"Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day/Fritter and waste the hours in and offhand way./Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town/Waiting for someone or something to show you the way." — Pink Floyd
"Good evening, ladies," Luz beamed as she sat on her rolled-out bedroll and greeted Willow and Amity from the magic mirror portals conjured from her social scroll.
"And a good evening to you, too!" Willow chimed pleasantly, a large smile on her face.
"Good is a relative term," Amity sighed, rubbing her forehead and scrunching her eyes, "But yes, good evening, Luz."
"You know," Luz began, "I really like this weird portal spell you all have here. It reminds me of using something like Skype or Zoom on our computer."
"It reminds you of the what on the what now?" Amity shook her head, confused.
"Never mind," Luz replied but then continued, "Well, if this happens again, we'll record it as night two. Not sure lightning will strike twice or even what's causing all of this."
"I've been trying to find a good book," Amity followed, "on what could cause collective dreaming, and so far I haven't come up with anything substantial as to the reason for it. But going back to the library tomorrow; maybe I'll have better luck."
"Oh, King just recently became a published author," Luz added, "Did you read his new book by chance?"
"I did, actually," Amity replied, "It was…interesting. Not exactly my taste. Boscha loved his book, though, and still wants to buy him and keep him as a pet. I told her I'm pretty sure you'd say no."
"He's his own person," Luz rolled her eyes, "So I'm pretty sure he'd say no and probably something to the effect of, 'You dare try to enslave me, inferior creature?' or something like that." Luz did her best to imitate King's screechy voice, and the other girls couldn't help but laugh.
"So, the new semester is starting up," Willow stated, "Decided on what track you're going to pick, Luz?"
"Not quite sure yet," Luz replied, "I mean, I could go with Eda's, which was potions, or I could go with either of yours or possibly Gus' tracks. It's just hard to make up my mind. Speaking of which, maybe we could bring Gus into the mix of this whole dream issue we're having?"
"I don't know him that well," Amity followed, "But I guess it wouldn't hurt to have another observer in the mix of this. He might be able to offer some insight."
"I think I'd rather keep it between us girls," Willow said with a hint of nervousness, "He might see something embarrassing."
"Like what?" Luz asked.
"Nothing really," Willow answered quickly, "I mean…It's more for the stuff that I can't think of than for the stuff I can."
"Whatever track you pick, Luz," Amity stated, "I'm sure I speak for Willow and this Gus fellow in that we'll support you. Just stay diligent, work hard at finding your strengths, and don't get reckless."
"I'll try," Luz smiled nervously.
"Well," Willow shifted back to the subject, "I've got my pen and paper ready to record whatever we see when we wake up."
"I suppose we best get to it, then," Amity breathed heavily.
"Definitely," Luz agreed, "Goodnight, girls."
"Goodnight," Willow and Amity said in unison, and the Mirror portal spell ended. In Willow's room, the flowers closed their faces as she laid her head on the soft pillow to rest. In Luz's room, she closed her hand around the floating light and extinguished it before laying her head down. In Amity's room, she wrapped herself in the soft, expensive linen sheets, laid her head on the purple silk pillow, and closed her weary eyes.
Amity then opened her eyes again to find the room was now bathed in some strange purplish-red light from a newly setting sun. Could she have slept through the whole day? But she had never seen the sky turn this color on the Boiling Isles before. Also, the house was unusually quiet. No Emira or Edric playing some prank on the servants, no late night grand piano tune from downstairs, no footfalls from a passing maid or butler, and no nightingales or whippoorwills singing from the trees beyond the yard.
She knew she couldn't sleep like this any further feeling the anxiety in the silence of the old mansion, so she got up from bed and landed on the soft carpet below. For some reason, it felt softer than usual, and when she scrunched her toes into it, she thought she could hear the faint sound of every fiber brushing together against the skin of her feet. She began to walk towards the door, but as she did, it felt like the room itself moved with her. Everything looked so vibrant and jittery, as though she were walking through a purple-red kaleidoscope lens filtered to look like her room. The more she walked through these hazy colors and heard only the crinkly sound of the carpet fibers beneath her, she felt herself becoming more dizzy and nauseous by the second. She finally reached the door in spite of how confusing the rest of her room might have looked and opened the door.
She walked out into the dimly lit hallway, only to have the door slam shut behind her. She yelped and jumped but then spun around to try and open the door, which she then found was locked from the other side. It was at this point she knew she was now in the dream world.
The outer hallway looked about the same as it always had, albeit from the dim light of the evening sun shining through distant stain glass windows at far ends of the hall. There seemed to be a musty smell in the air that Amity could feel forcing its way into her nostrils. It was familiar, yet it wasn't at the same time. Everything felt old and dusty; it was as though no servant had touched anything in some time.
She walked down the somewhat familiar hall and listened as her footfalls made a soft thump against the gentle, elegantly elaborate carpet. As she reached the stairs, she heard two sounds, one being the all too familiar sounds of the grandfather clock in the main hall (of which she tried not to pay attention) and the other being some soft laughter coming from the lower level. She made her way downstairs, trying not to focus on the irritating clock, and proceeded down a neighboring hall towards the kitchen. The sound of talking and laughing grew louder as she made her way there, and she thought she recognized the voices.
She raced down the hall, passing the dark tapestries and the profuse, antique, gaudy furniture towards where she perceived to be the kitchen area. She then threw open the familiar yet altogether unfamiliar door and found Luz and Willow laughing hysterically while bouncing on some gelatinous form that appeared to be some enormous sugary frosted cake with some painted cartoonish smile on the front of it.
"I'm alive now!" the weird cake uttered stupidly in some goofy, guttural voice, "Glad you girls are having fun, because this room's hour is almost up!"
"Luz, Willow!" Amity blurted out, "What are you doing?" As if in the queued utterance of her words, the living cake vanished. Luz and Willow then fell upon their butts, letting out a grunt of mild pain.
"Oh, Amity," Luz shot to her feet, "Didn't see you there!"
"We were frantically trying to open doors in this place," Willow continued, "When we found this kitchen area where this weird cake invited us to bounce on it."
"I think we're in one of my dreams," Amity followed, "This is my family's mansion, and I think that's one of the cakes based off my great aunt's recipe. She used to insist on giving her staff the day off so she could make her own concoctions."
"Well, we didn't get to taste it," Luz stated, "but at least it smelled nice."
"It was one of my favorites when I was a kid," Amity stated, "But that's not important right now. I think there's a link in this dream, but…I'm almost hesitant to face what it is."
"Whatever it is, we'll face it together, right?" Willow asked.
"Sure…I guess," Amity answered.
And with that, the girls proceeded out to the main hall. No sooner had they left the kitchen than the door slammed deliberately and with an echoing volume behind them. Willow decided to test the door after it closed, but as expected, the door was indeed locked. The three proceeded out to the main hall, the incessant ticking from the grandfather clock likewise giving a reverberation through the hallways.
"See this?" Amity asked the group as they made their back to the main hall of the mansion, "This is the grandfather clock which my family has had for, I don't know, centuries. I think my great-grandfather had it at one time, but every time I've looked at it, I've felt uncomfortable. Also, it never worked in the real world, but here, it's ticking away."
"I'd say it's both cool and creepy," Luz replied. She looked over the large intricate clock and marveled at the workmanship, the tiny skeletal figures carved into the sides of the dark oak, the large gargoyle head incasing the time piece. Whoever had built such a morbid contraption definitely put a lot of effort into it.
"I'd say it still looks like something that would definitely be cursed," Willow followed, "I can't say I feel that comfortable looking at this thing."
"Well," Amity nodded her head, "we should try and look for a way out." The girls then proceeded to try each door along the neighboring hallways. Luz tried the one on the right, Willow tried the one on the left, and Amity tried the front and back doors. Still, none of the other doors seemed to open. Amity tried the kitchen door again but found it too was locked. Still, it felt surreal to be running around familiar hallways that seemed a little off. Her house usually had some creepy elements here and there in addition to the lavish, extravagant decor, but there seemed to be a heaviness in the air and a slight off color to everything that gave it much more of a phantasmagoric feel. There was this nagging utter depression of the soul that she knew she had felt in her other dreams, and given the fact that it looked like wherever they were that twilight was on its way, she didn't dare look out one of the windows, lest her eyes face something horrifying of which she couldn't look away; this was the case in her previous dreams, and she would not repeat the same mistake.
Soon, the girls met back in the main hall after having tried all the doors.
"Any luck?" Willow asked, out of breath from running down the hall, "I forgot how big this place was."
"None from me," Luz replied, likewise out of breath, "Amity, what about you?"
"Everything's locked," Amity huffed in frustration, "But there's got to be some sort of trick to all this, something we have to do to escape this."
Just then, the clock made a loud clanging chime ten times to indicate it was now 10 o'clock. And as it got to the final clang, the lock on a nearby door clicked, and the door slowly opened. It was one of the parlor rooms, one of which Amity would sometimes dub the "Purple Parlor." She then thought about what happened with her room upstairs and, feeling slightly nauseous at the thought, hoped it wouldn't do the same thing if they looked into it.
The girls poked their heads in to find two figures sitting at one of the nearby tables, sipping tea. The pair looked to be near transparent in some regards, glowing blue, and wearing what looked like clothing from 200 years ago. One had a top hat, monocle, and full beard, while the other one had a fancy straw hat with a long ribbon and a long, frilly, and lacy dress.
"Ah, little Miss Amity," the gentleman spirit said, looking up from his tea cup toward the girls, "Come sit!" He gestured towards the other luxurious chairs around the table at which the spirits were sitting.
"You simply must have some of this delightful tea," the lady spirit followed, turning her head towards them while bending over to fill three more cups that had materialized.
The girls hesitated for a moment before deciding that these two didn't seem threatening and proceeding into the room. They sat and decided to drink some of the tea before them. Luz's tasted like some strawberry peach combination, Willow's had a similar flavor to cherry tart, and Amity's was something of a blueberry and raspberry combination. The girls vocalized what they were tasting, but didn't this come from the same pitcher? They chocked it up to dream logic.
"But should I know you?" Amity asked the spirts, "You seem to know me."
"Can't imagine you would, my dear," the gentleman said, "We are your late ancestors who built this mansion from the ground up."
"Indeed," the lady spirit sighed, "Oh, it was such a delight when we were able to get the Construction Coven to fully pull it all together. Quite a remarkable house, it was!"
The two ghosts seemed to prattle on about the politics of that day, who the emperor was at the time, and how the Blight family continued to amass their wealth at first. The girls listened to it for a little while, Amity with a little more intent, but soon all three felt themselves getting bored by it. That is, until the speech started to make less sense.
"And that is why the cheese," the gentleman stated with deliberateness, "is always twice the fencepost!"
"Aye," the lady nodded, finishing her cup of tea, "and no doubt that means the mantis looks good on the fresh cut lawn after it's been washed in the innards of a garlic meringue pie!"
"But, lets not forget to fry the red wheelbarrow in the paint thinner," the gentleman held up his finger, "I am indeed declaring the cat is a continuous recessive particle. And the pillows cannot be wrapped properly! Don't you agree, Amity?" He turned to face Amity with a smile, and at once, the girls perceived that the spirits looked like they were slowly disappearing.
"What?" Amity asked with a face of utter bewilderment.
"Sorry, Amity's great-great-great-great grandad," Luz interjected, "But you're not making any sense."
"All just sounds like word salady nonsense to me," Willow shrugged.
"Oh look at the time," the gentleman responded, taking out a pocket watch and checking it, "You three regrettably must go."
"But why?" Amity asked, "I was waiting for you two to finish your speeches to ask some questions about my family, like why they're so strict and where our wealth and status began. And if anyone's made it to the Emperor's Coven in the Blight dynasty."
"Now, now," the gentleman began waving his hand, "There's no use arguing when the time comes. And don't be fooled, it comes for us all. Now off with you young ladies; you must have some fun before this life is over." With that, the girls felt themselves being pulled by some very strong force off their seats and back through the doorway. They then fell into a heap into the main hallway, the door closing quickly behind them.
"Now I know how it feels to be force pushed in Star Wars," Luz groaned, standing to her feet.
"Is that that motion picture humans love so much?" Amity asked. Luz walked over and helped her to her feet, Amity holding Luz's arm to steady herself again.
"Yeah," Luz answered, "Some of them are better than others. I'm just wondering how we could actually feel any sort of pain in dreams, but I guess it's not unheard of."
"People speaking nonsense isn't too uncommon in dreams, either," Willow changed the subject, "I've heard reading sometimes is the same way."
"Yeah, I think I've experienced that before, too," Luz replied, "Sometimes, I'll look at a sign or a book in dreams and be able to understand what it says, but then if I try to read further or focus on it, the letters get jumbled."
"I guess we should wait for the next ring of the clock, then," Amity breathed with apprehension as she looked at the clock that had always scared her in her youth. Not long after saying this, the clock struck again, this time indicating the 11th hour.
"That didn't take long," Luz chuckled.
"Let's see what kind of interesting room we face next!" Willow beamed, staying positive and excited.
Just then, as the clock finished sounding the hour, the door on the opposite hallways opened. But the group could see nothing within the room; only a pitch black void lay beyond the portal. That wasn't true for long, as they saw a tall figure lumbering out of the dark aperture.
When it finally came into view from the dying light from the windows, the girls could see that it was a 6 foot tall porcelain doll, as one might expect to find in an antique doll house. It had a very pretty, frilly, poofy dress, but its face…There was a major dip in the uncanny valley. It had large, painted on eyes that looked to be chipped in a few spots, and its mouth had a mere couple of slits on either side as that of an old nutcracker's. The blonde curls that hung from its head, framing its face, looked equally fake somehow.
All three girls were shivering looking at this thing as it lumbered towards them through the oncoming twilight from the window; it looked as though its legs were stiff and unable to bend, but the three girls were too petrified to move from where they stood. Both Willow and Amity held on to either of Luz's shoulders, giving a false sense of cover.
"Uhhhh," Luz muttered, "Can we help you?"
"You have to go inside," the doll replied in what sounded like a sweet little girl's voice. It then pointed into the darkened room where the group thought they could hear some low gibbering murmur.
"I don't think we're up for that," Amity laughed nervously.
"YOU HAVE…TO GO…INSIDE!" the doll insisted, this time its voice distorting into some deep, guttural, gelatinous boom that caused a jolt in all three of the girls. They still stood there, focusing into the dark room where the doll was pointing.
For a moment, Amity was sure she heard a distant, familiar chanting: "Ia! Ia! Cthulhu fhtagn! Ia! Ia! Cthulhu fhtagn!" The chanting became louder and louder until finally, the three girls closed their eyes quickly, only to find themselves in their own bed once more. Each of them darted to their scrolls to contact each other.
"Are you girls okay?" Luz asked.
"Yeah," Willow replied, shaken, "I think so."
"That was pretty intense," Amity looked even worse than she did the other night, "But not as intense as last time."
"I'm not sure if we can turn this off," Luz continued, "This collective dreaming I mean. I wonder what it all could mean."
"I don't know," Amity scratched her forehead and adjusted her hair, "But I do know this: I'm hoping this slows down and that we're able to focus on our studies this coming semester."
"Me, too," Willow stated, "While I feel like I'm taking to the new track well, it's still taking some getting used to."
"Alright," Luz sighed, "Let's record what we have so far and hope we don't have another like this. In case something does come up, just keep recording what you can from your dreams."
"You got it, Luz," Willow gave a thumbs up.
"I'll try and stay as vigilant as I can," Amity was still clearly apprehensive, "If something comes up, I'll let you know."
"Okay, good night, girls," Luz forced a smile, "Let's try and get some real sleep now."
The mirror spell chat ended, and Luz turned back to bed. She made some quick notes about what happened and what they experienced before closing her eyes and nodding off once more.
Thankfully, she dreamed about magical kittens and bunnies telling her she would eventually find true love, her destiny, and blissful happiness.
AN: I will say this chapter was loosely inspired by the new Nine Inch Nails track "The Cursed Clock." Definitely look the song up; it fits the mood for this entry. Next entry will be after Season 1-B, as I need to wrap up my Miraculous fanfic and take some time to myself to possibly re-evaluate my outline for this one.