Hunter of the Evernight-Chapter 793: Not the bad kind of bad dream

Arwen hurried over to meet with Alex after hearing him call out to her.

Upon her arrival in the office, she quickly caught him seated in his study, his expression betraying a great deal of confusion causing her to wonder what was wrong.

With a perplexed look on her face, she inquired. "What is it?"

"Do you recall the visitor we had last night?... A middle-aged man came asking us to find his daughter."

Arwen frowned. "We had a visitor?"

"You don’t remember?"

"That..." Arwen paused, taking the time to ponder before ultimately shaking her head. "No."

"What do you recall from last night?" Alex asked.

Arwen didn’t respond immediately, instead taking the time to ponder before ultimately replying with a hint of dread. "... I don’t remember anything."

Alex immediately snapped once again, this time, applying Mindscape to Arwen’s mind to protect her.

"Alex, what’s going on?" Arwen asked, visibly shaken by the realization that something had happened last night.

Alex shook his head. "I’m not sure, but we had a visitor last night and he gave us a case which was meant to be our hundredth case."

"But we forgot all about it and went out to look for another case..."

"Where’s your journal?"

"The old one or the new one?"

"Hmm?" Alex frowned.

Scratching her head awkwardly, Arwen explained. "I couldn’t find the old one so I picked up a new one for use today."

A snap swiftly followed as Alex exerted his Will, causing an inky blackness to escape his shadow before swiftly engulfing the entire house.

Then, he closed his eyes and listened.

"It’s under your pillow." Alex simply said before he continued to listen while Arwen hurried to her room to pick up the journal.

By the time she returned from picking it up, Alex was done.

"I found it."

"And?"

"You are right. We had a visitor last night."

"So someone or something made a move against us." Alex intoned.

"Did you find anything?"

"No." Alex shook his head.

"Alex, are we in danger?" Arwen asked.

Alex shook his head. "I can’t say. Whatever caused us to forget clearly didn’t plan on killing us, else it could have... or maybe it can’t. Truth be told, we won’t know by sitting down here."

"What now?"

"We make a move tomorrow, try to get some rest for now."

"Alright, but I’m staying with you."

"We’ll sleep in the living room."

"Understood." Arwen nodded in agreement. "I’ll go get changed."

"And Arwen," Alex called out just as she turned to leave.

"Hmm?"

"Have we had this conversation before?"

"... I don’t think so."

"... I see," Alex said with a thoughtful look on his visage.

"Why?"

Alex pondered briefly before ultimately shaking his head. "No reason."

"... Alright then."

Though bothered by Alex’s odd behavior, Arwen chose to think nothing of it.

In truth, since their encounter with the Beast, he had been acting strangely.

From suddenly becoming a world-class painter to actively using a journal, he always appeared to be lost, seemingly searching for something.

She’d tried to ask, to find out what he was looking for but he always dismissed her, causing her to make guesses.

Her most recent theory was that what he was looking for had to do with the paintings of the faceless woman and child that featured prominently in most of his works.

Regardless, she chose to blame his current state on whatever it was that had been bothering me.

With that, she took her leave, swiftly heading to prepare for a nap in the living room while Alex remained trapped in his thoughts, his expression twisted.

That night, they slept in the living room with Alex actively maintaining Mindscape as he slept on the floor while Arwen slept on the couch.

He didn’t dream and he was alert enough to move at the slightest sign of danger, putting to good use his ten years of memories that were left.

Once it struck midnight, Alex heard a tune, one he seemed to oddly recall hearing before.

His eyes partly opened and his irises flashed with a green light after which he went back to sleep, completely ignoring the entrancing melody.

***

"I had a bad dream last night," Arwen remarked while seated in the living room across from Alex.

It was quite early in the morning as the Call of Dawn had only sounded a few minutes ago.

Alex took a moment to calm his nerves as he asked. "What kind?"

"I dreamt that something was chasing me."

A sigh of relief escaped Alex’s lips as he muttered. "So not the bad kind."

Then, noticing Arwen’s displeased expression, he added. "Go on."

"I can’t remember much, only that something was chasing me."

"Do you remember what it was?"

Arwen pondered briefly before ultimately shaking her head. "No."

"I see."

"But that’s because it didn’t have a physical form." Arwen quickly added. "It was... like a disembodied voice."

"A voice?" Alex furrowed his brows. "So how did you know that a voice was chasing you?"

"I don’t know, all I know is that I was running and whatever the voice was, I felt that if it touched me, I would suffer."

Pursing his lips, Alex inquired. "Is this the first time something like this is happening?"

"What?... Me being chased in a dream?"

"The dream you had last night, is it the first time you’ve had it?"

Silence followed as Arwen delved into her memories for an answer.

It didn’t take too long before she remarked. "... I can’t remember."

"Is that problematic?"

"Considering my heritage, the fact that I can’t remember my dreams is a problem."

Alex stroked his chin, as he tried to make sense of everything.

Suddenly, he paused, his expression shifting as he appeared to have recalled something.

Then, he glanced at Arwen. "Do you by any chance recall the voice, like the exact sound it was making?"

"Well..."

"Was it a song?... Or speech or something else?"

Arwen frowned as she tried hard to dig up what she could remember before finally replying with some hesitation. "... I think it was a song."

"Was it something like this?" Alex went ahead to hum the tune with Arwen’s expression shifting dramatically as she appeared to recognize it.

"Yes, exactly that!... How did you know?... You had a dream as well?"

"I don’t dream." Alex curtly said.

"So how..."

"I think I was lucid..." Alex trailed off as a thought came to mind. "Perhaps your dream wasn’t just a dream."

"What do you mean?"

"What if that tune is something that played in reality, but because you were fully asleep, it somehow found its way into your dreams?"

"... But that’s impossible, right?"

"What do you think?"

Arwen remained silent as she considered the possibilities before ultimately replying. "There’s a chance... but it is slim."

"Regardless." Alex intoned as he got to his feet. "That tune might be the reason we forgot about the case with Leokhares."

"How can you be certain?" Arwen asked back to which Alex responded.

"I am not, but it’s the only thing that’s out of place. A tune we’ve never heard before and all of a sudden, the night we utilize Mindscape, we hear it... That has red written all over it."

"So what now?"

"I need you to record every detail you can remember from your dream. Understood?"

"Alright." Arwen nodded as she hurried to her bedroom to get some ink and a quill to write in her journal.