The darkness shifts around me as mist tendrils weave around my legs, sending chills across my body. I shiver, rubbing my bare arms as I squint into the murky light. My feet are bare as well and rocks and roots dig into my soles as I creep forward. Trees stretch out, gnarled and twisted as if blocking my path, and vines tangle around my hair. This strange forest feels alive.
Panic seizes me and I break into a run, trying to avoid the sharp rocks that cut into the soles of my feet.
And then I stop.
Wait. This isn't real, is it? It feels like a dream.
And if I'm in the dream, then the dreamer can't be far. Priority number one in the mission is the dreamer.
But who was the dreamer again? It's there, on the tip of my mind as if I should know this. A low rumble fills the forest along with the shifting of branches being pushed aside. I freeze, listening as my heart kicks up into a gallop. Which direction had that come from?
"This is not real," I whisper to myself. But the damp air smells of decay and rot. The shifting shadows and the hollowness in the pit of my stomach make it hard to convince myself otherwise.
Slowly, I continue trekking through the strange forest, creeping on the balls of my feet. Just ahead a growl rumbles like distant thunder and I freeze. The ground before me shimmers and then a massive dark form rises up out of the mist. It unravels, stretching out a long neck and a head that's a mix of a dinosaur and snake. Slanted green snake-like eyes stare unblinking at me. I stumble backward.
"This is a dream," I say out loud. But why does it feel so real?
The creature opens a massive mouth, wider than a lion's, revealing jagged razor teeth. It releases a loud screech that causes my own teeth to shake.
I run.
Over fallen branches, staggering through the brush, ripping my body free of the vines snaking around my core, desperate to wrap around me and choke me to death.
"Hey!" a deep voice calls.
I crash into the arms of a man. Jake! I throw my arms around him.
"You're safe." I cling to him. "You're here. But why are you out in this forest?"
I'm so confused, but there isn't time to process my thoughts. The trees behind us shift and there's that deep growling sound again.
"It's the Receptor," Jake says grimly. "We need to go."
"Receptor? What is that?"
But I'm not sticking around to chat about it, so I don't argue with him as he grabs my hand, and we take off running again until we reach an open clearing where a horse is tied up to a post.
"You ride horses?" I rub my forehead in confusion.
"Sure do." Jake mounts the horse and holds his hand out to help me up. "At least, in this land I do. This is the realm that I created for my game, Battle for Eternity. What do you think?"
I allow him to pull me up onto the horse just as that horrible beast barrels out of the forest, green eyes piercing the darkness, and a thick, sludge-like black slime pours out of its mouth.
"Gross. Next time you brainstorm ideas, I want to be involved." I wrap my arms around his waist and press my cheek to his back. "This place isn't exactly vacationing at Bora Bora."
The horse leaps forward and we break into a full gallop. Wind gushes over us and we ride fast and hard. I glance over my shoulder, sure the beast wouldn't be able to keep up.
I was wrong.
"It's gaining on us!" I yell.
"Hold on tight and don't let him touch you. His claws hold poison within them."
"How reassuring."
The Receptor eats up the distance between us at a harrowing speed. As Jake veers the horse into another forest, I clutch my arms tighter around Jake's torso, but there's no way to stop the beast's speed. The rotting scent engulfs me, sending my stomach into contortions and making me want to throw up. Then its obsidian claws swipe through the air and scrape across my back.
Searing pain wracks through my body and rivers of fire courses across my skin. I cry out and nearly lose my hold on Jake.
"Aria!" Jake reaches for me and secures me tighter against him. "What happened?"
"Claws... ripped... my back."
Jake doesn't respond, but it seems as if the horse runs faster.
Warm liquid—blood—seeps against my shirt and drips down my back, pooling onto the horse where I'm sitting. Poison, Jake had said. Does that mean I'm going to die? I lean my head against his back and close my eyes.
Wait. This isn't real. This is just a dream. How could I have forgotten that?
I lift my head, telling my mind the pain doesn't exist, and yet, the pain remains, burning and smoldering my skin. There was another dream I bled in...
My mind clears and suddenly I start remembering things outside of Jake's world. I had bled when Lau hit me in her dream. When I woke up, I had actually been bleeding in real life, probably from biting my lip.
Could I really be bleeding in real life? I recall how Dad said Reasner had gone through so many bodies. Had Dr. Reasner not sequenced the Dreamscape properly? Or is Dr. Reasner's Dreamscape more sinister? Maybe it replicates reality so well that it tricks all the Dream Walker's brains that we are living a reality?
I squeeze Jake tighter for reassurance.
The boughs of the oaks pull back, opening up a narrow path for us as if it knows he is the creator. Soon our horse storms out of the forest where shafts of sunlight poke through thick clouds, lighting the plain stretching out before us. We cross the wide expanse filled with yellow flowers that swipe at my legs as we ride. Jagged snow-capped mountains rise up in the distance and I remember where I've seen these images before. They were hanging on the walls of his pool house back in Florida.
Suddenly, an icy chill wracks through my body and I draw myself even closer to Jake. "I think the poison really works. I'm not feeling good."
"I'm going to get you the cure. Hang in there." Except his voice doesn't hold its usual confidence.
The ground shifts below us, rumbling. The earth crumples below the horse's hooves and a massive fissure opens up in the ground, growing into a larger crack.
"Watch out!" I warn.
But the horse races blindly into the crack and we fall. My grip on Jake loosens and I scream, flailing my arms about, trying to hold onto Jake or the horse, something, only to plummet into the deep darkness below us.