Chapter 77 Down Into Dreams (4)

If there was anything that would have woken up Lukas now–that was it. He had no room to waste his time on idle conversations with a Dream Eater, cute girl or not.

When Lukas finally opened his eyes, he found himself in the desert as usual but in a position where he couldn't even see where the van was. He stared up at the sky and tried to discern how much time had passed.

"How many hours do we have left till morning arrives?" Lukas asked himself.

"U-um, still several you know?" a voice spoke out of nowhere.

"How am I hearing you when I'm no longer stuck in the dream world." Lukas gazed around his surroundings with a frown. Was he stuck in a dream within a dream? That was something that happened in the past.

"Over here! Dig me out!" Her voice became far more obvious, the location seemingly coming into his ear and yet emanating from the underground as well.

"And why should I even do that?" Lukas frowned as he thought he saw something sparkling beneath the sands.

"I can help you! At least locate the others–" Rhea said.

No sooner than she had said it, Lukas was already digging down the sand and clawing through most of it. Perhaps there was room for hesitation and making sure that she wasn't lying and just trying to set herself free–but there was no time.

Or rather, he couldn't find any other way.

"There's no way for me to be able to find all four of them and get them to the van in time if it's just several hours and they're in different directions." Lukas clawed his way deeper.

[Physical Manipulation Improving!]

Lukas didn't even realize that his nails had changed shape and form because all he was concerned about was digging for where Rhea was trapped.

"This person or whatever who captured you hadn't done a very good job if I'm able to see you out here in the night." Lukas said. "If anyone else passed here, they would have thought of it as buried treasure or something."

"Or something that reflects light." Rhea responded.

"How can you talk right now when you're supposed to be in the dreams? I mean, shouldn't a Dream Eater be able to exist only in a person's mind?" Lukas asked, his thoughts sporadic and scattered as he dug again and again.

"You can see a light because I've made contact with you via your dreams, but for others–they will not see anything." Rhea responded. "And nobody would normally help a Dream Eater."

"Makes sense. I'd destroy you if I could." Lukas murmured as he finally saw something in the darkness of the sand hole. It looked something simple like a rock, but when he smoothed his thumb over it–it became a visible blue crystal.

"T-this is me!" The blue crystal shimmered. "Free me and I'll–"

"Not so fast." Lukas said. "I'm not going to set you free without my friends being safe first."

"What?"

"Do you honestly think I'd just let you out of this sealed crystal and then expect you to help me?" Lukas sighed and pushed himself off the sands. "Give me the first direction to the nearest Dream Eater and once everything is done, I'll help you out."

"That's…"

"Not a good trade?" Lukas asked.

"I have the upperhand here!" Rhea protested childishly. "I'm the one who knows–"

"And I can probably just throw you back here into the ground." Lukas said. He glanced around the desert sands and decided to bluff a little. "I can find these people, but it's easier with you around and I thought that I'd let you redeem yourself."

"Redeem myself?"

"From jeopardizing the life of me and everyone else." Lukas glanced down at the crystal with contempt. "Also, you've met my friend haven't you? The one in the blood world? Well, come out and meet her."

As expected, the ornate dagger appeared in his hands and he pointed it at the crystal.

"You might think that me stabbing you with this dagger might set you free, but on the contrary, you'll be food instead for my lovely friend here. So what do you think?" Lukas smiled. "Still think this is an unfair trade?"

"... head northwest."

"Good." Lukas made the dagger disappear back and pocketed the blue crystal. It was finally time to save his friends.

***

There was a beautiful greenhouse conservatory underneath a glittering dark night sky. The place was filled with a gorgeous amount of plants of different sizes and shapes, all sorts of varieties that one couldn't even imagine or think of.

Anastasia dis Vardoken stood alone, or might have been alone in it and yet there was the sound of children playing in the background. Their laughter echoed and one of them even sounded like her older brother.

"Get back here!"

"So unfair!"

"Why is it that he's the leader!"

Somehow, it seemed like everything else that she was thinking of–being a clerk at VitaBlood, meeting a strange young man by the name of Lukas and befriending him and such?

Those instead felt like a dream.

Instead, right here and right now, she was back into what could have been the happiest days of her life. When Anastasia looked over her shoulder, she finally saw the person that she was looking for.

"Ah, little one–what are you doing in here?" the old Vampire asked. There was a tender expression on his face, a gentle look that would have struck quite a difference from the scary visage of the Guildmaster of the Hunters Association.

"I…"

For the first time in her life, Anastasia seemed to know what were the right words to say and she said it. Almost as if she was repeating them and before she knew it, the old Vampire chuckled and began to point out all the plants and their properties.

"And this one is a bit temperamental. It can bite off your fingers if you're not careful."

"Then why are you still taking care of it?"

"Hmmm…" the old Vampire rubbed his chin. "You know, that plants are like people too."

"Huh?"

"Well, I'd like to think of plants as something similar to people. Just because a person is lashing out in anger and hurting you, does it automatically make them a bad person?"

"Yes?" Anastasia thought of the time that she'd been hurt by her brother. She hit him back right afterwards to make things even.

"Well, sometimes, the reason why a person is expressing such things is because he's scared. He feels vulnerable and unsafe and that's why he's doing such a thing."

Anastasia's eyes widened. "Is that why I slapped my brother back? Because I was feeling hurt?"

"Yes, that's right. When a person is hurt, sometimes the only thing he knows is how to hurt others. He might not really mean it, but because he doesn't know what else to do, that is how he responds." the old Vampire sighed softly. "Of course, there are times when a person actively wishes to bring suffering to another but–"

"I don't think this plant is that too complicated." Anastasia frowned. "It can't even move on its own. There's no need to worry about such things."

The old Vampire paused and then chuckled. "Maybe you're right. Let's just talk about something else more fun or pretty. I have a couple of plants here that are from that special book, I showed you. Can you try recognizing them and listing what they can do?"

"O-okay!" Anastasia chirped. It was a lot more fun than running around and chasing other kids in her vicinity, but then an emotion occurred to her.

A lingering feeling that made her worried and sad. She couldn't concentrate. Anastasia wished that she looked at his face closer and maybe paid attention more–

Because hellfire suddenly ravaged the world. One moment she was standing inside of the greenhouse, and then the next thing she knew was that she was outside. A little child watched as her entire world burned.

"Nononono!" Anastasia cried out and tried to get back inside, but she couldn't.

"It's okay, it's okay." A voice suddenly seemed to speak. It didn't belong to her brother or anyone she knew and yet it was familiar. "Please open your eyes, Stacy. It's just me… it's just me."

When Stacy opened her eyes, she found her fist directly at Lukas' face, but instead of being upset or angry that she had been instinctively hitting him–there was a look of relief on his face.

Lukas pulled her close and tightly into his arms.

"I'm so relieved that I've found you."

He actually wanted to ask why there were so many tears glittering down into her face. It made Lukas extremely upset that she had gone through this–were dreams controlled by the Dream Eaters? He had to ask Rhea.

"Wait, where are we?" Stacy finally realized that they were outside and she couldn't see the van anywhere. Had she been sleepwalking?

"It's a long story, but I'm glad that you're awake now." Lukas smiled. "...Although there's a lot to do. We're cramped with time."