The Dream Island

It was supposed to be a routine operation. Well, as routine as it gets when trying to locate any evidence of a colleague's disappearance.

Dr. Randal Pierce, the esteemed archaeologist, and a dear friend of mine, had been missing for 6 months by the time I got the request. The only reason the society had reached out to me was because I happened to be close to the last known place he had communicated from.

The society was obviously trying to be as frugal as possible. An expensive rescue operation, even for Dr. Pierce, was a bit too much to ask. As a fellow researcher, I found this stinginess offensive but could hardly take it out on them by refusing to go after him.

That and the fact his last known destination was the tribe of Rozoki was good enough a reason for me to take the detour. It would only be a couple of days, I thought.

When I arrived I was met by a local named Johan. Johan could thankfully speak English and served as my guide and translator. The Rozoki were a friendly tribe compared to others in the area. I had armed myself with a gun but quickly realized I would not need it here. The people welcomed me to their community dinner (which was more like a festival over a bonfire) and, that night, we ate and celebrated.

Johan was familiar with Dr. Pierce as well and that gave me hope I could resolve the matter of his whereabouts quickly. However, he avoided my questions about him throughout the night. I gave up prodding him at that time thinking I was breaching some local etiquette and embarrassing my host.

However, my patience wore thin after two days off not being able to get any information. Finally, I cornered Johan, seizing on an opportunity when we were alone. 'Where is Dr. Pierce?' I asked him sternly. 'Just tell me what you know.'

Johan looked uneasy but after realizing he couldn't slip away he sighed and slumped down on a log. 'Come sit,' he said, 'I will tell you what I know.'

And so I finally heard the story of what happened to Dr. Pierce.

'We call it Khawaab e Jazeera,' said Johan, soberly. 'It translates to The Dream Island in your language. The legend goes that it was once a living island with thoughts and dreams. One day the island died but its dreams remained alive. They say if you go there you enter the dreams of the island.'

I had heard enough tales of legends through my encounters with tribes to not be surprised by the fantastical story. I remained respectively quiet but something about my expression gave away my skepticism.

'I know you think this is just another story made up by a group of savages,' Johan said indignantly. 'But I assure you it is true. If you get close to the island you actually hear voices coming from there. The voices are of our ancient elders who dared to venture there. They never came back and now their dreams have become part of the island.'

'And Dr. Pierce was interested to go see this himself?'

'We warned him!' said Johan, a look of agony coming on his face. 'No one has set foot on the island for centuries. But he was too curious and packed his bags and made us take him there. He just wanted to take a look and then we would go back. But...but he never did.'

'I...I waited for him...but it got dark and I had to head back!' Johan shuffled his feet as if embarrassed by his actions. 'I went back the next morning and shouted until my throat was sore. But there was no response.'

'It wasn't your fault,' I said, placing a hand on his shoulder. It was obvious he still felt guilty for his retreat and I did not want to make his suffering worse. 'But I will need to go to Khwa...the island myself to verify. If he is alive I need to bring him back. If he is dead….well I need to let his family know so they can get some peace.'

I expected Johan to protest but he nodded. 'Yes,' he said, 'we people of the Rozoki pride ourselves in being great hosts. Dr. Pierce was our guest and we let him down. It is our duty to retrieve him in whatever shape he is in.'

The next day we set off on the island by boat. Though it wasn't too far away it took almost a half day's trip to get there because of the currents. The island looked quite benign and even beautiful when it first came into view.

It seemed to have a rocky foundation with a healthy covering of plants on top. It wasn't huge, at least relative to islands, and could probably be covered in a day's time.

'Don't be fooled by its apearance,' said Johan, looking at me sternly, ' it is dangerous there and we must be on alert. In and out as quickly as possible. Not more than an hour.

'I know,' I said, holding up my hands. Johan was right. The fact that this little piece of land had managed to ensnare Dr. Pierce was enough of a reason for us to be on our guard.

It was still afternoon by the time we got to our destination. However, it seemed the island was shrouded in some sort of mist which blocked off most of the light as soon as we got close to it.

'It is always like this,' said Johan, looking a little frightened. 'The dream fog keeps the outside world at bay.'

I was getting tired of these superstitions about dreams and living islands. Of course it was probably some weather phenomenon that the tribe had made into a tale. But this wasn't the time to be arguing science.

We found a spot to land and tied our boat. Most of the trees were dead but we did come across a few small wild animals to my surprise. It seemed the island did harbor life, despite its relatively small size. I could not quite place these animals but they appeared to be close to the rodent order, though they were significantly larger than rats.

As we came across one of these creatures I realized it was chewing on something.

'Is that a bone?' Johan got closer, and then with a start stepped back. 'It's human!'

I had seen enough human bones to know he was right.

'Let's keep moving.' I grabbed Johan's hand and pulled him away from the ghastly sight. As we walked away I couldn't help but steal a glance back. The creature was still staring at us, chewing on the bone.

We walked along in silence but each of us was lost in sombre thought. I knew what Johan was thinking. Had we just witnessed our old friend's remains?

The woods seemed quiet and we didn't see any other forms of life. The air seemed to get stiller and the mist thicker. It was as if the island was gradually clenching it's fist on us. We could barely see anything more than ten feet ahead of us now.

'Is it night already?' Johan asked, suddenly looking up.

With a start I realized that it had gotten very dark. 'We could not have been walking for more than 30 minutes?'

Suddenly, a cacophony of sounds started coming from the woods around us.

'What in heaven's name!' Johan looked around frantically.

The mixture of sounds was getting louder and more frenetic. It was a nauseating mix of whispers and screams and singing.

We're going to go mad! I thought, pressing my hands to my ears to try to drown the noise out.

And then...it suddenly stopped.

We looked at each other in confusion. 'What the hell was that?'

A sudden movement caught my eye. 'Look it's one of those rodents!'

The creature looked at us as if amused, and then quickly turned around and started hopping away.

'Let's follow it,' said Johan. 'It might lead to more...clues'

I knew by clues he meant bones...bones of Pierce possibly.

We kept a safe distance as we tailed the little creature. It gave no indication that it was aware we were following it and never looked back. I was in front but the mist was such that I could barely see the rodent despite not being too far behind. And then I saw it.

'Ahhhhh!' The scream tore through me as I looked up at the sight. A huge shadow stared at me through the dark. It's flashing white eyes seemed to pierce a hole in me.

'Are you okay?' Johan had caught up to me and grabbed me by the shoulder.

'Don't you see that thing?' I shouted, but when I turned to look back in front there was nothing there.

'What?' asked Johan. I didn't know what to tell him. That I had seen a ghost? Or maybe it was just my mind playing tricks on me? What realy shook me though was that the figure looked familiar.

Get ahold of yourself, I admonished myself, shaking my head. 'My apologies, now we have lost that big rat.'

'I think we might still be in luck though,' Johan pointed at what seemed to be a small clearing behind some trees. I could make out a bunch of the rodents clustered together in a group.

We moved towards the rodents which made them disperse. As we stood at the source of the rodent's feast, a wave of despair came upon us.

A human skull with a few bones was lying at our feet. 'Look,' said Johan, reaching down and finding a piece of clothing. 'This was Dr. Pierce's. He was wearing this green coat when we left.'

The evidence had finally become overwhelming. Our dear friend had indeed perished at this island and unwittingly became the food of these foul creatures.

I looked around and found a few more pieces of his clothing scattered across the area. 'What gear was he carrying?' I asked Johan.

'Let's do a quick sweep to see if we can find the bag,' I said. Maybe he left some notes in there of what happened.

'Alright, but we best be going soon,' said Johan nervously. I realized that the remaining light from the sky was rapidly fading. We had brought some torches but it would be unwise to stay and rely on those for visibility here.

For all we knew the creatures could turn on us at any point. Maybe that's how Dr. Pierce met his demise?

We circled the area and soon enough came across the bag. Or what was left of it. It was shredded to pieces and there were bits of torn paper scattered about.

'Those damn rats didn't leave anything!' I was angry because this could have been the only clue we could have had as to the last days of Dr. Pierce.

'Look!' Johan had found one of the medicine boxes. 'There's a piece of paper in here.'

Dr. Pierce, apparently aware of the rodent's voracious appetite, had sealed away this paper in this tiny metal box to preserve it.

'What's this?' Johan gave the paper to me with a confused look on his face.

I read it quickly. It was just one line:

We are inside its head!

'What does that mean?' I wondered. But before Johan could reply the loud noises started up again.

'Not again!' shouted Johan, covering his ears. 'Oh what the hell!'

Shadows started coming out of the trees. We at least now knew who was making the noise. Even though I could not understand them it seemed to me they were pleading to us for something.

'Is this your language?' I asked Johan. He looked pale but nodded. 'What are they saying?'

'It is an ancient dialect of our language but I can make some of it out. These are...cries of help.'

'Help….meee'

I turned around when I heard the voice. Perhaps it got my attention because it was in English but I also recognized that voice. It was Pierce! The shadow I had seen before was staring at me. It stood hovering above Pierce's skull and bones.

'Pierce!' I cried. 'Is that you?'

But the shadow ignored my question and seemed to be focused on Pierce's remains on the ground. 'Take...me...with...you.'

'We must go!' Johan grabbed my arm and pulled me away. I tried to look back but the shadow was gone.

'Wait!' I stopped Johan. 'I think it...Pierce wanted me to take his skull. I ran back and grabbed the skull and tucked it into my bag. At that moment I was sure that was what the shadow was asking even though there had been no explicit communication between us.

'Let's go!' Johan frantically gestured to me as I caught up with him. The shadows followed us as we made our escape but they did not come out of the woods.

'I see it!' Johan yelled, as the boat came into our sight. We had made it back! But our celebrations were quickly cut short. Johan stopped suddenly and I almost ran into him. 'W-what is that?' he stammered pointing a trembling finger towards the figure right in front of us.

I caught my breath. It looked like a creature straight out of a mythology book. Half bird, half man. It was standing calmly blocking our only path to salvation.

'Begone vile creature!' I shouted, taking out my gun and firing at it. Johan yelled in his language, which I assumed was pretty much the same thing. The creature started moving towards us menacingly, the bullets bouncing off him without any effect whatsoever.

In desperation, I searched my bag for any weapon and found my torch. Instinctively I turned it on and flashed it at the chimera. The creature recoiled and shrieked at us. It was obviously not used to the bright light and the sudden movement to hide its face made it fall on the ground.

'This is our chance!' I shouted and we both ran before it could regain its footing.

We ran as fast as we could towards the boat. I dared not look back to see how close that thing was following us. The sounds around us had reached a boiling crescendo.

'Quick untie the boat!' Johan jumped onboard and proceeded to start the engine.

'Dammit!' I cried struggling to untie the rope. I could hear footsteps behind me getting louder. It was close!

'Yes!' The rope finally came off and I jumped on the boat. Only then did I look back and my heart skipped a beat. The creature was only a few feet away. A few seconds more and it would have tore into me!

We braced ourselves for its attack but it came to a sudden stop as soon as it reached the shore. It jumped backward as the water tide came in.

'It can't follow us in the water!' Johan shouted. I could only hope this unsubstantiated claim would hold up. Fortunately for us it did. The creature did not move from it's position and just calmly looked at us as we sailed away.

We didn't dare celebrate until we were far away from this damned place. Soon we were out of the island's mist. To our surprise the sun was about to set. We had only been on that island for less than two hours but the darkness had made us forget the time of day.

'We made it!' Johan shouted. 'I can't believe we made it!'

I could only smile before collapsing on the ground. 'What was that thing? Those sounds?' I asked.

My ancestors' dreams,' said Johan. 'They came here. And now their dreams... cannot leave this hell.'

Johan looked solemn and started praying. His answer did however confirm my suspicion that the shadows were asking for help.

Dreams trapped inside a dream! What kind of crazy place was this? How could this be even possible? Before I could think more though Johan grabbed my shoulder.

'Look!' he said, gesturing towards the island. I gasped.

'So it finally reveals itself,' I said. I could not be sure if we saw what we saw because of the sun being at a certain angle or the island giving us a glimpse into its mysteries for our benefit. But suddenly we could see the island in all its entirety. The island above the surface and the jaws of the beast that made it up below.

'We were inside its head!' gasped Johan. 'That's what Dr. Pierce meant.'

'Indeed,' I said. 'The island...was this creature. And when it died, only its dreams remained trapped inside its head. Pierce probably went through hell on that island and discovered far more than he could have ever bargained for.'

'Poor Dr. Pierce. Do you think the creature killed him?'

'I don't know...maybe? Or maybe he just went mad running around that place with those shadows?'

'And now his soul is forever doomed to live in that prison just like my ancestors.' Johan sighed and bowed his head in despair.

'I think we managed to get at least him out,' I said, taking out the skull from my bag. It seems this is where ours...and the island's dreams live. The head.'

Understanding dawned on Johan's face. 'Of course! That's what he meant. Take me with you....as in take his head out of the island. That was his way of escaping that hell!'

Johan clasped my hand, tears streaming down his face. 'I am eternally grateful to you! Dr. Pierce's dreams will now be able to find peace.'

'I just did what Pierce..or I guess his dream self told me to do,' I said, patting him on the back.

'Rest in peace my friend,' I said, looking at the skull, 'we will give you a proper burial at your home. Where you...and your dreams belong.'