43 An Unexpected Visi (1/2)
”I'm...dreaming?” Catherine replied.
The scene around her suddenly got blurry as memories rushed into her mind. Everything became clear, her mission, Joshua, the lab they were in and the fact that Jacques spent all his time in the dream world. She nodded to Jacques as she entered the state of lucid dreaming.
”It took me a while to find you. That's quite the location your group has found,” he told her.
The area began to shake as Catherine's dream was falling apart. She remained calm as this has happened before. However, before her dream completely shattered and she entered the bizarre dream world Jacques waved his hand and interrupted the process. When he did that, she noticed blood was dripping from his arm.
”Are you all right?” she asked.
”It's nothing, don't worry. However, it's probably better if we don't leave your dream for now. There is something ...troublesome just outside of here,” he explained.
”Troublesome? What do you mean?”
”There is a wandering nightmare lurking around you. It attacked me when I tried to enter your dream,” he said while showing his arm.
He had obviously waited to short the wound before healing himself. He was currently a soul projection so by pouring some energy in it, his arm quickly healed.
”A wandering nightmare? You mentioned those last time too. What exactly are they?”
Jacques took a deep breath and explained:
”Well, you're without a doubt familiar with regular nightmares, they're just bad dreams. Nearly all nightmares enter this category. However, there are times when a nightmare can get out of hand. Usually, they appear as a result of high stress or anxiety. Feeding on those bad emotions, they take their time to grow strong. The bad dream becomes recurring while floating around its victim when they're awake. In the most extreme cases, the dreamer could end up dying of a heart attack. When that happens, the nightmare becomes free to roam this world, occasionally finding a new victim.”
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Catherine scratched her head upon hearing this.
”I see. And the one right outside of here?”
”He's roaming around you. Tell me, did you have any nightmare recently?”
”No, I've been sleeping normally…” she answered and bit her nail.
Jacques seemed to understand what she was thinking about.
”If your spirit is the one plagued by nightmares, the situation is a bit different. He obviously can't die of a heart attack but the nightmare could end up consuming him.”
Catherine nodded in reply.
”Thank you for the advice. I'll take care of it. However, you still haven't told me what you're doing here. I doubt you just want to say 'hello'. Tell me, are you in need of assistance?” she asked, somewhat worried.
Hearing this, Jacques' expression became grim.
”You're right, we did indeed run into an unexpected situation. Actually, Vera and Edward's group are in the same boat as mine. You probably lucked out finding this place and waiting for a bit. Otherwise, you would most likely have ended up like us by now.”
Catherine was shocked hearing this and instinctively put her hand in front of her mouth. Of the four teams that were sent, only hers was still all right.
”What happened exactly? Did you encounter a terrible foe and are gravely injured?”
Jacques shook his head.
”The good news is, we're all unharmed for now. However, we've been taken captive somewhere.”
”By whom?”
”I have no idea… I see you're confused. Let me start from the beginning. Starting from the surface, my group followed the road underground for several weeks. We had a few incidents involving local creatures but nothing major. Then one day, we exited the labyrinth of rocks that was leading us downwards and came out in a massive area.”
”You mean the forest we found?”
”Not at all. It was a massive cave, a large open space going on for kilometers. We thought we were on the right track and ventured into it. A few hours later, there was an earthquake, you probably felt it too.”
”We did indeed, it covered the passage we were taking but created a new one leading to the forest.”
”Is that so? Maybe you lucked out then. In any case, we took cover since rocks were falling from the ceiling. I later learned from Edward that the earthquake was provoked by the battle between his group and a creature. They vanquished it eventually but our trouble started soon after. You see, as we progressed, we eventually saw what appeared to be the ruins of a city in the distance. Everyone rejoiced as we thought we were about to reach our destination. However, as we got closer, we were all suddenly overcome by a massive headache and eventually fell unconscious.”
”A headache?”
”To be more precise, I felt it here,” Jacques clarified while moving his hair a bit to point a portion of his forehead.
As Catherine looked at the spot he pointed, she seemed to realize something.
”I see, what happened afterward?”
”Well, initially, I found myself plunged into a dream, but as you know, yours truly is a master at being active while I'm asleep. I, therefore, managed to become lucid and broke out my dream bubble. In the meantime, my body had been moved. I had been placed in a strange container full of green liquid with some bizarre tube connected to my face that allowed me to breathe. Looking around, I saw not only my teammates but also Vera and Edward's party. I entered their dreams and learned they had gone through a similar ordeal than me. Together we tried to establish a plan. At first, I tried to break us free but even for me waking up was impossible. ”