Playing The Dreams // a Dreamcatcher story

Chapter 24

❝ 𝐆𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐞, 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬. ❞

~

Yoohyeon started to feel hopeless. Her knees were already indulged in the wet soil as she needed to choose another path. Which one was the right one? Which one would lead her to safety? Her head started to drive her crazy. She wanted to scream, she wanted this to be over, she just wanted some spark of hope, but this was all endless.

"Wh.. Which one?" she panted while digging her fingers deeper into the surface. She did not want to do this anymore, why did she have to?

"Just one last one.."

She lifted her body and just used up all her power to push herself deeper into the maze hoping for an exit, of course making it into more choices to make. She sighed, almost surrendering, about to just go wild. Her eyes could not take it much longer nor did her mind. All these choices, her processing system was getting slower. Which one? Just choose one, but which one?

Her neck made some rotations to scan the area. She could not see anything until her eyes caught a silhouette through the path in front of her.

"H-Hello?!" she echoed with both her hands cupping her mouth.

Her knees started to straightened and before she knew it, she was running towards the body. "H-Help me please!" she shouted. She kept repeating it, over and over and over again. "P-Please just help me!" she screamed with a shaky voice for the last time before actually touching the face of the human skin. Human. She was not alone.

She chuckled in happiness once she found out that she was now with another person. She pulled the body backwards in hopes they would turn their gaze at Yoohyeon.

"Please help m---"

They locked glazes.

"Y-Yooh---"

"Dongie!" Yoohyeon exclaimed with pure joy while cramping Handong into a hug. "You're here! You.. You're here, Dong unnie.."

Handong hugged her back and snuggled in. "Yoohyeonie.."

"I thought I wad alone," they both said in unision. Baffled by their own synchronization, they laughed. They totally forgot about the situation they were in, but they both was never happier to see each other than now.

"Where are the others?"

"I don't know.. I was in a maze, I was.. Lost. You were here too?"

Handong took the hug off. "No actually.. It's weird. One moment I was in like a room with other people, staring at me. When I shut my eyes and opened them again.. I saw.. You," she explained, smiling softly at the sight of Yoohyeon's beauty.

They both paused at the sight of each other almost forgetting that their surroundings had made a drastic flip. They were now in a small town, midnight they assumed. Rain poired over them and their outfit too changed.

"Yoohyeon?"

Yoohyeon immediately recognized the place. "The 'BOCA' music video shoot. We're.. Here?"

"Why?"

"No, no.. It's all so random. This.. This isn't reality, is it?" Yoohyeon laid her palm on her forehead. "This.. It wasn't reality? The maze? It's all.."

"An illusion?"

"Like a dream, but that's not possible is it?"

They both heard a scream from somewhere. They froze. "W-What was that?"

"More like who was that," Handong added. "Come on," Handong tugged on Yoohyeon's damp sleeve, "I think it's coming from there."

They rushed towards this one alley, running down to find the scream. "Wait!" They both halted in front of the first cross section.

"What is it?"

"Gahyeon! I heard her call me, before in the maze, I forgot to mention."

Handong raised her eyebrows. "But that's not possible, I heard her too."

"You think.. You think she's here too?"

"I," Yoohyeon let out a grunt of anger and frustration, "I'm not sure but it's all too confusing. I don't understand a thing, it doesn't add up."

"Not everything has to, especially if we are in a dream like you said. Now let's find who was screaming first." Their ears caught another scream. "There!" Handong pointed at this store's back door. The scream sounded as if it came from over there, she was sure of it, all she was not sure of was who was shouting.

They arrived at the nearby door and crashed into it while also trying to crack the door handle open. Handong tried to kick it but nothing helped. "Dammit! It's locked!"

"Here!" Yoohyeon handed a crowbar she found nearby the dumpsters the moment they stopped by. "Thanks."

Handong placed the crowbar at the jamb and cracked it open. Yoohyeon then pushed the door and it immediately swung open. With a stumble towards entering, she made a loud echo of buckets falling.

"Help me!" the scream repeated, starting to form some sort of feminine voice.

"Come on, they can't be far." Handong helped Yoohyeon up on her two feet again and just ran from where the scream came from. "Who's there?!"

A second passed, another scream.

"We're coming!"

They ran passed a few more buckets and boxes for the spare parts or storage. The broken brooms and mops lay unused by the corner and the holes on the roof which let the rain through just made puddles inside the rough concrete floor.

"Help me! Let me go!"

Yoohyeon, being the faster one, slid passed a door. "There!"

The crowbar was placed again and they opened the door to reveal who was in there, shouting for help. The shadows were all falling on the enchained figure, they could not see them, but the person could.

"W-We're here to help---"

"Dongie?! Yoohyeonie?!"

Yoohyeon's eyes dilated while moving forward into the darkness, gasping. "SuA unnie?!"