REM

Chapter One- Rickety box

"Ouch!" Amaya cried out meekly after falling on the damp, rocky surface of the cave. It left a bit of grime on her skin and clothes. Nothing a little detergent couldn't fix.

Her knapsack fell off of one shoulder. The already worn fabric tore more, one of the straps was going to give way at any moment. It wasn't an important pack at least. Whether it held or not didn't make much difference, Amaya could always add a safety pin or two.

There wasn't even a good reason for her to stay any longer. She had completed the task set out for her. All that was in her mission was completed.

Enter the dirty, nasty cave. Then, find the diamonds, and get out. It was that simple.

But no, for some reason Amaya felt there was more that the cave could offer. She had no plans on leaving until every item in the nasty thing that wasn't nailed down was in her hands.

She stumbled to her feet, her frail figure shaking a small bit. A loud sigh left her mouth and rang through the cave as her oily, straight black hair fell onto her face.

Trudging deeper into the cave, it seemed to get even more uncomfortable-if that was even possible. The air seemed thicker and more damp. The walls were getting closer together, the end of the cave wasn't too far away. 

It was becoming harder to breathe but she kept going anyway. Looking into the distance, she could've sworn she saw a glimmer of light.

"Is it something? Something else?" She asked, she seemed to be waiting for an answer before she remembered she was the only on there. Giving her shoulders a shrug, she readjusted her knapsack.

With a jolt, she dashed in the direction of the glimmer, the only evidence that there was more than diamonds in the cave.

The sound of her feet hitting the ground echoed throughout the area. A constant stream of water dripped from the ceiling.

Upon arriving at the back wall of the cave she saw it. Though she didn't know what 'it' was. Looking a bit closer, she could tell it was a rotted out old box on a 'pedestal' that was just a tall piece of rock sticking up from the floor.

It looked as if it was once a chest made out of fine wood. Any varnish it may have had was definitely gone, and there were small holes where the wood had been eaten away by God knows what.

For whatever reason, the thing reeked. The aroma surrounding that thing was absolutely putrid, it was a wonder she couldn't smell it at the entrance.

"Ew," she said her jaw clenching a bit. It was a debate on whether or not she even wanted to open it. The adventurer inside of her had too. She made a full circle around the small area to check for traps. There didn't seem to be any. There were no tripwires, she could only hope there weren't any explosives.

On the ground near the pedestal there was a note scrawled in barely legible writing. Someone must have written it very quickly, if not they needed a calligraphy class.

It read "Open me." How two words could be messed up so royally? Amaya would probably never know.

Nervously, she outstretched her arm to the latch on the box. It snapped off in her hand. Since it was unexpected, if frightened her. She jumped back, dropping the latch onto the cave floor.

Quickly regaining her composure, she very slowly opened the box. A few splinters if the wood chipped and fell to the floor. If there were any explosives, she wasn't going to trigger them.

Then, she took a giant jump back as if something was going to jump out and bite her. For all she know, something could've. Almost on cue, a thick stream of a black shot out of the box and all around the cavern. It made wide arcs and swoops all around. Amaya was so shocked all she could do was stand and watch.

After the flow seemed to have stopped, the entire box fell apart. Whatever the black stuff was seemed to have lost interest in the cave. It flew out into the sky and quite literally exploded.

Before Amaya could make sense of what was happening, it all started to fade away. Pixel by pixel, like she was in some sort of retro video game.

Beep! Beep!

Amaya snapped awake much faster than usual to silence her alarm.

Amaya is what you would call a lucid dreamer. A lucid dream is when you're dreaming, but have moderate to complete control of what happens.

They are most likely to happen around or during your seventh hour of sleep.

Most people, when realizing they are in a lucid dream, get overly excited and snap awake immediately. Lucid dreaming is a skill very few can master.

Amaya is a special girl. She can take control of her dreams without any techniques. No remedies or charms involved.

She knows that they are only dreams, however sometimes they are so realistic it is hard to tell. Once, she dreamed of being a petty thief. She woke up with a silver dollar in her palm.

And there is never any explanation for any of it.

After waking up from a harmless nap in class bawling and screaming for no apparent reason, combined with other weird and disturbing instances, her parents felt it best that she be home schooled. Her parents were probably right. Amaya wasn't the most talented in the friend department.

Amaya climbed out of bed and started her usual routine of getting dressed and ready for school...which takes place in her basement. She always excelled with her work. In fact, she had finished all her work for the week in one day.

She had nothing left to do. The only thing she was required to do that day was tune in to her favorite Disney show.

There was a small part of Amaya that wanted to just flop back in the bed, but that was not an option...yet.

She walked down stairs and sat in front of the TV, not bothering to eat breakfast, and remained there for hours. Thoughts of the swarming black...thing flowed through her mind. She couldn't even concentrate on the lame movie playing, she probably couldn't even recall its name.

She was still in the same place when her mom got home from her real estate job.

"Hi, mom." She mumbled, her eyes fixated on the braids she was putting in her hair.  But the more she looked at the black pool of strands, the more she wondered what that stuff was in her dream? How could she not know? It was her dream.

"Hello, honey." Her mother replied in a tired voice before disappearing upstairs.

She was also there when her dad for back from the construction site.

"Sup, dad."

"Hey, kiddo!" He replied with a worn, tired smile. He tried to put a bounce in his step while walking over and patting her lovingly on the back. Amaya felt bad after realizing she had flinched away from him. She wasn't one for touchy feely.

"Sor-" She started before she was cut off.

"Don't sweat it, kid." And with that, he was off to the kitchen. Probably to grab a beer and listed to the radio in the kitchen.

All in all, the evening was a bore.  Besides the casual checkup from her parents and chatter about work and current news, not much happened.

So after dinner when she was able to say the words "Good night!", she was a little exited. For she could go back to the place she loved to call home.