The tentacles were getting closer as Phil was paralyzed on the ground. Phil tried to crawl away but a tentacle, unfortunately, grabbed hold of his right ankle.
The tentacle proceeded to hang Phil up to the air. Phil felt his blood pool on his head as he was hung upside down. The other tentacles proceeded to bind Phil tightly.
Phil tried to close his eyes as the pressure of the squeezing almost made him faint. He heard his bones creak as he slowly suffocates; Phil screamed but only for a moment for, unfortunately, another tentacle made its way inside his mouth essentially gaging Phil.
The tentacles proceeded to move closer to the flickering lights. Phil, with great difficulty, glanced at the light and what he saw horrified him.
He glanced beyond the threshold of the lights, and now he knew why it was flickering. The lights were not light bulbs or any worldly material but in fact a glowing eye of a cosmic being.
Phil shook his head as he did not want to die, tears streaming down his face as he passed the threshold and into the gaping maw of the cosmic being.
His vision filled with red as he closed his eyes.
Waiting for his impending demise, Phil only wished for it to not hurt.
Strangely enough, nothing happened. He opened his eyes but he was still seeing red.
He noticed that there was not a thing binding him anymore, his body no longer hurt nor the exhaustion of pedaling for hours can be felt.
He relaxed and calmed himself. He looked around him and was surprised to see himself back in the artifact room his grandfather owns.
The statue of the "Abyssal Idiot" was projecting a red light onto him.
He gazed into its eyes and knew what he had seen was a mere illusion or an impending prophecy.
Phil wiped the sweat on his body and tried to stand up with great difficulty since his knees gave out due to the horrifying experience.
Phil exhaled and did not forget to bring the water-damaged wooden box containing the sextant as he exited the secret room once more.
Instead of heading home, Phil decided to pass the night in his grandfather's house. He dared to believe what he saw due to the statue rather than experiencing it in real life and dying.
He moved to his room on the second floor and to his best abilities tried to clean the room.
Phil slept with great discomfort, the air was dusty and he woke up almost every hour due to the illusion he had seen.
Phil tried to dive into the plains of sleep, but no matter how he tried he could not fully calm himself down.
Every time he experiences the sinking feeling he would unconsciously think that something has bound him and jolt himself awake.
He even broke the frame of the bed near his feet due to him kicking full force.
Phil woke up as the sun was just rising, enough for him to see the road without using any lights.
Phil exited the house and did not forget to turn off the generator and lock the house.
He rode his bike but this time he even detoured and did not risk taking the roads he took in the illusion. It took him at least triple the time he needed to go from his house to his grandfather's.
Tired and exhausted even sleep deprived, Phil decided not to go to school this day.
At his house, Phil ate a light breakfast and proceeded to try and sleep on the couch.
He woke up at noon not having any dreams at all. He made himself lunch and tried to forget the illusion he had seen since it might affect his training to bring the sextant into his dreams.
Phil took a bath afterward to clean himself from dust and to cool himself as well. After that, he heads towards his room and reread the pages that Samantha had translated.
In it was a direction to bring a thing from reality to the plains of dreams. Phil closed his eyes and meditated checking if he could come back to the grassy plains he had once made as a base in his dreams.
Minutes later he succeeded in doing so. He forced himself to wake up and looked into the clock on his nightstand.
The clock read 2 o'clock and Phil wrote on the notebook he prepared before, to list and chronicle his experiments. It took him about an hour to complete from being awake to arriving in the grassy plains and being awake once more.
Phil wanted to shorten that time but he knew that he needs a lot of practice to do so. Phil took out the sextant carefully out of its wooden box. He read the directions once more and placed the sextant on both of his open hands. Resting his hands on his leg he tried to look for a comfortable spot to fall asleep and concentrated on the sextant since the directions said so.
Feeling the sinking feeling once more, Phil opened his eyes after the sinking feeling vanished but to his disappointment, the sextant was nowhere to be found.
Phil wanted to try and just imagine the sextant, manifesting it out of thin air. He tried to do this for about an hour and to his surprise succeeded in doing so.
He smiled as the sextant rested in his hands, but Phil felt something was not right. The sextant was "dead" it had no soul of sorts, it was dull and unlike the one in reality, the sextant he imagined was rather fragile or brittle. Phil inspected it and moved his face closer to it, he accidentally exhaled into it and it slowly crumbled turning into dust.
Phil was disappointed and learned that he could not take any shortcuts in doing so.
Phil once again willed himself awake and slowly opened his eyes.
Back in reality the sextant lay on his hands unmoved. Phil now truly felt the difference between the sextant he imagined and the one in reality. The one in reality has presence, a weight, and a story. Different from the one he had imagined.
Phil wanted to try once more when he heard a knock on the front door. He opened the window in his room and called out to the one who was knocking.
Unsurprisingly it was Sonja. She was concerned about why Phil chose to skip school.
Phil told Sonja to wait as he carefully returned the sextant back into its box and walked downstairs to open the doors for her.
"Why didn't you go to School Phil? Are you okay?"
Sonja asked as she touched Phil's forehead.
"I'm okay Sonj. Nothing happened; I just woke up late and chose not to go to school that's all."
Phil didn't tell Sonja what he had experienced, not wanting Sonja to be needlessly worried about his delusions, afraid that she might call him insane.
"Well, don't do that again or I will tell Aunt Sarah and Uncle Howard that you were absent today."
"Please don't tell them. I promise you I will go to school."
"Okay, great. By the way here's your assignment for today, I asked Dave about it and he gave me a copy."
Sonja smiled as he gave Phil a paper bag that contained the assignments Phil has to do.
"And this. This is from my mother, she thought you were sick and cooked soup for you."
Sonja handed a thermos to Phil.
"Thanks, Sonj. I will return the thermos tomorrow morning when we head to school."
Phil ruffled Sonja's hair as he thanked her. Annoyed by Phil's action, Sonja whisked Phil's hand away.
"Stop that, I'm not a kid anymore."
She shouted as she walked away grumbling. Phil did not notice how red her face was as she quickly went home.
Phil was smiling as he felt the care Sonja and her family had for him.
Closing the front door, Phil decided to have an early dinner since he will practice bringing the sextant in his dream for the whole night.
After his dinner, Phil watched TV since it was bad to sleep after you just eaten.
An hour went by and Phil turned the TV off. He head towards his room and tried once again.
But still, he did not succeed. Knowing that he won't be able to succeed on his third try, Phil tried to look for a hint so that he may be able to bring the sextant in his dream. He re-read the translated pages again and noticed the lines the writer wrote.
It talked about how the writer practiced using small objects like a bead for example to practice bringing the artifact and how he slowly progressed in size after that.
Finding the clue, Phil was happy. He proceeded to look for a marble in his nightstand and found one.
He sat back on his bed and leaned against the wall; he cupped his hands and rested the marble in the center. He focused at the marble and tried to memorize its shape and weight, he only closed his eyes until he was sure that he can visualize the marble. Phil relaxed and keeping the marble in his mind, he noticed the sinking feeling and found himself in the grassy plains after. Phil opened his eyes but to his disappointment the marble was not there.
Phil did not give up since he knew it was a difficult thing to do. Phil practiced the whole night and succeeded after his fifth attempt.
Phil jumped with joy as he cheered; the marble was on his hands. He tried crushing it but nothing happened, it was a good sign for Phil, since you could not easily manipulate something you brought from reality into the plains of sleep.