Nightmares Vs Magic

"I'm a half fae technically, but regardless of being half or not, I still possess all the flaws and blessings that a fae would have." Annabelle whispered to Dove, yet loud enough for at least the two others to hear.

Dove's eyes widened with surprise as she reeled back, both to give Annabelle space but also to recollect herself and take in the entirety of Annabelle's appearance with the new information.

It suddenly made sense for a lot of things. Her odd strength and ability to hurt others so easily yet being so graceful and looking delicate despite being tall, actually, even her height is a clue to her Fae ethnicity.

Annabelle even held her long, rope-like braided hair up, offering for Dove to hold it, and raising Dove's hand up further into the sunlight, watching with a cheeky smile as her hair unnaturally shimmered, almost reflecting rainbow-like colors over the bundles of locks. No normal blonde hair was capable of this, no matter how good the shampoo, conditioner, and human genetics were.

While processing this new information, they all decided to begin moving again after noticing some people walking to the corner they were standing at and chose to cross the street.

"Why would you reveal something like this to us? Just so we can believe you to play fair in a game you made up? What if someone overhears and starts plotting? Making iron weapons and such." Dove asked in a hushed tone, not glancing at Annabelle but making sure the girl can hear her and see her lips moving.

In the midst of crossing to the sidewalk across the street, Annabelle whispered back and held eye contact with Dove, this time not letting the boys hear this one.

"I have had to hide the fact that I cannot lie, for most of my life and from many people. I know the tactics used to hide an aspect of oneself. I know these strategies and I can tell when others use them. I know you are hiding something, but you are really good at hiding it, so I can only tell with just a gut feeling." She told her, making the silver-haired girl's heart race a bit, unnerving her, making her feel as though she were in trouble.

"I know my kind is known as being mischievous and distrustful, but you are my friend. I am half human too, so I care about my human friends. I want you to know that you can trust me, just as I trust all of you. It is difficult to go about life or a job and not be able to lie, so by revealing my inability, I will trust that in the future, you my friends will help me make up for this, just as I will help all of you with your secrets, especially the one I know you're hiding, Dove."

Annabelle patted Dove's shoulder, Dove only gave her a curt nod as they returned to their normal volume voices, and opened the conversation back up for the other two to join in.

"Can we start playing my new game now? It'll be a good bonding experience I can promise you that! I'll start!" Annabelle clapped lightly and insisted, not like anyone was objecting as they all began their walk back, and Joon was starting the map on his phone again.

"No, what if the rest of us try to lie? Or at least, Joon and I?" Dove interjected, making Annabelle feel impatient about pushing her new game back even more.

Annabelle verbally can't lie, and Vernon can't will himself to lie due to the stress and effort. I have lied before to save my own skin, and I don't know about Joon. I feel invasive asking this, like I'm asking Joon to reveal his safety net. Maybe I shouldn't have asked?

Annabelle waved of her concern, like she was already detecting it.

"Pssh! Unless Joon has a good enough reason, he won't bother trying to lie. He won't even give an apology if he doesn't mean it, just look at him."

Dove turned her head to Joon, who looked back, a blank expression besides the grin and nod of his head.

"I'm too lazy to think of a lie. I can describe 3D models if you want, if not, my brain's too lazy."

Dove's lips tightened as she felt a pang of guilt. 

I can lie easily, and I've lied to spare my parents' feelings, and sometimes to avoid their wrath.

"Well, I feel guilty. I can lie, and easily too."

Annabelle didn't give much of a reaction to this, it's not unusual for a human to be able to lie, it is in their nature for several reasons. Joon merely shrugged, arching an eyebrow at her.

"Good for you at least, just don't lie during the game. You won't gain anything if you do either way, it's just a game."

He shrugged again as he turned his attention back to his phone. Dove gave him a curious glance, but before she could even utter a word, Annabelle patted her on the shoulder, her pupils shaking as she was desperate to start her new game. 

Dove clamped shut, deciding to stay quiet and let her have her fun.

"I once saw a figure near the door of my house, staring at my place from a distance, standing stiffly. Now then! Take a guess, creature, or human?" The blonde woman said with an excited tone.

They all thought while Dove made a hand motion to Annabelle for her to keep her voice down and pointed to the other people beginning to pass by them, giving curious glances. Some people like horror, but when the people just continued walking past them, Dove sighed internally, knowing the strangers were just assuming her friend to be telling a scary story.

"Human."

"Why?"

"As if there haven't been cases of some weirdo stalking someone." Joon said affirmatively.

"I feel it's too early to guess. Is there anything else you can say about the figure?"

Annabelle also leaned back, enjoying copying a bit of Dove's mannerisms but with a smile as she tapped a finger on her chin to remember.

"I do remember seeing them sway side to side, following the wind. Oh! They looked pretty thin."

"Creature." Dove immediately turned her head to Annabelle and blurted out. 

"If it was a person, I think they would look bigger, like maybe even if they were skinny, I believe they would've had a big jacket on. Also, humans can't naturally sway side to side." She shrugged, feeling slightly embarrassed by the eyes on them.

"Alright. Point for Dove." Annabelle snapped her fingers at her.

"Wait, so what kind was it? Like a zombie? Or something?" Joon spun around and walked backwards ahead of the group as he spoke to them.

Dove rushed forward to grab his arm, preparing to keep him stable as they walked, even though the amount of people on the sidewalks were thinning a bit. The Macabre House did reside in a more gothic, quieter area, at least the kind that was surrounded by buildings less frequented by people. There was however a candy factory nearby, so it smelled nice. 

"Nope. I just knew it was a spirit of some kind, and a starving one at that." Annabelle shrugged.

She then clapped her hands again and pointed at Dove who was still walking at the same pace as Joon, ahead of the group. 

"Alright! Since Dove solved it first, she gets to go next!" 

Dove pursed her lips a bit as she thought.

I did not want to look back on the memories of all the disturbing moments I've had, and yet I also was too scared to not play her game in case I lose more social points. But I guess I can treat this like a therapeutic session of something. I'm too scared to ever go to an actual therapist anyway.

"I remember once when I was twelve or ten, my mom and I went out to the park. It was summer, so there were a lot of kids. The park we played at had lots of trees, so some parents with stubborn kids would search through the trees to find them when it was time to go home. I remember playing hide and seek with two and tried to find a tree to climb. One of the trees, I saw this weirdly shaped figure."

"Oooh!"

"Haunted Park lore!"

Joon and Annabelle cooed in exaggerated excitement, making the silver-haired girl groan.

"Alright! So, a park with lots of trees, some you can climb, one tree had a weirdly shaped figure up there. There were lots of kids at the time." Annabelle listed.

"Oooh, tricky right off the bat. Let's see." She hummed. 

"What kind of trees were they?" Vernon asked, sounding a little more eager than the dazed silence he had earlier, his eyes covered by his curly hair, staring at her silver hair. He had also been gently cradling the small pot of soil in his hand that he always carried. 

Dove hummed to herself, her arm jerking as Joon grunted. She grabbed his arm and quickly hoisted him onto his feet as soon as he tripped over a crack. 

"I don't know what kind of trees they were, and I don't think anyone else knew either. I just knew that some trees had some branches, low enough for kids to use to climb up."

She gripped Joon's arm carefully. 

"You should just turn around and walk forward."

He shook his head, keeping his head down at the map on his phone, and smiled a silly smile of someone knowingly being mischievous and a nuisance.

"Nah! This is an experiment too."

I was beginning to get a hint of what Enzo and Adan must have to go through with watching over him. And I think I might also understand why Adan is said to watch over him often.

"If they are being climbed on regularly by kids and perhaps teenagers, and there have not been too many stories of a branch breaking and falling, then the trees are most likely old hardwood trees. Hardwood trees grow slow but stronger, unlike trees that grow faster, but have brittle branches. The types of hardwood trees that are great for climbing include oak, mature maple, ash, mulberry, elm, sycamore, buckeye, and pines." Vernon listed, counting the tree types on his fingers, whilst also touching the pad of each of his fingertips to his thumb, one by one.

"Although, when you are climbing a tree, it's best to avoid the ones containing wildlife or close to power lines. The branches need to be at least six inches in diameter in order to safely support the weight of a child."

"Did most of the trees in the park fit the whole criteria he listed?" Annabelle asked.

Dove quietly hummed in thinking.

"If my memory serves me right, I think all of the trees were old and definitely had thick branches wide enough in diameter. One time I remember seeing a parent have to climb of one of the trees after his kid. At the time I thought that kid was the ballsiest, to test her parent's patience like that."

They chuckled lightly in casual unison. 

"Oh, I can relate."

"It was a pretty popular park, the forest was dense but stayed in the area, the power lines only surrounded it. I never heard any stories about any beehives or hornet nests, and the bird nests were always higher, away from the kids. The birds were smart."

More hums elicited out of each of them while Dove was beginning to lose strength in pushing her grin down.

"What was your reaction to the figure? Did it move much?" Joon asked.

"Sort of, it swayed and rocked a bit."

"An Imp!" Annabelle eagerly guessed, weirding glances both from some passerby and her friends. 

"W... why would there be an Imp hiding at the park?"

She shrugged. 

"I don't know where you used to live, but if it's a forest, there must have been good hiding places! And they're like, really small. Maybe they were choosing which kid to eat."

"I guess you have a point, but even then, the figure I saw was way too big and heavy to be an imp."

"What shape was it then?"

"Pretty blocky really, I think there was also something dangling from where it was hanging."

"Creature! Either a Krasue or Penanggalan." Joon guessed confidently. 

"That would definitely fit the description, but no." 

As Joon playfully clicked his tongue, Annabelle tilted in curiosity. Sometimes she was more cat-like than Vernon. 

"What are either of those? I've never heard of them before."

Joon turned off the map navigation on his phone, and swiped to search for descriptions of both creatures, Dove was getting a better handle at keeping him steady, or his prosthetic was somehow learning.

"Imagine a balloon that is able to control how it flies, now imagine that balloon is a head and instead of a string, it has organs, like, the entire organ system."

"Interesting! Do they leave trails of blood when they fly?"

"Nope, at least I don't think. They do go after blood, I heard they like to eat placentas the most. Back at my old home, when a woman in my family was pregnant or about to give birth, barb wire would surround the window frames, after they shut them tight."

"I think I have seen a creature like that before, but it wasn't the one in the tree. Too thick to be a skull, and the pieces that dangled looked nothing like organs or intestines." Dove hummed. 

Vernon then pointed out that he could see the Macabre House just up ahead. Joon finally spun around and began walking facing the front as Dove let go of his shirt. 

"We have to get back to work soon, so, I'll just tell you guys. It wasn't a creature... Or a human!"

Joon let out a baffled, playfully betrayed noise as Annabelle was amused. 

"What was it?" Annabelle asked.

"An old swing set, just a wooden board and some rope. I guess some kids managed to swing it high enough into the branches that it hung from and never came down."

"I though the rule was that you either describe a creature or a person." Vernon said, visibly surprised as they walked across the parking lot to the door.

"Well, yes, and I did describe it the way I would a creature. There was no rule saying I couldn't lead you to believe it was when it wasn't." Dove gently said as she went ahead of the group to open the door.

Annabelle chuckled, ladylike as she somehow always was, as she walked through first.

"My new game certainly needs some tweaking," she said before turning around to look at Dove. "But I think I'll let that loophole stay." She said with a smile, that, for once, Dove didn't feel morally forced to return.

Joon, Vernon and I took the stairs while she took the elevator, which would take a bit longer. I think she might be getting into too much trouble on the gym floor. Are Fae folk aware of their strength? I'm not sure, nor was I sure back then that I could do something harmless and fun again. I waved to them as I got to the door of my floor, and watched as the boys went on their ways. I don't think I've ever seen them bond or hang out with each other specifically.

"Be careful." Dove told them before going inside. 

She cleared her throat awkwardly as she prepared to walk down the hall and back to the open room, wondering whether Claire was still there, or if Laurence would require her to write an apology letter to the influencer later. 

Laurence was now going over something with Bence, who surprisingly had a more concerned look compared to early this morning. 

As Dove walked into the detectives' office, they both turned their heads to her, and she stiffened. 

"If I need to apologize, I'll get right to it." She said in an expectant, defeated tone.

Laurence blinked in confusion before remembering and shaking his head. He waved his hand to call her over closer, and showed her to his computer, whilst Bence went to go and get some items from the supply room down another hall. 

The screen on the computer displayed a photo of a beach house, along with another website that had searches for ghosts appearing in dreams. Laurence had a book open on his desk, just researching dreams earlier. 

"Claire said that she had been recently having dreams about a ghost. Says that the ghost is like the figure with a pure white face that lurks in the corners of her dreams, she can be having a dream about her family or friends, and it'll be there in the background somewhere. In her dream, the other person with her will acknowledge it and tell her to close her doors or windows before she wakes up." 

He showed me the beach house which I now knew as Claire's house, along with the neighbors' houses. Claire had evidently provided the photos considering the photo of her house was a selfie she took with the house in the background, likely during the time when she first got it.

"At first, nothing's been going on around her home and where she lives, her neighbors are typically always up at night partying. She claims they would notice and tell her if someone broke in, since she's normally out partying with them until dawn." Laurence continued, showing more of Claire's selfies, before then clicking over to a page showing information on public security cameras. 

None in her beach area, but every house did have their own security systems. 

"Why does this neighborhood not have any cctv cameras?"

"Because it's that kind of community. With all those influencers doing questionable things for content, and willingly posting their own actions online, who needs cctv?" Laurence scoffed, clicking to emails and sending all of the documents to Dove through email. 

She checked her phone a minute later after hearing her phone vibrate. 

"Do you want me to print these?" She asked, reading through all the files in her phone, already beginning to download them. 

"No. Take this information with you as you go to investigate her house with Bence."

Dove stiffened and stared up at Laurence as if he had just told her to give a speech for a bunch of strangers, not believing what she had just heard. 

He already knew what she was thinking and repeated, as gently as he could, what he said earlier. 

"Sir, with all due respect, there is a big chance she dislikes me now."

"I understand that, and if you don't want to go, then that's alright. I have to go do regular inspections on some graveyards today, so I won't be able to help Bence with this house call. Since this case revolved around dreams, I thought you'd be curious."

Dove followed behind Laurence as his words piqued her interest, watching him pick up something from the conference room that was now barren of any of the notes from earlier. Even the whiteboard no longer had any papers pinned on, the marker notes of math formulas was wiped down. 

"Why would I be curious?"

He chuckled and as smooth as turning on his heel to face her, he passed a smaller, lighter notebook into Dove's hands. 

"Have you ever had sleep paralysis?"

She paused in sifting through her memories, quickly shaking her head as she watched him pull open one of the drawers of his desk, putting four switch blades into the inner pockets of his coat, suddenly only now noticing the gun holster at the side of his hip. 

He had a revolver. But can nightmares actually be harmed? I never tried to pick a fight with the nightmares I saw through my childhood, since I was more worried about embarrassing myself and making my parents think I was insane. I'm guessing all those non-violent rituals most cultures have for their creatures or nightmares is for when a person has no weapon. What luck that this is America...

"Most normal people tend to have sleep paralysis, unable to move their bodies and typically seeing scary things, but for them it also sometimes depends on their mindsets. If they think of something funny in the moment, or at least something not scary, then the experience won't be so scary. The funny truth is that sometimes the hat man just needs some enrichment, so it's best to think of errands." 

He stepped back to give her some space, letting her view the side of his body where he moved his jacket back to show her his revolver. When he took out his revolver to inspect the number of bullets inside the wheel, he was careful to not let it aim at anyone, especially Dove.

I wonder how long he's had that.

"The same cannot be said for haunted folk like us, and it's for both good and bad reasons. Normal people can't move and that's why it's called paralysis, but for us, it's what some of our past generation like to call 'the sleep warning'."

Dove frowned, not because of seeing the gun, but of the new term Laurence was teaching her. She looked down at the little notebook in her hands, noticing a bookmark in between one of the pages, and opened it to that bookmarked spot.

In his handwriting, Laurence's notes described 'Sleep Warning', which is like sleep paralysis in that it suddenly causes the body to wake up, and typically results in the awakened person seeing a scary figure in the room with them. But unlike paralysis, if the person is haunted, when they wake up and see the creature, they can move.

"As you may have heard, if you're familiar with a lot of paranormal content, nightmares or ghosts feed off of your fear and negative energy. They don't often wake up haunted ones, because the experience isn't so scary since we can move, unfortunately, some nightmares like that, for the chase." Laurence readjusted his coat as he looked to see the page Dove was reading. 

"When you wake up and see the nightmare looming either over you or a good distance away, they'll try to taunt you into moving, make you jerk or expect you to jump up at the sight of them and run. If you run, they'll chase you, and whatever happens afterward depends on the circumstances."

Dove looked up and observed his face, beginning to understand why he sometimes seemed very tired in the mornings, more so than her. She at first assumed it was simply insomnia, but now knowing this...

"Do you, often have sleep paralysis? If I may ask?"

He looked at her, reluctant to answer, looking to the side and sighing, mostly to himself as he answered. 

"Yeah, a lot as a teen. I think I was about your age when I finally got used to them. Would've been really nice to know about this concept years ago, and that running was actually a bad thing as they are more enticed to, 'get' you, this way." He forcefully chuckled to himself, which Dove didn't miss. 

She gave him a look, a concerned frown, to which he stopped himself, clearing his throat. Laurence then flipped the page, showing the next on what to do instead of running. 

"So, why Sleep 'Warning'? From the way you described it, the warning is pretty useless since you wake up and the nightmare is already there. Why don't they attack then? Why chase?" She asked him. 

He liked when she asked questions, showing him that she still had an urge to satisfy her curiosity, that she still had motivation to question things and not follow blindly. 

"The reason it's called Sleep Warning, is exactly because there is a nightmare in the room, if it was safe, your body will let you sleep, but with a nightmare, the body will urge you to wake up. If you were to see the nightmare and attempt to go back to sleep, they'll just attack you in your dreams and the brain will subconsciously know that, so you can't go back to sleep until they leave." He said, clearly speaking from experience. 

"Oh great." Dove groaned as she looked at the notes.

The reason for his eyebags were clearer now, and Dove felt another pang of guilt, considering how her eyebags are simply due to her falling asleep at late hours often. 

Dove read the notes, seeing all the methods besides running to regain the ability to sleep again, to which Laurence still read out for her, just in case she couldn't read his handwriting.

"To get a nightmare to stop bothering you, you gotta make them feel bored, because they are the same as spirits, but with a sense of personality in a way. One method is to sit up and stare right back at them, some will get unnerved or bored and leave, others will stare, and well, get closer to your face, I never tried using that advice."

Dove hummed in agreement. 

"The next method is to begin talking to them about the most boring subject you can think of, boring to them but happy for you is recommended. I've mostly just tried listing all of the things I'd need to do in the morning or the next day, talking about my errands, and they usually disappear quickly when they see they aren't getting much reaction from a boring guy like me. Basically, just do anything that's the opposite of scared, angered, or provoked."

"I feel like I might understand why I've never gotten Sleep Warnings, or sleep paralysis before." Dove muttered. 

Laurence hummed, taking a step back as her words now piqued his curiosity.

"Before going to sleep, I've always just sat there in my bed, looking around my dark room. It's a habit I got when I was younger, I would do the routine of looking at the door, my window, closet, vent, and whatever corners I had before my eyes fell asleep on their own." She said, feeling warm at beginning to talk about this aspect of herself. 

Laurence stared down at her, slightly concerned, mostly quiet, with a face that Dove didn't quite recognize, before he finally made a sound. 

"Ah, I see. Sorry about the silence I was just thinking, that's certainly one way to do it, maybe tiring yourself out to naturally pass out is another good method if you can't be woken up easily. I could update the notes with that later. But that matter aside, Claire seems to be having dreams that are trying to warn her of something. It's not like other cases, so if you're curious, I'm giving you the materials in advance so you can be prepared if you choose to go."

He took his own phone out from his pocket, looked at the time, and went over to the elevator. 

"I promise you, Bence won't be bothered if you come with him, in fact, he might actually like having someone to watch over Annabelle's actions while he inspects the house." He says right before the elevator doors close. 

Dove stared in confusion, before feeling a hand on her shoulder, and turning around.