Built From Ash - Sequel to Burned Out

Chapter 6: Learning

When Sapnap got back with his belongings, he asked Skeppy if anything exciting had happened while he was gone.

Skeppy didn't feel too particularly bad about lying because he wasn't technically lying. Although the many times his parents had told him that lying by omission was lying made him think twice.

All he said was, "I just got the beginning of a video recorded," which wasn't lying. A little bit of guilt remained in the back of his head, though.

Sapnap believed him, he had no reason not to, and decided he would stream for the first time since the incident. Skeppy was glad that he felt good enough to do so, also anxious to research whatever dream magic Bad had found.

Skeppy impatiently helped Sapnap set up his PC and hung a temporary RGB light strip around the room. The entire time Skeppy's foot was tapping, his eyes darting toward the door.

"You anxious for something or what?" Sapnap joked, chuckling a little. Skeppy only laughed, taking a deep breath and reminding himself that it wasn't that urgent.

After half an hour or so, with Skeppy's help, Sapnap's PC was ready to go, and Skeppy retreated to his room as to not be in his way.

He locked the door behind him as he entered, and sat on his bed, pulling his phone out. He opened his search browser and typed in "taking something from a dream".

Five or six articles popped up about pulling something out of your mouth in a dream, followed by a reddit thread about pulling something out of your leg. He shook his head.

"Do people really dream about this?" He wondered aloud. He scrolled for a couple more minutes, not getting any results that matched what he was looking for until something finally caught his eye.

The article was titled, "Native Moloka'a Tribe Dream Magic". He hummed, and clicked on it. It was full of words he couldn't pronounce, but one part was pretty interesting.

It read, "The Moloka'a were a solitary type of people. They preferred to keep to their island and didn't tend to communicate with others outside of their tribe. They spoke a language long lost to us, and undecipherable to the rest of the world. Although they hardly spoke to others, when they did, the only way they could communicate was through images. One person who had met a Moloka'an man described their process of communication. 'These people figured out that when we dream, our spirit vacates our body, leaving our mind vulnerable to outside forces. They somehow perfected the process of penetrating the unguarded, private dreamspace that we create while we're asleep. It's positively stunning. The most clairvoyant of them could even give items through dreams.' However, this dream-visiting can be very dangerous. The same man explains further: 'Unfortunately, while the dreamer being visited is completely safe in their own dreamspace, the visitor is in an unsafe position. As mentioned before, when we dream, our spirits leave our body, but they are still tethered to them and cannot be lost in the infinite Dreamspace. But, when someone visits another dreamer, their spirit completely leaves their body, with no attachment to it. This allows them to get lost in the Dreamspace indefinitely and exposes them to possession, or even death. Malevolent spirits live in the Dreamspace, we know them as nightmares. When we see nightmares, they are visiting our private dreamspace, and can't hurt us, though we can hurt them. When traveling through the Dreamspace, nightmares are in their home and can injure us, while we can do nothing to them. Furthermore, other sinister spirits that we don't see in our dreams, Dreamspace demons, can possess a dream-visitor's body while their spirit is gone.'"

Skeppy exited out of the tab and set down his phone. At first, he had been so excited that he could actually see Bad again, but now he felt sick thinking about what could happen if Bad kept visiting his dreams. If the article actually was what Bad was doing.

What if Bad got lost in the Dreamspace? Or locked out of his body by a demon? Or... or... killed?

He had to warm him somehow. He didn't want Bad taking anymore chances.

"I'm going to visit him."

He remembered a nurse telling him he'd be allowed to visit Bad in the hospital whenever he wanted, but he probably shouldn't for a while. Skeppy wasn't sure if he'd be okay if he saw Bad, he was still healing from before, but he couldn't risk Bad getting hurt.

He checked Twitch on his phone, Sapnap was still streaming. He wanted to leave when Sapnap wouldn't notice, but it would take Skeppy a couple hours to drive to the airport and he couldn't find a ticket for the right time.

Since he would be leaving late at night, he wanted to make sure he was well rested. He put down his phone, locked the door, and retreated to his bed to take a nap.

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A/N: Hey guys! I know this chapter is shorter and the writing gets a lot worse near the end, but I've got something pretty good planned for the next chapter, so look forward to it! I'm glad that there's still a couple people reading this, even if it's not that many 😅 I still want to thank you all though! Thanks for still sticking around and reading even though I take forEVER to update and the writing isn't very good, I'm glad you guys like the storyline! Anywhoozles, have a wonderful day/night/afternoon, 👋