Moonlit Waters

Chapter 2

The chirping of birds and the warm feeling of sunlight on my face wake me up.

Everything is peaceful and I can still feel the afterimage of a beautiful dream.

It takes me maybe three seconds to become aware of the gravel beneath me and the fact that I am very much not in my bed at home. The massive dose of adrenaline is more than sufficient in waking me up the rest of the way.

But my hair isn't long. My balance isn't off, I don't have breasts and there's something more than just legs in my swimming trunks.

I'm back to my old self, I realise and relief makes me airheaded for a moment.

I'm still wearing my friend's T-shirt, but there's gotta be some other way of explaining that, right?

I look around. I'm still at the lake, sitting where Alex left me hours ago.

I remember he went home soon after I told him that false name. I'd wanted to just wait until I had dried fully and until I could be really sure nobody would be awake at home. And then... I must've fallen asleep. Not all that surprising, considering what I'd gone through.

Or had I?

I look down and inspect my arms and legs, searching for any kind of sign that this had once been a woman's body. But there are none. My heart sinks. Same old ugly me.

What if it all was just a dream?

There's no way I could have dreams that vivid, right?

But on the other hand... There's also no way my body could change like that.

So... I must have gone out last night and... I can't remember anything but the dream, but that doesn't mean much, does it?

Suddenly hasty, I get up and scramble over to the bush where I hid my things. Quick as I can, I change back and hurry home. All just a dream. And if not, there's only one way to find out.

Nobody calls for me when I open the front door and sneak in. The clock above the shoe rack shows nine o'clock. They must still be asleep, they did stay awake rather long after all.

It's only Wednesday but virtually nobody is working today. Because everybody wanted to watch the comet.

Suppressing a yawn, I make my way into the kitchen and turn on the coffee machine.

I could of course just go upstairs and lie down again. Nobody would notice. But I'm awake now so I might as well wake myself up properly and get online.

There's not much else I do these days. If the real world doesn't suit you, just go and live in a virtual one, right? Right.

Alex isn't online yet when I turn my PC on, so I just start right into a match. The less time I have to think about that dream the better.

But I'm not playing well. My reflexes are somewhat off and my calls not as precise and quick as they were just the day before.

So once the enemies have mercifully ended the game, I don't start into another and instead go onto the internet.

But what should I google?

In the end, I settle on "weird dreams caused by comet" and press enter. There are tons of results, but none describe what I experienced. Many talk about apocalyptic nightmares, claiming they're visions of the future. I've seen enough of that esoteric shit throughout the last half year to be able to tell pretty quickly. Scared people have weird thoughts.

Am I scared?

Probably not, right? I mean, what's there to be scared of? Just a weird dream, nothing more.
Nevertheless, I spend another hour scrolling through the articles and blog posts, until I get a discord message.