Human Exposure

Chapter 1

The festival and where it all starts

John Cohan wakes up every night after having a terrible nightmare, a nightmare that seems familiar every night, yet today, the nightmare that he's been having for a few months seems to be a lot more involved and a lot more intricate.

His dreams seem to be becoming more, unimaginably real or so it seems.

"I am in space, or what I can only describe as a space, the universe, somewhere. Flying though space at such a high speed that it seems like all the galaxies that I have seen only in movies and shows, seem to pass me by in seconds. Where am I going at this speed? How is this possible and where am I?" This is the question on his mind as he wakes up each night. The outer-body experience is illusory and obviously dreamed-up.

John Cohan works at a small company. He is one of the technicians at the firm and also gets to do some accounting for the business from time to time. He was schooled through a sought-after university that was paid off by his inheritance, which was not much. His Mother provided what she could, even after her passing. Jannet Jane Cohan.

He is a short five feet and eleven inches short man, slender with dark brown long hair. Brown eyes, dark skin tone. He could be more attractive if he took care of himself a bit more. He has old worn clothes and does not care about hygiene at this point in his life.

He's been working for years yet no one ever notices anything he ever does and is one of those guys that hide in the dark, in the corners and nobody has any meaningful conversations with him in the corridors or by the water cooler.

He knows he doesn't want work there any-longer; At the age of 30 he thought he would be doing a lot more than what he does with his pathetic life; the recent passing of his mother he has become depressed and lonely.

John has never been married, no children; parents didn't really leave much before as a young man, no siblings and no social life doesn't nor does he have a girlfriend. He is in a really gloomy state of life.

The only thing going for him is his questioning stability and keeping his job. He doesn't really have anything to complain about; he's got a stable income and he gets to pay the rent on time every month.

John hasn't been taking care of himself most of the time. No illness of physical defect, in fact he is in good physical condition. He looks ragged and tired, lacking sleep bags under his eyes and very messy hair, shirt half tucked in.

Fucking hasn't polished his work shoes in years. John doesn't know how to drive a car and doesn't believe in driving. The problem is because of his mother passing away in a car accident, he prefers taking the bicycle to work or walking. Because he doesn't live far from his office making this a better option for him, good exercise.

It is that time of the year the town festival is coming up and the weather is not looking too great so he plans to take a stroll down to the festival. Later that day, finishing off with his work, he leaves heading home. He has a small one-bedroom place. Not the ritz by a long shot. The place is messy with dishes pilling up with no more space to spare, any more of this and his Eiffel tower will fall over. His bedroom is probably the better part of the unit, at least he has the time to make-up the bed in the mornings. Some motivational speech about making your bed in the morning and having to come home to a made-up bed if one's day was an utter failure. It does in some sense bare truth with a sense of accomplishment. The living room, which is an open-plan towards the kitchen, and a second sleeping place for John when he passes out after watching a flick, sometimes.

Today he is amped to go out and see what the festival is all about this evening. He gets ready as the sun sets and night-time sets upon town.

John decides to take a walk to the festival allowing him to think about the day and hopefully unwind, but he is restless, the memory of the nightmare is haunting him. He is constantly reminded of the terrible nightmares he has been having, the more vivid dreams of him flying through space and time, becoming one with everything, so it seems.