Chapter III

A Certain Dream

Toto sat there in complete silence and puzzlement. Everywhere he looked was covered in darkness as far as the eye can see. After pointless examination of his surroundings, he finally got the courage to stand up. 

As he walked away from his desk, he turned around to only see the desk disappearing. In the distance ahead of him, he saw some sort of dim light staring into Toto’s lifeless eyes, it was getting brighter by every second.

It came closer and closer till  it covered the darkness that spread all around, blinding Toto of his sight. Toto stood as still as a statue with his eyes closed, waiting for something to happen, anything to happen. Once he opened his eyes and looked up, he saw bright blue above him. A sky was starting to take form. 

Halfway through the sky taking form, trees and bushes started to appear. 

Tree after tree and bush after bush started to appear more, once the sky was finished covering the light above Toto. After the trees, bushes, and sky were finished, little details like leaves and sticks began to appear on the ground. Toto began to take the concept that he was standing in the middle of a forest.

Toto’s first thought of all this was that he fell asleep in class and started dreaming. Something he does often when he's bored. After everything was done appearing, he started to walk around and make sense of his surroundings.

After all, it was his dream, he should be able to know where he was.

He took a couple of steps ahead and noticed a little boy sitting next to a tree holding a strange old book in his hands. The boy looked to be asleep. As Toto got closer he realized the boy looked to be around 10, he had short black hair and hazel eyes. He was wearing a white T-shirt, black shorts and some black vans.

Toto stared at the boy for a few minutes examining him, Toto couldn't get over the feeling of why the boy looked very familiar.

¨ Hey kid, wake up”.

Toto poked the kid in the eye , startling him with a jump. The little boy looked at Toto with eyes of fear and settlement.

“Woah woah, calm down, I'm not gonna hurt you”.

Toto didn't mean to scare the kid, but he was the only other person that Toto could ask where he was. Toto looked at the book that the kid was holding in his hands.

“ What’s that book you got there, it looks really old”.

The boy looked at the book while he ran his hands across the front cover.

“ Can I see it?” Toto tried to keep his voice as smooth as possible as he held his hand out.

The boy looked at the book one more time before nodding and handing him the old book.

Toto smiled as he proceeded to sit next to the boy with his back against the tree. He put the book on his lap and opened it. When he looked inside, he noticed something happening.

Letters started to appear in the book in red ink, to Toto's eyes it looked like blood. The ink would drip after every word started to appear. 

Toto was baffled as every word appeared in the book. He tried to think of anything that could make this happen but came across nothing. Once the words stopped appearing, He read the sentence that the words had made. " The Ringmaster makes his stand again, searching for eyes to light up his way, but be careful, from within this day, because your eyes may be for him to feast. " 

Toto read the sentence over and over, hoping to figure out what the sentence means. Finally, he turned to the kid and asked him if he knew what it meant. Damn poems, he thought. 

The boy said nothing as he put his head back on the tree. The boy looked like he was about to fall asleep again. Toto sat there in silence not knowing what to do.  He looked to his side and noticed a sign he didn't see before. The sign was made of birch wood and black painted letters on it. " Hopeful Woods. "

Toto turned to the kid and asked him if he knew where Hopeful Woods was located. The boy still said nothing, he acted like he didn't even hear Toto's question.

" You know, it's considered rude not to say anything to someone who's speaking with you. " The boy again, still said nothing as he sat next to the tree. He grabbed a stick and started playing with it, ignoring Toto completely. 

“ Hey, if you won’t say anything to me, then at least tell me your name, I never got it.”

Toto was starting to get annoyed by the boy now. The little boy dropped the stick and looked into Toto's eyes. Something about him really made Toto emotional when the boy looked into his eyes. 

“ My name, my name is….” Toto felt a surge of energy burst through him as the kid said his name.

Now, he wasn't in the woods anymore. He was staring at a ceiling with a bright light shining down on him. He felt around him and knew he was in a bed. 

He blinked a few times and started to sit up.

Hannah was sitting at the end of the bed smiling at him.

“ Look who's finally up."

Toto stared at her for a few seconds, ignoring her statement. The sudden energy he got disappeared from his body. He looked around, seeing a bunch of posters with " Get Well " or pictures of nurses and doctors. He looked next to him and saw he was connected to a heart monitor. With his surroundings, he was able to figure out he was in the hospital. 

“ What the hell happened?” he asked in a croaky voice.

“ You collapsed in the classroom all of a sudden, you wouldn't wake up so everyone got worried and the next thing we knew, you were sent to the hospital. They said you had a heart attack but I don't remember you having any heart problems at all. You made me really worried! " 

Hannah held onto Toto's neck in a tight hug. She held onto him for a few seconds, choking Toto. 

" Anyways, where did you get that book, you were holding onto it the entire time. " Hannah said as she released him. She pointed to a table next to Toto's hospital bed where an old book lay under the lamp.

Toto looked to the side of his bed and grabbed the book off the table. 

It was warm to the touch. 

Toto laid the book out on his lap flipping through the pages. Hannah watched him with curiosity. 

" What's the point of the book if there's nothing in it? "  

" I had the weirdest dream. " Toto said.  " Was it a lewd dream. " Hannah said, giggling a little. 

" No, I didn't, this book is what was in my dream. . " Toto said as he closed the book. I was in some woods called Hopeful Woods. Some kid was there sitting next to a tree holding this exact book in his hands before he handed it to me. " 

" Hopeful woods? Isn't that the woods behind the neighborhood where that kid went missing 6 years ago. '' Hannah said as she adjusted herself on the bed. 

" Yeah, it is, but the kid there seemed really familiar, like I knew him from somewhere. When he told me his name, a big burst of energy shot through me, waking me up. 

Hannah looked at Toto with confusion. " What was the kid's name? " she asked. 

Toto looked at the book again before saying, 

" His name was Eren Heart".