Dream World

When I was walking through the streets, I saw a newspaper stand.

Picking up a newspaper, I looked at the date. It was March 30, 1999, which was the day US forces bombarded Novi Grad.

After seeing and hearing this stuff in the woods, I already thought that Wanda was behind this. It seems that her powers are being unleashed when she is sleeping.

It reached the point where she could create this reality within the house, which is next-level reality warping shit.

That means to stop this and get out of here, I need to wake her up somehow.

My only problem is that I don't have any powers here since she makes the rules in this world.

That means I need to find her and wake her up the old-fashioned way.

Wanda should be the middle point of this world, so I continue to walk through the empty streets.

---

After a while, I could see light coming from the second floor of an apartment building.

Climbing up the stairs, I knocked on the door.

A man with short brown hair and a beard opened the door.

"Oleg, who is here at this late hour?" said a female voice from inside the apartment.

"Don't worry, Iryna, it's only the neighbor boy." Oleg said, patting my head and inviting me in.

Wait, neighbor boy? I looked down on myself and I was a child again... well, shit.

I could see Iryna cooking in the kitchen while little Wanda and little Pietro were sitting in front of the TV and watching some old TV shows.

Looking out the window, I could see the street full of people happily chatting and walking around. In this reality, there is no bombing, it seems.

"Ah David you came like you promised, to watch TV with us!" a smiling Wanda jumped from her seat and came running at me.

She grabbed my hand and pulled me to sit next to her.

Since I didn't know how to handle this situation yet, I played along.

I didn't want Wanda to get scared and lock me up in some dimension prison or something like that.

So I sat down next to her and Iryna brought some cookies and milk, which tasted fantastic. If it wasn't for the fact that this reality was not real, I would have enjoyed it more.

Looking around, I found a box with some DVDs in it.

Damn, my parents still had VHS when I was small.

But when I looked closer, I found that they had some strange names. Bombs of the Dead, Rebellion, Hydra Prison, Red-Eyed Savior and Peace.

It seems like Wanda knows this is not real and tries to tell herself the truth but can't.

"Wanda look there are some cool movies in there let's watch something different" I pick up the Peace DVD and show it to her.

But she became angry and her eyes started to glow red, "What are you talking about? They are terrible. You should better forget these sad fantasy things and continue watching enjoyable TV shows with us."

Although her powers crawl into my mind, I have experienced mind control a few times and it does not affect me this time.

I nod to her and we continue watching TV.

As I stuffed another cookie into my mouth, I tried to talk to Pietro. However, he seemed to be in a trance and I also didn't know if this was a real Pietro or one created by Wanda.

The show suddenly changed to a funeral scene involving Tony Stark and his family, who died together in an explosion while creating new weapons.

This made the children laugh happily as if they had seen the best thing in the world.

That escalated quickly...

---

After watching TV for a while, I tried standing up and walking away, hoping to escape somehow from this reality, if she let me leave.

"Thanks Mr. and Mrs. Maximoff but I need to go home now Pietro, Wanda let's play tomorrow again."

But when I try to open the door, it closes again and a red aura surrounds it.

"Why are you leaving? You stay with us now! It would be so much fun.

We could watch more TV or play some games!"

said Wanda while her eyes started to glow again and she walked closer to me.

"We will play again later. My parents are already waiting for me." I say while stepping away from her.

"Why won't you listen to what I say to you?" she asks, looking confused.

"I think he is not our friend anymore!" said Pietro in the background.

This fucker!

"No, this has nothing to do with this. I simply want to go home!"

Suddenly, Iryna grabbed a knife from the kitchen and started to walk closer to me.

"You want to destroy our peaceful time together with our children?"

Okay, this will end badly. Maybe I should have enjoyed more of the cookies and milk.

So what to do now?

They started to surround me.

Maybe it's time to allow her to enter my mind... I relax a bit and drop all my defenses.

I'm free if this works. If not, milk and cookies forever.

Her mind powers completely enveloped me and I could feel her crawling around in my head and looking for a way to change me.

That was my chance. Once she is connected to someone, she also feels and sees everything the person does.

Thus, I flooded my mind with the details she told me about the bombing and the death of her parents. I also showed her what I knew from watching the movies about her grief and madness.

Suddenly the world started to shake and everything started to break.

Wanda and Pietro's parents screamed and grabbed their heads as they vanished from existence.

Seeing this Pietro collapsed to the ground while Wanda stood motionless, realizing her wonderful dream was shattered.

As I walked toward her to grab her, my hand passed through her body.

Suddenly a door appeared and red light shined through the gaps.

Grabbing the lying Pietro, I realized that I was an adult again and ran to the door.

I kicked it as hard as possible, breaking it open only to see a sleeping Wanda floating in the middle of the room.

Laying Pietro down, I grabbed her out of the air while the world started to break and shatter around us.

Holding Wanda in my arms, I stroked her head.

"Wanda wake up! Even when it's difficult to accept the past, you will make more happy memories, create your own family and make them happy!

I'm sure of this, so wake up and make your dream come true!"

Everything around the room became white, as if the end was near.

Then suddenly the sky turned red and a figure entirely engulfed in a red aura descended from it.

Is this the birth of this Scarlet Witch...?

Then her aura surrounded us and the world turned red.

---

When the red world faded away, we were back in the woods.

Wanda was still in my arms and Pietro was lying next to us.

The house around us looked as if a bomb had destroyed it.

Pietro then opened his eyes, stood up and looked around.

I could feel Wanda moving and when I looked at her, she opened her eyes weakly and said, "I'm sorry!"

I stroke her hair and say, "Don't worry everything is alright, you can sleep now."

She smiled and closed her eyes again.

It was almost the same as when we met the first time.

But for Pietro, it was different.

"I forgot why I did all this. It's time to deal with the man who caused so much pain for Wanda and my people."

I tried to stop him, "If you go it will be your end!"

But he activated his powers and dashed away before I could do anything.