Dark Dreamer

Chapter 3: Demented

After he left, Lauren turned to me and rolled her eyes.

"Please. All that Catcher nonsense?" She says in disgust.

"Seriously, Leanne. Don't believe him. It's just Job pride. You'd make a better Amasser any day!" She chirps.

I roll my eyes. Yeah, right. Lots of job pride going on today.

"Come on, Lauren, don't you start."

Lauren looks slightly offended. "Leanne! I haven't been your Mentor all these years for nothing, you know. You do have great potential!"

In your field, you have all the potential dreams, I think grimly.

"Yeah, about that." I think of something.

Turning around, I stand face to face with Lauren.

Startled, she almost stepped on me.

"Lauren, I'm really grateful for all your help and advice over these years..."

"Nonsense! Honey, to be honest, I actually enjoyed my time spent with you." She smiles, pushing up her specs. She looks very much like her younger brother, Alex. Well, they both have midnight black hair, and blue-gray eyes. But that's where the resemblance ends.

I've known Lauren, well, practically my whole life. And Alex. Well, basically everyone in my Level. It's not hard to forget anyone.

Lauren had become my Mentor, ever since Rilla and I lost out parents. She was assigned to me... well, she claims to have volunteered the job, as well as continue with her regular Amasser tasks. Up 'till this day, I still don't know whether to believe her. I mean, who'd want to care for me?

"Leanne, I have absolute faith in you." She assures me, her stern gray eyes (hers were more gray than blue, whereas Alex is the opposite) boring into mine. "You will take up a suitable job, and you'll be happy doing it."

I nod, grateful but uncertain. "Laur, I just really really want to say: even if I'm not Selected to be an Amasser, and if I don't have a chance to work with you..."

"I won't hold anything against you." She says and I tear up. I don't know, but suddenly, Lauren and Alex are being super nice to me all of a sudden. Usually, even though we're in the same group of friends, Alex is always kind of distant. He hardly makes a comment--- and to hear him praise me... well, I'm still trying to get over his words of encouragement.

Lauren, on the other hand, had always felt like an older sister to me. I always have to put up with mine, and I really understand how it's like to deal with a younger sister. But according to Lauren, she signed up for this. She must've took pity on me, or she might not have realized how much trouble it is.

"Aw, come on, Leanne! I already have a brother! What's a sister to me? You don't have to feel sorry for me, you know." She always says.

No, I always want to say. It's you people who feel sorry for me.

*****

Ever since that incident involving the disappearance of our parents, my sister and I had lived on the limbo, absolutely demented, trying to get over the shock of losing the only two people in the world (who even introduced us to this place) and loved us as a real family did.

I had been very young--- only seven! I was still going to pre-school and trying out different lucid dreaming methods... in other words, I was still new to my world, with not much knowledge on our existence.

Rilla was four, I didn't know how to care for her. At that time, the only sisterly instinct I had towards her was: did you dream anything horrifying last night?

If she had, I would...

...have no idea why it started and how to resolve the problem.

We needn't wait very long before help was sent.

Lauren, though only ten years older than I was, helped me to figure out who I really am, and the meaning of our existence. Rilla had her mentor, I had mine.

Slowly, we got sucked into the morbid world around us.

I was tutored well, ever since I turned eight years of age.

For nine years, I was given the proper training we all need to go through in this place.

When we turn sixteen, we then start to receive our first responsibilities.

But first, we have to find out what job is best suited for us. And that might be a problem.

*****

"Well, it's time you were there." Lauren nervously glances at her watch. How can an Unconscious keep track of her time so well? What I'm saying is, us Unconscious aren't really the best time managers. But we never miss a dream, or so I'm told.

"Wish me luck?" I joke.

She gave me a hug for luck.

"Go, Lea, and come back a changed person," she says, actual tears in her eyes.

She's never shown this much emotion ever since... well, ever since the words 'ever' and 'since' were used together!

"Don't stress out too much over work, Laur," I tell her. "You are killing yourself in your sleep.

Lauren forced a smile. "Don't you half know it!" She mutters. Then, realizing what she had said, she blinked. "I mean, when do busy workers like me get the time off for sleep?" she whines.

"In your dreams?" I tease.

She sighs. "No, really. Come to think of it... Leanne, maybe it would be a bad idea after all to be handled the Amasser duties--- you'd never know how sleep feels like again!"

I stare at her, aghast. "You hadn't what--- slept for awhile?"

"Hmm... two weeks, approximately." She shrugs.

"What? We Amassers do have our secret ways! We can overcome sleep with something just as powerful--- and effective as sleep itself! We are, after all, the Unconscious!"

I feigned nervousness. Actually, it wasn't at all hard.

"Uh ugh... and you really shouldn't tell me about these things... right before my Ranking!"

Lauren smiles a tight smile. "Well, you do have to be as prepared as you can! I'm just giving you a little helpful warning..."

I waved her off.

"I should be off now."

"Yeah, you do."

I turn my back, and was just about to walk away when Lauren called out to me.

I look at her, expecting another of her long encouraging speeches, when she said:

"Oh, and look out for my brother for me, will you, darling? He can be a... nuisance."

She left me feeling puzzled out of my mind.

Hi, Readers!

I'm really sorry for the shortness of this chapter, but I'll try to make it up to you in the next chapter...

In the meantime, feel free to give comment, and do VOTE!

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that's all folks!

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'till the next update...

bye!

~Tiffany :)