the waiting room just staring. He had a look of confusion. She watched as a black figure rose up from the ground, taking Aeona’s form. She’s going to attack, Asuka thought. She screamed louder and banged on the glass again.

"HUHUHUHUHUHUH!"

She turned to see Principal Poet, looming over her as he let out a sinister chuckle. A dark aura surrounded him, emanating the other figures seated at their desks. The figures rose, slowly turning towards her as their eyes and Poet’s lit up with a red glow.

"So you're Mosh's new dream girlie,” Poet croaked, his voice nearly a hoarse whisper. “Now I have you trapped; you are going to become a part of our plan."

Asuka didn't know what to do. She didn't want to fight back. Dark energy would just make me unstable, she thought. I'd give Mosh a nightmare if I lost control again, I don't want that at all.

She felt helpless, her body growing tense in terror as Poet edged closer, chuckling menacingly. Dark tentacles sprung from his back, giving Asuka a wave of shock that made her legs buckle. She slumped down against the wall, her head between her knees.

She could feel one of Poet's tentacles began to wrap around her, but she didn’t lift her eyes.

"Maybe you'll be my dream girlie from now on," Poet said, wrapping his tentacles tighter around her legs and ribcage. She shuddered and let out a scream that she herself couldn’t even hear past the ringing in her ears.

But not a moment later, one sound did cut through the buzz: The growl of a dog. She whipped her head up to see an unnaturally large golden retriever crouching behind Poet.

The canine pounced, pulling Poet to the ground. His tentacles thrust Asuka into an off balance slouch as they hastily pulled away; she hardly gave it a thought. She was fixed on the skirmish.

She pushed out with her foot to sit up against the wall as she watched. The dog had Poet pinned on the ground, trying to bite at his neck. Poet struggled beneath for a moment before summoning a blade. But as he tried to swing it into the dog's side, a portal appeared, releasing two other dogs " a big shaggy mutt and a black lab.

Poet screeched in pain as the two started tearing into his limbs, nearly ripping one of his arms from his torso. They made no sound, no eye contact with one another, but Asuka could sense the animals communicating as they savagely tore into their subject.

And in one sweeping, orchestrated motion, as the retriever sprung up off Poet’s chest, the other two dragged his wriggling mass back through the portal.

As the portal closed, the room brightened, the demon workers vanished and the desks sublimated from view. Asuka and the golden retriever were all that remained.

The dog approached her and licked her face, breaking her out of her fear-induced trance. After a moment, she stood up and patted the dog on the head.

"Thank you," she said. The massive hound’s tail wagged, its head bobbing in enjoyment. Asuka noticed a collar on the dog's neck, a small brass tag hanging from it.

"What’s this?" Asuka asked as she bent down, pulling the tag around to the side of the dog’s neck to inspect the inscription. It read Wilson. Property of Mosh.

This “Wilson” dog belongs to Mosh? As she looked back down at the tag, the letters receded for a moment and quickly reappeared.

Take me to Mosh.

"So you want to see him?" Asuka asked. Wilson barked and wagged his tail again.

A leash sprang out from the collar, the end falling into her hands. She walked Wilson out of the office, through the waiting area and down the hallway out the front door of the school. The sun hung high in the sky, shining warm on her shoulders as the two walked across the green green grass in the warm breeze.

Asuka wondered if Mosh had made it outside. Is he still trapped? She sighed as she pondered her worries. Did he escape somewhere? Is he safe?

Maybe he made it home safe by now, she thought, and decided to head towards his house.

"Hey Asuka!"

She spun around, relieved and excited to hear his voice. But her smile quickly faded when she saw no one there.

"Look up dummy!"

She looked up to see Mosh smiling down and waving from an open second-story window. He looks safe, she thought, a warm wave of relief rushing over her.

Mosh teleported down to her, seemingly without noticing he did so. He gave her a short hug before turning to Wilson.

"Ah, Wilson!" he exclaimed. "Where did you find him? He's been showing up ever since me and Nomad went to my inner world for the first time. This was my dog from childhood!"

"Actually, he found me," Asuka started. "Him and some other dogs rescued me when Poet attacked me. It all happened so fast, I didn't know what to do."

"Poet attacked you?” Mosh looked confused. “When was this?"

"You don't remember what happened? Aoena and Poet trying to trick you. They chased us all over the damn school!"

Mosh shook his head, his eyes apologetic.

Stupid dream amnesia, Asuka thought.

Mosh thought for a second, trying to conjure up any memories.

"Oh!” His eyes lit up. “I think I remember her posing as you? Trying to make me jealous?"

"Something like that." Asuka responded. Mosh took Wilson’s leash and they began to walk down the street, away from the school. Mosh seemed to know where he was heading.

"Anyway, I just wanted to let you know something," Asuka began. "I want you to understand that I've made my decision to stay with you. I wouldn't just up and leave like that. If that happens, something's definitely wrong and you need to make sure I'm not influenced by dark energy or anything else, okay?"

Mosh nodded as they crossed the street.

"You’re too important to me now," she said.

"Really?” Mosh looked into her eyes. “So soon? Shouldn't we take this slow?"

Asuka rolled her eyes. To Mosh, it’s only been a week, she reminded herself. But for her it had already been three weeks in dream time. Three very long weeks...

"Well, it's how you showed up,” Asuka replied after a deep breath. “And you don't know much about me, do you?"

Mosh shook his head again and gave her a look as if to say “I want to know more.”

"Well, where should I start?” Asuka asked. “I guess perhaps at the beginning.

“First of all I'm not some other-dimensional being. I live solely in Astral and dreams...It took me a while to figure it out after I died."

"You were once alive? Like, alive in the place where I live?"

They paused for a moment to let Wilson sniff the base of a tree in someone's yard. The dog quickly lost interest, and they began to walk again as Asuka continued.

"Well, I suppose I’m alive now in a sense, but not in the sense that you are. You have a physical body.”

She could almost feel Mosh’s confusion grow as she spoke. Looking up from the cracked sidewalk, his expression was almost one of helplessness.

“Let's see,” she said, trying to think of the clearest explanation. “It all started when...I think it was during the what you call 'Feudal Japan;' I was the daughter of a well-respected and feared Samurai. My father now lives in dreams like I do. Hey, you should meet him!”

Catching herself in her excitement, she cleared her throat. “Anyways...

“There was a young samurai in his clan with whom I fell in love. We married quite young, shortly after my father had passed on. We never had a child, but we were happy.

“It was eight months or less, I think, when he was taken from me during one of our clan's clashing with the Magistrate. I was utterly heartbroken. We never got past what you would call our honeymoon stage..."

"That's terrible," Mosh said softly. "How did you manage?"

"I didn't manage very well at all. I couldn't accept he was gone. Sometimes I could almost hear him whispering to me in the wind. I would wonder if I was just imagining it, but sometimes I decided to believe it was really him. He would try to tell me that he wasn't really gone, and that I should move on with my life and become happy. And a few months down the road, other men began pursuing me.

“There was one man which I did like, but I didn't want to betray the memory of my late husband. I held onto that memory for too long, and it began to eat away at me. I couldn't let go of him. I couldn't move on. So I performed Sepukku, just as my father taught me to do in case we were overcome by invading samurai."

"What's Seppuku?" Mosh asked.

"Our word for suicide."

Mosh felt his stomach turn. Wilson whimpered.

"And then," Asuka continued, "it was how you might imagine a near-death experience: The dark tunnel, moving towards the bright, white light. There was no shedding of the astral body, but that was for a reason. I came out into the light and my guides were there, along with my husband's soul. He had tears in his eyes. 'Why couldn't you just move on?' he asked.

“I didn't understand. Then things started coming back to me, my life in between lifetimes. The endless earth."

"What's the endless earth?" Mosh asked.

"It's the place our souls go in between lifetimes. It's where we are schooled to prepare for the next life. You see, I had forgotten that I had chosen that life; that I was supposed to learn how to deal with loss. But I failed big time. So my guides gave me a choice: Either I could go back to another life on your earth and experience a similar loss again, or I could deal with my loss in another way. I had no idea what the second option really meant.

“There was my husband right before me. I thought the second choice meant I could be with him again. But I was wrong. I didn't realize that no matter what, I had to learn the lesson of moving on. I had no idea what I had chosen.”

She swallowed hard. Mosh could see she was fighting to keep a handle on her emotions.

“Maybe if I had an idea what the second option entailed, I might have gone with the first option instead,” she said. “But that's all long ago now."

"What happened after?" Mosh asked.

"I woke up,” she replied after a moment. “Like it was all a dream. But I wasn't physical anymore. At first I thought the seppuku hadn’t worked, but I soon found out I was wrong. I could fly. I could do all sorts of things. I later realized that I was in bardo."

"Bardo?"

"Not in a physical life, nor in between lifetimes. I have only an astral and a dream body. I was amazed I could fly, travel to different places. It took me a long time before I figured out I was mostly in places that people had dreamed in once before. I spent a lot of time with children dreamers, giving them something happy to remember. I became quite good at it, too.”

She looked into Mosh’s eyes. “Much of what I learned from doing that, I can use to help you remember,” she said, pausing to give him a tender smile before carrying on.

“But it wasn't all fun and games."

"Why not?" Mosh asked as they turned onto another street.

"Well, after a while I found out other entities inhabit dreams. And not all of them are good. Energy Vampires and the like. I was naive in the beginning, so I was attacked quite regularly. I was kidnapped. All sorts of terrible things. It would take me years to explain it all to you.

“But I eventually met someone who became my friend. She was a lot like me, only older. She taught me many things about dream energies, plants, protection charms and such. Which sometimes helped, but not all the time."

"Is your friend still around? Is she still your friend?"

"No, not really," Asuka explained. "We went our separate ways. That's another long story..."

"Did you ever get another boyfriend?"

"Again, not really. There were some people I hung out with, but it was nothing serious. I was still stubborn. I did everything I could to live with my husband again, but it never happened. I contacted my guides and asked them when I would be able to see him again; be with him again. But by then, over a hundred years had passed. I was told he moved on to another dimension. A higher dimension. He had done his time on earth and progressed because of his bold sacrifice.”

They reached the edge of a large, grassy park and turned down a cobbled path towards its centre.

“I was allowed to visit him in his recent incarnation once in the other dimension. It was so hard to understand what was happening there. He seemed so foreign. It was impossible to know him, to love him like I once knew. I felt out of luck, betrayed by everything. I felt as if I was stuck in a dream hell, always getting attacked. Occasionally I would find hidden gardens where I could be at peace for a while, but I was always found by demons and the like. Find another hidden place, then attacked again. On and on.”

"Then what?" Mosh asked. They stopped to sit down on a weathered wooden bench with ornate, wrought-iron braces.

"Then,” she sighed, “it was so hard for me to do but I finally let go of him. My faithfulness to my husband was holding me back. I finally found peace and let him go. I finally decided that maybe finding someone else would be the right thing to do. I was in my garden when I finally made that decision. And then, like clockwork, you came through that portal with Raven. It was so strange. The timing was unimaginable."

"Woah," Mosh said. "Funny how things like that work."

"Yes it is." Asuka’s gaze lowered to the ground. Her feet were swinging as she sat, brushing against the neatly-trimmed grass. "How did you and Raven find me, anyways?"

"Raven did her song spell and focused on her feeling of who would be the best dream girl for me. And actually, the first time she tried, we wound up in an outdoor brothel. We almost didn't make it out of there."

"Hmm," Asuka said as she looked down again. "Well, enough about my silly story. I want to talk to you about Hazel.”

"What about her?"

"I've been watching her, and you were right. She does travel out-of-body a lot when she dreams, and she has no idea that she does it."

"That's what I told you."

"Yes you did,” she smiled. “Anyway, she seems to like me. She has such a peaceful energy. I was thinking maybe I can help her, somehow show her there’s more to her dreams than she realizes."

"You mean be her dream guide?"

"No!” Asuka chuckled. “Just a friend. I'm just going to..."

Mosh suddenly disappeared.

He’s woken up, she thought, picked up Wilson's leash and hurried towards his house to go into her astral projection. She wanted to see if Mosh remembered anything.

***

Asuka was close by when Mosh awoke. He slowly opened his eyes, pushed off the covers and moved to the couch. He looked to the alarm clock, flashing 1:13 a.m.

He laid back into the sofa’s cushions and tried to recall his dreams, Asuka probing his mind very carefully.

He gasped as an image flooded into his mind of Asuka kissing some stranger.

"No," he growled out loud. He pushed deeper into the memory. Wait, that’s right, he thought, remembering Asuka behind him, telling him the person he saw wasn't actually her.

Phew!

He focused harder, trying to remember more. He went over what he did remember a few times. He remembered walking into a waiting area, Asuka banging on the glass, and then walking away from her.

Why didn't I realize it was her, he asked himself, and why did she look like Millie with dreads? Then it clicked.

He laughed to himself as he realized Asuka was being silly with him.

Asuka put her palm to her face. That’s not quite how I expected him to remember, she thought. Though, the way he remembered and the conclusion he drew does kind of sound like something I would do...maybe I’ll just have to silly up his dreams if that's what he remembers more.

Mosh kept running over his memories, grinning widely as he recalled Asuka meeting him outside of a school with Wilson. But there was something else he couldn't remember…

It was...Asuka told me her story, Mosh thought. I can only recall the gist of it, but I’m pretty sure I understand where she was coming from. Also something about Hazel... Asuka’s going to...guide her? That can’t be right, can it?

Asuka buried her face in her palm again. I’m only going to try to help Hazel realize what she can and what she can’t do with her dreams, she thought. Not exactly ‘guide’ her.

Mosh reached over, grabbing his pen and journal as he flicked on his computer. He jotted down some short notes about what he remembered in the light from the screen before letting out a yawn and getting back into bed.

Asuka waited until her projection was done, sure she'd get some time alone with Mosh in the next few dreams.

Reviews

[Jasmine A. Mack]

Woah! this is great