Sometimes Falling isn't Down

Chapter 4

Like rising to the surface of a clear lake, you awoke, sleep rolling off of you in waves but leaving you an invitation to roll back over and drift back into the depths. You denied the invitation. You blinked your eyes open, though open or closed the sights barely changed, darkness still overwhelming your vision, an outline of outstretched hands imprinted in your eyes.

You pushed yourself up, reaching for your phone and illuminating the room in a dim light, half expecting to see the two men standing there, but not surprised when they weren't.

You sighed. Rubbing a hand down your face, the other dropped to your side along with your phone, plunging the room back into darkness.

Bill and Will... names so familiar yet so foreign. Despite your propensity to forget your dreams the second you were no longer having them, that dream remained strangely vivid in your mind, like it had truly just happened and wasn't a figment of your own unconscious mind. You couldn't remember a time where you felt so weirdly connected to your dream characters, like you knew them- not in the way you "know" dream characters, but like actually, genuinely knew them, like you might run into them on the street later.

And by the Oneiroi, you could almost swear on your pinkie you knew them, like you'd met them at some time, some time long long ago, beyond your waking memory...

Your stomach churned.

You didn't like the feeling.

You hopped out of bed- you were hungry.

You made your way to the kitchen with only the glow of your screen to guide you, the light reflecting off the dark windows- if there was anything looking back at you, you would never know.

...And you were gonna move right on past that thought, cuz you didn't really want to know anyway.

Someone had stolen your midnight snack idea. Jars clanked and bags rustled as you entered the kitchen, the little fridge light illuminating your dad's hunched frame and making him appear to glow. Only when you got within arm's length of him did you hear his soft humming beyond the other noises clogging the air.

"Dad?"

He jumped, his head slamming into the top of the fridge, the whole thing shaking at the impact, so much so you were afraid it might fall over.

You flinched and sucked in air through your teeth, throwing your phone on the table and running to his side, quickly steadying the fridge until it returned to its normal slumbering state.

"Fuck! Are you okay?!"

His laughter immediately calmed your nerves, sure he wouldn't be laughing if he was deathly injured, though he was rubbing the back of his head as he turned to you, an almost guilty smile on his face.

"Language, (R/C)." He dropped his hand from his head to yours, ruffling your hair. "Haven't you learned not to startle me like that in the middle of the night by now?"

You threw your hands up in defense, "Hey, it's not my fault! You jump at everything!"

As if just to spite you, something shifted in the fridge and you jumped in much the same manner as your dad had- thankfully without the hard surface above your head, leaving your skull dent free.

"I guess you get it from me then?"

You blew out a raspberry as you folded your arms, looking away and grumbling. He only laughed in response. Your eyes fell to his other hand to see what he had found from his fridge diving, a spoonful of cookie dough in his grip. He caught your look and quickly threw it behind his back.

"Didn't Mom say not to-"

"Don't tell your mother!"

You raised an eyebrow before giving him a devious smile, folding one arm over the other and jabbing your finger at him, "Oh, I'm gonna tell her- in fact, I'ma go wake her up right now so she's extra pissed!"