A Good Nightmare

Chapter One

My name is Raven. I'm 379 moons old. I have dark brown hair with black highlights at the ends. I usually put my hair in a high ponytail, but one day my mother put it in a tight bun that I hate. She said I looked "evil" with the bun, but I just hate my hair like that.

The reason I had my hair in that awful bun was because that day was directing ceremony day. Directing ceremony is the day that the seventh years in school get to direct a nightmare by their selves.

Wait, let me back up a little.

I live in Hanya, a secret moon planet where dancers and dwellers live. Dancers and dwellers are both dreamers. Dreamers are a species of people who have magical abilities to create dreams for humans on Earth. Dancers create the good, happy dreams. Dwellers create the bad nightmares.

I'm a dweller.

Of course, the two kinds of dreamers fight all the time. Dancers believe that dreams are ways to escape from the horrors of reality, but dwellers believe that dreams are there to show people that real life could be so much worse and that humans take advantage of life. Because we fight so much, Hanya was split into two parts: Wicked Kingdom and Glorious Kingdom. Wicked Kingdom is where us dwellers live. Neighborhoods of houses fill most of our Kingdom. There are some small stores with food, but I never go there because dreamers don't need food, people just sometimes eat to get their mind off things. Dread School is a smaller building on the east side of Wicked Kingdom. Most of the school is underground because it's darker underground and the best nightmares are made in the darkest of places. School is all about learning how to create the worst possible nightmare for a human. There is a big, black castle where Master Kargon lives. Master Kargon is the master of Wicked Kingdom and he kinda runs the whole Kingdom.

I don't know that much about Glorious Kingdom because I've never been there. I assumed it had the same setup as my Kingdom and I knew that they have a master; Master Amber. Kargon and Amber have been fighting for years. They drift letters to each other, arguing about the importance of their jobs. Anyway, I bet Glorious Kingdom is all pink and sparkly and sickening.

My family's good, I guess. My mom is a first year teacher at Dread High, so I don't see her that much. My older brother, Ash, is like my best friend. Well, he's my only friend. He's great at conjuring nightmares and, in my opinion, the best dream maker there is in all of Hanya. He and I seemed to come much closer once our father left.

Speaking of my father, he was the kindest man I knew. He always treated me like I was important, the way parents treat their kids in Glorious Kingdom. In Wicked Kingdom, people aren't really nice, it's just how this place works. Most parents give their child the proper needs until they are ready to go to school at 80 moons old. After they leave for school, the parents are probably relieved and carry on with their jobs until summer time, when kids come back home but leave soon for another year of school.

My father was different than that.

He always looked sad when Ash and I had to leave. In the summers, he would take us to the Banish Edge to look across to the other side. The Banish Edge is the edge to the Banish Lands. The Banish Lands is a very deep valley surrounding all of Hanya. This valley is huge and impossible to climb out of with no powers. People who rebel against their job, get their powers sucked out and are sent to the Banish Lands where they will most likely die.

On the other side of the Banish Edge, are the beautiful dream fields. The dream fields hold dreams of humans that have died, they are called lost dreams. The dream fields stretch on forever and ever with miles of old dreams. The lost dreams float above the grass and it looks so amazing!

My father said that it was his favorite place in the whole world. It was mine too. It felt like I was floating, like the lost dreams and I didn't have any worries. I told Ash about this feeling, but no one else. I couldn't risk people thinking I would make a happy dream and then getting banned. If you rebel against your job- create a happy dream when you're a dweller or create a nightmare when you're a dancer- you get banished to the Banish Lands and lose your powers. It's everyone's biggest fear.

So, to sum things up, my father was a great man and I loved him a lot.

That's about it. I mean, my life wasn't really interesting at all... Not yet, at least. I was a normal dweller getting ready for directing ceremony. A normal dweller with an annoying bun sticking out at the back of my head.

~~~

My feet thumped against the pavement as I ran towards Ash.
"Raven." He said and pulled me into a hug but made it short and turned his attention to a group of girls standing near by.

They were laughing annoyingly and whispering to each other. One girl stepped up out of the group. She had blond hair that puffed out in curls and lips painted a deadly black that curved into a smile.
"Ash." She said mockingly towards us and folded her arms.
"What do you want, Brittany?" Ash said, clearly annoyed at the girl's presence.
"I want to know why you're always hanging out with your baby sis." Her smile taunted me as she said this, becoming more powerful as I became more embarrassed.
"Because I love her." Ash responded.
He put his hand on my shoulder and looked down at me with concern. Tears threatened to escape my eyes but I forced them to stay up.
I'm so weak, I thought depressingly.
"And you call yourself a dweller. News flash, dwellers don't really love each other." Brittany said this like she was proud of it.
I hated some things about dwellers and that was one of them. Many people in Wicked Kingdom love each other they just don't admit it. We act like we are the worst people in the world, but we're not.
"Not all dwellers are as heartless as you, Brittany." Ash said.
"At least I make scarier nightmares than some people ever will."
I could tell that she was referring to me. Everybody knew I had horrible grades in school and was the worst nightmare conjurer in my year. Good thing I had just finished my last year and was free from the horror of the place.

Ash probably understood how I felt so he took my hand and pushed past the girls as they laughed some more. He took me out into a courtyard where other seventh years were hanging out. The courtyard is where the directing ceremony will take place. The principal of Dread School, Mr. Tanner, will make a speech for all the families to hear and then he takes all of the former students away. Every kid in Wicked Kingdom looks forward to Directing Day because they get to conjure a nightmare without a teacher helping them. I suspect my nightmare will look fake and unworthy to the judges.
"Raven," Ash pulled me out of my own head and brought me back to reality, "I'm sorry about those girls."
"It's fine." Lies.
"I know it's tough being behind everyone else in school but-"
"It wouldn't be tough if people didn't act like it was such a big deal!" I snapped at him, then looked down at my feet.
Ash didn't say anything for a while and I wanted to say sorry but I would be showing a weakness, and you never want to show a weakness.

Finally Ash pulled out his watch and looked at it closely, "Ceremony should begin soon."
I nodded as I noticed all of the people gathering around the courtyard. I saw a group of popular girls who were always mean and very annoying. I saw families of students that I've known for years.

Then I saw Roxy.

Roxy Richards was my best friend up until my fourth year when my dad left. I was devastated and spent a lot of class time crying and "being a baby." I guess Roxy was embarrassed by me so she went to hang out with other people. After I had gotten over my despair she was hanging with the popular girls and she was a jerk to me. She then left that group and got some different friends who weren't as mean but, honestly, pretty much everybody is mean in Wicked Kingdom. Then we just weren't friends anymore and I started becoming a loner with no friends. I just hated her.

She had her black hair perfectly straight with her pink highlights standing out. Her bangs were also straight, hanging down in front of her forehead. She smiled an annoying grin and looked around excitedly. Then she spotted me and her smile faded. I gave her an icy glare and tried to make my anger and hatred show as much as I could. Then her face dropped and a look of pure disappointment came over her. I dropped my glare and looked down at my feet quickly, embarrassed by my own rudeness. When I looked back up she was gone, like she was just my imagination.

I turned my attention to the front of the courtyard, where a man was standing at a podium. Mr. Tanner.
He cleared his throat, catching the crowd's attention and began his speech.
"Welcome, welcome. I'm very excited to announce that today is directing ceremony day!!! It looks like almost all of my seventh year students have arrived, so let's begin."