Overlap

Chapter 23: The Haunting of Shadow Face

<10/12/2010 - ??:?? | Unknown Location>

After last week's distractions, my nights were destined to give me more grief than ever. Everything that I felt about the sky and the cold kept flooding through me every time the temperature outdoors would drop. And even though we had that heat wave days ago, the winter was finally bursting through the floodgates of the season's alteration.

My mental obsession remained as powerful as ever, but one thing had changed from before. I felt an overwhelming sensation of happiness and belonging when I was out in the cold, but this time, I only felt cautious from the fear haunting me inside. I never could forget that scary dream I had before, of that woman I have been referring to lately as shadow face. A fitting name since some kind of noise-based energy field conceals her whole identity, of the upper half of her body at least.

Having one lucid dream was bad enough, but having more than one was something I should have considered impossible. I had a hunch ever since the first time that it might happen again. So, when I pushed myself off the cold snow-covered wasteland, waking up on this foreign world for the second time, I wasn't nearly as surprised as I was before. Once again, after going to bed last night, I woke up very quickly to a place I had been to before in my dreams.

Still, I cursed my luck for ending up here again. Surprised or not, this situation was still seriously dangerous. I never did find out who that woman was from the first lucid dream or why she attacked me. When I try to think back, I still don't know if I woke up because of the fear that I was about to die, or the fact that I did die. If I was killed, then I should have nothing to worry about anymore, as death in a lucid dream is meaningless, if not painful. But since I don't know which of the two shocked me back awake, I considered that the possibility of dying in real life from within a lucid dream to be higher than a zero percent chance, a chance I wasn't willing to bet on.

So, while I found my balance again getting used to the sheer cold of this world, amazed that such a vast place could exist without any melting snow, I considered both the good news and the bad news. The bad news was something of a certainty, even though I had no proof it was going to happen again. I knew she would show herself again. This place, this vast open space isn't entirely random. It's a fully open environment with no forest or frozen lake in sight. Such is also a tactical advantage against me to be ambushed by that killer. Once she shows herself, I'll probably be given another sword for another duel.

I squished both my hands shut and open in repetition in front of me, still totally amazed by how realistic this was. I wasn't sure if the insane detail level of this dream was from something else, or because I was fully conscious enough to experience it in the first place. I remembered how much I was able to sense in this very moment, the snow against my skin and the cold chilling my body from the air. I shivered at the thought, not from the cold, but from imagining how powerful it may feel to experience real pain in here as well. Since I am a middle school kid with no abilities and no fighting skills, there is no way I would be able to defeat a mysterious warrior.

The only good news right now is that I had some time before she would show up... I don't have a good reason to assume that. I'm only basing that off of the last time I was here. How long was I waiting before I heard the first noise? Ten minutes? Five? I still have some time to think about this. If I can't fight, maybe I can run. The idea was still a daunting one. Everywhere I looked was an endless zone of ice and snow. Even if I got a head start, there would be nowhere for me to hide. If I buried myself into the snow to hide, I would probably freeze to death a lot faster. If all else fails, maybe I can talk the warrior out of killing me somehow, agree to do whatever she asked no matter what it was.

"It's better to fight me than to evade me."

Hearing a powerful voice behind me that also somehow echoed into my head, I jerked into a full turn, arms out ready to block what I believed was already a surprise attack, but despite my projection, I was really too scared to move beyond this much. Sure enough, there she stood again. How did she find me? It hasn't even been five minutes!