Eric woke up in cold sweat; he clutched his head in pain as he remembered the shadow hands that grabbed the white figure. But even though he was afraid some part of him was curious, curious to see if the answers he was looking for can be found in the abyss. Eric walked out of his room and made his way downstairs, the house was oddly quiet, he looked at the clock and to his surprise, it was already noon thankfully it was a Saturday and there was no reason for Eric to go to school.
Eric made his way towards his father's private laboratory, his father was not home at the moment and Eric guessed that his father must be at the institute and working today, he slowly walked towards a room in the far corner of the laboratory. Inside the room, a skinny woman with pale white skin was quietly sleeping, IV's were connected to her as well as a heart monitor. Eric smiled as he approached the woman, he heard the rhythmic beeping of the heart monitor and the slow breathing of the woman, and he kneeled and carefully grabbed the woman's hand.
"Mom, I might be able to save you, I think I have the answer on why you are not waking up. Please give me the courage to dive deeper and protect me, so that I may not lose myself."
Eric stared at his mother while tears streamed down his face. As time passed, he slowly fell asleep clutching his mother's hand but this time he did not dream of anything.
Phil was bored since he had nothing to do, he was alone in his house since his parents were out for work and won't come home until midnight. Phil walked towards his room and gazed at his collections, beautiful figures, odd sculptures, and various trinkets filled his secret cabinet.
His strange habit of collecting trinkets did not come from him though, he liked to collect these trinkets since he wanted to impress his grandfather. He was 5 years old at that time when he accidentally stumbled into his grandfather's secret room, the room was filled with strange artifacts, statues of twisted abominations, and beautiful drawings of fairytale creatures.
Phil watched his grandfather's collection, even though some of the statues terrified Phil most of them he felt some kind of strange connection, and that was the start of his obsession towards different kinds of oddities, it was a drive to add more of these things to his grandfather's collection but sadly it had already been 8 years since he saw his grandpa and his house was locked shut since that day.
Phil reached the back of his secret cabinet and carefully grabbed an ornate box, the box was filled with carvings of birds flying free in the sky. He carefully opened the box and inside were old photographs, news clippings and a letter from his grandfather. Phil took one of the photographs and in it was an image of an old man sitting down and a little boy sitting on his lap both of them smiling happily, Phil smiled at the photo and looked at the back.
"To my dearest Phil, your smile will always motivate grandpa." - Howard Mortimer Craft
Phil remembered his grandpa, he was a kind old gentleman that raised Phil when he was young since his parent are always out for work. He remembered sleeping on the couch beside his grandpa while the constant clacking of the typewriter lull him to sleep.
Phil reached his hand on the different news clipping he had cut out when he was young, it was about how his grandfather was praised highly for his skills in writing and his knack for adventure, Phil was proud and always boast about his grandfather when he was young, once Sonja punched him when they were little since he always bragged about his grandfather that Sonja was annoyed.
Phil chuckled and returned the news clippings in the box, he was putting it carefully when he saw the final letter his grandfather gave him, a letter he gave the day he disappeared. He reached out for it but he slowly took his hands away clear sadness and longing can be seen in his face. He sighed and closed the box and returned it to where it belonged.
Phil looked at his collection again and noticed the book of dreams, he was suddenly struck with curiosity and wanted to know more about the secrets of the book.
Phil laid on his bead and re-read the book once again until he noticed that some pages were glued together, he raised his brows as he tried to separate the two pieces of paper to no avail. Phil headed downstairs with the book in hand as he searched for tools to separate the glued pages of the book, at first he wanted to use a razor but Phil thought that he may damage the page instead, he fell into a dilemma as he wanted to separate the pages without greatly damaging it.
Phil pondered for a while then suddenly he had an idea that maybe he can melt the glue binding the pages together, open fire won't do since he might accidentally burn the book, he remembered that his mother had a hairdryer so he ran towards the master bedroom quickly, he also got some tweezers on the way.
He turned on the hairdryer and slowly heated the glued pages, moments later the pages were separated and Phil turned off the hairdryer. He put the dryer aside and almost burned himself on the hot part of the dryer. He then hurriedly looked at the hidden page and inside was notes that are written in quill pen, the writing was in cursive and some were questions on the previous page. Most of the questions were answered while others were left blank. Phil was shocked because he noticed that the penmanship of the writer was similar to his grandfather.
Phil searched the book carefully to see if there are more glued pages and to his glee, there were a lot more, he then proceeded to heat the pages using the hairdryer after he did that he took a rag and wiped the glue away to prevent it to stick again. Phil was happy to see his grandfather's writings and his experiences on how he progressed in the book.
Most of the hidden pages were about his grandfather's adventure and the novel things he encountered in the plain of dreams. He talks about the time when he had traveled in the shallows and looked at what was above him beyond the plains of sleep and saw a sea of stars, but to his surprise, he could not recognize any constellations in the sky.
He talks about the plains of sleep were a different world in itself, a world beyond our reality that we can only travel when we sleep.
He wrote about the time when he was curious about the floating white figures and tried to touch them only to find himself inside that person's dream. Phil was really happy that he had something that was owned by his grandfather once, he wondered if it was his grandfather that left the book for him and felt a little sad on why he could not meet him.
Phil continued to read the notes his grandfather left in the book and saw one of his grandfather's experiments on how to quickly control and master dreams, Phil smiled and studied the note hard since he had trouble mastering dreams since his ability can only control his dreams to some degree.
Phil re-read the note a couple of times until he was sure how to step-by-step do it. He then hurried to his bedroom and calmed himself, he rid of any distracting thoughts and tried to sleep. He felt the sensation of falling slowly, sinking deeper and deeper until he opened his eyes and saw nothing, he found himself in a void and remembered what was in the note. Phil sat down and calmed himself once more, he think about grass and how it feels, that he is surrounded by it and how it smells in the morning. Little by little as his thoughts manifested, Phil opened his eyes and looked at the never-ending plain of grass, he smiled but only for a moment since he noticed how artificial the scene was.
He sat down again and pondered what was missing, the scene was very static and he feels that he was only looking at a photograph.
Phil thought of adding a gentle breeze, the breeze will carry the smell of grass as it blows, he pictured his hair waving as the breeze blow. Phil felt the changes in his surrounding as gentle winds slowly blew through his hair and he could smell the grass, he smiled and opened his eyes confident in his ability to manifest what he wants. He looked at his hand and slowly clenched it, he then stretched it out and opened it, Phil smiled as he saw a blue butterfly in his hand.
The butterfly slowly fluttered its wings and flew away, Phil smiled and calmed himself once more, he closed his eyes and slowly falls on his back. Phil did not feel the hard ground hitting his back though, he only felt the feeling of slowly sinking in water. Phil opened his eyes after he did not feel the sinking sensation anymore and saw himself floating, he looked around him and smiled as he saw the white figures floating around him in the fetal position.
"The Plain of Dreams."
He muttered.