Chapter 2: Opening Doors
I walked around the yard, trying not to think. Every step seemed hard, my body ached, and trying to focus on anything distant made the bile rise in my stomach. But I strode on, trying to make each painful movement a penance of sorts, for the danger I'd inflicted on Lazlo and Oneira.
I was starving, I hadn't eaten a dream in days. Our kind can eat other things, like the contemptible pellets the humans had given us, but our real sustenance is drawn from dreams. Without them, though our bodies may not wither, our minds do. And, in my weakened state I needed real food. There were humans here, I wouldn't go hungry for long.
It circled the house a few times; it seemed to be miles from any other buildings. There was a road leading away from it, dusty and not often travelled, snaking down the hill.
I didn't like this place. Even with my limited understanding of human culture this didn't seem right. Human dreams were usually crowded affairs, Busy cities, lots of people. Not… this. I wanted to run down that road without a backwards glance, but I was apprehensive. I didn't know what, or who, was out there. I could go. There didn't seem to be anything keeping me in, but I was uncertain. Whenever it would actually be helpful, my ability to take decisive action seemed to fail me. Maybe I should wait, assess the situation… Frustrated, I walked back to the house.
It was dark now, and only a few of the house's lights were left on. It took me a few tries to get the door open. I know what doors look like, but who focuses on the mechanics of opening a door in their dreams? The house was warm. Nighttime in our marsh is usually cold, particularly if you're not mated and you sleep alone. I liked the warmth, but it felt claustrophobically closed in. There were human things everywhere. Some I recognized, and vaguely understood. Others, like the large humming box, were mysteries. The house felt oddly right to me. Everything was more or less designed for a being my height and size. I wandered through, as silent as possible, basking in the captured lights in each room.
As I went upstairs I could sense the humans by their dreams, which were oddly vivid. The boy of the household was deeply asleep, his dream was chaotically fast paced and colorful, and involved fairly prosaic scenes of him beating famous trainers in Pokémon battles. The teenage daughter's dream was similarly bland; she was dreaming about dancing with a famous singer whilst wearing a conspicuously fashionable outfit. I decided not to bother eating either. Why waste the effort on the equivalent of snacks? Whoever claimed children's dreams are 'tastier', hasn't been exposed to the dreary sameness of most of them. I could sense the adult male and his colleague dreaming in a room far from the others. They'd obviously worked themselves to exhaustion; their dreams were erratic, with no real content, just vague sensations and impressions, and a lot of stress. We feel what the dreamer feels, I had no desire to feel any more beaten down then I already did. The strange shallowness of their sleeping had the mark of one of my kind's interference. I supposed one of the captive Hypno had hypnotized them into a false sleep. The Hypno were present, but their minds were typically closed off, and I didn't want to become a pervert by eating the dreams of my brethren uninvited. That only left the woman.
Her room was at the furthest end of the hall, but the whole place was heavy with the atmosphere of her dreams. I slunk through the door of her room. We are soundless creatures, when hungry. Her room was all red. The walls, the bed sheets, even the lamp, it made the room seem smaller than it really was, constricted. She was facing away from me, but her long black hair draped over the edge of the bed, so she seemed very close.
Her dream was pretty erotic. I relaxed and started swallowing it, melting into her subconscious. It started with a lot of laughter, like there were a lot of humans together, outside on a sunny day. But there was only her, lying naked in a meadow, laughing. Her dream avatar's warm brown eyes met mine, which jolted me, the people in dreams usually seem very ephemeral, and, well, dream like. Not her, if this was her. The meadow was full of dewy bright green clover, and it was as if I could feel every separate leaf of it under my feet. It felt soft, warm and moist. The air in this dream felt like breath, in and out The dream avatar was stretching languorously on it, laughing and obviously enjoying the sensation. There was no hint of the usual embarrassment about nudity that follows humans into their dreams.
The scene seemed to shift gently, and I was inside, in a beautiful room where the woman's subconscious self was stirring some icing in a bowl. Human dreams about food are normally irritatingly hollow, boring visuals only, but once again, I could smell this stuff, feel the sensation of her movements on my skin, even vaguely taste it, and it was sweet, intoxicatingly so. She tasted it, and started smearing it on her body, and I enjoyed the spectacle, felt engaged by it, like I could sense her fingers on her own skin, and on mine. The scene shifted again. This was cruder. A human man and the woman, or, in truth, a more beautiful version of her, with pointed ears, engaged in rough copulation on the forest floor. Sunlight streamed through the trees, lighting drops of dew on leaves. I felt the skin of both of the humans as my own, smooth, humid, felt their bodies' connection, energy, felt it grow and grow and…
Suddenly the dream was gone. I was back in the woman's room. My back pressed against the door. Her deep brown eyes burned into mine. "Well, well," she said, mockingly "you're more able than I though." I felt a chill run down my spine. Humans aren't able to wake while we eat their dreams. This was abnormal, frightening. I felt uncomfortably vulnerable, trying to avoid her gaze. Her lips curled into a smirk. "Come here. I know you can understand me." I crept over to the end of her bed, trying to keep my distance. "Closer!" I obeyed.
She stared at me, that half sneer never leaving her face. "I always thought you were such ugly creatures. But up close, your body is almost human. Well, human enough. Sit down." I did. She was almost exactly my height. Her body was fleshier, but her build slighter. I had seen humans naked in their dreams, but to see a real human body was different than I had expected. She was pale, and, looking at her skin, I realized I am covered with very fine fur, and she was basically hairless. It was uncanny to see the difference.
"Well, you know why I drew you here. And you can't say you weren't enjoying it." I cringed away. "Look at me! You stupid creatures have taken my husband under your spell, so you can be my research project." She laughed coolly. "Lie down." I stayed where I was, not sure what good it would do, but afraid to do as she demanded. Her face forced itself into a softer expression, but her voice didn't change "Come here. Nothing unpleasant will happen to you. You will enjoy it, just like my dream." I did as I was told.
Her bed was very soft. Totally unlike any surface I'd ever felt. But my whole body was tensed, I couldn't imagine how this was going to go. Her whole body was hot, beaded with perspiration, her flesh was more yielding than mine, because dreams don't fatten you. I enjoyed the feeling, though I can't say her strange looking body engendered particular arousal in my own. She was composed of a lot of strange hills and valleys, the females of my kind are plateaus. It was only as she started to press her fingers across my chest and beyond, and her hair brushed softly on my skin, that my mind started to lose focus on the differences between us. She wasn't gentle with any part of me, I assume she thought my body was insensitive, but it wasn't. Every inch of my skin felt electrified, as though every slight touch was travelling through my skin, muscles and into my bones. Her skin had a fragrance, hard to describe, but pervasive, heavy. My mind seemed to disconnect from my body, and it was only when she jabbed her knee into my side that I regained my presence. "Stand up! From behind, like you animals do." It's not quite what I'm used to, as much as I can claim I'm used to this at all, I had some idea of what she met from human males and their fantasies. She jammed her elbow into my ribs. I got it right the second time. I felt my force grown, and my muscles contract. My eyes rolled back. Then release.
It only took a few seconds for the full bizarreness of what had just happened to hit me. I can never really lose myself in the moment, such is my curse. I looked at the naked alien in front of me, and wondered what had taken possession of me. My skin still felt achingly tingly, and I was sure if I shook my head a few times this whole tableaux would vanish, and I'd turn out to have been sleeping. But I felt good, refreshed, tired, but refreshed. She laughed at me, as I stood dazed in front of her. "Like hands, how strange!"
In the mirror behind me I could see her lying on the bed, and myself, and my back. On my flesh, angry twisted scar tissue, where my skin had melted on contact, were the impressions of two hands. I felt cold.
She couldn't seem to detect my distress and roughly told me to get out. In a daze, I went.
As I wandered down the hall, I struggled to think. No, not about why she'd desired me, human urges are so promiscuous, so indiscriminate. And honestly I didn't care. But what on Earth had I been thinking?
I wanted to be among my own kind, even if they were strangers, and the uncouth by-products of human culture. The office where my owner and his friend were 'sleeping' was right at the end of the hall, seemingly putting my brethren as far from the other humans as possible. The door was slightly ajar, and as I pushed it open the room's dim bluish glow fell on me. The two humans were slumped oven at a large table, surrounded by papers and files, none of which, of course, I could read. All along one wall were computer screens, blinking with reams of data. There was only one Hypno in the room, sprawled on top of a three filing tablets near a window. He was holding a pen and swinging his leg, a weirdly human looking pose.
"So, I see you've met Kaoru?" he smirked. His words were hard to make out, but the contempt in his voice would have been obvious to someone unconscious. "Wait ,wait! I'm seeing… " He held his hands up to his head "Clover leaves, icing. Ew, dirty. Ha ha ha."
"You read my mind!?" I was outraged.
"That, plus you smell of human. Oh, I forgot, you're a swampie. My bad. But still, was that all it took to turn you into a degenerate? Icing? Let's see. Turn around."
I did before even thinking about it. "Wow, they really are disgusting. You're right, the pink girl will never want you now. Best stick to the humans."
"Stop it, you pervert!" I sounded more wounded than angry.
"Okay, I'm sure it won't be hard to get it all out of you anyway." He jumped down. I noticed with dejection that he was much taller and better looking than I am. "Come, sit with me."
He swept the papers off one end of the table and sat up, stretching his legs out. I tried to imitate the humans and sit on one of their chairs, but it felt awkward and foreign and I ended up sitting cross-legged on the floor.
"I am Traum, the answerer of your plaintive questions," he laughed haughtily "and the uncrowned king of this office. Tell me your troubles."
I told him what had happened, though the whole story hardly seemed to interest him.
"Well, a tragedy for the ages; my heart effing bleeds. But at least you've found your purpose in this house, which must be so fulfilling."
I ignored his tone. "What is our purpose in this house?"
"You, entertainment. Me, mind control, you see those two?" He gestured to the sleeping men, "They're trying to create something big. A weapon of some sort. We're the inspiration. Our powers will soon be felt far and wide. Or at least, mine will be. Your powers will be limited to relieving boredom, I imagine." He wouldn't let it go.
"Who are they?"
"Tadao is your paramour's husband. Oh, sorry, mate, mustn't forget your roots. "
I looked over at the younger of the two humans, he had a kind face, but he looked exhausted and prematurely aged. "He's the brains behind this whole project, but it's cost him any semblance of a social life."
"And, Norio has even less of a personal life than him, and never leaves." The other man was older, paunchy and smug looking. "Despite that, he's the networker, the provider of money and contacts. All very hush hush."
"Why?"
"Who knows, who cares? They provide me with food and entertainment, and I provide them with ongoing trouble-shooting opportunities."
"What will they do with me?"
"Hook you up to a brain monitor, run a few tests. Why do you even trouble yourself by thinking about it? You're out of your swamp you hick, why do you think you can understand the humans or what they do? Just accept it, I always have." There was a cold viciousness in his voice and he said the last part. I was tired, worn down and confused.
"Sleep in the corner. I'll watch over you, keep them asleep. Enjoy being indoors." He sounded bitter, but it was the kindest thing anyone has said all day, so I curled up with my back against the wall and fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.