Visitors From Another World

18. A Stranger Dream

"It's getting late, even for a dream. Should we head back to reality and rest for a bit?" Trailblazer suggested this time.

"Sure, I am feeling a bit tired from all that working." Rosalyn said.

They headed back down to ground level to leave the Reverie. As they were about to make their exit, a guy appeared in front of them.

Cale, Rosalyn, and Trailblazer recognized the person, but Rosalyn was the one who spoke, "Sampo Koski?"

"You met him before?" Trailblazer asked, but was quickly interrupted by the approaching man.

"Oh my, we meet again, my dear." He wasn't talking to Cale or Rosalyn, but to Trailblazer. "And the one next to you.." He looked toward Firefly, ignoring Cale, then frowned.

It seemed Firefly knew the person from her reaction. "Careful, he doesn't seem friendly, moreover dangerous."

"That's very brave of you, young lady. Me? Dangerous? Then what are you?" He triggered a string.

Firefly's expression got more provoked.

"I don't think that's the Sampo guy from before." Rosalyn spoke in a low voice.

The man then faced Trailblazer again and started speaking again, "I'm really disappointed in you, you know?"

A strange, aching sensation engulfed their heads in pain. Goldfishes swam in the air freely along the long confetti strings. Something strange was going on even in this place where your imaginations came to reality.

"Sampo" walked closer, slowly but closer. His eyes glowed a neon pink color in the shadow casted by his own body. "Excuse my sudden intrusion," his voice changed, to that of a young girls' but the appearance was still that of the man's, "it's time to wake up, inside the dreamscape."

As "he" got close enough to face-to-face, their bodies seemed to no longer have any energy, dropping to the floor with a loud thud. Their eyes slowly waddled asleep, with the one last scene of a young woman covering their eyes.

Despite all the commotion, no one came.

Their vision turned pitch-black with one last heavy blink of an eye.

When they awakened, they were no longer in the Golden Hour of the Reverie, but a very similar room to that of the hotel room they were given. This time.. it had a peculiar feeling attached to it, an odd feeling that kept their feet on their toes.

"Where.. are we?.." Trailblazer looked around, "isn't this.. our hotel rooms? No.. It feels like.." Trailblazer touched their forehead, as if they were trying to think back to the past. "Like.. I've been here before?"

"Been here before?" Cale asked.

"I—I can't seem to remember." Trailblazer shook their bead, looking a bit disappointed, "it's probably nothing." They looked around once more, "where's Firefly?"

They all turned around and looked around the place, searching for Firefly but to no avail.

"Why was Firefly the only one separated from us?" Rosalyn asked.

"Firstly we should start searching for her." Cale said calmly. "They must've had something planned for her.. by the way they spoke and acted." He was talking about when that fake Sampo mentioned Firefly then frowned and said they were disappointed and next thing they knew, they were on the ground fast asleep. That wouldn't have just ended there, there was surely more to it.