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"Please, please," he begged, "I'll pay anything just to help my son." His son was fast asleep on the floor. All seemed well except for the black swirl forming on his head, the sign of the dream stealer. "The only way to battle it is to go into his dreams. Sir? " I replied. He appeared to be willing to pay the price, but could the young man withstand the pressure?
I guess he was thinking the same thing as he looked at his son. From the visibility of the swirl, I would say it's his 3rd day asleep. His case is a pretty minor one. Normally I would have already entered his dream and kicked the dream stealer out, but he looked no more than 5 years old. The last child I entered didn't turn out so well.
The Dream Stealer is a relatively harmless creature. All he does is go into whatever dream his victim is having and participate in the dream. This causes the aforementioned dream to be way longer than usual, although there is no harm done to the victim. The real problem is with the length of the dream, for if a dream is too long and it goes on for days, the victim would have to eat or he'd die. Due to this problem, liquidated food pack prices have gone through the roof. Just 3 weeks' worth is the same price as 2 years' worth of normal food.
We of the DreamFed have been devising ways to get rid of the Dream Stealer. To be honest, we've discovered only one way at the moment, and it is a bit problematic;
The Dream Transporter: This device helps us enter another person's dream (Dreamport). We can manually find and remove the dream stealer, but the stress on the brain and dreamscape is harsh.
The man with tears in his eyes, I'm sure with a prayer in his heart, says, "Do it." "Sir, if I may, there are some cases where we stay too long finding the dream stealer in a person's dream and the victim's brain gets overloaded. His dreamscape could fail, and he would never sleep soundly again. " I made a point of mentioning that.
"Listen, I know what happened to your last patient and I understand your hesitation, but I wouldn't come to you if I had a choice. All the other DreamFeds have said he's a lost cause; what should I do? " The man replied with anguish in his voice. The touch with my last young patient was still a bit touchy, I made a mistake of staying to long in the dream. His brain could only take 60 mins of dreamporting but I stayed for 65mins. I frowned at the mention of my previous case but he continued "Do I look like the kind of man that would gamble with my boys' dreams?"
"No." I answered. He looked like the kind of man broken by the harsh realities of this accursed world. I looked again at his boy. "He's young." I commented . He's my boy, he's my dream. He may lose his ability to dream. Without it, and left to the whim of the dream stealer, he could die. Quietly, he added, "I can't afford the liquefied food." He looked at me with pleading eyes. Sighing, I agreed, "I'll do it."
I dreamport into the boy's (who I recently found out his name is Michael) consciousness. I remembered my last patient, currently in a psychiatrist's home, because I didn't notice he had 2 dream stealers in his dream. After kicking the first one out, the second one fast forwarded the dream so fast it overloaded the young boy's consciousness. I had a headache for a month. The boy hasn't had a headache since.
"Best not to dwell on the past; look unto the future." I nodded to the console manager of the dream transporter, a.k.a. the Dream Watcher, to start the countdown. After a brief countdown, it started. The feeling of you imposing your consciousness on another's is quite euphoric. Almost without any interference, I arrived at his dreamscape. The hall of dreams: this is the part of the mind where the dream is chosen, where it starts and where it ends. It usually takes the form of the surroundings of whatever dream you are having. I experimented with mental pottery to see how much freedom I have in this world, because if this was a dream, anything was possible.
"Start with something small." I closed my eyes and imagined a stick, closing my fist around the air, willing it to mould and solidify. Nothing happened. I frowned. A child's dream should at least include a stick. It's meant to be malleable as the child is extremely imaginative. I rechecked my equipment , the dream bag for the dream stealer, and my eject button. The button to take my consciousness back to my own body. I went into the dream hall. Looking for the dream that the stealer is in is quite easy as it's usually the odd one out. I stopped in front of a dream. While others were clear and vibrant, this particular portal was muddled. "This has to be it." I jumped in.
At first glance, you would know things weren't well. The dream was so dull, it was like those tape recordings my great grandfather had in the 1900's. The dream stealer couldn't have changed this much of a dream. He's known to just change minor things, like the weather or colours. The weather was vibrant; trees were blooming; but the people seemed to be in mourning. I tried to go unnoticed, mixing in with the crowds until I found anything odd. Keeping my eyes on my watch, I noticed the time. I still had over an hour left. "Best to dial the alarm for 45 minutes just to be safe."
After searching through the dream, I saw that sadness was everywhere. "Where is he?" I screamed out of frustration, but no one took any notice of me.
Then I heard it, the one odd thing in this dull world, the sound of laughter. I ran at the sound and saw a kid coming out of an alley. His smile was already turning into a slight frown before he lost the happiness when I approached him. "Why were you laughing, boy?" He looked at me as though shocked that he was regarded. " I think I heard something funny, although I can't remember the joke anymore." He scrunched his face, probably thinking of the joke. "Where did you hear it?" I asked, hoping he'd still remember. He thought for a moment, "Ermm... a couple ways back that alley." He pointed at the alley he had just come out of, then started walking again. I tried calling him but he didn't respond.
Walking down the alley, I noticed how the mood seemed to change a bit. It seemed more welcoming, livelier even. The alley had only one door. I knocked, then pushed it open. The room was dark . I switched on my torchlight and I saw him. The dream stealer, tied up and with its head covered with a bag. As I came closer, he shivered visibly. It made me shiver. Seeing a creature that caused so much pain and suffering in families tied up was disheartening for some reasons. Then the situation got a lot stranger, for it spoke. "Please allow me to go. Set me free. Please? I can't help you. " I removed the bag from his head and he shied away. He took a look at me and spoke again. "Are you not a part of this dream?" "Are you a FED?" He seemed scared.
"Tell me what happened?" I said in my most comforting voice.
"It was horrible," he began. "I came into this dream and at first noticed how sad it was, how strange for a 5-year-old dream." I nodded to that. So, as a highly respected dream thief, I changed the dream and decided to make as many people as I could for as long as I could. You should have seen it. We had a party and everything, but no matter what I did, once I leave a dream, it becomes sad again. I decided to leave him altogether, but then he captured me and kept me here. Only he comes and taps on my happiness. " Why would he do something like this, I thought? How does one even capture a dream thief in a dream? The mere thought of doing that
I looked at my time and the 45 mins had gone and gone, getting to 50 mins.
The dream stealer started to shiver visibly, "He's coming, please quickly save me." Before I could untie the ropes, the door swung open. I saw the same boy who directed me here. "Why are you doing this?" I asked. The boy held up his hand and the dream stealer flew to it. They understood. There is still imagination, but only for him I looked at my watch, "51 mins".
"What do you want from him?" I asked again. "Happiness," he simply replied. I'm tired of the hard world where my dad's always complaining. Here I have all the power, and with him, I can be happy. I know of your time limit, my dear Fed, and I don't want to give you anymore opportunities, so I'll help your time go a bit faster.
He snapped his hands and I saw my watch as 1 minute was going at a rate of 10 seconds. I looked at the dream stealer's eyes, doomed to his fate, and I looked at the child's eyes, knowing that his mind was made up, despite his father's feelings. In the 59th minute, I pressed the button...
