Stick to the Script

Chapter 1

I'm in a forest, or what appears to be a forest anyways. There are tall dark oak trees surrounding me, but strangely, they are bordered by four large stone walls. What's even stranger is that there are no gates along any of the walls. 

I walk along the walls, searching for an exit, but I can't find one. Suddenly, I get an idea and start looking carefully at the trees surrounding me, noticing that several of the trees are taller than the surrounding walls. I find the tree closest to a wall and begin climbing it. Despite getting higher up, I realize I am still too far away from the wall to be able to clear it if I jumped. Puzzled, I sit in the tree. Out of options, I yell out. 

"Hello?!"

I sit there, both listening and looking for a response. When I don't receive one, I scale back down the tree, determined to find a new method of escape. I walk along the walls again, this time searching for protrusions I could grab onto and pull myself up with. 

I can't get more than halfway up the wall. After sliding down unsuccessfully for the twentieth time, I give up. I sit down, leaning my back against the wall. 

I close my eyes and look up, taking a deep breath to calm myself. I opened my eyes to see how much sunlight was left in the day... that's when I noticed a head poking over the wall directly above me. 

Surprised, I stand up and back away from the wall to get a better look at the person above me. 

"Hello?!" I call up to them, my eyes scanning for where the person went. 

I spot the person, they are now sitting on top of the wall, looking down at me. Something's off about their face, but the hood they're wearing is making it hard for me to tell. 

"How did you get here", the person asks.

 "I don't know", I yell back, "can you please help me get out of here?"

The person hopped down the wall and started approaching me. 

"How did you get here", they repeat again, continuing to walk towards me. 

I'm about to respond when the person steps directly into the light, their porcelain white face illuminating. But it wasn't their face, it was a mask... with a smile? 

"What- who are you", I ask. 

"I am Dream. Now, this is the last time I'm going to ask-"

Out of nowhere, a dark sword materialized in his hand. 

"-how did you get here"?

What did I just watch, where did that sword come from? Did he say his name is... Dream? Oh no, oh no no no no.

"Um", I stutter, "it's a really long story".

I am unable to read his face from behind the mask, so my eyes shift between his sword and mask as we stand in silence. Dream breaks the silence.

"Well I can't risk being here for a long time, so I guess you'll have to come tell me in a safe location".

"Ok", I start, "but there is no way out of here".

I can hear the smirk in his voice as Dream tells me that I was looking in the wrong places. He takes off to the small pond near the bottom of a hill. With one quick glance back, he jumps in. I wait for him to resurface, but he doesn't. I get to the surface of the water and peer in just in time to see his white mask burst from the water. Startled, I shriek and fall backwards. Dream chuckles.

"Come on", he says, "you have to swim under a little".

I eye him suspiciously.

"Oh come on, I'll show you".