Death Code

Morpheus-1

It was a hook. It was a curved device, made out of a brittle glass with weird symbols embedded in sand. Sarah wasn't sure what was going on but she was fairly certain that Sam had asked her to swallow a hook.

She looked at him quizzaciously , hoping to find a ghost of humor in his expression , then she looked around, nobody was snickering . It would have helped if her father or guardian angel was around. She took it in one hand and water in the other then looked at it, 'It's small enough,' she thought, then before changing her mind, she swallowed it.

"Can you see it?" , Sam asked as the hook pill began taking effect. She looked behind him and screamed, the thing looked like Sam,exactly like him, except he was made of sand, inheriting even its rigidity or lack thereof. His features progressively fell apart, all while weakly being rebuilt, imparting a sense of desolation to his aura, meekly grasping whatever nature of survival it could.

Sarah blinked, looking at his face, "Don't look into his eyes!", Sam said.

"Why?" She asked dazed, there was something alluring about those orbs, she really wanted to do it.

"Remember Harry Potter?" Sam asked, Sarah finally turned to look at him.

"Yes," Sarah almost squealed .

Sam smiled , why couldn't everyone be as honest as her."Then you must remember the Mirror of Erised", he continued. She nodded.

" It's exactly like that. In those eyes, you see the most desperate desire of your heart. It would drive anybody mad. "

"What was that hook for?" She asked

"To keep us connected . I've taken one too so its sort of like our souls are connected. But if you look into his eyes,then you are completely taken into a world you desire, that's his world and you can never come out , that's it end of story, there is no unless,"he looked into her eyes and sighed wistfully,"I wish I didn't have to send you alone, but somebody has to stay here and I can't trust anyone else"

"I know, it'll be fine , I won't do anything stupid," she reassured him but he didn't look convinced.

"What is that?", she asked, to change the topic.

"I am Morpheus. The God of Dreams", said the most dreamy voice she had ever heard.

"He is a Sandman. They can access our subconscious . But we need to make sure not to give him control. It's like giving him our admin password. You understand?", Sam asked, the dreamy voice hissed terrifyingly, like a nightmare and then started coming towards her.

"How are you not panicking?" Sam asked.

"Oh , I am making a list of things to panic about, when all this is over, I'll panic all together," Sarah beamed.

'I'm afraid this is just the beginning,'Sam thought but gave her a bleak smile as Morpheus touched her and with a jolt, darkness welcomed her.

Sarah was positive she was falling through the sky.She forced her eyes open and at a glance,the world looked green. Then as she got closer, the ground below her was alive with lights, like someone had taken a handful of glitter and thrown it as far as the eye could see. It was too dark to make out individual buildings, but the lights were enough for her. She screamed, amazed at the view laid out before her.The cold air rushed past as she accelerated faster and faster. Then after a time, it felt like she was floating and not falling at all. But the trees on the ground were getting larger and closer. She closed her eyes,just feeling the wind on her face till she heard a soft lapping of water.She opened her eyes when she felt the tip of her toe touching the surface of the water, sending ripples through it.

As she looked around, it felt as if she was in one of her mothers' antique books. The lake was clean, and there were real fishes in it. Surrounding the lake there were hills in all direction, like a crown, one of them had a castle as if built inside the hill.

The lake was of alluring dark blue water, reflecting the night sky, fishes swimming suspended in the crystal clear aqua that was only disturbed by the white lotuses swaying in the breeze. In twilight the surface of the lake was as smooth as black glass, as she skipped across the still water the radiating ripples caught the moonlight . After three skips she stopped, then once again the lake looked like glass and you could imagine walking right out onto it or skidding across the surface in your socks. With a sigh, she wistfully stared upwards to let the sun bask her face in its yellow rays of glory. There was a reason why she stopped, it was because she looked up.

The sky looked orange red and blue all at the same time and most of the stars could be seen with the sun. While the sky was blood red, the lake reflected the night sky.'This is definitely my dream..Only I can dream of something this weird...,' Sarah thought.She walked to the top of a hill and looked around there was a grassy meadow dotted by petite, fragrant flowers. In awe, she turned around and saw little pink butterflies lazily flitting around the lush grass and dipping their tiny feet into a clear, bubbling brook.

As she walked , she decided to go to the castle next. It was broken and looked haunted so she did the most obvious thing, she walked towards it. The door creaked open, moving open a centimetre at a time. It could move faster, but the wood of the door had grown mouldy and soft with water and neglect, and if you pushed it harder, you'd probably push right through the door. Once inside, a thick coating of dust and mold coated everything.

The castle shook. She stepped tentatively, as there were already several dark holes where floorboards must have snapped, weak from mold and pressured downwards by the weight of the gigantic dust bunnies that have formed. Cobwebs brushed her face as she stepped deeper into the house. A shiver rushed down her spine. I couldn't tell what, but there was something unbelievably spooky about this castle....no.... palace. The palace still shook occasionally as the earth rumbled in memory, groaned as if it would deny what had happened. Bars of sunlight cast through rents in the walls made motes of dust glitter where they yet hung in the air.

Scorch-marks marred the walls, the floors, the ceilings. Broad black smears crossed the blistered paints and gilt of once-bright murals, soot overlaying crumbling friezes of men and animals which seemed to have attempted to walk before the madness grew quiet. The dead lay everywhere, men and women and children, struck down in attempted flight by the lightning's that had flashed down every corridor, or seized by the fires that had stalked them, or sunken into stone of the palace, the stones that had flowed and sought, almost alive, before stillness came again. In odd counterpoint, colourful tapestries and paintings, masterworks all, hung undisturbed, except where bulging walls had pushed them awry. Finely carved furnishings, inlaid with ivory and gold, stood untouched except where rippling floors had toppled them. The mind-twisting had struck at the core, ignoring peripheral things.

Sarah got an eerie feeling that she wasn't in her dream world anymore. She noticed a thin layer of sand everywhere.

She walked down into the hall which consisted of more doors and opened one, it was filled with water causing her to step back on instinct, expecting it to fall on her. When it didn't ,she went ahead and touched it, it undulated and sparkled and the scene changed.

Sarah saw herself falling from the sky, which had stars and a big blue whale for the moon. Just like before, she landed on the lake but the lake was blood red and almost opaque.

Then Sarah looked at herself closely, she noticed that the girl looked nothing like Sarah but she was sure it was her. A reptilian hand shot up and caught her leg, she tried to pry it off, but stopped.

The Sarah inside, Reflection Sarah stopped as the wind blew past her, making her blond hair flow, then start shaking.

That's when Real Sarah noticed a sound. .She could hear whispers in the wind, like it was talking.

She tried to concentrate,"Leave," it said. "Leave," it whispered. "Leave!" it mewled silently.

Thats when Reflection Sarah was pulled underwater.