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Chapter Five- The Plan of Escape

The two went on for hours as Danielle learned that she could in fact wake up, but that was only a small relief of Tormentor’s (who kept coming in to pick on poor Danielle, while Hope had to hide, so he wouldn’t see her in the cell,) power. He could follow you in the outside world if you were a daydreamer, but he could only scare you there, not make you go crazy like in this dream world. The only way to permanently regain control of your dreams though, was to escape the castle. She learned that those who tried were never seen in the castle again, so maybe they had made it out. There was a plan of escape that had been passed down from one prisoner to another; and the only way to see if it worked for a certain person was to try it. Different people had different ways to escape, sort of like a person who had different ways to cope with problems in real life.

“Hey, it’s almost morning, but since he put that curse on you, I’ll see you tomorrow,” Danielle’s new friend told her.

<Hey, you never told me, why are you so happy to be here?> There, she said it. The question was finally out.

<I’m not happy to be here,> Hope explained with a frown, and her color changed to what appeared to be her natural skin tone. She was a Mexican girl with no so dark skin, but she didn’t have a white color, although her eyes actually were blue. She had long, black hair, and if she didn’t look depressed at this moment, then she would have looked even more beautiful than when she first stepped out of the shadows. Her color quickly changed back to light blue and purple eyes as she cheerily explained, “I like to help other people get out of this nightmare. I’ve been out before, I just like coming back to help people. The aura of this place just scares me to death!”

<I see what you mean, but you’re saying we can come back here, even if we escape?>

“Yeah, but you have to be careful. If Tormentor finds you here after you’ve escaped, then he treats the prisoners, like you, worse, so you feel bad. When you let your guard down, he can come down and take you again, so that you can’t escape. I don’t know, I guess I’m just a risk- taker. Well anyways, see you tomorrow, Danielle!”

<See you tomorrow, Hope.> then, on a later thought: “Hey, call me Danni!”




Chapter Six- Waking Up

When Saturday approached, and Danielle finally woke up, thoughts rushed through her mind. Was the whole thing really a dream, or did my parents really split up? And what was with that weird Tormentor guy? This bothered her as she got out of the clothes she wore the night before. Her stereo was still on, pumping away on full volume. Her mother would never have stood for that, she probably would have gone in there to turn it off. Wait, if the stereo was on…..

She ran to her window to see if her mother’s car was there. It wasn’t, and her dad left skid marks with his car on the driveway. So it’s true, she thought, they really did break up. Then, after everything she remembered, it did not come to such a shock as she had last night. Danielle finished dressing and went to the kitchen to get something to eat. Surprise, surprise, she thought when she looked on the table. There was no breakfast prepared like there was the day before, only a note that her mother had scrawled hastily before setting out:

Danni, I went out to the courthouse to get the papers. If your father shows up, call the police, he doesn’t live here anymore. -Love, Mom

She took the note that her mother had written, and after tearing it up and throwing it into its rightful location, in the fireplace, she was repulsed that her mother had the audacity to think that Danielle was ready to accept the fact that her parents were no longer together, and that she wanted her to call the police if her father, no, the man who was formerly her father showed up at the house. Sure, she was mad at him, but he had a right to get the rest of his crap out of the house, so that she wouldn’t be reminded of last night.

Last night. Tormentor said that she would never forget last night. The thought of that put fear in her heart. Was she daydreaming? Did he have control over her thoughts in the real world, too? Was he afflicting his psychological power over her like Hope said he could? Hope. Wow, she thought. It’s kind of cool to have a friend I can talk to about this, even if I can only see her in my dreams. Wait a second; she said we’re connected in dreams. Hope is a real person. Can I talk to her out here?

The thought made her jump with excitement, until she remembered that she only had the first name and what the girl looked like to go by. Not to mention that in a dream, anything could happen. What if the girl only spoke Spanish in real life? Hope could mean something else in Spanish. Now Danielle’s spirits were crushed as she realized that there was no way to talk to Hope outside of the Dream.

Well that’s an original name for a dream, she thought with some irony to try to cheer herself up that didn’t work all that well. The sad fear of realizing that she was not entirely free of the prison in her mind that wasn’t really even hers anymore was too much to bear.