Just a Dream

I stand, frozen to my assigned spot, wishing I could warn him. I can’t, of course. That’s his best friend’s job. But the boy won’t hear him, and he won’t notice the axe murderer, just inches away from him, poised to kill, until it’s too late. It won’t actually be too late of course. He’ll wake up before the blade digs into his skin. But that doesn’t change the fact that he will be terrified for one, overly stretched out moment, when he finally realizes he’s about to die. I hate that look of terror on people’s faces. Something deep inside me feels for them, because I know that what is just a fantasy for me is very, very real for them. I guess that’s why I’m not a good dreamwalker. Kimishi is always telling me that I am too softhearted for this job, and that I need to get a grip on reality. But for a dreamwalker like me, dreams are reality.

I try my best to look away from the awful grimace that is his face, but I am forced to play my part. Which is to stand, doing nothing, with a gaping mouth and wide open eyes.  I try not to focus on him, and wait until this dream is over. Finally, the dream starts to fade. Everything starts to get blurry around the edges. The boy has disappeared. The Starbucks mug in my hand pops out. I can feel my legs begin to regain their ability of movement. I shake them, and walk towards the edge of the fading dream, trying to catch up with my friend, Caeli.

“Hey, Caeli!”

“Hi Eve! That was a pretty intense one, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah. Sorcto did a great job being the murderer.”

“UGH… I wish he hadn’t. Maybe then I would get more exciting parts! I am soooo sick of being a bystander.”

“Hah!” I reply, and imitate my old bug-eyed stance.

“I swear, my eyes are going to be permanently stuck like that if Kimishi doesn’t give me something else to do.”

“Maybe next time. There’s bound to be another Justin Bieber dream in the next hour. And you know how good you are at being a fangirl.”

“That’s no better than being a bystander.”

I try to change the subject. Dreamwalking is our job; it’s no use complaining about it.

            “Hey, look, our hair is changing!” I exclaim with false cheeriness.

We love to look at our hair transforming. It’s fun to see each strand slowly shimmering as it morphs into a different length, thickness, and color. It’s one of the few perks of this job. Some people love it of course, but I would rather live a real life than just play the roles of other people in others’ dreams.

“Oh! I almost missed it!” Caeli turns and flips her hair over her shoulder, brown hair decreasing in length as it shimmers into a spicy red, and I follow suit. I watch, fascinated, as my hair slowly turns from platinum blonde, back to its original midnight black. I am not looking where I’m going, so I am surprised about the small two-foot drop back to the real world. Actually, I’m not sure if it’s the real world. I’ve never been outside of it. I could live in a parallel universe, and I would never know it.

I head into the IOD, which stands for Institution of Dreams. A few million years ago we actually called it “The Institution of Dreams”, but then it got old. Thus the IOD was born. I walk with Caeli all the way until the path to my living quarters separates from her. As I walk along the overly polished floor, which reflects the blue flourescent lights from above, I wonder how big the IOD actually is. I mean, it’s got to be huge. It took me a full year to stop getting lost in it, and the only places I’ve been to are the wing where my living quarters are, Caeli’s wing, my classrooms, and Kimichi's office. Maybe it just goes on and on and never ends.

I reach the door that has my name engraved deep into wood fiber, and turn the polished metal handle. I walk in and plop down on my bed. It's not really comfortable-it's basically a plain white, skinny mattress supported by stainless steal legs-but it's the best place I have to rest on while waiting for my next assignment. The rest of my room merely consists of short, pale blue carpeting, a small chair, a closet, and white-washed walls. I don't really mind though. I hardly spend any time at all in here.

Suddenly, the intercom system beeps loudly. Ugh, I think. Another dream assignment for our wing already!?

How the dream system works is, when the signal goes off that someone around the world is about to enter a dream, Kimishi chooses a wing of the IOD. Then he randomly calls names of people from that wingthat will be in the next dream. All of the people whose names were called go immediately to his office, where he tells them what the dream will be about and assign them parts to play.

Kimishi's voice come across the system, loud and clear as always.

"The following people from wing C9 will report to my office immediately. Eve."

Great, I think. Just when I got a bit of time to rest. Oh, well. Hopefully Caeli is in there too.

You may think I'm a little clingy towards Caeli, and that may be true, but, in all honesty she's the only friend I have. Before she came around I had no one. To everyone in the IOD, I was a freak. I didn't talk much, wrote in my journal all the time, and didn't seem to look forwarwards to new assignments like everyone else. I sat alone every lunch time, and, frankly I liked it that way. But then Caeli appeared. I remember the day I first met her. I was sitting at lunch by myself (as usual) when I glimpsed Caeli walking by with some other girls. I didn't really take any note of this, until Caeli deserted the other girls an came down and sat next to me. This surprised me like no other thing had before. Caeli had only been in the IOD for a few days, but her friendliness and feisty attitude charmed everyone, making her almost instantly "In the crowd". And people like that never interacted with me. I remember saying "Umm...hi" almost like it was a question. And I guess it sort of was one, along the lines of "Why are you sitting here with me? I think you might have the wrong person. Don't you know that I'm Eve The Loser?" But all Caeli said was "Are you sitting here alone?" I nodded embarrassedly, and she said to the other girls waiting for her "Go on without me. I'm going to sit with her. " Well, in the space of one lunchtime we finally became friends. Despite the fact that we were exact opposites, somehow we managed to find a way to like each other. And ever since then, Caeli has been my best (And only) friend.

I wait in anticipation for the rest of the names, but all that follows is: "Come immediately. This is important."