Just Dreams

Conscious

There is nothing. No colors, no voices, no scenery, no people, nothing. Just me.

“Damn, thought you wouldda neva woke up!” It was the girl from the other night…the one who had made the threat.

I spin around, but there’s only blackness, nothing else. “What do you want?” I ask, my voice steadier than it should be. This is a dream, nothing bad can happen to me.

“I wantcha to get Conscious all damn ready!” she says, as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world.

I grit my teeth. “Or what? You’ll kill me?”

She laughs. “So ya weren’t out cold the whole time! I knew you wouldn’t go down so damn easy!”

“Just leave my dreams alone already! You seriously creep me out!”

“P-please d-don’t g-g-get angry, Kyu-Kyukyoku! W-we are only t-trying to h-help you!” A boy stutters, the same one from last time. “Y-you need to g-get Conscious right away, p-please!”

“Who’s Kyukyoku?” I ask, my voice softening. For some reason I feel sorry for the boy. He sounds scared straight.

“Kyu’s you, dunce!” The girl with the accent says. “Ya just can’t realize it yet ‘cause ya ain’t Conscious all the way!”

“What are you talking about?” I demand. “You’re sounding really really crazy right now! Nothing you’re saying is making sense!”

“C-can I t-try to e-explain?” the boy asks.

“Sure.” I say in unison with the girl.

“So u-uh, y-you’re dreaming r-right now b-but this i-isn’t a normal d-dream.” He begins awkwardly. “You are the o-one out of e-every 75 people wh-who are Conscious.”

“Isn’t everybody conscious?” I ask.

“N-not like that, a-a different kind of C-Conscious.” He says quickly.

“Conscious in this kinda world means you’re able to be fully parta what’s going on here. You can make things change, talk ta real people, the whole deal. You ain’t just some zombie running through ‘scapes.”

“’Scapes?”

“L-landscapes is what that means, y-you know the environment y-you’re in when you’re n-not a Conscious…” He trails off. “Y-you don’t understand a-any of this, d-do you?”

I shake my head.

“I-I’m really sorry f-for that! I w-wish I was a b-better explainer!” He sounded like he was crying.

“Just,” she paused, “Just try ta accept this.”

“How?”

“Just believe you’re Conscious.”

“And then what?”

“Y-you’ll be able t-to talk with u-us.”

I consider that for a minute. It would be kind of cool and satisfying to finally see what the two of them looked like. And all this nothingness was getting boring. Besides, a dream’s a dream, nothing can result from it. “Okay.” I say, shrugging, “Why not give this a shot?”

“J-just relax, i-it should come naturally to y-you.” He hiccups.

I take a deep breath. I am Conscious, whatever the heck that means, and I believe it and I want to be able to see that stuttering boy and accent girl. I repeat this over and over in my head, eyes shut, fists clenched. After a few minutes I open my eyes. There’s still nothingness.

“You ain’t really believin’ are ya?”

“J-just think of how unique y-you are. That’s what C-Conscious are, u-unique.”

Unique? Hell yeah I’m unique. If that’s what it takes to be a Conscious I’m definitely in the club. I picture my outfits, that back wall filled with my writing, even my name. Yep, I’m different from the rest…

Suddenly a scene begins to materialize. A hospital room, reeking of rubbing alcohol, and I’m sitting in the bed, IVs threaded through my arm. The one window in the room looks out upon a large city, not much different from New York. At the foot of the bed two people stand, one is a tall dark skinned girl with a mane of dark mocha colored hair. The other is a medium sized blonde boy with freckles covering his face.

The girl smiles, but the smile doesn’t quite reach her eyes. “Welcome Kyukyoku Raitohato ta this wonderful Dream Dimension.”