The Conjurer's Charm - The Dream Catcher series (BOOK 1)

1.1 || From the MIND ||

He hated dreaming. He despised them ever since he could remember. Dreams meant absolutely nothing to him. Nothing.

While infants, toddlers, beloved siblings and grandparents of a nice family sleep soundly on their soft mattresses beneath the velvet covers under a quiet night floating in a realm inside their minds, Alwold hated to wake up instantly from a dream.

Nights often passed by when he'd sleep for no more than three hours for he'd wake suddenly from a disastrous vision and force himself to throw his face in a bucket of cold water to ease the tension in his head. Nobody knew his secret of sudden wakings in the middle of the night except himself, and if his grandfather knew, he'd have to stand before him for unescapable inquiry of questioning what he was really up to and painful lectures of how he shouldn't be awake at nights.

It wasn't only the fact that these dreams making no sense to him was annoying, he'd get bothered when he forgot what he saw at all. The serene picture of chasing a short-haired woman in the forest had kept him engaged in sleep, and when the woman turned to show her face, he woke up instantly, his mind gone white and blank. He restricted himself from telling the aftermath of breaking a night lamp in rage as soon as he woke up at midnight last week to his grandfather too. And from that day since, he had to spend every night's sleep exclusively under the moonlight from the open curtains of his window.

It wasn't his fault that he wakes up deliberately; he'd blame his mind if anyone asks him so. Does having dreams of floating triangles give any message? Because the kaleidoscopic vision he had the previous night was distracting enough to sway his mind away from reality when he saw the symbol of a triangle above the title of a poster he was reading, too deep in his thoughts that he forgot the world around him.

"HEY!"

Alwold blinked as though a light bulb had fused.

"You coming or should I go alone?" shrieked a girl from nearby.

Alwold tore his sight from the lamppost of his home and turned towards the girl standing on the wet pavement.

Her light beige skin was covered under a casual dress and hair of rich auburn was tied to a ponytail, a red schoolbag also weighing on her shoulders.

"Yeah, I'm coming," Alwold said between clenched teeth, turning to the poster again.

ATTENTION!
To All Townspeople:
Every child between 6 to 18 years of age is promptly instructed to be received at their nearest public school on the 18th of September before 12.am for an Examination Programme conducted by the 'MIND'.
This inspection is being carried out in accordance with a registered global aim of rehabilitating children's mental stature, despite the critical number of cases the world is witnessing with the violation of child rights and the detrimental result of their healthy minds being deprived of them.
Every parent/guardian in the right of looking after a child/children are requested to drop off the child/children or sending them to their school on the mentioned date and time to prevent any consequential formalities to be faced by the organization.
Your cooperation is extremely appreciated.

(signed) The Secretary to the Chief Examiner
(M.I.N.D)

He ripped the poster from the lamppost as his eyes dropped to the end of the page and ran to the girl, shoving it inside his pocket that made his leg look like he had an ugly bulbous wound behind his trousers.

"It's the same notice every day, Alo," she said as they begun walking.

"I know," he said coldly, "it's just that every day I tear it from our lamppost, somebody manages to attach a new one again."