Awake

by Egan Yip

Kevin walked along a road of candy-coated bricks. It was kind of sticky and hard to walk across. Even so, it was easier to walk through that since the rest of the landscape was covered in giant scoops of melting ice cream.

  “Somebody sure loves their sugar,” he said.

  Who dares interfere?

  He stopped as soon as he noticed a black dot off in the distance.

  “What is that?” he wondered.

  As it drew near, he got a better look at it. It was a mass of black sludge that was soaring over the land…and it was headed for him.

  Kevin jumped out of the way and rolled along the surface of hard candy. Another pile of black sludge, resembling a giant hand, popped out of a scoop of ice cream. It caught Kevin by surprise and snatched him off the ground. Then the giant hand dragged him down beneath the ground, deep into a dark tunnel.

  Hundreds of images flashed before his eyes. He was being pulled through dream after dream.

  Then, when the giant hand finally released him, Kevin fell facedown on the floor. He picked himself up and looked around. He was in another dream world. This one was in outer space. But before he could gaze at strange planets and stars in the distance, he noticed that a group of giant dark creatures had surrounded him. Coveits.

  Kevin grunted, “I don’t like the look of this.”

  A man was standing by the side of the Coveits.

  “The guy from the boat ride,” said Kevin, recognizing him.

  “Yes,” said the man. “And you’re the kid stirring up trouble.”

  Kevin felt frightened at this man’s presence. “Who are you?”

  “I go by many names,” said the man. “If you like, you can call me the boogeyman.”

  “Ah, Mr. Boogeyman,” said Kevin. “So I take it you’re the one who made the Dream Wave?”

  The man laughed. “No, the humans have done this to themselves. I just…make the experience smoother for them. I am the oil in this engine. Humans sometimes just want to get away from it all…and I steer them in the right direction.”

  “I can’t let you do that,” said Kevin. “I’ll put a stop to you!”

  “You’re welcome to try,” said the boogeyman.

  The Coveits lumped themselves together like clay, molding and bending into a huge massive body. The boogeyman jumped high into the mouth of the creature as it continued its weird transformation. Then, when the transformation was complete, a new monster was formed.

  The hulking beast stooped down and roared. Its skin was a sickly red, almost the color of rotting raw meat. In addition to its two legs, it also had six arms and crawled down on the floor like a spider. On its back were ten horns, which protruded from its spinal cord. It had an eye on its forehead and an eye on its chin, and right in between, where people would normally have a nose, it had a giant mouth. Its head would twist and twist around like an owl’s.

  “Okay…” said Kevin. “I still don’t like the look of this.”

  Andrew and Katie exchanged wide-eyed glances. Her house was experiencing powerful tremors. The floor sheared apart, creating a huge gap between them. Andrew pulled her over to his side and they ran for the door. When they reached the street, Andrew pointed to the sky. The clear blue sky was long gone, now hidden by overlapping gray clouds. Aside from the bolts of lightning that flashed far and near, the land was covered in sheer darkness.

  “We have to leave this dream,” shouted Andrew. “It’s getting dangerous!”

  “But how?” asked Katie.

  Andrew said, “There must be a way out—like a door or something. Since it’s your dream, you should know where it is. Think. If you think about it, maybe you’ll find it!”

  Her arms crossed, Katie stared at the ground thoughtfully. “Now that you mention it, I think I may have seen something like that before.” She looked at him briefly before turning to the opposite direction. “That way. There should be something—”

  Before she finished her sentence, the blood drained from her face. Katie looked down. To her horror, the ground was becoming alive. Lumps in the road formed into human hands and they reached out for her legs. Andrew took her by the hand and they fled the scene.

  “It’s getting worse and worse,” said Andrew breathlessly. “This way, you said?”

  “Yeah,” said Katie, nodding “the exit should be at the dead end of this road.”

  As they sprinted across the neighborhood, everything around them became blurry and distorted. Houses were bending and twisting around, almost as if they were being reflected off funhouse mirrors. Fire hydrants changed colors rapidly from red to black or blue. Cars came to life on their own, revving their engines as they went up and down the sidewalks.

  Stay…

  “Did you say something?” Katie asked.

  Andrew shook his head. “I thought you said something.” Andrew then noticed something falling from above. He held Katie back. “Watch out!”

  A large oak tree landed upright in front of them. They fell back as they eyed the great plant. The segments of bark on the tree moved in such a way that it gave the tree facial features of a human. The eyes of the tree looked straight at the kids and the lips mouthed words.

  Stay here…don’t leave…

  Andrew turned to Katie. “Is this your doing?”

  Katie shook her head. “I don’t think so…”

  “But this is your dream,” said Andrew. “I never had this problem in mine!”

  “I’m just as clueless as you are!”

  “Whatever it is, we should be able to fight back. I’m not letting some talking tree stop me from leaving!”

  Andrew charged at the oddity. The branches came alive and swept across, attempting to brush Andrew away. Andrew blocked the movement of the branches and forcefully shoved the tree back. The tree toppled over on its side and couldn’t get up. The two teens ran past the fallen tree. Then they encountered a blue swirling circle of light.

  “That must be it!” said Andrew. “That must be the exit!”

  They wanted to walk into the blue circle but they couldn’t. The trees all around them suddenly became animated. The trees, big and small, twisted and waved their branches. The branches acted more like vines with their incredible flexibility. The limbs of the trees reached out and grabbed the kids by the legs.

  Taking rapid breaths, Andrew exclaimed, “They’ve got us!”

  Katie squirmed. “Get off! Get away from me!”

  Katie swung her hand down with the full rotation of her upper body. The branches were cut cleanly and fell to the ground, shriveled and gnarled. Katie looked at her hand. She was holding onto a large sword and never realized it. With her blade she chopped off any branches that were grasping for them.

  “We can’t let the dream get the best of us,” said Katie, gripping the hilt tightly. “We’ll fight fire with fire.” Yelling out her battle cries, she swung the sword around, hacking away at the moving forest.

  At first the trees retreated frightfully at the sight of the sharp blade and its restless owner. Then, as if they suddenly realized they weren’t truly alive to begin with, the trees attacked again, boldly approaching the force of the blade without hesitation.

  Katie was greatly outnumbered. For every tree she sliced apart, two more would rise from the broken wood. There was no end to it.

  Andrew took off his shirt to reveal his superhero garments underneath. He looked at himself in dismay. He probably still had some of his powers, but without the muscular body, he just didn’t feel as dashing.

  Katie was unable to contain her laughter at how ridiculous he looked in tights. Even the trees howled in laughter. In fact, the trees couldn’t stop laughing, and they all fell down and rolled around in hysteria. Andrew grimaced. He had planned to show off his superpowers in the dream world, but apparently there was no longer any need for it.

  “Now’s our chance,” said Katie quickly, restraining her laughter.

  She walked up to the portal. Andrew was right behind her. Together, they watched the gatewa
y uneasily.

  “Are you sure this is it?” asked Katie.

  “I don’t know…it looks different.”

  “That’s not very assuring…”

  “We cross over together,” said Andrew with a smile.

  “No…” a voice said darkly. “No one is going anywhere.”

  Another voice screamed, “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

  The loud scream echoed through the portal. The light of the portal intensified. Katie retreated slightly. Andrew simply stared blankly and swallowed. Kevin flew through the portal and tumbled to the ground.

  “Kevin!” Andrew said. “What are you doing here?”

  “Andrew! Kat—What the heck are you wearing?” Kevin’s jaw dropped at the sight of her dress. Katie gave him a menacing glare. Then Kevin quickly said, “Oh, I mean, Andrew! Katie! We’ve got trouble!”

  The monster’s head poked out of the portal, its freakish bloodshot eyes staring at the teens.

  “But I guess you didn’t need me to tell you that,” Kevin added.

  “WHAT IS THAT THING?” Andrew shrieked.

  “He calls himself the boogeyman,” Kevin explained. “And he’s pretty ticked off that we’re trying to set people free from their dreams.”

  The monster couldn’t quite squeeze through the small portal, so it pulled it apart.

  As she watched the monster tear a gaping hole through the dream world, Katie asked, “What should we do?”

  “I was thinking we should beat it up,” said Kevin.

  “Are you kidding?” Andrew said. “How are we supposed to beat that thing?”

  “Well,” said Kevin, “whose dream do you think is this?”

  “Katie’s?” Andrew said.

  “Well, it was Katie’s…but now it’s our dream,” said Kevin. “Our dream, our rules. This isn’t a battle against flesh and blood. This is a battle against our mind! If you think you’re weak, you’re weak. If you think you’re strong, you’re strong. Got it?”

  Andrew nodded.

  Kevin continued, “But whatever we do, we have to do it now, while we’re still in our dream. I don’t want to think about what will happen if he can destroy the dream.”

  “Destroy the dream? Is that possible?” said Andrew.

  “I don’t know,” said Kevin. He pointed at the hole that was getting bigger and bigger. “But I don’t want to risk it. So let’s just deal with this thing before it gets out of hand. We need to use powerful weapons against him. Think of the most powerful thing in the world that you can imagine and fight with it. Distract him for now while I prepare myself.”

  Kevin leaped high into the air. Pieces of broken down cars flew toward him, as if a powerful magnet drew them. The broken glass and scraps of metal came together and formed a jet fighter around him. Kevin sat snuggly in the cockpit and engaged the throttle.

  Whoosh! The jet fighter shot into the air, the flames of the engine roaring. And then it disappeared into the sky.

  “I’m not sure what he’s planning,” said Andrew. “But let’s see if we can take out this monster before he gets back. Transform into the most powerful thing you can think of!” After seeing Kevin’s choice of weapon, he was curious as to what Katie what do.

  Katie nodded. She closed her eyes for a bit and concentrated. All of a sudden she began growing and growing…until she was as big as the monster itself.

  “You just grew bigger,” said Andrew, sounding disappointed.

  “I know,” said Katie. “And now I’m the most powerful thing!”

  “Now it’s my turn,” said Andrew excitedly.

  Andrew closed his eyes and thought for a moment. The houses crumbled around him and the broken pieces swirled around in a huge tornado. Then he jumped up into the sky and fell in the catastrophic winds. The wind subsided and the tornado dissipated. The only thing that remained was a huge robot.

  “You’re such a geek,” said Katie.

  “True,” said Andrew, sitting in the pilot’s seat of the robot. “But I don’t care because this is AWESOME!” Then he called out to the monster, “Hey, boogeyman! Want a piece of this? Huh?”

  The monster paid him no attention. It kept its focus on destroying the dream.

  Katie punched the monster in the face. The monster growled back and used one of its six arms to punch her back. Then Andrew began firing away hundreds of small missiles. However, the monster shielded himself with his arms and appeared unharmed. They both continued to attack the monster, but nothing they did seemed to hurt it.

  “Nothing is working!” Andrew exclaimed.

  “Why?” asked Katie. “How come we can’t hurt it?”

  Suddenly, Andrew realized something. “Wait…what did Kevin say again?”

  “He told us…to think of the most powerful thing…in the world and use it.”

  “Oh,” said Andrew. “Maybe if it’s fake…something we just made up…then, even in a dream, it won’t be effective. Maybe we have to use weapons that we know are real.”

  “That’s right,” said Kevin, his voice echoing in their minds. “You can fool yourself, but you can’t fool your subconscious. But you don’t have to worry about that. I’ve got my weapon ready. Now all I need you guys to do is open up that mouth.”

  “Open that mouth?” Andrew raised a brow. “But it’s already open.”

  “Don’t just let it hang open,” said Kevin. “Open it all the way. I need it to stay open.”

  “I don’t know about this…” said Andrew.

  “Just do it,” said Kevin.

  Andrew steered the giant robot toward the massive monster. But just as he started thinking about how he should open up that mouth, the monster closed it.

  The monster grinned. You think I can’t hear your thoughts? I heard you loud and clear. There’s no way you’re going to get me to open this mouth now!

  “Oh yeah?” Katie said smugly.

  She ran up to the monster. The monster tried to smack her away with an open palm. Katie blocked with one hand and reached down with the other. Andrew thought she was going to punch him again…but this time…she tickled him. The boogeyman was ticklish!

  “No! Stop!” the monster growled, unable to hold back the laughter. “Stop it!” He flung his other hands around, trying to swat her away.

  Andrew froze at the strange scene unfolding before him.

  “What are you spacing out for?” Katie snapped, dodging the attacks. “Hurry up and pry that mouth open! I can’t keep this up forever!”

  “O-oh, okay,” Andrew replied. He got close to the monster, shoved the robot hands into the mouth and forced the jaw open. “All right! I got it open for now! Hurry, Kevin! Do whatever you have to!”

  “Roger that!”

  Kevin flew his jet fighter back down to the ground. He zipped through the shattered streets. The sight of the monster came into view. He was locked onto his target: the monster’s mouth. Kevin pulled up, rising steadily.

  At that moment, the monster shoved Katie and Andrew aside. Kevin pushed the jet’s engine to its limit, flying faster and faster. Just as the monster was about to close its mouth, Kevin’s small jet fighter slipped through.

  “Did he make it?” Andrew wondered.

  The monster got redder and redder. Its skin began to glow as if a bright light was shining within. A surge of flame escaped from the monster’s mouth. Then…BOOOOOM! A giant fiery explosion emerged from the belly, enveloping the beast in a solid beam of light. A massive shockwave was released and tore the whole dream apart. Everything shook and crumbled. Everything faded.

  “W-what’s happening?” Katie asked, shielding herself from the light.

  Andrew screamed as the robot was breaking into pieces.

  And then darkness fell…and all was silent.