4 Sneaking in the Night

"Time to see if I can enter dreams completely."

This night, I will try to physically enter a dream. I found it can be done, but my physical body will awaken whenever I do it. I was able to travel between rooms because I can choose to come out directly or return to wherever I was before I entered the dream. I could absorb more Ima from the dreams too. I call this new ability dream diving. My physical fatigue from being awake also disappears after a dream dive.

I also had a feeling that it would be a bad idea to die when dream diving.

"I'll have to be careful."

After months of dream diving the other orphans. I had gained more abilities. Each new ability cost more than the other exponentially. Especially if the abilities oppose each other or don't mix naturally.

I managed to boost my IQ to 200. I gained super strength, cognitive overclocking, super reflexes, true super durability, increased speed, air manipulation, shapeshifting, illusion power, increased dream walking and dream diving range, and sand manipulation.

I was also able to create some items to assist me. I created a small round clay pot-like container that has a subspace that can store 5 tons of sand. Creation abilities are extraordinarily expensive costing more Ima than I could collect in a year. Creating sand directly with Ima is much cheaper, so I made the small clay container with a subspace after saving Ima for a few days and filled it with sand. I name the container Dream Dune.

The next item was some armor. It was bird themed armor that was mainly leather with some plate metal to cover the important parts. I made it very strong, nothing less than a .50 BMG armor-piercing explosive round would deal any damage to it. Only vulnerability would be discombobulating damage types like sound and shock damage.

Finally, the last item I made was a staff. It looks like an ordinary walking stick made from Ashwood. It is nigh indestructible and can turn into a wooden armband to hide itself. It cost the most because I made it growth type weapon connected to my own power. The stronger I am, the stronger my staff is. It took two months of Ima to make it. I named it Sleepyhead. Now I was approaching my 12th birthday on September 11th, 2082.

In a couple days I'll be starting 6th grade in middle school.

"I want to visit a prison first. I want to see what sort of dreams and nightmares the condemned imagine about.", I think about and wonder.

In the dead of night, I turn on my invisibility and go to the nearest prison. RRM Atlanta prison. It didn't take long to reach there flying with air boost. I immediately dream dive into a random inmate.

"Rather than a nightmare, it seems to be a dream. Before I take a closer look at the dream I should decide what I should look like. I don't think being Sandman would be appropriate.", I think about what form I should decide upon.

I make a choice, "Perhaps Bogeyman would be appropriate for these condemned."

I take a black misty form and ooze black tar. My eyes are tiny red dots. There is faint silhouette of a ragged cowl on my head. Now I go deeper into the dream as Bogeyman.

I see the inmate. A 50-60 year-old gruffy white man is watching a horrible seen with a smile. He is dreaming of the time he murdered his wife and mutilated his children out of hate. He hated his life, his wife and children. He thought they didn't respect him, didn't love him. He worked a job he hated and lived in poverty. He was finally pushed over the edge when he lost his job and his wife was taking care of the children leaving some things unclean when he went home.

"Rotten dream...", I mutter in abhorrence. 

I absorbed the black energy of the dream. It wasn't a nightmare because it was just a rotten dream. Hence, the energy was not red but black. I make the dream go black and white and stop time. I approach behind him.

I condemn him, "George Thomas Oldman! Your dream is rotten! Your mind is rotten! Your sentence was life in prison. I sentence you to nightmares every time you sleep!"

I then use the Ima I collected to curse the man. He will now always have horrible nightmares where he will be tortured for his evil whenever he sleeps.

I left him to his torture and visited other felons. Some I also curse to the eternal nightmare. Some had regular dreams. some were repentant. I was happy to find that I dreamed dived as Sandman more than Bogeyman. Most of the prisoners weren't evil, just misguided or fools.

I think about my equipment, "I'm going to need another set of items for Bogeyman since I have one for Sandman."

I went home to my orphanage room in time for the sun to rise.