Since he was a boy James knew there was something different about his dreams. Every night when he'd fall asleep James would enter the same dream world, with more or less the same dream people, at a future point in time from when he'd left the dream. It was as if time had moved on in the dream world during his waking hours, and at a much faster rate than in normal time.
As early as he could remember, James talked openly to his parents about the phenomenon. At first they believed he was a child with an incredibly vivid imagination. However, as he grew older, there was an increase of concerned looks on their faces, whispered conversations, sideways glances and eventually enough doctors visits that James soon learned to keep his night-time adventures to himself.
James didn't mind entering the dream world each evening when he went to bed. He always enjoyed himself and he always woke up feeling refreshed. The dream world was filled with magical things that didn't exist in the normal world. In his sleep, roaming the dreamworld, with enough concentration James could even fly. It was a focus of his mind that allowed him to levitate high in the air, over rooftops and country sides. He had tried to apply the same focus in his waking hours to test the ability, but there was always something missing, hidden in his mind, like a secret ingredient he couldn't retrieve, until he re-entered the dream world and suddenly remembered.
In the beginning James found it difficult to distinguish between the reality of the world and the fantasy of the dream. Until his young mind learned to recognise the different people, surroundings and magic contained within, he could only tell the difference through his inability to experience physical pain there. James usually achieved this by pinching himself, knowing that pain was inescapable in reality and non-existent in his dreams.
Then on the night of his 13th birthday everything changed. James climbed into bed as normal, his mother tucking him in. This was something he'd argued against, being practically an adult. But she insisted on pulling the covers up under his chin and planting a kiss on his forehead. It would be a long time before James opened his eyes again.
"James, wake up. Wake up James. JAMES! WAKE UP!" Screaming interrupted the gentle transition he usually experienced when entering the dream world.
He was in Amara's cottage but the peaceful tranquility the house normally possessed had vanished with Amara's frightened pleas. He didn't always awaken here, with Amara and her family. Sometimes he woke nearby in the forrest or fields that surrounded the village, or in a neighbours home. Now and again he would even find himself waking up alone some where new and strange or unwelcoming. Since it was always close to Amara's village he would always find his way back to the familiar. Since he couldn't feel pain here, it had never frightened him too much.
Not until now. Amara's demeanour was frightening him. Even more so that she'd grabbed his arm, squeezing so hard he let out a yelp.
"You felt pain?" she asked, surprise and concern registering on her face. Unlike with his parents, James could always be honest here and so Amara and her family knew of his other life and the other world he lived in. They accepted his explanations, knowing first hand that there were many things in life that are inexplicable.
"Amara, what's happening?" he asked.
"I don't know, but I have a bad feeling about this. I came from the Further to find the house empty and the others gone. Then you appeared here and I couldn't wake you. All the houses in the village, they're empty. James, I need you to try to wake up. Wake up in your other world. I need to know. Are you still able to leave this place?"
James felt confused and scared. But her suggestion to try and leave was a welcome one and so he did what he normally did when he wanted to leave the dream world. Just as when he flew through the night sky, it was a case of focusing within his mind. He willed himself to wake up, concentrating harder and longer than ever before, he envisioned lying in his bed, he heard his own rhythmic breathing and with a mental jerk he called out to the other world, the real world. But nothing happened.
"I can't." he admitted after ten minutes of silence. Then, because he'd heard it worked for others, he pinched himself. Only the new sensation of dream world pain, but no waking.
Amara studied him for a moment and said grimly, "Then it's just as I thought James. You're stuck here in Nether."
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