With Fear or Without

26- One Trial and a Whole Lot of Error

In apprehensive silence, Cleo listened as Remie explained how it all would work. The glass compartment was part of the simulation technology. Once inside, Cleo would experience something just like a dream, and it would be her job to recognize the signs of a nightmare. From there, she would learn to control the dream around her.

Simple.

Cleo felt far from ready. She had so many more questions, if only to delay the training she was dreading. However, Remie insisted it was impossible to fully explain until Cleo had tried it at least once.

"You'll be fine, I promise," Remie told Cleo. "I'll be able to see and control the dream from here, so I can always pull you out if you need it."

Cleo swallowed.

"If what Cassian said was true, you already beat one demon. And pretty well at that."

"Cassian?" Cleo repeated, shocked to hear that his jailbreak story had spread. "He told her about that?"

"Yeah, of course. He seemed pretty impressed," Remie said with a grin.

Cleo chuckled to hide the embarrassment in her smile. "I still don't really know what happened."

Remie shrugged. "You'd have to ask him." Before Cleo could laugh at that, too, Remie asked, "So, how about it? You ready?"

The wholesome look of encouragement and confidence on Remie's face was just about the only thing that made Cleo take a deep breath and say, "Yeah, sure."

At Remie's instruction, Cleo tugged on the handle of the glass chamber and stepped into the raised floor. Clicking the door closed behind her, she turned back to face the rest of the room. Nothing had even happened yet and her blood was brimming with adrenaline, the anticipation building steadily.

"Close your eyes and count to ten, okay? Good luck!" Remie called from across the room, her voice muffled by the glass. She looked down to the desk and the screen below her lit her face and made her white hair shine in the darkness.

Cleo closed her eyes and counted slowly, taking a breath with each number.

1... 2... 3...

A tingle started in the tips of her fingers, like they were falling asleep.

4... 5...

It spread to her feet, too, making her wiggle her toes and rock back and forth on her feet.

6... 7... 8...

The sensation crawled up her arms and legs. It was a unique and strangely comforting experience.

9... 10.

When she reached ten, she was falling. Her whole body tensed in shock as the feeling gripped her. She was falling from a terrifying height, her senses being thrown into overdrive as her stomach dropped. She gasped and groped around, her eyes flying open.

Her eyes managed to take in the scene before her and she noticed that she hadn't moved. She was still standing in the glass box, the door hanging open. The world before her was surrounded by a fuzzy outline at the edge of her view. 

The room was empty, no other people and no other furniture. For some reason, Cleo didn't find this odd at all. In fact, she didn't think much of anything.

She wandered forwards, barely registering her feet gliding over the floor as she moved through the dim room. She reached the door that led outside. Her hand moved to the handle all on its own, turning the handle slowly and letting the door swing open.