In the small town of Hillford, inside the only pink house in town, a phone rang. It was Larry's mother's phone.
"Larry, son! How're you?"
"I'm okay, mom. How're you and dad?"
"We're doing great as usual. No problems here. How about your allowance?"
"Uhh… I'm kinda low on cash right now to be honest. But I think I can stretch it out till three days more."
"Okay, I will tell your dad so he can send you some later this afternoon. But Larry, it won't be too big. We're kind of short this month. Your brother hasn't sent us money yet but don't worry about it. We'll try and do something about it somehow."
"Thank you, mom. And speaking of brother, did he called you?"
"We called yesterday morning. Why?"
"Nothing."
There were around five seconds of silence before Torrence, Larry's mother spoke. "D'you have something to tell me, Larry?"
"Right! Gonna ask if you threw the stuff under my bed. You know, the ones inside the cartoon box."
"No, I sometimes go there to clean your room but I've never thrown away anything."
"I see. Thank you, mom. I guess I'll hang the call now. My roommate is already shouting downstairs. Bye-bye! Tell dad I love him. You too."
And with that, Larry hung up.
"Why do kids grow up way too fast?"
Torrence put down her phone and went to the bathroom to continue where she left at. She was dyeing her hair brown. She's in her 50's and a few streaks of white can already be seen peeking in her auburn hair which Larry inherited. Her husband, Leonard has been having a rather similar problem — signs of aging. His balding head was stressing him a lot and refuses to go out without his trusty cap.
Later that day in the Old Town Faverside, it was already night and Larry got home from the gasoline station where he worked part-time at. Max passed out in his bed as soon as they arrived. While Larry was hesitating to sleep. The dream he had last night was troubling him so much that he can't stop thinking about it throughout the day. He tried to read everything related to sleep in his DSM-4 but he wasn't satisfied. All he got were the things he already knew.
But he was only human, he cannot stay awake forever. So while he was at the kitchen counter, sitting on a stool, reading his DSM-4, an empty mug by the side, he fell asleep without him knowing.
The next thing he saw when he opened his eyes. He was back to his dreams. Dreamland as he liked to call it.
He blinked his eyes furiously. But there's no helping it. He really is back in the dreamland.
Garry was in front of him — looking at him. It walked going in his direction, and then a bluish hologram "popped" out of his eye.
WELCOME BACK, PLAYER THIRTEEN!
I WELCOME YOU ON YOUR SECOND NIGHT IN THE GAME!
SWIPE UP TO SEE YOUR CURRENT SITUATION.
'Player thirteen? So the dog tag neclace is like our ID or something?'
Larry was no longer as excited as yesterday, in fact, he was starting to get cautious. He thought this type of dream wasn't normal at all and he even suspected he might be mentally sick. He's afraid he will lose touch with reality. That's why he repeatedly chanted in his mind that he was only dreaming.
He swiped the hologram up. It flickered a bit before another image appeared.
YOU'RE CURRENTLY IN THE VILLAGE OF THE LOST SOULS. (SWIPE LEFT TO SEE MORE INFORMATION)
ON YOUR FIRST NIGHT, YOU FAILED TO ACCOMPLISH ANY TASK BEFORE THE FIRST BELL RANG AND WAS CHASED BY A GHOUL BUT WAS LUCKILY SAVED BY A WOMAN. KILLING THE GHOUL BEFORE THE SECOND BELL RANG.
BUT TONIGHT WILL BE SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT. IF BY ANY CHANCE YOU HAVEN'T ACCOMPLISHED EVEN A SINGLE ONE OF THE TASKS, IT'S NO LONGER A GHOUL BUT A BASILISK WILL COME AFTER YOU. IT CAN TURN YOU TO STONE WITH JUST A MERE EYE CONTACT SO I SUGGEST YOU BE CAREFUL.
WARNING!! THE MORE YOU STAY IN ONE SCENARIO THE MORE DIFFICULT IT WILL BECOME WITH EVERY NIGHT PASSING.
[GOOD LUCK AND HAVE FUN!!]
— NIGHTS WITH THE FOOLS —
And the hologram disappeared.
Larry was silent for a few seconds. 'How could a human brain produce this kind of dream?' he thought. 'Even then, the research about this subject is so lackluster. Not that I can blame the researchers since dream is a very hard subject to research about since there's no way of seeing other people's dream. We even forget about them most of the time.'
Larry pondered for a while and then an idea struck him.
'But if I continue having this hyper-realistic dream, I can definitely do a research on it. Yes, let's do that. That will definitely help me in landing a job when I graduate.'
Larry was so proud of himself for being able to come up with that plan. And that's when he heard a piercing shout of a woman. It was Melinda.