Fear is meant to ruled with, not ruled by.Īnd the Nightmare Network would make sure you'll never forget it.Ġ- you have joined the Network and had your inner "true secret" turned into an Avatar with full access to the Virtual Void. They find out what those monsters fear of- those few self proclaimed heroes- and make sure to tell them the necessary secret meant to defeat the beast.
They open gates into the Virtual Void and fight those monsters head on. They hunt down after those who become living nightmares and use their own secrets against them. While recruiting hackers and programmers has helped them achieve great power over people in key places and get a foothold in many important places, the modern adepts don't forget their ancient obligation- to fight fear with fear. And best of all, no longer they had to search the dreams and subconscious of others for their deepest secrets- instead, they could just check their Facebook profile. They switched complicated ceremonies with high tech equipment and occult rituals with programming interfaces. That digital blackness was surprisingly compatible with the hole found in the soul of each of those hunters. With so many computers and smartphones and god knows what else, everyone were constantly connected together, creating a some sort of "alternative reality"- a place were some parts of their own true self would spill into the darkness of the void, becoming no more than a bunch of numbers and electromagnetic waves. Instead, they use a much more efficient tool- the world wide web. The modern Network does not travel in their own dreams searching for the monsters their own secrets gave birth to. Fear has changed its face, and the Nightmare Network changed with it. Now, everyone were watching, judging, dreading. Yet, this was not the end of fear- instead, modernity just gave birth to many new horrors, and the advancement of technology didn't helped everyone "be one"- it only showed them how exposed they were. Everyone could be accepted- there is nothing to be ashamed of your own fears and dirty secrets. With rationality and harsh dogma at one side and the sudden rise in hope and freedom on the other, many has felt the group was no longer necessary- you didn't had to hide who you are. Modernity was a great change for that old group- at first, it has almost destroyed it. They would hunt for secrets and turn them into power. They would find the secrets of other people and use them for their own protections. That dark pit in the depth of their soul is the gate for the biggest secret of all- the fear which haunts humanity since the day it was born- and by controlling those gates through dream journeys and meditation one could make his fear into a weapon against those who were lost in their own dread. By finding that hidden "totem beast" before it manage to awake and revealing it to its owner, the secret would vanish, leaving a big hole in their place. Each person has his own "true secret", an ultimate fear which could destroy his all personality. They come from ancient tradition, a lineage of shamans and mystics who tried to protect their people from the horrors which are found in their own dreams. The Nightmare Network is pretty recent organization, but its roots are far more older. Tell fear its own secrets, and it would vanish like a mist before the sun. Whisper the right secrets, and people would fall before you on their knees. Know your own secrets, and the secrets of others, take those fears into yourself- and fear just goes away. Accept your fear, however, and it can not touch you. Surrender to it, and you are nothing more than an hollow husk. In order to fight fear, you must render it null and void- try to conquer it, and it would devour you from the inside. Secrets are scary, more than anything else in this world.
However, sleep is exactly what they should fear the most- for during that time, their fear takes life of its own, and their own secrets become monsters. They hide things from themselves so they could sleep at night. They hide things from their loved one because they don't want them to flee and leave them alone. People hide things from strangers for they want to be liked. Others are bigger, like how spreading that awful rumor that eventually made that girl take her own life. Some are small secrets, like how you watched how a cat preyed upon an helpless pigeon without doing anything just out of pure interest.