When you dream a dream so realistic that every dream you dream has the same person in it, do you run away from it or try to find out who this person is?
Hayley Chen is an upcoming fashionista designer who has recently signed a contract with Vogue. S...
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The sky was on fire as it met the surface of the water on the horizon far far away. The ball of fire was slowly sinking into the sea and leaving behind hazes of red, orange and purple across the blue sky.
The woman started walking barefoot down the beach, the cold sand working perfectly on her blistered foot. She didn't even remember how her ankle had gotten so sore. She felt the cold wind against her face and saw seagulls flying across the vast sky.
But she wasn't alone there.
"Hey."
Turning around, she saw the man wearing a loose white shirt and beige bermuda pants that fit perfectly with the scenery before her eyes. She walked slowly towards him and reached for his arm. "You're here."
He smirked. "I told you I would find you again."
Her eyebrows furrowed together. She and the man never admitted having met before when they met in a new dream every night. This was different. Something had changed.
"Come on." He took her right hand in his left and started walking down the shore of the beach, letting the short waves wet his feet.
The two of them were leaving behind their mark on the world along the sands, even if it was only for a minute or so before another wave came and removed any evidence of them ever having been there.
She stopped walking, making him turn around and face her. "Something is wrong."
He nodded. "I know." He brushed the falling hair across her hair and tucked it behind her ear, his touch leaving behind a tingling sensation on Hayley's face.
"What is happening to me? To us?"
He shrugged. "I'm not sure. It's getting too realistic, isn't it?"
She nodded. The dreams were getting too realistic. She wondered why she could feel her emotions even in her dreams. After scrolling through thousands of websites and reading hundreds of books, she knew that this wasn't normal. "It's as if we have been here before," said the woman, using 'we' instead of 'I' because the man was a figment of her imagination, a projection to keep her company in her dreams.
"Maybe we have," he said. "But sometimes we need to face the reality."
Was this the woman's subconscious telling her that some dreams were to make her realise the truth? For her to face reality? "Do you want to?" She asked him as if she would be asking herself in the mirror.
The man wrapped his hands around her and pulled her into a hug. She let out a low sigh when she was once again in his arms. The previous night's dream had scared the life out of her. She couldn't imagine losing him even though they knew each other only for a short period of time.
"Not really," he murmured against her hair.
The two of them had found a home with each other. The woman was getting comfortable in her dreams because that was all it was. The entire virtual land was under her control and no one else's.
But could her theory be false by any chance?
The two of them started walking down the shore once again, hands curled together. They were silent as the sun was finally swallowed by the horizon. The moon was taking over as the stars dominated the sky.
"It's so beautiful here," she said and then saw him staring at her.
"It really is."
She blinked. He had been looking at her the entire time and she had not noticed. "What's your name?" She asked him what she had been wanting to do all this while. She did not think that she could ask him that. Could she have named her own consciousness?
"It's...." His voice trailed out. The man could not speak his name no matter what. He looked around frantically, searching for something. He knelt on the ground and tried to write his name against the wet sand, but the ground did not allow him to. It kept getting washed away, reminding both of them that they were only dust in the wind and a drop in the ocean. "I should have expected this."
The woman placed a hand on his shoulder and knelt down next to him. She couldn't speak her name either. It was as though she forgot her name every time she wanted to say it out loud to him, as though someone ripped her vocal chord just for her name.
"Have you tried telling me your name before?" The man asked.
She did not know how to answer that. "I have, but nothing works."
He took her hands in his and made her cup his face. "Do you want this to end?" She looked him in the eyes and her heart broke all over again. "I don't want it to either," he said, listening to the answer in her silence.
"Maybe you are my figment of imagination or I am yours. But we're real." She placed a hand on his chest. "We are real. Nobody can tell us otherwise."
He placed his right hand on the nape of her neck and rested his forehead against hers. "Or....we are crazy."
She laughed shakily. "Then we are not alone there either."
There was only one possibility that seemed to be real - that they were only a subconscious, that the man only existed in Hayley's dreams. But there was another possibility that ran through her head.
But the other possibility was too crazy to be true.
