Dream Interpreter AI™

Haunting Shadows: A Nightmare of Betrayal and Fear

Was there ever an experience that ended up leaking into your subconsciousness like a broken pipe? Something so strong that nothing could stop it? And any attempt to take back control was ripped from your hands? Well, despite the soothing rub from Georgina that plunged me deep into dreamland… that’s exactly what happened. It’s anyone’s guess how something so gentle and relaxing couldn’t stave off something terrible like what I dreamed of that night. I felt as though I was falling through the air, only to be stopped by a hard impact. My eyes widened as I slowly realized where my dream landed me. The floor and ceiling had been covered with black and white tiles, forming a checkerboard pattern, separated and bookended by blank, slate gray walls. I looked up to find a big, long chalkboard returning my gaze, hanging from a dark green wall, and framed on both sides by menacing statues. I struggled to move when it hit me: I was in one of the specially designed chairs the Teen Titans were in. It was made of wood, with its arms and back molded into the shape of an abstract lion, and its legs as coils, which immediately wrapped themselves around my ankles. My arms and hands were atop those of the abstract lion, right down to the hidden cuffs and round, balled fist at the end. I was locked in pretty tight. But I wasn’t a superhero. My powers were minimal compared to those of Starfire or Raven; why was I in this predicament? Suddenly, the chalkboard sprang to life, as white, chalk-like outlines began to appear as if the board knew how to draw upon itself. In a matter of seconds, a face started to take form, but not that of Mad Mod, who I expected; instead… it was someone familiar. Someone equally as evil, if not unhinged. I tried to close my eyes and take back control, when two tiny wooden hands, connected to the top of the chair, grabbed onto my eyelids and forced them open. His lips moved on the chalkboard, the face being more than just a drawing. “Now how do you expect to learn anything if you won’t sit still and listen?” “Reilly!” I growled, the ambient light in the room reflecting off my gritted teeth. “You won’t get away with haunting my every dream like this!” “Oh, tut, tut, Cassidy!” His chalkboard caricature smiled evilly. “You and your friends escaped before we got started, but maybe we should head back to basics for you.” The sides of my lips pulled back like a curtain, revealing my rear teeth, almost like a victim of indoctrination looking at another, unrelated indoctrinator using children to draw out the hero of the story. “We are not lab rats, Reilly!! You can’t keep torturing us like this!!” “Oh, you think I’m haunting everybody?” He chuckled slyly. “No. Just you…” If my eyes hadn’t already been forced open, they would have widened even further. “Whaaat?!” “You see, your friends have been lying to you. They do blame you for everything you did. The kidnapping, the vortex…” My scowl morphed into a frown of guilt, but it only lasted for a brief second, as I quickly remembered that my friends had conviction in their voices when they told me it wasn’t my fault that my powers unleashed the monster. “No!” I shot back, refusing to let him get the upper hand. “They’re not! And that is the real fact! You don’t know them!” His outline began to move back and forth across the chalkboard, giving the impression that he was pacing. “Oh, Cassidy, have you forgotten that they kept the vortex and your coma a secret, until a month and a quarter after the fact?” I threw it back at him, growling like a Thunderbird’s engine being revved. “I wasn’t in the right mindset back then! My friends were right about my sensibilities then just like they are now!!” “Are they now?” He raised his brows, almost as though he was trying to throw me into doubt, before a grin, almost as though mi ex novio was taunting me into climbing the rock wall while I had vertigo, flitted across his face. “Maybe I could shed some light on the matter.” As if the phenomenon was at his beck and call, a pink, purple, black, and white vortex mysteriously appeared in the center of the room, one that would have made my eight friends break the sound barrier with their screams of fear. Strangely, however, the sounds of swirling air were absent, as virtual manifestations of Jeremie, Odd, Ulrich, Yumi, Aelita, Patrick, and Kaitlyn watched the vortex in awe. “My friends…” I whispered, unable to reach out before my voice gradually rose into a shout. “Aelita! Jeremie! Odd! Yumi! Ulrich! Patrick! Kaitlyn!” A new voice, one that was shrill, and high-pitched, entered the void. “This is your fault!” Even though I was practically alone, and the only one who “kept me company” was a chalkboard drawing, my chair mysteriously spun around to face Sister. “Sister!” I cried out. “What do you mean? This is so confusing!” “You heard me!” Sister bellowed out, her eyes metaphorically cutting slits into my body. “It’s all your fault! You’re the one who unleashed this mess on us! Thanks to you, my dear Ulrich and I ended up sedated by hospital security, while trying to save your worthless life!” “B-but…” Then, another entered the void; this time, it was none other than Ulrich. Strangely, just like Sissi, he also seemed quite upset. “If it hadn’t been for you,” he growled at me, folding his arms, “Yumi and I wouldn’t have been held down by hospital security, either, just because you wouldn’t wake up, and we would have saved Lyoko! But nooooo! You had to go and freeze as though a Blok shot an ice ray at you! I can’t believe you think you’re a Lyoko Warrior!” “U-Ulrich…” My words came out as though he had sucker-punched me instead. And it was only about to get worse. The next one to appear was his beloved novia, Yumi. Like the two that came before her, her expression wasn’t nice in the slightest. As she balled her hands into fists, I watched her scowl at me. “You go ahead and freeze up, okay?!” Her words were like thorns that pricked every inch of my body. “We’ll just stay over here and fight like you should be doing!! After all, that’s all you’re good for, isn’t it?! We take out XANA, while you sit back, and crumble into a million pieces! And it’s all because you had to go and fall into the Digital Sea, that one time! Don’t you think you would know not to shove a MegaTank when you’re that close to a pit?! Maybe we should have left you permanently virtualized!!” My words died in my throat as the chair released my eyelids. Freed from that, I turned my head, only to see Odd, mi novio, with his back turned. To my slight relief, he said nothing… at least at first. But even that didn’t last long, and his seething words began to dice what was left of my constitution. “You know something, Cat Girl? I’ve been counting every single time I’ve had to save your ungrateful self, and I don’t think I’ve ever had to count that high! I don’t even think I have as many laser arrows as that! And to think, I actually loved you! Maybe it wasn’t William who was unfaithful… we should’ve left you alone in front of the administration building, with everyone just pointing and laughing at you! Yeah! That’s what you deserved!” “Un-ungrateful? U-unfaithful…?” I shook my head. Where did he get those words from? “Maybe you shouldn’t have become my roommate!” The next voice appeared to be Aelita, who looked even angrier than she had when Jeremie tried to tell her that her father was nowhere to be found on Lyoko. “Then I might’ve actually gotten some peace and quiet every night! I wouldn’t have had to deal with your stupid, inane visions! Always ‘oh, Aelita, you’re going to get captured by the Schyphozoa,’ or ‘oh, Aelita, XANA has it in for you,’ or even my favorite, ‘oh, Aelita, XANA’s going to pretend to be Franz Hopper, your father!’ Maybe I should have let the Schyphozoa take my memory! Then I wouldn’t have had to deal with YOU!!” “B-bu-but, Aelita—” “Don’t you dare talk to her!” Walking up beside her, Jeremie wore a scowl, almost mirroring the one that he did when we fought. “You have absolutely no right to address my beautiful princess!! That right was taken away from you when you told the entire world OUR SECRET!! We trusted you, Cassidy René McGuire! All eight of us did!! And you let all of us down!! Thanks to you, the whitecoats were able to localize us, and kidnap us!! Do you know what this means?! Do you have any idea what this all means?! We’re going to launch a Return to the Past, and this time, you will NEVER enter our timeline, EVER AGAIN!!!!” My head immediately jerked to the left, as I gazed into the dark abyss that the others had mysteriously walked in through. No sooner had Jeremie finished his sentence, then the void brightened up, revealing what looked to be the lab from the factory. It looked nearly identical, right down to the elevator door. Even the holomap bowl was alive with a map of all five sectors. However, the most interesting part was the supercomputer itself, and who appeared to be sitting in front of it. It was a bearded man in a white lab coat, whom I recognized right away. “Franz! Oh, thank goodness. You’ve gotta find a way to—” Before I could finish my plea for help, he swiveled the motorized chair around so he could face me, with an angry look on his face, that was easy to spot, despite his glasses, and the fact that his facial hair had swallowed most of the lower half of his face. “Silence!” he bellowed, his voice reminding me of a great lion. “I believe the only thing I’ll be doing, is taking care of the Return to the Past. You, my dear, have been a thorn in our side, since you helped Jeremie discover the supercomputer. They’ve led you to believe that you’ve been a great help, with your so-called psychic abilities, and how you’ve saved them from their own self-created problems… but we all know better. Nothing has been the same ever since your arrival. Many things have changed, and none have done so for the better. Even my dear angel has had to pay the ultimate price, all because you had disappeared into the Celestial Dome when your help was needed most! You, yes you, are fortunate that I happened to be there, to revive her, before even more terrible things befell her, and Lyoko, all because YOU FREED XANA!!” A mixture of surprise, fear, disgust, upset, and disappointment kept my face held taut, as Aelita’s father whirled himself back around to face the supercomputer, unleashing his hands upon its keyboard. “And now we’re going to fix the problem: YOU! We’re going to make sure that you never have the chance to disgrace us with your presence EVER AGAIN!!” As he continued to type, I heard Jeremie’s angry words from behind my chair: “So goodbye, and good riddance!” At that moment, all of the nightmare characters slowly began to approach me, circling around me, coming ever closer. Within their eyes I could see terror, as if they truly meant business, and wanted nothing more than to do away with me, figuring it would erase all of their problems. “N-no… pl-please… D-don’t…” As my “friends” neared ever closer, Reilly’s chalk likeness disappeared from the chalkboard, before a chalk sketch of the Return to the Past program, looking exactly like it did on the supercomputer, appeared in his place, as a timer began to count down to October 9th, 2004. My eyes widened as I read this horrifying date: it was the day I first met Jeremie! From the way things appeared, they indeed were going to erase me from their timeline permanently, by changing the sequences of events that happened that day, so I never met the blond genius I’ve come to know, respect, and adore. Same OC (15 years and 5 months female)