Kim plays along

Kim stood up so fast that she almost got whiplash. “Y-yeah, I’m your …sister. I’m here to report to the big M himself, but I kind of lost my clothes on the way. Can I borrow that skirt? Also, can you tell me where he is?”

“Ummm, ok? We’ll take you to Morpheus after we complete the tests.” The blonde passed Kim the skirt, which was made out of green leaves, along with a coconut bra.

“Clothes, thank goodness!” Kim put her new outfit faster than a hungry dog eats leftovers. She looked at herself; everything was covered. She was decent again! That outfit would usually be a tad too immodest for her, but it would have to do. “This is so much better than a perverted book. Wait, did you say something about a test?”

“Yes. The tests, that’s why you are here, right? Honestly, we were worried that you chickened out.”

“Yeah... I kinda forgot about the test? Can I get a small recap? What is it about?”

The three spirits exchanged befuddled looks. “Ok, so, we Oneiros are dream spirits. We make the dreams and nightmares that mortals experience in their sleep, right?”

“Right?”

“And lately, our nightmares are missing the mark. They no longer seem to have the emotional impact that they once had. It seems we have forgotten what makes humans tick.”

“Oh, you know how fickle those humans are.”

“We don’t, actually. To remedy that, we are going to turn ourselves into mortals and try out a variety of dream scenarios to see if they elicit the emotional response we think they should. And by we, I mean you.”

“What kind of scenarios?”

The three spirits smirked at each other. “You really don’t remember, huh? …Don’t worry about it.” The redhead pushed Kim into the curtain. Her bare feet stumbled onto a wooden platform. A full restaurant was in front of her. She looked back; there was no door behind her. A couple of lit torches shared the stage. Her three newest sisters were sitting in the front of the row. “Start the show!” they yelled.

The skirt, the torches, the floral arrangements hanging around the restaurant. Kim had a pretty good idea of what they wanted her to do. She waved her arms and swayed her hips. Over and over. It was a pretty lame routine, but it was all she knew of Hula dancing. The public didn’t seem amused.

“I want to hear singing!” yelled her ever-useful “sisters”. Kim swallowed. She started chanting. “Aloha Hawaii. Aloha Hawaii…” Was she supposed to be in Hawaii? Who knew? Her audience didn’t give her any clue, only scowls and scoffs. They were not enjoying the show. Kim felt a blush return to her cheeks. This wasn’t as embarrassing as streaking through the bathhouse or inverse Hogwarts, but still, it was pretty uncomfortable all around. How long did she have to do this?

She didn’t like to stare at the judgmental eyes of her audience, so Kim looked down and noticed that there were quite a few leaves around her feet. Her skirt! It was slowly falling apart petal by petal. A peek of the chocolate curls over her womanhood was beginning to be visible. Kim stopped dancing to cover. The audience booed. She frantically looked around. The only way out was at the entrance of the restaurant. There was no way she could brave running through all the patrons to get there. Kim felt trapped on the stage. “Keep dancing!” yelled her sisters.

So that was their game. The only way out was to play along. Kim continued, albeit with a pout drawn on her face. Her skirt kept vanishing until only a thin waistband remained around her waist. The public laughed and cheered when the last leaf fell to the floor. “Hmpf. At least things can’t get any worse.” The waistband of her new bra decided to snap. The coconuts flew out of the stage, and Kim’s pink nipples hung in the air. The public’s laughter turned to applause. “Aaah! Stop staring!”

Kim stopped dancing to cover herself. The public booed. She was standing on a stage in her birthday suit with a whole crowd of people booing her. It was a nightmare, which was the whole point, she guessed.

“Keep dancing,” yelled her sister.

“No. I refuse!” The public jeered harder. A bored patron grabbed a tomato out of his salad and threw it at the stage; It splatted on the curtains. The rest of the public liked the idea and grabbed their own vegetables. Kim screamed and tried to flee. Before any fruit could land on her body, she found herself standing in the void again.

“So, what did you feel?” asked the blonde.

Kim glared at her. She crossed her legs and placed her hands over her chest. “What do you think? I’m completely mortified. Can you take me to Morpheus now?”

“Interesting. It seems we were right about that one.” The spirit scribbled something on a notepad. “Morpheus? Not yet, we have other tests to run.”

Kim sighed. “What’s next?”

“Well, we know now that being naked on a stage is humiliating, but what about school? More specifically, while taking a final? Would that also be stressful?”

“You are kidding.”

“I’m afraid not. Then we’ll see if a naked P.E class has the same effect. Maybe the extraneous exercise will dull the shame? Maybe flexing your body makes you feel even more self-aware about it? We’ll find out!”

Kim hung her head. “And then you’ll take me to Morpheus?” The spirits nodded. “...Fine. It’s not like any of this is real anyway.”

The brunette raised an eyebrow. “…but it is.”

“What? That was just a dream, right? RIGHT?”

“Well, no. You were naked in a real restaurant. In Budapest, I believe.” The brunette shot a questioning look to her sisters, who shrugged.

“But ...you said that we were testing dreams!”

“Yeah, by seeing if our dreams have an emotional impact in real life. If we try them inside another dream, we wouldn’t learn anything. It’s hard to feel much emotion when you know that it’s all fake. That’s why we turn into humans and go to their world in the first place. Be thankful you weren’t here when we tested the falling teeth nightmare.”

“B-but those people were throwing tomatoes. You don’t do that in a fancy restaurant!”

“We might have …magically stimulated the mood of the restaurant. We do that to have the humans play along with our tests. But yes, they were real people.”

That had been real. She had been naked in front of a whole restaurant. Kim took a step back. Her mouth hung a mile below her chin. Up until now, she found some solace in knowing that wherever happened in this place, it would stay here. That was gone now. What if she saw herself on the news? A story about her “hilarious” wardrobe malfunction. She would never live it down.

“Ok. That’s settled. Onto the next test.”