Xen sat in the dimly lit room, eyes flicking over the scattered notes. The details of Eva Westbrook's disappearance haunted him. He couldn't understand why she had been erased from the records. Something about her case gnawed at his mind, pushing him toward a deeper truth.
"If the key to this case lies in the unseen, the unexplained," he thought, "perhaps I should explore the one thing that no one else has: their dreams."
Xen had read about lucid dreaming, a phenomenon where the dreamer gains control over their dreams. It was a concept explored in psychology and even in neuroscience. Studies showed that dreams were not only a reflection of our subconscious minds but could also be influenced by external stimuli—memories, emotions, or unresolved conflicts. But what if dreams weren't just random? What if they were a window to something far more disturbing?
He flipped through his notes again, this time focusing on the victims. Each one had reported strange dreams before disappearing, dreams that they refused to describe but that seemed to disturb them deeply.
"Dreams are a mirror to the unconscious mind," Xen mused, echoing a quote from the famous psychologist Carl Jung. "But what if they are more than just a reflection? What if they are a door?"
His thoughts were interrupted by the hum of the machine on the desk—a strange device that Eternis had given him. The Dream Frequency Disturbance Device. A tool that, as strange as it was, could affect the frequencies of brain waves associated with REM sleep, the phase where vivid dreaming occurred.
Xen had to test it. Theoretically, manipulating the frequency could allow him to enter another person's dream—becoming a sort of witness to their hidden fears or experiences.
He turned the device on, and the soft buzzing filled the room as it powered up. "If I can enter the dreams of the missing, I might find the truth they took with them."
He laid down on the couch, closing his eyes, focusing on the hum of the machine.
Neuroscientific insight: During REM sleep, the brain activity is almost as intense as when we're awake. The brain doesn't shut off at night; it reorganizes itself, consolidating memories, resolving emotions, and connecting seemingly unrelated ideas. By altering the dream frequency, Xen hoped to tap into the neural pathways that linked the victims' final moments to their dreamscapes.
He felt his body relax, his mind beginning to drift.
Suddenly, everything changed.
Xen opened his eyes to an unfamiliar landscape. He stood at the edge of a crumbling bridge, the sound of rushing water beneath him. The sky was an eerie shade of purple, the air heavy with the scent of decay. His heart pounded—this wasn't his mind's creation. It felt too real, too foreign.
A figure appeared in the distance, staggering toward him. It was a man, his face obscured by shadows, but there was something strangely familiar about his posture.
"This must be one of their dreams," Xen thought, his mind trying to remain steady as he moved toward the figure.
As he got closer, the man turned. Victor Lorne.
"You shouldn't be here," Victor whispered, his voice hollow.
Xen frowned. "Why? What are you hiding?"
Victor's eyes seemed vacant, but the words he spoke were chilling: "Dreams... They're not just illusions. They're the strings that tie our fates together. And the ones who control them... control us."
Suddenly, the landscape shifted violently. The crumbling bridge collapsed, and the dream began to unravel. Xen felt his body being torn between reality and the dreamworld. Panic surged. This was no ordinary dream—it was collapsing under the weight of something. But before he could gather his thoughts, a loud crack echoed through the air, and everything went black.
Xen awoke with a sharp breath, his body drenched in sweat. The device next to him was silent, its hum replaced by the deafening stillness of the room. His mind raced as he processed the brief encounter.
Victor's words echoed in his mind: "Dreams... they're not just illusions. They're the strings that tie our fates together."
This wasn't a random dream. It was a message. A warning.
"The boundaries between reality and dreams are thin," Xen realized. "What if these disappearances are the result of someone manipulating these dreams? What if their fates were tied to someone else's control?"
He thought back to the earlier cases. The missing people had each reported strange, distorted dreams before they disappeared. What if their experiences weren't just visions? What if the dreams were a way of locking them into an inescapable fate, a trap laid out by someone who had the power to control them?
Xen's thoughts shifted to the Dream Frequency Disturbance Device. It wasn't just a tool—it was a weapon. A way to manipulate the very fabric of dreams and reality. If someone could control the dreams of others, they could control their actions, their memories, even their lives.
And now, it was his only way forward.
"The next step," Xen thought, "is to understand the source of this manipulation. And to do that, I need to enter deeper. I need to trace the strings of fate back to their origin."
He took a deep breath, knowing that the dream world held both the answers and the dangers. But there was no turning back now. He had to unravel this nightmare.