Just a Dream

Chapter 2

I go from being relaxed to being alert and somewhat alarmed. "What?" I think. "Kimishi never calls only one person down to his office." I want to lie down on my utilitarian bed and ponder the situation, but when Kimishi says 'come', you come. I speed-walk down the winding hallways, lost in my own thoughts. No matter how hard I rack my brain, I can’t think of any reason why there would be only one person in a dream.  I finally give up my puzzling, realizing that I’ll find out what all of this is about sooner rather than later.

When I reach Kimishi’s office, he is sitting in his swivel chair with his back to me. When he hears my footsteps, he spins the chair so he is facing directly towards me. His salt n’ pepper hair is perfectly gelled back, not a hair out of place.

“Eve.” He says curtly.

“Yes, Kimishi?” I ask, bowing my head in respect.

“You know that, occasionally I will watch a dream, which is broadcasted to me over a screen, correct?” I nod, waiting for him to get to the point.

“And you know that on that screen, I detect every minute detail of what is happening?” I nod my head again, this time more nervous. What is he getting at? I don’t think I did anything wrong…

“Well, I noticed something rather… unsettling… while observing your actions.” This time I don’t say anything. I run every moment of the dream over in my head. What could I have done wrong? I didn’t even have any lines, for Pete’s sake! I was completely frozen into place!

“You were frozen into place. But that does not mean that I could not help but notice the sympathy you felt for the dreamer.” I finally realize what he is talking about. We’re not supposed to show any emotion in a dream, other than the ones that we’re supposed to show. It supposedly messes with the dreamer’s mind.

“Can you imagine the trouble we would all be in if you had a speaking part? More likely than not, you would have cried out and warned him. And you know that only the strongest of minds can take that. Most humans would go completely crazy.”

Nice job, Eve, I tell myself. What a great way to show compassion. Making someone crazy really carries the message across. I stare shamefacedly at the giant control panel on Kimishi’s left. I can’t bear to look him in the eye. Think of what would have happened if you had a speaking part, I think.You’d be singlehandedly responsible for ruining some poor boy’s life.

"You are dismissed." I can barely hear Kimishi's curt, clipped voice over my own thoughts. I feel myself do something that probably resembles a nod, and quickly shuffle out of his office. I stumble over to my wing, trying to tell myself something that will cheer me up. I guess that's what happens when you're almost entirely alone. You end up scolding yourself, and then trying to make yourself feel better.

"Come on, Eve," I think "It's not too bad. The boy's fine. Nothing terrible happened. You just have to be more careful from now on." I try to make myself believe the voice in my head.

Suddenly, the intercom crackles back to life. I freeze, desperately hoping that it's not Kimishi calling me to his office again to reprimand me once more. But it's not, thank goodness. It's just Kimishi reminding our wing that it's time to report to our classes. Good. Something to take my mind off the recent events.

My class is only about a fifth of a mile away, so I get there quickly. You may wonder why we have to take classes. It's not like we'll ever have a need for algebra or chemistry. But those aren't the type of classes we have. In our classes, we learn about how to improve our dreamwalking skills, and about the history of the dreamwalkers. In my opinion, actually, the latter is completely unecessary. All of us have been alive for all of the history. You see, none of us were born in the normal way. At the beginning of time, we all just...were there. As soon as there were creatures that had dreams, we were created. It's not like we're all old grannies though. We were born (made? created? whatever.) at the same age that we would always be. Our brains mature regularly though. So I'm a sixteen year old with a brain so old that its age, written out in numbers, wouldn't fit on a giant chalkboard. But anyways, you get the point. Unless any of us has really bad memory loss, we're going to remember most of our history.

Anyway, I sit down my seat, right next to Caeli. Soricia and Namora shoot her a disgusted look when she doesn't object, as if it were a crime to sit next to me. Caeli glares at them, and turns to me.

           "Just ignore them," she advises "Those two are so dimwitted, they couldn't tell a good dream from a nightmare." I can't help but smile at this. Even though Caeli's electric green eyes and fiery red hair practically scream " I have a temper and an attitude, and I'm not afraid to use them!" she would never use them in the wrong way. The only time she puts them to use is when she's sticking up for a friend. That's one of the many things I like about Caeli. She's the most loyal, fierce-hearted person you'll ever meet. Her only -and I mean only- weakness is her need for attention. She's not the type of person who would ever  do something terrible like betray a friend.