Playing The Dreams // a Dreamcatcher story

Chapter 17

❝ 𝐎𝐏𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐋𝐌𝐎𝐏𝐇𝐎𝐁𝐈𝐀; 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝. ❞

~

Carpets. The first word Handong thought of when waking up was a soft, red carpet. Her vision roamed around the room while the lids opened up. Her elbows powered her arms to push her body upwards and her legs shook to get up. She turned to see that her environment drastically changed. A beautiful vase stood on her right filled with some roses, an empty desk was on her left for decoration.

"J-JiU unnie?" she first called out. She turned her body to a full 360 and just tried to scan the area. She's never been here, that's for sure. What was the last thing she remembered? She was shot in the neck, but she was alive? Or was this finally death?

"Dong unnie!" a familiar voice echoed through the hallway that stood in in front. Wait, was that there before? She couldn't concentrate much, not when the echo kept repeating. "Dong unnie!"

"Gah.. Gahyeonie!?" she called while slowly walking through the unknown place; it was like a royal castle or a mansion still within the medieval times. She was not afraid of nee places, not that much, but it never meant she did not have insecurities. "Gahyeonie, is that you?"

As she ran harder and harder and harder, with much efforts to catch up with the voice of her roommate, she found herself confronted with the door at the end of the hallway, she did not hesitate to slam it open. The voice had disappeared but she was now in another dim endless hallway, similar to before, Gahyeon's voide faded, she was lost. The only way to go was forward, further into the illusion of the palace walls.

"Gahyeon, where are you?!" she cupped her mouth to enlarge the volume of her voice.

She caught nothing, no voice, no sign of Gahyeon's figure, she was all alone there, but then the dimness lifted up and a few more lights crossed her eyes. It was just like a curtain before a show getting lifted. Before her stood a door, a simpler one, nothing special. She walked through, slamming the doors opened.

She gasped at the sight of the hallway she had stepped foot into. A red carpet laid out for her again, paintings hung on each wall, another fancy door waiting to he opened on the edge. Why was this all repeating? Where was the end?

She took the first step, felt the urge to do another, then she did; the cycle continues. Her eyes darted all the antique pictures. Beautiful they were, but something felt weird about it.

Her eyes stayed on this painting of a young lady longer than usual, coming to realize it's eyes were following her. She squinted her eyes to see if she was seeing it correctly but shook it off anyways. Again it happened to the next painting. She walked feebly like in a museum, trying to inspect each one carefully, even bothering to look back on the others.

"Weird," she mumbled as she reached the door.

She heard murmuring. The room would be crowded, but how crowded? The room would be full of chatters, but how long will it last?

She stepped in. The door made a big crack and all the chattering stopped. Handong froze right there, suddenly getting attacked with an insecure feeling. Her eyes shifted quickly, every corner had at least eyes glaring at her.

The longer she looked, the more it glowed. Why was it glowing? Were they human? What were they?

As she stared into one eye full of redness, she was struck. Struck by fear, struck by anxiety. She did not feel safe. Her fight or flight mode suddenly activated and she wanted to flee, but she was trapped, chained, restricted by her feet. The eyes came closer, everyone in the room started to zoom into Handong's personal bubble. She fell backwards, realizing the door had disappeared.

She cried slowly. Tears blinded her and her lips quivering. Not only did the eyes grow even more red but it enlarged, growing into something less human.

It kept Handong down. She felt immobile, paralyzed by all these glares. Every move she move she makes, everyone would be able to catch it. Nothing she did was secret to the eyes of the watchers. Who where they? What were they?

Her arms tried to reach for an exit to climb out, but no one could escape if they did not even acknowledge where they were. No one could ever know that they were in a dream until they get out, but in this case, there was no escape.

She hid her face into her palms and let her tears floor it. She sobbed even if no one was harming her, but the glares all felt painful, awkward and judgemental. It felt like if she moved, if she stared, she would be attacked by something.. But what?

➳

The men watched outside of the room the girl sat quietly on. One of them held a clipboard, the other kept his hands behind his back. "She's.. Stable. Blood pressures normal, heartbeat increasing just a bit."

"That's normal, it's fear," corrected the one crosding his arms. "Right. Uhm, I guess there's nothing much to see other than wait." He turned to his side. "Taehyung, it's all going to plan. Don't be so tensed. By the time people realize the girls had disappeared, we'll already have our research done."

"I'm not tensed, I'm thinking." He fidgeted gis thumbs behind his back, still keeping his eyes on Handong's body. "It's all coming together, Namjoon."

"And I believe so."

Taehyung smiled at Namjoon and chuckled slowly. "It has begun."