Prologue

Ari woke up. He wondered for a split moment how he could open his eyes. He didn't have to wonder for so long. A light overhead blinded his eyes and he cringed away from it-but found that he couldn't move. He turned his head slowly to the left and saw that his hand was bound and hooked to a machine that throbbed in rhythmic thuds. He tested his feet but found that his feet felt heavy as lead, but still bound none the less.

"He's awake."

"Check his vital sign."

"All in order here. No relapse?"

"It seems stable this time."

This time? He wondered. His glared eyes and the head followed every single moves scientist made. He attempted to say something, but his voice came out choked and scratchy. Impossible to make out. All the scientists simply ignored his attempt to speak and carried on their job robotically with purpose.

"He needs sedative. Can't have him go on a rampage like the last time."

At the keen word of sedative, he strained against his bound furiously by twisting and turning, but his effort was futile. Soon, he felt the quick stabbing pain on his arm and his vision grew clouded and hazy. At the corner of his eyes, he saw one of the scientist leaning in with long blond lightly curled hair drooping over her ear.

"Max." He croaked hoarsely with every energy he had left. But the woman slowly shook her head and chuckled in amusement.

"Welcome back to the land of living." The woman whispered with a light tone. Finally, his eyes gave out and his consciousness faded back to nothingness.

Chapter 1

Max was in a dream. She was aware that she was in a dream, but had a slow creeping chill behind her back that her dream will soon turn into another horrible nightmare. But she was already well too aware of it and knew it wouldn't take her off guard. What do they call this? Lucid dreaming, she thought. It was called Lucid dreaming.

She looked around to figure out where she was but all she could see was glimpse of leaves shining under the weak moonlight. Thick heavy darkness hung onto the shapes of trees. Guess bird eye ability doesn't carry into dreams, she thought. She tiredly squinted her eyes and began to walk toward what she assumed was a tall shape of a building.

Finally, she came out a shade forest and into a light where the building appeared to be a research facility with high securities and electrical fences. She was all too aware of what often happens behind those gates.

Suddenly, all the lights went out and the building was pitched into sudden darkness. Without any light to guide her, Max suddenly froze in her track. She heard a sudden exclamation of shouting on the direction of the right and saw a boy climbing the disabled fences with hunting dogs and guards trailing behind. The boy had a red hair and appeared dishevelled-in the stunted moonlight, the blue eyes glinted with crazed fear and panic. The boy kept running right past Max without noticing her and entered the forest. Max feeling like chasing a white rabbit, ran after the boy with menacing barking and shout of orders behind her back.

Max followed the boy as her instinct screamed at her and thought about how strange the dream was for being so vivid and rea; but at the same time, surreal. She sprinted through the leaves, dived under a fallen tree just before she was about to collide and jumped over a pond of water (thanks to moonlight reflection) following the muddy footprint the boy left behind. She heard the boy huffing for breath closer and closer and soon arrived behind the boy who was hidden in a bush, trying to calm his breath. With the sound of dog barking close by, the boy held his hand to his mouth, trying to not make a single sound.

Max hovered behind the boy, wondering what to do until the boy turned his head around and made eye contact with Max. Max assumed that he was looking behind her and that he didn't really see her but his blue eyes gazing at her felt he was looking at her instead of the surroundings.

On the closer inspection, the boy wasn't a boy, but a teenager. His messy red hair cut and blue eyes made him quite a stand out among the cloud, but he was thin as a bone with thin plain white T-shirt and short hanged to his skin. It was as if he was purposely trying to starve himself. Among the bare skin, Max could see faint bruises, stiches and a barcode on the teen's neck.

Max looked up to meet the kid's eyes again but was met with surprise as it was shining with tears.

"Is that you Max?" The teen barely whispered. HIs voice was thin and weak like a broken flute, but his gaze was hopeful, no longer ridden with fear. Max took a step back in shock. This kid can see her. But wasn't this supposed to be a dream?

"How can you see me? Isn't this a dream?" Max hissed. The teen looked confused. "A dream?" He paused trying to recollect his thought. "So you aren't actually here? Where are you? Are you sleeping right now?" With onset of questions, Max took an automatic defensive stance.

"Who wants to know? First answer me this: who the hell are you?" The teen stared at her with blank expression and then sadness filled his eyes.

"Of course you don't know. You can't tell that it's me." He said with a sad smile. "You wouldn't believe me, but you have to." He held his breath and let them out quietly. In the distance the light blared and sound of alarm has erupted off in the distance, piercing the silent forest.

"I'm Ari." He mumbled. Max stared at him in disbelief and shook her head, trying to clear her thought of jumbling questions. "Is this a sick joke?" She shouted. The teen desperately put finger on his mouth, signaling for silence.

"Calm down!"

"How can I be calm? Ari is dead!"

"I know, I'm dead. Well, I was dead." He tried to think. "Let me prove that I am Ari. This is something only you and I know." Max looked at him with bewilderment as he beckoned her to come closer and he whispered the secret into her ear. Quickly, Max pulled her head back with anger flashing across her face and then into a horror.

"How are you alive?" She asked quietly. Ari shrugged. "This is a dream." She muttered to herself. But Ari heard her.

"It's not a dream for me." He said through tensed teeth. Out of blue, he groaned in pain and his hand trembled while clutching his head. His crouching feet has gone numb but he felt the pounding pain starting from his head and traveling slowly down to every corner of his body. He fell forward and Max attempted to catch him, but she fazed right through him and Ari hit the ground with a thump.

"You okay?" She asked.

"Do I look okay?" He stuttered. "I need-your help" He gasped in between the pain, twitching and turning in pain. "Just find me. Please" He begged and then he clutched his mouth closed to swallow his half scream of pain while his eyes turned to the sky, unfocused. The guard close by heard a muffled scream and pointed the flashlight toward a bush, light puncturing the darkness and casting thick long shadows on the ground. Soon they both heard barking of the dog beside their ears and rustling of boots brushing the leaves.

"Over here! I found him. He is over here!" The guard shouted, pointing the bright light directly at shivering form of Ari and holding the growling hunting dog at bay. Ari looked at Max for the last time. Please, help, his eyes begged as they closed shut for the first time. Max reached out to help him with a cry up in her throat- and opened her eyes to Angel staring down at her.

"Did you have a nightmare?" She innocently asked. Disoriented, Max leaned her head against the bed railing. With uncertainty in her voice, she answered. "I'm not sure if it was a dream, nightmare or reality."