Dream Wars #01

Just don’t look in its eyes.  You’ll go mad if you look into its eyes.

Jason swallowed hard as he looked upon the shadowy figure below.  It was hard to make out, actually, despite the fact that it’s shadowy form contrasted sharply with the pale concrete below.  Its edges were blurry and the whole thing seemed to ripple as it moved, making it hard to look at.  It had limbs, that much he could see.  But whether it was bipedal or walked on all… however many legs it had, he couldn’t really tell.  From the darkness, two pale yellow dots glowed in a bulge he presumed to be its head.  These orbs whipped to and fro, quickly searching for something.  Jason knew that looking into its eyes wouldn’t actually cause him to go insane… but to lock eyes with a creature like this gave him a sense of horror, a feeling that made his gut drop through the ground and his skin break out in sweat.  He tried not focus on its eyes.  This, of course, was nearly impossible, as its eyes were the only distinct feature on its body; when you looked at it, you couldn’t help but focus on its eyes.

So, rather than look at the creature, Jason took a quick look at his surroundings.  A moment ago, he had been looking over the edge of a rocky cliff, watching the creature wade through a sea of tall green prairie grass.  But the scenery had shifted suddenly.  The drastic, but always spotaneous change of setting was still a bit unsettling to Jason, now that he was aware of it.  It was true, what his new teammates said.  Being an Enlightened Dreamer didn’t make dreams easier to understand; it only mde you more aware of how surreal they were.

Now the area looked like an old rural town, with houses covered in wooden shingles, and roofs made of thatched straw.  The streets were a smooth, pale concrete, though.   The sky was a pale blue; there was no sun, and yet the area was lit up like day.  The alleys were still shaded, but this was mainly indicated by the fact that everything in an alley seemed to be colored darker than everything that was in the open.  It gave the illusion of shading, despite the fact that the light shown equally on everything.

In the streets, in an open area that looked like the town square, people flitted to and fro.  Many were fuzzy and indistinct.  Many hardly had any features at all, but, unlike the creature he was pursuing, Jason could tell they were supposed to be human.  In some cases, the people had distinct faces or clothing if nothing else.  Jason didn’t recognize anyone, but that hardly surprised him.  This wasn’t his dream after all.


Nor was the creature below him one of his; the creature, one of “the Driven”, as his fellow Enlightened Dreamers called them, were always just blurs in the eyes of everyone but their creators.  So if Jason couldn’t recognized it, then it wasn’t his.  Of course, it wouldn’t have been anyway; why would one of his Driven be attacking another person?

After all, “the Driven” were so named, because they had only one desire fueling their existance: revenge.  Driven were concepts and ideas, usually characters and worlds, that people had thought up in their minds, but had rejected or forgotten about for one reason or another.   Most people were never even aware of this.  Little did they know that in the Diegesis, the so called “Dreamworld”, things like concepts and ideas could actually gain their own sentience.  These lost concepts usually simply faded away, or receded to unknown parts of the Diegesis; but some seethed with hatred at their rejection.  These sentient thoughts sometimes found their way to a dark corner of the Dreamworld, known as the “Unwritten”.  It was there that rejected creations and forgotten dreams were twisted into something malicious and deadly.  They became one of the “Driven”, so called because they were entirely, utterly driven to destroy those that had created and rejected them.

Jason had yet to meet any of his own Driven.  Did he even have any?  He wasn’t actually sure.  He believed that he was fair to his own creations.  Even though they were but thoughts, now that he was an Enlightened Dreamer, he knew that thoughts were more than trivial things.  He hoped, he believed, that all his own imaginary worlds and characters were accounten for, but in all honesty, he dreaded that that might not be true.  He wasn’t sure he would ever be prepared if that was the case.

Jason shuddered at the thought, then forced himself to snap out of his revery.  Now was not the time to be spacing out.  He had become an Enlightened Dreamer for a reason: to defend the Diegesis, and those minds that came here, from the mind-deadening effects of the Unwritten, and the Driven that spwaned them.  Few people had the gift or mental capacity to step beyond their own dreams, to enter the dreams of others and maintain their own minds.  Jason was one such person.  He was being trained to destroy Driven.  This was his first time out on the field.  He had to believe he wouldn’t screw this up.  But unless he learned to focus, that’s exactly what would happen.

Jason looked around (noticing with some relief that the scenery hadn’t yet changed again) and spotted the Driven once more.  As ever, his vision stubbornly zoomed in on the Driven’s glowing eyes.  Jason fought the fear that welled up within him, threatening to deaden his thoughts and drain his will.  Shaking off the feeling, he noticed the creature was no longer looking around.  Its vision was looked straight ahead, and it seemd to be crouching back in the alley below.

Jason followed the direction the Driven was facing, though making sure to keep it within his peripheral vision.  Jason spotted the object of its attention almost immediately; the Driven seemed to be focused a woman, whose features were quite distinct, indeed.  Jason blinked and noticed that in fact, she was the only person he could make out clearly in her entirity.  Her features, hair color, eye color, height, width, etc. shifted fairly frequently, but stayed sharp and focused.  The effect was disorienting, to say the least, but at least she was recognizable.

<I’ve spotted our Dreamer> said Jason, beaming his thoughts to his teammates, who were all on standby.

From nowhere in particular, came a masculine voice, thinking straight into Jason’s mind.  The voice said <Yes, we see her.  We’ve been watching her for quite a while, actually.  What took you so long to spot her?>

<C’mon, Max, I’m new at this, okay?> said Jason.

<Just sayin’ newbie> said Max.  <You gotta be aware of all your surroundings.>

<It’s hard enough focusing on just one person at his stage> came a feminine voice, again in the form of thoughts.  <He’ll get better.>

Suddenly, Jason was aware of a furry black tail snaking around his waste, and he felt the weight of a womanly form lean against his side.  Jason jerked at the sudden sensation, but relaxed as he looked up into the face of Jessica, his friend and teammate.  Her sharp green eyes soothed his nervousness, and her black hair caressed his face nicely.  “Are you ready, Jason?” she said.

“Ready as ever,” said Jason, turning back to the Driven.  It had moved to a corner between two of the thatched-roof buildings, watching the woman.  The Driven shifted, and Jason could tell, even with its form blurred and nondescript, it was about to pounce.

Jason felt soft, warm breath against his ear.  “Don’t focus on being fancy,” said Jessica, her voice a whisper.  “Just get the job done.  Don’t hesitate to call.”

Jason merely nodded and tensed.  He focused his will upon himself.  Unlike most things in dreams, an Enlightened Dreamer’s appearance was more or less constant, based on their self-image and emotions at the time.  Jason, like Jessica, looked like a twently-year old human of average build, wearing plainclothes (though Jessica also sported a black cat-tail which Jason did not).  This appearance did not change unless a Dreamer willed it to happen; since this was not his dream, Jason could not alter the environment around him; that said, he had to resort to transforming himself.

Jason shifted his body, becoming taller and sleeker.  His normally red, curly hair smoothed and paled into a silvery hue.  His fingers elongated and the tips thinned into needles, glowing red.

Jason focused all his attention on the Driven; he sensed it start to shift his weight back to pounce.  It began to thrust forward.  With the speed of thought, Jason slashed toward the Driven.  The world around him blue-shifted as he dashed towards the creature with speed bordering on teleportation.

Suddenly, the world entire around him really was blue, and Jason felt a great resistance against his body.  The land had dissolved into sea.  He was several dozen yards below water, and bubbles swirled about, blinding him.  Taking a moment to remind himself that he couldn’t drown in a dream-ocean, he looked around quickly, and saw the Dreamer was treading water above him.  A black shape suddenly shot by him, huge and terrifying.  The Driven had shifted into a torpedo-like form, several slats protruding from various parts of its body like sharks fins.  The Driven had spotted Jason and his attempt to intercept it.  The Driven was not happy about this.

Jason whipped around as the Driven charged towards him.  Scrapping his fingers together, Jason caused crimson lightning to dance over his body; Jason thrust forward, tearing into the Driven as its huge, black maw opened wide to swallow him.

Jason felt himself enveloped in black, and a cold, choking pain shot through him.  With a scream he lashed out chaotically, crismon sparks flying too and fro, and suddenly, the water hit him with refreshing warmth.  Jason looked around to see the Driven several yards off, black wisps trailing from its side.  Without any background with which to judge depth, Jason wasn’t sure, but he could swear it was now twice as big.  Jason had to remind himself that size didn’t matter.  It wasn’t easy to do, though.  Jason was already trembling.  Unable to maintain his altered form, Jason returned to his normal proportions, rapidly trying to think of another way to deal with the beast.

The Driven slowly approached him, crimson sparks still crackling here and there.

[You have wounded me, Dreamer] said the Driven.  [Why must you Dreamers always wound us?  Is it not enough that we are consigned to oblivion before even being allowed to shine?  Isn’t it maddening enough to know that our only future is equivilant to that of a phantom, doomed to walk a barren land?]

Jason flinched.  God above… it was strange when his teammates thought-spoke to him. But when a Driven did it, it felt to Jason like a freezing nail was being hammering through his skull.  Fighting the pain, he decided it would be easier to just talk to the Driven then.  Adopting a tough tone he honestly didn’t feel, he said, “I’ve heard it all before.  Mommy left me, daddy abandonned me, I had to become evil, boo-hoo-hoo.  Lots of Dreamers have to put up with that kind of existance in the waking world, you know.”

[Then why do they do to us what was done to them?] hissed the Driven.  [Is it our fault they live hard lives?]

“I know it’s unfair, but…” began Jason.

[UNFAIR?!] roared the Driven.  Its form rippled with jagged edges.  [You have no concept of the word!  When one of your kind is handed a hard life, it is possible for you to still become integrated into society!  To still make something of yourself!  There is none of that with us!  The day our creator rejects us, is the day we either die, or become devils!  There is no salvation for such as we!]

Jason narrowed his eyes.  “Is it possible to… change back?  Maybe if you made yourself known to your creator, visited her in her dreams.  If you could make her remember you, even if she only thinks of you as a figment of her dream, it would be something, wouldn’t it?  You don’t have to destroy her.”

<What are you doing, Jason?!  Just kill it, already!> Max’s voice cut across Jason’s mind.  Jason ignored it.

[We have tried…] said the Driven.  [Oh, we have tried… we see her in her dreams so often, but when she sees us, she runs from us.  She was such a creative child.  But then, she got older; she went to school and they loaded her head with useless facts.  They deadened her imagination.  She got married and lives a completely unfullfilling life.  She has neglected us, her potential and herself.]

“But…” began Jason.

[We will not have it!!!] screamed the Driven.

Jason winced again, unable to hold back a grunt of discomfort.  The Driven’s thought-speech was beginning to make him lose focus.

<Jason, quit trying to talk it out of it> said Max.  <How many times have we told you, the Driven are completely hell-bent on vengeance!  You can’t turn them!>

<I have to try…> shot back Jason.

<Stupid, fool…> said Max.  <Jessica, tell him to…>

<Jason, Max is unfortunately correct> said Jessica.

[Well, young Dreamer] hissed the Driven.  [This is really a mission of mercy, you see.  We are putting our creator out of her misery.  Did you know she cries herself to sleep at night, in those rare moments when she actually thinks for herself?  She wonders what she has done with her life, and why she hates it so.  Its because she has neglected herself, neglected her potential, neglected us!]

“You don’t have to end her life!” said Jason.  “Destroying her mind and ending her life won’t solve anything!  At best, it will only destroy you as well as her!”

<DAMMIT, JASON, STOP TRYING TO REASON WITH IT!!!> shouted Max.

[So be it!  Better that, than life wallowing in the barren wastes of the Unwritten!]  The Driven lunged forward.

Dammit! thought Jason.  Jason scrunched himself into a ball, and crimson fire flared up around him; they were still underwater, but of course, fire could still burn in a dream ocean.  Thrusting himself into a spread eagle position, red flames blasted from his body.  The Driven met the blast head on.  The shadowy creature rippled and writhed as the fire tore through it.  Jason continued the assault until the creature seemed to erupt into a black mist, dissolving into the water.

Jason sighed, closing his eyes, and wiping his brow.  He opened his eyes and looked up to see if the Dreamer was all right, but found himself staring at a cloudy, but still well lit sky.  Blinking, Jason looked around and found himself in a meadow of white flowers.  He sighed as he once again had to get his bearings.  It wasn’t hard, though, as the Dreamer turned out to be a few yards behind him.  Her hair, complexion, and eye-color slowly shifted, and Jason again had to try not to be disoriented by the effect.

“Hello,” said Jason.

“H-hello…” she said.  The woman’s voice was soft.  She seemed afraid, but didn’t back away from Jason as he walked up to her.  At the moment, he was taller then her, and she looked up at him with a dazed expression.

“Do I know you, sir?” she asked.

“Probably not,” said Jason.  “But just so you know, you’re all right now.”

“I would think I might not wish to be otherwise…” said the woman.  Jason blinked, and suddenly, she wasn’t looking at him anymore.  In fact, in the space of the blink, she had some how wound up several yards away, staring in the opposite direction.

“Oooookay…” said Jason.  Man, Unenlightened Dreamers are ungrateful.  Still, I guess they gotta be ignorant of everything, otherwise, no one would ever want to go to sleep.

“I’ll just be going then,” said Jason.  The woman didn’t respond.  <All right guys.  Everything’s set.  I took care of the…>

“RICHTER!!!” he heard the woman scream.  Jason whirled to see what she was talking about.  The woman was speaking to a figure he couldn’t quite make out.  Jason didn’t think this too odd at first, and was about to turn back, when out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the figure was very blurry… and much too dark, despite the mid-day lighting.

“I KNOW YOU NOW!!!” Jason heard her scream.  Actually, it was a normal speaking voice, but Jason could hear it almost as though it was right in his ear, despite the distance.  (As with lighting, sound levels were very random in an uncontrolled dream.)  It was clear the woman recognized the figure, though to Jason’s eyes it was just another Driven.  That could only mean one thing… the Driven was one of hers.  Another one of her forgotten had come to claim her.  Either that, or the first Driven hadn’t been destroyed.

Jason began to run towards the woman.  But suddenly, it felt as though he were running through molasses.  Despite the distance, Jason could clearly see the Driven turn towards him, looking at him over the woman’s shoulder.  Jason saw it’s pale yellow eyes, and felt his blood run cold.  He could almost feel its sneer.

[A valiant effort, Warrior] he felt it say into his mind.  [But you should know better; we Driven are a tenacious lot.]

Jason screamed his thoughts.  <SHIT!!!  SECOND ONE!!! STUCK!!!  HELP!!! NOW!!!>

There was a suddenly blur of light off to his side, and for a split second everything seemed to freeze.  The Driven was looking at Jason with obvious smugness, it’s hand clamped tightly around the woman’s arm.  Then, Jason saw, just for a second, flitting slashes of light around the creature.

The Driven’s eyes widened suddenly, and then a young man with short, spiky blond hair, wielding a gleaming crystal broadsword appeared next to the creature.  The Driven suddenly fell apart, dissappating into mist.

Jason found himself unstuck and shot off towards the two.  The woman was beginning to fall back, and Jason was intent on catching her.  But then, Jessica was suddenly there, catching the woman as she fell.  Jessica set her on her feet and calmed her down.

“You missed one,” said Max.

“Don’t got to rub it in,” said Jason, coming to a stop near the three.  Max placed the sword against his back; the sword stuck to his back for a moment, then vanished into thin air.

“Well, anyway, thanks for coming to the rescue, Max,” said Jason.

The swordsman smirked.  “No problem.  But you should have spotted that one before.  He was hanging back the whole time while the other Driven stalked the Dreamer.”

Jason blanched.  Max just wouldn’t give him a break.  Suddenly two arms hugged him from behind, a familair tail snaking around his waist.  Jessica spoke into his ear.  “A nice job for a first try though,” said Jessica.

Jason turned and hugged her back.  “Man, I thought I blew it, there,” he said.

“You almost did,” said Max.  “While you were arguing with that one Driven, the other was sneaking up on the Dreamer.  Rarely does a Driven fight alone, especially since we Enlightened Dreamers started hunting them.”  The three turned and focused their will on an empty space before them.  Suddenly, the space seemed to ripple, and the three stepped through it.  Exiting the dream, they now found themselves in a shapeless grey void; this was the space between individual dreamworlds, a sort of limbo between minds.  With no other influences determining the form it took, the three could do/create whatever they wished in this space.  Jason applied his imagination to the area around them, and within moments, they were standing on a small floating island of sand, with overstuffed chairs sticking out of the ground, and single plam tree sprouting from the middle.  Sitting on the chairs, the three thought for a moment.

“Is it true that no Driven has ever reformed?” said Jason.

Max blinked, looking at Jessica.  Jessica shrugged.  “Its rumored that its possible, but no one has any real evidence.  We’ve never met a reformed Driven.”

“Do you believe its possible?” said Jason.

“No,” said Max.  “Driven are what they are because they are unreformable.  They’ve fallen so far into the abyss they can never claw their way back out.”

“I wasn’t asking you, Max,” said Jason.  He looked to Jessica.  “What do you think?”

Jessica blinked.  “I don’t know,” she said.  “I guess not.”

Jason sighed.  “It… doesn’t seem fair, y’know?”

Jessica patted him on the shoulder.  “I know.  I don’t think its fair either, but unfortunately, its just the way things are.”

“Why?” said Jason.  “Who determined that?”

Jessica shook her head.  “Its in the fundamental nature of the Diegesis and the Unwritten.  It’s nothing we can change.”

“I don’t believe that,” said Jason.  “We have Enlightened Dreamers guarding the Diegesis itself, hunters like us who go into dreams and destroy the Driven that invade, even warriors that infiltrate the Unwritten to try and return parts of it to the Diegesis.  Why can’t we form a team that can find a way to restore Driven to their natural forms?  If we can restore parts of the Diegesis that were consumed by the Unwritten, can’t the same be done for a Driven?”

“The Diegesis and the Unwritten are like materials.  Dreamers and Driven are essentially life forms here,” said Max.  “You can restore a car or a field.  Move materials around, replace things, fix things.  But once you lose a life, you can’t get it back.”

“But the Driven aren’t dead, they’re just changed,” said Jason.  “There must be a way.”

“Well there isn’t,” said Max.

“Well, there should be,” said Jason.

“Jason, there have been others before you that have tried,” said Jessica.  “They failed.  And they had years of experience under their belt.”

Jason sighed and dropped his head.  Jessica leaned forward and put a hand on his leg.  “Listen, its a noble ambition, but please understand; even if it were possible, you are still, far, far too new to all of this to even attempt it.  You fought off one Driven, true, but it was a weak one.”

Jason thought for a moment.  “Well, I’m not giving up on the idea.”

“Delude yourself then, kid,” said Max, shrugging.  “But don’t let it screw up your ability to be a Dream Warrior.  Or else, you’ll find yourself back to being UnEnlightened.”

Jason just scowled at Max.  “Yessir,” he muttered.  He wondered again, if he was really ready to take this responsibility.  Whether or not he had the potential, Jason wasn’t sure he could reach it.

***

A morning later, and a woman awoke with a vague feeling of having just overcome a great ordeal.  She recalled a dream of shadows, and a strange person she had remembered.  She had known the person wasn’t real, and yet felt as though she had known him quite intimately; but she could not for the life of her, remember whom it was.  Then as her attention was drawn to other things, the feeling and dream faded from her mind, and she proceeded with her day.

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AUTHOR’S NOTES: A story from over a decade ago. I’d forgotten I’d even worked on this. I remember submitting it for publishing a few times, but it didn’t get accepted.

This story is yet another “pilot” for a series that never came to be (you’ll probably be sensing a pattern here). Dreams have always been a fascinating aspect of my life, a source of grand adventure, although ironically they usually aren’t an inspiration for any particular given story. For a period of time, I was really fascinated by the idea of dreams and stories as part of a universal subconscious.

The Dream Wars was intended to be a series that followed several characters of mine as they explored the limitless expanse of the Dream Realm, and this series was supposed to connect to many of my other story concepts. The Dream Realm, in a way, was to function as a sort of grand Megaversal connecting point between most, if not all, of my other worlds, the implication being it could be used as a means of facilitating crossovers between my universes or at least a means of passing knowledge between realms. The Dream Wars also featured or was mentioned in several other series I was working on at the time.

The Dream Wars became something of a backdrop setting for an RPG I first did on the Comic Book Rumble forums many years ago now. That particular RPG brought several posters characters together in a multiversal quest to stop an ambitious Dream Demon from becoming an all-powerful God. Part of this plan was to unleash Dream Demons (beings that functioned as a sort of shared primal nightmare between sapient dreamers) upon the Waking Worlds, in an attempt to kill the Enlightened Dreamers like those featured in this story. Although the Dreamers themselves didn’t appear in the RPG, the implication was that the Enlightened Dreamers, and the Dream Realm, exist in myriad worlds, even in those beyond the multiverse of my stories.