Dream Eater

Chapter 1: Welcome

"Identify yourself!"

"Mare,  Nightmare Bringer" I gritted trough my teeth looking at eight hooded creatures. The mighty Council of Dream Eaters; allegedly each of those eight could wield magic power.

 I crossed my arms and quickly scanned the room. This is not the first time for me being on a trial. 

"Do you know why are you here?" Soft female voice spoke, but since they were all covered up, hiding in the shadows of their sacred chairs, I couldn't know who is who. 

 "Tea party, I guess?" I smiled politely. 

"She is mocking us!" One of them rose from his seat, pointing accusatory at me. Murmur filled the spacious room in a second. 

"Silence!" Another voice shouted making everyone to freeze. His voice echoed through the room, while I was tapping turquoise tiles on the floor in annoyance of the whole situation. 

"Mare, yesterday you were given a task of implanting a dream to a man...." Same voice spoke, flipping trough some old papers with his tremble hands "Richard Cox; age 43. Can you tell us why did he kill himself the instant moment he woke up?" I drummed my fingers on the black garment, which I usually worn for the job.

 "I'm no expert, but he was depressed?" Another wave of discomfort encircled the room. 

"Silence! So that is not the result of nightmare that you put? Mind to tell us the content of the dream?" I sighed, " Unicorns ate him" 

"Unicorns?! What mockery is this, Lucius? She should be dismissed!"   raspy voice came from red hooded creature seated next to Lucius. "Orion be reasonable here, maybe it was an accident" female voice hiding in her white cloak protested. 

"Thank you!" I waved at her. Orion muttered something beneath his breath and sat down. "Mare for now you are free of the accusation." I pumped my fist victoriously in the air.  "But if this happens again, there will be consequences" I turned on my heels ready to flee from this place, when unknown velvet voice spoke up," You are not free yet. Go to the classroom 4, there shall be your punishment." 

Everyone expect Orion nod approvingly. 

Very well, I slightly touch my neck ,"At your service almighty Council!" They all did the same, touching their neck. Great, I was free to go.

 My footsteps echoed trough the empty hallway. Classroom 5, classroom 4. I reached for the doorknob, which remained in my hand and then it crumpled down to the floor. Moments later doors simply cracked in half, which allowed me to take a peek in to the room.

"Please settle down, hey put that... you are all acting like kids!" small brunette yelled, trying  to calm down the group of 20 newcomers. Once she lifted her head to meet my gaze, I noticed how tired she was. "Oh you must be Mare, come in, but watch your steps. The room hasn't been fixed in years " 

I stroked my chin leaning at the entrance of wrecked room. " Mare could you?" Small brunette handed me thick and used-up book with hideous orange headline 'Guide: The World Of Dream Eaters' " Wait a minute!" I turned around to see that brunette has already left the building. 

"Well then!" I threw the book onto a small, dusty table. They really need to clean this as soon as possible. I quickly scanned the room. 10 males and 10 females scattered all over the place, doing whatever the hell they won't. Huh, not on my watch!

"Listen up!" I growled so most of them got scared and seated their magnificent backgrounds on their places. Few of them  refused to listen.

" Alright" I lifted teacher's chair and threw it into opposite wall, causing massive hole where it landed. Now all eyes were glued on me, scared and petrified. 

"Finally!" I lifted guide for all them to see, "Did everyone got this?" they all muttered beneath their breath. " 'm kind of deaf so maybe I should flung another chair in someone's face. Start speaking properly!" 

Panic seized the whole room and in a blink of an eye they were all waving with their books. "Excellent! You can turn to page one, I'm going to make this introduction a bit shorter" somewhere from the corner a small yes was barely audible.

"Ummm miss?" scrawny blue-eyed boy raised his hand. He looked like he was about to piss himself.  "Yes?" I lowered my voice and his shoulders slowly relaxed. "Umm why are you hiding your face beneath a hood? If it's okay to ask?" he swallowed loudly. "How silly of me, I forgot to pull it off" once I've done it, they all gasped. Their eyes were filled with awe. 

"Any more questions? No? good. Like I said before" I cleared my throat and read the introduction.

"Greeting noobs! As you may..."  "It doesn't says noobs" some petit girl spoke up. "Excuse me?" I flicked my eyebrow at her. She nervously pressed her book.  "Nothing" Light whisper came out as a response.

" I thought so. Back to the guide shall we. This guide will give you some useful information about your future life. If you have any other questions, please don't ask anyone because they simply don't care. Lesson number one: once upon a time you were a human and before you jump to any conclusion, you need to know this: we only recruit humans who are or should I say were at brink of their death.  Don't worry because you don't remember any of it, nor you ever will. Lesson number two: Our world is invisible to human eye. So no need to be paranoid. Lesson number three: learn the hierarchy." I sketch it on blackboard. " Down below are all of you newbies. You will be put down to training and after that recruited in one of these three categories: Technician, Nightmare Bringer and Converter. Technician provides information; from tasks to how many people are in here. Converter is the one who brings newcomers, so you are all here thanks to them, partially."

"How do you mean partially?" some blonde girl asked.

"We will get to that part. Lastly, there are the Nightmare Bringers. They implant nightmares and they are the coolest, get it? Now back to that partially. Highest rank on the scale is reserved for the Council of Eight. You will eventually encounter them or not, who cares. But if you do, don't forget to greet them like this" I touched my neck.

 " Lesson four: Avoid Guardians of Dreams! Yes, we have our rivals. But they are pretty much bunch of weaklings. Try not to spread that around because 4 of them are members of that boring Council. If you ever encounter one of them, you have two options: either run or stay and fight. Fun fact is that you will be stuck here for maybe few months, a year, or even more! The point is everyone has it's own tempo of learning and your training will contain basic and advance 'defense' or something like that, I forgot the name. But the name is irrelevant because you will be  learning how to fight back. Also the teacher will assign weaponry after passing all the required tests. Oh and if you get a bow and arrow, make sure to bring a knife too, cuz who use that anymore?!  And lesson number five: do you really wanna know what's behind lucky number five?"

 They all leaned forward, craving to know more. "How to implant a dream of course!" I've heard whispers like 'of course' and 'yes'.

"Alright! Here's the deal with it, you will learn it slowly, but it all come to this moment, you ready? You will receive all the information that you need for your next 'victim': name, age,year, some irrelevant things we all skip and then good old likes and dislikes, fears, fetishes... You wouldn't believe what I found during all these years! Anyways, once you are at victim's place you will imagine everything in your mind. For example: background can be a beautiful night, full moon, a romantic dinner with a girl! Can't get any better, right? Guy is about to kiss her, but instead of soft lips and taste of strawberry chapstick, he is met with slobbery mouth of a 20ft tall python. Crimson eyes and purple tongue? The prefect date! Ah, Really good times" I chuckled at the memory of screeching adult. For a guy, he sure has can hit those high notes.

  "And that is all for now!" I closed the book. There, I think I said pretty much everything. They still gawked at me.

 "Congratulations, you have survived the class" I walked towards the exit, "Oh and one more thing, welcome to the World of Dream Eaters!"