Vivid REM nigthtmare

Solan is tossing and turning. The lightning flashes across his closed eyes followed by the deep booming thunder a second or two later. He is trying to shout to his friends but no sound comes out of his throat as he screams, "Nooooooooo!" He snatches at Harold's back, feels his fingers swipe against his paladin cloak and the portal snaps shut.   Solan sits straight up in bed, no, not in his bed. He feels confused and nauseous. He wonders if he has been poisoned. as his memory slowly comes back from the edge of the nightmare. They had all returned to the inn and someone in his nightmare had discovered a secret portal behind an old wooden table in some room he hadn't even realized existed in the inn. The fools had all, without discussing it begun walking straight into it. A voice from the heavens encouraged him to follow. If he didn't follow, his child would die. That had almost worked. Then he remembered he had no children and knew the inviting portal was a trap of some sort.   Even as he looked around himself, confused and sick from the nightmare....wait was it a nightmare or was this real? Solan shakes his head as if to clear the confusion and sees his friends laying in Professor Cavendish's house. He is closest to Cavendish's sofa, the one the man hinself had been tied up and sitting on just a few minutes or hours or lifetimes ago. He looks and sees that Harold had been second lasst to leave and is just in front of where he was laying. In front of Harold was Lily, then Tranq, then Harald, and in front of Harald and closest to the front door was the priest, no not a priest, a cleric, Valaky, Valakhad.   Solan muttered aloud to himself, rubbing his face as if that would help wake his brain, "Everytime a colleague falls, a devil gets his wings," Every time some disaster has befallen him, he has woken from a nightmare with that sentence hovering on his lips. He has no idea what it means, he just knows that something catastrophic has happened. It is that thought that wakes him fully. He starts shouting at them, "Harold, Lily.....ahhhh...Herald?" And keeps shouting as he sees the paladin closest to him move in wakefulness. Panic in his chest, the sweat and the trembling of his hands gives him hope it's not too late. He shouts then as loud as he can, "Harold! Lily! PEOPLE" and keeps shouting until he sees them all struggling to awake.   Harold looks back at him with a questioning look and turns to the others and says, "Guys....?"   Solan jumps to his feet and striding about agitatedly trying to reach every one of his friends, and like an obstacle course, he walks between each one continuing to try to truly wake them. Nearly hysterical, speaking rapidly, his voice shaky, his hands shaking but his fists clenched. "No, this isn't right. We did something wrong. We have to go back. Either it's the book, or it's Cavender. We made the wrong turn. We still have time. We can still stop this," Solan sees they are confused and he is desperate to make them understand but how can he explain the catastrophes followed by the nightmare......every single time in his life. He knows he sounds crazy but he has to try to reach them. "Trust me, please. We have to stop this. It's all wrong. It was either the book or Cavendish. I think it's too late for the book, We have no choice then, we have to....it's Cavendish. Don't you see? That's the mistake, I don't want to be responsible for hundreds of innocent deaths I didn't want to.....I never wanted to....this time we might have time." Solan realizes they think he's crazy. It doesn't matter. He is a little crazy but he knows he's right. He's never had the opportunity to take it back but there's a window closing on this one and he continues shouting and gesticulating, trying to explain in his inept way. He sees the lightning flash again outside and knows there's still time as the ringing thunder rumbles for almost 12 seconds. "Cavendish, we have to agree to his proposal. I know it's crazy but it's our only hope. This time it won't be hundreds or even thousands that will die like last time, it will be mllions!" Solan sees that they are starting to pay attention and process his frantic words that make little sense and just hopes that at least one of them understands and be convinced. It is the quiet cleric that seems to be truly straining to understand what he is trying to stay and a tiny frisson of hope lessons the tension in his chest as Solan looks into the cleric's eyes hopefully.