"This place exists between dream and reality, mind and matter." continued the long-nosed man. "You are here because you signed a contract of sorts; after all, only those who have signed a contract may enter here."
Dave sat in the seat across from the man's table, lifting an eyebrow. "Alright, this is about the freakiest dream I've ever had."
The odd man shook his head. "This is no dream. Whether or not you believe that now, you will come to believe it soon."
He extended his hand. "I am Igor, propreitor of the Velvet Room. And this is my assistant, Margaret."
Margaret bowed her head. "A pleasure."
Dave shook, but still kept his expression of disbelief. "You're saying I'm not dreaming? This sure as hell looks like a dream."
Igor shook his head. "You have had several experiences recently of which you can say the same, yes? Can you call them dreams when evidence to suggest otherwise exists in plain sight?"
"You're saying all that shit on the plane. That really happened?" Dave said. At this point he was beginning to believe it. This all seemed too real to be a dream, but it sure didn't feel like the waking world either.
"That is for you to discover. But I believe you already know the answer." Igor replied, spreading a few cards out. They looked familiar to Dave. Igor brought one of his hands up and the cards began to glow with an all-too familiar blue glow. Dave could only think of two possibilities; he was having some wicked hallucinations brought on by some factor he was unaware of, or that this was real. The latter was admittedly more believable at this point.
Igor flipped one of the cards over with a wave of his hand. Dave could see the same card that he had grabbed in his dream on the plane.
"My, this is most intriguing indeed." Igor said. "The upright Wheel of Fortune. It represents a positive change in circumstances. Indeed Lady Luck appears to shine on you. Often what appears to be either good or bad luck turns out to be just the opposite, or a catalyst to the other."
Margaret looked over at Dave. "It has been some time since one of our guests has been represented by a card other than the Fool."
Igor nodded. "Some time indeed. I find myself wondering how this will affect your journey."
Dave sat there with a blank expression. "Look, I have absolutely no clue what's going on here. Some straight answers would be pretty awesome right about now. I'm really not going to be able follow anything you say until I get some answers."
Igor flipped the Fortune card back over and waved the cards away, leaning forward and placing his elbows on the table and his chin on his hands. "The answers will come in due time. Do not rush towards the destination, for the journey is something to be enjoyed as well. Such is life."
Dave shook his head. "Alright, fine. I have no clue what I'm going to do about all of this, but fine."
"Not to worry." Igor responded. "You will be summoned here once more in due time. Until then, return to your life. Enjoy your journey. For the face of fortune that lies at your destination may not be what you desire. You must be prepared for such, and you must remember that the Wheel of Fortune is just that; A Wheel. A cycle Take these words to heart."
Sitting back in his chair, Dave tried his hardest to ponder the words spoken by Igor, but it all seemed so out of context. Assuming that this wasn't a dream, he would be summoned here again at some point. Perhaps he would be more informed then.
Dave felt his vision blurring and fogging up, and soon it all faded to black. The last thing he heard was Igor's voice; "Look to the Sun, and you shall find your answer."
_
"Dave, did you hear? Are you asleep?" called Jade's voice.
Dave blinked and removed his sunglasses, blinking, "Mmm? What? Sorry, I passed out for a sec... what did you say earlier?"
"I asked if you had decided on a club." Jade said, with a forced smile. She looked worried, no matter how happy she tried to make herself seem.
"I... I guess A/V with John, if it means I could work a turntable or DJ for some events." he responded sincerely. "Dances and stuff."
John nodded. "Yeah, we do a bit of that. Really, they don't care what you work on as long as you're learning and applying your knowledge. I think you'd do well with it."
Jade nodded with a smile. "Makes sense. What about you, Rose?"
Rose looked up from her book. "Me? I suppose Creative Writing would suit me well."
John smiled with a nod. "Yeah, Dave said you write."
"Just a bit. I usually don't show anything I write to anyone." Rose said simply.
"Well, joining the club might help you get better at showing off your work. Then you can get to work on your Pulitzer Prize winning novel!" Jade said cheerfully. Her peppiness was a little contagious. Dave felt much less drowsy and his eyelids stopped weighing down as much.
The next thirty minutes passed a little quicker now that everyone was fully awake. Dave made no mention of the Velvet Room or Igor, but he strongly considered talking to the others about it.
Who to ask, though? John was into Supernatural things, so he might have some knowledge on it. Then there was Rose; this seemed like it was right up her alley. Jade might not know much on the subject, but if she believed him about the Gateway Code, then maybe she would believe him about this too. He decided to leave it up to who he could find alone when they got to the dorm. He didn't want to talk about it with everyone at once.
Eventually they reached the end of the line. John and Jade devised a plan for themselves as well as Dave and Rose to answer the questions of the advisor similarly so that the four of them would get similar class assignments.
Dave was the last of the group to exit the advisory rooms with his completed schedule. "So? How do we match up?"
John took the four schedules and laid them in a row to compare. "For the first four hours of the day we're all together. English, Math, History, then Science, all the same teachers. Then lunch, then fifth and sixth are all different. Dave and I have PE 5th while you two have Computer Applications. Then it's vice-versa for 6th. Then we go to any clubs, then we head home! Overall, pretty good."
"Damn good!" Dave affirmed, taking his schedule from the row. "Now I don't need to sweat over not having notes."
"It'll make studying a lot easier." Jade added. "Homework too."
"Looks like Lady Luck decided to smile on us today." mused a smiling Rose. It was clear that she was having fun.
Lady Luck. Dave once again recalled the words of Igor concerning the Wheel of Fortune, and how one sort of luck might simply be an invitation for the other sort to occur. The thought put him on edge. Was something bad going to happen to them? Was that what Igor was hinting at?
He really needed someone to talk to.
_
After arriving at the dorm (and grabbing an apple juice from the vending machine), Dave laid himself on the loveseat and kicked back, crossing his arms behind his head. The Velvet Room and its' mysterious inhabitants continued to eat away at his thoughts. The card that he had grabbed in his dream, the words that had been spoken; "I am thou. Thou art I." What did it all mean? Was it all truly reality?
No, it wasn't, but it wasn't a dream either. As Igor said, it was "between dream and reality". This was something different entirely.
Jade took a seat on the sofa. She looked like she was pondering something. Dave knew that if he was going to talk to someone about anything, now would be the time. Rose had gone to her room to write a bit, having been hit with a bit of inspiration, and one of John's movies was on, so he decided to watch it in his own room. Dave and Jade were alone.
Dave was about to open his mouth to speak, but Jade beat him to it. It looked like she had sought to talk to Dave alone as well. "Dave? You said you had a dream on the plane, right? What happened exactly?"
"Well..." Dave responded, a litle surprised by the question. "The kid told me the code, I tried it, and then everything went black for a while. I felt like I was floating, and then some weird card appeared. I grabbed it and it disappeared, then I woke up."
Jade seemed like she was staring into space, deep in thought. "What did the card look like?" Jade asked. It seemed like an oddly specific question. "Did it have a Sun on it, with the Roman numeral for 19?"
Dave's eyes widened, though they couldn't be seen behind his shades. This was way too much to be a coincidence. Did she have the same dream? "No... it had a clock with a sword for a hand, and it had the number 10."
She looked at her computer on the coffee table. "I think I had the same dream. The falling-into-darkness-and-finding-a-card part, anyway. But... it seemed like more than a dream. I've had a lot of dreams, Dave. Never anything like that."
"Did you have any dream about this dude with a huge nose in a blue room?" Dave asked. Igor did say they had other guests at other points in time.
"No?" Jade said, suddenly giggling. "All this card stuff is weird in itself, but... I would be laughing at that if I wasn't already convinced that the card dream was more than just a dream. You'll have to tell me more about long-nose-in-a-blue-room guy later."
"So you think it was more than just a dream too, right?" Dave asked. "Then, if the card part wasn't a dream, then everything else..."
"The Gateway Code has to have something to do with it." Jade said. "This might sound weird, but at this point, I'd be willing to believe anything; what if the Gateway Code is what causes these weird dreams? What if it's... like a gateway to some part of ourselves or something?"
Dave hadn't thought of it like that. There was something weird about the random code that plane kid had told him, but he hadn't considered that it was the cause of all of it. "Then... maybe we should try it again."
"I was thinking the same thing." Jade said. "There might be something massive if we can find out what this really does. I'd hate to just leave this alone and never find out what it means. It'd bug me for the rest of my life!"
"You're right." Dave admitted. It would bug the hell out of him too. Hell, it was already bugging the hell out of him. "I'll go grab my laptop then."
Dave returned shortly with laptop in hand. "Alright." he said, sitting down with it on the coffee table. "Ready?"
"Yeah." Jade replied, sitting next to him on the sofa.
Dave counted down from three, and they both typed in the sequence. Upon stroking the 'end' key, they both felt a strange sensation. It was hard to describe, but it felt similar to a body part being asleep, except spread across the entire body. After a few moments, they both blacked out as expected.
The first thing Dave noticed is that he was laying on something solid. He was definitely not falling like last time. The ground felt dirty, as if he were outside.
He opened his eyes and found himself in a foggy, forest-like area, surrounded by trees as far as he could see. He slowly brought himself to his feet. Something was missing.
"Jade?" he called, looking around frantically. "Jade, you here?"
There was nothing. Trees, trees, and more trees. Looking down, Dave could identify a beaten path through the forest. It was his only choice at this point. He took the path through the forest, starting at a fast walk and changing to a jog after a few moments.
Something caught his ear; he couldn't tell what it was, but it sounded certainly unnatural. He felt like he was being watched. He continued on until her heard the sound again, this time louder. He swung around, closed his hand into a fist, and crouched slightly, as if ready to fight.
Dave felt a sudden sensation in his hand when he curled it into a fist, then saw a flash of bright light. When he could see again, he found a katana in his grip. It seemed to be in perfect condition, and well balanced for use in one hand. Things were making less sense by the minute, but Dave wasn't about to look a gift katana in the mouth. Or hilt or something.
His earlier assumption was correct. From the depths of the fog, something faded into view. It appeared to be a black puddle with an odd blue mask; how the mask was staying on top of the puddle was anyone's guess. The puddle seemed to sprout arms, and used them as a means of locomotion.
Dave readied his katana as the puddle approached. With a shout, he sliced with all of his might at the creepy puddle. To his great surprise, his slice did absolutely nothing.
"What the hell?" Dave shouted aloud. What kind of shitty supernatural world gives you a katana that doesn't cut anything?"
The puddle quickly retaliated and swung a hand at Dave, hitting him in the leg. He felt a sharp pain as his pants leg cuff ripped, and he fell backwards instinctively to avoid another hit.
"Dammit!" he shouted. There was no time to deal with this when Jade still had to be found. Despite the pain in his foreleg, Dave regained his balance and ran off along the path, away from the mysterious puddle. He could hear a scream in the distance, undoubtedly from Jade.
Dave increased the pace of his run, despite the pain, and came across a strange, blue glow that could be seen behind a bit of brush. It was unlike the gentle blue glow that surrounded the cards they had found in their strange dreams; it seemed malevolent in a sense, almost like a slowly burning fire. Dave chopped down the brush in his way and entered the grove, and was surprised to find not one, but two Jades facing each other.
"No, that's... not how I am..." said one of the Jades to the other. She appeared to have tears welling up in her eyes, while the other Jade stood menacingly with her arms crossed, the evil blue glow surrounding her.
"Jade!" Dave called to the crying Jade, whom he could tell was obviously the real one. Both turned towards him.
"Dave!" called out real Jade, her cheeks stained by tears. "Make her stop! Please!"
"Stop what?" repsonded other Jade in a distorted, demonic voice. "Stop speaking the truth? It's not my fault that you won't listen!" Dave was able to get a clear look at her; she looked exactly like Jade with one glaring exception; her eyes glowed a bright yellow, and she wore an evil grin.
"All your friends are in your life now." the other Jade continued. "It's soooooo much easier to act like a successful person behind a computer screen, Over the internet, it was easy to fit in a little lie every here and there. Dave and Rose would never notice! But now they're here. They see the real you, and you're already failing them."
"Stop!" Jade cried out, falling to her knees.
"You're trying so hard to impress them. But how can you? You're not a writer, or a disk jockey. You've got your plants, but which friends are you going to impress with silly weeds and flowers?" said the other Jade, apparently aiming to hurt real Jade. "And don't even get me started on the disaster that was the band class last year. Unteachable! The worst flute sound that they've ever heard! Of course you've got your bass, but where do you fit an electric bass into a symphonic arrangement, hm? Nowhere, that's where!"
Jade continued to sob, lowering herself further to the ground. Dave went over, placing a hand on her shoulder and kneeling. "Jade! Get a hold of yourself! Don't let her get to you!"
"You've always been enthusiastic about everything you do, but that never helps anything when you fall flat on your face, does it?" cackled other Jade. "Enthusiasm is worthless when you can't get the job done. All the hope in the world can't make up for a lack in ability. You just want to be free from having to work towards being great at something. You just want the magic ticket called talent! You just can't stand the same routine of practicing to fail. I should know... after all... I am you. And you're me."
Jade shook her head, trying not to sob uncontrollably. "No! You're wrong! That's not how I feel! You're not me!"
Dave felt a very bad feeling as soon as Jade muttered those words, though he couldn't tell why until he witnessed what was happening to the other Jade.
Other Jade began cackling maniacally as the blue glow around her turned blood red. She convulsed and began to grow as her form was hidden by the growing red glow. Dave backed up slowly, keeping Jade behind him at all times.
The glow dissipated and before them stood a gleaming figure. Before them was what appeared to be a warped, twisted version of Jade clad in spiked, shining armor and wielding a long spear. The figure towered over Dave and Jade, being at least four times their height.
"Shit!" Dave said, keeping his katana at the ready. What good was it going to do, though? It had failed him against the lowly puddle, What good was it going to serve him here?
"You're not going to live to see success!" shouted the armored figure, readying its' spear.
Dave was out of options and was about to suggest running when a familiar glint caught his eye. The card from his dream slowly descended and hovered in front of him.
"The Wheel of Fortune." he muttered, recalling Igor's words. "Well, here goes nothing."
Dave grabbed the card from the air, and it shattered.
It was at that moment that Dave's entire mind was wiped clean of all thought, save for a single word.
"Per... So... Na..."
_
