Chapter 2

Chris Deaver sat in his lounge chair by a pool with a large cascading waterfall. He removed his sunglasses as his assistant approached him and sat down in the chaise beside him.

"Good news," he said. "Ms. O'Shannessy registered for our seminar. Apparently she's been having nightmares and wants us to study them and help her learn how to have lucid dreams to overcome her difficulty in sleeping."

Deaver laughed. "Well, now really?" he said. "Gee, Mr. Gibson, I wonder what has been causing those nightmares."

"It couldn't be the drugs we've been inducing her with could it?" replied Mr. Gibson sarcastically. "Seriously though, it will be much easier to move on with our plan now that she's coming to us on her own. Your flyer idea was genius."

"Of course it was," replied Deaver. "Soon, Caitlin O'Shannessy will help me achieve my biggest goal and she will love every minute of it."

"Just so you know," continued Gibson. "Your brother finally agreed to stay on in his usual roll as a lucid dream coach and ten others have signed up for this seminar. Everything is set up for our visitors including our very special guest. All will appear to be legit."

"Excellent," Deaver replied. "I'm so glad that my step brother agreed to let me be in charge of his business for awhile. This will be an interesting week. Oh, but don't forget that my name will now be Denson. We can't have Ms. O'Shannessy getting curious and researching me."

"Of course not," he replied. "Soon, you'll finally have your revenge and Archangel will not know what happened."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

The next day, Caitlin drove out of town to attend her seminar. It was being held at what seemed to be an old hotel that was transformed into what they called the "Center for Dreams" home. The main building housed a large meeting hall, a dining room, recreation room and several private meeting areas. Two separate wings jutted off from each side of the main hall. One side held small labs for sleep study and the other were the guest's private rooms. Each was given the key to their rooms and told to settle in for about an hour before meeting up in the main hall.

Caitlin felt extremely nervous as the group met and were introduced to their lucid dream coach named Samuel Lawson and the head of the Center for Dreams Chris Denson. She and the ten others were asked to discuss with the group why they came to the center and what types of dreams they had been having.

"I've been having nightmares that my boyfriend is being killed every time we get intimate," she said while slightly blushing. "It's the craziest thing. I can't ever recall having dreams like this before."

Caitlin listened intently to the others as they described equally bizarre dreams. She felt better at having shared hers and knowing that she wasn't alone. It was comforting to know that others had been in her same situation.

"I'm going to ask that each of you sleep in the study labs down in the right wing tonight," said Denson/Deaver. "We want to study your brain patterns as you sleep your first night here. Tomorrow we'll hold several classes as a whole and you can sign up for individual time with Coach Lawson."

Caitlin followed the others as each was placed into separate small rooms with a large glass window to the hallway. The glass was designed so that the person on the inside could see out but no one could see in. Caitlin laid down on a gurney like bed and an assistant who was a young woman put electrodes on various parts of her head to measure brain activity.

"Dr. Denson will be right with you to get things started in a few minutes," she informed Caitlin. "Just relax and settle in."

Caitlin did as instructed and tried to calm herself so that she could fall asleep more easily. She was definitely tired and she hoped being at the center would help her.

"Are we ready Ms. O'Shannessy," asked Denson/Deaver as he quickly stuck a needle in Caitlin's arm.

"What is that for?" she asked. "What are you giving me?"

"Oh, it's just something to assist you in relaxing," he replied. "You see, most guests have a difficult time falling asleep their first night here."

"Won't that give you a false reading on my brain activity?" she asked.

"Oh, no," he replied. "It will actually show us much more. Don't worry, we are experts at this and I believe you'll be satisfied with the results."

Caitlin couldn't help but give in. She felt herself drifting as his words became harder and harder to understand. It was as if he was speaking in slow motion and his words were dragging. She immediately fell asleep.