Chapter Twelve
We spent weeks at the Cedar Mountains with my grandfather Cal. Mark and I ran test for several of those weeks on the serum and side effects were still not being shown. The difficult part about the test runs was that I wasn't dream jumping into nightmares ever since I started testing. All the dream jumps were strictly dreams and that wasn't helping us determine whether the side effects were completely gone.
Fourth week in, a month went by and on this particular day peaked disaster. This test was going to be the first time I dream jumped a nightmare in over a month.
"Evan?" I heard Mark whisper as I started to go under. His voice was growing faint, but I could tell that he was leaving the room.
I rose up off a set of bleachers on the side of a football field. It was pouring rain and lightning was flashing in the back woods across the field. I stood up and looked for the girl or boy I was suppose to assist, but whoever it was they were nowhere to be seen. I descended the bleachers and started to take off towards the back woods. In most of the nightmares I traveled in, everything always carried darkness. The closer I got to the woods, the brighter it became. I made a stop in the center of the woods where little droplets from the rain were trickling off leaves; and, the sun was seaping through a top the tall trees. This nightmare was starting off quiet and the dreamer wasn't in sight. However, their was someone standing on the other end of the woods but becoming larger in mass as they approached me. They stopped in front of me looking into my eyes without speaking as they removed their hood off their head. The guy was bald and his mouth was sealed shut with stitches. I was slightly frightened until he pointed out of the woods towards a hole in the earth.
I looked at the boy and noticed he wasn't following me towards the hole. He just continued to stand there as I approached the area and looked into the cave in. My focus was on the hole and then back at where the boy once stood, but seemingly vanished. My eyes narrowed and I began to scale down the side of the hole to stand in a pile of dirt. I wanted to call out for someone, but I wasn't sure if the boy was who I was suppose to help. The dreamers don't usually know I'm coming to help. I began to crouch through the hole area looking for the dreamer. The hole lead to a tunnel and I continued to move forward through the nightmare hoping to meet an end. When I reached the dead end of the tunnel, there was no one there. The tunnels were quiet for a moment and I started to hear pebbles being kicked around behind me and quickly swung around to defend myself.
"Car?! What the--how the heck did you get in here?" I shouted shoving him back as he chuckled.
"Relax, are you always this tense in your dreams?" he questioned smiling as he walked back out the tunnel.
I walked in front of him when he paused in his tracks for a moment, "Is this your nightmare or did you take some of the serum? I didn't give you permission to do that, Car. You could get hurt."
"Dude, if you can do it, so can I. Besides, I wanted to see what it was like. Couldn't hurt to check it out," he responded following me out of the tunnels.
We both reached the hole entrance again and I turned back to Car to lend hands to lift him up to the edge of the hole.
"Where's the kid anyways this Bloody Valentine nightmare belongs to anyways?" Car said launching himself off my leg. He pulled himself up as I watched him climb out and roll over to reach for my hand.
"I haven't run into him yet," I said extending my hand in time to feel the ground shaking. I began to try to balance my body with my arms out and Car kneeled above me still trying to reach for my hands. I tried to jump towards his hand but the ground came out from under my feet and I began to fall.
