Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon so please refrain from suing me for writing fan fiction. Thanks and enjoy!
Within Dreams--Chapter 5
"All right, Izzy. Since you seem to know more about this thing than the rest of us, would you mind telling us all…what the hell just happened?" Matt demanded. "I might have read a little about convergent dreams, but nothing I ever heard explains that!"
The happening Matt referred to was a sudden, and utterly surprising change of scene. One instant they had all been on the ship, running toward the sound of Tai and Kari's screams, the next they were inside an extremely old and very abandoned apartment building. It had happened in the blink of an eye.
Izzy shrugged and offered: "dreams aren't exactly something that can be researched and broken down. Illogical things are very likely to become logical. And I am assuming that this environment is not totally stable. So there you have it."
"What do you mean 'not totally stable?'" Sora inquired.
"Well…take for example the abrupt change of surroundings. It was totally spontaneous and unpredictable. A stable environment generally tends to change very slowly. It does not suddenly change from a ship in the middle of an ocean to some worn-down apartment building."
"What happened to Kari and Tai?" TK wondered aloud.
"I don't know," Izzy answered. "I've never really been trapped in a dream before. Obviously, they have been separated from the group. And regarding their condition, I really can't say what condition they are in at the present."
Mimi furrowed her brow and questioned: "where's Joe? He should've showed up on the ship with us, right?"
"I think I can answer that one," Matt broke in. "He might not have gone to sleep yet."
Izzy added: "that's one solution. Or maybe he's here, just not with us. Or maybe he's just lucky. There are an infinite amount of possibilities."
"Wait a minute!" Sora cried out. "What if Joe was awake? What if he woke us all up? Would this all end?"
Matt shook his head and replied: "it's easier than that. He'd only have to wake one of us up. The minute one of us woke up, the rest of us would, too. Well, if they're physically able to, anyway."
"But that's all based on the idea that Joe is awake! There is no way any of us can know for sure this is the case and even if he was, how would he know to wake one of us up?" Izzy argued.
"Good point," Mimi muttered. "So when are we going to wake up normally if nobody else can wake us up? It's got to be later than we normally get up."
Matt was now zoned out of the conversation and he hadn't heard Mimi's question. He was remembering the strange phone call he'd received, wondering just who had made the call. They had seemed to know about what was going to happen when they all fell asleep. But who were they?
~*~
Tai felt like a truck had hit him. He ached all over, his stomach was churning like crazy and he was so weak he could barely even blink his eyes, let alone stand up.
He was dimly aware of the fact that he was separated from the others but was too exhausted to care. It took him a moment for the fact to register in his mind that he'd been unconscious and he vaguely wondered how long he'd been in that state.
The events on the ship were very slowly returning to him, but they were scrambled and disjointed, like a movie without sound or plot. Kari was in the water…Izzy was talking about something, but what he couldn't remember…the tentacle was dragging Kari out of the room…a sudden pain as something slashed across his back…metallic clanks…cold water…lurching ship….
He closed his eyes tightly and breathed deeply, wanting badly to roll onto his stomach and stay there until he felt better. But he was too weak to do even that. And his stomach was still churning, making him feel like he was about to be sick at any moment.
What happened to Kari? His fevered brain wondered. The last thing he could remember of her was…the tentacle dragging her out of the room. No…there was more. The tentacle…it dragged her down the hall and off the ship.
Tai struggled, trying desperately to move any part of his body--arms, legs, even fingers--but could only manage to raise his head an inch off the ground before his arms gave way. His muscles felt like they were burning and now his head was beginning to hurt.
The headache began to increase until it developed into a migraine so painful it felt like somebody had grabbed both his eyes from behind and tried to yank them out the back of his skull. He opened his mouth in a silent scream and shivered uncontrollably.
The pain was beginning to make him lightheaded. He heard footsteps approaching him, but they sounded so far away…so very far away…. Too exhausted to keep his eyes open any longer, he relaxed and allowed the darkness to take him away, back into the blessed, painless unconsciousness….
~*~
"Rea, why am I here?" Kari inquired as they searched for her friends and brother.
Rea shrugged and responded: "I don't know. Convergent dreams are funny things. They happen for no reason at all."
Kari furrowed her brow, remembering the note that had been thrown through the window of her bedroom. It starts tonight. Be ready. It seemed somebody had known that this was going to happen.
"I think I'm here for a reason."
"What makes you think that?"
"Well…a rock got thrown through the window in the room my brother and I share," Kari began.
"How does that make you think you're here for a reason?" Rea inquired, thoroughly confused.
"Well…a note was tied to the rock. It said, "it starts tonight. Be ready." But who could've known about this?"
Rea stopped in her tracks and cursed under her breath. Kari looked at her newfound friend, confused at what could have shaken her so much.
"What's wrong?"
Rea muttered: "I knew he was planning on doing this, but I didn't think he could actually pull it off." She cursed again.
"What? Who?"
"Malign."
"What--"
Rea sighed and quickly said: "look, he's the reason you're here. It's his fault and he planned it."
"What are you talking about?"
"The less you know right now the better. We've got to find your other friends now."
Kari opened her mouth to ask another question, but Rea was now running at an incredible pace while carrying her. Certainly too fast to worry about answering questions.
I guess I'll find out about Malign later, Kari decided.
~*~
Time sure passes slowly when you're alone, Joe thought, watching as the clock beside his bed ticked, the second hand moving jerkily clockwise. It had only been three minutes since the last time he'd checked the clock and he could hear his parents walking about down the hall, awake.
Maybe I'll "wake up" a half hour earlier. I'm getting a little bored waiting here and I'm sort of hungry, he decided.
His newly acquired cell phone suddenly beeped, loudly shattering the silence in the room. It startled Joe and made him jump in his surprise.
Quickly, he hit the talk button on the cell phone to silence the noise and to keep his parents from coming into the room.
"Hello?" he half-whispered. Who would call me at 7:08 in the morning? He wondered.
"You Jyou Kido?" a gruff voice said.
Joe furrowed his brow and said: "yes. And may I ask who is speaking?"
"Name's not important. You stayed up all night."
Now Joe was getting a little afraid. How could anybody know about that? This voice was unfamiliar and had a slightly sinister tone to it.
"Y-yes," he replied.
"That's not good for your health, boy. I advise you go to sleep before I am forced to put your lights out for you. Permanently."
Now Joe was scared. "What do you mean?"
"You'd better go to sleep if you want to help your friends, you'd better go to sleep so it can continue correctly and you'd better go to sleep before I make you go to sleep," the voice darkly replied.
The cell phone slipped from his hand and clunked loudly on the floor. Quickly, he picked it back up and queried: "is that a threat?"
"Let me put this bluntly: you don't take me seriously, I'll kill you. You stay awake, I'll kill you. And you tell anybody about me and I'll kill you real slow."
Joe took a deep breath and turned the cell phone off. Now what do I do? He thought to himself. If I actually go to sleep, he'll probably kill me in my sleep. But if I stay awake he'll kill me, too. And I can't tell anyone about him because he'll kill me then too. What can I do?