While sleeping and having a dream, if one becomes aware of the fact that they are dreaming, it's called the state of lucid dreaming. While in this state, one can freely control the dream with their thoughts. However, what if the dream cannot be controlled? What if the dream is a nightmare, showing one's darkest memories?
It becomes mental torture, and this was the case for Jack. Ever since that fateful day, he would have a complete repetition of the day's events in his sleep. He would watch himself, and all that happened around him, in third-person POV.
The dream started with Jack waking up in his room, only to find his teenage form, thirteen years old, sitting at the edge of the bed, his back facing him.
"Ugh, not again," adult Jack groaned as he realized what was going on.
Young Jack started laughing. He was getting ready for school and was talking to Diana over the holo watch, who had forgotten to complete her maths homework.
"You didn't complete your work?!! Mr. Reeves will give you an earful," he said, laughing smugly.
"C'mon, I was watching that show you suggested to me and lost track of time. So, I'd say half of it is your fault too for suggesting me something that good," Diana's voice came from the other side amongst the sounds of sizzling pans.
"You don't have to guilt trap me for me to let you copy my homework," he said with a sigh. "Get ready. Grandpa and I have gotten ready. We will be on our way to pick you up now. We'll do the work in the car on our way to school and during class and finish it before maths lecture."
"Oh my God, you will?"
"I promised you I will protect you this Friendship Day, didn't I? And the cane is one of the highest priority targets to protect you from," he said, grinning.
"Thanks, you're a lifesaver. I will finish breakfast. I'm already dressed up."
"Alright, know what? As a bonus, I will help you complete the work. I will take the page on the right though."
"Thanks, I will now get my grades for assignment completion thanks to you," she said excitedly before they cut the call.
"I promised Dad as well that I would watch over and protect everyone I held close," he said, clutching the metal arm ring he was wearing around his left wrist. A gift from his late father which he had been wearing since he was eight.
At this, something twisted inside the adult Jack. He looked at his now empty wrist. The ornament had broken, and he no longer had it.
"It's called a kada, an accessory from Indian culture. It symbolizes strength and willpower," his father had told him while he gifted him the thick bracelet.
Little Jack, who found it quite flashy, took an instant liking to it.
He stretched his arm forward towards the bracelet, to touch the cold metal once more, to remember the strength and willpower his father gave him along with the bracelet.
"Jack, let's go," his grandfather's voice came from downstairs.
The scene dissolved around him. It was like he was watching a 3-D movie. Soon he watched young Jack get into the car and go to Diana's place and pick her up. They did the assignment in the car and in class as they shared the same bench, their shoulders pressed together as they scribbled away on a page on their side simultaneously.
They finally managed to complete the assignment and hand it to the maths teacher without issue. Jack smiled at this, but there was a pang of guilt and sadness inside him, knowing the worst part was yet to come.
The bell rang through the halls, announcing the school hours were over. All the students flooded outside of their classrooms and gathered into the school grounds, getting on their way to their homes like usual.
Diana and Jack were sitting under a tree waiting for his grandfather to show up. Half an hour passed away, when he didn't come, they started getting restless.
"When will he come?" Jack groaned. "He isn't picking up his calls as well."
"Let's wait a bit more, I guess. We still have a lot we can talk about," Diana suggested.
"Or maybe," Jack started with a mischievous smirk, "we can ditch the wait thing and walk home together."
"But—" Diana tried to protest.
"What but? C'mon, it's not much of a walk. We can get home in an hour of walking."
Diana thought about the suggestion, but the adolescent part of her took over, and her eyes shone bright with adventure. "Okay, let's do it," she said, reciprocating his smirk.
They got out of school and started walking home, talking and laughing. His grandfather had been picking them up and dropping them to school after his father died on duty. He also insisted on having Risa carry one of the Cretan armours with her for safety purposes.
They stopped at a café and bought ice cream, which they continued to eat on their way home.
Watching all this unfold before him, the adult Jack sighed. He knew exactly what was going to happen next. And he dreaded how many more times he would have to watch it throughout his life.
The last time he had this nightmare was when they were learning combat at the academy, and he had been duelling with the instructor using metal rods instead of javelins. He chuckled, remembering how hard it pained when the instructor pushed the metal rod into his stomach as he dashed forth to land a hit.
"Ah, there it starts," he sighed, watching two men dressed in black and longcoats walk towards the two teenagers, who were so lost in talking that they bumped into the strangers.
"Ow, sorry there. I didn't see—" young Jack said as he straightened up after the collision.
But to his surprise, there was no one there. They must've continued, he thought.
"Let's go," he said, turning to his right where Diana... was.
He panicked. She was just walking beside me, what happened? young Jack thought.
He looked around frantically, and suddenly a hand came up from behind, covering his face with a cloth and throwing the longcoat around them. Everything went black once the cloth draped over him. After all, even in the dream, he was only living his memories. He could not see what he didn't see at that time.
Young Jack resisted as the smell of chloroform filled his nostrils. Eventually, his body fell limp. Darkness washed over the place. Jack sighed in the utter darkness, knowing what's coming.
A few seconds later, light erupted again and the scene came into focus. They were inside a van. He was lying on the bench, his hands tied behind his back. Diana was lying in a similar manner on the opposite corner of the compartment. One of the men was driving at the front while the other was with them at the back.
Jack struggled as he sat up straight, his head still reeling from the chloroform.
"Look who is awake," the man said with a sinister smile.
"Who are you?" Jack asked. He felt his kada on his wrist. Slowly, he started rubbing the ropes against the metal, gradually chipping away the fibres.
"Oh, bet you can guess who we are. You're not that much of a kid, are you?" the man said, still with the sinister smile.
"I can. I'm asking who you are working for?"
"Now that's what I meant," the man said. "We are from the Ortho Sapiens, kid," he said before driving his knee straight into Jack's face.
Jack's head slammed back and hit the metal walls. Blood oozed from his broken nose and he groaned in immense pain.
"It's stated in the law that a father's debt is carried by the son. So how about I take the punches I owe your father?" he said, that sinister smile still wide across his face.
"Don't kill him. Boss said we have to get him alive," the driver said, glancing back for a second.
"Will try. Will be hard though. My brother was arrested because of his father's antics." And with that, the man started punching Jack ruthlessly. Blood splattered from Jack's mouth alongside the grunts of pain, still trying to cut free from his binds.
He knew his grandpa would find them soon. He was certain he would. But what if it's too late by then? The dread only fuelled his determination and he began to rub the ropes against his bracelet more relentlessly.
After what felt like hours of immense pain, the man stopped. Jack looked around to see the reason behind it stopping. He looked around to see Diana stirring awake. Before she could, the man dipped another cloth in chloroform and rendered her unconscious again.
"Well, what do we do with her?" he asked the driver.
"We can sell her off. Will fetch some money, I guess," the driver replied nonchalantly.
"If that's the case, maybe a test run of the product won't hurt," the man in the back said.