Phase 2:

September 4th, 2029

And just like that, it’s over. The events pass on like a bad dream, and you’re safe and sound in your own bed. Part of it still feels real though… it was much more vivid than a normal dream.

Back at school things seem normal, but the whispers are a bit worrisome.

“I can’t believe someone went missing over the weekend!”

“Her friends say something was wrong, but she didn’t tell anyone…”

If the faculty is worried about this, they sure are hiding it well. Occasionally a teacher seems a little off put, and the principal did the announcements himself today sounding a little tired, but they carried on as they always have. News about clubs, recruiting for the various sports teams, general announcements and homework. It all seems a little… surreal.


Potential Happenings:


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[07:02] Viceroy Regent! Guess what I’ve got, you dirty rotten thief!
[07:05] Viceroy @regent
[07:05] Viceroy @regent
[07:05] Viceroy @regent
[07:05] Viceroy @regent
[07:05] Regent STOP PINGING ME I DON’T CARE
[07:06] Viceroy Telling you anyways. I got servants! And lots of em!
[07:06] Regent Typical Viceroy.
[07:04] Regent Quantity over quality.
[07:07] Viceroy They’re all pretty awesome if you ask me.
[07:07] Regent I didn’t ask.
[07:07] Viceroy Don’t know what they can do yet
[07:05] Viceroy But it’s probably awesome.
[07:08] Regent Do you ever shut up?
[07:12] Viceroy I thought you’d want to know about this.
[07:10] Viceroy After all I fully expect you to try some underhanded tactic to steal the fruits of my labor.
[07:12] Regent After Margrave chewed me out for last time?
[07:10] Regent Not worth it.
[07:13] Margrave I’m still here, you know.
[07:13] Regent Shit
[07:14] Viceroy While you're here, how is your servant Margrave? You still only have the one, right?
[07:12] Viceroy Or was it two? I forget.
[07:14] Margrave Please tell me you’re not really going to call them that.
[07:14] Viceroy Course not, I’m not stupid.
[07:14] Regent I beg to differ.
[07:13] Regent But how is she doing, Margrave?
[07:16] Margrave She’s doing wonderful, thank you. She's come a long way since I first found her.
[07:16] Regent And what about the other one?
[07:16] Viceroy She still doing that “sleepwalking” thing?
[07:16] Regent …
[07:17] Viceroy What?
[07:17] Regent You dumbass.

"Will you wake up already? We're going to be late because of you. And get out of my bed!"

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Estelle Beatriz Santiago
| September 4th, 2029 |




The dream gnawed at her the entire morning like an unresolved itch. It felt too real, too... vivid. From the plethora of sleep cycles she's gone though in her life, rare is it the dream whose details do not fade after a few hours upon waking. They stuck to her. Clinging. Estelle can recall the texture of the lukewarm sand, the dizzy spell that took place, and the surreal image of the scenery.

Heart pounds loudly once her mind stumbles upon the last few seconds of her dream. No... nightmare. It was a dreadful thing. Horrific.

Every aspect and detail of the nightmare had been messily jotted down on a piece of paper now safely tucked away under her pillow. It was far too embarrassing to speak about to her family, seeing as how she rarely experienced nightmates. Much less wake up in sweats. Years had passed since she last took a hot shower so early in the morning.

"Un-freaking-believeable," she had begun to muse, slithering peanut butter on to a newly-made toast. Fresh from the toaster. "It's not like the phone's stuff can just disappear like that. Right?" She paused at the thought, butterknife deep in the peanut butter jar. Alas she could not dwell further, forcing herself to accept it as a nightmare and no more.

Estelle breezed through breakfast, small chat, and gathered her materials for the school day.

And then she was dropped off. Despite the lovely family conversations and car trip, the dream remained etched in her mind. Did it mean... anything? Did it represent... something? Nothing a quick internet search can't fix.

Quickly she hopped on to her cellphone, surfing the web for dream interpretations. At first she had hoped somebody, at some point in time, experienced a similar dream, but it appears not. As a result she broke it into pieces; evil shadows, lost in a desert, ruins covered in vines.

...the shadow is the dark side of my nature. Well. Having found her morning spot amongst the sleuth of high schoolers, Estelle began to quench her curiosity. Or something omninious that you know will happen soon... uh. Hm. I guess? No... not really. Unfortunately the research had proved to be futile, only leaving her perplexed with the plethora of interpretations that can be made from her vague searches.

...but the young woman couldn't help but read more into her dreams, always curious about another's thoughts and opinions on the matter. It killed her free time that would have otherwise been dedicated to studying or reading articles.

“Did you hear about that girl?”

A content Estelle sat on her own on dirty benches whose dark colors were running, revealing the dull, silvery glow underneath. Feet to her left a group laughed in hysteria, hands slapping about like overexcited seals. To her right a couple displayed an affectionate show, ignorant to the environment around them. Fortunately for Estelle she has grown accustomed to it all, no longer perturbed or annoyed by the mesh of noise around.

Yet she couldn't help but overhear the conversation taking place behind her.

"Hey, did you hear about that girl that went missing?" There was a shuffle of feet and a gasp, obviously faked.

"Oh my gosh yes, wasn't that this past weekend?" responded the owner of the faked emotions. Estelle can only assume she was only participating in hopes of getting the latest scoop opposed to showing any tinge of worry for the stranger.

"Yeah, and even her friends knew something was up," a deep, male voice added. "But I bet she's doing it for attention. Bet."

School progressed as usual. Despite the circulating rumors and news that Estelle was rather baffled her own family had yet to stumble upon, nothing felt out of the ordinary. She wished not to interrupt and seem like a nosey individual to others, thus she never learned more of the subject.

That is, until her good friend Maria at last arrived. Her curly, chestnut brown hair bounced with every step, her convincing smile that only Estelle knew was no more real than her friend's colored eyes - ocean blue contacts to disguise her light brown. It made Estelle itch for contacts of her own, but in the end she couldn't bring herself to display something false as small as eye color.

Half-lidded eyes and unkempt hair indicated an all-nighter. "Heeeeey! What's up?!"

"Hai, good morning!" Estelle greeted with enthusiasm. "Did you, uh, stay up studying?"

"Yeah." It came out after a sigh, fingers relieving an itch on her forearm. "Soooo tired Estelle, and Nena wanted to watch Disney movies too, so I couldn't focus." The notorious Nena. Maria's littlest sister. Spoiled, stubborn, bossy, and filled with a seemingly endless source of energy. The few times Estelle had visited her house had been a nightmare due to that child.

"Pffft, you're Maria, I know you'll do great. You were in the top five percent in the last school. I bet you're higher here," Estelle complimented, the last coming out as a whisper.

"Stop it, I'm not that good. I wanted to be better-"

"Better? Haha... hahaha, I was in the top twenty percent. You're way ahead of me. I wish I was that smart-"

"Estelle," she interrupted, growing annoyed. What followed was one of her long speeches that touched upon confidence and self-worth. Not that Estelle was bothered, on the contrary, she appreciated the time Maria puts into their friendship. Rarely does Maria have time for a social life outside of school.

"So, heya, did you hear about a girl who went missing last weekend?" Estelle had asked amidst Maria's stories, curiosity bubbling inside. She received a small gasp in return.

"Yesssss, I did! I really hope they find her, her parents must be very worried." Frankly, the stranger's patents never crossed Estelle's mind. As sad as it is to say, it was gossip and the thrill of such topics that pushed her to dig down some more. "It would make me so pissed if she ran away without telling anybody. Remember Zerrine from middle school?" Yes. Yes she remembered, as well as the story prior and after her absence. The runaway ended up returning pregnant, pleading for help due to her boyfriend unable to sustain a family of his own.

Nothing new came out of Maria of the case. Not that she was surprised either. All she knew was the gossip circling the peers. Nothing more. It would require thorough research from the looks of it, seeing as how nobody has mentioned the case being on the news.

Eventually Maria and her parted ways, leaving Estelle to succumb to her active imagination.

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Valeria Kylsey and Aiko Winchester-Inoue

The time ticked away at an increasingly slow rate. Valeria knew that actually watching the clock was making her perceive it slower, but she couldn't help it. There was a nagging feeling deep in the pit of her stomach, and it had been there ever since Aiko walked into their first shared class. That girl she saw last night was the splitting image of her in retrospect, and she wanted to know why that dream out of all dreams is the one she decided to appear in. Finally giving into her frustration she ripped out a spare sheet of paper and jotted down a quick note.

I need to talk to you.
Meet me in room 113 after class.

Folding it into something obvious enough for Aiko notice, but not too obvious for everyone involved, she interrupted the tangent about the Roman Empire the teacher fell into yet again.

"Excuse me, may I go to the bathroom?"

"Huh?" The teacher muttered, feet firmly in reality again. "Ah, Valeria. That's fine."

Standing up and feeling glad to finally stretch her legs, she made for the door while taking a detour right by Aiko's desk. After confirming that the teacher had turned back towards the board to write the next part of the lesson, she flicked the folder paper onto her target's desk while passing. Confident that she didn't overshoot, she stepped out into the hall.

As Aiko sat there, half listening to the teacher's droning about the Roman Empire, how significant it was to ancient times and other boring stuff like that, her sense of monotony was interrupted by a note that was plopped onto her desk. At first, she thought it might have been one of her friends who wanted to tell her some salacious gossip about someone, but was surprised to realize that it was Valeria. What would she want with her?

As she opened the note, Aiko was left confused. Talk about what? Aiko hardly even knew Valeria, let alone enough to have something to talk about. From what very little she knew, she was that one kid that was goody two shoes and played...what was it? Cello? Violin? But what the hell. Maybe it was some interesting piece of gossip or something like that, though she hardly seemed the type to do that sort of thing.

Turning her attention away from the slightly intriguing note, she yawned. This lecture was not doing any favors in keeping her awake, especially after that really intense dream she had last night. The ruined landscape of Havencross, that weird demon thingy... Aiko felt and involuntary shiver go down her back.

Waiting in the empty classroom was a special kind of hell. Valeria had some doubts that Aiko would actually show at all, she did pass a weird note to someone she barely knows. Worse yet would be Aiko showing up with her usual flock of friends. This was a private chat, damn it. Her heart skipped a beat as the doorknob turned, just be Aiko, just be Aiko.

Her little prayer was answered when only one girl crossed the door's threshold. She was alone! Now honestly came the hard part. She was going to have to talk to this girl and somehow convince her that she wasn't crazy with what she was about to say.

"So... Aiko. Had any interesting dreams lately? I know you were in mine last night." Smoooth.

Tilting her head, Aiko looked at Valeria and said, "Come again?"

"Something weird happened when I went to bed last night." Deciding that showing was probably better than telling in this case, Valeria lifted up her shirt just high enough to show her side and the massive bruise running down it. "A giant dog like creature picked me up and threw me in my dreams last night. This bruise is where I hit the ground. Anything that could cause a bruise this bad should have woken me up, but I woke up safe and sound to my alarm clock. Weirder yet, you were there. I saw you running away from them too."

Aiko started shaking her head. "What?! A-a dog like creature?" She gripped her arm as she was taken aback by the description of her dream. It couldn't be.

"Look, if this is some kind of joke you're trying to pull on me..." Even as she said that aloud, it sounded a lot more like she was trying to convince herself than anything else.

"What kind of joke involves me beating my side into ground meat?" Valeria suppressed her desire to smile at the girl's poor attempt at convincing her. She began to rhythmically tap her fingers atop the desk she was standing next to subconsciously. tap-tatap-taptap-tap... tap-tatap… "Look, maybe it's the pile of alien movies I watched as a kid, but nothing we saw was normal. Buildings don't just flicker like that. You don't just wake up with ripped clothes and wounds. I just want to know what the hell happened to us.

"You already know I got fucked up by those things. What happened to you?"

She really wasn't lying. She was in that strange dream, and for whatever reason they were both in it. "Well...I guess there's no purpose in playing coy now. Yes, I did have a dream with that weird world. I didn't see you, though. Though to be honest, everything was kind of a blur, so I just thought that the dream was me and some made up people. That beast was going for me too, but I blacked out before I could really feel any pain."

"Damn. Lucky, I had to make up a story about me tripping down some stairs to excuse the fact I can't do much with the left half of my body. Weirdly enough I only saw you there, but then again I did chase after you."

Hopping on the desk and wincing a bit from the sudden fire in her side, she pulled out her phone. She absentmindedly unlocked it and flipped through a few pages of apps, frowning to herself at when she reached the end. "I suppose you had your phone too. Did you have anything weird with it? I couldn't use it like I normally would... I only had some kind of chat app. I can't find it now either.

"Is it weird that that's what confuses me about all this? Well... it's all confusing, but... y'know. Slipping to another dimension and getting the shit kicked out of me by a shadow werewolf is one thing, I have some proof of that. I know at least two other people were there, but the only proof I have of that is gone."

Aiko could only numbly nod. She was right. It was so strange and surreal, and it was only by Valeria confronting her and talking about her experiences that it started to dawn just what they were getting into. "Why us? Does this mean we're some kind of freaks or something?"

"Freaks?" Valeria's eyebrows raised a bit at the girl's own conclusions. "Interesting idea. In a way, maybe? Then again that probably means a lot more to you than it does me. If you think you saw other people there then it may spread further than either of us know.."

"Bah," she blurted out and punched the desk, sending a wave of pain up her side again, "I wish I was able to see anyone else in there. I don't think this is something we should just share."

"What makes you think that it isn't just us?"

"How likely is it that out of all the people in the world, this happens only to two unimpressive high school kids. There's got to be more." Getting an idea, Valeria reached into her pocked and produced her phone. "If this happens again we should meet up give me your number so we don't have to play pass the note again."

"Umm...okay." This was one of the weirder days that she's been through. Within the span of literally minutes she gets the number of some stranger she shared a dream with. Had this been any other situation, she would have brushed it off or think that she was slipped something. Nonetheless, she exchanged digits with Valeria.

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Joshua Rivers

Date: September 4th, 2029
Time: Morning
Location: Rivers' House


At the crack of dawn, Joshua woke up in a cold sweat. As if nothing ever happened, he had returned to his bedroom, and was once again wearing his pajamas instead of what he wore to school yesterday, and more importantly, it seems like that monster hadn't turned him into a pile of bones and guts. Light flooded from the bedroom window, indicating that the time of day was around dawn now. Letting out a sigh of relief, he checked his phone. That mysterious app had disappeared from his phone—good riddance, he thought—but one after another, problems arose. The surreal dream had apparently kept him sleeping for too long, as he saw the notification for his usual morning alarm went off nearly an hour before he awoke. Aww, crap! My father will kill me if he finds out about this! was the thought Joshua had. After all, his father's words on the day that he told Joshua that he would be attending St. Dominic's were “please try to not mess this up.” His words were one of the many thoughts that Joshua had been thinking about lately, wondering why his father would say such things to him considering the teenager had always been a decent student.

The next few minutes involved Joshua fumbling through his drawers and closet preparing for the boring school day ahead of him. As he was in the bathroom performing usual hygienic activities, looking in the mirror as he did, the mirror flickered and shimmered, and for a moment, his reflection was more sinister-looking than before.

Joshua blinked. Was he imagining things, or... maybe he was still dreaming?

When he opened his eyes, his usual reflection had returned. He chose to brush it off as himself still being tired—despite what recent occurrences might suggest—and went downstairs. His stepbrother and stepsister had already left for school like responsible children, something that Joshua couldn't exactly say he was being right now. He took solace in the fact that Clara, his stepmother, wasn't home at the moment, as not only would he have to explain why he got up so late, he would have to interact with her in the first place. Joshua had made it a point to avoid that woman as much as possible after she offended him by talking about his past and treating him as if he was different because of it. Clara would bring it up, often using it as a reasoning for why she did something Joshua didn't like. Just thinking about her made him quite irritated. He snatched his backpack from beside the front door of the house and made a mad dash to St. Dominic's.

Date: September 4th, 2029
Time: Morning
Location: St. Dominic's High School


By some stroke of luck, Joshua somehow wasn't late to class. He noted that he also wasn't late to listen to gossip that the other students were spreading around. As he walked through the hallway nonchalantly, he listened in to their gossip. Joshua did this quite often usually, as he learned that gossip keeps high school students well-informed—often more informed than adults themselves.

“Did you hear about that girl? The one who just up and, like, disappeared?” a female voice with a Valley Girl accent whispered.

“Yeah, yeah, she went missing over the weekend, didn't she? Ooh, that's kind of scary!” another female voice responded. “Where do you think she went?”

“I dunno. She probably ran away from home or something. Her friends knew something was wrong but didn't say anything. Some friends, huh?”

“If even her friends didn't care enough to say anything, maybe her 'problem' isn't much of a problem at all...” a skeptical male voice added in to the conversation.

“What are you saying? Would you go and, like, tell someone else about your friend's problems?” the Valley Girl responded.

It seemed as if that's what everyone was talking about today. A girl suddenly going missing, and her friends saying nothing about her problems. What really confused Joshua was that it didn't seem like any adults were particularly miffed about an event. People don't just go and vanish, so why don't authority figures in the school seem worried about this?

“Hey, what's that on your arm?!” a feminine voice called out to him

Joshua spun around on the spot as a short girl that looked like she was in tenth grade was suddenly beside him. She had dyed her hair a turquoise blue, and Joshua had half a mind to tell her how hideous it looked, but he held his tongue... for now. She was gawking at his right arm for some reason.

“Oh my god, that bruise is HUGE! Where'd you get it? Did you get into a fight?” she asked him. But she didn't wait for an answer. As if the arm's owner was just a toy, she called over her friends. “Hey you guys! Come look at this!”

Bruise? I don't have a... Joshua looked down at his arm and saw a football-sized splotch of red on his arm. He pulled away his arm from the girl in surprise and covered it up with left hand in a futile attempt to cover up the bruise, but to no avail. The girl's friends were already here. It seems like

“This guy's arm has a huge bruise on it!” the bright haired girl told her friends.

“Maybe he got into a fight!” one of her friends responded.

“Or maybe his parents are beating him!” Another girl said.

“Or maybe... it's related to--”

“Don't you four have a missing girl to gossip about somewhere else?” Joshua spat out. He then quickly walked away from the foursome before they had a chance to respond. That bruise... it had to have came from the dream! The mark on his arm changed everything, he now had some kind of proof that that dream did happen.

Who was he kidding? That's not the explanation people would accept. They would faster accept a story about child abuse than a story about some kid getting crushed inside of a surreal dreamscape. He continued to keep the bruise covered up with his left hand. Tired of listening to students inside the school spread wild and sometimes raunchy rumors about why that girl would go missing, and just plain tired in general, Joshua went outside to spend the remaining time before class, where he found that the situation outside wasn't much better. Aside from fellow students generally being absentminded about the environment they're in, the rumor spreading about the girl who had gone missing only continued to spread. At this rate, that girl might become known for more than just 'mysteriously going missing'.

Joshua plopped himself down on an open bench. They were quite dirty and worn-out, but as long as no one bothered him, he would be okay. Being nosey and investigating that missing girl problem would have to wait, as he had his own problems to take care of right now. Maybe she did run away like Valley Girl's friend said.

While sitting on the bench, He glanced over at another bench and saw a girl with ivory-colored hair, although her eyebrows told the truth about her real hair color. The glance he took turned into a stare as he looked at her facial features. For some reason, Joshua felt like he had seen this girl somewhere—was he in the same grade as her? He recalled seeing her in a few of the same classes as him, so that must be it. No, he felt like he had seen that girl more recently than that. The feeling gnawed at him as he tried to figure out where she was from, and he moved his left hand off of the red splotch on his right arm, exposing it to the world once again. That is when his self-consciousness caught up with him and he swiftly turned away from her, hoping she didn't notice Joshua looking her up and down. He instead turned his attention to his phone, and thought about telling some of his online friends about the dream that happened last night. But they would most likely think it was just that—a dream. Realizing that telling someone at the moment was futile, he sighed and turned off his phone.

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Rodger Herberts

School Life

"Rodger! Rodger! Wake up!" His mother was screaming to him from behind his door. "If you're not answering, i'm coming in!" Rodger's mother opened the door and woke Rodger up. "Rodger! What's the matter? Normally you're up way earlier! You overslept!" This was Rodger's cue to immediatly jump up and put on his clothes. He then ran out of the room. "Muahaha! I won't be too late! I'll just use my supernatural abilities to get to school on time!" Rodger even skipped breakfast, since he was veeeery late. But.... why is Rodger up so late? Normally, he is up before he even should be up. It must have been that dream he had... Rodger can't make sense of it at all. Which is quite unusual for him.

While walking to school, he heard 2 boys in front of him.
"Heya, did ya hear about that one gal?" a guy with a country accent spoke.
"I did! She just up and disappeared all of a sudden. Is that even possible?" his friend spoke back.
"Well, I think she got kidnapped! There ain't any other explanation!"
"And do you have proof of that?" The guys just kept chatting on. Rodger thought to himself: "Disappeared? Ha! Looks like this girl has made contact with satan, and has ascended to hell!" It was hard to keep his grin to himself.

When he arrived at school, he went straight inside. No need to linger around. He overheard a couple talking.
"Disappeared? That is so scary! I don't want to lose you!" The girl seemed to be very close to her boyfriend. "Don't worry Baby, I won't disappear. I'll be yours, always." Rodger quickly moved on. He doesn't believe in love. It's all fake to him. A stageplay. Quickly, the bell rang. Time for classes. This was going to be a long day.