"The Dream Realm."
The voice of the professor was strong in the classroom and pierced the silence of the students.
"It is believed by most of the people that this is a place where one's imagination creates stories, but for those who know the reality, it's far more than this. People's feelings create the dreams and nightmares. Few are the ones to possess the capacity to move freely in the dream realm; they are called the Awakened. Some uses this capacity for their own good, some try to help others, but if humans can enter the Dream Realm, sometimes, dreams and nightmares manage to enter the Physical Realm, and some need to be stopped. This is where Hunters come in useful. We call Hunters the awakens those who went deep enough in the dream realm to become stronger and to be able to fight nightmares in the Physical Realm."
Some of the students smirked, three laughed with fire in their eyes while checking each other.
"If only I could be a hunter too." Park Chung-Ho thought, watching the girl, just on his right, with a wry smile. Aislinn Nòttdottir. Her long blond hair with pink strands, tied in a high messy bun, as always. The best huntress. She turned her head and her green eyes catches his. She had a little smile.
"Park Chung-Ho, are you with us?" The professor said.
"Yes mister Bjornson. But .. you were just repeating the introduction of your course from last September. Weren't you ?"
"Precisely. Not because I'm old, but because the things that seems to be the smallest details, the things you know perfectly, and you don't want to hear over and over again... Those things are the basis on which you can developp your talent. Do never forget the basis. And this is even more true when we speak about the dream realm..."
The professor's voice continued his lecture and the girl learned towards Chung-Ho and muttered
"Don't be late tonight. You promised you would come this time."
"I'll be there." He answered, thinking that he had given her his word.
That evening, he was there. A college party like many others, except for him, as it was his first.
"I'm glad you came." She said, grabbing his wrist. "Come with me, we'll avoid the noisy guys. Jake is behaving as always... Good hunter... But what an ass..."
He had no will to see Jake and his friends, always ready to mock him for not dreaming. Jake had a superiority complex towards non dreamers... In fact, that was the case for a great many hunters, even though, for him, it was worse. But not Aislinn. That was one of her numberous qualities, she wasn't the kind to mock others or to put herself in the sootlight.
They arrived in the crowded room where everyone was dancing and the music was way too loud. They went through the crowd and into the kitchen.
The noise was lighter and it was possible to talk there.
"Seriously Aislinn, what am I here for ? You know this class doesn't like me, you know I've got work to do... And still you asked me to come to this party."
"I wanted you to come and have some fun, we're both heavy workers, but it's good to let go sometimes. And... You can discover new things about your classmates. Take Ivar for exemple, you see him joking all the time and you think he's the kind of guy who likes to party ..."
Ivar was competing in a drinking game... Winning.
"Not the best exemple I guess" said Chung-Ho.
They both laughed.
"See, it's fun... you laugh."
Chung-Ho couldn't help a little smirk on his face, but said bluntly :
"so you come to this kind of party to see people drink?"
She looked back at the young man facing her across the table. He was almost one head taller than her.
"Well... Not only to watch them drink. I don't say no to a glass. And I hope to see you dance tonight." she said while laughing.
Park Chung-Ho looked surprised.
"You wanna see me dance?"
"Leave the college behind. Leave the nightmares behind. Have some fun with me ok?"
"You mean drink and dance?"
He felt a hand clapping his back.
"Relax dude, take a drink and do as the lady say. It's not like you had bigger plans implying dreaming, right?"
He recognised instantly the sarcastic tone of Jake.
"Jake... let him go. This is my party today, ok?"
"Aislinn, I came in peace..." Jake said handing a drink to Chung-Ho and another one to Aislinn. "Sorry for the joke, let's raise our glasses to this night. It will be a great night!"
Chung-Ho took the glass and looked at Aislinn, she tilted her head with a twisted smile as if to say 'Why not?' and they raised their glasses with Jake and his two friends who always followed him.
Once they had finished their drink, Jake and his crew left, leaving Aislinn and Chung-Ho alone once more.
"Surprising." Said the young man.
But Ivar was next to enter the room.
"DRIIIIIIIIINK!" He yelled.
Maybe it was the first glass, maybe it was Ivar, but Park Chung-Ho smiled and ended up laughing with the tall and strong man, having a glass with him too.
"I told you this would be fun." Aislinn said.
"And you were right." he answered. "Well... Ivar is always fun."
The atmosphere was different when they were left alone.
"This... feels strange." He spoke again. "I've never had this kind of party before. Nor have I had friends..." He looked at her. "Well... maybe I had some but... they always thought I was strange... And they're probably right..."
"Strange? Why? I mean... it's the first time you speak about your past this way. Until today, all I knew was that you had a trauma from a young age and that you were trapped in this trauma every night. Having nightmares so vivid that you would relive the same things over and over again. Don't you think that this may have impacted you at other moments in your life?"
"I tried to explain this to a friend, when I was in Korea... It ended with him thinking I was dumb or crazy..."
"I used to be more... light... maybe funnier, when I was little. But I lived things that really changed me... Dark things in the dream realm... I was so scared after that... I lost a part of my joy, hid it behind a more serious tone, a more careful behaviour... I'm not saying that we share the same experience. Just that... it affected me more than I can tell. So maybe people think you're strange, but that's because they don't understand you or don't listen enough. That wasn't the initial reason why I wanted you to come tonight. But I kinda like to have a deeper conversation than we usually do."
"Aislinn... I take anti dream pills for a reason. This nightmare... I don't want to live it anymore. I don't want to be enslaved by it anymore. I would love to go in the dream realm... even more with you, become a hunter maybe, but I just can't... I..."
Park Chung-Ho was feeling drowsy.
"What's going on..." He yawned "I don't under...stand... Ai...slinn... I feel like... I'm gonna fall asleep... It's... not good. I... haven't..."
"You didn't take your pills yet? Where is it?"
But the young man didn't seem to be able to answer her.
"IVAR!" she yelled.
The massive man erupted in the room almost immediately.
"Take him, we're bringing him in the closet sleep room. NOW!"
They ran through the crowd and onto a room next to the place were people were still dancing. There were shelves full of books and heaps of cushions. They layed the young man on a pile of cushions.
"You go get my mom, she's probably in the headmistress's room. Be fast please Ivar."
He didn't ask anything and rushed outside of the room.
Aislinn Nòttdottir grabbed a chair and sat close to her friend, holding his left hand in hers.
"You're falling asleep, so you'll expérience this nightmare again I fear, but I'm coming with you this time."
Her head leaned forward, eyes closed.
*****************
It had been the same feeling every night for almost nineteen years. The smell of smoke, the trouble to catch a breath, the heat. Park Chung-Ho opened his eyes like always and saw the fire everywhere around him. The sound of the flames eating the room was deafening.
He knew perfectly that the fire colors on the wall would start to be challenged by a glowing blue coming from the firefighters. But there was no way to know when this would occur.
Park Chung-Ho never saw the firefighters himself; he just learned later that he was rescued in the fire that burnt his house down and killed his parents. He was a baby at that time. The trauma made this nightmare so vivid and his memory this strong and detailed, and that was the most awful feeling for him.
Every night... until he heard about the pills.
It didn't matter much what this nightmare was based upon; it was there, it was scary, and it was testing. And every time he would have this nightmare, he would wake up still breathing hard and his sheets sweaty, as if he endured the nightmare FOR REAL.
The pills, that was the only way to avoid this nightmare. The NoDreamPill. But tonight, he hadn't take his pill yet when he felt this drowsy. He maybe was dreaming but the dream was a distant show, his brain was thinking.
"How did this happen? Why Am I sleeping now? I was speaking with Aislinn and the minute after, I'm sleeping."
He looked at the wall of fire that seemed to block the only exit of the room he was in. It seemed there was something behind the flames, or someone, watching him.
'WAKE UP'
This simple order was usually enough to get him out of his revery. But not tonight. Something was off. He was trapped for real this time. The fire was too hot. The smoke was too thick, if he wasn't able to go out, this would surely kill him.
He sat cross-legged and took deep, yet slow breath. Calming, that was the key for lasting longer in here. Sitting on the floor to get less smoke in his lungs and trying to master his body the most possible.
*****************
Aislinn Nòttdottir entered a dark corridor, full of doors, in the end of this place, there was some light. She went forward, in direction of the light. There was some noise behind the mocked doors she was passing by, but the one in front of her was where she was looking. in the frame of the missing door, there was a wall of fire, and behind it, Park Chung-Ho. He was next to a craddle with a black Dream Catcher on top of it.
A flash popped in her mind. She had seen this place before. This wasn't really the same scene as. Her friend wasn't in it, but there was a baby in the craddle, crying, and a menacing shadow above it. This vision struck her like a lightening, fast and unexpected.
"This can't be... " she thought and tears started to drop from her eyes. "Don't tell me..." She looked the place in disbelief.
There was no heat, no smoke where she was, but the room her friend was in was for sure dangerous.
She heard him ordering himself to wake up and nothing changed.
She saw him sitting on the floor and breathing calmly. Closing his eyes as if he would be able to control himself and chase this vision away. But Aislinn Nòttdottir knew that what she was witnessing wasn't an ordinary nightmare this was a trauma. She had heard about this, probably read about it in a Book, the worst kind of recuring nightmare, those based on a real event so traumatizing that it could lock an awaken in it. But she had never heard of one that was this strong that you would be blocked in it for your whole life.
"Chung-Ho wake up !" She said.
Nothing.
Then she felt herself bing pulled out of the dream.
She opened her eyes, her mother standing next to her.
"What's going on here?"
Diane Nòttdottir was looking at her daughter with worried eyes. She catched her stare full of tears.
"It's... It's him mom... I found him."
"Him ? What do you mean?"
Aislinn shook Park Chung-Ho to wake him and he finally opened his eyes.
"Where..." He looked around him. "Aislinn? Headmistress ? Where are we ? I feel... drowsy..."
"Dont close your eyes yet. We'll bring you to your dorm. You need your anti-dream pill." She turned her head to the door frame where Ivar was standing. "Ivar may you help him please ?"
The tall guy placed his arm around his comrade to help him walk away. Aislinn Nòttdottir touched her mother's wrist.
"My vision... The burning house... He's that baby I've been looking for, mom."
Diane Nòttdottir looked at her daughter following her two classmates. She muttered.
"I know "
She followed them until they found Park Chung-Ho's room. Ivar placed the young man on his bed while Aislinn searched his sidebed desk. She found a bag with white pills in it.
"You need to take this."
The young man took the pill and the glass of water that she handed him.
"Mom, how long does it takes to be effective ?"
"It's pretty fast. I think about five minutes will be good."
Aislinn looked back at her friend.
"Ok, you look at me. It's not time to sleep yet."
But his eyes had more and more trouble not to close.
"Aislinn... I wanna sleep..."
She grabbed his hand.
"Stay a bit more with me ok ? It's gonna be alright... You just need to stay with me."