[Story] Dreamvaders

[Sofox]

Eoin rested his arms and chin on his knees as he listened to the steady water trickling from the mini waterfall of the ornamental pond.
His gaze unfocused, eyelids half shut, still, quiet, he seemed lost in his own thoughts, but then with an intake of breath he let out a world weary sigh....

The sound of the glass sliding patio door being opened.
"Eoin?"
Eoin gradually turned his head, still with its blank expression, towards silhouette in the square of yellow light that stood out in the dusk.
The voice again. "You okay?"
"Yeah..."
"Well I think it's getting a little late. Might be time for beddy byes." The use of exaggerated childish expressions did not lift Eoin's mood, and instead, grated, though Eoin kept silent.
"Okay."
Eoin got up and walked forward, his father standing back from the door to let him enter and sliding the door back into place after him, punctuated with a click.
In the bright kitchen, Eoin's father was thinking of talking to Eoin a little more, but turned to see Eoin already leaving the room and soon heard the thumping of his feet on the stairs. Eoin was already an early teenager, maybe that was just the way he was getting? He knew that Eoin hadn't been getting on well in school, but nothing specific seemed to be the problem. He just seemed... listless.
In his room, Eoin changed, brushed his teeth and lay into bed.
Why was he just so melancholic?

That night, weird image flew through Eoin's head. Glimpses of his past, moments he'd failed, moments he'd not lived up to what he wanted to be, his worst moments, they all seemed so true. There was a strong moment of his teacher admonishing him for a truly terrible effort he'd done on a project, and another flash of when a friend of his had taken someone else to the Amusement Park instead of him without saying, a flash of that TV character despondently expressing the worthlessness of life seemingly echoing Eoin's own feelings, a moment when Dad had... wait a sec...?... Huh?
Suddenly, the images and moments seemed less real; flat, like they were hanging in the air in front of him.
Like snapped out of a trance, Eoin suddenly wondered why he'd been mindlessly absorbing all this as it came at him, why was he just accepting these images? Not questioning? Now he wondered why, what was causing them to be in his mind? Echoing around in a constant cycle? And in wondering he suddenly noticed that the images in front of them, while still moving, seemed to be flat, solid. He reached out, and touched it.
It felt... smooth, taut, but gave way like a canvas, almost greasy, image distorting ever so slightly as he pressed...
A screen?
Eoin walked to the side and the imagery of his memories stayed in place, a solid bright rectangle hanging in space. The screen was like a wall that he walked around and suddenly...
... he was in a room, the unmistakable whirling hum of a cinema projector and there in front of him stood all he needed to know.
A small gremlin, working in a darkened room, hastily moving back and forth, looking for and gathering film reels from various stacked cardboard boxes while a film projector in the centre of the room shot out a funnel of light towards the reverse side of a screen, the same image he'd seen, only mirrored. The gremlin then seemed in the process of getting the next reel to play.
All these memories and images... being projected right into his mind.
Without his permission, without until now, even his realisation. He opened his mouth. "What are you doing here?"
The gremlin was startled by the sudden loud voice, yelped, and dropped the reels. Suddenly he was running for the back of the room.
"Oh no," sneered Eoin and raced after him.
The back wall was smooth with no door, but in its centre a white slit made up three sides of a square, the remaining side on the right. Light seemed to glow from the slits, and Eoin felt it represented more then just part of the scenery, more like an intrusion into his mind.
The gremlin jumped onto a stack of boxes that was just under the square and threw his fingers into the left part of the slit and pulled it, peeling back the square causing more light to flood the room and getting ready to enter the gap. But Eoin grabbed him by the legs and pulled him away, the movement too sudden for the gremlin to find a grip on the edges of the opening. The flap swung back into position.
"What the heck are you doing?" Eoin yelled, pinning the gremlin to the floor by his arms. "You realise how much s**t I've been through? You're the reason aren't you? You're the f**king reason why I've been feeling like C**P!"
Like a cork suddenly popped out, rage Eoin didn't even know was there came rushing from his centre and bubbled up in him, "You can't do this to me," he shouted at the quivering form.
A thin vibrating beam of light shot through the room and remained pulsing, a eerie whine to go with it.
It seemed to come from nowhere, for no reason, though in Eoin's mind he knew, without looking, that this came from a high powered laser beam array he'd seen in a hi tech spy movie once. The beam in the movie was said to cut through anything, wood, metal, stone, instantly. Eoin often dreamed about a beam like this, slicing buildings, shooting a hole right through the planet and other boyish dreams. Now in this world, it had become as real as could be.
"My life! You're wrecking my whole life! Without my permission! Without even knowing!"
The rage was building up, the gremlin was panicking, yelling forth a stream of verbal sounds that Eoin did not understand and was moving and struggling against Eoin's firm grip as hard as he could. One of the gremlin's claws found it's way to Eoin's arm, and pierce it.
The stabbing pain, so sudden, so unexpected, was like a spark in a gas filled room.
Eoin screamed out in rage and lifted the gremlin off the floor and towards the beam.
The gremlin screamed, was frantic, struggled and grappled as he was thrust upwards towards that spear of light...
TTTTTTTTTTTTTSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.
The beam burned straight through his head, splitting it in half down to the neck as Eoin continued pushing up.
Blood splattered everywhere, and the gremlins body was suddenly still.
The beam cut off, and it seemed there was silence.
Just a blood speckled Eoin, and a blood splashed floor, holding up the lifeless body of a gremlin in a darkened room with a flickering projector, the noise of which gradually ebbed into the scene again.
All still, all silent, save for the projector. The clacking and the flickering.

Eoin turned his head away from the gremlin, looked at the reverse of the screen. The images didn't affect him anymore, they hadn't since he'd realised that he himself wasn't responsible for them and now he just didn't care about them. He gently laid the body of the gremlin down on top of a cardboard box of film reels, and slowly, remembered and noticed the partial square of light at the back of the room.
Walking over to it, he felt at the left edge and found it worked like a door or flap, as he expected.
He pulled it back revealing a white, bright, square tunnel, easy enough to crawl through.
He turned back to the room, gazing at it, and suddenly a glint appeared in his eye, and smirk pulled his face as an idea struck him.
Fluidly, gently, his body moved and changed shape. It became smaller, leaner in parts, colours shifted cleanly.
And there he was, the exact shape, colour, and appearance of the gremlin he'd just killed.
With another smirk, he turned, went down the tunnel, and let the flap close behind him.

The white tunnel had ample crawling space, but it didn't matter as soon it opened into...
...A huge white area, like the inside of a huge tower. Eoin could see the other side of the area. The tunnel he was in had a short drop down what looked like a balcony the width of a corridor, attached to the inside of the tower. Looking left and right, Eoin could see the balcony went all the way around across to the opposite side and back again to where he was.
Stepping onto the floor, and walking to the railing, Eoin could see countless other rings of balconies above and below him. Stacked over one another like stories of a building. He couldn't see the column end in either direction which should have felt a bit disorientating, though he felt he wasn't that far from the top.
In fact, it was the feel of the place that registered with him more then anything.
This place wasn't real, it was like a tangible dream, or idea, or concept. It's like it didn't exist in physical location, but was more a guiding thought, a mental structure, an established and followed method of doing things, that was real to everyone who used it but never actually existed in the tangible world.
And it was clear to see what this place was facilitating.
Every here and there, on this level or another, a gremlin hurried. There was a white, crystalline spiral structure in the middle of the area, with tendrils that reached out to some point in every row. Gremlins were using this structure to go between levels, and when they got to the level they wanted, they moved across the tendril to the balcony, then along the balcony corridor until they reached a certain square hole in the wall and climbed into it.
These square holes seemed to ring the walls of each level, a bit above the floor of the balcony and spaced equally apart. Looking behind himself, Eoin could see a square hole was what he'd just emerged from.
Waddling along in his gremlin body, Eoin reached the tendril that was for his level, climbed onto it, and waddled into the central spiral. Other gremlins were busying themselves here and there, and he could see one or two coming out of a hole, before hurrying to their next destination.
But Eoin wanted out. This whole structure seemed to connect to many important things, but it was still just an artificial mirage. Eoin hurried up the spiral, gasping though he didn't feel his lungs. I want to get out of here, he thought strongly, and has he hurried up, faster and faster, it felt like he was reaching the top of the structure, and the surface. As he hit it, a lightness filled his body, and he felt he was returning...

"Huh?"
The gremlin opened his eyes, back to reality and away from dreams, he looked the large, dark room, a circular chamber that faintly echoed of the imagined white column. It was lit only by a large glowing blue crystal hanging from the ceiling. Around him, he could see several concentric rings of gremlins, all sitting cross legged, eyes closed, facing the point in the floor directly below the the crystal. Each gremlin had their own place, same distance from each of their neighbours, and the gremlin who had just woken up was one of them.  

A great big, lumbering hulk seemed to be walking around. At that moment he had his back turned, but as he moved suddenly to the side, the gremlin caught him out of the corner of his eye.
"What are you doing awake?" he yelled, striding up the the gremlin who quivered in his presence.
"Oh please master please," the gremlin pleaded in reply, "it was terrible. The boy, he fought me."
"Fought you? How did he know you where there?"
"He knew, I don't know how... he..., he fought me, he fought me, he split me in half!"
"If he split you in half, you'd be braindead. Don't talk nonsense."
"Oh I know, I know, I'm sorry."
"Don't be sorry for me, tell me how you're going to fix it."
"I don't know, I can't, I can't, he'll hurt me, he'll hurt me more."
"Are you serious?"
"As serious as serious, please!"
The bulk put his big hand to his chin for a moment.
"Alright, I'll deal with this another way. Leave for now. Oh, and you're not getting paid for tonight."
"Oh thank you master, thank you."
Bowing constantly, the gremlin moved out of his place, backed away, and ran towards the exit.

He walked through the changing rooms, and while there rubbed himself down with a damp rag, and changed his clothes. Looking intently at his surroundings, he found his way to the sleeping quarters and lay on the bottom bunk of one of the sets of hammocks. Staring at the hammock above him, his thoughts wandered, moving back and forth like a tide, churning over in his mind over the things that had happened and remembered, before finally his thoughts were interrupted by the other gremlins bustling in to sleep. The clambering and muttering as each one went to their own hammock, in the commotion the gremlin finally found himself drifting off to sleep...

That evening, the gremlin entered the chamber once again. Other gremlins were milling about, the shift not starting yet, but the monstrosity was there too, talking to someone else, not a gremlin, who was casually leaning alongside the top of a chair with assured comfort.
"So I don't know whether he was exaggerating things or not. But I want to be sure, I took away his pay for the night for being discovered and he didn't even protest."
The guy gave a low whistle, "Now I know it's serious. So what's my role here?"
"I think you can guess Bast. Just check things out. If I have to refund this client I at least want to be able to say...Oh wait, here's that gremlin I told you about. Hey, Gorvine!"
The gremlin acted startled, like anyone cared that he'd been listening in, raced up to the two of them. "Yes Master!"
"Tell this guy what happened last night."
"Oh it was terrible. Terrible. He attacked me, he attacked me!"
"We've covered this... Look," signing he turned back to Bast, "just find out what the deal is with this guy. If he tries to fight you, well, you're well able, see if he's got any training; otherwise just find out everything that you can. If you're not detected, it should be easy to look through his mind, find out..."
"NO!"
Startled, both Bast and the bulk turned towards the gremlin.
"I mean... Gorvine would like to prove."
"Gorvine, you've nothing to prove to us. You're only ever meant to work projector, and besides, you're not getting your money."
"No, Gorvine must do it... for honour!"
At that point, both Bast and his companion doubled over with laughter.
"You? Honor? HA HA HA..." the laughter roared on. Finally the bulk straightened up. "Ahhhhhhhhh, I needed that."
"I don't think honour is something you'll ever have to worry about losing," intoned Bast. "Anyway, it looks like it's time, I'll go for the next dive in." He walked towards his place, a brightly coloured meditation mat on the frontmost circle of the chamber, sat down, closed his eyes, and his lips could be seen to move slowly.
"Please master..."
"Look, I know you want to get your own back on this guy, but you can't, you even said you were too afraid to meet him again, and it's probably for the best because if he's serious, he'd probably kick your butt. So just stick to the people you're meant to be with, and do the same damn thing we pay you to do every night, okay?"
The gremlin stayed silent. Apparently a silent gremlin wasn't worthy of the bulk's attention because he turned away and went "Mattiason, you're drunk. Didn't I tell you..." while shambling off.
The gremlin stood there a moment longer, before slowly walking off to his place, sitting down, and preparing for the dream jump.
He glanced briefly at Bast, who was already in a deep trance, before the gremlin closed his own eyes.
And the crystal above seemed to glow stronger, as if in response to the concentrated thoughts of all those in the room, and gently, it pulsed.

The alabaster column once again, the rings of the floors stretched up and down like a vertical tunnel with the crystalline structure in the middle.
The gremlin was practically moving right away, but a red glow caught his eye, and he noticed large red runes suddenly glowing on his right arm. Just looking at the runes, he could see in his mind's eye the level and rectangular opening he was meant to move towards. But after looking at it only a moment longer, he put it out of his mind and set off.
Climbing the central structure hurriedly, he skimped across the tendril and made a long arc around the side of the chamber. Reaching one of the openings, he jumped through and bolted down the passage. Towards the hatch, opening the hatch, a split second view of Bast illuminated by the blank projector while looking at the gremlin corpse with furrowed concentration; and Eoin charged.

A lucky hit as Bast was unprepared, a kneeslam while Bast was still reacting, but then Bast swiftly dodged a blow, and with a quick maneuver, threw Eoin back across the room.
In a flash, Eoin knew this wasn't an evenly matched fight. Bast was too skilled and experienced and once given the slightest opportunity, would end the fight once and for all.
Instinctively Eoin grabbed a film reel and threw it wide and fast. The reel bounced off the wall, then another wall, and another; ricocheting around the room like in a pinball machine leaving behind a thin strip of film. As the speed of bouncing increased, Bast noticed that no matter how the reel bounced, it was always in a circular direction around him, like being in the eye of a tornado. Looking through the strands of film that were building up in the air around him he could see Eoin, and just as Bast noticed that the end of the film strip was in Eoin's hand, Eoin pulled tight.
The film instantly collapsed towards Bast and pinned him, arms to his sides, legs together, a wayward strip had even managed to shut his mouth; standing there temporarily immobile. Eoin jumped forward and swung a screwdriver into the side of Bast's head.
Bast fell to the floor with a soft thud, and lay there motionless, as if there was still life in him but suspended. Whatever Eoin had done to the gremlin who had trespassed his mind, he was sure Bast was different.
Kneeling beside Bast, he looked at the still face, that he felt could come alive at any moment, and then turned his head so he could better look at the screwdriver coming out of it.
Inserting batteries into the handle of the screwdriver, and flipping a switch, Eoin felt confident that the electric currents would make it hard for Bast to revive himself. Then he took some sturdy rope and tied up Bast, around the film that was already tieing him up. Then he wrapped Bast in steel wire, and then in chains, in a form fitting cage of metal bars, and then putting that in a sarcophagus, and then filling the sarcophagus up with cement, then putting the sarcophagus in a solid metal safe with a complex combination lock and spinning the lock. And then pushing an upturned a couch against the front of the safe and felt that he was done.
Eoin took a few steps back and looked at the big metal safe that was the sum of his efforts. He took a few deep breaths, but they were the funny unrealistic sort of breaths you have in dreams, more a mimicry of breathing then actually inhaling air. Turning his head, he looked at the open entrance flap and then walked towards it.

"DAMMIT!" Bast yelled, and climbed up from his place.
The Bulk, who'd been leaning heavily back in a wooden chair by the side of the chamber, turned to face him. "What?"
"I'LL TELL YOU WHAT!" spitted Bast and pointed at a quiet gremlin meditating in the chamber, "HE interfered! He busted my cover. He made the dreamer AWARE of me."
The Bulk took a moment to consider this, then drew a large metal contraption from out of a bag by the chair, walked right over to the gremlin, leveled the device at his head and *PFFFT*! A metal bolt banged off the stone chamber floor... having gone right through the gremlins head. A few goblins were startled awake by this, but Bulk just continued to stare at the Gremlin's lifeless body as blood began to pool under the vacant unchanging expression. Bast slowly walked to Bast's side.
"Gotta do that," murmured Bulk, "gotta keep them in line. Once one of them goes rotten..." Bast opened his mouth ready to say something, but didn't get the chance. "So the Eoin guy? What's the deal him?"
"I... I... I don't think it's worth it. There's been too much stuff going on in his head with the gremlin screwup last night and now this. He's not going to figure out our entire operation but he's going to know something is up, it does make our job a lot harder."
Bulk's face seemed resigned on hearing this, "So we take him off the list, waste no more time with him. Refund the clients." Bulk shook his head
"I could give it another go, really make him believe that his life isn't worth living."
"The last person who 'gave it another go' with Eoin and is dead at your feet."
Bast recoiled and slightly insulted, "You're comparing me to HIM?"
"No, no of course not... you're our star here, our professional."
"Glad I'm appreciated."
"It's just... we've wasted too much time on this guy, for such a small job. Best we just cut our losses and leave it at that." He added under his breadth, "...even with a refund."
Bulk turned to and walked back to the desk; Bast, after a quick glance back down at the Gremlin body, followed him. "So what else for tonight?"
"Nothing, that was it."
"Right... just the Eoin job. Remind me, what else I have on after this."
"I might have another specialty job in before the end of the month."
"Any hints on what it's about?"
"Well, you might need to be a bit... persuasive?"
"So I'm to enter someone's dreams and change their minds about something? Sounds like a fun challenge."

Bast left the Inner Sanctum of the dreamers through the large wooden door. It was a double door, and higher then he was, and had been installed back when the place had been built originally as a place of religious worship. He pulled back the bolt, pulled the wooden door open, and stepped into the outer chamber.
He saw fanciful arches on each side leading down to the another set of wooden doors that made the front entrance. He walked down the corridor, but instead went through one of the chamber's side doors, down a set of winding passages, and out through a small door that opened into a gap between two buildings, which went into the side of another alley. Bast looked up to see a handful of stars above him, and after navigating the alleyways for a moment, found himself in an open square bathed in a milky moonlight. He could see the gaunt stone face of the front of the building he'd just been in at one end of the square, it's stone shadows all the sharper with the lighting. It almost seemed to recede back from the buildings that were beside it and its great wooden door stood immobile not seeming to have been opened in an age.
Otherwise, the square was pretty bright. Wooden building for the most part, various shops, decorative ornament in it's center. Less a square shape then a teardrop, with its narrow end tapering off into a busy road. Bast picked up his pace and strolled down the largely silent streets, a few people here and there suggesting that it wasn't entirely unusual for someone to be out at this time of night. Walking along, Bast found silence was calming and there were a few lights here and there in the windows. Bast could see mountains in the moonlight, very close on his right, and a slight distance off on his left. Also, there seemed to be a light burning up from behind the mountains to the left, and to his concern Bast could not figure out whether it signaled dawn or dusk. The streets to his left seemed to dive down sharply and he imagined the city on a step on the side of a valley. Almost without thinking Bast walked along the way eventually to up to a wooden building, partially on stilts (it seemed a very old style building) and up a set of outside steps. Reaching into his pocket he found a metal key that he slotted into one of the wooded doors and upon opening and entering his humble apartment, he collapsed on the bed and plunged into a deep sleep.


*knock* *knock* *knock* *knock* *knock*
Bast's eyes shot open. Looking around around erratically for a few moments, he then calmed for a moment, and gradually got up from the bed.
"Hey Bast, you in there?" A female voice.
He walked to the door. On the way he caught a glimpse of a great view out of his window, all the way down the building lined valley to the shining blue stream at the bottom. Daylight but dim with long shadows and golden sunlight. Evening? Morning? He patted himself down as if to check himself, and then opened the door.
"Hey, you're up!" An enthusiastic young girl greeted his eyes.
"Of course, anything for you."
"Awww," she smiled then noticed Bast's state, "wait, I'm sorry, did I wake you?"
"I should be up at this time anyway."
"I'm sorry, it's just after you canceled last night..."
"I'm sorry about that, the big boss wanted me for something and..."
"No it's okay, it's just... I just wanted to see you and maybe we could decide when to have our next date."
"Now."
"Now? Right now?"
"Maybe five minutes from now. Need a shower. Is that alright?"
"Well, okay!"
"Great."

The couple walked down the now busy main street. Various people went about their lives and there was a pleasant hubbub from some of the cafés. Bast strided forward confidently along through the citizens with his girlfriend hanging off his arm.
"It's fun to just suddenly set off like this."
"Well, I thought there was no point waiting. I bet you're wondering where we're going?"
"Yep!"
"Me too."
"What?"
"Well I figured we'd be a bit spontaneous, and I'm sure we'll find some nice place if we just do a bit of exploring time. Maybe down here!"
They turned left and were suddenly on a steep road downwards, a sudden right between two buildings and another left brought them to a parallel road, though in poor repair with plenty of loose stones and gravel.
"Wait." Bast said, and they stopped.
A chalkboard menu stood by the side of the road. Nearby a clean set of steps led down to a building's basement where a sign for a restaurant matched the sign the chalkboard.
"This looks like a nice place."
"Have you ever eaten here before?"
"No, have you?"
"No."
"Then let's head in," and so they did.

It was a good choice. A calm, pleasant atmosphere pervaded the place, the abundance of wood and low lighting made the mood perfect and the polite waiters and good menu was just added to the experience. They sat in a snug booth.
"Decided yet?"
"Hmmmm, the fish looks good."
"Might have that myself."
He caught her eye.
"What?"
"Nothing, just thinking how beautiful you look."
"Awww, I look terrible, you gave me no time to get ready. I'm just wearing what I had on this morning"
"Beautiful all the same."
"You're just pouring it on now."
"So you want me to stop?"
"I never said that.."
"In that case..."
They continued, and when the waiter came for their orders they apologised and asked for a bit more time deciding...

Bast was calm and assured, Mona talked about her family, like her brother who was working away, and her friends, some trouble at work, and soon the conversation turned to her favourite books.
Bast seemed to hang on her every word, and Mona felt like he was making all this about her, giving him all the attention he could, as if to him, she was the only girl in the world.

With a click, the door of Bast's apartment opened and he slipped in along with Mona. There was an offer of tea, and some chit chat, but an energy and attraction had built up over the meal, and in the privacy of Bast's apartment, it was released.

The morning sun streamed in through the window, waking Bast who took a moment to jerk awake to the reality of his surroundings, but gradually settled as the memories of the day came back to him. Mona was sleeping soundly, and Bast was keen not to wake her, but as he tried to move in the bed, her eyes shot open and her first words were:
"S**t, what time is it?"

Mona went off to work, well... to home to get dressed for work, and Bast suddenly sat there in the empty apartment. She had thanked him profusely for the night and they shared one more brief intimate moment before she her boss really needed her to be reliable this week and left.
It was a nice day, with bright sunshine streaming in through the window, and the bright stream sparkling in the sun, so Bast decided to go for a walk.

It was a long walk that lasted the whole day, down the main street with it's shops, businesses, and practices; down the valley to the more ramshackle buildings, wooden docks, crystal blue stream and the great view of the valley going both upstream and downstream; up the other side to the pine forests, hunting lodges and what seemed like a basic cable car system; upstream to where the valley split in two, many peaks seemed to dominate the skyline and of a great hubbub around the fishing area found just up one of the stream's tributaries; a nice small restaurant at the bridge where he had lunch; across the stream and back downstream to where the occasional building became more common, then commonplace, till he was back in the city and back onto main street with the great rocky peaks striking up above it. Invigorated and hungry, he had a meal in a cheap bar and headed to an early bed.

When he awoke the next morning he found he had a letter, apparently Bulk needed his help earlier than thought. Bast spent the time before then looking around the shops, chatting with some of the shopkeepers and catching a theatre production.

"Ah, good to see you," Bulk grunted and led the way to a small alcove that acted as sort of an office in the loosest sense possible.
"So, what's the job?"
"Hang on, I've got his name written down here somewhere..." and Bulk finally retrieved the sheaf of paper from the mess of paperwork that littered his desk.
"William Coulter. He's a consultant who's paid large amounts to make recommendations on which businesses a certain company deals with. Recently, the company he works for is looking to expand into another country and apparently, there are two big companies in that area already and and William's being asked which company they should partner with."
"And which company am I to make William recommend?"
"Actually, you're to make sure he chooses none of them, and the company does their entire expansion themselves."
"Why?"
"That is privileged client information... and I don't know."
"You just know that the client's paying us."
"It works for me."
There wasn't any sense in waiting around so Bast took his place on his meditation mat and when he found himself in the great white tower, he instinctively knew where to go.

"And the sheets need painting, and the grass: why do you let it grow so long." An elderly woman haranguing a man who was looking over a huge spread of paper on a large wooden table.
"I don't know."
"We never had fast growing grass in our day, it minded it's own business and grew where it wanted to grow. Why do you have such unruly grass?"
"I don't know."
"And it'll eat you out of house and home. Look, here it comes now." A wave of grass crashed through the window, flooding the room and sweeping the desk and documents away. "Agggh," the man in vain tried to grasp the documents, but the grass flowed and surged and he swum against it. The wave seemed to take him out of the house, and the wave overflowed the city so from horizon to horizon there was just a sea of grass.
"Help!" A boat passed by, wooden.
"Well you seem to be stuck and I'll be your rescuer."
"Great, help!"
"If you'll just sign this form..." The man took the paper and tried to lean it against the grass to write it on, but he couldn't. He tried to lean it against the boat hull, but that was unwieldy. He tried to lean it on himself, but that didn't work. No matter where he tried to put the paper he couldn't write on it.
"I can't let you on without completed the form, that would go against procedure."
"No, help!" The man panicked, every moment he felt he could feel the great depths below him, threatening to grab him, threatening to pull him down into it's deepest depths.
And then they did.
Bast looked on unseen. He didn't intervene. He didn't intervene for the whole dream.

"How did it go?" Bulk in his usual chair, looking over everyone.
"Fine, I did my job, he seems to think a lot differently now."
"That's it, just one session?"
"Yes.. you're right, I probably should throw in another session, to be sure"
"Tomorrow then."
Bast nodded and walked out.

"Oh, hey there."
Bast snapped out of his thoughts to see Mona standing there on the street, clearly having beeing going someplace. He'd been on his way back to his appartment when the greeting broke his thoughts.
"Oh hey," but he uncertainly.
"Are you okay?"
"...not really."
"Do you want to talk about it?"
"Actually... talking would be good."

The door unlocked with a click and they entered Bast's apartment.
"Tea?" he asked.
"Okay."
Bast went into his small kitchen and put the kettle on. As it heated up, his mind wandered, uneasily weighing up the thoughts in his mind. Returning with the tea, he was delighted when Mona took the initiative.
"Problem with the job?"
"How did you guess?"
"Well, in case you don't know, it's pretty common source of problems."
Bast smiled, "Well, yes. But in my case, it's not so much because the job is stressful."
"Then what?
"It's because it's illegal."
"What?"
"Very illegal, harming people for our own personal benefit, I'm basically a criminal."
Mona gaped, "You're serious?"
"Unfortunately, yes."
"But, I mean, what do you do?"
"Dream Jacking."
Mona frowned trying to think of where she'd heard the term before, Bast saved her the trouble and filled her in.
"Dream Jacking is entering someone's dreams, and manipulating or even just observing them. It takes special equipment and there's a procedure for connecting with the person in question, but there's this group I'm involved with..."
...and it all came out. Bulk's chance obtaining of the dream crystal (through murder among other things), Bulk's entire operation, the gremlins who did the basic dream manipulation and given basic amenities but were never allowed to leave the building, the small payments the Bulk got just for affecting someone's mood and the bigger payments for affecting major changes in thinking, the rare bit of dream spying (highly unreliable so not often useful), how Bulk would take money for any dream related job they could do, how Bast was usually there for the jobs no one else could do...
"I mean, take my most recent case, Eoin. His father had this big presentation going on and someone wanted it to go as badly as possible. So rather than go for the father directly for whatever reason, he pays for his son to commit suicide."
"Suicide?"
"Well, best case. The objective was to make the talk a failure, getting his son depressed enough to take his father's attention would have worked."
"That is so incredibly terrible, and horrific."
"Yes."
"How are you able to do this?"
"Well I was interested from an early age, practice a lot, keep trying to improve myself and have a bit of innate ability. Same reason anyone gets good at anything really."
"No I mean, how could you even justify what you're doing."
"It's pretty easy, you just say that you're not affecting people that much, only their dreams. People are affected by so many things in life already that influence them, try to change their decisions or what they think; you just tell yourself that if people can't stand up to that sort of thing happening in dreams too then it's their problem."
"And that's really something you go with?"
Bast paused, "Not anymore."
"But, what can we do about this? I mean, are they even laws against it?"
"Dream Manipulation is an old art, laws against them are practically antiquated, but still valid."
"So we can just go to the police with this, get them to shut the whole thing down?"
"Yes."
Mona paused, "And you want that to happen? Like now?"
"I think... it's time for the whole thing to end."

Heading to the police station wasn't a problem. The guard at the desk took them seriously and called his superior when he realised the scope of what he was being told. They were taken into a small room, it didn't feel like an interrogation (even though the room had probably been used for such purposes) as there were more than one guard asking questions and Bast was sitting beside Mona who for her part realised she had little to contribute and so sat and listened.
Bast poured it out. The business plan, the Bulk, the operation, it was almost too much information as were the guards looking for information to write a book or just secure a conviction, but everything he said was relevant or related to something that was and so he continued. It was late and it was getting later. Taking a toilet break, in which Mona decided to wait in reception, Bast noticed an unusually large number of guards at the entrance, with another one arriving saying "What's this about then?" Taking his toilet break, and returning to see another guard had arrived while another casually mentioned a "last minute operation", Bast quickly moved to the reception, lightly grabbed Mona's wrist and guided her outside and into the shadows.
Then he picked up pace, and as he ran it seemed his footfalls were echoing off the dark buildings of the still night.
Mona was keeping up to speed.
"Are we okay?"
"It's the temple, I need to finish something up there and before they raid it."
"Then why didn't you go there BEFORE going to the police."
"That's the benefit of forward thinking." Bast grimaced.
The usually busy streets seemed desolately quiet at such a late hour, and reaching the empty square then winding through the dark passageways almost by instinct, they reached the side door and Bast opened it.
"Are you coming?"
"You brought me with you."
"I was only getting you out of the the police station so they didn't come down hard on you when they found I was missing."
"Are you saying you don't want me in there?"
Bast responded by turning and running into the temple. She followed.

Just outside the chamber, Bast signaled her wait just to the side of the door, and went in himself.
There was a full session going on with rings of gremlins and the crystal glowed silently above. Bulk in his usual chair.
"Oh, what brings you around here."
Bast thought for a second, "I noticed some guards around the outside door, thought you'd appreciate the warning."
"What?" Instantly alert.
"I mean, it could be..." but the Bulk had already grabbed the contraption from his bag and made his way out of the chamber, down the corridor, and tried to look out a hatch into the square beyond.
By this time, Bast had already brought her into the chamber, and the second the Bulk was as far away as he could get, he pulled the large wooden doors closed.
Say what you will about the place, but it was well maintained, only when one of the door crashed into place did they make a sound and Bulk turned around to check it out.
"Bast?" he said, almost curiously. Then, "BAST!!!" Anger, he ran, somewhat slowly but with a lot of momentum. Seeing him race towards him, Bast swung the second door in front of him, and then reached for the sturdy metal bolt before pulling it into place.
CRACK!!!
The full force of the Bulk's impact into the door filled the room with the sound of breaking wood and the door bulged for a moment. The sound had awoken most of the gremlins, but Bast moved by them and into position on an empty meditation mat.
CRACK! Another, more pronounced, momentary bulge.
"BAST, I'LL KILL YOU, YOU HAVE NO IDEA!"
A more far off sound and crack, "THIS IS THE GUARDS. WE HAVE REASON TO BELIEVE ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES ARE ONGOING IN THIS PREMISE AND ARE AUTHORISED TO ENTER. PLEASE OPEN THE DOOR AND COMPLY WITH FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS."
"MURDER YOU!"
CRACK!!!!
"Don't worry Mona, I'll be okay," Bast said, and took a deep breath.

Instantly back at the crystalline structure, and there was little time to lose. Onto the structure, to the right floor, to the right square, down the passage, into the projector room, to the safe, removing the couch, entering in the combination, opening the safe, opening the sarcophagus, breaking through the cement and... the cage was empty.
For an instant, it was as if time was slow, and Eoin could see himself from outside himself, crouched by the open safe, while behind him was Bast, in the apex of a swing.
Eoin dived out of the way as Bast's swung axe sparked off the safe door but before he could rise again Bast already had his foot under him and launched him against the next wall. Before he could fall to the floor, Bast had slammed him down onto it, and before he could recover Bast had rolled him onto his back placed his arm against his throat and looked deadly into his eyes as his arm gradually strangled him.
This isn't real, thought Eoin, but his throat stung hard and he knew that whatever was possible to do to him here, Bast would know how to do it. He struggled and hit Bast with his arms but Bast didn't even seem to care, just glared at Eoin with a look that made it clear he never wanted Eoin to be part of his life again.
Eoin was getting confused, he couldn't think, but he had to. Escape. Find some way to...
...A small pile of pepper appeared in Eoin's hand, with a swing he threw the whole lot right at Bast's nose, some scattering into his eyes.
Bast recoiled, grasping at his face and the stinging, and Eoin pulled up his legs to his chest, and thrusted his feet outwards against Bast's chest.
Bast flew across the room, right towards the now open flap, and as he approached, it was as if the opening turned into a vacuum, sucking him through it and out into the world beyond. The flap closed, the remaining slit suddenly pulsed a great white light, before fading away to complete darkness.
Eoin sat there, breathing hard, throat stinging. Struggling, he got up and went to the wall where the slit had been and felt it. It was hard and smooth, no sign of anything. With a bit of focus, Eoin ripped a chunk of the surface of the wall away like it was plastic, but it just revealed a pattern of red bricks. Eoin could have tried breaking that down too, but somehow he felt that whatever he found if he did that, it wouldn't be a connection that great white tower, that connection seemed to have gone.
Eoin stepped back. The room seemed to get fuzzy, not his vision, but the room itself. The projector and boxes seemed to lose their form, the floor seemed to become hazy, and the room was fading away. Eoin felt tiredness, exhaustion and lay back on the soft remnants of the floor.
He breathed deeply, letting the world to swim around him. It felt like he was underwater, adrift, but gradually it he could feel his body rising towards the surface.
The surface got close, he could feel it as his face rose to meet it. Just has he broke the surface he opened his eyes... and saw a ceiling. It was the ceiling of his room, and looking around Eoin found himself in his bed, in his own room, with a drip hooked up to his arm.

"...were really worried about you."
Eoin was hardly listening. He'd been brought to the hospital when Dad had realised Eoin wasn't just sleeping in, but nothing at all seemed capable of waking him up. He'd been brought to the hospital but they couldn't figure out what was going on as Eoin lay dormant. Eventually his Dad had brought him back home and employed a nurse to look after him. Possibly because they felt he was more likely to wake up in familiar surroundings? Eoin was surprisingly uncurious about the reasoning.
He'd tried to tune most of it out. As far as he was concerned, he'd been away, he was now back, and he wanted to get on with things. But given the worry he'd put a lot of people through, he couldn't help feel a little guilty, like it was his fault he'd been away. Maybe he should buy his father a present as an apology. A coming home present?

It had been days and no further dream incursions. Eoin tried to gain information, about the dream invaders, about the golden valley; but dream manipulation was one of those nebulous subject it was hard to get concrete information on; and the valley was likely far away, possibly in a distant country. He wasn't that worried; with the police it was likely that entire dream operation had been close down, and hopefully the clients had been burned enough to not try it again, if not arrested outright from Bulk's records.
Sitting down once again near the ornamental pond, Eoin sighed. Not out of defeat from the world as before, but this time just from impatience with it. Somehow, it had come to him adversity was something that just came with the world and you had to be firm, even aggressive to get what you wanted. He'd felt more in control when he'd woken up and was determined to keep that feeling.
He thought about what he'd done on his dream escapades. Killed a gremlin, lied, hijacked Bast, deceived Mona, screwed with Bast's life, seduced his girlfriend and likely caused his death with Mona looking on traumatised.
When he looked at what he'd done and thought it through to it's natural conclusion, Eoin decided that he wasn't really a very nice person.

[Tapewolf]

Interesting.  It could have done with some preamble, though - a brief overview of whether it's a series or a self-contained short (I'm still not sure).  Saying whether it was set on Earth or somewhere else would have been handy as well.

At times I found the narrative a little confused, but I think at least some of that was deliberate.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

...

That's a heck of a story. I'm still not sure what to make of it.

The ending is... odd, and confusing. It feels, in a strange sort of way, somewhat unfinished. And yet, I can't see how it could be otherwise. Hrm.

[Sofox]

Hey Tape and Llearch, thank you very much for the feedback. As always when you write something you get very close to it and wonder a lot what other's reactions to it are going to be.

To answer your question Tape, it's a complete story. I was a bit nervous about how much to tell the reader about the story in advance. I wanted the reader to dive right in without preconceptions and take the story for what it is in their own eyes. I'll keep your suggestion in mind though because I may have misjudged it.
In terms of the narrative, you're right, it wasn't meant to be fully clear cut, but not needlessly confusing either.

Llearch, I've edited the ending a bit for clarity and flow; to more express the spirit of the story (which I should have done before release). I'm not going to fundamentally change it so in terms of your feelings and thoughts on the ending, I guess they'll be staying that way.

Thanks again you guys for reading.