Episode 32: Sweet Dreams

## Synopsis

The mayor has asked Captain Holland if she can look into why people are having mental breakdowns in the country club. Holland passes this off to Bjorn and the crew. Bjorn, Henry, and Sammie pay two men a visit who have been effected by whatever is going on and find they seem to have gone through some kind of nightmare experience.

## Episode Description

It's the beginning of a new and terrifying arc. Hold onto your butts. It's about to get spooky as the mayor of Thornvale invites the heroes to look into a supposedly haunted country club that's driving people insane.

## Key Events

* Two men have had mental breakdowns after staying at the local country club. Holland asks Bjorn if him and his crew can investigate.
* Sammie is able to use magic to look into the minds of both men and can see they experienced some kind of nightmare loop inside the building.

## Summary

Sammie is at home, recovering from the events of the previous days. Her dad gets home from jail, only to find out that all of his beer is gone. Sammie manages to convince him that he drank it all, keeping suspicion away rom her, and he immediately leaves to go get more beer.

A few days later, Sammie goes to Fort Lagarto to meet with Miguel. She's decided to lean into her magical abilities and has accepted the training Miguel has offered her. The first thing he teaches her is how to make a fireball. He gives her some instruction on how to practice once she's able to start a small flame and then leaves her to it.

While Sammie is practicing, Henry comes out to talk to her. He confronts her about some things that he feels she's been lying to them about. First, that he could tell she was lying about why she had a man stuffed in her Jeep after the brawl at the bar. Sammie tries to avoid the question, but Henry presses her more. She admits that the man would call himself her father, but it's debatable. Henry tries to encourage her to not take her family for granted, even if it is a strained relationship.

Bjorn is at his hotel, about to complete his normal morning routine of checking up on Oliver on social media. However when he checks today, it seems all traces of him have disappeared. All of his accounts are gone. He has gone completely dark. The last location Bjorn remembers him being is Texas. As Bjorn is getting ready for the day, he realizes he's not feeling well. His head hurts and he's experiencing some body aches and chills. Bjorn decides to head to the Fort to check on Ben.

Ben is more stable now. He has a TV with an Xbox 360 hooked up to it. Bjorn knocks and then enters. Ben gives Bjorn a nod before turning his attention back to the game. Bjorn asks him how things are going and if he wants to talk about it. Ben gets a bit nervous and says he doesn't want to talk about it yet. Bjorn lets him know he'll be there when he's ready. Bjorn gets up to leave, but before he can Ben stops him. Ben asks if Bjorn ever has nightmares about the monsters and Bjorn replies with, "always." Ben asks for advice about how to get them to stop. Bjorn says that for him, he had to confront what had happened to him and process it. Ben nods.

The crew discuss what to do with Masa. Sammie is adamant about keeping him, but Miguel isn't too keen. Sammie suggests that they give Masa to Ben to give him something to take care of. Stanley's eyes light up, agreeing it's a great idea. Miguel sighs and gives in. Stanley says they'll keep Masa in a cell next to Ben for now until Ben is ready.

Another day or two pass and Captain Holland calls Bjorn. She says that the mayor has been calling her about something that needs to be checked out and she volunteered him to do it. She explains that two people have had a mental breakdown at the country club and thinks that the two events are connected and that it has something to do with the country club itself. Holland says the two men affected are Jacob Miller,\* who is shut up in his house and wont leave, and Elijah Young,\* who is staying in a rehab facility and has seemingly entirely lost his mind. Bjorn isn't sure this is up his alley, but agrees. Holland lets him know the mayor is expecting to see him at the country club that evening, but they should check out the two men before heading over.

Sammie gets a call from Blue, letting her know they've received word about a potential haunted country club and that she should go check it out. He also fills her in on Elijah and Jacob. He tells her that she needs to make sure to keep the mayor safe and that no one finds out whether the club is haunted or not.

After Bjorn calls Stanley, Henry, and Sammie to tell them what he's learned. Henry and Sammie meet Bjorn over on East Thornvale and they decide to go to the mansion first with hopes it'll be easier to gain access than the psych ward. At the mansion, Bjorn tries to convince whoever is on the other end of the buzzer to let them in, but they tell him that Mr. Miller isn't accepting any visitors. They pull away and brainstorm about how to get inside. While they talk, another car pulls in. Bjorn quickly pulls up directly behind them and enters through the gate with the other vehicle.

The butler, who is seemingly the one on the other end of the buzzer, is rather flustered that Bjorn and the others have forced their way in behind the other vehicle. He tells them they need to leave because Mr. Miller isn't accepting any guests. The man who has just arrived asks if Jacob is in trouble with the feds. Sammie promises that he's not in any kind of trouble. Once assured Jacob's not in any kind of trouble, the butler relaxes and lets them inside. He leads them inside and upstairs to a large oak door, knocking on it and calling for Mr. Miller, letting him know there are federal agents here to speak with him.

Jacob Miller begrudgingly opens the door. He's an older man in his 50s and looks thin and ragged, wearing an expensive robe and slippers. The man allows them in and closes the door. He asks why there are there and Bjorn says they're there to follow up with him after what happened at the club. Jacob says he doesn't want to talk about it. Sammie says they believe the episode he's experiencing may be linked directly to the country club. The man has a visible reaction to mentioning the club, but says it was nothing more than a bad dream. Henry calls him out for lying and Jacob looks more scared.

Jacob starts to admit that he saw things. He says that he and Elijah had had too much to drink at the club one night and decided to stay the night to be safe. He starts to grow increasingly anxious. He says when he woke up there were monsters and blood that attacked him and Elijah. He says he saw awful things and starts to pull at his hair. He says he can't forget what happened and can't get it out of his head.

Sammie walks up to attempt to peer into Jacob's mind. She thinks about when she first arrived at Fort Lagarto and Miguel looked into her mind. She focuses on the feeling of it and tries to replicate it in order to perform the spell on Jacob. She grabs his arm and attempts the spell. She begins to see what he had described, him drinking too much and passing out. He wakes up and walks outside without shoes on. The hallway is suddenly full of broken glass. He falls and there seems to be no more glass, but his hands and legs are still bleeding. He goes into another room and is instantly swarmed with black beetles. He runs back through the door and is suddenly on the beach. The water is made of blood. He continues to stumble through rooms and doors and see different horrors every time. Sammie pulls out of his memories and puts her hand on his shoulder in an attempt to comfort him. He doesn't notice Sammie looking inside his mind.

Jacob stands and asks them to leave, saying he needs to rest. The trio leaves the room and closes the door behind them. Sammie looks shaken. Henry asks if her spell worked. Sammie describes what she saw and that it seemed like one nightmare after the other. Bjorn is still not convinced this is something supernatural, so they decide to visit the rehab facility next to see Elijah Young.

The crew are able to use the pull of their FBI badges to get inside the rehab facility. They enter Elijah's room, who is sitting perfectly still on the edge of his bed. A woman in the room is attempting to feed him something. The woman asks if she can help them when they enter. Bjorn says they're here to talk to Elijah about the event at the country club. She says that her father hasn't been able to talk at all for several days. The woman, who reveals she is his daughter, says that she lives on the mainland in Miami, but has come over to take care of her father. She says that her father attacked someone at the facility, but he's been fine since they sedated him.

Bjorn takes the daughter out into the hall to talk to her in order to give Sammie an opportunity to look into Elijah's memories. She is able to see flashes of horrible scenes, very similar to what she saw in Jacob's mind. When Sammie pulls back to herself and out of Elijah's memories, Elijah's hands shoot out to start to strangle Sammie. Henry manages to pull him off of her, but Sammie is left coughing and spluttering on the ground. Once they leave, Sammie lets Bjorn and Henry know she saw the same thing.

Back at the car, Bjorn helps to fix up Sammie's throat, which is now showing purple bruises from each of Elijah's fingers. They discuss what's happened and come to the conclusion that they need to check out the country club, but want to do some research first. Henry does research on his phone. He finds that it must be some kind of fear-based creature that acts to break people. Sammie texts Anthony and tells him what they found and Anthony answers that it must be able to create scenarios based off of someone's fears.

They arrive at the country club and are greeted by the mayor. He is a dapper looking man with salt and pepper hair. When the crew gets out of Bjorn's car, the mayor asks if they're the ones that Captain Holland sent. The mayor pulls out a set of keys and hands them to Bjorn. He informs them the club is entirely theirs for the night, he just asks them to make sure nothing weird is going on. The mayor leaves shortly.

Bjorn turns to the other two, saying they need to be careful. Sammie agrees, saying they should go in armed and take shifts through the night. They head inside, raid the fridge of its fancy lobster, and then pick a room for the night. The rooms they're staying in are nice and expensive looking. Sammie offers to take the first watch, still shaken up from the two men's memories, and paces the hallway. Bjorn and Henry head to bed.

Sometime during the night, Sammie starts to get a weird sensation. She feels a pull toward the floor, her eyes starting to get heavy. She tries to pull herself toward Bjorn's door. She tries to cry out, but no sound comes out. She feels as though she is melting into the ground as her limbs grow heavier. She then passes out.

\*Originally stated as the Jacob Miller being in rehab and Elijah Young being shut up in his house, but the crew got them flipped in the episode.

## List of Appearances

* Sammie Overbrook
* Tony Alvarez
* Miguel Rodriguez
* Henry Marlowe
* Bjorn Olafson
* Ben Lasky
* Stanley Marlowe
* Captain Jolene Holland
* Jacob Miller