Kingdom Dreamless

Episode One - Old endings and new beginnings

Every morning I wake up…

My name is Paul Davis. I am a regular 17 year old boy, I go to college and sit through the lessons. I go home and do any homework I might have got during the day then I play a few video games, my favourite is Kingdom Hearts, or watch some DVDs and occasionally some television, although there aren't many good TV programmes on these days. At the weekends I have a part time job at WHSmith, the pay is poor at $3.70 but it's enough to get by. At nights I often get together with some friends and check out the local pubs, parks or anywhere with people our age. There have been many Sunday mornings I've woken up with a headache because of those nights.

Every night I dream…

My name is Chaos. I am part of a group of lucid dreamers that practise lucid dreaming on an almost nightly basis. Lucid dreaming is when you realise you are dreaming, this gives you control of your dream body and the dream environment. For the past couple of years we have been working on getting in to a shared dream, it has been quite successful at times but can sometimes be a failure. I guess it depends on our will on those nights. We have been successfully lucid dreaming for the past 4 years, since we were 13. We consider ourselves masters of the art of lucid dreaming although many people would say we are a fluke. Our collective name is 'The Circle of Lucidity'. We have three members which include myself, Locke and 8-Ball. Locke's name in the waking world is Jonas London. Weird name, eh? 8-Ball's name in the waking world is Alan Rogers.

"Over here, Chaos." Locke shouted from the foot of one of the large skyscrapers.

We had successfully managed to get in to a shared dream again, and after a long time shaping the scenery in the dream, we decided to play a game of catch.

"Catch!" I shouted as I threw the small ball of energy toward Locke.

We had decided to make the scenery like a city. There were large metallic sky scrapers dotted throughout the landscape, a small park to the east and a road running through the city.

"Don't you guys ever get bored of this?" 8-Ball asked us, looking pissed off as always.

He had long black hair flowing down to his knees. He wore a lot of black. His current attire included a black shirt which looked kind of dirty, black jeans with chains hanging out of the pockets and hooking on to one of the random holes and big, black boots with too many buckles.

"Ah, shut up. You're just jealous that you throw like a girl yet we are way too manly to do that." Locke taunted.

Locke wore brighter clothes than 8-Ball. He was wearing a bright yellow t shirt, light grey trousers and brown trainers. He had short, scruffy blond hair and big blue eyes.

I wore the same as usual; my white t shirt, black hoodie, blue jeans and my yellow trainers. We usually wore the same in each dream, but Locke's yellow t shirt was new.

"I don't throw like a girl." 8-Ball defended his throwing.

"Prove it then." Locke said, throwing the ball to 8-Ball.

8-Ball caught the ball and looked at it. It was a ball of pure energy that I had made, I had been trying to perfect them for the past 2 years and nearly had them at exactly the right shape and weight. It was clear blue in colour, you could see straight through it yet you could also see your reflection.

8-Ball dropped the ball on the floor and watched as it disintegrated.

"8! You know how long it takes me to make those!" I shouted at him.

"I don't throw like a girl." He continued to defend himself.

"Yes, you do." Locke said.

"Isn't that a bit sexist?" I asked.

"Well, he throws like a girl." Locke continued to say.

He really does.

We were walking through the dream city for a while, perfecting anything that had gone wrong with it like trees that were out of place or things that had somehow managed to get upside down. We were walking along the road when a car nearly went straight into us but it stopped just in time.

"Whoa. Watch out man." Locke said, knocking on the window.

The window came down as an expression of shock came over Locke's face.

"Erm… Chaos. Come check this out."

"Why?"

"Just do it."

"Fine."

I looked through the window to see my face looking back at me.

"Why are there two of you here?" 8-Ball asked me.

"How should I know? I didn't a-" I realised something.

I put my head in and looked in the back seat, looking at my sister sat by herself.

"What? Why are there two of you? Is that one fake?" She asked, pointing at me.

"Wake up, Dee." I said to her, "You're dreaming about me driving again."

I hadn't got my license yet, and Dee had dreams about me driving since she and I were both a lot younger.

"What do you mean?" Dee said before she faded away, waking up in the waking world.

"Hey Chaos, why don't we have some fun with the other you?" 8-Bit laughed.

"Fun like what?" I asked, worried about what the answer would be.

Locke interrupted, "Let's see if he speaks first."

I slapped the other me on the head.

"Ow. You bastard." He said.

"This is gonna get confusing." I said, raising my eyebrow at Locke.

"Guys." 8-Bit tried to get our attention, we turned to see him fading away. "I guess I'm waking up. I'll see you both when you get back."

8-Bit disappeared, leaving me and Locke alone. 8-Bit could never manage to stay in the shared dreams as long as me and Locke could, he must have had poor willpower or something.

"What? Where did he go?" Locke said, I turned around to see that the other me had disappeared.

"That's weird." I made the obvious cleared, "Even for a dream."

"Uh… Chaos." I turned around again, just in time to catch the other me kicking Locke on the floor.

I punched the other me in the face, knocking him to the floor. Locke got up and smashed the car window, he threw me a piece of glass and I put it in my… his… the other me's neck and watched as he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"I didn't know I was that violent."

I woke up shortly after Locke. I was Paul again.

"So you're back then." a voice came from my right, I turned to see Alan on the floor in his sleeping bag. I turned to my left and saw Jonas going back to sleep. That lazy bastard sleeps till noon, and that's on early days!

"What's the time?" I asked.

"Just gone 7." Alan answered.

"Okay. Well I'm just gonna… rest my eyes a little bit."

"Whenever you say that, it mean's you're going back to sleep." Alan's voice fell on deaf ears. I had already gone back to sleep again. I knew Alan wouldn't do the same, he likes to be an early riser to get things done. I figured he would probably turn on my computer and buy some more junk of the internet with my credit card so I had prepared a list of things he could buy for me and put it on the desk.

"Cheeky bastard." I heard his voice as I was sleeping.

"Chaos." I heard a voice, I was stood in a small dark dream environment. I couldn't see a thing.

"Who's there?" I called out.

The room lit up with an orange light. I was stood in another white room, quite common in my dreams. I looked around at the large Keyblade statues dotted through the room. It reminded me of Kingdom Hearts.

"Hey. That reminds me. I never managed to make Heartless appear before." I said, remembering it.

I put out my hand and made a dark hole appear in the floor. The most common type of Heartless in the game, a Shadow, crawled it's way out of the hole in the floor.

Then two more.

Then three more.

Then twenty five more.

"Uh… I only wanted one." I said, trying to make some of them disappear.

They wouldn't go though, they just crawled around as if I had no effect on them whatsoever. Worst of all, more kept coming through the hole. Even though I was not focusing on it any more, the hole kept spitting out more and more Heartless. As the what seemed like 300th Heartless came out of the small hole, I realised…

"Maybe if I close the hole up then they will stop coming through."

I put my hand up and focused on the hole. It closed soon after, but the Heartless were still there. It looked as though there were 500 of them, all packed in to the small room. I could barely look around. The Heartless began to tear the room apart quickly, taking chunks out of the wall.

"It's too late to turn back now." A voice said in my head.

"This is way too screwed up." I said to the voice, "What's happening?"

"You don't know yet."

The walls of the room crashed down to the ground and all around was darkness as the orange light dimmed. I felt a Shadow grip my leg. Then I felt more grip on to various areas of my body.

"What the hell?"

The Shadows were crawling all around me. I felt the darkness in my skin.

"What is this?"

A huge bright light appeared in front of my eyes, raining down on me and the Heartless.

"Who are you?" I shouted as I sat up in bed.

"Well, my name is Jonas. This is Alan." Jonas said, stood at the foot of my bed.

"Have a nightmare?" Alan asked, standing with his arms crosses across his chest.

"No." I lied. "What time is it?"

"9 in the morning." Jonas answered.

Me and Alan look over at Jonas, jaws hanging down.

"What? WHAT?" Jonas asked impatiently.

"You're awake!" I shouted at him.

"Well yeah, your shouting woke me up."

"Oh right."

"Now shut up while I try to get to sleep."

Jonas got back in his sleeping bag as I went over to the computer desk that Alan was typing at.

"You find my list?" I asked.

"Yep. I found a few of them on eBay and the t shirt on Amazon." Alan replied.

"Nice one." I said gratefully.

"I've been researching Dream God's too. I found a few references to them on ld4all, apparently they are insanely powerful and appear in dreams at random. There's nothing about what they look like though, which is surprising as one person claims to have had a small fight with one of them." Alan said, typing away at the computer.

"What about the Watchers?" I asked.

"Only one person has seen them." Alan answered, "He says they thanked him for doing a job of some kind, they didn't look human in appearance either."

"Try sending some PM's to these people. Tell them we're researching Dream God's and the Watchers and that we could use their help. If you don't get a reply within 3 days, PM them again. If you still don't have a reply see if their e-mail address is on there and send an e-mail to them about it."

"And then what?"

"Give them my Instant Messenger screen name, I'll talk to them about possibly getting into a shared dream."

"Isn't that gonna be hard? It took us three long enough to get a shared dream at will, and it took us insanely long to be in a shared dream where we could affect each other."

"We'll find a way."

"If you say so." Alan said coolly before clicking the mouse a few times.

I looked at the task bar at the bottom of the screen.

"You're on the Slipknot website?" I said to him.

"Yeah. What's wrong with that?" He answered.

I just stared at him.

"What?"

"Are you gonna stay awake now?" I asked.

"What's the time?" Jonas replied.

"Just gone 11."

"Then no. Goodnight."

Jonas went back to sleep quickly, he had this strange ability to just sleep at will. He could sleep for hours and hours at a time. We once considered doing a little experiment to see just how long he could sleep for, but we both had college so agreed to do it nearer to Christmas.

"He's such a lazy bastard." I laughed.

"I've sent those PM's. I sent them to the one guy who said he's seen the Watchers and to the four people who say they have seen Dream God's." Alan said to me.

"Okay, good. Has anyone replied to our post in the forum yet?"

"I don't know. Hang on, I'll just check."

Alan typed away at the keyboard as I looked around my room. I recently redecorated, the walls were now a dark red colour and the carpet was blue. I had black curtains over the windows. I hadn't realised how dark it looked until now.

"Two replies. One from some guy saying he wants to join the Circle, but he's just some newbie with 5 posts." Alan said.

"And the other?" I asked.

"From some girl who says she can also go in to a shared dream at will and wants to meet us."

"Move over." I said as I grabbed another chair, I logged out of Alan's account and in to my own. I replied to this girls post, her screen name was 'K4' which I found kind of unusual.

I typed in to the reply box; 'Add me to your Instant Messenger, my screen name is Riku2005, but that's commonly known on these forums. We can discuss a possible shared dream if you are as good as you say you are. Hope to hear from you soon.' and clicked the 'Post Reply' button on the screen.

The page came up and I read her message, 'Hey guys. I like the idea of a group of lucid dreamers, sound's cute So anyway, I can get in to a shared dream at will too. I've done it with a few friends before, but I've never tried to get three people in to one shared dream though. How about we try and meet up in a shared dream then? It could be fun ;-) K4'

3 hours later, Jonas was awake and K4 had added me to her Instant Messenger. I had been talking to her for the past half an hour and despite Jonas screaming "Cyber her! Cyber her!" I had managed to have a good chat with her. It turned out she lived about an hour away from me and she was 16, a year younger than I was. It was still quite early and she didn't have any plans, so she got on the bus and came to meet us. I thought that was kind of dangerous to do that but she seemed to think it was fine. I was amazed by this girl, she didn't even know us, had only spoken to me once on Instant Messenger for half an hour and was already arranging to meet us. I guess she was a bit too trusting. She told us she'd be at the bus station by about 4 so we went to meet her in Alan's car, a black Chevrolet. His dad was so rich it was unbelievable. They owned some big company up north and got all the money from it, Alan never told us what company it was though.

"What time is it?" I asked,

"Just gone 4:10." Jonas answered.

Alan turned to me, "How are we gonna know that it's her?"

"She said she'll be wearing a t shirt with a big purple eye on it." I answered.

A bus pulled up in the station and a whole heap of people got off, including our girl in the purple eye t shirt. I got out of the car and waved at her, I told her I'd be wearing a leather jacket so she knew it was me.

"Hey. You K4?" I asked her.

"Yeah, but call me Karolyn."

She had shoulder length blond hair and deep blue eyes. She was a bit shorter than me and was skinnier than most girls, but that didn't bother me. She had a white t shirt with a big purple eye on it and was wearing one of those red rara skirts and white trainers.

"I'm Paul." I said, I pointed in the car, "This is Alan and Jonas."

"Whoa." Jonas said, "She's hot."

He was right.

"Nice to meet you." she said with a small grin on her face.

"It's a little… odd that you came to meet us after we spoke for half an hour on Instant Messenger. How can you be sure you can trust us?" I asked her with concern.

"I can't." She said, walking over to the left door of the back seat of the car, "Do I sit here?"

She got in and I followed. I was a little concerned by how this girl was acting, it was as if she didn't care for her safety at all. I figured I would probably have to look after her while she was here, this town was full of creeps who would love to take advantage of a girl like her. Speaking of which…

"Look. Paulie boy's got a girlfriend." I turned around to see Harrison speaking. This guy was such a jerk, he was the size of a ten year old and thought he was the best thing around. He had blond hair and squinty little eyes, a real ugly bugger.

"Harrison." I said, "Hanging around bus stations now are you? I figured you were more of a junk yard kind of guy."

"You're so funny Paul, funny looking. How about you-"

Harrison was cut short in his speech when Alan threw open the door, knocking Harrison back. Alan got out of his car and smacked Harrison in the face, knocking him to the floor. He turned to see two cops coming toward him.

"Get back in the car." I shouted, Alan had a habit of hitting people at the wrong time. He wasn't very strong but knew how to surprise people enough to knock them down. He got back in the car and drove back to my house.

"So Karolyn," Jonas began, "Do you have a boyfriend?"

"Jonas!" Me and Alan shouted.

"What?" He asked as if he was surprised.

"What this little jerk means is; how long have you been lucid dreaming?" I asked Karolyn.

"Not long, about 3 years." She answered.

"And you can already do a shared dream at will?" I asked in shock.

"Oh yeah, that was kind of hard but I got the hang of it now."

"Alright then, I guess we'll do that later tonight."

"Right, it's Saturday. That means it's party night." Alan said, shaking his head, "I despise these nights so much."

"There's gonna be a party?" Karolyn asked, "Cool."

"Alan loves them really." I said with my hand ruffling his hair, "He just likes to hide it."

Alan pushed my hand away, "I hate them."

He really did hate them. Before me and Jonas got him drunk of course, then he became a whole different person. He would dance around like a mad man and we've had to stop him stripping a few times.

"Be careful tonight." I told Karolyn, "There'll be a lot of creeps there."

"I know how to look after myself." She said.

I smiled at her, then I realised something.

"Hey. You should check your PM's." I said to Alan, "See if that guy has replied to your PM about the Watchers."

"Oh yeah." Alan said, sitting at my computer desk. He clicked a few buttons, typed in a few keys on the keyboard and arrived at his PM box.

"He's replied. So have a few of the people who have seen the Dream Gods." Alan told me.

"What did he say?" I asked.

"Read it yourself." He said as he moved out of the way.

The message said, 'Hi. Yeah it's true I have seen the Watchers, they took me to a large room with a lot of computers and thanked me for doing some kind of job for them and that the job had been done. They looked really weird. They were like a hybrid of demons and aliens, not very pretty. I'd be interested in getting in to a shared dream with you for you to look in to the Watchers, but they haven't come to me since that one time so I'm not sure if I'll be much help to you.' The message was from a member called 'TreeMan98', a name I didn't recognise.

"The people who have met the Dream Gods say they have only met them once too and that they'd try to get in to a shared dream with us." Alan told me.

"Alright then." I turned around, "Let's get to this party then."

I grabbed my leather jacket and headed for the door, I stopped when I realised something.

"Hey. Where's Jonas?" I asked, I looked to the floor and got my answer when I saw him sleeping.

We arrived at the party, it was in a big house on the edge of town. We arrived at about 8pm, we figured we'd stay till about 1 then get back home.

"Hey, wassup girl?" I said when I saw Laura.

"Nothing much. Didn't think you'd show up tonight." Laura said to me as she put her arms around my neck.

"I never miss a party. You know that." I said to her.

She was about my height, brown eyes and light brown hair.

"I know, but I figured you might stay away as Harrison is here. I heard your buddy Alan gave him a black eye earlier."

"Well, tell him to watch out if he doesn't want another one."

"Will do, babe." She said as I walked away.

"Is she your girlfriend?" Karolyn asked quietly.

"Laura? Nah." I answered, "She's one of my best friends. I've known her since I was like 5 years old."

I walked around for half an hour and made my way through two cans of Stella, saying hi to everybody as Alan and Jonas found a table to sit at and Jonas got Alan drunk on some tequila. Karolyn went back to talk to Laura, she said she recognised her from some festival a few months back or something like that. I told her to call me if she got in to any trouble.

"Who's party is this anyway?" Alan asked groggily.

"Some guy called David or something." Jonas answered.

"Who's David?"

"I don't know."

"Do you know who David is?" Alan said, looking at me.

"Nope." I answered as I finished my fourth Stella.

"So why are we here?" Alan asked.

"Because it's a party, and Paul can get in to any party he wants." Jonas answered his question.

"You guys are lucky to know me." I laughed, "Otherwise you'd be at home right now playing Flashpoint."

"There's no need to diss Flashpoint." Jonas said defensively. Before he met me and Alan, all he did was play Flashpoint all day, every day.

"Flashpoint Shmashpoint." Alan said.

"What's he been drinking?" I asked Jonas.

"Tequila."

"Give me some then."

Jonas took another bottle out of his bag and handed it to me.

"Thank you." I said as I snatched it away and took a glass. I took a seat and poured a little tequila in to my glass. I decided it would be best and more sensible to drink it slowly, so I drank it quick.

I must have lost my bottle of tequila, I looked for it as I tried to stand on my feet without falling over but it was nowhere to be seen.

"Did you eat it?" Alan asked.

"How do you eat a bottle?" I laughed.

"By chewing it then swallowing it like other things like chickens." Alan answered before laughing hysterically. I didn't understand what he meant so I just gave him a little shrug.

"What's the time?" I asked Jonas.

He checked his watch, "It's just gone 10."

Alan said some incomprehensible muttering before we heard the thing that would make our night, the thing we looked forward to from an unfamiliar voice.

"Karaoke machine's set up."

Me and Alan looked at each other, a grin forming on our faces.

"Weeeeeeeeeee are the chaaaaampions, my frieeeeeends."

We decided to sing the Queen classic, 'We Are The Champions' tonight. We've always sang together whenever there's a karaoke machine nearby, but we have to get Alan drunk first.

We finished the song and bowed to our crowd, just then we heard some pushing to our rights.

"Look's like we have a couple of poufters here." Harrison said, nursing his black eye that Alan gave him earlier.

"Nice bruise, Arribon." Alan stuttered.

"What did you call me?"

"Arribon, Harrigon. Bollocks."

Harrison put his hand in his pocket as Alan struggled to say his name, he pulled it out and the crowd went quiet when they saw the knife he was holding.

"Now you're gonna pay for this bruise." Harrison said.

"Hey, dwarf boy." A voice came from behind Harrison, I looked behind him and the voice belonged to Karolyn.

"What did you call me?" Harrison said as he turned around.

Karolyn didn't answer, she just put her foot in Harrison's good eye. The knife fell out of his hand as he fell to the floor so Alan picked it up and ran out of the front door with Jonas, I grabbed Karolyn and followed. We fumbled the doors to find the handle and got in the car, Jonas drove as he was the only one who was sober and had a license. Harrison followed in his £50 car but we lost him fairly easily.

"That was a nice kick back there." I said to Karolyn, "Where'd you learn that?"

"My dad, he's a stunt man." she answered.

"Cool." I said, before falling asleep.

I was stood in a dark rectangular room, there were ropes coming down from the ceiling and wooden boards covering the windows.

"What is this place?" I asked.

I looked at my hand to make sure I was dreaming, when fingers started appearing I confirmed that I was. I was still unsure though as this felt different to dreams. It felt different to being awake too, though. It felt like nothing I had ever felt before.

I took another look around the dark room. I saw several statues of various people, a few I recognised and a few I didn't.

"You made a mistake." An all too familiar voice said, I looked behind me and saw a small cloaked figure. "Though it is understandable."

"Who are you?" I asked the small figure.

"The walls will soon collapse, as they did before. Do you remember?"

"Yeah, the dream where I made the Heartless appear and they tore the walls down right?"

"Correct… in a way."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You will find out soon, but there is something that must happen first."

"What? What will happen?"

"I can not tell you. If I do, you might try to prevent it."

"Why would I do that? Is it something bad?"

"Not bad, not good."

There was a slight pause before the figure spoke again.

"I wonder why it was you that was chosen."

"Chosen? By who?" I asked.

"The ones that you seek."

I had no idea what he meant. He seemed to be speaking in cryptic messages, I barely understood anything he said. But I had this feeling that I would understand, just not quite yet.

"Who are you?" I asked.

The figure turned around, under the cloak I saw something quite amusing.

It was Mickey Mouse.

"Why do you laugh?" Mickey asked.

"I'm just not used to seeing talking mice." I said, "Sorry."

"You should wake up before the walls disappear." Mickey said, then he jumped at me and the last thing I saw before waking up was his long coat flowing towards me.

"Ugh…" I said, waking up.

"Good… morning, I guess." Karolyn said.

"What time is it?" I asked her.

"It's just gone 2 am." She answered.

"That's early." I pointed out the obvious.

My vision slowly came back to me as I looked up and saw Karolyn and Jonas standing at each side of my bed. Jonas was fiddling with his hair while Karolyn was looking down at me.

"How you feeling?" She asked.

"Okay, I guess. Where's Alan?"

She pointed to my right, I looked down on the floor and saw the huge gaping hole that is Alan's mouth wide open while he slept. I couldn't help but laugh at the sight, but my laughter was soon cut short by the memory of the dream I just had.

"Mickey…" I mumbled to myself.

"Who's Mickey?" Karolyn asked. "Mickey Mouse?"

"Funny enough, yeah." I said to her.

She looked over at my desk and noticed my Playstation 2 and my copy of Kingdom Hearts sat next to it.

"Someone's been playing too many video games." She giggled.

"I had a dream." I said to her.

"Most people do."

"Mickey Mouse said something to me."

"Like what?"

"I… can't remember." I tried hard to remember what that little mouse had told me.

"I'm sure you'll remember later in the morning. Get some more sleep." She reassured me.

"Yeah. You're probably right."

"Well then. Goodnight. Oh, I hope you don't mind sharing your bed but I forgot a sleeping bag. Just don't try anything funny." She said before getting in to my bed. I can't say I didn't enjoy the closeness as I fell back to sleep.

"Hey." Karolyn said, "Look's like the shared dream worked."

I was stood in a large green field, several different types of flowers growing from the ground.

"How can I be sure it's the real you and not a dream you?" I asked.

"Well when we wake up, I'll say the word 'Exodus', then you'll know its me." She smiled.

" 'Exodus'? Alright then."

"I make this dreamscape a lot. I like the flowers and the wind."

A sudden burst of cold wind went over us. I thought this would be a good time to ask her about Dream God's and Watchers.

"I saw a Dream God once. It looked like a regular man, but it's power was incredible and it felt different to normal Dream Characters." She told me.

"Did it say anything? Or do anything?"

"It blew up a caravan I was about to get in to, I would have shouted at it but… it's power was just radiating from it's body. It was incredible."

"Never seen the Watchers?"

"No, sorry."

"Never mind. I'll find them myself one day."

"Good luck."

We laid down on the field and looked up at the sky, it was a strange shade of green. There were a few clouds which were purple and there was no sun yet the sky was bright. I wondered how long it took her to make this world in her dreams and keep it the same way. We talked in the dream for what felt like days, we just talked about ourselves and our lives. She had a fairly interesting life. Her father was a stuntman and her mother was a director, they were out of the country a lot so Karolyn lived with her auntie who was a professional ballerina.

"So that's my life story." She finished.

"Interesting." I said.

"Not really," she replied, "It might sound it, but it just seems so regular to me."

I laughed, and Karolyn soon joined in. Then I felt something. Something strange. Something out of place. Something dark.

"You have to wake up." I told her, without knowing how I knew this.

The sky began to crack apart, parts of it were falling down around us.

"What's happening?" She asked.

"Just wake up." I said sternly.

She faded as she woke up. I looked up to the sky as it was falling apart and watched as the Heartless came through the cracks.

"What did I do?" I asked myself.

I woke up asking the same question to myself.

"Exodus." Karolyn said.

"Huh?" I said, confused.

"Exodus. Now do you wanna tell me why the sky was falling apart and why you made me wake up?" She said angrily.

"Don't worry about it. You're safe now." I said.

"I'm bloody not." Alan said, standing at the door and holding his head. "You two are awake late."

I looked at the clock and saw the time; 11:00am.

"Well it's only Sunday. I got nowhere to be." I told Alan.

"Breakfast is ready." A voice came from the kitchen.

I looked around the room.

"Is that…?"

"Yep." Alan answered my question before I finished it.

I walked in to the kitchen and found Jonas setting the table for breakfast. Eggs, bacon, sausages and hash browns. My favourite.

"You're acting a bit generous, Jonas. You feeling okay?" I laughed.

"Well none of you were gonna cook, were you?" He raised an eyebrow.

I sat down and started to eat. Karolyn, Alan and Jonas joined me as we enjoyed our Sunday breakfast.

"You're cooking more often." Alan said, "That was amazing. How come you've never cooked for us before?"

"Because I thought you liked doing it." Jonas answered.

"No I don't. The only reason I cook is because Paul burns all the food and you're usually too lazy to cook." Alan frowned.

"I don't burn all the food." I defended my cooking.

"Yes, you do." Alan and Jonas said at the same time.

The table broke out with laughter.

"And in national news, there has been a coma outbreak in sleep. It occurred last night while most people in the country were asleep. It seems that some people, currently the count is at 5, have slipped in to a coma while they were asleep." The news reader said, "Doctors are baffled and they have found no possible causes. The only thing that all people had in common was that they were all in REM sleep, which is the time that people dream."

Pictures of five people appeared on the screen. There were two men, two children and one woman.

"That's kind of weird." I said to the group.

"People will be scared to sleep now." Alan pointed out.

I remembered the dream from last night that me and Karolyn shared, how the Heartless just cracked through the wall in to the dream. I thought to myself, "Could this be similar to whatever caused the comas?"

My eyebrows raised as I remembered the dream with Mickey Mouse, he said I made a mistake and that the walls would collapse as they had done in the dream when I made all those Heartless appear. Several thoughts ran through my mind.

"Was that what happened?"

"Were they breaking down the walls of Karolyn's dream?"

"Is that what happened to the people in the comas?"

"Is this my fault?"

I began to sweat heavily.

I heard Karolyn's voice, "Are you okay?"

I looked up and saw Karolyn looking at me with a concerned expression on her face. Her hands were behind her back.

"I'm fine." I smiled as I lied. I couldn't help but think that I was somehow responsible for the coma's.

"I'm gonna go for a walk." I told everyone.

"Wait up. I'll come." Karolyn said as I headed for the door. "I have to get back to the bus station soon."

"Are you sure you're okay?" Karolyn asked as we crossed the road.

"Yes, I'm fine. I just need to walk in the fresh air to clear my mind." I assured her.

"Alright then, if you say so."

We had walked around for just under an hour, we were walking down a hill toward a main road.

"What time are you going back then?" I asked, trying to change the subject.

"I'm not sure. My auntie probably won't mind what time I'm back so I guess I'll just go when I feel like it."

I tried to listen to her, but I heard a loud ringing sound going through my head. I tried to shake it off but it wouldn't go, so I decided to just wait for it to go by itself.

That's when it caught my eye.

A small glimmer of light in the middle of the road caught my attention and distracted me from the ringing in my ear. I walked over to get a better look at it, but I still couldn't see it properly. I walked out in to the road and knelt down to pick it up. I put my hand out and grabbed it.

"Paul!" I heard Karolyn shout from behind me.

I turned around too late, the car hit me and I went flying across the road as Karolyn screamed my name.

The ambulance arrived quickly as I laid unconscious in the middle of the road. Karolyn phoned Alan and Jonas and they showed up quickly, they drove to the hospital and sat outside of the room the doctors were treating me in.

"Will he be okay?"

"We don't know yet."

"How's he doing?"

"His situation hasn't changed."

"What's up doc?"

"Still no change."

"Is there any change yet?"

"Not yet."

I laid there as they were treating my injuries. I was in some kind of deep sleep, I guess. I was dreaming while they operated, something the doctors were calling 'unusual' and 'an oddity' as well as other words I didn't quite understand, being in the position that I was.

"What's going on in there?" Alan asked.

"Well, he is in an REM state. This is a good sign." The doctor said.

"REM? So he's dreaming?" Jonas asked.

"Yes. It would appear so."

"Let me in there." Jonas said, trying to get past the doctor.

"I'm afraid we can't allow you in." The doctor blocked his path.

"You have to, I can get to him."

"He might not be able to hear you though."

"I can talk to him."

"He can't speak."

"You don't understand."

"Please just wait out here." The doctor ordered.

"Jonas. Let's just sit out here and wait." Alan said, comforting him.

"But I have to-"

"See if it works from out here first, then we won't have to cause any trouble." Alan whispered.

Jonas went back to his seat quickly and fell asleep. It was amazing how he could sleep at will at a time like this.

"Paul?"

No answer.

"Paul?"

Still, nothing.

"Maybe it didn't work." Jonas said to himself.

"Yes it did." I said, "And it's Chaos in here, Locke."

"Right." Locke said, "Paul- I mean Chaos, you have to fight this. You've got to live."

"I would like to." I said.

"So fight for your life then." Locke advised.

"I can't do my job that way. I understand what that mouse meant now."

"Mouse? Mickey?"

"Yeah."

"Mickey Mouse isn't real. It was just a dream."

"No. It felt different." I looked down, "It was different."

I realised what had to be done, and with that realisation I got the tool I would need to do my job. The Keyblade. It came out from the ground beneath me as holes appeared in the walls around us, releasing Heartless. I picked up the Keyblade and held it in front of me.

"I caused all this. These, the comas, I caused it all." I said, "So it's my job to finish it."

The Heartless came at us.

"Heartless?" Jonas said.

"No…" I answered.

"…Dreamless." Mickey jumped in front of us, swinging his Keyblade at the Dreamless, making them disappear in a puff of smoke. I joined in as more came through and Mickey told me what exactly they were.

"When you created those Heartless, it gave them the opportunity to create these; the Dreamless. The Dreamless break down the walls of peoples dreams and go from dream to dream, destroying them and putting the dreamers in to a coma, turning them in to Dreamless themselves." Mickey said, "You have to stop them. But first you have to make sure you don't disappear."

The wall to the south moved, revealing a large Keyhole.

The doctor approached Alan, Karolyn and a sleeping Jonas.

"I'm sorry…" He said, "Your friend has died."

I held up my Keyblade at the Keyhole. A burst of light shot out of my new weapon and slipped in to the Keyhole, sealing it from the Dreamless. My dream world had become safe, but everyone else in the world was still in danger. As the Dreamless left my dream world, my path was clear…

I would stop the Dreamless.