Chapter 66 – Deja Vu
Noah stood in the grass looking at the green field that spread to the horizon, where barely visible trees marked its end began the forested area. From behind the forest he could see a mountain peak that pierced the sky. The top of the mountain was covered by the black clouds that were shining from time to time with lightning falling from them to the mount. However that mountain was so far away that from where he stood, Noah could not hear even a small rumble coming from those thunder clouds.
Noah breathed out a sigh and turned away from the mountain walking in the opposite direction. After a few steps he stepped on to the hard ground of the road and walked until he reached the wooden fence. He opened the small gate and walked inside the small garden in front of a two stories high wooden building with a triangle roof and a wide porch covered by a roof and circled by a balustrade, with wooden steps with the handrails leading to it.
He stepped on the porch and opened the door entering the house. Walking through the open space room he plummeted to the soft leather couch and put his legs on the newspaper table in front of it.
"Hey, system." Said Noah looking at the wide screen flat TV hanging on the wall that showed a very familiar white canvas with different people's conversations on it. "How have you been?"
*User? This…how is this? You are back?* Said an astonished voice from the TV.
"Yeah. I am back in the driving seat…or a couch in my case."
*This place….looks neat. You made this?* Asked system's voice in surprise
"Mhhmm" Voiced Noah smugly.
*But how?*
"A friend helped me out. Taught me how to wshoo-wshoo." Said Noah with a leisure voice.
*How to what?*
"Forget it. You would not get it." Said Noah, smiling from remembering the funny girl that he had the conversation with inside Lina's dream some time ago."
*That friend. Where did you meet him?*
"I met her in a dream."
*Was it a person? Real person that could travel dreams like you? Was this person lucid? Like absolutely aware where he is and what he does?* Asked the system expectantly.
"Yeah. I think she was. Why?"
*User. Could it be you met the SEER?*
"Seer?" Asked Noah sitting straight, putting down his legs on the ground.
*I have studied this topic quite well when we received the skill allowing us to travel through the dream realm. There are some systems that allow traveling dreams to some degree and with great limitations. All of them are more bound by the rules than us. But in the Great Library Chronicle there is one system that has been recorded to have a greater freedom of it than us. The Seer. It is a very rare gift. People with this system can travel the furthest corners of the multiverse with their minds and gain knowledge unattainable even by the most enlightened people with the Sage systems. Meeting such a person is beyond lucky. It is written that it is more of a fate.*
"I see. That was not a mere accident. She was there to help me, huh?" Asked Noah thoughtfully.
*Most likely.* Said system. *The knowledge she imparted to you might be one of the greatest wisdoms of this world.*
Noah looked at the TV with a strange look without commenting.
"Anyway. Can you materialize already? It's kind of awkward to speak with that screen." Said Noah.
*Do wha….?* Said system and stopped mid word running the analyzing procedure that showed it a new functional added by the user himself.
*Oh you added a way for me to materia…..* System stopped again mid sentence.
Noah waited for it to continue with an expected look.
*User?*
"Yeah?"
*What the fuck is this?* Asked a huge plush bear sitting on the armchair nearby while turning its head toward Noah.
Noah could not hold it anymore and dropped to the floor in hysterical laughter.
*This…it was done with priority access higher than mine. I can't change this. Fuck." Muttered plush bear watching at his own toy paws, making Noah scream while rolling on the floor even louder.
*Very, very funny, user.* Said the plush bear standing up from the armchair dropping on its legs with a plop, gaining more laughter from Noah. *Forget it.* Said system and plush bear dropped softly on the floor totally motionless.
"Oh, come on. You look great, system. There is so much scary shit outside this house. Can I have something cute inside at least?" Said Noah rubbing away tears from his eyes while sitting on the floor leaning on the couch with his hand.
*Anyway, have you sealed all the nightmares?* asked the Plush Bear standing up from the floor.
"All who were still within my mind." Said Noah losing his merry mood.
*Meaning some escaped?*
"Looks like it. If the amount of horror stories we read correspond to the amount of nightmare imprints that you hid from me." Said Noah
*I…I did it for your own good…* Said system silently.
"So how many were there?"
*One for each horror story.*
"Then we are missing two for sure." Said Noah.
*They would have to be taken care of too.*
"Yeah, if we find them." Said Noah.
The picture on the TV screen changed and a desktop picture with folders in it appeared. Database folder opened enlarging to the whole screen and started to scroll very fast. Soon it stopped at one picture and a new window opened, enlarged to the whole screen above the folder, showing the record of the moment after he released the Nightmares.
One woman jumped away from the one that sat on top of Noah, while looking at her own hand that was bleeding from fingers. Then the second woman slit her own throat with the knife she took out of his shoulder, dropping dead on the ground. The recording ended.
"So they invaded that second woman that was left alive?"
*Unless.* Said system and recording winded back to the moment the girl screamed like mad and grabbed the knife. There was a maniacal smile on her face when she slit her throat.
"That reminds me. One of them was a nightmare of an undead." Said Noah looking at the smile of the woman that was about to slit her throat on the picture that was frozen at that moment.
"I have a baaad feeling about this. We may have brought a great disaster upon the real world."
*Speaking of real world,* said plush bear turning to Noah. *Where are we in the real world?*
"Hmmm?" Voiced Noah with a raised brow.
*The feeling I get through our connecting point to the real world is quite different from that forest we were back then.* Said system.
"That doesn't sound good either." Said Noah.
*You will have to go out though while I make a diagnostics and perform trouble shooting of all the system functions that may have been corrupted by the nightmares. We can't overlook the possibility of them taking advantage of some hole's in my functional while you are in the story read mode.* Said system.
"Alright. Let's go see what's waiting us outside."
********
Black glob of mana that was sitting in the dark corner of a small dim room lit only by the full moon shining inside through a small cracked window, suddenly started to move and enlarge taking the form of a person. And a few moments later the darkness disappeared leaving Noah standing on the wooden floor.
/That went longer than usual and felt kind of strange./ Said Noah in his head.
*Diagnostics show some minor abnormality. There seem to be a few corrupt codes in the transfer process code but they have no significant trouble except slowing it down. It will be corrected in the troubleshooting process. Please do not use the function until I make the necessary adjustments.* Said system.
/Ouukey. So what the hell is this place? A shed?/ Asked Noah looking around, seeing a bunch of tools hanging on the wall and shelf full of some objects that he could barely recognize in the darkness. It was a small space barely a few steps wide and a little bit more in length. Layers of dust and spider webs covered everything around him. The place looked totally abandoned.
Noah noticed what looked like a door in the darkness judging by the dim light seeping through the wide seams around it. And carefully stepped toward it, pushing it lightly with his hand.
The door opened with a loud obnoxious creak on its rusted hinges, letting in a bit more light from the brightly shining moon and a gust of chilly air that made him shiver.
Noah carefully came out of the shed taking notice of his minimap that did not show any presence around and breathed out on his hands to give them heat. His breath did not make any fog in the cold, yet white fog and the feeling of winter cold creeped around him. He looked around and saw what looked like a garden in a state of very long since last cared for with mist covering the ground
High grass, dry trees and weeds instead of flowers that twined and creeped around the earth in wave like patterns from the mist
While he checked his surrounding he saw a very dim light in the distance. Noah peered carefully at it at noticed the outlines of the big mansion covered in a white fumes of the fog.
With a loud nervous gulp he walked toward the light he saw in the distance while feeling himself as a moth beckoned to the fire, but waiting until morning was not an option now that the transfer to the mind realm function was undergoing service.
Noah slowly walked to the mansion, discerning its outlines more and more with every step, while being surprised by it's size and the intricacy of its design and patterns that could be still peeking at through the destruction brought upon them by the time of long period with no maintenance.
The mansion was in a bad shape. Had he not seen the light coming from one of it's windows he would have decided it was long since abandoned.
He walked around the building and came in front of the massive wooden front door with a picture like carving on it, that was indiscernible because of the shadows from a mansion covering it. All he could see were two large ring for knocking.
Noah nervously looked around rubbing his forearms while hugging himself with hands and stretched his hand to the ring.
Two loud knocks spread through the dark night, that seemed to him as gongs of a large bell in the silence surrounding him. It is at this moment he also noticed that there were no birds around. Had there been any they might have been startled by the sound. But there was not even a caw of a crow after the knocking. Total silence spread around him once again.
After some time he finally heard a sound from within the mansion and saw a dim light through, what looked like a small frozen glass window of red color at the top of the doors.
Noah stepped away from the door and looked at his minimap, seeing that it strangely did not show anything yet.
Then he heard the loud sound of a bolt being released, coming from the other side of the thick door and with a loud groan of a beast one of the doors started to open, bringing a small crack between the doors and letting out a dim ray of shuddering light of a candle.
Noah felt that someone was peering at him through the thin crack between the doors and small sign of an eye on his minimap has proved his feelings to be true, yet he still did not see a dot on his minimap.
Silence spread again with person gazing at him not uttering a sound.
"Good evening. I apologize for disturbing you at such a late hour. My Name is Noah. I have been lost and saw the light coming from your window so I decided to ask for a direction." Said Noah making a small step forward to come out of the the darkness into the shuddering light that dimly illuminated small part of threshold in front of the door.
"I do not mind if you don't open the door, could you please just point me in the right direction to the nearby settlement." He added after he still did not hear any sound from the other side of the door.
Another moment passed and with another loud roar of rusted hinges the small illuminated crack widened as if the maw of a beast.
"Come in." Said the woman's voice from inside the mansion after the door opened enough for him to pass through.
Noah gulped and looked around once more in a nervous gesture then breathed out and stepped inside the building and in to the weak light behind it's door.
Once he was around a dot appeared on his minimap immediately and the door closed shut behind him with a bolt slammed into place to lock it. Noah turned around looking at the back of the woman in a stylish dress with intricate pattern that hugged her wonderful waist. And long black and shiny silken hair that reached her waist covering her back.
She held a chandelier in one hand and held the massive metal bolt with another hand, pushing it back in place, then turning it to lock the door, before turning around to peer at him with her black as night pupils.
/System!/ Called Noah urgently in his head.
*Do not make any sudden moves.* Said system, bringing him a sense of deja vu of already being in a similar situation. *Smile and wave.*
/She has a red dot on minimap and gives the sense of a girl from the horror we read. The one called 'Spider and the gruesome murders' if I remember correctly./ Said Noah.
*Yes. She is most likely Arachna. And we are inside her den.*
/And we are very well, fucked if she sees us as weak and innocent …..prey./ Said Noah in his head trying to make a weak smile at the woman that gazed at him.