Chapter 2

The sun was slowly setting when I sat down by the window in my room and lit a cigarette.

“You shouldn’t smoke”, Scruffy said. “It’s bad for your health”

I frowned.

“Snatchers are bad for my health, too”

“I am sorry, Monica, you are right. I only try to take care of you,” he said softly.

“If so, find me a way to get more cigarettes. I am running low, and we will soon need them”

“Ask Ms Avery for extra Stoppers and then trade them with Ripper for cigarettes. She seemed distressed enough this morning to give you some without asking any questions”, Scruffy said happily, excited that he could finally help.

I smiled. Ripper was a night guard who ran a side business, selling Stoppers. Apparently, there was a big demand for those outside the institute, and Ripper’s business prospered well. I suspected everyone knew about it, but they kept a blind eye, since he was one of the few people who didn’t mind cleaning the mess that ensued when the Snatchers managed to get into the Cage.

“Great idea, Scruffy, it may work”

He beeped happily in response.

“I am so happy you called me by my name, Monica. I take it as a sign you’re feeling better and will add 5 points to your Mental Health Score”, he said happily. I sighed. Sometimes, I really wanted to drop him into the bathtub, regardless of whether he was quiet or not.

I took a puff and looked into the sunset, feeling how my body slowly relaxed as it settled into this reality. There was a nasty side effect to the technology that made the Cage safe from the Snatchers: It made you more open to the world they came from. Even if the C.A.G.E kept you safe, it was a nasty place to be in, and tobacco helped you to remain in our reality. So it was a good thing to smoke before going to bed, since falling asleep was when you were the most vulnerable to enter the world of the Snatchers without realising it.

That’s where I met the girl the first time, in one of those nightmares that happened when your dreaming soul wandered into the world of the Snatchers. They had started with a full moon 3 months ago and felt different from any other nightmare I’d ever had. Most of them just flooded you with terror, but you rarely remembered anything when you woke up covered in cold sweat, relieved that it was only a dream, and you were safe in the Cage.

But this time, when I woke up, I was still in my dream. I knew it instantly as I shrivelled under a gust of cold wind that struck my body and I looked around at the dead world that surrounded me. The sky was grey, and the almost flat ground covered in sharp, black rocks that resembled melted glass. Somehow I knew I needed to wake up, and the urgency of the feeling made me panic and run blindly through the desolated landscape until I collapsed on the hard ground, cold and exhausted beyond belief.

Tears flooded my eyes, and I started to sob, thinking I would be trapped here until I died, when I heard a voice calling in the wind. I slowly opened my eyes and saw a girl running towards me. Her pyjama was dirty and rugged and her legs covered with cuts, but I don’t think I was in any better shape than her. She shook me frantically.

“Don’t fall asleep, don’t fall asleep!”, she shouted. “Get up!”

I did as she told me and sat up. She threw her arms around me and hugged me, and I could feel my panic fade away. She relaxed her embrace and looked around.

“You shouldn't be here”, she said quietly, and I could hear tension in her voice.

“Where am I?”, I asked slowly, still trying to understand what had happened, but she shook her head, and helped me to get on my feet.

“We need to go”, she urged, and took my hand, and led me to a building a few meters from us.

I blinked, confused. Why hadn’t I seen that before? She pulled me inside and locked the heavy door behind us.

“What is this place?” I asked quietly, looking around. She led me downstairs to a large room filled with old furniture and cardboard boxes that had seen better days and sat me down on a mattress lying in the corner.

She sat down next to me and looked at me with a smile.

“It’s my safe place”, she said, still holding my hand.

I felt too overwhelmed to protest at her closeness as my brain tried to figure out what was happening, so I only managed to repeat after her,

“Safe place…”

She nodded and smiled proudly as she said,

“I dreamt it myself”

I sighed, and she looked at me concerned and put her arm around me.

“You are safe now”, she said softly, and I relaxed and leaned into her, closing my eyes.

“Don’t come here again, ok?”

Those were the last words I heard before I woke up in my room.

I never figured out what had happened back then. According to Scruffy, C.A.G.E. had worked absolutely fine that night, and he hadn’t detected any anomalies in me. Even the staff seemed normal the morning after, and that wouldn’t have been the case if there had been any problem with the Engine. So at first, I wrote it down as a weird anomaly caused by the C.A.G.E and tried to forget about it. But regardless of my best wishes, those dreams continued to haunt me no matter what I did to try to block them.

The only difference was that whenever I found myself in that world, Rina was waiting for me, ready to take me back to her safe place. Despite it all, a part of me waited impatiently for those dreams to come so I could meet her again.

Seeing her in my woke state was a shock. So far, I had believed that those dreams, as weird as they were, were simply nightmares caused by the Engine. What did it mean if they were real?, I wondered.

I finished my cigarette and lit another one, desperately trying to calm my emotions before the nightfall. I knew I needed to figure out what to do before Rina was let out of SafeRoom. At best, I had 3 days. I sighed and exhaled the smoke through the window.