Intensive Dream Unit

Chapter 3

The night ruled the skies and stars dotted the landscape visible from the window in the room, but he could barely lift his head to see. Only shadows of cold and emotionless machines accompanied him on the silent journey towards the final horizon. It wouldn’t be long, he believed.

He couldn’t sleep, mind caught in that realm teeming with raw energy. He craved to live there, desiring to taste the freedom once again. A distraction from an empty existence. He didn’t care it could mean his demise.

The door opened. In curiosity, he gazed at the emerging silhouette, not sure of its identity. Maybe Jane intended to reconnect him. Or perhaps some doctor decided to put him out of misery and euthanize him.

He recognized the person fairly fast. Martin stood there beside his bed, leaning over to him. Was he the harbinger of the end, preparing to whisper the poem of decease?

“Ethan, I won’t lie to you. They say that you... that you... well, I’ve arrived to plug you in. Don’t worry about being brought back to reality. Your dreams won’t be disrupted. I guarantee that.”

He sighed as he finished the last sentence. Even though he tried to conceal the truth the best he could, the boy understood. By the time anyone came to disconnect him, he would be dead.

“Are you ready?” the doctor asked and Ethan nodded. “Farewell then, my friend. May the wind carry you far away from this place.”

 As the child closed his eyes, the dimension in the depths of his mind began transforming, black blur gaining colour and pools of void shaping into a landscape. Soon, he spotted hills forming and seeded with life. The fabric of the world was bending and twisting, creating a familiar realm.

He stood on grass so green that it almost blinded him, but he didn’t allow delight to take over. The shadow of darkness was slumbering and he didn’t desire to provoke it by lingering.

Perhaps Jane could tell him how to beat this unwelcome intruder that dragged him back like an iron ball tied to his legs. It was the only thing preventing him from tasting freedom to its full extent. He had to search for her in that village she had mentioned.

His steps led him through a dense forest where trees bowed down upon seeing him and birds warbled uplifting melodies. He eventually emerged into a valley with tall and slim structures twirling in helix formations rising from the soil, intertwining with some and diverging from others at various points of its length.

 As he was closing in, he recognized windows on the walls at the base of each entanglement. Along with those strange buildings, there were random individuals strolling around. Many resembled humans, more seemed bizarrely alien. From floating slime of green to slender stickmen, the species differed heavily. However, he had to find a particular person. The nurse.

His investigation didn’t yield fruit though, so he decided to ask the first being he crossed paths with. “Hello, I’m searching for Jane.”

“Jane? No, I don’t know anyone with that name. Sorry.”

That response confused Ethan, but he didn’t give up yet. He ran to a woman that he spotted nearby, trying his luck again. Yet much to his dismay, she shook her head. “Who is that?”

The replies always sounded like that. He couldn’t understand. Had she lied to him? Was this a prank? He immediately recalled the words of the doctors. Missing. Still, that didn’t answer the question. She might have vanished, but that didn’t mean the whole world would forget about her.

“Does anybody in here know Jane at all?” Ethan shouted, hoping that at least someone would respond affirmatively. Unfortunately, they gazed at him as if he embodied madness, passing him by without uttering anything.