​Fiction Workshop Submission

tw: government controlling people’s dreams, mutilation, murder? (This is just chapter 1 btw)

The man stared at me expectantly, but I was pretty sure I had never seen this dude before in my life. Was he a new student? A new professor? He had long blond hair and piercing golden eyes? Golden? Is that even possible? I looked at him again. Yep, they were definitely golden. Okay, enough. I needed to get to class. My astronomy professor would not be forgiving if I was late. I was going to class, right? My thoughts were getting hazy. The world around me was becoming less clear too. Is this even my college campus? Somehow, I felt as if this man had the power to shift the very fabric of reality. But that’s impossible. I tried to ground myself, tried to generate the willpower to move my legs towards the building where my class was being held, but I found that I didn’t have control over my own body. The longer I stared at this man, the more captivated I became. Did going to class even matter anymore? I would follow him anywhere. Before I could even comprehend what was happening, I suddenly found myself lying on a towel at a beach. The man was standing directly over me, staring off into the distance. Despite having no idea how I got here, I felt a strange sense of peace. There was a beautiful sunset over the ocean, each color fading softly into the next. I wished I’d brought my painting supplies with me. Then again, how was I supposed to know that I would just randomly teleport to a beach? I can’t even teleport, last I checked. Oddly enough, there was no one else here at the beach, just me and him. The man was now carrying a strange creature in his arms. It was orange with silver horns, catlike ears and face, miniature dragon wings, and a scaly tail. I found the creature to be oddly adorable. I didn’t know why, but I had the strange impulse to reach out my hand and pet the creature. “Don’t.” His voice was calm but stern and strangely melodic. “Huh?” My voice was… nervous and confused. This guy is a total stranger. Why do I feel such a strong desire to impress him? “Aurelia, right?” “How do you know my–?” “You’ve never been here before. Have you?” I nodded slowly, hoping I wasn’t revealing too much. If he already knew my name, what else did he know? He set the creature down before turning to face me again. He said something to it in some language I couldn’t understand and definitely didn’t sound like any human language I’d ever heard of before, and it ran off. I expected him to respond or explain further, but instead, he took my hand and started running. Naturally, I was pretty freaked out. Even if I was unfamiliar with this particular beach and would have to risk getting lost, I was not going to allow myself to get kidnapped, not without a fight at least. I wrenched myself free of his grasp, but surprisingly, it didn’t take much effort at all, which was strange. If he really wanted to take me hostage, I doubt I would have had the strength to resist him. I prepared myself to run, expecting he would chase me, but instead, he started backing away. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you. It’s just that… I can’t risk being overheard. I can leave, if that would make you more comfortable, but I should probably explain what’s going on first.” “That would be–” I never got the chance to finish my sentence. I never got the chance to ask him any questions. I never even realized that I was dreaming until I woke up. All I knew is that he was there one minute and gone the next. Maybe, if he had gotten to explain everything right then, maybe, things wouldn’t have turned out the way they did.

I was back at the beach. This time, I was the one carrying the strange creature. I just woke up, and it was in my arms, curled up and looking quite peaceful. “You know this is all a dream, right?” The voice came out of nowhere. It sounded small and meek, almost childish. I checked my surroundings anxiously, trying in vain to find out where it was coming from. There was nobody else here, right? I waited in silence for it to speak again. I was not going to be like the clueless person in a horror movie who calls out “Hello?” just to be killed a few seconds later. To be fair, the voice didn’t sound particularly threatening when I heard it, but I knew better than to trust a voice that didn’t appear to have any physical body attached to it. I glanced down at the creature. It was awake now and staring at me. I thought it was tired of being held, so I lowered it to the ground, but as I prepared to let go, it suddenly bit me. It wasn’t a hard bite. In fact, I doubted the creature intended to cause me any harm. Instead, it almost felt playful or affectionate. I decided to pick it back up again and pet it. The creature purred contentedly. Why did it trust me so much? I’d only met this creature once before. “I’m glad that you’re not afraid of me. That’s a good sign. I’m sorry for biting you. I just had to be sure.” The creature’s mouth wasn’t moving, but it was pretty clear to me now that the voice I heard earlier came from it. I let out a sigh of relief. I thought that there was someone else stalking us or something. Unfortunately, the creature was not yet done speaking. “I’ve created a boundary that they can’t get past, but it won’t last for much longer. As soon as this beach disappears, they will have control. When that happens, you’re going to have to run. There is a way to reverse their control, but I haven’t figured it out yet. That’s what he was trying to figure out.” “Does this relate to what you said earlier? That it’s all a dream?” “Yes.” It happened just as the creature said it would. The scenery morphed, and I found myself in a long, dark hallway. For a few seconds, all I could hear was the sound of my own breathing. Then, the laughter started. It was sinister and insane laughter, the kind of laughter one might hear in an asylum. The giggles clearly belonged to children, but that did little to bring me comfort. I began to run. If there really were monstrous children around here, I would not be their next victim. As I sprinted, doorways began to appear on either side of me. Through them, I could see what looked like classrooms. I was curious to investigate but not curious enough to risk my life. After running for what felt like miles, I finally saw sliding double doors leading outside. I was surprised that no demon children had appeared the whole time I was running. They sounded so close when I heard them. I stopped briefly to catch my breath. “Hehe, you’re adorable! You’re not going to make it very far, though.” I spoke too soon. Without daring to look behind me, I took off again. I was almost at the exit. “Relax. I’m not going to hurt you. I might change my mind, though, if you continue to refuse to look at me. That’s rude, you know!” She was as horrifying as I knew she would be. Her eyes blazed crimson red, and her cheeks were covered in blood. She smiled at me, but her lips stretched unnaturally wide, and her teeth looked like they belonged to a shark. Her arms and legs were bent at odd angles, and her bones cracked when she moved. “W-What do you want from me?” Speaking to demonic entities and giving them access to your voice is never advisable, but I didn’t see what choice I had. “I want you to admit that it’s your fault I’m dead.” There was no way. It wasn’t possible, and yet, the voice was unmistakable. “Victoria?” The demon’s/Victoria’s smile widened even further as I spoke its/her name. The creature’s words echoed in my mind. Right. This is all a dream. She’s not actually here. None of this is real. I closed my eyes and took a couple deep breaths to steady myself. I would wake up eventually. I just needed to wait it out. Surprisingly, the demon girl didn’t interrupt my moment of peace. Was she gone? I didn’t dare open my eyes, but if taking the time to ground myself was all it took to vanquish demonic entities, maybe I could find a way out of here relatively unscathed. The floor beneath me began to shift. Still, I kept my eyes shut tight. If this was truly my dream, then I was the one in control. I refused to be haunted by memories of a person’s death that I had long since accepted and moved on from. As the world around me began to stabilize, I was greeted by familiar but welcome sensations, the sound of waves crashing at the shore, the smell of salt water, the feeling of soft sand beneath my feet.
“You can open your eyes now. It’s alright.” It was the creature’s voice. Could I trust it? “How did I get back here?” I opened my eyes cautiously. The creature was indeed standing in front of me. I sat down so that I would be more on its level. “I wish I could explain it to you thoroughly, but all I can say is that your only hope of taking back control is finding a way to enter one of their dreams instead. Their technology is powerful, but you are the one anomaly they didn’t account for.” “This is just a dream, though, so won’t I eventually wake up?” “No. It’s not that simple. Last time, he was here, so he could protect you, but he’s gone now, and I don’t have the same access to information that he did.” I ran my fingers through my hair in frustration. Someone was controlling my dreams, so I had to enter theirs? What kind of science fiction bullshit was this? “Okay… so… I’d like to help you, but I’m just an ordinary human, so I don’t think–” “You have more power than you think. Just trust yourself. Everyone and everything you’ve seen here is connected.” As if to reassure me, the creature moved to curl up in my lap and started purring. I was about to scoff at it for giving such cliche advice, but before I could, the scenery changed again, and the creature was gone. I was in what appeared to be an abandoned hospital now. The lighting was so dim that I could just barely see well enough to feel comfortable walking without constantly worrying about tripping. I glanced in one of the rooms. There were two empty beds inside. What horrors would await me here? I decided to investigate the room. The creature said to trust myself, so maybe I would find some clues? About who’s controlling my dreams and how to stop them? It seemed safe. If there are no ghosts in sight, then there are no ghosts, right? As soon as I stepped inside, I suddenly began to feel very drowsy. With the remainder of my consciousness, I suddenly found it amusing to consider how many people can claim they’ve gotten tired in their dreams. I just barely made it into one of the beds–for being in an abandoned hospital, it looked clean enough. When I awoke, I was greeted by a horrifying sight. Surgical tools were scattered around the floor, covered liberally with blood. Beside the surgical tools, there was a body, covered in puncture wounds, some of them so deep that its innards were exposed. The demon ghost girl was back, and she was laughing hysterically, stabbing a scalpel into the corpse’s head. She didn’t notice me immediately, which I was grateful for, so I decided I would try to hide underneath the covers. “Aurelia! You’re back! I was hoping I’d see you again!” She laughed, that same distorted and deranged giggle that made me feel as if someone had put an ice cube on my soul. “Sorry for putting you to sleep, but I had to make sure you didn’t see the surprise before it was ready! Aww, you’re under the covers. You can’t see my masterpiece…” I held on to the covers as tightly as I could, but she pulled them off of me effortlessly. “W-What do you want?” “Don’t be so nervous! And I told you last time, but honestly? I forgive you!” Before I had the chance to stop her, she grabbed my hand and pulled me out of bed. Her hand was so cold that I felt like I could easily get frostbite just from holding it too long. She was unnaturally strong, but I guess ghost girls aren’t really known to obey the laws of physics. “Y-You’re not really Victoria. You can’t be.” “Hehe. Maybe I am. Maybe I’m not. Does it really matter?” She let go of my hand and twirled around excitedly. “I was so lonely without you… Being dead is so lonely… Oh! Can I show you my favorite part of this hospital? We can leave the body behind. It’s not like anyone’s around to get us in trouble anyway, haha!” I nodded. I didn’t exactly have a choice. She would probably force me to come along regardless. To my dismay, she grabbed my hand again, and we were off. It’s not like I had explored the hospital extensively when I arrived, but the layout had seemed relatively normal to me. However, the demon girl seemed to be leading me through a maze. I tried to follow where we were going initially, but after about the fiftieth right turn, I gave up. At one point, we stopped in front of a room that was unlike all the others. There was a locked door, and on the other side, a strange violet glow seemed to be emanating from inside. The ghost girl insisted that the room was dangerous, which led me to two possible conclusions. It was actually dangerous, and that’s why even a demon ghost girl would fear it, or it was only dangerous to her, and I could use it to my advantage. Finally, we arrived. At the end of the maze of corridors, there was an elevator, and the top floor of the elevator led onto the hospital roof. I looked at her exhaustedly, dismayed to find there was a mischievous glint in her eye. Without warning, she ran right over to the edge of the roof and stood on the ledge. When I saw where she was heading, I tried to resist her, and I managed to slow us down, but I couldn’t stop her completely. I really hoped I couldn’t die in a dream. “Wanna try flying? I promise it’s really fun!” “N-No? I can’t fly, so…” I tried again in vain to get her to let go of my hand. “You have more power than you think. Just trust yourself. Everyone and everything you’ve seen here is connected.” She smiled at me encouragingly, while I stared at her in shock and terror. That was exactly what the creature said to me. “Um. What I mean is…” She shook her head and stared at me with a dazed look on her face. “What was I…? Oh, right. If you can’t fly, then you’ll probably die, but that’s okay because, then, you’ll become like me!” Yeah, that couldn’t happen. I needed to stall for time. “What was in that room you’re so afraid of?” “I’m not afraid of it! You should be afraid of it! I’m protecting you!” She stomped her foot with all the frustration of a little girl having a temper tantrum. She was terrifying but also, surprisingly, childish? “Where’s the key?”

I’m not sure how to end this story.