Chapter 3: The Pattern

As Alex ventured deeper into the corrupted dream space, they began to notice a pattern in the chaos. The nightmares weren't merging randomly—they were being drawn to specific emotional resonances. Fear of abandonment called to fear of failure. Terror of death embraced anxiety about inadequacy. The human psyche, it seemed, had more in common across individuals than anyone had realized.

But there was something else. A single thread of nightmare that seemed to be drawing all the others to it, like a black hole of terror at the center of the web.

Alex followed the thread, navigating through landscapes that shifted from urban decay to primordial forests to the endless corridors of childhood homes. The deeper they went, the more personal the nightmares became, until they realized they were approaching someone's core trauma—the deepest, most protected fear of a human mind.

The thread led to a door.

It was ordinary in every way—painted white, slightly scuffed, with a brass handle that had seen years of use. But Alex could feel the weight of terror radiating from behind it. This was the source.

They reached for the handle, then paused. In six years of dream architecture, they had learned to respect the boundaries of the human psyche. Some doors were meant to stay closed.

But as they hesitated, the nightmare web pulsed, and Alex could feel it beginning to affect the neural interface systems. Soon, the barrier between dreams and reality would begin to break down. The nightmares would leak into the waking world.

Alex grasped the handle and turned it.