Chapter 133 “The Strange Shadow”
To be fair, Duncan wasn’t an expert in the supernatural field and lacked knowledge of the subjects related to dreams, but he still vaguely judged that the scenery presented on this street shouldn’t be normal inside Shirley’s mind.
Why? Because the ashes that murmured for help gave him a wonderful sense of déjà vu of what he saw in the factory and those piles of ashes hidden behind the veiled curtain.
Of course, the ashes in the factory did not call out for help – the ashes gave him a more intuitive and stronger signal, allowing him to see firsthand the “echoes” of the fire eleven years ago.
Subconsciously, Duncan believes that the ashes here in Shirley’s dream and the factory are somehow connected.
Raising his head, he scanned the surrounding environment covered by the fire’s dim red light. There were countless piles of ashes strewn across various places, falling sparks, dust debris, and imprinted shadows of those who once walked these supposed streets, a tragic scene.
“You were only six years old back then. No matter how many things you subconsciously observed, it probably wasn’t enough to support such a huge dream. On top of that, I do not believe such a young mind can create illusions like these weird ashes calling for help.” Duncan said softly, his voice calming the girl’s unsettled nerves.
To be honest, the ghostly captain still gave a frightening and intimidating impression to Shirley, but in this nightmare, that’s growing increasingly freakier by the second, the man was the only reassurance she had to rely upon.
“Let’s keep going forward and see where the scope of this dream lies.”
Shirley was hesitant to agree but promptly dragged Dog along after noticing the ghost captain already moving forward.
Amidst the murmuring cries for help from the countless piles of ashes, the two of them and a dog continued to walk through the embering streets. Duncan made sure to take in every change he noticed, but to his surprise, the streets were unusually safe and calm aside from the ominous vibe.
Then Duncan suddenly jerked to a halt, his brows furrowing slightly at realizing something.
“Mr. Duncan?” Shirley cast a curious gaze, “Did you find anything again?”
“…… How far have we been walking from the ‘point of origin’?” Duncan looked up and down the embering street. To him, the houses and buildings all looked no different from a hazy blur of red due to the buildings still smoldering in the distance.
“Point of origin?” Shirley showed a confused face, “Oh, you mean the room where we started? Should be…. It’s already quite far, at least half a block away by now.”
“Shirley, the situation is not right.” At this point, even Dog had realized the weirdness and nervously eyed the reddish haze around them with wariness, “Let’s stop for a moment.”
Still not picking up on the freakiness of the situation, Shirley shot the man and hound a strange look: “What’s wrong? Can you two tell me first?”
“Dreams are ‘centered’ around the cognitive perception of the dreamer. Your basis is that bedroom from your childhood memory.” Dog explained swiftly and to the point, “Going by that logic, the area outside of the room is no more than supporting ‘supplement’ for your dream. The farther we get away from the center, the more absurd and twisted everything should become. I wouldn’t even be surprised if a cliff suddenly appeared in front of our feet. Yet, we’ve come this far without incident….”
Duncan faintly nodded in agreement. His theory was pretty much in the same league as Dog here.
Shirley finally woke up and gasped: “So… where are we now? Is this still my dream?!”
No one could answer Shirley’s question, and Duncan could only watch the surrounding smoldering structures with thought.
Everywhere he could see, there were burnt buildings and scorched roads. The urban area after the fire was like an ugly scar, deeply engrained onto the body of the city and extending out to parts beyond their visual perception. At this rate, who knows how many more of the city was affected.
He then turned to face another direction. From what he could tell, there were some tall buildings near their location. It’s a distillation tower of one of the factories. It pierced straight into the sky amidst the smoke and dust and had countless coiled pipes snaking around the skeletal structure that remained after the flames. To describe the current picture, it’s like a strange mountain that’s been carved out.
Duncan involuntarily stared at the tall distillation tower, thinking that if he stood on that tip, he might be able to overlook the entire fire scene. Then his eyes froze….
The scene that Nina once described to him, it’s suddenly starting to match up: a very high place overlooking the city after the fire, the streets scarred by the heat running through the entire city-state…
That’s what Nina saw in her dreams, just from a different perspective!
He promptly turned his head to face Shirley due to this astonishing discovery: “We…may have entered another dream.”
“Another dream?” Shirley popped her eyes in shock, “Whose dream?”
“Nina’s… follow me,” Duncan said briefly, and then took off for the distillation tower.
He did not summon Ai to “spirit walk” over in this dream world because he didn’t know if the bird could even come inside this weird place. Secondly, he needed Ai to keep tabs on the outside if something dangerous decides to make a home visit.
Luckily, the distillation tower wasn’t far from where they were, only a few alleys and two streets away.
Shirley didn’t understand why the ghost captain would suddenly bolt for a place that they had no clue if it was safe or not, but if this was Nina’s dream like Mr. Duncan said, then it would not be wrong. If anything, they might even find Nina there!
However, Duncan didn’t find anything like he thought after arriving at the factory site. This left him doubting his own deduction until he got a strange notion of being watched. Swinging his head around to seek the source of this discomfort, that’s when he saw it: a tall and thin figure wearing a black trench coat with a large black umbrella in hand!
“There’s someone over there!” Shirley exclaims after catching up.
“Do you see it too?” Duncan subconsciously asked, only to be interrupted by a weird and harsh sound from the weirdo.
It wasn’t any language Duncan knew of. In fact, the overly complex and overlapping echoes in the voice made him suspect that it wasn’t a “language” at all, but rather an animalistic growl.
The “weirdo” with the umbrella also seemed surprised at the uninvited guests wandering about. After the initial pause, the strange figure suddenly made a move!
Duncan couldn’t see what the other party had done precisely in that second, but the afterglow from the corner of his eye keenly caught the slithering of several black shadows coming out from beneath the hem of that trench coat. Those pure “shadows” swam across the walls and streets; eventually, even the weirdo had disappeared from thin air. In the next second, before Duncan could react, the black figure had teleported right beside Shirley!
Thankfully Shirley had never once relaxed her muscles since entering this dream world. As fast as the umbrella weirdo moved back there, the gothic girl and her partner had already reunited and ready to strike down with the meteor hammer of doggy death!
“Screw this!!!” She yelled with a hint of excitement at finally being able to vent the nerves, which showed in the way she swung that doggy chain around like a barbaric weapon.
