The Strange Chronicles

It's 2052 and Detective Gray Cooper and her partner Joe Nebraska, investigate supernatural crime. Nothing will stop Gray from finding out the truth behind each case, even when the demons of her past threaten her future.

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The Strange Chronicles

Sweet Dreams

November 28, 2022 • Kings of Kontent • Season 1 • Episode 5

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"Where do we go when we dream?"

Detective Gray Cooper is called when a teenage boy disappears and his sister receives communication from him in a dream.

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00;00;05;01 - 00;00;33;16
Gray Cooper
I'm Gray Cooper, private detective. According to the Department of Homeland Security, my business doesn't exist. But according to the blockchain, a government address pays my bills. The following are the recordings of my case log for insurance purposes. You understand? See, I deal in the strange. The place where monsters and conspiracies dance. The kind of strange you're not quite sure is real or unreal.

00;00;34;12 - 00;01;15;26
Gray Cooper
Officially, the following case did not happen. I told you nothing. Welcome to The Strange Chronicles case log 934 February 14th Year 2053 Charlie Ms. 16 Missing Person Tacoma, Washington. It could have been a teen runaway story, but this missing child case got set my way when Charlie's sister Eliza said she saw Charlie in her dreams and that he needed help.

00;01;16;29 - 00;01;38;18
Gray Cooper
Lucky for Charlie, this came across my feed. Initially, Eliza's parents chalked her statement up to grief. Wishful thinking on the part of a sister who missed her brother until one morning when Mrs. Moss went to Eliza's room to wake her up and found her asleep wearing Charlie's ball cap. It was the same ball cap he was wearing when he went missing.

00;01;39;26 - 00;02;07;19
Gray Cooper
When Eliza woke up, she had no recollection of seeing the hat since Charlie's disappearance. She told her mother that Charlie had given it to her that night in a dream. The police think Eliza is full of deli meat. Me? I'm a bit more open minded than the establishment. I'll go pay them a visit to find out what they've missed.

00;02;08;07 - 00;02;26;04
Gray Cooper
When I arrive at the station, I'm escorted to Detective Tusk's office. He tells me the case is hopeless and that the feds are wasting his time by sending someone. But I'm able to convince him to humor me. He tells me they are quite sure this is a runaway case because the Moss family moved to Tacoma from another town.

00;02;26;11 - 00;02;48;21
Gray Cooper
And if you watched the news, you know, and our town was a small town at the base of Mount St Helens. And when it violently erupted two years ago, most of the town and its residents were lost. The Moss family happened to be on vacation at the time, but the loss of friends, family and all that they knew left a profound scar.

00;02;49;15 - 00;03;15;07
Gray Cooper
Charlie was particularly upset about the move and often talked about missing his old life. So that's exactly why the police think he's a runaway rather than investigating any other possibilities. Occam's Razor run amuck. They suspect Eliza is visiting Charlie wherever he's hiding and helping him keep up the ruse. But ever the doting mother, Mrs. Moss, claims Eliza hasn't left the house except for school.

00;03;15;16 - 00;03;25;25
Gray Cooper
Is Charlie really missing, or is this an elaborate runaway story? The local authorities are at a loss. So you guessed it. That's when they called me.

00;03;29;00 - 00;03;52;12
Gray Cooper
Just tried my luck with the Moss family. No dice. The parents barely allowed me into the foyer of their home where I spotted Eliza standing quietly at the top of the stairs. Her eyes told me she has something to tell me, but Mr. and Mrs. Moss did not allow me to ask her a blasted thing. Now I've met many a guarded parent when a case involves a missing child.

00;03;52;22 - 00;04;13;26
Gray Cooper
They're going through a trauma and the masses have trauma to spare. But something about this didn't sit quite right with me. If I've learned anything doing this job, it's to listen to that intuition. If Eliza has information about her brother Charlie, and where he is, or if the mosses are hiding anything, I will find out exactly what it is.

00;04;18;22 - 00;04;41;07
Gray Cooper
I had more luck with Charlie's best friend, Reggie Stoner. At the start, the kid was evasive, and then I cracked him like a baby oyster. All kinds of wild talk poured out. Wild if you're not gray, Cooper. Wild if you haven't seen what I have. Reggie started by sharing that Charlie had been missing his old friends in his old house that he talked about.

00;04;41;07 - 00;05;09;29
Gray Cooper
Andrew Town often. Reggie did not think he ran away. When I pressed him on why he thought that, Reggie sheepishly told me that he and Charlie found a mysterious book out in the woods. I've heard many tales of books found in the woods, none of them with a happy ending in any case. He tells me the book was a dream guide.

00;05;10;12 - 00;05;42;24
Gray Cooper
Fairy tales. They thought there was a spell inside. It asked you to speak aloud your greatest fantasy and it will come true. You get to live the dream, as they say. However, the spell also included a warning. Whomever dares to deal in dreams will bear the cost for wishes. Granted. Reggie said he didn't want any part of that, but Charlie felt the cost couldn't be any worse than what he's already been through in his short life.

00;05;44;08 - 00;06;07;04
Gray Cooper
Reggie confided that he thinks that the price Charlie paid is why he has disappeared. What exactly was the exchange? According to Reggie? When the dreamer goes into the dream world to achieve their fantasy, someone from the other side comes here to live out their fantasy as a trade, a dream or exchange, if you will. An eye for an eye, I suppose.

00;06;08;01 - 00;06;38;26
Gray Cooper
So what exactly did Charlie wish for? And what happened? If there really was an exchange, then where's the outsider now? Reggie said they'd agreed to meet in the woods after school on Valentine's Day when Reggie arrived for their meeting. Only the book was there, but Charlie didn't show. He thinks his friend is in the dream world, living his best life, and that some dark dreamer is here in his stead.

00;06;39;28 - 00;07;01;00
Gray Cooper
I ask Reggie to see this book, but he said he hid it and promised to bring it to our next meeting. Reggie believes that when the other dreamer goes to sleep, Charlie will be able to return. I'm left considering the odds of finding some other world poltergeists, living out their fantasy of darkness here. It's not looking good.

00;07;04;17 - 00;07;16;20
Gray Cooper
Where would one find someone living out a dark dream in Tacoma. I decided to get more information about Ender Town and what Charlie could be going through. I called Joe, my partner.

00;07;22;00 - 00;07;42;14
Gray Cooper
Joe has been acting weird lately. Sometimes I think it's because of our complicated relationship in the past. Other times I worry there's something bigger going on. He has seemed angry lately, not answering my calls and providing less input on cases. We also have to deal with the reappearance of the name Zeke Missoula. A horrible name for my past.

00;07;43;10 - 00;08;03;25
Gray Cooper
Zeke is dead, but somehow he's haunting me now more than ever when I bring it up to Joe. It's like something clicks in him in the distance between us grows. To be honest, I was happy to fly across the country to get away from it all. Who?

00;08;07;28 - 00;08;32;27
Gray Cooper
Oh, Reggie handed me the book. He showed me the page referencing the demon from the other side. Photo tour. Photo tour. Longed to wreak havoc on earth. He spent his entire existence looking for the right person to bring him to the surface. And it has to be someone tied to destruction. But how was Charlie tied to any destruction?

00;08;32;27 - 00;08;58;10
Gray Cooper
He's just 16. And according to the text, I found a pretty good kid. Wait. Mount St Helens, the volcano. Could its eruption have something to do with this? I left Reggie there and got in my rental car and headed to what used to be Endor Town Washington.

00;09;00;13 - 00;09;23;27
Gray Cooper
The map says I'm here, but the whole place is barricaded off. Nothing left but ash. It's sad. Some treetops poke out of the rubble here and there, but it's mostly filled with ghosts. No other side demons and no Charlie Mass. I saw a diner a few miles back on the freeway, and my bladder thinks I should pay it a visit.

00;09;28;15 - 00;09;52;16
Gray Cooper
The diner from the outside is quaint, and on the inside, slightly seedier. Coffee spills across the table as my waiter hurries back to his gaming station behind the counter. The coffee barely qualifies as its more brown tinged hot water. A little girl sits at the counter with her grandparents, who seem to be celebrating something. A shiny gift bag stands out on the dirty countertop.

00;09;52;21 - 00;10;13;07
Gray Cooper
A man sits at the back, asleep on his fist and someone is making a call near the bathroom. If the coffee is any indication about the food in this place, I'll take a pass. The waiter didn't ask me for an order anyway. As I sit my coffee, I flip through the book and come upon something interesting. Dream reversal in quotation.

00;10;13;14 - 00;10;47;15
Gray Cooper
If one becomes lost inside their dream, the things you see aren't as they seem. An embrace of a loved one's arms will release the dreamers charms. A loved ones arms. Eliza I step outside and see the beautiful, uninhabited landscape of what remains of Mount St Helens standing defiantly in the distance. I call the Moss House and silently cheer at my luck.

00;10;47;15 - 00;11;05;21
Gray Cooper
That Eliza answers. I tell her who I am and that I might have a way to get Charlie back. She seems to trust me, since I'm the only adult taking her seriously. I say she needs to go and take a nap, and if she sees her brother, she needs to hug him and think about how much she wants him back.

00;11;06;01 - 00;11;30;06
Gray Cooper
I threw in that last part, but I hear a determination in her voice. I head back inside the diner hoping that I didn't just play roulette with a kid's life. When I return to my booth, I can't believe my eyes when I see a man sitting there. It's Joe, Nebraska. I slide into the booth and say, Hello, it's Joe.

00;11;30;06 - 00;11;55;24
Gray Cooper
But his eyes are different somehow. Red. I'm so shocked he's here. But before I can say anything, he leans toward me with a sneer and takes out a giant dagger like bone. His face morphs into a demon face, Zeke's face, and he starts to laugh. Then he lunges for the.

00;11;59;19 - 00;12;26;03
Gray Cooper
I woke up screaming my heart racing. And I couldn't catch my breath. The diner's empty, except for the gaming waiter who doesn't register my distress. I hurry outside and squint at the setting sun. That dream has me unbalanced. Joe was Zeke, and it was terrifying. I give Joe a call and hearing his voicemail has a calming effect on me.

00;12;27;03 - 00;12;48;16
Gray Cooper
I take a short walk past the parking lot and look at the vast fields of trees and debris. And then I see someone making a circle on the ground with stones. The man from the diner on the phone by the bathroom. When I take a step toward him, the ground begins to shake.

00;12;51;24 - 00;13;16;22
Gray Cooper
He's chanting some sort of spell faux tour. Instead of approaching him, I hide behind a rock faux tour. Can't see me. Charlie can't be freed until he falls asleep, so I'll have to watch him until that. I sneak back to the car and recline the seat. I can just see faux tourists back. The ground shakes again.

00;13;21;27 - 00;13;50;15
Gray Cooper
I wonder what this guy is doing and hope whatever it is, gets him tired, fast. There are only a couple of cars parked at the diner and one filthy motorcycle. Do demons from the other side drive? And I get my answer. As Potter left the circle and got on the motorcycle. He gave a long look over toward my car and then peeled out of the parking lot.

00;13;51;21 - 00;13;58;27
Gray Cooper
I counted a baker's dozen and then followed him. 13 is my lucky number.

00;14;03;19 - 00;14;31;05
Gray Cooper
A few miles up, I found the motorcycle abandoned on the road. I pulled over to investigate and found footprints near the bike and I followed them cautiously off the road. Up ahead. I saw something blue flapping in the wind. It looked like photos had set up a small camp. I didn't see him anywhere, though. You'd think if you were on earth for the first time in centuries, you'd do something fun.

00;14;31;05 - 00;14;38;08
Gray Cooper
But this guy sets up alone in a ghost town making earthquakes. I suppose we all have our quirks.

00;14;41;16 - 00;14;57;21
Gray Cooper
I thought I was the one spying on him. But when I turned to go and find a better vantage point, he's suddenly right behind me, his eyes glowing in a flash. I saw Joe from my dream photo, pushed me down and walked toward the camp.

00;14;59;28 - 00;15;22;26
Gray Cooper
I lie there for a minute, paralyzed by the lack of a finishing blow. Did he think I was that easily subdued? I grabbed for the club in my pocket, got up and checked him on the back of the head. It was a surprise to both of us, the strength of my swing. He stumbled and went down. At this point, I wonder if Knocked Out is considered the same as sleeping.

00;15;23;02 - 00;15;46;20
Gray Cooper
When it came to the Dream book instructions. Once I was back in the car, I called Reggie Charlie's best friend. I told him to go to the Moss house and make sure Eliza was napping. This was our chance to bring Charlie back. Just then, Foster appeared at the driver's side window. Eyes aglow. I opened the door hard, slamming him in the gut.

00;15;46;29 - 00;16;08;20
Gray Cooper
Moving along the side of my car, I held up my club. Photo removed as though he were floating. I thought about the line from the book If one becomes lost inside their dream. The things you see aren't as they seem. I closed my eyes and imagine him gone. When I opened my eyes, he was. I was shocked. I had mine mastered him.

00;16;09;02 - 00;16;43;09
Gray Cooper
But then I turned. And he was right behind me. Not real. I told myself to relax and be firm. I said it out loud. You are not real. And photos flickered. I had only hoped that Eliza had time to embrace Charlie. I got into my car. Photo was no longer there, jumping back into the front seat. I took some breaths, hoping it worked as I drove.

00;16;43;10 - 00;17;03;10
Gray Cooper
There was a silhouette up ahead. It was a man. It was Joe again. No photos. I took a breath in and out, and as I approached, Joe's face became Zeke and I hit the gas instead of a thump. Zeke faded into mist and I continued down the road.

00;17;04;00 - 00;17;08;26
Gray Cooper
I want to.

00;17;08;26 - 00;17;33;14
Gray Cooper
Later on the drive there was one more large tremor, and I'd hoped it was photos being delivered back to the other side. When I got back to Tacoma, I went straight to the Moss house. At the sound of my motor. Mr. and Mrs. Moss came outside, smiling. They had lost their suspicious edge and seemed lighter. Eliza rushed out of the house to tell me our plan worked.

00;17;33;21 - 00;17;57;26
Gray Cooper
And to my delight, Charlie Moss followed behind her. Reggie rode up on his bike and joined the welcome home party just after me. Charlie didn't remember a thing that had happened. He did say that he fell asleep reading a book in the woods in the dream. He was back in another town, laughing with his old friends, riding bikes and eating junk food.

00;17;58;03 - 00;18;14;08
Gray Cooper
He said it was the best dream he'd ever had. Reggie told me to destroy the dream book. He didn't want it anywhere near him. DHS may or may not have allowed me to honor his request.

00;18;20;08 - 00;18;50;20
Gray Cooper
Where do we go when we dream? No one really knows. But we do know that our bodies become paralyzed. Our heart rate slows. Rapid eye movement occurs. Perhaps we play out a fantasy, a memory, a wish, or a fear. Perhaps another nightmare. But where are we? Do we remain in this world or go forth into another, only to be left with a hazy recollection when we wake?

00;18;51;01 - 00;19;20;12
Gray Cooper
For now, we settle for the dissatisfaction of the unknown. Whatever the answer. Knowing Charlie is home safe, I will pull up the blankets and sleep well. And I hope that you will to stop.

00;19;23;14 - 00;19;52;19
Gray Cooper
This has been an episode of the Strange Chronicles of Fiction podcast. You can follow us on Instagram at the Strange Chronicles podcast or email us at info at the Strange Chronicles. Com. This has been a kings of content production. Thank you for listening and.