He woke up the next morning, in his pajamas, in his bed, in his cozy little dorm room. Aemric’s head was spinning: he could remember all of that ‘dream’ as clear as day. He pulled out a notepad and tried to remember what he could so he could record it, to either remember the dream and all its vividness or confirm it was real later. None of it slipped away from him.

  He finally set down his notepad some fifteen minutes later, and ran his hands through his hair. It all still felt real. It didn’t seem like a dream, it was something else. He was sure of it. He checked the online news reports… but all of that should have been last night. Just because there was nothing yet didn’t mean there was nothing. Would the news even report on this? Hell, where was that whole incident? It felt like it was still in Leansville, but the city was big, and it wasn’t like alleys were unique to just one city.

  He couldn’t think about it now; Aemric checked the clock and confirmed that he barely had enough time as it was. He needed to get to class. It felt weird, after helping fight a gang war throughout the night, but that essay wasn’t going to turn itself in. Shit, he had to get to the library to print it, too. Why didn’t these damn professors just accept digital copies?

  His first class finally ended, and Aemric promptly pulled his laptop out of his bag and checked the news again. First, local. Gangs…

  There was something. Five dead in an alley. A gunshot was heard on 10th Street at 3 AM, and when the police arrived minutes later they found four men and one woman dead on the ground. Weapons all over… two guns were found, one with a spent round in the chamber. Authorities reported the events as gang warfare, and the corpses appeared to be members of the gang known as the ‘Dogs of Eight.’ The other party? Still at large.

  10th Street wasn’t all that far away. Nevermind ‘in Leansville,’ this was almost in his neighborhood. At least he didn’t have to worry about his parents as much; it was much closer to him than them.

  Aemric put his head in his hands and thought.

  He’d directed that other gang to kill those ‘Dogs of Eight.’ He was part of this. It was in defense of those people with the leather jackets, and he knew that if anyone else knew what he knew then they wouldn’t really be able to blame him. But still… he’d seen it through. That woman, a total stranger, had been under his control, and he made her strike first and strike hard.

  He was part of this, somehow. What did that mean? Fucking how was he part of this? He didn’t know of any spell that could do this. Nobody was this powerful. He knew for sure he didn’t have an ounce of affinity for magic in his blood. What the hell was this?

  Then, Aemric suddenly felt calm again. He took a breath, and he dreamt.

  What he saw in that ‘dream’ shook him. He had a date for when it would happen, too. Two years from now. Two years, and everything would burn down.

  Everything felt pointless after that. College… definitely seemed pointless. What he’d seen was just images and sounds and smells, Aemric knew, but he was convinced it would happen. He continued to eat, breathe, sleep, and go to class, but he didn’t feel any desire to learn.

  What was the point of a four year degree when the world would be destroyed in two years? All the history he could pick up was going to evaporate if he didn’t pick up the pace.

  Still, only two days had passed. Aemric’s mind was still racing, and he was still figuring out his own emotions, nevermind whatever the hell had happened to him. Still, the daze that he’d been in for the last while was… over enough. He sat down in the college dining hall after class, and after one more deep breath, he nodded.

  This all had to have a purpose. Something had given him some kind of mind-control power, or at least the opportunity to use it, and let him re-try a real world event until it was ‘solved’ in an apparently-satisfactory way. Then, presumably that same thing had shown him a vision of absolute doom and forced his mind to believe it to be true.

  Entire religions had probably been founded on less. Hell, he was tempted to try and start one himself if this was how it was going to be.

  But, no. That would probably put him in an asylum, and as much as he felt maybe he needed that, Aemric much preferred his present life, even if he was going to college for a degree he’d never get. Besides: given a vision of imminent doom, and sudden powers, he had an inkling of what was happening here, too.

  He was supposed to do something about it, wasn’t he?

  It seemed silly. He wasn’t a magician, he wasn’t a soldier, he wasn’t the fucking President, and he wasn’t even an honors student. He had none of the means. Just… one ‘dream.’ Setting aside why he specifically had been chosen, he had two guesses as to what would happen next.

  One, he’d dream again one day, and then he’d… do something else. Only whatever had caused this knew what he would dream of and what he would control during it. Then, another day, he’d dream again, and again, and again. In theory, these dreams would amount to something: he’d maybe have some kind of impact on that apocalypse he’d seen.

  Two, he had that power to dream. Or, more accurately, there was some way to trigger these ‘dreams’ and therefore mind-control someone from far away so as to make them do… something, without their permission. Aemric was worried about this one. If this was how it was meant to be, he didn’t know where to start, and really, he wasn’t sure about the ethics either. No, damn the ethics, there was important work to be done! He could try breaking into the President’s head to do something about the apocalypse, but what?

  He didn’t know what the situation was. More information was needed if he was going to get anything done. Nothing else seemed worthwhile, so Aemric got to it. He ate, put his dishes on the tray, then left for his dorm room.

  Aemric found himself back in class.

  No, that definitely wasn’t right. He was on the ceiling, in one of the classrooms, at his own college.

  This was not where he expected to be. He’d settled down on his bed, made up his mind to see if he could ‘dream’ about that black-haired girl again, but it put him here. Odd.

  He knew there was something he could do that would confirm one of his suspicions, though. He looked to the clock on the wall. 15:19. He made a mental note, and mentally nodded. Thinking about doing these things helped him feel a little better.

  He then realized that maybe he was controlling someone in the room. He looked around, and thought of scratching his head. No… nobody was doing it, but Aemric wasn’t sure whether he had given the command right. Everybody was doing their own thing; listening to the professor, taking notes. Aemric listened in for a moment. Ah, yes. A literature class. As a history student himself he felt almost at home.

  Taking an extra college course wasn’t what he was here for, though. Aemric thought about the implications of what was happening right now. There were things he could test. He looked at the clock. 15:20. He needed to stay here a little longer just to be sure.

  In the meantime… why was he here? All the classrooms looked the damn same so it was hard to tell if it was one of his typical rooms, maybe that would do it. If it was somewhere he was familiar with, that could be a rule. Was he thinking of going to class when he settled onto his bed?

  Wait, no. There was a more obvious explanation, he just hadn’t wanted to think of it. Aemric looked down into the room, and then saw it once he realized what to look for. Long black hair, not in a ponytail, but still familiar. The student in question was holding her head in her hands, maybe sleeping, maybe thinking, maybe tired. Aemric couldn’t see her face. That would confirm it if he could. Did she have to look at him? That seemed like a weird requirement. What had made her look up last time? Did she need to die in order to make that happen? That seemed very weird as a requirement.

  He tried something. He wanted to change his perspective to be near the professor… no. It didn’t work. He remained directly above her. That was a second strike, he realized. But, maybe it was someone else who looked like her. He’d noted that she’d looked familiar after the first dream. Then again… maybe she was familiar because he’d seen her in school.

  Aemric considered his options here. He could try and back out. That was a crucial skill: if he could decide if he wanted to leave, it might be useful. If there was some kind of cooldown, though, that would be shooting himself in the foot right now.

  He could try and control her again. That… well, it was in service of a good cause, even if she wasn’t in danger or anything. He needed practice, especially now that he knew he could trigger these Dreams. Aemric looked at the unnamed girl, and willed something to happen.

  She straightened up her posture.

  That was it… that was all he intended to do. Now, to let her go. How was that done? He hadn’t let her go last time. Maybe it was as simple as everything else. Aemric willed for that to be it.

  The girl tensed up, and started looking around the room; she turned to each and every single person in the room with her, gauging them. A few of the boys behind her looked a little flustered when they noticed her looking their way. She ignored that reaction and stared at each of them for a good second before carrying on.

  Aemric mentally nodded. That was, indeed, it… he had to guess that if he wanted to end the Dream, then it would work the same way. However, now he was curious. He gave the girl another order. She looked back to the front of the room, ‘paying attention in class,’ and then murmured very softly.

  “Tiria Fensott.”

  Aemric hadn’t heard the name before. He had her lean back a little and look up at the ceiling. Yes… that was her. He’d seen the same face in the darkness of that alleyway. He never would have thought that any of the other students were stone-cold gang-members…

  He let her go again. Immediately, the girl tensed again, and after a moment’s hesitation, she gathered her things, stood up, and went to leave. The professor paid her a glance, then went back to teaching the other hundred-some students in the room.

  Aemric found himself following her, as he’d expected. Tiria fast-walked to the girls’ bathroom. He decided not to spy on her in there.

  Then, he remembered something. He looked at the clock in the hall. 15:30. It had been a while.

  Aemric woke up and checked the clock. 15:19.

  About four minutes after he’d settled down to try and dream, and he knew he hadn’t gotten it immediately. He had the note next to him. Time in the dream, though, had been different; it had started at 15:19.

  Time did not flow the way it ought to. He knew there was something like this when he saw the previous dream looping on itself, though. It was… he wasn’t sure. Maybe it wasn’t time control, maybe it was a premonition. Either way, it already drove him insane to think about. Even being in that space was clearly incredibly powerful. It gave him extra time to think, and plan, and see things he wouldn’t otherwise see. It multiplied his time before The End.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  Wait… there was another thing he could do with this.

  His dorm was only a few minutes from the campus, especially the classrooms that looked the way that one had. Aemric left, and on the way started to realize what he was doing wasn’t all that important. He already knew that the Dreams had real effects. Or, at least, he was sure enough that he didn’t need more confirmation. Still… he figured he was already on the way.

  He did a little soul-searching as he continued to walk, and realized that, no, he wanted to see her in person. To know who he’d been messing with… as if an apology. He was pretty sure that telling a gang member that he’d been mind-controlling her was a good way to wind up in a ditch somewhere, though, so he wasn’t going to really tell her anything.

  He arrived at the building he meant to at 15:29. If only he’d made note of the classroom number… shit. Still, he had other means. The doors had windows. He looked in, and there it was. Literature, excellent. He’d never said or thought those words before.

  The door opened. She was there: the black-haired girl he’d seen from above. Now, he was seeing Tiria from a little bit below, since she was a head taller than him. Realizing this, he was surprised that he didn’t remember her face better.

  She was stressed… scared, angry, the lot mixed together. Aemric hesitated for a moment, then as she left the room, he tried to ask her a question.

  “Hey, um, do you know which way is north? It’s for an assignment.”

  Tiria looked at him, very much pissed off, but stopped and answered. “That way.” She pointed with her thumb over her shoulder, and then brushed past him. She went to the bathroom, as expected.

  Aemric nodded. “Thanks.” He had confirmation: he could change the future that he saw by entering it. That was important. He might even be able to ruin his own plans if he wasn’t careful.

  Aemric continued to experiment once he got back to his room. He tried controlling someone different: no luck. He tried a few other people: still no luck. He tried Dreaming of a place rather than a person: no luck. An attempt was made at dreaming of his own pet cat, back at his parents’ house: no luck. Then, he took a break, made some notes, and did some research. Closing his eyes and trying to ‘sleep’ like this kind of gave him a headache; he hated napping during the day. Maybe that was just the power at work, though; he figured it might genuinely have a cooldown. He’d have to try all these again later.

  For now, though, he looked into the gang he’d seen, and any news on that fight. There wasn’t much that had been published on the five dead gang members that he didn’t already know – in fact, most of the news was less accurate than what he could have said, if pressed.

  The Dogs of Eight, though, he learned were a recent development from here in Leansville. They were apparently named after 8th Street, where they’d first set up four years ago, and they’d made some noise since then. They’d got into fights before and members had been arrested or killed previously; some robberies and other incidents were connected to them, too. Exactly how important they were wasn’t too clear thanks to the lack of information that he had, and Aemric would have been fairly surprised if anything could connect them to the actual impending apocalypse. They seemed to just be some kind of conventional street gang, and no news related to them turned up outside of Leansville. Hell, they seemed to be even more local than that, only active on a few streets.

  Aemric checked the time, finally.

  Shit, he’d missed a class. Rather, it had started half an hour ago and he’d already be marked as absent. He wasn’t sure when he’d missed the alarm… Oh, his phone was dead. That would do it.

  He chuckled. Well, he had better things to do. Still, he did intend to keep his school performance at a reasonable level so as not to bother his parents too much… not only did he want to avoid going back home, with all the distractions that would include, but he also wanted to keep any trouble he might get into away from his family and keep their peace of mind. He also wanted to stay somewhat close to Tiria, since it seemed like she might be his only ‘puppet.’ Keeping track of her was useful.

  If she happened to be taking similar classes to his own, that would be very convenient. Then, he’d have much more time to keep up his own grades by… well, stalking her, basically.

  He got back to the topic of Tiria in his own head.

  She’d been scared by his control. Scared enough that it had been obvious on her face. Maybe… having her say her own name was part of that. Was it a secret? Was she in school under an alias, or something? Regardless, he’d caused her some difficulties, and maybe owed her some explanations. Not only did he just feel bad about it, it was also important for utilitarian reasons to keep his ‘puppet’ in good shape.

  Going and talking to her directly was still out of the question.

  Tiria Fensott was lying on a comfy-looking bed. Aemric envied that bed greatly after suffering his dorm bed for three months. She was staring at the ceiling, though, wearing all her outdoor clothes and even her boots, and her backpack was dumped next to her. It had been a while since the incident in class, so Aemric was a little worried.

  Aemric took a non-physical breath, and got to work. He took control.

  “I think I owe you some explanations.” Tiria murmured to herself. “I’ll let you go in a little bit here, so you can talk, but there’s a few things I want to say first.

  “Yes… you’re being controlled by someone else. No, it’s not someone you know. And why… well, it’s hard to explain without sounding crazy. Suffice to say, it has to be you, and I’ve got no choice in it. Terrible things are happening, bigger than any one person, and the both of us are in some position to stop it. I need your help, and in exchange, I’ll try to help you, too.

  “I’m certain you have a lot of questions. I’m not always listening, but I can hear and see you when I want to. I’ll let you go now. Go ahead and say what you want to say. A murmur will do.”

  Tiria froze, and her eyes went as wide as they could. Then, her expression shifted to one of incredible anger, and she thumped her bed with one arm as hard as she could.

  “Fuck you.” She spat.

  Aemric mentally nodded. Couldn’t blame her for that. Still, he waited for a while.

  After a while of twitching and seething in anger, and a few more strikes at the pillows and sheets, Tiria settled down again, now sitting at the edge of her bed.

  “Who are you?” She whispered.

  “I’m pretty sure you’d try to hunt me down and kill me, or see if someone else could do it, so I’m not going to answer that.” There was a long pause; Aemric let her go for a little while, then took control again. “By the way, I can’t hear your thoughts.”

  “Good.” Tiria paused. She didn’t really have any guarantee that that was true, so Aemric had no idea whether that eased her worries or just told her of something else to worry about. “What’s this… thing you’re trying to stop?”

  “Like I said, it’s crazy.” After a moment’s hesitation, he simply said it. “It’s… the end of the world. I’ve seen it. It’s coming, two years from now. If I could get all the countries working together to stop it, I would, and if I had any proof, I’d show you. And if I had absolutely any chance of stopping it without doing this, I would try that. Hell, I barely have any kind of plan as it is.”

  After reacquiring her independence, Tiria did not seem impressed. She even ignored that entire announcement. “What are you going to do with me?”

  “Well… I’m going to have to hope I don’t need to do anything you don’t want to, but I don’t really know beyond that. This power is experimental, I don’t know the ends of what it can do, and so at the very least I’m going to have to test some of it on you. Once I know more, I might be able to answer you a little better.”

  Tiria was even less impressed by this. Still, Aemric thought it was for the best to tell her whatever he could, since they were stuck together. ‘Unimpressed’ was much, much better than ‘possibly-suicidally stressed out.’

  “Why did you make me attack those Dogs?”

  Finally, the question Aemric kind of wanted to answer. “They were going to attack you. I don’t just see the impending apocalypse, I got to see that, too. I can see the future. With the three of you in that alley, they were going to shoot you all dead on the spot before you could react. I tested having you run away, but it didn’t end any better. Although, in the future, I think I’ll try and protect your friends a little better, too. I just wasn’t sure of what I was doing with the power yet.”

  “...What do you mean, you ‘tested’ making me run?”

  “Like I said… I can see the future. I watched the future where I gave you that order, and then went back when it didn’t work.”

  Tiria was quiet for a while. “I see.”

  “If you want some time to think about it, I can wait… I need to test how long this lasts, anyway.”

  “And you’ll be watching me in the meantime.”

  “Sorry. That’s just how it works.”

  “Stop watching for a little while, at least. There are some things I need to do.”

  Aemric considered it. He had some guesses as to what she meant. Maybe it was something important, but… well, no, he could cut it off when he needed to.

  “All right. Wait, tell me what time it is. I can’t see a clock from here, and I’ll need to wait until you’re done to get back to you.”

  “It’s 17:44.” Tiria said, after checking her phone. “Give me until… 19:00.” She set an alarm.

  “Right. I’ll be going, then.”

  Aemric did not cut off the connection. He waited, and watched his puppet-partner continue to sit for a while, then stand up and leave her room. She put her shoes and coat away, and then stopped in her living room, looking down a hallway. She was considering something.

  She decided against it, and got some protein bars from the kitchen. She didn’t seem satisfied by eating them, but still scarfed the things down as if she hadn’t eaten all day. Then, it was off to the bathroom.

  Aemric ‘followed’ her in for a little while. Tiria simply went in and sat on the toilet lid to think… then, went to the mirror, checked herself over, and sighed. Aemric cut off the connection after a while longer: she was just fussing, ruminating, fuming.

  The 19:00 appointment finally came after a long period of getting dinner, taking a shower, and doing a little more research. Aemric was checking if anyone else online was mentioning that apocalypse in two years, now, since maybe some otherwise-schizo was actually right this time. No luck. He considered posting about it himself, but he decided that it was probably for the best if nobody could link him to any of this.

  Then, he sat in his chair; he was testing if he could Dream from other places.

  Yes. He could. Tiria was back in her room, looking at the ceiling again.

  She checked her phone, then murmured, “So, are you there?”

  “I’m here.”

  “What’d you think of my father?”

  “I haven’t seen him yet.”

  “Good.”

  Test passed. It probably wasn’t a good move on her part to throw a softball like that out: now he knew to look out for that trick. Aemric waited for a little while. He didn’t have anything he particularly wanted to say.

  “What do I call you?”

  That, he didn’t have an answer for, so he thought up a solution on the spot. “Call me ‘Player,’ I guess.” From his side of things, everything already looked a little like a video game.

  “I see.” This did not impress Tiria either; it definitely wasn’t going to stick. “How much have you really seen?”

  “Not much. I know you’re a college student, and I know about the incident from two days ago, that’s all. I mean, you can feel when I’m in control like this, right?”

  “Yes, when you’re making me say or do things, at least. And I’d prefer you stop doing it.”

  “Like I said, I can’t. Sorry.”

  She didn’t appreciate that at all. “What next?”

  “Nothing… I’ll just watch you for now. I don’t know for how long.”

  Tiria made a face, and then sat up. “I have assignments to do.”

  “Don’t let me stop you.”

  Then, Aemric waited, letting his puppet do her own thing. Her homework wasn’t much different from his; he occasionally looked at it and thought about getting in there and changing up various sentences to fit better, but he knew it wasn’t welcome. She was just taking notes in response to some book, and it wasn’t even a fun read. Still… this dragged on for hours. It didn’t seem to have a limit at all.

  At least Aemric had time to think about things. Still, he was starting to realize that this wasn’t as useful of time as it could be. He himself couldn’t take any notes, just watch and think. No research, nothing like that. He’d have to take over to get anything like that done… still, it could be done.

  At the late hour of 22:43, Tiria stopped working for the night. She shut her book, and stuffed her notes into a binder. She sighed, and murmured, “Are you still there?”

  “Yeah. Boring as hell up here.”

  “I’m going to go to sleep.”

  “Don’t let me stop you.”

  “I’d prefer if you didn’t watch.”

  Truth be told, the test was basically over. Aemric was reasonably sure that this just lasted ‘as long as he desired.’ At the very least, several consecutive hours seemed to be enough for any purpose he could think of.

  “All right. There’s one thing I need to do, though.” He took Tiria’s hand, and sketched on a note: a simple five-pointed star. “Keep this on your desk, and bring it with you to class tomorrow.”

  “What is it?”

  “It’s a sketch of a star.”

  “That’s… all?”

  “I’m testing things, here. Don’t worry about it.”

  She picked up the note of her own accord, and clearly considered tearing it apart. She didn’t, though, and just tossed it back down haphazardly before getting up from her chair. “Fine. Now, no more watching.”

  “Right.”

  There was one more thing, though. A command: to draw a second star whenever she woke up, and bring them both to class. He tried to implant that, and then left.

  Aemric found himself back in his own room. He’d already gotten used to the actually-comfortable living space that Tiria had and grumbled when he saw his sparse dorm room again. Still… all of that had been useful in some way. He didn’t feel tired at all, either, and that was the normal price of using too much magic, as he’d been told. Not that he could cast any spells himself, at least, not before this.

  He settled in to use up all those same hours again. He had an assignment too, as boring as it was, but he set an alarm: 22:30.

  At that point, he Dreamed again.

  Tiria was still in her chair. Aemric waited; nothing, nothing… 22:43.

  “Are you still there?” She asked.

  Aemric waited for a little while. Then, Tiria murmured, “Yeah.”

  This felt very trippy to him. Now, he was overlapping with himself, and it looked to him like Tiria was just talking to herself. Very distressing. The rest of the conversation played out, until she asked him to stop watching. Then, Aemric changed his own line before she could say ‘Right.’

  “There’s going to be a second note. Don’t bring it.” He said, with her mouth. “That’s all… see ya.”

  An annoyed look aside, Tiria didn’t say anything more to him; he’d overridden the command to say 'Right.' Next was to see if the previous order to make and bring the note or the verbal order just now would win out.

  On the desk in front of Tiria, there were two notes, two stars. Seeing that surprised Aemric greatly.

  This was very important… he confirmed with her, right there in class: she hadn’t drawn the second star of her own accord, and despite her having torn the note to shreds, she couldn’t leave its pieces behind. It was a pile of scraps next to the first one.