A Journey into the Subconscious Mind — #8

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Chapter 8: A Lucid Dreamer and a Dream Reader

That evening Asha got a call from the hospital that Rehanna’s father worked in. Finn’s assistant was on the call asking whether she would be ready to spend the night at the hospital. She also gave a few more instructions and arrangements for the experiment.

Once the call was over Asha felt it was the best decision to speak about what happened that day with her parents.

After a brief discussion, it was decided that Jiera and Damos would accompany Asha to the hospital and spend the night there. ‘Wow! That discussion was shorter than I expected.’ Asha thought as she headed back up to her room.

Later that night Asha arrived at the hospital she was greeted by Riley who was waiting just outside of the hospital wearing a bright red Parka with light brown frills on the top.

After speaking with the receptionist and getting the directions to the room where Finn would be conducting the experiment, the party headed towards the room.

As they opened the plain white door, they were welcomed by Finn and surprisingly Rehanna in what was otherwise a typical fMRI room.

To the right was a door that led to the fMRI machine and the room that Asha was currently in was a monitoring room with the typical monitoring equipment. But one thing seemed different in this room compared to any other room.

And that was the number of screens. Just below the monitor for monitoring the heartbeat, there were additional four screens which all displayed complicated UIs of buttons and graph readings. Additionally, there was what seemed like Dr. Finn’s own personal laptop next to the screens on a table. Asha’s geek mind turned on momentarily as she saw all the screens.

After all the formalities and dinner were done, Finn gave a brief explanation of the experiment before Asha went in.

“So, this here is an fMRI machine and this one here is specifically been built to scan the brain. I use this many times to scan the brain not only during emergencies but also just casually to study how the brain works. The brain as we all know is really fascinating.” he took a pause before looking at Asha and continuing. “So, all you have to do Asha is just have good night’s sleep and in that time for around three to four hours I will be monitoring the brain activity. It is during this time that REM sleep occurs and so this when your dreams would occur. The computers here how the data onto the screens in form of data which I use to transform into what you are actually seeing in your dream. It would take some time for me to fully understand what you are dreaming about but…” Finn trailed off scratching his chin as he thought about the possibilities.

“I think I can help with that.” volunteered Asha seizing the opportunity. She fished around the pocket of her jacket and brought out the small pen drive with ever so important AI code. “I have written an AI program that, for now, that can match things that are on the internet with any input…like for example the brain.”

“That way I can see what you can actually see what you are seeing in your dream without having to decipher every image of the brain. That’s smart.” completed Finn his face brimming with excitement. “Well, all it does now is searches the web for relevant pictures and gives it back and so it might now be very accurate, but maybe it might be more useful especially with a detective such as Riley around.” Asha said thinking Finn was thinking too much of her work. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Riley blushing yet again with the mention of her name with the word ‘detective’.

“No problem, let us test it out!” he exclaimed his face lit light a child who had received a Christmas gift. The next two hours were spent setting everything up and briefly training the AI model on the brain images and what they meant.

And then it was finally the time.

Asha got into loose-fitting yet comfortable light pink clothes that the hospital had provided and wore the elastic cap fitted with electrodes that were hooked up with the EEG machine and laid down on the bed of the fMRI machine.

The soft white lights of the room were shut off with a slow fade and the bed Asha was laying in slid into the machine.

Asha had never been in an fMRI machine and at first, she felt uncomfortable but soon the lights in the fMRI machine faded out and Asha heard a voice through the machine.

“Ok Asha, just relax. I know this might be overwhelming at first, but just close your eyes and just do your thing, everything will be fine.” Asha did as she was told not knowing whether there was a microphone that would convey her message to Finn.

Soon she felt the drowsiness set in and she started her countdown, once again gripped by fear and curiosity. But somewhere in her mind, she was reassured, having so many people, including her parents looking over her from the room beside her.

Asha’s dream started out normal. This time she had chosen a place with a lot of people. Somehow having many people around her she felt safe. She also wanted to be in an open place where, if she did feel scared, she could just soar away from the place.

Asha now stood at a crowded, narrow cobbled street that seemed somewhere in Japan for there seemed to be a large number of neon signs that hung from the sides of the buildings of either side that were glowing in the night light.

Asha found herself clothed in the same clothes she had on when she entered the hospital which seemed weird, but she quickly dismissed the thought before it freaked her out.

As she looked at the brightly lit street and noticed that it had just rained, for the ground was wet and the air was cool.

As Asha started walking down the crowded street her conscious mind started to think in the background.

Something about this place seemed faintly familiar. Asha had never had the chance to travel to Japan to experience this place but nonetheless, she seemed like she had already visited this place.

For Asha visiting places she had never been to was one of the more exciting features of her lucid dreaming and that is what cultivated her interest in lucid dreaming in the first place.

But the feeling she felt today of already being in that place was something very new to Asha. Asha now felt her heartbeat rapidly in her chest as trudged down the path.

Asha resisted the urge to panic and calmed herself down just enough to look up and see a tall stone tower at the end of the road.

Maybe it was the odd placement of such a building in such a setting or something else, Asha did not know, but she was instantly attracted to the tower, like a moth to a flame.

As Asha walked along, she smelt the smell of food cooking in a restaurant a few meters ahead and she could hear the faint rustle of coats rubbing together as the densely packed people made their way through the mini-city.

For a moment Asha lost her fear to the environment around her the cool air blowing against her face, the bright lights of the flickering neon lights splashing their colors around her clothes and it was only when she saw the unusual long blond hair, did she start to panic.

Out of everyone that was present there in that town, no one had blond hair except for a little further down the street who was heading towards the tower.

Asha instinctively ducked behind a barrel that was placed next to a fruit stand and sat with her hands around her knees, clutching them furiously as cold mists of air exited her mouth as her lungs prepared for an intense run.

Asha sat there for a second or two, thinking about what was happening. ‘Why am I afraid? It’s just someone with long blond hair. I am in a dream. I am in control of this dream. If I don’t want people with blond hair, I can just make them disappear.’ Asha felt her breathing steady once more as she slowly got up from her hiding spot and looked at the barrel.

The blond girl was still visible but she had gained some distance. Asha had two choices now. The obvious one was to just vaporize the girl that was causing her to be nervous and frightened or follow this girl and see what was going to happen.

Asha thought just for a second and then chose the latter. She was still nervous, but now with the newly regained confidence of her powers, she followed the girl silently into the night.

As she walked on, she noticed that some of the neon signs hanging from the shops had, now for three shops for some reason, had English numbers on them. One had the number 12 written on it another 24 and the last on the restaurant that Asha had smelt the aurora of cooking food, 13. Although she found it peculiar, she figured that it might have to be the price of whatever goods or services the places were offering. ‘Also, maybe my mind isn’t capable of translating English numbers to Japanese.’ she backed up her theory as she walked on.

Consumed by her thoughts Asha failed to notice that she had just reached the very restaurant she was looking at and just as she passed it out of the corner of her eye, she saw a lick of flame that was used to fry something on a pan with, instantly light the oil and burn the food in the pan. Suddenly the flame leaped several meters high in the air from the pan and caught hold of the bunting flags that were placed above the shop and before she knew it the whole store was on fire.

Asha was immediately reminded of the burning smell that she had experienced in her previous dream and she instantly took to her heels running as far away from possible from the burning shop and towards the blond girl in the distance!

Only after running a few meters did, she realize that she was a few feet from the blond girl who had reached the bottom of the tower that had very few shops around it.

The crowd now reduced to only a few people and as Asha slowed down to a halt, she bumped into a girl who was about the same height as her.

Asha knew at once who the girl was and as she turned to face the girl, Rehanna turned back to her and stopped, her dark eyes making full contact with Asha.

For some reason, Asha thought Rehanna looked like a zombie, for she looked physically alright, but her body seemed to be possessed by someone else.

Asha stood in place, frozen in fear, not knowing what was happening. She had yet again forgotten she was in total control of the dream.

Rehanna seemed to have a look of disappointment on her face but there seemed to be something else too, a sadness deep within those dark eyes. And then she spoke. “Why do you fear?” she spoke her voice seeming high and creepy with a different accent, that was completely unlike Rehanna’s. “Why do you run? You are scared I know Asha, but of what, I do not know. I do not want to force you tomodachi . You know what to do when you are ready.” she spoke and almost immediately disappeared into the air.

Asha was in shock. First of all, she did not know how Rehanna had spoken with so much sense. Usually, with the people here conversation was not too deep and sometimes even boring and predictive. But what Asha had just witnessed was something completely strange and new. And on top of this Rehanna disappearing without Asha thinking about her to vanish was also completely beyond belief. She did not even know that such a fear was even possible.

Asha almost knew what she was going to expect as she back to search for the blond girl. And she seemed to be right, for where there once stood the blond girl now stood the young Finn with his hand on some kind of remote!

Asha tried to move a step closer to Finn but he pressed a button on the remote and all of a sudden, a loud ringing sound was heard. This was followed by a sudden increase in the wind speed. Asha realized that it was from the tower and the tower might have had a bell that was emitting the sound. Asha covered her ears and fell to her knees trying to shield herself from the sound and the wind.

And although Asha tried to keep herself planted in the dream, she felt herself getting kicked off the dream for the hundredth time.

Disclaimer:

This is a work of fiction. Unless otherwise indicated, all the names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents in this book are either the product of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.