Lucid

END OF THE NINE

"Ten wake up, someone is here for you"  she whispered in his ear. He immediately shot up
"What? who's here? Where are we? Did you sleep?? Violet where are we??" He felt unsafe, he never went to sleep, who put him to sleep? Was Violet taking over his mind? Could she do that? He felt his heart racing not only did he now have to figure out what was happening to him but he had to do it urgently because could he have lost himself to her mind? Was it the kiss? What happened here? He never went to sleep.
"Hey" she laughed "Relax no I did not sleep, I was watching the television, and we're still here at the hotel and it's such a beautiful day I was thinking maybe to take a walk " she was quite chipper.
'Oh no' he thought, he'd lost her, he lost the conscious version of her, this was dream version, this was Violet and she was rewriting the dream and including him in the narrative. Was this because of the kiss? He wondered.
"Violet" he said seriously "you said someone is here?"
"Oh yes that, a man called from downstairs for you, funny though he didn't give me his name, or how he knew you he just said he needed to speak to you urgently, he wanted to come see to but I told him he couldn't come up because you were asleep and then the strangest thing happened, he asked if he could see for himself if you were in fact there and sleeping , weird right? But anyway I told him no you don't like to be disturbed when you're sleeping so he said he'd wait, he's probably in the lobby waiting for you sooo... I'd leave you to it, I'm going for a walk" she said decisively.
Who was this stranger? He needed to arrest the situation from all the unknowns.
"Vi, vi I'm sorry but you can't leave this room, neither of us can." this was going to be a tough sell, but he needed to get her consciousness back. "Vi what happened after we kissed? When did I go to sleep?" He needed answers "Do you remember why we came here? Did you try to call Jonas again?"
She turned and looked at him quizzically "Jonas? Who's Jonas silly? And why would I try to call someone that I don't even know?" She laughed
He could feel his heart beating faster now, what was happening, was he still in control? He immediately noticed his jumper device was gone from his hand "where's my watch?! Violet have you seen it??"
"Relax my love, it's in the side table drawer I put it there when you fell asleep, geesh babe you woke up a little cranky!"
My love?? Babe?? Oh god she was rewriting the narrative and he realized without the device on him it's as though she had reset the dream and as it seemed, a bit of him with it. Now he was her "love"?? As much as this was everything he wanted and more this could not be happening, not here , he felt his mind being stretched and divided, it was the weirdest feeling he had felt since he entered her worlds. Was a tiny part of him now a hostage to her mind? He had to fight it, He needed to sort this out and probably get out of dream nine but now he had to start from scratch and catch up with her story. This was the first time this had happened in any of the worlds and he was indeed scared. He hurried to put the device back on. It was still active thank goodness. He had to adapt and fast he had to get them out of this world. But maybe he could use this "love" to his advantage, he had to think quickly. Wait who was there to see him? should he check it out? No he couldn't let her out of his sight. He decided he would call down instead and keep her with him. He got into character "Babe don't leave me, I want you here with me... please" he looked at her lovingly, but it felt very natural. Too natural.
"Here's what we can do we can um spend the afternoon in bed, then maybe watch a movie and then I promise we could take a night walk, did you know the hotel has a waterfall about a mile away, we could take a romantic stroll and spend some time there." this was in fact all made up, but none of that mattered, or maybe she would create a waterfall. All he was certain of was that the situation was new and even more dangerous because he knew with her in dream mode anything could happen and if this turned into another mare it could be over for them. He was defenseless his only hope rested on her sleeping and waking up in another dream. Or would she maintain this one?
He had been trapped already once before when she decided to stay in dream six, she was absolutely caught up in her love interest there, they spent almost two dream weeks in dream six. It was by far the worst experience having to navigate her out of that world, until now he thought this could easily be far more difficult than that, because for the first time, he felt as though kissing her gave her some sort of power over him that allowed her more control, he had to be careful.
"Oh babe a waterfall?!! That sounds perfect! Yes please can we go see it?" She hopped in the bed beside him and snuggled under his arm she looked up at him "I love you so much babe, this was the best surprise vacation ever" and leaned in for a kiss. Instinctively and as if almost without control, he kissed her, deeply and yup just as he suspected he felt himself slipping into her world, he could actually feel it, he felt lightheaded, his mind was growing weaker and then he heard it; his device beeped once and loudly but she kept kissing him, it's as though with the beep she kissed him more intensely, she quickly started undoing his shirt buttons , he let her. God no! What was he doing?! He held her hand firmly
"Wait babe wait wait," she was kissing his neck but stopped and looked at him desirably
"What's the matter babe?" She said while quickly taking off her blouse and straddling him. "Don't you want me babe?"
It was all he wanted. He wanted her, dream version of her or real version of her, was it not the same her? He could feel his defenses weakening, was his mind merging with hers??
Although he had never even had anything remotely close to this in reality he had dreamt about it several times and now it was happening and he was helpless to his feelings , it's as almost as if his mind was submitting to hers, this was definitely bad, he could be trapped here with her and they could both die in a mare. He let out a frustrated groan and gently rolled her off of him and got up from the bed, she seemed startled but holding his gaze with a sexy smirk she started to unbutton her blouse. He grabbed her hand.
"Wait babe just wait" he could feel the heat in his body, this situation though was not so simple and he had to fight.
"I do want you babe you are literally all I want, if only you truly knew and understood it's the whole reason I came here, for you" as he was speaking he realized he was speaking as the dream version of himself and as the real version of himself, he was in actuality becoming both "but there are some things I need to do first before I can have you, is that okay?" He was looking at her with his heart's eyes as if almost begging her to let him free.
She softened and lowered her hands "of course babe I understand" and quickly he thought he saw the conscious version of her in her eyes for a brief second. Wait was she doing this on purpose? Trying to lure him to stay with her? He was slowly starting to feel more of his own mind coming back now "okay so I'm going to call downstairs to talk to my guest, what will you do? Please stay with me here, I love you so much" he begged, but he had to stay in character and maybe this world was yet again another failure. He would need her to travel to another one to try again, he needed to upset this one.
"Okay" she sighed "I'm going to look for a good movie and maybe order some food, I'm starving" she grabbed the tv remote and starting shuffling thought channels.
He looked at the phone. Should he call? Who was it who called her but more importantly why did they ask for him? In her dream?? He needed to know. He grabbed the phone and looked over at her. She really was all that he wanted. He leaned over and kissed her forehead, he needed to be sure she stayed in the room with him.
"Hi this is er-um Ten from room 47 calling for my guest."
"Oh yes of course Mr Ten he has been awaiting your call shall we send him up?"
"No! Um no I mean um let me please speak with him first."
"Sure, please hold" the line went dead silent
Then he heard a strange but very stern and deep voice
"Mr. Theo Lawson" the voice said very slowly drawing out each syllable from his name. Theo felt his head start spinning, He dropped the phone in disbelief, and froze,
Who was this???? Using his full real world name! And In a dream to say the least!
"Babe are you okay you look pale babe? Babe?" He heard her vaguely and distant, She got up and started rubbing his shoulder, her eyes full of question "what is it babe? who is that? What do they want?"
Theo snapped out of his daze and grabbed the phone, he kissed her hand "I'm okay babe thanks, just give me a minute" he took the phone into the bathroom, there were no mirrors But he could in fact feel himself getting pale, this man knew his real world identity.
"Who are you?!" He muttered sternly and softly. He heard her laugh with the Tv but he did not want her to hear him. There was no reply, then the voice "We know what you are trying to do Mr Lawson" the voice was slow and deliberate "but we must advise you to stop, to must leave Ms. Miller exactly where she wants to be, did she not tell you, she chose to be here ...to exist here?" He spoke with a calm arrogance. This was no dream person , this was someone from the outside, the real world, but how did they get into her dream? Did they break into his apartment? How did they find him in her dream? What was happening? Was this because of the kiss? And what did he mean she chose this??
"Chose this?? THIS?! Maddie would never-" he started angrily
"MR LAWSON If she were not preventing me right now I would come up there and show you how serious we are. LEAVE MADISON MILLER ALONE" he warned "don't make us have to show you Mr Lawson. You don't want this in any reality" the line cut off.
"Hello??! Hello??!"
He slammed the phone against the wall, shocked at what just happened, the phone shattered into pieces but made absolutely no noise.
"Mad- Violet!" he flew out the bathroom "Violet we need to get out of here now!"
"What??" She looked confused "why? Who was that what did they want?? Ten?!!"
He was pacing around the room looking for any type of weapon.
"Ten, you're making me nervous,"
He stopped and looked directly at her,
"The man earlier, he threatened me, I need you to keep him out of this room"
"Wha-me- how? How do I do that? Ten what's going on??" She did look scared. But he needed to get them out of nine by any means necessary.
"VIOLET JUST DO IT PLEASE!" He pleaded
"Okay okay!" She seemed more alert and conscious now but only a little. "What should I do??"
"For both our sakes you need to go to sleep and I need to figure out what the hell is going on!"
"Sleep? I can't sleep on demand!" They were both panicked at this point then he remembered, he absolutely needed her calm, especially now, this was already a mare as it was. His mare apparently. He had to pull it together and quick he took a deep breath and tried to adapt.
"Listen to me M-" he shook his head "Vi, it's not that I need you to sleep, I was thrown off by the phone call, I'm sorry to scare you, i know that didn't make any sense asking you to go to sleep, I was thinking earlier that we should rest before our walk, but then the man threatened me, and my mind got all scrambled I'm so sorry babe, the thing is I know him," he sighed an paused, again making it up as he went along "he um wants money but I'm going to take care of it. I'm sorry I startled you, he just caught me off guard. I don't know how he found me so i got nervous and I overreacted I'm sorry babe if you got scared, that's on me, I'm sorry my love, I'm going to transfer the money that he wants and that'll be it, he'd be gone. I don't want him  near us again" he said looking Intently at her so she would keep the stranger away.
"But why do you have to give him money? Are you telling me the truth? What did he say? Who is he? Oh god I  almost let him come up here, does he want to hurt you?? Is it because of me?" she was still scared and not calm.
Wait why did she ask if it was because of her? Was she conscious. Theo was confused. Now he really needed to leave nine. Even if it meant coming back for her. He needed answers 'Focus Theo Focus!' He thought.
"Babe, look at me" he kissed her lips softly and quickly lest he go under her spell again "I'm going to take care of it. I promise it will all be fine, It's just a little money from a silly incident in my past and then he's gone okay?" He faked a smile "and guess what else the lady at Reception said tonight is going to be perfect for an evening walk I just thought we should take a nap first before we head out so we can have the best night under the stars" he winked and smiled sweetly. I love you" that was the only thing he said that was true. "Come on now let's cuddle for a bit before I take care of that tiny problem."
She pondered for a bit with pursed lips then she relaxed and smiled and cozied up and laid her head on his chest. He stroked her hair back and kissed her head "just a little nap and we're off I'm handling this silly situation right now"
"Okay babe, I trust you" she nodded and closed her eyes. About fifteen minutes later she was fast asleep. He looked out the window. All the trees were withered and dry. The sky was brown and very cloudy.
"Thank God" he said "goodbye nine." He touched his jumper and synced it to her earrings.