The Dreaming

The Dreaming is an Australian Horror OEL Manga trilogy by Queenie Chan.

The story begins with twin sisters, Amber and Jeannie Malkin, starting at Greenwich Private College, a boarding school in the remote Australian bush with a history of missing students. The twins have horrible nightmares and strange things begin to happen in the school, with a soon a student vanishes. Needless to say, It Gets Worse.

Not to be confused with the spin-off of The Sandman.

Tropes used in The Dreaming include:

• Adults Are Useless: Mostly true, although Ms. Anu helps the twins figure the mystery out and helps evacuates the surviving students at the end.
• Angsty Surviving Twin: Mrs Skeener, and very nearly Jeannie.
• The Blank: The Headmistress is depicted faceless in many of the paintings.
• Boarding School of Horrors: The surrounding bush is haunted by beings called Quinkans. They have snatched 12 students in the past and are working on their next round dozen.
• Bittersweet Ending: Although the reader is left to draw their own conclusions, Mrs Skeener's sister may still be possessing Amber at the end.
• Buried Alive: Avril Merriweather did this to her students, but would let them out. This is how Mrs. Skeener died in Vol 3.
• Connect the Deaths
• Creepy Housekeeper: Variation on the theme - in this case, the creepy Mrs. Skeener is the Vice Principle, not a house keeper.
• Demonic Possession: Of the abducted ... including Jeanie. Too bad she wasn't a smoker. That would have helped.
• Different As Night and Day: Subtly so - Amber and Jeanie don't have a whole lot in common and aren't very close. In the end they go their separate ways.
• Don't Go in The Woods: We mean it. Not a good idea.
• Fate Worse Than Death: Implied that this is what happened to the lost girls.
• A Fete Worse Than Death: Happens to young Mrs. Skeener and her sister when they first arrive at the School
• Haunted House: In as much as ghosts keep visiting.
  • Oh and don't forget the Haunted Cupboard where the spirit of an overworked manga artist dwells (give me Mountain Dew ...)
• Kill the Cutie: Quite a few of them.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Bit of this for Amber in the end.
• Living Shadow: The Quinkan appear to be this.
• Locked Door: You know, that one room with the spooky picture hanging on the door?
• Mind Control Eyes: Amber gets bold black outlines of her eyes whenever she is possessed.
• Mirror Scare
• Of Corsets Sexy: The Victorian dresses in the manga are modestly so.
• Old Dark House
• Nightmare Fuel: It is a horror manga after all.
• Rain of Blood: Subverted, it's not human blood.
• Sadist Teacher: Avril Merriweather.
• She Who Must Not Be Named - Warning: Saying the name of certain disappeared residents of the School while gazing into a mirror may be hazardous to your health.
• Spooky Painting: The school is filled with them.
• There Are No Adults: This happened to Mrs. Skeener & her twin when the school first opened.
• There Are No Therapists: Subverted. Not that their presence did a lot of good of course.
• Uncanny Valley: Sometimes the characters approach this. Queenie Chan gets a little "too good" in her artistry.
• Weirdness Magnet: Amber is arguably one of these.
• Woobie: You'll never guess who.
  • Mrs. Skeener when her backstory is revealed. Helps that she looks a far sight pretty in her younger days.