The other people... if I can call them that... were gazing at us.

Some of those in front of us had a human-like appearance, but other’s appearance felt more beast-like. A few of them even had an abstract appearance.

Normally that would make me shiver in fear, but right now they weren’t the source of my fear.

Because they felt nothing... insignificant... compared to this person who arrived in front of us in a blink of an eye. This person, too, had a human-like appearance. But it was difficult to distinguish whether this person was male or female.

This person had an amazingly captivating aura. I don’t really understand it all, but I don’t think I could even open my mouth right now.

The person stared at us, and I heard the telepathic voice.

{So these are the kids who got affected by [Dream and Fear], Vice Leader?}

One person among the group came forward and replied, {Yes our esteemed leader, these are the ones.}

{[Dream and Fear], you have got anything to say?}

Another person emerged from the group. Unlike the leader, it was easy to see the lady-like appearance.

I can see that she was shivering in fear.

{Yes Sir, I am very sorry for my incompetence.}, she said, while bowing her head. Heck, her head was about to touch the ground and her shivering can cause an earthquake!!, not literally, but you get the point, right.

{Well, nothing we can do about that now. Your punishment will be decided later. First, you need to rectify your mistakes. Do you know the procedure?}

{We need to kill them is what the guide says....}

What!! What the heck. Will we die here like this... No, this must be a dream, another dream, a horrible dream. I need to get awake.
And I punched myself hard. Normally that is not something I will ever do... even in a dream, but things have gotten so complicated recently that commonsense be damned.

And Naturally, my act got the attention of everyone surrounding us. I can’t see their expressions but they must have been surprised to say the least.
I turned my face and Chloe was surprised too and of course, she also heard about the killing bit. Is it real? Is it not a dream?

I held Chloe’s hand and whispered, ‘We need to run from here.’

Chloe turned her head in disapproval.

I gave it another thought and looked at her again.

Resigned to my decision, she nodded her head never the less.

The moment we tried to run, it felt like an invisible force had grasped us.

[Hey kids, you don’t need to look so worried.]

I looked around but couldn’t find the source of the sound. It seems that only me and my sister can listen to him.

[And don’t try to run either, it will make things harder for you. I will ensure that you two don’t die.]

I really can’t figure out whose voice it was, but what can we do about it, anyway?

I turned my face towards Chloe, and we nodded our face in mutual agreement.