The Writer, the Grave Robber, and the Unicorn

This dream could actually make a pretty good book if I ever have the motivation to write it. Also at the end, I'm going to be adding some things to make it a better story, so some things in this blog were not part of my original dream.

A while back, a person going by the alias of "The Writer" sent out copies of a book to certain Readers in order to test them. For what exactly, no one knows, but it seems that Clover and I were the only two to fully pass the test. I kind of messed up on the final page because we were supposed to tear things out by perforated lines. I love perforated lines so I just tore everything out. However, this mistake didn't land me any further than second place and I was glad that I would be doing this activity with Clover.
As Clover and I entered my house, the Writer showed up out of nowhere to congratulate us on passing the first test. He asked us for our books. I handed mine over since Clover's was somewhere else. He flipped to the last page, made a face (bc I made a huge mess on the last page) and took out a couple strips of paper and gave it back to us. He told us that these pieces hold the clues to our next task. Then he disappeared.
We were a little confused as to how the Writer just teleported into and out of my house, but we decided to read over the papers anyway. After a couple minutes of arranging and rearranging, we figured out the message.
The Grave Robber will come to my house tonight to look for something. He is dangerous. We must take measures to live through the night.
Now, in my dream, we had a grave right in front of the house (for some reason). I didn't think the Grave Robber would come into the house if he saw that the grave was right there. So when night came, we stayed in my room and listened for any signs of an intrusion. Soon we could hear the clanking of tools and the dirt being moved at the grave in front of my house.
Clover asked, "What should we do?"
"Maybe if we stay quiet and don't give away our position, the Grave Robber will take what he's looking for and leave," I replied.
We decided that would be the best course of action, so we sat quietly in my room until the sounds of work had stopped. Eventually, we fell asleep.
The next morning, we went to check the grave. The Grave Robber did a very good job of cleaning up his work. The grass was put neatly back into place and, if you didn't look closely, there were no signs that the grave had been disturbed at all.
On the gravestone, there was a note. I took it and read it to Clover.
It basically said, "Thanks for not disturbing my work. Most people are so overprotective of the graves of their dead relatives and try to attack me. By the way, the Writer asked me to give you your final task. Check the next page. --The Grave Robber"
We looked at the other note. It definitely came from the Writer. It said:
Congratulations on surviving the night. Your third and final task will not be so simple. You must find a book. Not just any book. It is a Danish children's book about unicorns. Inside you will find this page (and here a picture of the page we needed to find was included). Read it and you will be free of the Reader's Curse.
We had a lot of questions. Reader's Curse? It didn't feel like we were cursed at all. It's only been a couple of days, what could have happened? And what if we don't find the book? What if we only find one copy and the page only works for one person? Who even is the Writer???
We decided to head downtown to check our public library. That was our best shot of finding a Danish children's book. As we walked, we somehow also wrote a letter and mailed it to the Writer, asking him all of the questions we just had. However, as soon as we mailed the letter, I was transported to a very strange place.
It looked like a mall, but I knew that this was not the mall we had in our town. There were almost no open shops, and the ones that were opened had no people inside. The "people" outside the shops were also very strange. They looked like humans from afar, but once I get closer, I could see that they were large clumps of shadow wandering the mall aimlessly. I soon spotted someone who looked more or less like a normal person and walked over to them. I asked them if they knew where this was and how to leave.
She seemed surprised. It turns out that she was also a Reader who was sent to this pocket dimension for reasons unknown to her. She told me that she had been looking for the book ever since she got here and she has had no luck. She was beginning to lose hope until I approached her.
"So how do we escape?" I asked her.
"The Unicorn," she replied.
"Unicorn?"
"There's a unicorn within the mall, hiding under the guise of a human. They are the only one capable of opening the doors of the mall. But the human form of the Unicorn has been corrupted by the negative energy prevalent throughout the mall, so they refuse to help me leave. The last time I asked, they turned violent, so I'm afraid to go again. I believe the Unicorn is still untouched by this energy, so they may still be able to help us. However, the human won't transform into the Unicorn on their own. We have to force the transformation."
"How do we do that?"
"Hold out your hand to the Unicorn and imagine them transforming. As a Reader, we have more control over our surroundings than the other beings in this realm. Right now, forcing a transformation may be the only way for us to summon the Unicorn's true form."
"Alright. What do I need to do?"
The plan was for me to approach the human Unicorn and strike up a casual conversation. Without their magic, the Unicorn won't know that I'm also a Reader. I need to trick them into trusting me and moving outside the direct influence of the source of the negative energy, which comes from a large crystal hovering at the center of the mall. Then I would force a transformation and ask the Unicorn to free us. The other Reader will be keeping an eye on me should things get out of hand. With the plan rehearsed and my new found magic at the ready, I set out to look for the Unicorn.
I saw them sitting alone at a bench in one of the mall hallways. I went up and started talking to them. Somehow, I managed to get onto the topic of the Writer and his Readers. The Unicorn told me that there was a Reader in the mall with us and that she alone could force him to transform into his true form. Taking this chance, I asked him how she did it.
"She just holds up her hand and this white ball of energy appears," the Unicorn explained. "She shoots it at me and I change."
"So like this?" I asked, holding up my hand and imagining them turning into a unicorn. A bright light suddenly appeared in my hand.
"What are you-" but before they could finish, I shot the ball of energy at the Unicorn. There was a blinding flash. When it dissipated, a regal white unicorn was standing before me.
"Unicorn! We need your help," I began. "My friend and I are both Readers who were sent to this weird dimension by the Writer. We--"
At the mention of the Writer, the Unicorn bolted away from us. They galloped straight towards the center of the mall.
The other Reader ran up to me. "This is bad," they said. "We need a new plan."
We eventually did figure out another plan. After the Unicorn ran into the crystal, they too were corrupted by the energy. However, part of their unicorn personality remained unchanged. They still cared about the well-being of their friends, only now, their "friends" were the other shadow beings in the mall.
For some reason, there was this huge swing-like contraption at the entrance of the mall. We were going to tie one of the shadow beings to the end of that contraption and swing them toward the door. The impact won't kill it, but we're counting on the fact that the Unicorn doesn't know that. My job was to lure the Unicorn to the entrance, then swing myself toward the door as well. We hoped that seeing the shadow being about to hit the door would cause the Unicorn to open the door in order to save it. That's when we'll make our escape.
On the day of the escape, everything was going according to plan. I was running towards the entrance with the Unicorn in tow. The other reader had the swing prepared. I quickly strapped myself in and swung toward the entrance. Seeing this, the Unicorn opened the gates to let the shadow being through. I landed outside the mall in the sunlight. The shadow creature quickly evaporated. That's when I noticed that the Unicorn had turned their attention to the other Reader. She was struggling to get herself strapped in (I have no idea why we have to swing out, but I guess she wouldn't have made it if she ran) and the Unicorn closed the doors. Through the glass, I could see her give me a smile before the link to this dimension was completely severed.
After that whole mess, I decided to go look for Clover. I found her in the library holding a book. She immediately came over to me when she saw me. She told me that she had found the book and accidentally skimmed over the page when she was flipping through it. This caused her to break the Reader's Curse before I did.
"I don't know if it'll work again, but it's worth a try, right?" She said, handing the book to me.
I opened it to the bookmarked page and stared at it for a few moments. Nothing happened.
"Did that work?" I asked Clover.
Clover frowned. "I don't think so. When I looked at it, there were majestic lights everywhere and I felt... I dunno, different afterward."
"Well heck," I replied.
Just then, muffled footsteps came in our direction. We turned to see the Writer standing over us.
"Congratulations, dear Readers. You've broken your curse."
I stood up and looked at him, annoyed. "One of us did," I said, gesturing at Clover. "You didn't seem to want me to succeed. Still salty that I ripped up the last page of your book?"
The Writer gave a forced smile. "No. Your curse has been broken, just in a different way."
"How?"
"You escaped the Unicorn, did you not?"
"Yes?"
"Then you broke your curse."
"What, running away from a unicorn broke my curse?"
"That's a rather crude way of putting it, but, yes."
Excuse you. I thought.
"Okay, but what was the point of all this? Exactly none of this adventure made any sense," I pressed.
"Wouldn't you like to know?" The Writer replied, a mysterious smile on his face. He was starting to disappear. "You're a writer as well, are you not? Don't tell me you've never put your characters into strange situations just to see what they would do."
Characters?
"Actually, I don't think I have," I replied, trying to pry an explanation from him. The Writer simply sighed and shook his head, still smiling, before disappearing completely.
"What the fuck was that?" Clover said after a pause.
"No idea. Let's just go get some waffles," I replied.
"Sounds good to me."

So, that was a thing.
Towards the end of my escape from the Unicorn is when I started just making things up to add to the story. I actually woke up right after I left the mall so I couldn't tell what happened to the other Reader. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this really fuckin weird dream as much as I did when I was having it.
Until next time, dear Reader.

~Jay