Once again, she found herself falling.

  Who did.

  She did.

  Her eyes gnced around in the darkness.

  Who was she again?

  Sophie. Her name was Sophie.

  Sophie, as she now knew herself to be, continued to look around in the darkness. There were no doors she could see.

  “What would the doors do?” A voice asked. Sophie paused for a moment.

  “I could open them to other pces.” She replied. She could definitely feel that she was falling. That much was certain. Now as she fell, she could see doors were slowly appearing in the darkness around her. She reached out hesitantly then quickly grabbed the handle. Sophie frowned as she pushed on the door.

  “What are you waiting for? Open the door.” The voice ordered. Sophie shook her head.

  “The door is broken. It won’t open.” She replied. She floated in space there for a moment before a sigh resonated through the darkness.

  “Well. This won’t do.”

  Sophie found her hand suddenly phasing through the door as her body began to plummet. She was still within darkness. She felt as though she should scream. Anyone in this situation would logically scream, yell, cry, something. But Sophie was so terrified that nothing came out. Suddenly she felt herself nd into a desk. She gnced around the room which was now normal again. She was back at the cssroom in the Insomnia headquarters. She gnced around again to see everyone looking down at their forms. Sophie let out a sigh of relief as she too began to scrawl her information down onto a piece of paper.

  What is your name?

  Sophie Patterson

  What is your ability

  Dream Walker

  How do you feel about the current Social economic status within the world?

  Sophie paused. They just jumped right in there. She thought for a moment.

  I don’t know what’s going on.

  “Liar. Liar. Liar.”

  There were the voices again. Sophie looked around the room, this time to see many mangled bodies lying around her. Suddenly, their eyes shot open, and they turned to stare at her as they all began to chant.

  “Liar. Liar. Liar.”

  Sophie felt panic and bile rise in her throat, but she swallowed both back down weakly as she stood up, backing away. They began to crawl towards her.

  “This is all your fault.”

  “All your fault.”

  “Your family is the cause for all of this”

  “You are the cause of all of this”

  Sophie felt tears well up in her eyes as she turned around. Her eyes fell upon the door behind her. She was about to take a step, when she felt a hand on her ankle, gripping it tightly.

  “You deserve to be dead.” The reanimated corpse at her feet hissed. A pit of despair opened within her and before Sophie knew what she was doing, she heard the words come out of her mouth.

  “I know.”

  Sophie froze for just a moment as she stared back into the corpse’s eyes before she shook herself back to her senses. She suddenly turned and bolted towards the door as the bodies began to scream at her.

  “Die.” They moaned.

  “Liar” They roared.

  Sophie burst through the door into another room, smming the door behind her. She gasped as she looked up. This time, she seemed to be in a beautiful meadow. There was a ke in the centre. She immediately recognized it.

  “I’m back in Marigold?” She asked.

  “Do you want to be?” a voice asked. Sophie looked around but couldn’t see anyone.

  “You willed a door,” The voice continued, “And brought both of us here. You have taken control of this hallucination. Are you even aware of what you’ve done?”

  Sophie frowned, sitting down on the grass. One of the little mouse creatures ran up to her and id down on her p. She began to absentmindedly stroke the soft fur of the creature as she thought about what this voice was telling her.

  “To be completely honest, I really don’t know what’s going on Mysterious Voice” She replied, “You see, I don’t quite know who I am”

  “But everyone knows who you are. Do you find that odd?”

  “Incredibly. I know that people know who I am but aren’t telling me. Everyone knows me more than I do. I’m assuming you do too”

  “Yes, you could say that”

  “So, then do you pn to tell me who I am?”

  “… No.”

  “Well then. What good are you?”

  The voice chuckled.

  “I’m sorry. But I don’t think your situation is one where I could just tell you. I’m sure you’ve heard this before, but I think you do need to remember. But thank you for your time, Miss Patterson. I’ve had fun exploring your mind… or at least what little of it is left.”

  “Do you know what happened to me at least? I mean, beyond the car crash.”

  “Car crash?”

  “Yes. The one that caused me to lose my memory?”

  “… no. I don’t know anything about a car crash.”

  “Oh. Alright then. Thank you for your time. Will that be all that you require of me?”

  “… yes. I don’t think I can do much more at this time. It seems that although your memories aren’t returning, your abilities and skill level are. Which means when you do remember, we could all be doomed.”

  “Well, that’s a rather ominous thing to say to someone when you won’t even be bothered to tell them who they are, wouldn’t you agree?”

  “I suppose so.”

  “Maybe if you put down your book for a moment, you’d be able to have a proper discussion.”

  “… how did you know it was me?”

  “You are the only person in the room with us.”

  “Ah yes. I suppose that does make sense. Well. Thank you for the lovely chat miss Patterson.

  “I suppose I should say you’re welcome. I will not thank you for the not so lovely nightmare, however.”

  “Yes, I understand. Oh, and Miss Patterson?”

  “Yes?”

  “You should make sure to put Dream See-er under your abilities. As you have stopped me from entering your mind further, you clearly have capabilities.”

  “But I’m a Dream Walker” Sophie said. But before the voice could answer she found herself seated back in her seat. She gnced around the room to see the instructor looking at her. They motioned with their head back down to her paper. She nodded and filled it out silently until she got to the end. For on the st page was a question that made her blood run cold.

  If needed, would you be willing to die for this cause, and kill whoever you needed to, even if it was a loved one?

  Sophie’s mind began to wonder if anyone had filled out yes. She paused for only a moment before holding up her hand.

  “I’m done.” She said. The instructor picked up her paper and examined it. They frowned.

  “You didn’t fill in the st question.” They answered. Sophie stood up, staring them straight in the eye.

  “I haven’t decided yet.” She retorted. The instructor smirked slightly then waved her off. Nathan didn’t even gnce at her as she walked out of the room. His expression matched the others in the room. She now knew why everyone looked like that. And why the instructor seemed so uninterested in people walking in. She hurriedly exited the room, knowing that she couldn’t wake Nathan out of the trance even if she tried. When she left, she found Bir standing next to the doors.

  “Well, that was a lot faster than I expected. Impressive, Patterson.” Bir said, punching her in the arm. Sophie grimaced as she gripped her arm but smiled a bit.

  “Uh, the instructor told me to put Dream See-er on my form as well as Dream Walker. Is that a normal request?” She asked. Bir paused for a moment.

  “Well… I can’t say I’ve ever heard of it. But I mean… it can’t be that weird of the instructor told you to. I wouldn’t think too hard on it… well other than working on your Dream See-er abilities. And hey! Now that it’s on the form they may help you explore those a bit more too. Insomnia would find a member like you very valuable!” She stated. Sophie nodded quietly. She didn’t want to tell Bir that it sounded exactly like how the LDPD spoke about her. How valuable a human with dreamers’ abilities were. How valuable the stronger ones were. She felt a little disgusted at the idea. Now that she had both Dream Walker and Dream See-er abilities, she was seen as a more valuable member. She hadn’t been before. In fact, everyone seemed to want her dead. But now that they could use her, they wanted her around. She let out a bitter ugh which caused Bir to gnce at her, confused. But when Sophie didn’t answer, Bir continued as if nothing had happened. Bir led her to another room, where a counter stood at the end. The counter was surrounded by walls and had plexigss covering up the openings with small slots at the bottom for things to go in and out of. Bir motioned towards the desk.

  “This is where you will get your assignments. You still have a bit more training to do, but you may be asked to come here from time to time to do some odd jobs. As a dream walker, you’ll most likely be an errand boy… well, girl, for now.” Bir expined, “But you will also get training assignments from here as well. So, for your next training session you’ll want to go up to the desk and ask them for your next assignment.”

  Sophie nodded as Bir began to head out. She frowned.

  “Are you not coming?” Sophie asked. Bir shrugged.

  “Not really any point to me coming with you. They’ll have someone to take you to training anyways….” She said, then paused when she met Sophie’s eyes. Bir let out a sigh.

  “Fine, I’ll wait until you’re situated. Then I really have to go, okay Soph?” She asked, then gnced around, “Let’s just say there’s someone I don’t really want to run into”

  Sophie felt her body rex as she nodded. Although she hadn’t known Bir for very long, it felt better being with someone she trusted a bit more than just being alone. She turned and quietly walked up to the desk, staring through the plexigss. There was no one at the desk yet, so she decided to wait a moment to see if someone would arrive. She stared into the gss, which reflected her face back at her. She thought about how tired she looked. She wasn’t that far off from how Nathan had looked this morning when she first saw him. For a pce that was about freeing the world, it didn’t feel like a pce she wanted to stay in. Sophie pondered the fact that they thought themselves more worthy of the world, but here they were doing no better than the LDPD. Here they kept people captive, forcing them to work. Here they abused their followers. What Nathan had said before was true. And yet they had both been led straight into the fire. It was like jumping out of a lion’s den and straight into a bear’s den.

  “Miss Paterson.” A voice called out to her, firmly. She snapped out of her thoughts to see a woman passing a form to her from underneath the gss. She was staring at Sophie quizzically and seemed slightly annoyed and Sophie’s sudden travels within her own mind. Sophie’s face reddened as she grabbed the form and held it over her face.

  “Thank you” she muttered before turning away. She walked back to Bir who reached up to gnce at her form. Sophie looked over at her then lowered it down so that Bir could see.

  “Oh, that ass, they must’ve put in a request to train you as soon as they knew what was going on” Bir growled. Sophie looked down at her sheet which expined she would be under a mentor for her Dream See-er training. She didn’t recognize the name.

  “Professor Rivers?” Sophie asked. Bir nodded.

  “That was the person at the front of the room in the exam this morning. The See-ers rotate through the exam. They must have finished their shift and requested to mentor you.” Bir expined. Sophie frowned.

  “Are they… okay?” She asked. Bir shrugged.

  “They’re a hard ass. But they always produce good results. So, you may have a bit of difficulty but eventually you’ll probably have a good handle on your abilities. Which in turn could help your dream walking too.” She expined. They both turned suddenly as a whirring noise filled the room. Through the doors came Reggie, with a frantic expression on his face… or at least as frantic as a robot with a pixeted face can look.

  “Miss Bir, he’s looking for you!” Reggie called out. Bir frowned and cursed underneath her breath. She turned back to Sophie and sighed.

  “Well, I’ve got to get back to my work. So hopefully we’ll see each other again soon” she said, turning away. Sophie frowned back.

  “So, wait, that’s it then? You’re leaving before we get to the room?” She asked. Bir gnced back and grimaced.

  “I’m sorry, but there’s something going on and I’ve got to skip town for a bit. I’ll make sure to come back but I don’t know how long I’ll be on this assignment for. I wish you and Nathan luck!” She called out before slipping a glove onto her hand. She reached over for a door, opening it and entering. Suddenly she came back out.

  “Alright, attempt one of the door opening glove was a failure. Back to the drawing board” She muttered, exiting the room. Sophie was uncertain of what she just saw, but knew she had to go meet this instructor. Hopefully Bir wasn’t going to be gone for too long and she could figure out more of what exactly Insomnia was. But for now, she would keep moving forward as if everything was normal. Now that she was on her own, she had to figure out exactly where she was going. It took her a few ps of ending back up at the same pce when she realized there were signs with symbols on them along the walls, and arrows pointing in different directions. She looked down at her paper to see an eye under the line “Room”. She assumed that’s where she had to go. After a few moments, she found her way to a room with a rge, ornate wooden door. A rge eye had been carved into it. The iris of the eye looked like it was on fire. She looked back down at the sheet before pushing open the doors. She gnced around the dimly lit room to see Instructor Rivers sitting on a cushion on the floor, their eyes closed.

  “Ah, Miss Patterson. Welcome. Please come in.” they said softly, not moving a muscle. It was at this moment that Sophie realized they were talking to her through her mind. She had opened her mouth to speak, but the instructor’s eyes suddenly opened as they held up a finger. Their eyes were glowing purple, just like Aleshanee’s and Kavi’s had when they used their abilities. Once again, they spoke without opening their mouth.

  “In this room we do not speak. We do not know who could be listening. This space is a blocked off space for just Dream See-ers. All other abilities cannot pass through these doors.” The instructor expined as they walked to the door, locking it behind Sophie. Sophie felt a chill run down her spine as she realized that she couldn’t escape now. She looked at the instructor, trying to control her heartrate.

  “No one will be able to bother us now.” They said, turning to look down at Sophie as a wide grin spread across their face, “Now. Let’s begin.”