The Lady in the Scarlet Scarf

The Dreams

Aacek woke up with a start. The first thing he noticed was it was still dark. He could hear the faint hum of the fan overhead. Beads of sweat covered his broad forehead. He sat up and saw that Amuna was sleeping peacefully unlike in the dream.
He got up and walked to the kitchen to drink water, being careful not to make any noise. As he was drinking water, he saw a figure standing near the door of the kitchen. A chill went down his spine. He soon realised it was only his wife and he let out the breath he was holding.
She walked past him smiling and poured herself a glass of water. "You never fail to disturb me when you get up in the night," Amuna said.
"I tried not to make any sound," he replied.
"Your shirt is wet. What happened?" she asked.
"Bad dream," he sighed. He continued after a brief pause, "Amuna, haven't you ever wondered how the AI diffusion notebook generated an exact image of you?"
"Was the dream about the image? You told me it was a bad dream," she teased him. "Anyway, I always assumed it was a happy coincidence. Like we discussed once. I did not give it much thought after that."
    "That's exactly what I assumed too. This dream makes me reconsider whatever has happened." He was lost in his thoughts for some time.
"Go on," she prodded him.
"There was a huge green glowing ocean. As far as the eyes could see. Gentle waves perturbed the surface. After some time, the waves seemed to come in focus. The ocean was made of 1s and 0s! They were vibrating at a great frequency.
Then I saw a younger version of myself type that prompt on a computer. Within a second, some of the 1s and 0s coalesced to form a shape of a woman. The shape seemed to gain more 'density', it started looking like a 3D render of the image generated back then. It was you wearing a scarlet scarf all over again. Only, it wasn't just an image. I was looking at you. It felt so real.
Then you started smiling. The smile was pleasant at first, I was smiling back. Then your smile changed. It became lopsided at first and then transformed into something evil looking. It was no longer you I was looking at. It was some other lady in a scarlet scarf. I woke up then, drenched in sweat," described Aacek.
Amuna's mouth was agape. She said, "I don't know what to say. It is very interesting to say the least."
"Interesting to you, was quite scary to me," said Aacek.
They both leaned on the kitchen counter for some time.
"I did have a strange dream around the time we met nine years ago. I had forgotten all about it until now. Your dream has triggered my memories of that dream. I don't even know if these dreams are connected, but now that we are wide awake, I better tell you about mine too," Amuna said.
They went back to their bedroom and sat on the bed.
"There was a snake like thing, it wasn't a real snake. It was more like a mechanical contraption that looked like a snake. It was floating in a void. It started moving slowly at first, gliding in the space. Then I could see that it was moving through a tunnel whose walls were filled with my memories. It was going back in time and as my memories flashed by, it stopped at that part where we used to play with each other during our childhood. The snake lingered there for some time before coming back to the present. I woke up and remembered you. Later that day, I saw your forwarded posts about the AI generated image and you looking for me!"
It was Aacek's turn to drop his jaw.
"You never told me about this dream!" he exclaimed.
"I really didn't give it much thought back then, really thought it was a happy coincidence and I forgot about it later."
As if on cue, the first rays of light of the day made their way through the gaps in the curtains and illuminated the clock. They did have an hour and a half left till the alarm rang but they didn't wait for it to start their day.