Magnus Chase and the Wrath of Morpheus

Chapter 3

TJ Dreams the Same Weird Stuff As I Do

What was I looking at? He was clearly the one who had to explain some things to me, not the other way round. "What WAS that?" He didn't seem to understand me. Not knowing what else to say, I asked him again: "TJ! What the hell was that?" He looked confused and opened his mouth as if he wanted to say anything but then closed it again. I could see a shift in his facial expression, and it seemed like he was starting to remember.

Slowly he started talking. "I dreamt something really strange: I was walking through the streets of Boston. The sky was clouded and fog seemed to rise from the ground. I couldn't see far, but from what I could see there were no cars on the streets, no people on the sidewalks, no birds flying, no wind. I didn't hear anything or see anyone. I noticed there was something in the fog that was moving. A silhouette of a man, slowly approaching me. He was wearing a black coat so long it was almost touching the ground. His suit was just as black as his coat. But what he was wearing didn't look like it was made out of fabric, but rather something that contained everything evil, gloomy and dismal. I was awed by his look...in a bad way. I couldn't look at him for too long. Everything he was wearing up to his hat was black. Everything but his skin. He was so pale that I doubted that he was alive. He proved me wrong when he started to speak. The fog around him darkened, intensified, and became denser with every word he spoke until a black wall of fog surrounded us and I couldn't see anything but him. His voice was so deep and powerful it resonated through my entire body. I started shaking as he spoke, my knees weakened and I fell into the soft black fog. Even though it felt soft, it wasn't comforting at all. What he said scared me. ' I'm coming for you. You have no idea what's gonna hit you. Once you're all dead there's nothing that could stop me.'

I felt anguish and pain around me like I only felt it during the war. All the feelings from that time suddenly came back to me and hit me so hard that I woke up. Just to see you staring at me like a creep."

I didn't know where to look. His description of the man matched the experience I had. As I looked around his room I saw photos of us, the people from floor 19, and I realized how lonely we all would be if we wouldn't have each other. TJ made me realize that that's exactly what it felt like: It felt lonely. As if everything was taken from me. It was the most realistic nightmare I have ever had. I heard someone draw a shaking breath. Alex was standing at the door, trembling. I walked up to her and held her tight. I knew her family wasn't exactly perfect. In fact, it was shit and she only really had us. Just hearing TJ talking about what he experienced made me emotional about my mother. For Alex however, it must've been much worse.

"No, it's okay", she said and gently pushed me away. "Just leave me alone, please." She walked out of the room again. At first, I wanted to follow her, but from my time with Alex I learned that it was best to do what she says. I turned around to TJ, who had started to change into new clothes. "What is it?", he asked. "A similar thing happened to me before and Mallory and Halfborn too. Oh my God, I forgot about them!" I ran down the hall towards Mallory and Halfborn. They seemed to slowly come to. "Are you guys okay?"

Halfborn grunted. "I guess so... But why are we lying on the floor"- he stopped talking to look around- "in front of your room?" I sighed. "That's a long story. Mainly because we don't even know ourselves what really happened."

Mallory cut me off: "And what is this guy doing in your room?"

I opened the door a little more so I could see what she saw and there he was, standing in the middle of my room, looking around as if he was searching for something. He had brown and curly hair, into which some leaves and sticks got entangled. He wasn't wearing anything but an orange shirt and a pair of blue shorts that revelead his surprisinlgy hairy legs. When he saw me opening the door he looked at me, confused and maybe also a bit shocked. "Where am I?" He asked. "And where is my flute?"