The Dreamers Caught in a Nightmare (ONC 2024)

Chapter 1: Guess I'm not the 'man of her dreams'

Reve

Alora is not the kind of woman that dreams of a knight in shining armor to come save her. However, being myself kind of that knight in shining armor, I'm a little disappointed. I did save her from "Mr. Red-Head", as Alora named him, when she was kidnapped by him in her dreams. She would have been a real-life Sleeping Beauty without me. I will admit that ultimately it was my fault she was kidnapped. If I hadn't forced myself into her dreams without her asking and made her see me, she wouldn't have been involved in this mess. But no matter. The important thing is that she is safe now.

Not to say Alora wasn't grateful. She was, but to her my heroics were simply born from the duty I felt towards her as the one responsible for getting her into trouble. No other intentions or motivations were attached, of course. Is it selfish that I sort of expected more of a certain kind of attention from her? Part of me does wish to be that knight in shining armor. But... I'm also attracted to the fact she doesn't want that from me. Or any guy, for that matter.

Ever since Alora joined the OSA (Oneirikós Sýllogos Anthrópon) after the rescue mission, her true colors have been revealed. In dreams I could taunt her all I wanted. But I've learned being here actual working partner now that she wouldn't hesitate to sucker punch me if I were to merely suggest the idea of her being a damsel in distress that needs saving. (In that way she is similar to Lena.) If a woman were to have rescued her instead of me, she wouldn't have been the insert whatever medieval royal title you want for Alora. It is the natural thing one does when your close friend is in trouble. Alora will be forever thankful, but I can't get ahead of myself.

Alora comes off at first as the timid type of person, but she has strong convictions and opinions. I think it is one of her greatest strengths, though she would be inclined to disagree with me. It makes our enemies wrongly underestimate her. They think they have her figured out, but they don't. Then suddenly, bam, they are pulverized by her true ferocity. She is a tiger biding her time, knowing when to strike at the right moment. At the OSA she has officially been given the title of "The dreamcatcher". A title I proudly crafted for her. (And don't get enough recognition for from the superiors.) Whatever doubts people in the organization had about her fitting-in have been dispelled by this point.

It's been eight months since that night I battled "Mr. Red-Head". Unfortunately, we still have been unable to identify his real name after all of this time. He has been very good at remaining hidden, and I'm unable to pull on him again the trick I did that night. He has frustratingly figured out how to permanently block me from his mind. However, I'm still hopeful one day I will be able to subvert him and get through his mental defenses. I will not allow him to outdo me.

We theorize that "Mr. Red-Head" is the leader of an opposing dreamjumper group. We knew very little of them except that they are kidnapping innocent people who don't even know they are dreamjumpers yet. Until I discovered our enemy's base of operations when I jumped into "Mr. Red-Head's" dream. He had created a projection of a real place, and in the dream we found the people he was holding hostage all asleep in beds lined up in huge halls. Being figments of his imagination in the dream, we really couldn't do much to save them then. Once Alora was saved from this dream, we quickly confirmed that this was a real place and went to investigate it in person. It took us less than twenty-four hours to find their true location, but by the time we had arrived, the base was empty.

It was a small base located in the farmlands of Pennsylvania. Not a true military base, but it served its purpose. There was one main building four stories high in the middle of the campus. A gravel road led from the front gate to the building. Other concrete paths deviated from the main road and would crisscross to create large diamond or triangle shaped wedges of grass if seen from above. The outside grounds were devoid of people. Behind the main stone building there was a training ground with an obstacle course that included a maze of tires, low-hanging wires, tall wooden walls, nets, metal bars, and trenches. Past the course were the storage houses which were empty. When we entered the building, everything was gone too. No computers for us to search through to retrieve information. Nor relevant machines or equipment that we could learn from. On the first floor all that was left were the empty twin beds in the long halls, the metallic tables in the cafeteria, and the kitchen with its appliances. The offices in the other floors were also wiped clean except for the furniture. On the fourth floor we found many small individual rooms with one way glass windows that were entirely empty. It was evident that the base had recently been evacuated from its cleanliness and the working electricity and water. Other than these clues, there was nothing else indicating anyone had been there recently. We thought we finally had our enemy within our grasp, but once again they showed us they had the upper hand. We might have won the battle during the night before, but we were far from finishing this war.