The Book of Dreams

Creative Content Literature
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What an exciting chapter

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this was my favorite part

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(post withdrawn by author, will be automatically deleted in 24 hours unless flagged)

True literary success.

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Why would you do this, plagiarism’s illegal

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If the next chapter isn’t titled Chapter 21 I refuse to read it. Because this is the real chapter 20 right here.

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This stunning, bold and innovative new chapter urges me to catch up on my reading.

The section where Ghib says “unless flagged” really speaks to me :exploding_head: :two_hearts: :100:

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Ch 19

–

Chapter 20

–

“Okay, actual answers time.” I said to my retriever. “What the heck is going on? Why is there a giant lurching about? And why are you stretching my coat out?”

Renner was still carrying myself and the yellow kid Cordax by the collars, turning down alleys and jumping fences, all in an attempt to evade the massive figure looming above. He stopped for a moment, holding his breath as he crouched behind the shadow of a house, as the lumbering step of the massive creature slowly passed us.

“I don’t know, I don’t know, and because they stopped making idiots with handles.” He exhaled, turning sharply to me. “If I could find Ghid again, I’d just about ring his neck to get some answers as to why he’s sending these monsters after us. Who was that Photez fellow? Why was Ghid torturing him?”

I started. “Get Diero back here as soon as you can.” I grumbled, slowly returning to my feet and feeling my poor collar. “Have him fire one of the Eilrach bullets.”

Renner gave an expression which seemed to convey the absurdity of the command as well as the confirmation that he had suspected since I burnt Monopoly’s home to the ground. It switched to concern when he saw that I was walking away. “What are you going to do?”

“Get his attention.” I pulled my collar tighter and glanced back at the anodize airhead. “Try to hurry Diero along.”

I heard him shout the command for Wild Card behind me as I entered the middle of the street. The massive figure up ahead turned in surprise, then lumbered ominously towards me until its massive ‘feet’ were only, um… Feet from me.

If only there was another system of measurement I could use. Alas, there is none. What a pity.

Hm? What? Doth mine imaginary ears hear the question of the dear reader, wondering why I chose to emphasize the word feet? Not for all those bat-brains on the Boards, I assure you. No, it was because the massive colossus was comprised entirely of Dreamers, all snarling, hissing, probably angry because they had to be feet and not something cool like eyes or hands.

The massive head of the Dreamer conglomerate loomed downwards until the glowing eyes comprised of hundreds of Dreamer eyes illuminated a circle around me with an ominous yellow glow. I pulled out a cigarette and, standing on my tiptoes, was barely able to light it from the flame of one of the hundreds of eyes.

“Thank you.” I mused, puffing at the cancer stick. “You’ve no idea how much I wanted one while trapped in that hole with Cordax.”

There was a small disturbance of dust behind me, and the resulting shadow over my head told me Diero’s stupid hat had arrived, and hopefully the deadsperado was safely in tow. “Light 'em up, cowboy.”

I ducked down as cowboy fired two shots at the fiend, green smoke puffing out of his revolver. The massive entity barely flinched, but a number of the eyes suddenly turned green and began gargling ominously, prompting the others to break their form and attack. Soon the entire giant had fallen apart, turning into a very angry pile of punching and kicking. The Sonus fellow had somehow approached during this, and shared a brief whisper or two with Renner before igniting into a white-hot molten rage and casually walking directly into the pile of Dreamers, eating through them like a hot knife through butter.

The four of u- No, no, Me and Cordax and Renner and Diero stood there for about five minutes watching this occur, or at least we di- ME and CORDAX and RENNER did, because Diero snapped his fingers in realization and walked off after a couple seconds, only returning near the end with that angry rectangle in his arms.

“This is quite monotonous.” Said the Sonus lower half creature as he stood in place and let the ravenous Dreamers pile on top of him only to be melted away into nothingness upon contact. “Is there any way one of you could assist?”

“Dream: WHIRLING IRON.” Renner said, waiting for Diero to go through the whole flame eyes thing. “Help the guy out, this is taking forever. We’ll be at the former observatory.”

He then grabbed me by the collar and began dragging me back in the direction of the heap of former building. I shrugged at Cordax’s expression of disbelief, prompting him to follow behind us until we had reached the base of that mountain of rubble. A sustained glare from Renner told Cordax he was better off searching through the rubble for something useful, and he trudged off to one of the few remaining portions of the structure which still stood.

“You seem to know a great deal about what’s going on. Probably more than anyone else here,” He spoke hurriedly, writing something on another one of his scraps of paper he seemed to never run out of. “Give this to Diero when the time comes.” He folded it and jammed it deep into my coat pocket. “Please. I don’t have anyone else.”

I confess to being a bit taken aback by the sudden gesture, and I wish I had been given the time to recover and respond, but Cordax stole it away by reappearing in what appeared to be an incredibly oversized suitcoat. “Hello gentlemen,” He mused, adjusting the collar through an incredibly long sleeve. “I found this thing in what’s left of the entrance. You like it?”

“Get the heck out of that right now.” Renner hissed. “Do you realize where that’s been?”

“No?” Cordax said, looking at me for some kind of reassurance.

“Ghid.”

“Oh. Oh eewww” Cordax wriggled out of it in repulsion. “Yuck. I’m going to need a shower after touching that… uh Anyway, what have you ladies located? Anything?”

“Wherever Monopoly is, it must be relevant to the mission I paid him for.” I rambled, not really knowing where he could or would be at this point, but it seemed like the next best bet. “Did he meet you at the cider factory, or was it somewhere else?”

“Weellll,” Cordax tapped his chin, Renner giving me a slight glare for some likely justified reason. “First he said to meet him at this diner called Fifty’s, I think it was more of a sixties diner if I’m being honest, and then we literally walked all the way to a train station and-”

“I’m going to signal Diero.” Renner said, turning and scrambling up the rubble mound. “Both of you get ready to move.”

I watched chromeboy get taller and taller until Cordax punched my shoulder. “Look, look.” He undid the buttons of the suitcoat and revealed a folded set of clothes crumpled up in one of the sleeves.

“Hm?” I glanced, doing my best to appear uninterested, knowing immediately what it was. “Those seem a bit big for you, kiddo.”

Cordax rolled his eyes with a groan and unfolded a large, absurdly puffy coat from the sleeve. I faked having a violent start at the sight of it to sell the illusion that I was shocked and awed at seeing Monopoly’s coat again. “It’s Monopoly’s coat.” Cordax explained. “And these are his pants, and I have the shoes in the suit pockets, and here are his gloves in the other one… Tott, do… Do you think he-”

He looked about suspiciously before leaning in, either trying to be secretive or for effect, I couldn’t tell. “DO YOU THINK HE WAS GHID THE WHOLE TIME????”

There was a sputtering growl, and dust kicked up in front of the two of us, saving me from having to respond to such a ridiculous question. Diero grinned as he hopped off the somehow still functioning but thoroughly battered wheelless bike. “Say, Tater Tott, I was wondering if you could fill me in on something.”

Seeing as Cordax was visibly dying for the opportunity to stuff the coat back in the sleeve of the suit, I decided to take the bait. “I can’t help it if you’re getting senile and forgetting things, Diero. Or are you just out of the loop?”

Diero frowned for a moment, but the thought of his question made him grin maliciously once again. “We were in Monopoly’s house a while back, and then something happened, and I ended up in the street. Now,” He lowered himself down to wrap one arm around my shoulders and stick his irritating chin in my face. “You wouldn’t happen to remember what went down, do you?”

“I’m surprised you forgot.” I shrugged, slipping my hands into my pockets with as casual of body language as I could muster. “I thought I saw something in the flames, so you went to go look at it. But after you stuck your head into the fire for a couple moments, you just passed out. You didn’t have any eyes anymore and it was super weird.” I gestured with one finger around my eye socket as his sinister expression shifted to one of confusion. “Well I started dragging you towards the door, but just as I got there the house fell down on top of me, and I had to kick my way out of the debris. You should time your amnesiac naps for when I’m not in peril, if you can.”

Diero had begun to look away in confused acceptance of the situation when the last comment swung his head back with a scowl attached. I shrugged with the hint of a smile in my eye and elbowed him off in time to get clotheslined by Renner’s descent. “Sorry, uh, it’s time to go everyone.”

“I’ve never been in a vehicle before!” Sonus gleefully clapped his hands, something I wish I had never seen in conjunction with that disturbing skull. “Along with a gigantic list of things I was incapable of partaking in. Where are we going?”

“Fifty’s,” Renner said as he motioned for Diero to pick me up and hop on. “Cordax, let’s hope you left a generous tip.”

“Ahahehaheh heh ha,” Cordax said as he tied the improperly folded and extremely lumpy oversized suitcoat around his body. “Well, we uh… Definitely left. I mean left a large impression, I mean a good impression, yeah.”

“Yeah.” He jolted as Diero grabbed him by the collar, pausing momentarily to look suspiciously at the suit before climbing aboard.

I pulled the collar of my coat closer to my neck. Today was a bad day to be alive.

–

Ch 21

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Thank you so much! :blush:

I’m glad that part spoke to you as well! It means a lot to me.

Don’t worry, the next chapter will be chapter 21. I hope you enjoy reading this one!

I’m going to sue him and disown his children! :blush: :revolving_hearts:

You’re too kind! :dizzy_face: Too kind… Thank you so much! :dizzy_face:

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ye it did

This is the perfect reference

Also I’d like to think the giant guy represents me because of my collective consciousness, though I could be wrong. Edit: no actually I think it’s Eilrach

Ooh interesting

Noice chapter

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I thought you were a good writer until today. The utter lack of skill displayed in this chapter is astounding.

I am truly disappointed.

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Now you’re getting it! You’re becoming more like Ghid every day.

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Wow, I took a month-long break from this site (apparently I can procrastinate in social interactions on the internet as well) and I’m already two chapters behind… time sure flies. That’s unacceptable. Please make it stop.

And, since nobody tagged me during the time of my absence, Renner’s apparently still alive somehow. That’s a pleasant surprise.

Edit: why is everyone on the boards talking about bats now?

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uh.

run while you still can

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you don’t want to know

Though if you do, ask @TotalMaddness

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Ch 20

–

Chapter 21

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The Dark Wall.

What a stupid clichĂŠ name.

It wasn’t even a wall, it was a dome; it surrounded that small strip of homes which Ghid had unfettered control over, and it was constructed to keep him in. Ghid in return constructed his own artificial dark wall further inside the larger one, centered around that eyesore tower, which was tall enough to extend past the original dome and allowing him to, in theory, simply waltz out of his containment whenever he chose. But with all the powers that being Ghid brings, flight is not one of them. At least he could see the stars now and then.

Regardless, the original dark wall had a significant advantage over its duplicate in that it was completely impenetrable to any force - and yet it proved to be ineffective against a wheelless vehicle driving directly towards it while the blue flames of a playing card engulfed all passengers on board. I was seated on one of Diero’s knees while Cordax sulked on the opposite one, trying to keep the extremely large suitcoat from blowing away. Sonus sat on the middle seat, jumping repeatedly as he watched the blue flames crawl across his body. Renner closed his eyes and waited for the process to complete.

Then an odd sensation came over me. It was a warmth, so unfamiliar and distant yet present and comforting. It was the closest thing to that hope I felt while trapped under the smoldering walls of Monopoly’s home, a comfort and light to my eyes so accustomed to the artificial beams of that fake sun constructed in the dome of darkness.

It was the sun beginning to rise.

On my left there was a small diner styled after the manner of a 50’s diner, with several large boards covering where a curved glass window ought to have been. A large neon sign proclaimed the name Fifty’s; I guess all the good ideas for restaurant names were taken. Diero interrupted my train of thought regarding the naming of culinary establishments by violently standing up and dumping me on the ground, Cordax letting out a yelp before tasting the delicious dirt of Fifty’s driveway, on the house.

“We got tracks here.” The deadsperado sniffed despite his lack of nose, sticking his pointy chin almost directly into the impression of a large foot print - I assumed I was the only one of these dunderheads who recognized it as the print of that yellow fellow with the terrible calligraphy. They lead onto a compacted dirt road and disappeared, and following them back to their origin point showed them trailing all the way back to the dark wall, which seemed eerily distant now.

Cordax had sputtered and hacked and scrambled to his feet, but now stood quizzically staring off at the tracks and scratching his chin. “If they went there… But that’s not possible, only I and monopoly know about that place. Hey- GGHIcKUlp”

Diero had gripped him by the throat and Renner sauntered up, tipping his head down to give what I can only assume was a menacing expression. “Something you need to tell us, Cordax?”

“Y-urg-yeah, forgot to mention,” Cordax gasped, ten spitting a large blob of blueish saliva directly into Renner’s eye. He calmly and rationally reacted by shouting and flailing until he fell into the only undamaged window on Fifty’s, breaking right through it and collapsing on the furniture inside.

“Your mother is a hamster.” Cordax stuck his tongue out and quickly regretted it as Diero immediately dropped him back in the dirt.

Renner was thankfully too busy picking pieces of broken glass off his body to bother retorting to that. He had only broken the window a little, but Diero vaulting through the remainder of it solved that little problem. I clambered through the open hole in the wall and started scrounging about for anything important behind the counter.

Renner mumbled something to his cohort about why in the world he was ever dumb enough to bring that stupid kid and Diero kindly reminded him he had a hot streak going and then Cordax clambered through the window gasping for air and implying he had swallowed a bug and-

What? Me? Oh, I was reaching under the counter for the Akaku that was there. I walked around the counter, looked at it, and watched the eyes glow orange, dropping it in shock as the rest of the party saw the-

None of them saw anything. They were too busy trying to handle Diero’s attempt at the Heimlich maneuver which saw him threatening to break Cordax’s ribcage as the latter almost screamed in protest with Renner trying to hurriedly talk Diero down, who didn’t understand what the issue was and wanted to see it through. So I did the whole thing again - I picked up the mask, looked at the eyes as they glowed orange, dropped it in shock and gave as much of a violent reaction as I could… And still nothing.

“Oh no. Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.” I shoved my hands in my pockets and waited for someone to do something.

Renner finally looked at my plight, screamed “GHID MASK” and began violently stomping it into as fine of a powder as he could manage. Diero and Cordax stared at this process, frozen in place in surprise and concern for Renner’s mental health.

As this happened, I quietly slipped back out the window, tapping Cordax on the shoulder as I crawled out the open hole in the wall. There on the wheelless bike sat Jethryn’s lower half, now going by Sonus, staring directly at the sun in complete silence. I strolled up and looked at the sun for a moment to see if there was anything interesting happening, but it was just the sun, towering over the horizon, bathing the grey sky with an orange warmth.

“Cold.” Sonus finally spoke. I began to say something in reply, but paused. Something about the way he said that word seemed important to hear, and so I stood, silently waiting for the rest of his thoughts.

“So cold up there. So lonely. Alone. It can see the doings of every man, every action in repetition, the tiny specks of sentience making greater and greater impact, for better or for worse. For evil or for good. No thought taken to their individuality, their hopes, their dreams and fears and terrors walking in the dark, hungering, craving their hopes and hearts.”

What. Is this getting philosophical? It’s just the sun.

“They stand, they push back the night, the horrors, the creeping night returns once more, but only for a time. The shadows themselves are forced to hide only by the light of the sun, and it is a necessary task lest the world be clouded with the black of night. But there are no friends for that solemn sentinel, alone, in the cold.”

“So cold up there.” Sonus wrapped his arms around himself and drew his elongated head closer into his shoulders. “It’s so cold to be alone.”

I had pulled out a cigarette, but I had no means to light it. So it sat, being completely boring, in between my fingers. There was a question I knew I had to ask, but the implications it would bring were serious. They could, if improperly taken, threaten everything.

“Who is that darkness?”

“You.” He replied.

The cigarette fell to the ground. I was frozen in place, thoroughly terrified at the one word answer I had received. The sun’s warmth did nothing to alleviate my fears and tension at the accusation; far greater implications had been made by his statement than I could have ever made with mine.

“Every person is their own walking terror.” Sonus continued, oblivious to the sound of my joints unlocking and the air exhaling from my artificial lungs in exhausted relief. “Every person carries a shadow, a fragment of him. They feel his eyes bearing down at all times, his wickedness and vile thoughts hissing out behind their ears, speaking the worst of thoughts to their minds. He is everywhere in this world.”

I had leaned away from him during this speech. Who was this ‘Him’ he spoke of? Was it Ghid, perhaps? Because with the whole giant dome thing, you’d think people would be less concerned with his presence, being entombed and all.

Thankfully, to my saving grace, Renner appeared from out of the front door. “Either of you hungry? I looked around, and the only food there is a fridge drawer full of partially frozen spinach and nothing else. Oh wait, you probably can’t eat. Well, what about you, Tott?”

“No.” I puicked the cigarette back up off the ground and dusted it off. “Just a match is all I need.”

“Well then, we need to get going.” Renner said, looking back at Cordax as he climbed through the window and fell on his face. A guttering match had appeared under my chin and the wily grin of Diero peeked at me from my side. How he got here I don’t really know, but I reminded him how much I cared by lighting my cigarette with his flaming eye socket instead of the match.

“Dream: WILD CARD.” Renner said, climbing aboard the strange vehicle and starting it up. “We’re headed to the old cider factory to see if Monopoly was headed over there. Cordax, why do you have that?”

Cordax, who had picked up the Ghid suitcoat he had left on the vehicle, jumped in surprise and tried very badly to hide it behind his body. “Nothing nothing there’s nothing um it’s a gift from an uncle of mine yes that.”

“Uncle Ghid?” Renner said, raising one eyebrow. Now everyone was looking at him to see what his response would be.

“Sure?” Cordax whimpered, trying to sidle behind the bike. Diero grabbed him and set him on his knee again, motioning for me to climb up. I begrudgingly ascended, noticing for a brief moment the questioning stare of Sonus. He was now suspicious of me. Just wonderful.

The card was thrown, and that wheelless contraption rocketed forwards, entering the blue flames and emerging on the other side… And wildly swerving to avoid colliding with another vehicle. Diero was tossed from the bike in the process, and that means Cordax and myself as well. I did my best to roll off the pile of moron that preceded me to the ground, and almost collided with the vehicle itself.

While that strange contraption of Renner’s was a mix of reds and silvers, this one was jet black. It had some highlights here and there, but it was clearly meant to be extremely cool-looking or something. Blindingly reflective, polished to a ridiculous extent, and clearly designed for one and only one person. Renner approached during this inspection, and eyed the vehicle in what might have been jealousy.

“Now who in the world do you suppose this is?” He mused, while I looked towards the cider factory it was parked in front of. Someone was here ahead of us, someone with a much sweeter ride.

I wonder if I could switch parties.

–

Ch 22

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What is nine plus ten?

New chapter finally out. I really gotta pick up the pace on these.

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I’m behind by like 2 chapters :sob:

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image

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Well, knowing my most recent crime, I won’t be surprised if Renner dies a horrible death in the next chapter.

Also, my series of extremely deep and accurate analysis of chapters will be coming back really soon. I haven’t been stripped of the title of the Ultimate BoD Theoriser yet, have I?

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hey ghid was I the big monster guy who appeared in the last chapter