Chapter 4
After having escaped all three cages, NiGHTS undualized with Maria.
"Thanks for helping me escape," the jester said to the dreamer.
"No problem," the girl replied.
Maria was going to ask NiGHTS about nightmarens once again, but Maria was soon awake.
Maria had awoken to her alarm, though it was a Sunday. She groggily hit the snooze button on her alarm, and turned it off to avoid further annoyance. She laid there in bed thinking about last night's events, wondering what all of the drama behind "being a nightmaren" was about. As she contemplated the events of the night before, she closed her eyes hoping to go back to the Night Dimension, but instead, she slept a few hours more, dreamlessly.
After waking up again, the blogger opened her laptop which was on her nightstand, and quickly checked her blog for any notifications before she got up. After that, she got up and went down to get breakfast. As she reached the kitchen, she found her brother sitting at the table on his phone.
"Good morning, Will," she greeted him as she passed him to get to the pantry to get cereal.
"'Morning, Maria," Will replied, turning his head a little in her direction, but keeping his eyes glued to his phone screen.
"You're a groggy one, aren't you," she chuckled, as she set a bowl and cereal on the table across from Will.
"Um, I didn't sleep well," he muttered.
"That's a shame. At least it's break, and you can sleep in as much as you want."
Will continued to stare at his phone as Maria finished up her breakfast.
"What do you want to do today?" she asked.
"Nothing. I need a day off from drama," he answered.
"I can't disagree with that." Maria then carried her bowl over to the sink, and went upstairs.
Maria looked out the window of her bedroom, and decided that today would clearly be a 'stay in your bedroom and only leave for food and the bathroom'-day. So, she grabbed her laptop which was fully charged, and began to write whatever came to her mind in an empty Word document.
After awhile, she became bored, and began to play mindless games to entertain herself, but as she was laying in her bed, she drifted off for a nap. As she slept, she appeared in the plaza of Nightopia like usual, but this time, Twylight was waiting for her looking quite distressed.
"Maria, you need to come with me." Twylight transformed into a human, and grabbed Maria's wrist, dragging her to the castle.
As Maria followed Twylight, she whispered, "What's wrong? Is something bad about to happen?"
Twylight stopped and turned back to her. "Maybe, maybe not, but this is serious. I found one of my counterparts, Nightmayr, but he is currently in quite the situation upstairs."
Maria listened upstairs, but her human ears couldn't tune in.
"Follow me."
Maria followed Twylight up the skinny, old spiral staircase. On the balcony, Twylight pulled her to the corner next the the center hallway. Maria was beginning to finally hear the commotion of what was going on.
"Calm down, NiGHTS!" a familiar voice pleaded, "We didn't touch anything, see? What I want to know is why this orb is here in the first place. Why would you lock it up? Someone is trapped in it!"
Maria looked over at Twylight and mouthed, "Is Nightmayr in the orb." Twylight nodded.
"...Inside it? Impossible! If something was trapped in there I would've been able to tell. Besides, what's in it? A visitor? A nightmaren? An octopaw?" Maria quickly identified the angry voice as NiGHTS. "It doesn't matter. I'm taking it and finding a better place to keep it. You two have no idea what it is, and you shouldn't be up here anyway."
The dialogue stopped for a moment, giving Twylight some time to give a short explanation. "Nightmayr is…"
The indigo nightmaren's story was cut off by a young feminine voice saying: "I don't think you know what it is either, NiGHTS. We're your friends, can't you trust us? We trust you!"
"Helen, give it to me," NiGHTS commanded.
"Will catch!" the feminine voice called.
As the room down the hall became more chaotic, Maria whispered to Twylight, "Should we get involved?"
"No. Nightmayr has this under control. We had planned that we'd find a dreamer or two, bring them to this castle, and through a little bit of deception get them to free him."
"But did you expect NiGHTS to get into this?" Maria asked doubtfully.
"Uh, no, but you shouldn't worry. Nightmayr is tough enough to get through it."
The two peered down the hall. But all they could see was a dark mist.
As they continued watching, a shadowy figure emerged from the mist and approached Twylight and Maria.
"Hello, Twylight," the shadow spoke. The shadow then formed into a nightmaren with a very similar appearance to Twylight, except that this one looked much darker, not in color, but in demeanor.
"Hello Nightmayr," Twylight greeted with a small smile.
Maria felt uneasy being around this nightmaren. Of course, she was not trying to judge this nightmaren just by his appearance, but it was a certain aura that he gave off.
"Thank you for helping me escape. I'm in your debt." Nightmayr slowly bowed, hiding his expression from the two others.
"You're welcome," Twylight replied. Maria looked up at Twylight, and it seemed clear that Twylight was feeling this dark aura as well.
"Who knows. Maybe I'll be able to pay you back sometime in the future," Nightmayr chuckled hauntingly.
"Maybe, but if we are to leave here unnoticed, we better leave now," Twylight spoke. The mystical nightmaren created a portal and beckoned the two others through.
"Don't worry. I'll take my own leave," Nightmayr refused. The dark nightmaren turned into a shadow, and slithered away out the exit.
Maria looked back to Twylight, and followed them through the portal. Upon exiting the portal, the two had entered Twylight's cathedral which had changed. Instead of just a stark white room, accents of silver, purple, and blue began to appear. The most prominent change though, was the a new piece of stained glass. The picture portrayed Twylight holding a orb which contained an image of Nightmayr. Beside them were two dreamers. One was a blonde-haired girl with a cute pink jacket, and the other one, when she looked at it looked extremely like her brother. "That can't actually be Will, can it?" Maria asked herself, but she decided to shrug it off.
"So, Twylight, what exactly happened back there?" Maria asked.
After Maria had faded away, Twylight was all alone in the rainforest. Assuming that there may be more nightmarens like the one that tried to hunt down Maria, Twylight decided to take their leave and go back to the Dream Plaza to wander about. The indigo nightmaren poked the air, and their blackhole-like portal grew in an instant. They flew through it, feeling the warm churning energy, and quickly found themself outside the castle.
While Maria was gone the first time, Twylight took their time to look through the plaza. They had looked through a few buildings including a cathedral which they liked quite a lot. But now, they were in front of the castle which they chose to explore next.
As Twylight began approaching the building, they felt a mysterious aura radiating off it, like something pulling them inside. They followed the aura inside the doors, and looked up to the balcony where it felt stronger. As they flew up to the higher level, they saw a hallway with two black double doors, where they just knew that the aura was coming from. They glided over the railing towards the doors, feeling the energy grow and grow. As they were opening the doors, they were expecting something big and magical, but as the doors opened, they vision came upon a box. A box trapped within a glass casing. Thinking nothing of it, they were about to fly away when they heard a voice cry, "No!"
Turning back, Twylight looked straight at the box. "Is someone there?" They looked at the box, before hearing the voice reply, "Yes!"
"Where are you?" they called.
"I'm trapped inside of this box. I've been trapped for as long as I've known."
Twylight felt a deep yearning when they heard those words. They completely described the feeling they had until Maria finally awoke them.
"What can I do to help you?" they asked, approaching the box and bending down like they were going to hear the voice better.
"I need a dreamer to awaken me. I once nearly escaped a year or so ago, but some nightmaren interfered, and I got locked away in this place."
"May I ask, what's your name?" Twylight began, sitting back in the air.
"Nightmayr."
The name gave Twylight chills. It seemed to resonate within them, like they knew who this creature was. They instantly began wondering why they felt that way until they were reminded by a voice in the back of their head: "He's one of my counterparts."
Twylight was taken out of their trance when Nightmayr replied, "And what is your name? I didn't seem to catch it."
"Twylight," they replied. "I'm one of your counterparts."
"Well aren't I lucky. Now where's that poor human who awoke you?"
"She's not here right now," Twylight stated.
"Then find dreamers to awaken me."
"And how should I do that?" she questioned doubtfully.
"I don't know where you can find a human, but when you do bring them, I will be all set from there. I can lure them up here to me, have them release me, and then I'm free."
"Okay. I'll do my best," Twylight finished before getting up, and teleporting themself to a random Nightopia.
Twylight appeared in a bright Nightopia with lights shining around everywhere. There were tons of tall building all around glittering with neon lights. They glided around in amazement, looking at all of the glittering yellow, orange, and red. Trying not to be distracted by the wonder Nightopia, Twylight dived down into the alleyway, in search of the Nightopia's owner. It took only a minute or two, until they heard footsteps echoing. The nightmaren quickly hid themself around a corner, and transformed into a dreamer. With a deep breath, they walked straight down the alley, intervening with the other visitor.
"Oh, sorry. Is this your Nightopia?" Twylight cringed shyly.
The visitor looked rather surprised, "Uh… yeah. Are you another visitor?"
"Yes," they quickly responded, "I am not a nightmaren."
"Didn't think you were," the boy laughed. "You seem a bit lost. I can show you the way out of here if you'd like."
The nightmaren took this opportunity to follow along. "Uh, yeah. I just kinda appeared here, and I don't know how to get back to my Nightopia."
"Don't worry," he smiled kindly. "Follow me."
Twylight smiled and followed the boy back in the direction he came from. It wasn't long before they reached the door, and Twylight still had no idea what to do.
"There's the door out of here," the boy pointed and turned around to face her.
Twylight panicked, they still had to send him to Nightmayr. Quickly, they poked the air and formed a portal behind him while he was facing them. "Sorry!" they yelled, pushing him into it before he had time to react.
After that, Twylight quickly closed the portal behind him, and made a portal for themself. Jumping through it, hoping that they don't end up in the same place as that boy. Gladly, after they jumped through, they were back in the room with Nightmayr's orb, with that boy not in sight yet.
"I'm back, and I brought a dreamer with me," they spoke to the orb.
"I saw," his voice muttered. "But it won't do."
"What? What does that mean?" they asked.
"I need the girl…"
"The girl?" Twylight was quite confused. Why does Nightmayr need two dreamers to awaken him? What if the next dreamer won't be good enough as well? Their mind kept ruminating, but they were snapped out of it from Nightmayr growling, "Go!"
"Uh okay!" the bubbly nightmaren exclaimed in surprise.
The indigo nightmaren scurried out of the room, and transported themself to another Nightopia.
This time, they appeared in a very green Nightopia full of trees, a little like Maria's but this one was less tropical. It didn't take long for her to find another human, and this time, it was a girl with a blonde ponytail.
"Excuse me?" the girl asked, catching Twylight's attention.
"Oh, hello! I wasn't sure if I'd see another visitor here!" they replied, turning around.
"I could… say the same thing in all honesty," the girl replied. "You look lost… how did you get here exactly?"
How were they supposed to answer that? "Oh yeah! I just used my teleportation powers to come here, and lure you out of your Nightopia." "I'm not sure," they quickly replied, nervously combing through their long hair.
"Well, I guess that doesn't really matter… things can be quite weird here." The girl was smiling, which helped calm Twylight down. "Why don't I help you back to the Dream Gate? It's not the first time I've had to do it before."
"You're a very nice girl, thank you," the disguised nightmaren smiled.
The dreamer led Twylight through the dark and thick woods. Within the thick moss were little yellow windows, like this was a whole city, but covered in trees and moss. The sound of whistling and singing seemed to echo through the Nightopia, all mixed in harmony.
Soon, they approached a large merry-go-round, where the door was in view. Instead of immediately creating the portal, Twylight watched the merry-go-round as it spun around, brightening up the dark forest with its warm, flashy colors.
The girl then led her over to the door, "Nightopia can be a confusing place, but try not to get lost again," she chuckled.
This was Twylight's chance. The girl's back was turned, so Twylight darted into the air above her. The girl turned around, momentarily paused in confusion. The nightmaren then created a portal, which the dreamer simply observed. Within a second's notice, the dream creature kicked the girl forward, sending her tumbling through the portal.
After that portal closed, Twylight created another portal for themself, hoping that this will work. That's when they bumped into Maria…
"Well, that's quite a story. Also, I have a question. Why haven't I ever seen any other humans in Nightopia until now?" the dreamer asked.
Twylight shrugged. "I don't know. I'm just as new to Nightopia as you are."