Things start to pick up here. I won't recount every dream I have because after the one with the white sand where I discover the darkness, it got harder to spot the telltale signs that revealed the truth behind the stories.
It also became more difficult to lucid dream like towards the end of the adventure I had with Jessica. After a week of getting nowhere, some studying of lucid dreaming gave me pointers to finding the flaws that help you gain awareness while dreaming.
A few well known examples of 'reality checks' are counting your fingers, reading a page in a book or looking at a clock. There are some stranger methods though like believing you can push a finger through the palm of your hand. After some practice this worked:
I was in high school where a friend of mine was helping me draw a dog on a computer. I think we were in computer science but exams were finished so we were having a fun day. The lesson ended quite quickly though as my memories of the dream begin toward the end of the lesson.
When it was time to leave, my friend split up to find our group while I went to get ready. For what? My senses drew me to follow a route to the sports hall. Why was I being taken this way? I would soon find out.
In the sports hall, some popular kids met up with me. They were more like the popular smart kids who were fairly athletic. Not like the typical bully kind. They called me over to join them which gave me a boost of confidence since I was still confused to why I was here.
Conversations are hard to remember in dreams but the gist of it was that we had all been chosen to represent the highschool basketball team today as it was a special sports event and for some reason there wasn't a lot of people keen on playing basketball so we were chosen at random.
I happened to know one of them because they were a close friend of mine since the start of highschool. We'd been in the same class for nearly every subject as well.
I'd hung out with the rest of them too before because of Adam so it wasn't that awkward. In fact, most people enjoyed my company in a "bantery" sense. For my early highschool years, people had seen me as weird and unpopular.
However, later on, my strange behaviour evolved and adapted to be almost likeable. Just only in a way that allowed me to hang out with different groups for a short time before me being around them became overrated. I would make sure to spot these moments and either talk less or leave before it became awkward.
Going through all the social manoeuvres to greet them, defuse any tension and then let them joke about something I did yesterday, let me concentrate on the basketball game coming up shortly. We were given a ball to practice with before the game. I couldn't have been more lucky to be playing basketball because this meant I got the chance to look at my hands.
When I raised the ball to take a shot, I realised my fingers looked a bit strange in shape so I counted them. The task pulled at my mind and this nearly caused the dream to end. Thankfully, I just managed to hold on and now I was lucid.
I wasted no time in looking around at my surroundings. It was possible for me to just get rid of the sports hall and fly off somewhere to search for the darkness but instead I decided to wait. The tournament felt important plus lot's of other schools had come here to compete. If lot's of different people were interested in this location, the darkness might show up.
I took a moment to collect my thoughts and prepare for a confrontation:
'Okay so in my previous experiences I know that the darkness has followers (at the beach town), it can create demonic monsters, trap me in worlds, and kill dream characters.
On the other hand, some people I meet in dreams are strong and can help me, the darkness has to spend a long time looking for me and it's not completely undefeatable. Now that I'm lucid, things seem a bit clearer but I can't think with too much awareness or the dream might collapse. At least I have a chance to really fight back now.'
I sized up my teammates. They appear to have a decent level of fitness so maybe they can help...
Our first game began in no time. Everything jumped forward in my head so I had to focus on the game now. I enjoyed feeling powerful so I didn't hold back. Taking full advantage of my lucid powers, I bounced and weaved through every player in my way. When it came to scoring, I slam dunked it with ease. My powers let me soar up in the air above everyone.
My teammates were shocked since in real life I was only seen as capable in sports. My determination actually led to people underestimating me a lot in the real world but it wasn't like I had talent.
If anything, my forte was being agile and dextrous. My strength and sprinting speed were only average. But not in the dream world. Someone who I didn't like because they weren't afraid to break the rules and barge through people, won the tip against us.
Since I was aware everything was a dream, I stood my ground when he tried to barge into me and stamped my foot so he fell back in a flash of blue light. After getting my satisfaction, I waved my hand and suddenly no one questioned it.
We won the game very easily and eventually I got bored after we won the next few as well. I started to realise dreams don't last forever so I used my god like powers to edit out the filler games that made the whole thing feel like a tournament arc.
Except for the fact that we were stomping on every team in our way. I was the one doing the stomping really. Plus maybe some spins, tricks and leaping from one end of the court to the other like any normal person would.
I had skipped to the last team now. Thoughts of the dark not showing up crossed my mind. Could it be I wasn't looking hard enough? Had I been fooled again thinking I was lucid when actually I was dreaming of being lucid?
The team we were facing were from a school bigger than ours. Our school had been known for having the best exam results in the county but other schools had more funding, better sports equipment and sometimes more pupils so we only won trophies now and again.
The students appeared highly athletic and were all giants compared to us. In normal circumstances, we wouldn't have made it this far. Of course I had an unfair advantage so I wasn't intimidated.
Again, I began doubting whether I was going to see the darkness. It was then when everything changed.
The stone walls and wooden beams that had at first seemed to have so much integrity, disintegrated before my very eyes.
Players didn't seem to notice as parts of the structure came crashing down or when someone was crushed by falling debris. It all soon faded away though to leave only the floor of the gym. The outside had been replaced by an endless void. THE DARKNESS!