Chapter 30: Addison's Dilemma

After walking for a few minutes, they found themselves across a house.

"That house looks familiar. Even though it has no neighboring houses, I know that house. That's Addison's house."

"It looks nice."

"Come on, let's go in."

Raffy walked towards the door and knocked, but nobody answered.

"Maybe no one's home."

"If this is your friend's dream, he is in there. There's no possible way that this house would be here if it wasn't dreamt by someone."

"You're right."

Once again, Raffy knocked on the door. This time, the door opened by itself.

"Raffy, maybe we shouldn't go in."

"That opening door seems like an invitation for us to come in. Well, why don't we?"

They entered the house and looked around for any sign of someone. Unfortunately, no one was around on the first floor.

"How about we leave now Raffy, I feel like something's watching us."

"Let's try the second floor."

"Raffy..."

"Don't be afraid, you're with me. I'm not letting anyone hurt you."

"Well, if you say so."

Raffy lead the way as Cassandra followed him closely. Raffy went up the stairs and recognized the two doors on the left and right.

"Let's go here. This is Addison's and Ton-ton's room."

"Raffy, I really feel awkward inside this house."

Raffy knocked on the door and someone quickly answered him.

"Go away! I'm not letting you in here! Go away!"

"Relax Addison. It's me, Raffy! Let me in!"

"Raffy?"

"Yes, let me in, I think my friend is feeling dizzy. Let us in Addison."

Addison opened the door just a bit to check whether it is actually Raffy that is standing outside. Once seeing that it is Raffy, and with someone, he quickly opened the door and let them in, and hurriedly closed it.

"What's going on? Why are you so uneasy and why are you panicking?"

"It's a long story."

Then suddenly, something banged hard on the door, very hard. Raffy and Addison were stopped by the knocking on the door behind them while Cassandra was still looking paranoid. Before anybody could move again, there was another knock on the door, but this time it was twice as hard as the knock before.

"Who's that Addison?"

"Don't...don't you open that door. They want...want to...eat me."

"What? What are those things outside the door? Answer me Addison! Is that why Cassandra's feeling uncomfortable here?"

"They're all around the house. On the ceiling, on the floor, on the walls. They're everywhere!"

"Just tell me what those things are before they get to us!"

"Cockroaches! Giant cockroaches! They want me Raffy! They're just waiting for the perfect chance to strike!"

Then suddenly, there was a loud bang and the head of a cockroach was stuck on the door.

"Don't let them get me!"

"I won't!"

Raffy blasted the head of the cockroach with fire and burned it. Unfortunately, he didn’t know that even if cockroaches lose their heads, they can still live.

"That won't work. They can live without a head; they can even live without eating for months. But I think they're hungry now."

"Then I'll just roast all of them. Stand back."

"What are you going to do?"

Raffy placed his palms on the hole made by the cockroach and blasted a fire wall to protect them from the cockroaches inside the house.

"You've got to wake up Addison! This is just a dream. Damn...I forgot that you have to face your fears in order to wake up. Looks like this one's going to be tough."

"Raffy! The windows!"

Raffy looked over at where Cassandra is and saw that a cockroach is trying to break into the room. While blasting magma into the house, he used his other hand to burn the cockroach crawling outside the house.

"They're too many; we need an insect repellant or something of the sort."

"We've got some, it's in the bathroom, but it is downstairs."

"I'll fend the cockroaches off, you get the repellant."

"Are you crazy? I'm not going down there! There's too many of them. There's no way I can get back here alive!"

"All right then, tell me where it is and I'll get it."

"You can't leave us here can't you?"

"Well, what do you want me to do? Just go down there; I'll fend them off for you."

"How about her?"

"She'll be fine."

Raffy waved his hand and made a fire wall around Cassandra.

"Won't she get burned?"

"If I want to, yes. But I placed that so they can't get to her. Now let's go!"

Raffy opened the door to make sure that nothing's outside. Once he made sure it was clear, he signaled for Addison to go down the stairs. As soon as Addison stepped out of the room, the cockroaches started to crawl up the stairs.

"I thought it was already clear!"

"It was, until you got out. They really want you that bad don't they?"

Raffy blasted each cockroach with fireballs but it couldn't hurt them. It only made them retreat for a while.

"Now is our chance to get down while they're gone."

Raffy climbed down the stairs as Addison followed him very closely. When they reached the first floor, a new batch of cockroaches arrived from every direction. Raffy blasted them off as Addison searched for the repellant in the bathroom.

"Where is it?"

"It's not there! Mom must have moved it somewhere."

"Addison, just dream of another repellant, a big one. After all, this is your dream, you can make anything happen."

"You call this a dream? More like a nighmare."

"Call it what you may, but you still have control over it. After destroying Somnus, you can now take over your dream and turn it into the way you want it to."

"Somnus? Who is that?"

"It doesn't matter! Just dream of another can of repellant! Hurry!"

"But..."

“Just try it!"

Addison tried as hard as he could to make a can of repellant appear out of thin air as Raffy still fends off the cockroaches.

"It's not working!"

Then Raffy was caught off guard as a cockroach started to fly towards him. In fear that Raffy might get hurt, Addison magically created a repellant appear into his hands. He quickly sprayed the cockroach to save Raffy.

"Wow that was awesome!"

"You were right, this is just a dream, and I can handle these guys."

"Would you mind if I borrow that for a second?"

Raffy took the can from Addison and lit up a fire on his hand. As soon as the cockroaches entered the house through the front door, Raffy sprayed the repellant through the fire creating a massive explosion of fire heading towards the cockroaches. After which, the house was burned but they were okay. Cassandra went down from the room and checked if everything was okay.

"Now, that wasn't so hard now was it?"

"No...but cockroaches are still disgusting."

"You said it."

Addison smiled and vanished. Cassandra looked healthy again as her being uncomfortable was removed because it was caused by the cockroaches.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't that much of help this time."

"It's all right, so was I. It was Addison who saved me instead of me saving him."

"Life is funny that way."

"You're right. We must get going now, we still have to save Ramch and Jessie."

"Okay."

Raffy and Cassandra went out of the burned house hoping they would also get out of the dream world safe and sound.