Land of the Dunes

6: Over the Pseudo-Sunrise

"..."

I'm here again.

Amidst royal windows overlooking nothing but what could only be outer space, I stood idly in the middle of the wide hallway, my shoes stepping uncomfortably on the smooth marble checkered tiles. I dragged my soles across the flooring, and the screeching sound it made made me feel very uncomfortable. Wherever I'm at, it surely doesn't like cheap products.

As I walked, I thought about what I had just said. Dreams are just a messy collection of memories your brain puts together, right? Maybe this is just how I imagined the fancy buildings with the ballrooms to feel like; unwelcoming.

Looking out the window, the only other thing I saw was the usual streams of energy coming from the artifacts that power this world. As much as I hate this dream, it feels like something about these energy flows will help me in the future whether it's about writing theses or whatever. I'll take it into note.

"What..."

I instantly focused back on what was in front of me, and I gasped at just what lay there.

All the way at the end of the corridor, a white rectangle, presumably a portal, stood there like it was waiting for me.

Of course it's only waiting for me. Who else could it possibly wait for?

Too drowned in thought, I couldn't even notice my entire body already moving the distance at running speeds. I felt drawn to know what was on the other side, to see what these dreams have been trying to tell me all this time.

"What... is that...?" I couldn't help voicing.

As I got closer, I soon realized that it was a hand reaching out of the mirror for me. It only grew my curiosity, but just as I was about to be in arms' distance, the hand retracted and completely disappeared into the white realm of nothingness. Upon chasing it, I found myself in a blank white space, seemingly infinite.

No matter how much I looked around, the hand that was reaching out was nowhere to be seen. It seemed to be made out of the same thing as the space itself though. It wouldn't be surprising that it could hide so well here.

But just as I reached that conclusion, the same white hand grabbed me by the shirt, and pulled me closer, surprising me.

"Ghh...!?"

Wh-What's happeni—

"The man named Kishibe."

I almost choked on my spit hearing that.

"Take it, and kill 'The Deviant'."

And in that instant, something emerged from the endless depths of the white void. I could barely make out what it was, but the closer it got, the more light refracted through it, showing millions of colors right before my eyes. I reached out my hand past the mysterious one and tried to grab it. Although it was out of reach, the object slowly came to me, and I could almost feel it touch my fingertips, until—

Until he woke up.

"Gah!!!"

The horrid dream almost makes him fall off his bed, and he rebalances himself on the big bean bag and processes what just happened.

"That was different from usual..."

Aside from the obvious, he reflects on the peculiarity of that dream in particular. His dreams have always had deviations, but none were more different than the one he just had. This time, the lead became way more obvious, as if the voices earlier had finally managed to reach out to him.