August's smile passed like it had been an illusion as serious focus replaced it. "You'll be going inside one of those endless nightmare loops and find the person whose dream it is. The person who dreams is like the protagonist of the story, in some form the events will all link to them. However, that might not be easy to figure out considering that you will become one of the characters, thus - you will also need to deal with anything that dream's setting throws at you."

Mandy nodded with some hesitance. This all felt surreal. "Will I become something like a long lost cousin of someone and everyone will know me?"

"It's not that convenient. You will need to figure out your own setting, well - probably you will die once or twice before that."

Eh? "...die?" Mandy squinted at August. He was throwing out some scary stuff all too casually.

"It is a nightmare after all," He replied like it was the norm. "Or it might be something else. The dream reloops when something wake-up worthy happens to the protagonist."

Wake up worthy from a nightmare would be: "Like falling, or something catching you, or..?"

"Yes, what usually wakes one up from nightmares. Though I've been in one where the protagonist snapped out when a girl kissed him, so watch the timing when it ends."

Hey! HEY! "You've been in one?" How was that possible? August didn't mention he could do it himself.. he never mentioned he could do anything like slipping into others dreams, Tia didn't mention anything like it either.

"If I travel astrally, I'm kind of like a ghost, but.. since the only exorcist we have here is me, the only one who can dive in is you."

Mandy wouldn't have asked August to be the one to enter the nightmare really, she had just been curious. August would be doing something outside, something she could not do. Astral traveling could get dangerous as well, as she had heard previously. It's not like she would know what to do if something targets August's body while he is out.

"Okay, what do I do once I figure out who is the one dreaming?" Mandy asked.

"You cause a different wake up worthy experience yourself," August said.

"Like... push them out of a window?" Mandy asked.

"That's one option." August nodded.

That was a rather awful thing to do, but nightmares had elements like that and it's not like anyone would die for real, right? Mandy peered at August. "No one will be harmed, right?"

"You might have a trauma from the experience," August made a knowing look. A dark look. A look of 'hello darkness my old friend'.

August totally had a trauma.. Mandy squinted. That didn't seem reassuring, but.. Okay. No one other than her mind would be harmed. Mandy nodded. She didn't want a trauma, but seeing some nightmares voluntarily to free those souls seemed like something she could deal with. If not, then she would know better next time. If there is a next time.. meaning, if she doesn't get stuck.

"What do I do to not get stuck?" Mandy asked.

"Don't give up. Some of those nightmares can also be very tempting to stay in, some are very hard to decipher, some seem like they are better not deciphered. As long as you are proactive and don't indulge into whatever there might be you wouldn't get stuck."

Mandy doubted she would indulge into.. okay, unless the dream isn't like Willy Wonka's chocolate factory or a huge bakery with an endless selection of cakes. That might be dangerous.

"It didn't happen to me, but I've heard stories of one dream reviving the dead family of the ghost who went in, another team had to come to rescue, but in one way or another that said ghost ended up passing on together with those who were originally stuck," August lingered on the topic for a bit longer.

Mandy's eyes widened. Passing on? So the danger in getting stuck was that? She didn't want to pass on exactly, she still didn't know if Rosanne would meet Alejandro in August's book. But asking that.. it was important how she would meet him if she would, so just asking August for spoilers wouldn't help. Conflicting. Mandy drew a deep breath. Fine. One more reason to not get stuck.

"What do I do after I wake the person up?" she asked, resolving herself.

"That's all you need to do. I'll handle the rest," August said. All the while Mandy was pondering on the topic, August was watching her carefully, not interrupting just observing.

Mandy nodded slowly. "How do I enter the dream then?" She figured there wasn't anything more August would or could tell her.

"You press your forehead to whichever ghost you prefer and imagine yourself to grow a horn penetrating their head."

"..." Mandy squinted at August really hard. Drilling into their head? Really?

August sighed. "Or imagine yourself awakening your third eye that has x-ray function and can scan the inside of their head."

That was less gruesome. "I still need to press my forehead to theirs?"

"Yes."

Okay. Mandy nodded. She will try the x-ray image from movies. Hopefully a real third eye wouldn't grow.. she didn't want to have another eye. Since the head sticking out was in an odd position, Mandy peeked through the wall.

In the room, floating in various positions were a dozen figures. All of them were of young people and all of them were like old recordings with noise over them – pixels falling off from time to time, some parts brightening while others blacking out. The room itself was a bedroom of a girl, dusty, old, long abandoned.

Following after her August opened the door, coming in. August carefully moved through the room until he reached the bed, there, by the wall, was a dreamcatcher hanged on a nail.

"How do you "improperly use" it?" Mandy asked in a whisper, feeling like she shouldn't talk out loud.

"Ask another time," August said, as he took out the black book and placed it on the floor, drawing a symbol on it, having it return to its original shape – that of a suitcase.

Well, true, she didn't want to linger in this creepy place for long. Mandy picked a short girl with braids floating nearby and pressed her forehead to hers. Ah, being this close felt awkward.. she closed her eyes and started to imagine that x-ray eye. For a while, nothing happened, but as Mandy's focus grew, an odd sensation struck her. It was like suddenly drawing a breath after diving and then the senses she had had when alive returned.

As Mandy opened her eyes, she was no longer in the room with glitching figures, but a toilet. She was standing by the mirror, wearing the same white dress she had on as a ghost usually, yet differently, from usual - she had a reflection and she appeared alive. Being alive feels pretty heavy, was a passing thought, yet not something she consciously paid attention to.

There was an ambient music resounding from the outside. Nothing would probably happen if she stayed here, so Mandy carefully opened the door. The music turned up a notch and a still fresh and well-maintained apartment came into view. That same dusty chair where she and August had hidden was now clean and occupied by a laughing girl in a miniskirt. With a hot mug of something in her hands, she was talking with five more youths. Similar little groups were forming all around the room and sound implied that the same happened in other rooms throughout the place. Even upstairs.

She hadn't noticed before, but there was a fine staircase going along the wall, leading to the second floor. Or perhaps this part was due to this being a dream.. Mandy had a feeling she would have recalled if there was a staircase in the room. While the same in some ways, this dream apartment was different in how vast it was.

Another odd detail was that more than half the people in this place were washed out in their colors. At first look it didn't strike her, but the more Mandy looked, the more apparent that became - some of the figures that had glitched before were here and looked normally alive, but some others (who Mandy didn't recall seeing as glitching ghosts) were grayish in color and kind of off in some ways even if Mandy wouldn't be able to tell why exactly. Just that they didn't feel as real. There was a strange shine in their eyes and their motions felt generic and flat. Mandy decided to focus on the alive looking people, the gray ones were likely fillers.

The same girl she had pressed her forehead to was heading towards the stairs with a book in her hands, so Mandy walked towards her as well; might as well approach someone to figure out something about this nightmare. This was a party, yet far too mild to be one at the same time. There was no wild dancing, a sea of drink bottles, people making out in corners and no one was puking in the bathroom. It seemed more like the party her parents would have not people of this age. Or perhaps youth didn't always have parties as wild as those she had happened upon, who knows really, this was also a dream, so perhaps some person imagined youth parties to be like this?

"Hey," Mandy called out as she had almost caught up to the girl.

The girl glanced back.

Right.. there should be a reason to approach someone like this and Mandy doubted using a pick-up line would be a good idea. "Have you seen Amanda?" Mandy asked, dropping a completely random name praying there was no one named Amanda in this place.

"I don't know anyone with that name," she replied.

"She's short, ginger and wears a black shirt," Mandy continued winging it.

"Sorry, don't think I've seen her," the girl said. Aiming to turn away.

What a relief, yet, now to think up how to keep this girl from going away. "That's okay. I'm Mandy by the way,"

"Samantha," the girl replied with her own name.

"Samantha, do you know what this party is about. I mean, Amanda dragged me here telling I should absolutely be here, but.. then she went missing while I was in the restroom." Mandy made a troubled smile.

Samantha tilted her head slightly, then showed Mandy the book she was holding. It had an illustrated cover of a pair of comic characters and the title read. "31 nightmares. A horror manga anthology."

"We are celebrating this book coming out," she said. "My work is in there as well."

"Oh! You are a published author?" Mandy asked. She wasn't exactly sure what 'manga' meant. A comic or a certain form of story? She wouldn't know without taking a look inside.

"Yes," the girl beamed a proud smile.

"Can I take a look?" Mandy asked. Perhaps that book gave hints towards solving this.

"Sure!" Samantha passed over the book. "But maybe we can go sit somewhere?" They were standing on the stairs at this point.

"Sorry, I got too excited for a moment," Mandy made a sheepish smile as she took the book.

Samantha continued heading upstairs and Mandy followed. "It's good to be excited, isn't it?" The girl asked.

"I guess it is," Mandy replied. Upstairs there was a lobby where more people hung out, but luckily a sofa freed up right then as three girls got up and passed them.

Samantha took a seat and Mandy did as well, opening the book. 'Manga' apparently meant 'comic'. The art style was softer and more girl-like than the comics she knew, but otherwise, it was a normal comic like any other. Mandy herself wasn't too keen on comics, preferring novels, but her brothers had some, so she had read them as well. Mandy figured she would flip to Samantha's piece first, but as she flipped, she noticed that the second story didn't even have dialogues and pictures were jumbled up incoherently, same with following two, then there was a normal one, then one messed up, then Samantha's work came up. Oh! That was a good find. Chances are, since this was someone's dream, that the normal comics all had a connection to the dreamer. Mandy flipped further and the normal comics only totaled up to five - Samantha's, Nora's, Isack's, Andrew's and Hazel's.

"Looks good, doesn't it?" Samantha asked excitedly.

"It does, there's a special quality to yours, Nora's, Isack's, Andrew's and Hazel's." Mandy flipped a bit to make sure she didn't mix up the name. Others were an incomprehensible mess, after all. Mandy wouldn't voice that, though.

"You can tell just by flipping through?" Samantha made a surprised look. "Your friend might have had a good hunch for bringing you here."

"I am a passionate reader, after all," Mandy said. Not a comic reader, but she hadn't lied. "Are the five of you connected in some way?"

"Yes, we have a manga circle," Samantha smiled. "This project is our long sought-after dream."

"Mind if I read them more properly?" Mandy asked. Comics were fast to read, so just reading through five 20 page comics wouldn't take a long time and they might hold some keys towards resolving this.

"Sure!" Samantha smiled. "I'll bring something to drink. What would you like?"

"Any tea would do, or apple juice if there is any," Mandy replied.

Samantha nodded and got up, while Mandy started reading. Despite the name being 'Nightmares', the stories were just horror tales of various sorts. Not all that well written, but the artwork was very good. Samantha's was about a child turning into a centipede monster and eating other kids, Nora's was a psychological piece where the protagonist jumped out of the window in the end, Isack's was a pure gory mess with shock value but no story otherwise, Andrew's was an overly erotic piece about a lady chomping up a man while having sex with him, so porny that Mandy squinted to blur things out at times, and Hazel's was a tale about a house coming alive and tormenting some poor girl in various ways.

By the time Samantha returned, Mandy was finishing up Hazel's story. Mandy had a passing wonder what took her so long, but that was answered by the tray in the girl's hands. Teapot, some cookies, two dainty cups.. Would they be having a tea party? The girl was very well prepared.

"So, how was it?" Samantha asked in excitement.

Thinking Samantha would be more eager to hear about her own story, Mandy focused on that. "The artwork in your story was very good, so real at times it sent chills down my spine," she said. That was a true bit. Sadly she would need to think harder to tell other compliments if this was a compliment at all..

Samantha beamed a smile, as she took a seat. "Thank you! I found some real centipedes and kept them in a box to have references!"

"That's some serious commitment!" Mandy said. Artists were eccentric folk as far as she knew, August fit that bill perfectly too with his sudden acting sprees in the middle of writing, so this was probably a part of the process. Since Mandy wasn't one herself she didn't quite understand it though. Having centipedes at home would bring nightmares to her. Perhaps Samantha didn't feel the same.

"Yep, I wanted to get them right," she said. "They lose their creepiness if you try to stylize them."

Ah, so she was aware of them being creepy. "Do they?"

"Ah, yes," Samantha said and took out a small notepad from her pocket, scribbling something on it, then showing to Mandy.

Ah, it was like a child's drawing now. "I see." Mandy nodded. Although the way Samantha sketched those lines was a bit wiggled, like she wasn't all that used to drawing. Nervousness or.. "Are there other drawings in that notepad?"

"Would you like to take a look?" Samantha offered.

Mandy took it to flip some pages. The style was only vaguely reminiscent of the artwork in the book, the artwork in the notepad was pretty bad. Even the concept drawing of the centipede child was nowhere near the level of the artwork in the comic book. Well, a dream was bound to have some inconsistencies.. "It's interesting to see the drafts," Mandy commented, just so there wouldn't be silence.

"I like to see them too," Samantha agreed. "Hey, do you happen to write or draw as well?"

"Nope," Mandy said. "I love reading, but I haven't ever felt compelled to make anything of this sort."

"Hmm, that's a pity," Samantha said. "One of my favorite authors said that avid readers make the best writers, so.."

Mandy didn't know what to say to that so she just smiled, passing the notebook back. "Most bookworms don't write, do they?"

"Well, it's a pity most of them don't," Samantha said. "Everyone has their own worldview so it would be interesting to read something from them. That would be so much easier than talking and trying to divine what kind of story they have within them."

Mandy wasn't all that introverted, but she could agree that just reading someone's biography was easier than piecing it together through conversations. "I can agree with that," Mandy said.

For a while, after the two talked random things about books, reading, people, as they had some tea and cookies. Mandy had a need to go to the toilet after a while and she excused herself. Only as she walked downstairs she realized that.. wasn't August waiting for her? She had just gotten completely caught up in a random conversation that probably had little or nothing to do with solving this nightmare.

Mandy pursed her lips and she crossed her arms. It had been so long since she last had a chance to talk with a fellow reader (talkative one, at that), so it made sense, but this really wasn't the time for it. She resolved to do better, yet, as she locked the restroom's doors, an eerie feeling overcame her. All sounds disappeared, leaving only the faint hum of the fluorescent lamp above the mirror. She could hear no voices or music coming from the outside.

Something wasn't right. She reached her hand back to the lock to open the door, but rather than feeling the cold sensation of the metal on her fingers, she felt something warm. A glance down revealed the same picture she had seen in Hazel's comic - the lock had turned into a mouth-- she retracted her fingers just before she could be bitten.

Crap.

If things would follow the scenario there, she would be tormented in this room and in the end sucked into the toilet, crushed into pieces by it. Looking at the mirror would have her reflection come alive and kill itself to freak her out. Cold sweat covered Mandy's neck, and she stood still, refusing to look anywhere in particular.

Yet if she didn't go to the toilet, the toilet came to her, extending like a snake and no screaming made it retreat. Moments later Mandy died in the dream snapping back in the same toilet, looking at the mirror.

Instantly the girl crouched down to avoid her reflection. The eerie feeling was gone, though. She could hear the voices and the music outside.

"Holy crap," she muttered, opening the door. She didn't want to stay here for a moment longer. If she needed to relieve herself, she would use a potted plant or whatever next time around, no matter how bestial that would make her feel. Dying in this dream had hurt. It was pure terror. Knowing what was coming didn't make it any better.

The scene outside was exactly the same as the one she had seen before - Samantha was walking through the room, towards the stairs, the same groups had formed again.. should she approach Samantha again this time? No, Hazel was the most suspicious. Hazel's comic had come alive, after all.

Like before, Mandy approached Samantha, yet this time, she changed her question to: "Have you seen Hazel?"

"Ah, I think she's in the kitchen," Samantha replied.

"Thanks! Where is that?" Mandy asked.

Samantha pointed her hand towards a hall. "Go straight, turn right at the end."

"Thanks!" Mandy said again and rushed off. There was no way she wanted to re-experience dying in this dream, so this time she wouldn't waste any time.

As she reached the kitchen she found a girl sitting on the windowsill smoking. There were two more youths searching for something through the cupboards and a pair of girls making some sandwiches.

Who was Hazel then? Judging from the fact that she was acquainted with Samantha, Mandy thought there would be another bookish girl, yet none of them fit the bill. Hazel seemed like those chill hippy girls and the rest were the popular/cheerleader girl type.

Mandy walked up to the smoking girl since she was alone and asked. "Do you happen to be Hazel?" As she did a disturbing idea of.. if she was, then pushing her down might be a good idea, the window was open and she was sitting right on the edge; that ought to be easy. This was a dream, no one would die for real. If Hazel was the cause then that would end this. Mandy was creeped out by this thought and shook it off. There are other ways to shock someone, killing them, even in a dream, was just wrong.

"Ye, 'sup?' the girl replied in an apathetic tone.

"I read your story, it was impressing," Mandy said. Experiencing it, in reality, was a bit too impressing.. she doubted she would be able to erase that impression ever. No lie told.

Surprise passed Hazel's eyes. "Oh, cool, thanks!" She seemed happy.

"How did you come up with the idea?" Mandy asked. Hopefully, this wouldn't turn into another lost conversation, while August was waiting, but might as well look for clues like this for now, while thinking of ways to shock this girl. Pushing her down.. no. No. No murder.

"Nothing special, I guess, just stuff I saw during some bad trips."

"Trips?" Mandy asked. She would have guessed nightmares or perhaps stuff you'd imagine as a child, but.. how would one see something of that sort during a trip? A haunted house?

"Shrooms, y'know," the girl elaborated.

"Oh.." That was an unfamiliar world. That said the girl did give off the feeling that she might be into that kind of stuff. But then.. how was she connected to Samantha? Mandy knew she shouldn't judge people by their appearances.. well, but it was very hard to put together the talkative proper girl she met before with a college hippy junkie. Friends usually weren't that.. different. Yet belonging to the same club wouldn't per se make people friends.

"You don't look the type to use those," Hazel smirked, almost as if reading her mind about 'trips'.

"I'm more into sider at parties," she said, trying not to let her prejudice show. She hadn't heard much good about junkies. Nothing good at all, truth be told.

"Would offer ya some, but this place is nuts," Hazel said, looking out of the window.

Mandy narrowed her eyes. It couldn't be that Hazel was aware of this being a dream or... something?

"Even my parents have wilder parties. Y'kno, there's like no booze and this is like them-- Tupperware gatherings, eh," she fell silent like giving up and letting out a breath.

Wrong guess. It seemed like Hazel realized something was off and that fit with Mandy's own impression of parties. The young adults she knew didn't party like this and while Samantha fit in (which should have been odd), Hazel pointed out something that should have been obvious. In Nightmares.. you didn't come to that realization normally, did you? Any bit that struck out as odd would take away from the experience. Mandy didn't recall even one instance where she felt completely out of place in her own nightmares, usually, all oddities became apparent only after the fact.

"Yes, this party is weird," Mandy nodded, starting to seriously doubt that Hazel was the core of this.

Hazel nodded. "Nora y'know. Maybe them rich peeps do parties with hot choco." Hazel shrugged.

A namedrop. This place was Nora's place? Mandy had started to feel like Samantha might just be the culprit behind this with how she fits in, but.. perhaps looking up Nora might be.. and that said Mandy still had no idea how to shock any of them. Pushing Hazel off the windowsill might be a good start.. Mandy was appalled with how this idea even shoved itself into her head.

"Where is she, by the way?" Mandy asked.

"Probs her room," Hazel shrugged. "Got pissed at Andrew just now and went to sulk."

"Where's that?" Mandy asked, noticing another familiar name.

"Upstairs somewhere," Hazel said.

"Thanks, I'll find her then," Mandy said, better be on her way before some other nightmare-like experience comes up.

"Sure. What're you called by the way?"

"Oh, sorry. I'm Mandy." Right, she hadn't even introduced herself. Quite rude of her.

"See ya 'round, Mandy," Hazel raised her hand in a wave and just as Mandy turned to walk away, a faint gust of wind passed her and Hazel's presence faded.

As Mandy turned back, no one was sitting there anymore. A sinking feeling overcame her stomach and Mandy tried to leave the kitchen as fast as possible. Something odd was starting to happen just like in the bathroom before. But the time wasn't right-- her talk with Samantha had lasted so much longer, it was too early for anyone to die off..

Mandy pushed the sinking feeling down and rushed towards the stairs. Just like when she was talking with Samantha before, the party was going on, music was still there, just that one girl had disappeared, or fallen or.. this wasn't real. In either case, this wasn't real. It was odd how she had started to confuse this place for reality despite the washed out figures, the oddness of this party, the fact that this would just reloop after some time. A part of her understood in strange clarity how one might actually get stuck in this. And the fact that Hazel had fallen, yet the dream was going on was another point in favor of Hazel not being the cause.

As Mandy made her way upstairs, she didn't find Samantha this time. Naturally so, considering that this time she hadn't approached. She passed the lobby and peered at the doors. There wouldn't be one with a name 'Nora' on it, would there? Things sadly weren't that convenient.. yet one door did strike her as odd. There was an odd rustling sound coming from it and some crunching, a lot like the sound dogs made when they crunched on bones.

Mandy reached her hand towards the handle, yet drew back mere centimeters before her hand touched the metal. Mandy had a feeling where this might be going, so she carefully stepped back. Chances were.. that was Nora's room. Mandy had no confirmation for it, but she felt like that must be the case.

If her hunch was right all the comics she had read would come to life in this nightmare. Considering that Hazel (one of the authors) was done in by a plot device from another author, there was no guarantee that the same wouldn't happen to others. That crunching sound was either the centipede or the.. sexy monster. Neither of which Mandy wanted to meet. Yet if that trail of thought was correct in any way.. didn't that also imply that death as a plot device would not be all that likely to work to shock anyone out of this?

Mandy's back stumbled into something soft. "Sorry!" She snapped around, meeting eyes with a tall blonde in a prim dress.

"You shouldn't walk backward like that," the blonde scolded.

"You are right." Mandy nodded.

"Why were you walking like that, though?" Her expression took on a glint of curiosity.

Eh.. telling that she heard the sound of something gnawing on bones was.. was that something she ought to tell? Fine, this was a nightmare and telling the truth might just lead to something.

"I heard a scary sound, so I was backing away," Mandy said.

"It did sound like someone brought in a dog," the girl confirmed, although it didn't seem like she bought the 'scary' part. "I was going to check that out, my brother has an allergy, so I can't have people bringing in pets."

Dog? Had this been the reality, not a murderous nightmare Mandy would have thought the same, the sound did seem to hint at that for her as well. The things she said after.. "You don't happen to be Nora?"

"I do happen to be her, yes," the girl said, not seeming surprised that Mandy had guessed. "You would be?"

"Mandy."

"Pleased to meet you, Mandy." Nora nodded her head. "Do you happen to be afraid of dogs?"

Yes, she had mentioned that the sound was 'scary'. "No, not really – I just doubt it's a dog making that sound."

"Hmm, what makes you think so?" Nora asked.

Mandy had no answer.

"I better check then," Nora said, passing Mandy by.

Mandy drew a deep breath. If Nora went there, she would undoubtedly die. Not for real, but the experience was bad enough for Mandy to not wish it upon anyone. But shocking, how to shock someone.. without killing them, what makes one wake up from a dream. Ah, an idea crossed her mind. A bad idea. But that was something that had woken her up once at the price of a huge embarrassment.

"Wait!" Mandy reached out to catch Nora by her wrist.

Nora stopped, glancing back.

"Don't go." Mandy felt herself turning red.

"Eh, ah" Nora grew confused. "I'll be right back?"

"It's important!" Mandy said, resolving herself. Saying her sudden idea out would be so embarrassing she would be close to dying herself. But that was the only thing that came to her mind.

"I fell in love with you at first sight! Please go out with me!"

Nora was dumbfounded. Her mouth slightly opened, then closed. -->>

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