Bizarre Worlds and Other One-Shot Stories

Perchance to Dream

Twelve o'clock noon. An ordinary scene, an ordinary city. Lunchtime for thousands of ordinary people. To most of them, this hour will be a rest, a pleasant break in a day's routine. To most, but not all. To Edward Hall, time is an enemy, and the hour to come is a matter of life and death.

Edward Hall, or Eddie for short, stood just outside the gates of the College University he was attending. He is a fourth-year graduating student. There were only two months to go, and the bonds and restraints and school will finally break loose on him and his classmates. He is at least at the age of twenty. And like people close to his age, he had a lot of dreams and wanted to chase his dreams. But in this case, however, he was running away from them.

Eddie kept still standing outside the university gates. He looked up, surveying the building with his severely tired eyes, eyes that never seemed to get some rest for quite a while, with concerningly dark bags below the eyes. It would seem as though he was having a bad day, as many people might assume, but rather it was something much worse. A matter of life and death, if you will. Sweat dripped down over his eyes from his forehead. He wiped the sweat off his face with the back of his hand, shook himself awake, and started walking through the open gates.

He joined the other students in a line walking passed a guard checking the insides of their bags. When it was his turn, the guard immediately noticed Eddie's overly fatigued state. "You feeling okay, Eddie?" the guard asked.

"Yeah, Mick," Eddie said, fighting off the sleepiness, "just felt a little woozy, is all."

Mick knew there was something more to what Eddie said. He knew something was definitely wrong with him. But he didn't push the topic further out of concern for his current state, and because he wasn't really paid enough to worry about it. He checked Eddie's bag and let him through inside.

Eddie walked from the gates, across the university's open driveway, and into the university building in a relatively short walk. But to him, it felt like he walked on a mile-long road. He was so tired that he thought he was walking for a mile.

Eddie was about to go to his first class, biology class. To a room placed on the fifth floor. There were many students taking the stairs to their respective classes, and there were some preferring the less tiring route, the elevator, which was actually what Eddie chose since he didn't have the necessary energy to climb five flights of stairs. He entered an elevator that was almost full, overweight even. The elevator doors closed relatively close to his face, the doors lightly grazing the tip of his nose.

The elevator ascended, stopping on every floor, and one or two people would step off the car at every stop. Eddie didn't even notice that they were moving. His mind was so preoccupied with sleep he was starting to lose his touch, literally.

And finally, the elevator reached the fifth floor. Eddie stepped off the elevator and proceeded to the classroom as the elevator closed and ascended to the upper floors.

The classroom was pretty average at best; half-quiet and half-noisy; some of the students were busy using their phones, while the others were talking and laughing out loud. A male student sitting on his chair waved at Eddie just as he came in; the student had slickly-combed hair, brown, innocent eyes, and a similarly youthful appearance like the rest of the students. He approached the student and sat limply next to him.

"Whoa," his friend said, in a mix of surprise and concern, "you look like you haven't slept for five days, man."

"You're exactly right, Eliot." Eddie said, getting woozy, "I haven't slept for five days."

"Dang, Eddie. I mean, I know a lot of us are excited getting to march up the stage with our toga on but you're certainly taking it to the next level."

"It's not that I'm staying awake about."