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4. Not A Dream

"You have five seconds to tell me what the heck you are doing in my apartment, or we're going to find out if a pen can literally be mightier than a sword."

The scream they had just shared was still ringing in Bonita's ears as she looked at the bewildered man on the floor before her. The longer she stared at him, the more she realized who he looked like. Heck, he was even wearing the same clothing.

'You have to be dreaming,' she thought. 'There's no way this is Bang Chan.'

"I'm calling the police," she said, finally breaking the silence.

"The police?"

Bonita tuned out the man as she moved out of the laundry room. She had left her cell phone on her desk and of course — as luck would have it — the moment she started to walk towards the desk, her whole apartment was plunged into pitch black darkness as the power went out.

'This has to be a dream that has become a nightmare,' she thought, certain the Bang Chan looking stranger she had just encountered was going to sneak up behind her and stab her.

Stretching out her free hand, Bonita tried to navigate her way across the space with her sense of touch. She could hear the man let out an 'oh' of shock behind her at the darkness of her apartment followed immediately by a thud as he ran into something. When she reached her desk, she grabbed the flashlight in her sweaty palm. She flicked it on and immediately swiveled around to find out where the stranger was. In doing so, she accidentally shined the light right in his eyes, causing him to immediately squint and turn away.

"What the heck are you doing in my apartment?" she asked again, momentarily putting the pen down to grab her phone. Her eyes flicked from him to the phone screen before letting out a sigh.

'Service unavailable...of course,' she thought.

"I...I don't know. Is that what this place is? Your apartment?"

Bonita watched as he paused to look around him in confusion before he added, "All I know is one minute I'm in my bunker and the next I'm waking up here..."

"What is your name?"

"Bang Chan," he said.

Before she could question him more, a loud crack of thunder sounded out. She watched him let out a yelp of surprise before crouching down behind her couch. He curled up into a ball much like he had been in the laundry room, cupping his hands over his ears. To Bonita, he had been reduced to a little boy within seconds.

'So, he hadn't been hiding in the laundry room to jump me. He was hiding because he was scared,' she thought.

Even though she knew she shouldn't let her guard down, Bonita couldn't help but to feel badly for him. Bonita walked over to him, crouching down in front of him.

"Has the gunfire stopped?" asked Bang Chan as she locked eyes with him.

"It's not gunfire," she said, putting the flashlight and phone down. She reached out both of her hands to withdraw his from his ears. In doing so, it cemented the fact that this man was indeed real. His hands were just as clammy as hers had been when looking for a flashlight. "It's just a storm."

"A storm?"

She nodded, grabbing her flashlight and flicking the beam towards the window. The night outside was a midnight blue, but the rain still slapped against the window as a streak of lightning lit up the sky.

"What is this place?" he asked in awe.

"As I said, it's my apartment," she said. "Are you...are you really Bang Chan?"