Fantasia

IV

The door fell shut with a loud pang, reverberating through the whole apartment. Eddy took off his drenched shoes and shambled to his desk with the little energy he had left. His briefcase was thrown on the coffee table on the way.

His small, functional flat was quiet. Real quiet, except for the pouring rain outside and the occasional thunder, following a bright, white light flashing through the darkness of the night.
It had always been this quiet since he'd moved in three years ago. No chatter, no clacking or any sorts of other noise indicating life. And Eddy normally came home so late, that he'd just prepare some easy, quick dinner and head straight to bed after, if he had no additional assignment to fulfill, that was.

The doctor's appointment and the ride home had sucked out whatever had been left of Eddy's energy after an annoying day at work. Dr. Wang hadn't found anything suspicious after the first examination, so Eddy had no choice but to wait for the blood test results.

Meaning, if the dream would return again tonight, there was nothing he could do. For the nth time...

The piece of paper, containing the doc's recommendation for a psychologist was stacked in between other documents in Eddy's briefcase. Eddy glanced at the brown, wet leather, wondering if the chance of getting behind the mystery of the painful longing he always felt when dreaming by visiting a psychological professional was worth a shot.

But nah! He simply had no time.

Dinner had to be skipped today. Eddy didn't know if he was able to so much as brush his teeth and get ready for bed.

However, he must have managed to find his mattress somehow, because there he was. On that grassy field with the hill in the middle. A warm wind engaging the thin, long blades of grass in a soft, round dance, tickling Eddy's calfs through his black trousers he was always wearing when he was here.

Yet again, he made his way to the tall mirror on top of the hill, the yearning increasing exponantially with every step he took, pulling him closer like a magnet but making his feet heavy at the same time.
He could see the blurry surface from a few meters away already and a sense of disappointment filled his heart. It didn't keep him from stepping closer, from stretching out his arm and letting his fingers meet the cold glass...

But something was different this time. A faint melody, seemingly coming from afar, slipped into Eddy's consciousness. The sound was familiar, not so much the melody, but the sweet, warm, tone, drawing silhouettes of long forgotten memories...

Eddy woke up with a shock, his eyes wide and his heart hammering in his ribcage, making his left side hurt.

What was that? His dreams had never been different since they'd started! About a hundred times the same shit and now this? Why?

And why music?

Why was the first thing that would finally give a different vibe to those ever recurring dreams simply be music? Why couldn't it be some message, some clear answer? And on top of it all, he didn't recognize the melody, couldn't recall ever hearing it.

But the tone... the timbre... it was somehow familiar.

Eddy brushed through his damp hair - and stopped in his tracks.

Something else was different. Something was so profoundly different it almost made him laugh at how he'd missed it till now.

For the first time in the last six months, after waking up from all this, Eddy didn't feel sick.