The dreamer (standard:Psychological fiction, 2279 words)
Author: Dark River	Added: Oct 29 2003	Views/Reads: 3461/2236	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
Is it a dream? Is it reality? Read and find out what's in Martin's mind...

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story

lifted slowly and the two stepped inside. On the left wall there were 
two screens and other equipments that could be taken as a sort of 
surveillance center. In the middle of the room there was a bed and 
right next to it, one could see a helmet and a few colored cables. The 
right wall was transparent and linked that room to another where it was 
a huge screen whose diameter was about 15 meters. There were at least 
two hundred and fifty Neezerians in that room, all eager to see a 
performance. Chronos rubbing his hands stood on a chair next to the 
transparent wall. On hearing the door opening he stood up and welcomed 
them. 

“Martin, how do you feel? It seems to me that you are sleepy, am I
wrong?” asked the Neezerian in an authoritative voice. 

“Good afternoon, Chronos” answered Martin bored. “I don't feel very well
and indeed I have slept. Moreover, I think that you will have 
nightmares tonight.” 

“Damn, Martin. I've told you so many times not to sleep before the
show.” Chronos got mad. “You know I don't like your nightmares, but if 
so, pray for it to be an interesting one, otherwise you won't see a 
penny this week.” 

“Jenna bring me a glass of drink before I go to sleep” said Martin to
his assistant. 

She went out of the metallic door and less than two minutes later she
returned carrying a glass in which there was a reddish drink. Martin 
took the glass and drank at one swallow. 

“Thank you, Jenna. We can start now” said Martin. 

Chronos left the room without saying a word. Martin took the helmet, put
it on his head and lay on the bed in the center of the room. Jenna took 
the colored cables, she fixed two of them on Martin's hand, one on his 
chest and the other one was connected to the helmet. 

“Are you ready?” asked Jenna. 

“Yes. Go to it” said Martin. 

“Sweet dreams. See you after the performance”, said his assistant
walking to the screen on the left. 

She pressed a button on which the neezerian word narid meaning sleep was
written. That very moment Martin's eyes began to close slowly. In the 
room full of people the lights were switched off and a deep silence 
followed. About ten minutes later the image of a large room 
dull-lighted appeared on the huge screen. In the middle of the room 
there was a huge bed and a person laid on it. That person was Martin. 
Suddenly a child's laugh filled the room. It was louder and louder. 
Martin startled. He put the blanked aside and rose slowly off the bed. 

“Josh, is that you?” asked him in a low voice. 

The figure of a child appeared on the door of the room. Martin had a
sigh of relief. 

“Josh, you've scared me! Come here,” said Martin to the child
approaching him and taking him into his arms. 

The child laughed putting his small arms around his father's neck.. 

“Why did you get scarred, daddy?” asked the child. 

“I had a bad dream last night, my little Josh. That's why I was so
frightened, when you entered the room.” 

“What did you dream, daddy? Can you tell me? Come on, please tell me.
Please!” persisted the child. 

“No, Josh. These kinds of things are not to be told to the children. I
had a bad dream, I've told you. I dreamed monsters, that's it and I 
know you don't like monsters. Do you want to dream monsters tonight?” 

“No, daddy, I don't want to dream monsters” answered the child
disappointed that he hadn't got the answer he had wanted. That very 
moment, Martin saw the figure of a woman on the doorway. Her long, 
curly, fair hair touched her shoulders. She had been standing there for 
some minutes gazing at the two. 

“Mom, daddy had a bad dream,” said the child to the woman. 

“You little traitor,” said Martin, laughing, releasing him from his
arms. 

Josh ran outside, happy maybe, that he would dream no monsters, now that
his father hadn't told him his dream. Martin came near his wife and 
took her in his arms kissing her gently on the forehead. 

“I had such a strange dream, Diane,” he told her while they were
approaching the bed. Martin flopped on it and Diane set near him taking 
one of his arms in hers. 

“Tell me, what have you dreamed? I want to judge for myself how strange
your dream was”. 

“Strange enough, Diane, believe me. I've dreamed that I was kidnapped by
an interplanetary spaceship”, began Martin. “There were unusual beings. 
They looked like the people on Meethos, but they were smaller. One of 
them took me at his place. I couldn't understand what was happening to 
me. One of their women was appointed my assistant. She was supposed to 
survey me, although it was unnecessary as I had no place to run. I 
remember that I was sleeping and I began talking in my sleep. I was 
immediately woken up by the woman beside me. She asked what had 
happened. I answered calmly that nothing had happened. I had dreamed. I 
noticed the wonder in her eyes. I felt the same when she asked me: 
‘What do you mean by dreaming?' I told her that I had a dream and asked 
her whether they had dreams. And she, even more wondered, answered me 
that she didn't know what a dream was. I explained to her that it is 
something that happens when one sleeps and that one imagines all sorts 
of things, some of the have something to do with reality, others are 
purely imaginary. She answered that they felt nothing of that sort when 
they slept. Because she was curious she asked me to tell her my dream. 
The following day the man who had hosted me, took me in sort of 
laboratory and they did all kinds of tests on me. I understood then 
that the woman had told the owner of the house were I was a prisoner 
about my dream. After a while I woke up on a table, a helmet was put on 
my head and all sorts of cables on my hands. That moment I mysteriously 
fell asleep. Two hours later I woke up. The woman who was surveying me 
told me to watch attentively some screens. She pressed a button. I was 
shocked. I could see on the screen in front of me exactly what I had 
dreamed during the two hours. Everything was so real; the people in my 
dream were talking. I looked real. It was like I was acting in a movie. 
You know that one never remembers every detail of a dream. Well, I 
could see there every little detail of my dream. I got scarred a 
little, till I understood what was going on. It was obvious that they 
had tested me to see what dreaming meant. Short while they invented a 
machine which could transpose what I was dreaming on the screen. The 
following day I woke up being taken in a room next to a performance 
room. The room was full of people who were murmuring words I could not 
hear because of the wall which isolated the room I was in. Do you 
realize what I have become? I was a sort of puppet for those beings, a 
puppet. I was supposed to fall asleep and dream and the crowd watched 
on a huge screen what I was dreaming. Well, isn't the dream strange?” 

“Yes, it's strange, extremely strange” answered Diane. “But I am
interested in a certain aspect of the dream. You've told me about that 
woman, who stood close to you when you were dreaming. How close was 
she?” Diane smiled. She stood up pulling Martin up too. 

“What do you mean?” he answered smiling back. “She was close. That's
all. Close enough.” 

A strange noise was heard outside. The two looked at the door. Josh
entered but hardly had he took two steps when a green light made his 
little, fragile body disintegrate. Diane screamed and rushed to what 
had left of Josh. Martin was shocked. He had no reaction. He watched 
Diane rush to what was left  of Josh, screaming. A portly figure showed 
up holding a weapon pointed to Diane. A green light flashed again. A 
second later the woman's body was lifeless next to Josh. The figure 
pointed the weapon to Martin. He lost his conscience falling to the 
ground. 

The performance ended. The image on the screen disappeared. The murmur
of the crowd was a sign that it hadn't been enough. Martin woke up in a 
sweat. He took of his helmet while he rose off the bed. 

“Damn it, Jenna. The same nightmare all over again! Chronos will be
extremely mad”, Martin said to his assistant, who was next to the two 
screens on the left. 

“He will get over it, Martin. Calm down” answered the woman gently. “Now
you have to forget this nightmare, let's go out for a walk in the 
garden, so that Chronos could not put us out of humour. 

Martin was lucky having a person like Jenna beside him. She had loved
him very much and she felt petty in a way for his situation, that of 
being Chronos' puppet. She had wanted to help him escape from Neezeria 
but few ships or spaceships got on and took off the planet, and the 
chances that Martin would ever be free were extremely low. Because she 
couldn't help him escape from the planet, Jenna tried to make his life 
easier in Chronos' house. They went off the Alpha room arm in arm 
heading to the exit, which lead to the garden. 

“Wait a second”, said Martin to his assistant, standing in front of the
door of his room. “I'll get in to take a coat, it might be cold 
outside.” 

He opened the door of his room and got close to the closet. Hardly had
he taken out a shirt when he saw something near the window. He stepped 
forward and grew pale. He could clearly hear a child laugh getting 
louder and louder... 


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