Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon so please refrain from suing me for writing fan fiction. Thanks and enjoy!
Within Dreams—Chapter 17
BANG! Rea slammed into the wall in front of her, unable to see through the stifling darkness. "Ow!" she cried, rubbing her nose tenderly.
"What is it? What's wrong?" Joe questioned.
"Nothing's wrong. I just ran into a wall."
Seven groans sounded through the tunnel simultaneously. "You mean a dead end?" Kari forlornly asked.
"Not necessarily," Rea muttered, tapping on the wall in front of her. She smiled: the wall had a hollow behind it. It wasn't a wall at all; it was a door!
"Rea? Are you all right? Should we turn around?" Mimi worriedly queried.
"No, I'm OK. I think we've reached the end of the tunnel. Just a sec. Stay there."
Rea trailed her fingers across the door. After a couple of short minutes, she found what she was looking for: a handle. Triumphantly, she twisted the handle—only to find that it was locked.
"The door's locked. Should've known Malign would think of this entrance," she informed her companions.
"You can't possibly mean we have to turn around and go back just because of one dinky little locked door," Matt argued. Rea did not reply and Matt continued: "you probably don't know this, but we've been through a lot worse than this. And now, when it looks like we've finally got a hope of going home you say we have to give up because of a locked door?"
"Well…."
"He's right," Izzy agreed. "There must be some way to pick the lock. Let me try." With that, he pushed his way to the door through the crowded, dark hallway and found the doorway. The handle was cold in his hand and it was rough. Carefully, he traced his fingers over the handle, taking in every feature of its bumpy surface. Then his fingers brushed something small, smooth and round. A button!
Izzy quickly pushed the button and the doorknob yielded when he tried it. He pushed open the door and light flooded into the hallway.
"AAAGGHH!" TK cried out, clapping his hands over his eyes along with everybody else.
"You could've warned us, Izzy," Sora muttered, rubbing her stinging eyes. "Oh well. Good job, getting it open."
Rea's eyes were the first to adjust to the sudden change in light. She took one look around their surroundings—and her face paled. The tunnel had ended in a quite unexpected place indeed: Malign's room. The door opened from the floor of his room directly in front of his throne. And sitting in the throne was Malign himself.
"Hello, young ones. Is it time for us to play?" he harshly inquired.
~*~
Vitriol slunk down the dim hallways of Malign's castle, the heavy brass key slapping against her right thigh with every step as she neared Tai's room.
She was nervous. And scared. She knew she was deliberately going against what Malign had ordered of her, but she was sick of his orders. And she had a gut instinct that Tai would be needed very soon—unchained and unconfined.
I just hope that Malign doesn't decide to go for a walk, she thought as she gripped the door handle in her hand tightly. With a deep breath, she pushed open the door.
Tai hadn't moved from the position he'd been in earlier. He was still lying on his back, looking up at the ceiling. He didn't even look to see who had entered his room when she came in. For a moment Vitriol almost thought he'd died, but then she noticed his chest was rising and falling evenly. He was sleeping.
"Hey, wake up," she muttered, shaking Tai awake.
"Huh? Oh, it's you."
"Could you sound any more unhappy to see me?" Tai didn't answer, so Vitriol continued: "OK, I'm going to take the chains off of you. Malign gave me permission to." She knew it was a lie, but somehow it didn't feel quite so wrong if she said she'd gotten permission.
Vitriol quickly unlocked the chains from around his ankles and wrists, noticing that his skin was already a little raw. Once the chains were off, she slung them over her shoulder and returned the key to her pocket.
"Get up," she muttered, trying to pull Tai to his feet.
Tai didn't get off the bed and Vitriol repeated: "get up," this time, more insistently. But once again, he didn't comply.
"You'd better get up right now," she hissed. "Your friends—" she
clapped her hand over her mouth, noticing her error one second too late.
"My
friends what?"
Vitriol sighed and muttered: "aren't dead. And neither is your sister." His smile practically lit the whole room, it was so bright. "They're going to be needing your help."
He
nodded vigorously and allowed Vitriol to lead him out of the room. As they walked down the hall, he whispered:
"hey, Vitriol?"
"Yeah?"
"Thanks."
"Yeah. No…problem," she haltingly answered.
~*~
Well, that was easier than I thought it
would be, Jim pondered as he
wandered the halls of the hospital less than an hour later. They're
all in the hospital. Something's
up.
He
plunked down in a chair against the wall and thought hard about everything that
had happened in the past few days, according to the hospital records. If
anyone ever figures out I went through the hospital's files, there's going to
be hell to pay, he thought. But the information he'd gained was
interesting indeed.
Out of Joe and his seven friends, six appeared to be sleeping
normally. Kari was brought in and filed
as nearly drowned and although the fluid was drained from her lungs, she
remained unconscious, presumably in the same state as her friends. Tai was brought in and filed as
poisoned. This was the case that really
threw Jim off. It didn't fit, yet it
did. The poison was classified as
UNKNOWN, but had been treated as the venom for a coral snake would be treated. Eventually, he'd ended up in the ICU with
serious burns that had mysteriously appeared. But he was increasingly recovering. And he appeared to be in the same state as his friends and sister—all
appeared to be asleep. In a way, it
reminded him of the time that all the people had seemed to be sleeping normally
in the convention center—even when they walked, talked and opened their eyes.
So it's not natural sleep, he thought. But this doesn't make any
sense! Something his brother had mumbled when he'd tried to wake him up
suddenly popped into his mind: "a…dream…?"
I'll assume for now he's having a dream. That would mean that all his friends are having a dream, too because they're all in the same state. What if they're having the same dream?
Jim puzzled over that idea for a moment, then dismissed it, thinking it was improbable. But it fits! He reminded himself. If they were having a convergent dream…that would make perfect sense!
He remembered reading a book once about convergent dreams, quite some time ago. At the time he'd thought it silly, but now, passages from the book were running wildly through his mind: "not like normal dreams…." "Usually involves a group of more than two people…." "Victims appear to be in a comatose state…." "Physical inflictions in the dream become reality…."
"It all makes sense," he muttered. "It's ridiculous, but it all makes sense!"