The Guardians of Light

The Uncanny Dream

I could see two people walking towards me.

Ah! an improvisation today, I thought.

One of them was a girl who was thin but fit, and the other was a guy who is huge and had a well-built body.

That guy had a weird smile. Seeing him made me reminisce, my school bullies, who laughed exactly like him before they screwed with me.

'Hi,' said the girl, which switched my attention towards her. 

'Hi,' I replied, unsurely.

'Welcome to the Orpheus. My name is Evelyn, and this is Bob.'

'What's an Orpheus? And who are you guys and what are you doing in my dream?'

'Orpheus is the name of this world. And this is not a dream.'

'Oh! I see.'

'Wait..... what?'

'Hahaha. It is normal to feel confused at the beginning. But soon, you'll get an understanding of everything.'

'Woah, Woah, Woah. Slow down. So what you mean to say is, I am not dreaming?'

'You tell me. How do you feel it?'

'Well, it looks lively. I feel like I am living in a dream.'

'Correct. Also, you have control over everything, right?'

'It appears so. I think I can make my own choices.'

'Of course, you can.'

'I still couldn't wrap up my mind. What happens to me on the Earth? What about my friends and family? And why the heck did I come here?'

'Well, you hate your world, and you fantasise all the time. Am I right?'

'How in the hell do you know this?'

'That's how we all came here. We don't exactly know-how, but we have that thing in common.'

'Oh, man. This is so messed up.'

The big guy who seemed cold and hard finally spoke.

'Just come with us. When you see how everything works here, it might ease you up.'

 His voice was like, it can be intimidating and gentle at the same time.

I nodded and started to walk along with them. I was so mixed up in thinking that I didn't pay attention to anything. I was just walking alongside Bob.

We finally entered the building, and as I was walking, I overheard muffled voices from a room. I stopped. I receded my steps and stopped at the door from which the voices were coming.

I slowly unlocked the door and opened it without making any creaks. To my bewilderment, I saw a man holding a shotgun at point-blank to a man who is tied up.

It was like an execution-style murder. The guy pulled the g*n right in front of my eyes, and I witnessed the other guy's brain splashing out like a watermelon.

Now, that's an image I will never be able to forget. I wanted to scream, but the scream doesn't come out.

The executioner saw me. I assumed that since I was the prime witness, he would come after me to tie up loose ends.

I ran back the way I came like hell.

Evelyn yelled at me to stop, but I continued to run.

After a while, when I looked back to see if he was chasing, I observed that I was approximately 10 steps ahead of him. To be precise, I am 10 steps away from death. I kept running and running and running, wishing that I would be out of this misery. And suddenly everything turns black.

                                                                        -----*-----

I opened my eyes and found myself on the bed again. I was panting like a dog, but there wasn't even a single drop sweat on me.

' How the hell is this possible? How come I got tired running in the dream? How come there is no sweat? Why don't I feel tired anymore? '

'Were they telling the truth about the dream being real?' I wondered.

Now, if that was real, I just saw a man's head getting blown off. Maybe it's a freak town, and all of them were serial killers.

It might also be possible that they were going to kill me too.

Evelyn looked cute, though. I can't picture her executing such a horrendous act.

I sat still, on my bed in the middle of the night, all alone, frightened and confused. I can't even talk about this with anyone because I don't know what's going on in the first place.

I was freaked out, but I don't want to accept it. Life was a lot simpler when I didn't care about anything. And now, it's just painful and disturbing.

I thought of calling Mia, but it was late night, and it didn't seem appropriate. Talking to my parents isn't really in my options. I guess that's it. The moment you start depending on someone, you become weak.

Damn that weakness. I don't want to feel helpless. I tried to convince myself that everything is going to be okay. But the thought of sleep gave me creeps. I was afraid that if I sleep, I'll get sucked up into that twisted dream again.

That's the last thing I want right now. That's when my struggle began. I was sleepy, but I tried to entertain myself in every way possible. I even took a bath in the middle of the night.

And my second struggle was the terror. The sound made by the water droplets from the washbasin, the creaking sound of the windows, and even a faint breeze of air made me jump in fright.

I spent the whole night protecting myself from the unknown dangers.

The clock finally struck 6. Unlike every other morning, this morning was way worse. I comforted myself by saying, 'At least, I wouldn't have to sleep again till night.'

I'm not really known for my morning mood. I'm usually grumpy. According to Science, it's because of the disruption of the sleep, but for me, there was nothing worth waking up for.

But today, I didn't have any sleep at all for the disruption to take place and make me grumpy. Now imagine how frustrated I would have been.

I wanted everything to be silent, just like how people in hangover wants.

Any sane person would understand that I am not doing well. My mother noticed me.

'Are you alright?' She asked.

I rolled my eyes up in exasperation. I didn't want to do it, but I did it anyway.

My mother didn't ask any other question and left the place. I felt awful for my idiocy.

I quickly finished my breakfast and left home. I was on the verge of a huge wave of sleep. My eyes kept closing while I was walking to school.

The people on the road can see me struggling to keep my balance. My legs don’t work as I tell them. Neither do my hands. Or my fingers. I know my brain is sending signals telling me what to do. Whether or not my body is listening is a different story. My body is swaying – left and right. No matter how many steps I take, I’m no closer to where I want to be.

I then realised how hard it must be for the people who are drunk to walk without support.

After a long struggle, I finally reached the school. I saw Mia waiting at the entrance for me. I didn't want to talk to her in my current situation as I was afraid that I would do or say something that might hurt her.

I tried to walk past her, but her impediment made me stop. 

'Well, someone is cranky today.'

'Mia, why don't you just mind your own business, huh?'

Mia stormed away from there as soon as I uttered those words.

Generally, I would say these words in my mind, but since I'm halfway from becoming sane, I might have said them out loud.

Anyway, I was not in a position to comfort her, so I ignored her anger.

I went to the class, and the sight of the professor explaining intensified my sleep by at least ten times. I couldn't take it anymore.

I wanted to scream. I could feel my eyes getting drowsier and heavier by every passing second. I didn't want to resist the urge to sleep anymore.

I finally gave up and shut my eyes.

                                                                                      -----*-----

I opened my eyes.

'Oh, God. No, no, no, not again.'

I turned around, and I saw Evelyn sitting right behind me. I assumed that she had the ability to teleport herself wherever she wanted to.

Before I started to run, she tried to calm me down.

'Ryan, Ryan. Please stop. Just hear me out for a minute. There's no one around here except for me. There's no reason for you to panic or to be frightened about anything.  I will clear everything for you. I have been waiting for you right here from the moment you left.'

As I was already there anyhow, I thought I might as well give it a try.

'Okay, go on.'

'Firstly, we are the good guys.'

'No kidding,' I said sarcastically.

'Would you please let me complete my side of the truth?'

 'I'm sorry. Please, continue.'

'I'll tell you in your terminology for your convenience. In this world, we are like the police who catch the bad guys. What you witnessed yesterday is similar to an encounter. The guy we killed had committed some heinous crimes. I'm not going into the details cause they might make things worse than they already are.'

'Well, the story is convincing. But I'm not sure whether to believe it or not. Also, why are you showing special attention to me? Why have you been waiting for me?'

'There's something special about you, Ryan.'

'Oh! Is there now.'

'No one could have gone back the way you did. Once we have reached this world, it was like we had cut our ties and turned our backs on everyone on the Earth. Long story short, we couldn't go back after we got here.'

'The story keeps getting better.'

'Ryan, you have to start taking this seriously. This ain't a joke. You are one of us now.'

'It's a lot to process, Evelyn. I need time to digest everything.'

'So, are you ready to take a tour now?'

I immediately closed my eyes and repeatedly thought about getting back to the Earth. I opened my eyes in the slightest way possible to take a peek, to see whether I was back from my dream or not.

Alas! I was still stuck in this uncanny dream.

I said to myself, 'Running is not going to work. I had to face whatever that is lying ahead of me.'

I took a long sigh.

'Let's go, Evelyn. Escort me, please.'

'It's a pleasure, Ryan.'

I walked along with her in the same way as of yesterday's dream. This time, I paid keen attention to the details of the place.

There was a big arch at the entrance that read, "The Protectors of Orpheus.''

Well, that title relaxed me a bit. As we were in the proximity of the entrance, I saw the executioner with a shotgun in his hand, standing at the entrance.

The sight of him created an instant blackout.

                                                                          -----*-----

I opened my eyes and found myself in the hospital bed surrounded by mother and Mia this time.

The doctors were ready with the Electrical shocking device and all. That terrified me even more, and I began to act like a madman.

The doctors strapped me to the bed and injected me with a sedative.

I drifted into the sleep again but forcefully this time.