Wildest Dreams

t w e nt y - f iv e

I jolted awake and almost hit Glen's head in front of my face.

"You gave us a scare, Maple. Are you okay?" Nancy helped me sit back up beside her. I inhaled sharply as I leaned back on the tree behind me, feeling the pointy grass under me and sudden stiffness of my body.

"I could take a breather," I answered.

"Did you dream?"

"A bit, but it was nothing." After I reassured them that I was fine, we sat quietly again under the tree. I tried my best to stay awake now. Glen offered me a piece of chicken nugget, which I accepted. 

Nancy resumed to her reading, Glen eyed me furtively while eating a Big Mac, and I felt nervous and uneasy after unintentionally sleeping then waking up all of a sudden. My mind was slow to process the information.

"When I get nervous, I eat," Glen spoke as if he read my mind.

"And if you can't do that, you sleep," Nancy remarked, not looking up from her book.

Glen shrugged. "Used to. Not anymore after constantly worrying."

He glanced at me and our eyes met for a second, but I looked away from him again, brushing my hands on my pants.

"Have you ever read about the Balinese way of dreaming?" Glen asked us.

I shook my head no while Nancy spoke denial.

"They got a whole system called 'Dream Skills'," he continued, setting down his burger. "So if you have a nightmare, for instance like falling, instead of screaming and getting nuts, you say, 'okay, I'm gonna make up my mind that I fall into a magic world where I can get something special, like a poem or a song.'"

"So anything from art literature?" I inquired, taking a step to a normal conversation.

Glen grinned hopefully. "Yup. It's all where dreams comes from. Just wake up and write it down. Dream skills."

"And what if they meet a monster in their dream, then what?" Nancy questioned, finally glancing up from her book.

"They turn their backs on it. Take away its energy and it disappears," Glen answered, still grinning that I felt a little bit softer towards him.

"What happens if they don't do that?" Nancy pushed.

Glen shrugged. "I guess those people don't wake up to tell what happens."

Nancy rolled her eyes. "Great."

"If only it's that easy to fight off a dream demon, then we won't be those people in the next 48 hours," I commented and Nancy agreed. Glen's grin however faltered so he sipped from his drink.

Nancy sighed and stood up, stretching her arms and back. "I'm in need of the toilet, wanna come, Maple?"

"I think I'll stay. My mind's still jumbled," I replied, squinting my eyes at the rays of the sun.

"Okay. Look out for her, Glenny." She then headed to the park's public toilet, leaving her book on the spot where she sat a minute ago. Glen picked it up and read the title.

"Booby Traps and Anti-Personnel Devices!" He gaped. "What she reading it for?"

"We're into survival," I answered.

"You're starting to scare the living shit out of me." He placed the book back on the ground.

"It's a serious matter anyway," I said, letting a few silent seconds between us drop, "and it's more than something to be paranoid about."

Glen furrowed his eyebrows at me, his lips parting a bit. "I'm not getting what you're saying and I don't get why you're being harsh to me since we saw each other today. Did I do something?"

I tried my best not to charge at him and yell at his face. We could talk like mature people, set aside what we almost had and have been, and only focus in this bricks of tension.

"I've been told about the little chit-chat you have with my grandfather, and you said one word I thought you would never say about me or our friends — paranoid."

Glen's eyes blinked down to the ground and he chewed on his lip. It's about time he finally acknowledged that stupid thing he did. It only fueled my resentment and anger.

"You're unbelievable. I trusted you and said that behind my back. Nancy is having the same dreams too, and you call her nuts. What kind of a friend are you? Just because you're not experiencing it, you're becoming anti."

"M-Maple..." He gulped while I continued to throw daggers at him. "I didn't know your grandfather would tell you that. We're both worried that its just the worst effect of not sleeping for days—"

My fist curled at his poor choice of words. Worried and here we are; I ran away from my only family left while he thinks I'm crazy and overreacting. Worst effect and they took it more physically than I did; I got locked up and threatened because of exposing the truth.

"—And he asked about me about you, your grandfather. I gotta tell him something except that you're suspecting them with the crime of the Springwood Slasher."

"And paranoid is your chosen word? Of all the words in the English language?!"

"It's not like that," he defended. "I told him you and Nancy were serious about your dreams and he asked if it's like being paranoid."

"And you said yes?! That's the same thing, you dumbass." I threw my cap at him, frustrated.

"Alright, I'm sorry! I'm sorry." He shifted at his seat and sighed. His brown eyes fixed to the ground. "That was a big mistake and I should've thought about it carefully. It came out wrong then your grandfather used it against us. I care for you, Maple. I care for Nancy. I can't lose any of my friends anymore."

I leaned back on tree and blew the strands of hair in front of my face. "Then help us beat up this bad guy. If you cared for us in the first place, you'd understand it by now."

"I do, and I swear to you, I try to. When we were at the attic, in the dark, I was thinking and I realized that this might be the feeling when you have your nightmares."

"It's worst. It's like being in hell."

"Hell and back," Glen added. "But you got me this time. I'll make the promise that I'll keep you safe no matter what."

Glen handed me back my cap. I took it from his hands, our fingers brushing momentarily.

"Then that means you won't bring me back to my grandparents'," I told him.

"You haven't told me why yet," he retorted.

Nancy returned before I could tell him the reason. We decided to tell him on the way to Nancy's house so we could have a short rest in there as well. Then the rest of the night, we won't be sleeping, but surviving.

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