"Huh?"
"Dream. Scaping. Like...."
"Like scaping a dream?"
"Pfft, who've you been listening to? Darrel again?"
Dave and Oliver mocked at Wendy as they almost began to laugh historically but held it in so that they could hear more about this so called dreamscaping.
"Ah haha ha... Mock me all you like, but none of y'all gave me any specifics for the 'juice' you wanted to get so you'll just have to bear with me." Wendy commented with a playful grin.
"Alex how much time do we got left?" Oliver asked.
"Uh... about 20 minutes."
"Easy. Wendy go on."
"Anyways, do you guys remember last year's shenanigans in the last three months of the year?"
"School or news wise?"
"News."
"Yes." The other four answered in union.
"Now remember that who went crazy in the southern side in September."
"Uh..."
"The skinny guy old guy?"
"Yah, him."
"Oh... that guy who went on about how he had a dream that felt like it lasted for days."
"Ding ding. Alex is the winner. Yes, that old guy who went on and on about there being another world except for this one."
"What was that place called again?" Dave mused at Wendy.
Wendy then pulled herself into the table a little and sat properly as she placed her hands on the table and whispered, "I don't think exactly remember, but just know that there's a student here who actually claimed to have experienced the same thing not long ago."
"Who is it?"
"I can't say anything about that client they're a high paying one and I can't just spill they're name to you."
Everyone else's eyelids dropped as frowns appeared on their faces.
"What?"
"...."
"You still want more juice?"
"Yah, I guess."
Everyone groaned in sadly.
"Well folks, I don't have anymore."
"What?" Alex mused with a frown big enough to show his teeth.
"Yap, that was all for today."
"We all paid her right?"
Oliver mused as the rest nodded in agreement.
"Then what the hell do you mean that's all?!"
Oliver demanded as Wendy chuckled and said, " You see, that old guy, when his protests about this so-called other world started to get to public a little bit..."
She said her voice now a low sharp hum as she stood up and got her tray as she continued, "He was found dead in an ally somewhere in the northern area 5 days later."
"And all the videos about the suspicions of this place he talked about on all social media platforms was erased."
"So, I suggest that if you want more info, you can look for her." She said as she then started walking away from the table but suddenly paused and turned her head as said with a smirk, "Finding her won't be hard you guys... besides... she has some very defining features that won't be hard for the eye to spot."
She walked off as all the four remained there completely dumbfounded by the words she just said.
The first to snap out of the trans was Evelyn who quickly rushed over to Wendy.
The trio was left on the bench. Dave was texting someone indicating that he might have not been fully into Wendy's story. Oliver's forehead rested on his left palm as his thoughts blurred his sense of environment. And Alex...
Alex was okay in fact he had snapped out his trans not long ago. He then tapped Oliver and Dave as they all got their trays and headed to where they placed them after lunch.
RIIIING!
Mutter!
Mutter!
Mutter!
Mutter!
Step!
"Ah ha ha ha really?"
"Yo, how's it going Dave?"
"Oh you mean with Caty? Ya-"
Fuuuu! Hah...! fuuu! hah...! fuuu! hahhh!
The muttering of the students, the clicking of shoes, the passing by of voices that he heard daily and rarely all became clearer to him than ever as time seemed to slow down for Alex.
His eyes suddenly began fluttering open and shut as he then paused his movements as a sling 'riiiiing!' hummed in his mind.
'Uhhh, what the hell is goin-'
His eye fluttering got even more rapid and painful.
"Ah...."
He groaned as he stumbled over and fell to his knees."
"Yo... Alex?" Oliver called with a hint of concern as the remaining students began to circle the two and mummer as well.
"Hey isn't that the guy who eats his breakfast in the bus?"
"Ya, I think so."
"Damn he looks miserable."
"I knew that those dang bus germs would get to him one day."
'Huh? The heck you my mo-'
RIIIIIIIII!!!
"Ahhhh! Oliver!"
Alex's condition worse.
"Haaaah! Oli- Hahhh! Olive- HEEE! Oliver hurr- HAAAaah!" Alex started wheezing uncontrollably as he struggled to call out to Oliver for help.
Oliver didn't waste another as he then flipped Alex's right arm over his shoulder and helped him walk away from the crowd.
'Dammit Dave, where are you?!'
Oliver thought as he forcibly and quickly dragged Alex's body to the school clinic.
As passed by a corner in the halls, a girl rushed by them and Alex being a victim or short attention flashed a look at her and noticed that 'Her eyes... why do the... do they have... dar-dark circles...?'
As they scurried through the halls of the school, "Don't worry bud, we're almost there.", Oliver reassured Alex in attempts to calm him or his condition down by a bit.
"Ri----" Alex weakly responded, but seemed to not be able to completely finish his statement. His voice had seemed to have faded which alarmed Oliver.
His head snapped downwards to look at Alex's condition. And what he saw shocked him beyond any scare he had ever felt in his life.
Drip! Drop! Drip! Drop! Drip!
"Ah-ah... ALEX!"
He screamed Alex's name loud enough to catch the attention of all occupants in the school.
And indeed, it did so, as all the students and teachers flooded out their classrooms to see cause of all this ruckus.
But Oliver had already made the next turn. So, the teachers ran to see what was going on.
"Hey, who screamed?"
"You can very well see that I came here to also see what's happening how'd you expect me to know?"
"Hey, what's going on?"
"Uhhh, I told you I-"
PAAT!
"Huh?"
The girl had angrily stomped to the ground as a loud pattering sound echoed throughout the halls.
The girl noticed this and decided to look down to see what she had stepped on. Thinking that it was some maybe left over mop water that janitor might've left so she did so with a hint of her disgust in her face but what she saw...
"Ah..."
Made her stomach churn and her blood run cold as her eyes and mouth opened as she screamed, "BLOOOOOOOD! ITS BLOOOD! AHHH!"
"What!?"
The other students realised as they began screaming and panicking at the sight of the smeared blood they stepped on.
And speaking of blood....
"Don't bro sob, we're almost there. Hold on for me okay."
Oliver begged Alex who seemed not respond. But looking at him now, who could blame him? His uniform shirt was painted in red; his scent was anow a steamy deep copper, his eyes bled tears and so did his mouth.
To Alex everything felt like a living hell now. His body felt it burnt piece by piece, his breathes barely made it out of his mouth or nose. Everything that didn't feel burnt felt like a nail pierce through it instead.
But despite all that, what he thought about right now was completely indifferent from his current situation, 'Why... why did she look at me like that?'
As a flash black of when Wendy made her final statement. Her head was partially turned in fact her attention wasn't even on the group. No, it was on the one person who seemed to notice her focused gaze almost seemingly by fate.
It was indeed Alex and when he noticed he didn't overreact he instead smirked slightly thinking that she was tryna play again.
He snapped back to reality once he felt the soft yet stern cushion of a bed collid with his body.
His vision was blury but he saw the nurse and Oliver talking about him.
Despite his condition it surprised Alex that the nurse wasn't panicking. No, she was in fact calmly nodding and taking in all Oliver had to say.
The nurse spoke back to Oliver and after a few seconds he nodded and dashed out of the room in a hast.
'He's probably gone to whoop the hell out of Dave's ears... haha.'
In his blurry vision, he saw the nurse. But all she did was stand. Not get something to wipe his blood, or a phone to call for an ambulance to come get him. All she did was stand right in front of him.
Alex was greatly puzzled by this but... he didn't bother to react because for a bad yet nice reason he felt... comfortable. It was wrong but yet all the warmer to be close to her.
This confused him but what he had to focus on right now was how was keeping his breath steady and also making sure that this new feeling could last as long as it could because it distracted him from the gruesome pain he felt.
Click!
A clicking sound snapped in the room as the nurse approached him.
Click, clack, click, clack, click!
She stood maybe just an inch or less away from the Alex who had no strength left to turn his head and see who stood before him.
As he thought about how pitiful this was and just when he felt like he could close his eyes and finally rest.
"It's good to see you again... Master Cronix."
She said as she gently stroked her hand against his forehead down to his face all before her fingers suddenly snapped open, her gaze softened and she said, "Omek, to you I present thee."
'Huh?'
Alex thought as his head snapped upwards, his eyelids burst open, his mouth shut closed, his body straightened by both his arms and legs and he convulsed violently. Almost as if his body tried to split into multiple parts of itself.
And numerous images flashed in his mind.
A deserted city consumed by a tornado.
Beasts that bore grey and dishevled skin with hideous mutilated body structure.
A yellow scythe.
Blue eyes.
A group of people walking through a desert that during the day.
A smile.
A man who looked like a street beggar.
A black robe laced with golden painted strands of design.
And lastly.....
A voice one that echoed through a void he found himself that said, "Its time for round two..."