Nightmares Vs Magic

My body felt heavy all of a sudden, my eyes were drooping, but it wasn't as dizzy of an effect like at the dollhouse where everything became black and white, like my vision was discolored. It felt like I was being lulled to sleep. And I thought to myself, 'Is there seriously a sleep spell being put on us? Or is it just that late?' But, one look at the others being affected, and I knew it was definitely a sleep spell. 

Joon suddenly grabbed my shoulder, he didn't look tired for some reason? But then he pointed to his ears, and I saw these rubber looking things. 

I have time to say this now because I'm writing this, hours after this whole incident, but basically, Joon is very good at sleight-of-hand apparently. Sneaking Siren-proof ear plugs out of the shelves, right in front of Sirens, could not have been easy. 

He took my head and plugged one of those rubber things in each ear, and then I helped him to put the rubber material in our friend's ear. They were almost on the brink of passing out. 

When the three were finally able to think straight after wearing the ear plugs, Dove looked around them, to the rooms they could see, and all the people in their peripherals. 

Their friends rubbed their eyes, the sleepiness now wearing off, meanwhile everyone else had all but passed out. 

Joon put a finger up to his lips, signaling all of them to keep quiet as he led the way, although still rather quickly.

"We need to get some stuff and go before someone realizes we aren't asleep." He whispered, carefully taking out one ear plug to test for any more lullabies. 

When it was completely silent, Dove and the visitor took out theirs, still absently rubbing eyes and holding back a yawn.

While the friend had their guidebook, Joon insisted on sneaking into the weapons room that Enzo had showed Dove earlier. He was curious about the bone whip but didn't grab it, likely knowing that it was still in the process of repair and didn't even dare touch, a rare kind of carefulness that Dove didn't expect. 

Then again, he does technically work in the labs, I guess outside of the labs, he seems like a goof, but back in his work area, he goes into responsible mode.... Hmm, then I wonder, why was Adan talking about wanting to be cautious with him? That argument from a while back....

It was quite unexpected, but there was a very neat and organized stockpile further in the weapons rooms. Of course, while some have tried holy water and prayers, or rituals and the like depending on culture, sometimes a gun can also finish the job..... sometimes....

Joon's cargo shorts that he typically wears came in handy, not just to give him easy access to his prosthetic in case he ever needs to adjust it, but also all the pockets, a pistol in each side pocket, along with just a couple magazines. 

"Don't judge me but I don't fully know how to shoot a gun, and I doubt the taser mechanism I built into my foot will affect zombies much." He whispered as he showed her the S&W bodyguard and Beretta models that he chose.

Dove blinked, standing beside him, and so did the friend, who tilted their head in confusion as they looked down at the foot of the prosthetic leg he was likely referring to. 

"... You built a taser into your prosthetic foot?" She asked mostly in disbelief.

"You say that like I'm not supposed to. It's called self-defense Dove, not everyone can just intimidate people with their resting bitch face like you, or creep others out like Annabelle."

Her mouth hung open, almost as if to say something, but then she closed it, deciding not to and simply looking to the wall he had led them towards that was deep into the room where thankfully no one was. The wall was disguised at first, but Joon put his finger to the wall and drew a rune that could not be easily recognized. Like a caricature password that undid the spell. 

They all left the room after Dove picked out one of the carbon material batons that she was once given before. Joon had said it was like the ones Enzo and Adan had given them before, only it wasn't a prototype. Very similar to the ones Enzo typically wields. Slight heavy at first, but she would get used to the weight and took a lighter one for their friend. 

Joon then quickly went into another room, almost screeching in surprise upon seeing Enzo. After quickly realizing the man was sitting in his chair, arms crossed as he was clearly leaning back and sleeping, the boy covered his mouth and tiptoed around him, reaching for one of the small booklets on his desk, filled with runes. He swiped that, and that's when they left.

They took the stairs in a hurry, trying to stay quiet and too scared to use the elevator lest the doors open and reveal the Siren gentlemen who would definitely stop them. 

Then came another issue that Dove soon realized just before they stepped outside into the dark.

"My car is an old one from the 1900s, it's got a loud engine, they'll hear us leave for sure."

"We'll be gone when they come to reach us anyway, what's the issue?"

The friend had written for her, frowning and tilting their head. 

Dove internally cringed, as she simply disliked making any noises in a quiet setting, and especially with seeing Liora having fallen asleep at the counter, not in an uncomfortable position thankfully, like she was prepared for it. That or she was already taking a nap by the time the Sirens were letting out their sleep spell, she even had a blanket over her shoulders already. 

"I can take care of it, just pop open the hood for me and give me a light." Joon said in a hushed tone as he gently pushed on their backs, urging them to move. 

Out in the parking lot, Dove quietly held the hood of her car open and flashed the light from her phone, not sure what to expect, as Joon didn't seem the type to have studied car engineering. 

Instead, however, the boy popped open the booklet he had swiped and put the pages underneath the light, scanning through the runes on the pages. He took out what looked like chalk, the same chalk that Enzo had, except it was honestly just chalk. He signaled for Dove to move her light, and found smooth, flat surfaces of different parts of the engine to draw on. 

The symbols looked like the typical element symbols; for some parts, he drew what looked like the symbol for women or the planet Venus on some parts, kept looking through the booklet, and added some symbols that were typically associated with boys or the planet Mars, then some symbols were drawn on the reinforcement parts in the car, meant to hold everything in place, a symbol of what would've been an 'A' but with more horizontal lines. 

After he finished, he stepped back and let the symbols do the work, dissipating and seeping into the surfaces of all the parts he drew on, no sound but it felt like there should've been a hissing noise, like sand falling. 

It didn't seem like he did anything, I know he did something because when I started the engines, it didn't rumble as loudly, or at all. I even noticed how much cleaner the entire engine system looked. Like some surfaces were replaced with a different type of metal or like the whole thing was changed. I actually didn't notice it at that moment; these observations were from after the whole fiasco. Joon had signaled for me to close the hood and then start the car.

"Old cars like yours are typically loud either because the engine is old, it was built poorly, or it wasn't made with sound dampening stuff. Yours looked pretty well built so the stuff was just old. I basically replaced the rusted bits." He was finally able to say a little louder now that Dove had begun driving. 

While buckling in, Dove had pulled out her phone, going to the conversation box with Annabelle and scrolled all way up to where the texts first started. Photos to indicate all the turns and of where her team was going, and where Dove would be following. She passed it to Joon sitting in shotgun, so that he could give the directions while she drove. 

"You replaced the stuff in my car? With what? What did those symbols do?"

"Those symbols I'm sure you saw, like the ones for the planets of Venus and Mars, can also be used in alchemy to represent copper and iron, or like the 'A' but with multiple lines being used for aluminium. Not in the usual books, but I've seen Adan and Enzo work on projects using that symbol." He smiled with glee as he patted one of his pockets, where he had put the palm-sized notebook. 

"Always wanted to work with alchemical symbols but they kept saying it was too early. Oh, turn left here, this campsite is far out. Right, friend?" He asked as he looked over his left shoulder to the teenager in the backseat, clutching the guidebook. 

It was dark, very dark, but he could still make out their facial expressions.

"By the way, there's no need to rush or anything, but is there like a new name you'd want? Or like a temporary name to call you by besides 'Friend'? But if you wanna stick with that, I'll just call you 'Buddy' instead."

The passenger in the backseat stayed silent, looking off somewhere, thinking and watching as the backgrounds around them change. 

They then looked back at Joon and pointed to their green eyes. 

"... Green? You just wanna be called Green for now?"

They nodded. 

The boy shrugged and turned back to the front, giving Dove more directions from her phone. 

"Annabelle also sent a text saying that if you can't see the road too well, just follow the sunflowers. She texted Vernon to secretly sprout some plant markings for you to follow, every 5 miles, and at every turn."

"Well, that makes sense, I had doubted that she could keep taking pictures of all the directions they went without Ursa noticing." Dove responded, holding back a small, soft smile at seeing the first sunflower and continuing on the road it pointed to. 

The petals were unlike that of a normal sunflower, she knew it was Vernon's because they had the same golden glow as his eyes, bright enough for Dove to see. 

Green was heard making some writing sounds in their backseat, before carefully reaching forward and passing the notebook for Joon to quickly read whilst helping Dove navigate. Joon took out his own phone, using the light to read the note.

"Who's Vernon? How did he do those?"

The message wrote, and right on cue at the end as Green pointed to the next sunflower that they passed. 

Joon shrugged again. 

"All I know is that when I do alchemy magic, there's like a magic system with symbols to memorize. As long as you know basic science and the periodic table, you can do alchemy. Vernon is like a nonviolent, peaceful warlock whose Patron is the literal mother nature herself, and she loves him a lot. If he wants a plant to grow in a certain spot, he just has to throw a seed there and make it happen, or mother nature does it for him. I tried to understand it once; it still doesn't make sense." He answered plainly. 

Green looked confused. Joon knew this, but he refused to elaborate further, and so the teenager sat in the backseat for the remainder of the ride, with no more questions. 

As they kept driving and the land changed from urban area to just grass, then to grass and trees, and eventually a forest area, that is when Green wrote again. They were becoming more unnerved the closer they got to the location, and it wasn't just because of the nightmares seen hidden in the occasional tall grass, swaying with the wind with their long, wide mouths hanging open. Dove would drive faster to pass them so that no one could pay them any mind. 

"Be careful when we get closer. Now that I think about it, the farm always has a scary vibe, and not just in the 'labor camp to exploit us' way. It was like there were things in the soil."

Dove took a quick glance in the rearview mirror, where she could see the message on the notebook. 

"How long have you been haunted?" She asked. "Or more specifically, how long have you been able to see the nightmare stuff that Joon and I can see?"

Joon read out the next message for Green as Dove switched her full attention back to the dark road, the directions leading her to a dirt road. It was going to get a little bumpy from here. It was actually a good thing that Green was needing time to write currently, because Dove needed moments to pay attention to the road.

"Honestly, I can't tell. Ever since I was born, sometimes I always felt like I could see things from the corners of my eyes. I'd look in the corner's direction, and there'd be nothing, and then sometimes at night, I'd feel the need to repeatedly look over my shoulder. If I looked quick enough, I would catch glimpses of a figure far behind me, and then blink and there was nothing. I was always told it was my imagination, or that I was paranoid. Sometimes when my mom got frustrated, she would scream about how I was just abnormal, or just stupid."

"Well damn, your mom sounds really shitty!" Joon said after he finished reading it out loud. 

"Oh and, see those glowing flowers over there? They're next to a tall phone pole connecting a bunch of power lines. Turn left when you get to the wooden post. There's gonna be a silhouette of a huge sign saying a camp name, but Annabelle said not to stop, and keep going a little further." He added. 

Dove hummed as a quick sign that she understood. 

"And Green? So, you've only caught glimpses of the ones haunting you throughout your life? What about right now?" She asked as she carefully turned right around the powerline post, seeing another dirt road that was near blending into the ground.  

"Because I can assure you, you're not paranoid or mentally ill. This'll sound weird but nightmares don't go after the mentally ill, or even the paranoid, not unless those types of people had something they wanted."

"Yeah, these things are like goblins with standards. To them, if you already scare yourself with your own mind, then it's too boring for them to bother you, because you're already doing their job." Joon added, turning to rest his left arm over the top of his seat so that he could see Green more easily. 

Green took a pause at writing as they listened, taking in the new knowledge, before crossing something out and then writing a new sentence. 

"In that case, I started them seeing them during April this year. I saw these creatures with human shaped heads but with long sharp teeth, and pale white skin, crawling on all fours on these limps that were like sticks. Under my bed was this head with wide beady eyes and a wide bloody mouth, always looked like it was trying to crawl towards me using it's jaw, making these biting movements. I screamed a lot and kept trying to tell my parents. Final nail in the coffin. They got sick of me, paid some people to kidnap me. And they took me to this place."

As if on cue, at the end of the now near-invisible dirt road, just like Annabelle's texts told, there was the silhouette of a large sign setup right in front. Joon flipped his phone's flashlight, shining it up at the sign. 

"Welcome to Hillside Correctional Camp!" For teenagers in need of behavioral corrections or life changing lessons!"

The sign said, with a big, obnoxious smile at the end, and a drawing of a bunch of stick figures holding hands. 'Oh joy' I thought, worried we were about to enter a territory with people who practically stitched their smiles permanently, and would get confused when no one would let them help stitch other people's smiles on."

"See the little trails of sunflowers?" Joon pointed to a lightly glowing trail that led past the large sign, down the path further into the campgrounds. 

"Turn right when you see a cabin, that's the registration office apparently. It's empty... It's a front."

"Couldn't expect any less from a front of a labor camp."

Dove gripped the steering wheel as she frowned, tilting her head and elevating one ear up to listen better to a strange noise echoing in the distance. It was coming from the direction further into the grounds. Too bad she couldn't see much.

"Are zombies supposed to be making these shrieking noises? Because I think I'm hearing shrieking noises. I know most games aren't accurate, but biologically speaking, they should only be making groaning noises due to their rotting vocal cords." Joon asked, turning around to look at Green. 

They shrugged. 

"they looked like zombies. idk what else they could've been."

Joon turned to look at Dove, raising an eyebrow. She also shrugged. 

Then, they both heard a ding from her phone. Joon tapped her phone awake and read the new message. His eyes grew wide, but it was a reaction suggesting a mild inconvenience.

"... So Annabelle just answered our question." He said in comedic timing.

The other two waited for him to continue. After a beat, Joon looked up.

"She heard Bence say that the things at the farm are actually Revenants, and that they are less busy trying to put them back in the ground so much as they are trying to stop them from killing the camp counselors..." 

Dove, now also with wide eyes, slowly turns to ask Green, if they perhaps knew what a Revenant was. The mute friend in the backseat, just as surprised, responds merely with a body language that very clearly suggests, 

'How was I supposed to know the difference between a Revenant and a zombie!?'

Despite the surprise, confusion, and realization that they came underprepared, Dove sighed, and continued driving. Joon filled the silence to ease any worries. 

"Okay, we brought a gun, and a couple weapons meant for zombies, we got a bunch of vengeful skeleton things instead. But that's fine! Dove here might be able to figure something out, we'll still figure out how to find your friends, and all you need to worry about is flipping through the pages on instructions for Revenants! you got all that Green?"

They nodded even though Joon wasn't looking, but at that point, the chemistry between all of them was familiar enough. 

"What makes you think I'll figure something out?!" Dove asked, looking at him, bewildered. 

He shrugged and threw his hands up in surrender. 

"You're the detective!" 

"Intern! Who goes on field cases in place of the actual detective! I'm not even certified in anything!"

"Well, he's knocked out back at the office! So, it's your time to shine!"

Green put their notebook down and reached into their bag, pulling out the guidebook, and went to studying while Dove tried her best to keep the ride smooth despite the lack of road.

"Oh! Wait a second! Stop driving. Vernon sent a selfie."

"... What?"

He turned the phone screen to her, showing a picture of Vernon, his usual soft and stoic face, hair covering his eyes like usual. Wouldn't be easy to face him often if he didn't cover his eyes, especially when he has suns for eyes. 

There was his face in the foreground, and in the background, floating skeletons, some standing on the ground, wearing those rotting t-shirts and jeans, an outfit similar to what Green wore when they arrived at the agency. In the middle ground, what Vernon had taken a selfie with, appeared to be this, large silhouette made of hay, but it looked like it had arms and a head, maybe legs but it was hard to tell. There were multiple different farming tools sticking out of its backside. 

The picture was almost as blurry as those traditional photos that almost caught sight of big foot. Dove could feel Green's worried eyes widen in, filling with dread as they stared at the creature which very disturbingly matched the description of the kratts from the book. 

"... Welp. Childhood ruined. I'll never be able to hear 'Wild Kratts' or 'Kratt brothers' the same again, now that I know about these kratts." Joon soon with a flat stare. 

Dove sighed. She found the empty cabin that Joon had told of earlier and parked in front, turning off her engine.

The door of the cabin appeared to have almost been ripped off its hinges but still hung on by the bottom hinge, and the window smashed, based on the bits of glints of light or sparkles they could see in the dark square space. The divot marks in the ground, likely tire marks show that Ursa, Bence, and the others drove past the cabin, following a dirt trail also embedded into the ground, in between the tire marks. 

Joon shined his light over the marks in the ground.

It looked like someone was dragged. If I remember correctly enough, Revenants are close to creatures of vengeance or unfinished business. Like ghosts but more violent and physical.

She stepped out of the car, pocketing her keys, and asked Joon for her phone back. He carefully tossed it to her, and she turned to the cabin, beginning to walk inside. 

Green nudged Joon, and nodded towards her. 

"Green and I want to know what you're doing?" Joon spoke for them as he raised his hands, pointing to the tire tracks and dirt trail. 

"Our guys and the necromancy cryptic mess is still further ahead!"

She wordlessly turned to give them both a sign to keep quiet and continued walking inside, shining her light through the threshold. 

The office was a mess, it was obvious there was a fight when I saw a bunch of random objects in places where they would never be, like a pen in the corner, scattered papers on the floor, and lots of other office supplies in or around the doorway. I crafted the scene in my head.

It began when person A appeared in the door, likely someone very unexpected and very unwanted. so person B, sitting somewhere in the middle of the room, became startled and without thinking, threw whatever they could at person A. 

She walked further into the room, noticing the office chair behind the desk, knocked over and laying on its side. Green and Joon followed after her, 

Person B stood up in either shock or fear.

The desk had all sorts of drawers opened, some were ajar, some taken completely out, as evidenced by the one drawer she noticed in the other corner next to the door. Continuing to look at the desk more, Dove pictured person B, seeing person A at the door. 

They stood up, knocking their chair off its wheels and throwing whatever it could find at them. 

The drawers were all opened, indicating person B had time, why? She had no clues for that yet, but she did see how the person got dragged.

There were claw marks on the desk, and a note I should've added earlier, there were chairs that used to be sat in front of the desk but were pushed apart. Person B threw all sorts of things and scattered paper everywhere, but a space of the desk was completely clean, looking down at the floor in front of the desk, were some pens and other small items that fell to the floor. Adding the clue about the door being torn off only one of its hinges, Person A went to the desk, picked up person B somewhere by the upper part of their body, dragged them over the desk, and out the door. 

Person B kept putting up a fight, grabbing onto the upper part of the door as they were taken out of the office. This indicates that either Person A was significantly tall, or floated, like a revenant that used to be a camper, and was looking for Person B to drag out. If it were a normal size person, then if they were dragging person B out, person B would've grabbed the doorknob, even if thrown over person A's shoulder. Plus, the office door was a half screen, and there were holes made into the top corner of it. 

Joon advised Green to not move or touch anything before they stepped in the room after her with him using his light to show where to step, as he did not want to interrupt her thought process, or tamper with any possible evidence in the room while they tried to help her. 

Green gently tapped Dove's shoulder and pointed to a small cabinet in the desk after getting her attention. It was the only one not opened, and it had a lock on it. 

Crouching down, Dove took out her baton that was pocket-size for a moment, but upon being taken out, it grew to normal size in her hand. 

Green watched in awe as the tip of Dove's baton turned into something similar to a skeleton key, and she stuck it inside the locked cabinet. 

Inside were photos of campers, printed out on paper, with white spaces in between as they were cut, looking almost similar to polaroid photographs. Their names and ages were all written at the white empty spaces at the bottom. 

Green snatched one out of Dove's hand and Joon called out to them in a slight scolding tone. they didn't quite hear him, only staring at the photo, clutching it in both hands, and feeling tense. 

The photo was one of a girl, still dressed in her normal clothes, sitting on a long bench next to a row of other kids also wearing regular clothes. One of them looked similar to Green, what with the vibrant, green irises. They were all frowning or giving blank, lost stares to the camera. The only ones smiling in the photo were what could be assumed were two camp counselors, standing behind the campers. 

The date was marked, June 1st, for this year. I'm guessing even in the dark, Green could see the picture clear as day.

Joon and Dove gave them a quizzical look, Dove went back to searching the cabinet. She gathered all the photos inside and found a set of keys inside. Before she could ask Green if they knew what the key was for, a creaking sound was heard at the door. 

Dove stood back up as all three turned their heads towards the sound and saw the dark figure at the door. 

Imagine the skeleton of an 18yr old, the usual slouch, the height from puberty. Now imagine that skeleton in clothes that has been withered. Covered in dirt and torn up roots because it crawled out of the ground, some holes here and there, eaten by certain bugs that are still crawling all over the skeleton, because the skeleton still has some flesh on them. There were some threads of hair too, a pitiful amount really. 

Were it not for some parts of it being dirty from all the dirt, I would describe the bones as the typical milk white. Its jaw hangs open due to the lack of muscle to hold it. Still, that didn't stop the skeleton from raising a nimble looking, arm that is nothing but bone, and pointing its shaking finger over at Green. I could tell it was looking right at them, despite the lack of eyes.

.

At the center campsite, where there used to be plowed fields, sheds, and lots of fences with farming tools scattered about, it was all replaced with revenants and a few wandering kratts. 

The plowed fields, Vernon had used them to grow large roots from the ground, making a sort of cage to put around the workers at the camp, or, farm really. He had to grow lots of large roots in order to make multiple protective and sturdy cages, as all the camp counselors, farmers, and other people running the place, would not stop running and screaming. The same went for some of the campers. He also had to grow lots of glow-in-the-dark mushrooms to light up the place.

The reason Vernon had to put all of them in cages is because the revenants and kratts were after them, and in order for Bence to deal with the revenants and kratts, he needed Vernon to separate them from the humans. Ursa and Annabelle were left in charge of scouting the area for any strays, be it other supernaturals or humans. There were trees, other hiding areas such as the sleeping quarters for the kids, and a suspicious amount of hiking trails. 

Ursa gave Annabelle very clear instructions that they are essentially hunting down any runaways to bring back alive and are not to do more harm until further notice. Annabelle simply ran off, not even bothering to grab a rifle that Ursa was offering for extra protection. The native American simply shrugged, if the girl wanted to fight whatever animal she stumbled upon, that's her choice. She also knew Annabelle already has some weapons on her anyway.