Lotus Lab

Chapter 16

TW: ARGUING, PANIC ATTACK

"So, I'm in, right?"

Cotton didn't expect them to let him join so quickly. He was prepared to yell and cry, but it turned out to be easier. Grace still had a suspicious face. She watched Cotton as the rest of the group was telling him everything they had so far, which wasn't a lot.

When they told him everything, Lee asked:

"Do you have anything to add, Cotton? You didn't come here for no reason, did you?"

"No. I was just going to tell you about this thing," he raised the teddy bear for everyone to see.

"Oh, and I was just about to ask you about that! What is this toy? I've never seen it before," said Grace, looking at the toy with intrigued eyes.

"Well, here's the thing," Cotton smiled, "Me neither".

He told everything about the dream that he had, then about the day in the cafeteria, and how Yellow looked at him. After he finished, everyone just stood there, having no idea what to say. Cotton stared at the ceiling. Then, suddenly, Michael gasped and ran to his desk.

"WAIT. I think I know what you're talking about. The dream, I mean. There is a thing called Dream Dimension, I've read about it in... this book!" He pulled out a book that had "Great things to think about: theorist edition" in big red letters on its cover. Then he started hectically turning the pages until he reached what he was looking for.

"This. Okay. It says, "When significant objects in one's life make strong impressions in dreams, they might be gone. They get transferred into The Dream Dimension, and it most likely means they are gone forever. Although there is a way to return them, it is immensely difficult for one to perform: they need to forget about the object, and every memory about it needs to be completely erased from their mind. It will only work if the object meant a lot to a person before disappearing, therefore it is almost impossible to return objects from The Dream Dimension; but the process is easier when there is an object disappearing and an object returning at the same moment. All the mentions of The Dream Dimension are theoretical and have no proof to be existing"".

Michael gasped for the second time, then the third. Cotton tried to piece everything together. Grace was the first one to break the silence:

"So, if I'm right, Cotton made a paper ship and had a nightmare with it. Then, the ship disappeared and instead of it there was a teddy bear? So, the teddy bear must've been an important thing for you! But I can't remember ever seeing it when you were little!"

Lee suddenly raised their hand, "SO, the toy must've come from the past! The past outside the lab! It probably was his childhood toy!"

"No way!" said Ben, joining the conversation for the first time in hours, "but it's probably been lost for years in that dimension, because the memories were still somewhere in your head!"

"That's right," Michael said, "And because the disappearance of the ship and the return of the toy happened at the same time, it was more likely to happen!"

Everyone smiled to their discovery. Everyone, except Cotton.

"Why is it covered in mud, then?" he sounded really sad.

"What?" everyone looked at him questioningly.

"It's covered in mud. The teddy. It's dried out, but when I first saw it the mud was fresh".

Looking at the toy everyone realized, it was indeed covered in dry mud. Grace felt sorry for Cotton.

"Well, we can wash it, right?" She didn't quite understand why he was worrying about it.