Layers Of Nightmare

Swinging her backpack to her front, Madeline unzipped the spatial bag and quickly pulled out a cloak—the same as the one she currently donned.

"Here, put it on." She flicked the cape at William.

"What actually is this for?" Grabbing the cloak, William swung it over his shoulder then tied a rough knot from the two corners.

"Oh right, you didn't know yet. It's a repeller for astral entities." Madeline pulled up the extra pocket behind the cloak, using it to cover her head. "By the way, you're wearing it upside down."

"Really?"

Scratching his head, William felt his cheeks burning up. Looking down and between his feet, he noticed that the hood part was touching the ground. He quickly undone the knot then turned the cloak upside down; sure enough, there was a rivet to bind the part around his neck.

"What about those astral entities? What are they?"

Though William already had some ideas about what they were, he asked anyway to confirm his assumptions.

"Hmm…" Madeline thought for a moment. "Something like ghost or poltergeist, which are barely visible."

"So, there are creatures other than those that the system announced?"

"Precisely." Madeline nodded. "We called these entities the inhabitants of the Nightmare realm. Some forms can generally be found on any instance, but some are unique to that particular instance."

"Are they dangerous?"

"No, no, in fact, many said that they like to pranks instead of harming."

Without any warning, something intangible passed by William's side, raising goosebumps along his arm as it brought about a sudden cold waft of air. Turning his head quickly, he found nothing but a puffing white smoke proceeding forward, seemingly unaware of them.

"Is that…" William whispered.

"Yep, just a common ghost," Madeline replied then sneered. "Wanna try taking off your cloak and see what they do?"

"Um, maybe next time."

Though curious, he had learned his lesson during the first instance: better be safe whenever possible.

"Suits yourself." Madeline shrugged. "Come on then, let's get going."

"That reminds me, why don't we stay here until reinforcement arrives? We are in a safe zone after all."

"No." She shook her head. "We can't guarantee that that anomaly doesn't have a way to detect our presence, even through the safe zone. It's better to move than risking it."

"Okay, I trust you."

Madeline gave him a smile. "Thanks."

She beckoned William toward the exit, picking up the firefly-filled lantern as she did so. Beyond the door was a sight to be expected—pitch black corridors lacking any light.

Before stepping out for real, Madeline lifted up the lantern just between their faces and shook it a few times.

What happened next was, most certainly, something that William did not anticipate. Two pairs of blue fireflies were 'extinguished', before emerging outside the glass with one pair immediately launching themselves into his eyes!

"Hngh!"

While his yelp was caught in his throat, William tilted his head up and arched his back as much as he could in his panic. Unfortunately, the two fireflies reacted quickly, homing right back onto his eyes.

He was about to twist his body mid-fall, but a sudden hand propping his back did not seem to share the same opinion.

"AHH!"

Shocked, William could only close his eyes; however, the following pain never arrived.

PI!

There was a momentary flash right above his eyelids, nothing else. Realizing nothing bad happened, William slowly opened his eyes, one by one and slowly into slits.

The fireflies were no longer there. Meanwhile, the hand propping his back gave a strong push, letting him stand again.

"My bad, I'm not used to bringing the newcomers." Madeline let out a hollow laugh.

"What was that?" William asked, slightly grumbling.

"See for yourself." Madeline pointed at the dark corridors.

"Hm?"

It was not long before William sighed in amazement. The previously total darkness has become a bit brighter within his vision. Though not as good as using night vision goggles, at least he could now see about 10 meters up front.

"Is this what those fireflies do? Amplifying our visions?"

"Not exactly, this is just one of their many functions."

Madeline went on and slapped the glass lantern lightly, twice. As if a hypnosis, all the fireflies inside stopped flying randomly then congealed together, dead center. Soon, they began to form a 3D pattern of an arrow, which pointed to a certain direction.

"Let me guess," William mused, "a compass?"

"Straight to the main objective."

"Damn, how'd you guys make these kinds of things?"

William could not help but wonder how the first group of Dream Treaders would handle all the troubles without relying on these technologies. Must be hell of a challenge to explore the whole realm to reach certain objectives.

What about vision? Flare perhaps? Torch?

"You might want to ask Alex for that later. I'm not sure about it myself."

"Heh, you've made me twice curious now," William chortled.

Madeline shrugged. "Nothing wrong with boosting your will to live, don't you think?"

"Aish.... I'm not that depressed to die here, okay."

"...Let's continue this conversation later." Madeline flicked her hair, turning her head away. "We've stayed here for too long."

Seeing Madeline walking out, William gave a silent confirmation as he followed her in tow. From now, they needed to suppress their noise, lest they attracted unwanted attention.

It was quite relieving for William that he was not alone in the whole ordeal. Madeline's assurance and these technologies had lifted a lot of pressure from his shoulder.

Both reached toward the emergency exit, quickly descending the short flight of stairs. Fortunately, there was no entity confronting them, other than the few ignorant spirits floating around, which stimulate the goosebumps up their sleeves.

Soon, they arrived at the final platform; a white door with a green "EXIT" sign on top of it, was right in front of them.

Just as William was about to descend the last flight of stairs, a hand moved toward his c.h.e.s.t and pushed him back slightly.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Take a good look up front," Madeline warned, her other hand pointing forward.

Frowning, William took a careful second glance toward the direction that Madeline pointed her finger at.

A heavy mist—with a mix of yellow and grey particles—seeped through the gaps between the door, sticking onto whatever surface they landed on. The wall and the ground near the gaps has been densely infested with the same particles, patching them with contrasting yellow and grey.

"Spores?" William concluded as he creased his brow.

Upon closer inspection, the patch was covered in another layer of glistening dust. If he did not squint, he could have overseen these things that he had guessed as the caps of microfungi.

Another thing worth mentioning was that the white door was not so white after all as branches of ivies clung on its surface. It was weird that signs of deformities were apparent on the door, as if the vines had grasped the door for a long, long time already.

"I think so too. Based on our past experience, spores are always one of the most simple yet crippling hazards in forest instances."

"So, what now? Do you have any masks or some sort?"

"Of course!"

Swinging her bag to her front, Madeline propped it with her t.h.i.g.h before dragging the zip open. Moments after she put her hand in, she took out a half-face gas mask and handed it over to William, then she pulled out another piece for herself.

Having done thus, she zipped her bag and slung it to her back.

"Adjust the breather so that it may cover under your chin. Tighten the strap to the back of your head when you still feel the air leaking from the side. Finally, after you ensure that you can't breathe, twist the two side filters inward and pull it lightly." Madeline demonstrated in a trained fashion.

Though it was the first time William held such a mask, he did not encounter any trouble wearing it: the polymer strap onto the back of his head, firmly pressing the breather around his chin and cheeks, and finally twisting the pair of filter open.

Huff~ Haa~ Huff~ Haa~

Someone would be lying if they said that breathing with a mask on was easy. A few seconds was enough for William to feel stifled, especially so with a mask of this grade; airflow was extremely impeded.

"You'll get used to it," Madeline consoled, knowing the asphyxiation. "Let's go."

"Okay," William replied. "How abo-"

Before he had anything to say about his second concern, a swishing noise passed by him and flew onto the door. Or more precisely, to the layers of ivies covering it.

In the span of a spark leaving a flint, the ivies that should have been brimming with life suddenly caught on a burst of fire, causing William to close his eyes and jerked his shoulder.

Maybe he should consider buying photochromic glasses…

A minute passed. All that remained of the thick ivies was nothing scattering ashes, accompanied by a flurry of smogs which soon dispersed to the top.

A second swish passed by him again, now toward Madeline's direction. That was when William saw a strand of chain—with a sickle-head on its end—was coiling its way back to her left arm.

Catching a sight of her speechless partner, Madeline smiled then strode forward to push open the now-charred door.

"After you."

"Oh…" William said faintly.

As Madeline predicted, outside was a far different environment from the vibrant street—crowded with people, drunk or not, even late at night—that he had expected.

What William saw was something out of fantasy: dense forestry full of strange plantations he never before. Some consist of ancient ferns which proliferated spores of various colours; some were of the tallest trees filled with wisdom and their oddities; some were shrubberies that were made out of pure thorns.

It would have been an astonishing sight to take in if only it was not so dark outside, accompanied by occasional screech of unknown beasts lurking beyond his vision. Moreover, the moon hanging on the cloudless sky, no, it was a massive eye overseeing the entirety beneath it!

The size was such that William could even see the black blood capillaries surrounding its purple sclera, whereas its pupil was a dark ravine seemingly made out of blood and gore. The more he observed it, the more he realized that the gores were moving—swimming rather—in the blood pool, constantly binding with and separating from each other.

'Are those living organisms?!' he couldn't help exclaiming inside. His heart was beating rapidly, but his body insisted on staring.

Suddenly, he could feel the pupil turning, ever so slowly right to where he was. Meanwhile, something extremely cold was gripping both of his feet, then onto his calves and t.h.i.g.h; a sensation similar to being pricked by pins and needles.

But he did not care. All he cared about was to keep on looking, even further, deeper. It was a strange but, the more he stared, the more euphoric he was. Somehow, William wanted the eye to move quicker so that he may witness the full view of the pupil.

Right then, a hand gripped his shoulder, bringing with it a strong shock similar to a ruthless kick onto his c.h.e.s.t. His body jolted stiff, before he fell on his four.

"Cough! What was that for?!" William snarled as he glared at the girl, wheezing a few times due to the after effect.

"Feeling better now?"

"Say what?"

William was dumbfounded at Madeline's question, but slowly, the short memory began to suffuse into his brain as he soon calmed down.

Well, "calmed down" might be too strong of a term, because his mind was reeling with fear right after. He could not believe that himself for having persisted on such a dangerous sensation.

With his face lacking blood, William asked, "What the hell is that?"

Yet, the answer was a disappointment, "I don't know; not even the old Dream Treaders know what that is." Madeline shook her head. "One thing we do know is that staring on that eye-moon for too long will make one insane. But you should be fine as long as you don't gaze at it for longer than a minute."

She added as she walked out the door and onto the damp soil outside, "This, is also why there's a theory of the existence of another dimension. Worlds that are different from our Earth, yet were doomed due to unknown calamitic entities."

Madeline pointed at the eye in the sky, which pupil has reverted back to its former position by then. "That eye belongs to the said entity in that theory."

Madeline stated the events as if they were just everyday's talk, but not for William.

An existence of the scale that doomed the whole world? Such an entity could easily be a final boss in fictions he read, and yet, Madeline's tone implied that most Nightmare instances had these entities overseeing it.

William eventually followed Madeline out, then looked up behind him—toward the tall modern building that was out of place in this forsaken world.

"Like being transported to another world… but not quite physically," William mumbled.

Madeline replied, "Yep. Pretty much."