It was hard to go to sleep that night. The pendant and necklace in hand, Park Chung-Ho was admiring his parents with a bitter taste in his throat. He heard so many things this evening that his attention was fully focused, and he didn't feel the exhaustion taking over him. He was fully awake, and a lot of thoughts were bumping in his head.
He was imagining seeing his parents, the joy on their face when he would have good grades, or their first Travel in the dream realm together, how they would react to the fact that he was able to change his nightmare, or escape a dragon... Tears started to come in his eyes until he heard a flapping sound.
"Meow?" Nòtt really asked a question.
The cat maybe was accoustumed to Park Chung-Ho's belly.
"Ok, I'll lie down." He said with a smile. He chased the humidity in his eyes with his hands, shook his head, and lay down in the bed. He instantly felt the weight of the cat on his stomach, going round and round while purring, then finally finding the best place to sleep. The strong vibration immediately proved effective, and Park Chung-Ho closed his eyes.
He felt the heat and breathed the smoke. He didn't need to open his eyes to know he was in his own domain. But why?
He looked around him and saw Aislinn in the corner of the room.
"Why are we here, Chung-Ho?" She asked.
"I guess it's relative to the revelations I got tonight."
The young man touched the wall, and the flames disappeared.
"Let's head to your domain if you want."
"I don't know how. Do you have a solution?"
"I thought that going out this corridor would lead us to your domain, isn't it going to be the case?"
"The last Time you crossed this doorstep, you were pulled in the depths of the dream realm. I never heard of a passage between domains by the way."
"So you know that this is my domain we are in... I only learned it this evening."
He imagined the room without the bed and placed two armchairs in it, and a table.
"Let's make this place a bit more suitable, shall we?"
Aislinn watched him change the room.
"You should place a screen on the wall."
He did so.
"Why?"
"You said you learned a lot this evening. Maybe you wanna show me a bit of it, or not. I'm sorry if I've crossed the line. Maybe it's none of my business."
"No, no. Don't worry. I was going to explain it all to you. Maybe you know most of it. But I'll start with some messages from your mother."
Aislinn tilted her head to her left with a little smile.
"So you told her about us. Good."
"Well, you asked me to do it afterall."
"You're right !" she laughed, just before turning back to serious, "But please, tell me what she had to say."
"First of all, she wants you to tell us if you can move where you are."
She was watching the rooftop, thinking, when she answered.
"I can."
"The second point she asked for is if you can give us a detail on the place you are, and eventually, if there is something that you already saw somewhere else?"
She rolled her eyes and looked at him directly this time.
"I thought I had been clear about the fact that they shouldn't come. And I really mean it." She took a pause, and Park Chung-Ho could see she was breathing heavily. "She knows that she wouldn't be able to escape there. She knows what it costs better than anyone else..."
"I heard about this."
Aislinn's eyes widened with surprise.
"And she's scared that you could be trapped there forever. Aislinn..." He stopped her as she was about to speak. "I know what she did in the past. I know what she had to sacrifice to get out, and I know she still suffers from it. I saw it in her eyes, I heard it in her voice..."
The screen he placed in the room earlier started to display his discussion with Diane.
"This is what we have exchanged today. I'll show you all, whether you know it or not, it doesn't matter. Watch your mother, watch how some memories are making her so happy and how shameful and sad she can be when she speaks of her worst me."
Aislinn watched her mother telling her story. She soon looked at Park Chung-Ho, and sadness was taking over while her eyes became wet. She knew the story very well, but he just discovered it a few hours ago. The story of his origins, the story of his parents, of the void their death left for him. While his point of view was displayed on the screen, she had visions of her own past coming back to mind. She knew him from her youngest age. She couldn't remember it herself, but she had a picture of the day when her mother and she went to see Chung-Ho's parents after his birth. They were both babies in this picture, but the whole scene was so joyful. They were in the same schools since they were kids. While she thought he never noticed her until they were sixteen, she had been watching out for him forever. She couldn't help but remember flashes of him from when they were younger until recently. She was still listening to the story her mother was telling, but she was only looking at him.
"I did the right thing," she thought, hearing her mother sobbing.
"I am a part of this equation, and the only one who can solve it mom."
Hearing her mother this sad, seeing her face, had been too much for Aislinn, and she didn't notice that she wasn't only thinking anymore. Park Chung-Ho turned to her and looked right in her eyes with kindness as he noticed that she was beginning to cry.
"Aislinn, we're all part of this equation. Let's solve it together."
He took her in his arms.
"You can't do this alone. You shouldn't even try. You saved me, and I'm so glad you did, but you're not alone."
He noticed a flow coming from her. It was very much alike the time she kissed him. As the flow was going on, everything changed around them and she was suddenly pulled back.
"What is going on?" he asked.
A lot of images were moving around them, as if they were in the center of a tornado that had torn the world around them. He saw a tower, a castle, a bridge, a town, the tower, a cage in the center of a big, crowded place, a cabin in the woods, the tower, a pavement, the crowded place, a ruin, his nightmare's room, the crowded place, the tower, the crowded place, the tower.
Each time he glimpsed more details. But suddenly, he was in the middle of this place, near the cage where Aislinn was.
"AISLINN !"
She was in his arms a second ago, what did pull her?
She turned to him.
"What have you done?" She asked.
"I did nothing, I thought it was you."
"Why would it be me?"
He touched the cage and thought about opening it. Nothing changed. He thought about making it disappear, but nothing changed.
"Aislinn, this is where you are currently. Am I right?"
"How did you create this?"
"I did not. I mean, I did not intentionally. I felt your essence going through me and this," he showed everything around them, "this manifested. I think that a part of you wanted me to see this."
Her eyes widened with fear.
"Oh no... This wasn't me. I'm not in this cage Chung-Ho. Listen to me, I'm not there. This is a bait. He know we're talking together and he is using me to send you a false vision. You can't believe this at all. I promise you I'm not in this cage. This is a bait."
"Aislinn, be it a bait or not, I cannot look and not act. You may not be really in this cage, but you're still trapped and chained to a Nightmare Realm. And I won't let you down."
She was about to speak but suddenly, everything around the young man disappeared. He was alone in the dark. The sound of a fire cracking began to sound.
"Enough." He said. "It's time to wake and prepare."