Chapter 1: Where do we go when we dream?

Aaron was laying in bed, thinking about girls. Truth be told, he hadn't been thinking about much else lately. Aaron, at heart, was incredibly lonely, and perhaps the only solution to that problem was to get himself a girlfriend.

The issue that Aaron had been having in this endeavor was rather major. He liked a whole lot of girl's sure, but the issue he had was finding one that he could actually date. As it had turned out, most of the girls he was into were either: A) Not into guys or B) Already in a relationship. And Aaron was no the type to get in the way of someone else's relationship.

And he had a test tomorrow too. Nothing all that hard. Just some geometry. Aaron, a self dubbed "student of memes" had immediately pulled up a meme of Squidward saying "SOH CAH TOA" and that was how he was remembering most of the lesson at this point.

His thoughts, suddenly back on math class, put him into immediate despair. Math class, however easy, was not fun. In fact, it was downright miserable. Not as bad as Spanish, which had single- handedly managed to turn his GPA into a train wreck. The issue with his math class, though, was a student that was generally just reffered to as Fuzz. Fuzz's real name was actually Jacob Brisky, but everyone called him either Fuzz or Brisky.

The issue was, is that no matter what Aaron did, this guy somehow managed to turn an OK day into something horrible. Trying to steal his stuff, being endlessly annoying, whatever. It didn't matter. Just his mere presence as enough to depress Aaron.

Whatever. He'd deal with him in time. He thought how school shooter-y that sounded, and then just decided he had better go to bed before his mind went to a Dark Place again. So he closed his eyes and did his little sleeping trick.

He imagined himself in a car, going down a road. Not fast, but not slow. The non-existent, imaginary speed limit. He was riding in the car, not driving, and just let his mind come up with the scenery for his little midnight road-trip.

Tonight, his mind decided that there should be some rolling green hills and a bright blue sky. And there was. Oh, and look, some nice puffy clouds in the sky. Slowly, Aaron felt his imagination slip into a more dreamlike state. He didn't try to control the dream. He was too scared of sleep paralysis to do that. But he had always been able to know that he was in a dream.

He just let it play out, a nice, pleasant car ride through the countryside. While dreaming, he kept thinking about girls. Not necessarily forcing them into the dream, but more trying to say, "Hey, brain, if you wouldn't mind adding these people in, that'd be great."

Unfortunately, no girls for him. That was OK. He just continued to bob his head to the silent music that was playing in his head. But then, a loud boom, and there was rain. A good, hard rain. Aaron was quite fond of rain, and was pleased that his mind had cooked this up for him. He sat in the car, looking out at the countryside which had suddenly changed into a dense forest.

That was cool, too. Aaron, who hunted with his dad in the winters, was quite fond of forests, especially forests when it was raining. Aaron continued to smile and just look out of the windows, and somewhere, he realized, he had lost the feeling of being in a dream.

That was odd, but not unusual. It had happened a couple of time now, and he thought that maybe it had something to do with him getting older. Who knew? He didn't, and he didn't really care enough to look it up.

Up ahead, lights appeared. They were bright in the gloom cat by the rain, and Aaron found that his curiosity had peaked. It was always a car ride, and he had never really got to where he was going. The car slowed down, and he soon saw that the lights were coming from the gymnasium of the school. The light was leaking through the big windows, with cube shaped glass blocks. There was also some light coming out through the doors to, and the car pulled into the school's paring lot.

Aaron opened his door, got out, and felt wet. It was really starting to rain. He walked across the vacant parking lot slowly, taking in his surroundings. He was surprised that his mind had been able to replicate the school so well. He could even see where the handicapped parking spaces had been faded.

Regardless, he made his way to the gym-side doors, and just as he put his hand on the cold steel of the handle, the door burst open, and a girl ran out, almost knocking him over. She turned, seeing him, and gave a quick shout.

"RUN! RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!" she cried, and Aaron began to chase her down, meaning to inquire as to what she meant, but as he reached the parking lot, he hear a great crack from behind him. Then there was a screaming sound as part of the gym's roof hammered down into the concrete in front of him, embedding itself into the ground.

Aaron whirled around, looking back toward the gym roof. As he did, a massive, inky black tendril burst through the gym's window, sending shards of glass raiing down onto him. He covered himself, but was transfixed on the giant tendril.

The storm had intensified, and now the wind and rain was punching him in the face, and he was surrounded by noise. He heard the wind howling in his ears, but at the same time he haerd the loud booms of thunder, and then there was a haunting chanting that seemed to rise up and hang in the air. The cacophonus booming of at least one hndred voices each shouting the same horrid mumblings at the same time.

Then another tendril shot out of the hole in the roof, and Aaron began to see a dark shape rise up, before everything went quite and there was a loud, inhuman, primal screech. His ears were not meant to hear it and he felt a great terror unlike anything he had ever felt before. He heard the great cry again, but then it was interrupted.

BZZZ. BZZZ. BZZZ.

He jolted awake, sweat pouring down his face. He rolled over, and looked at his alarm. It was six a.m. He had an hour left to get ready for his day.