Emma Conway. Female. August 11, 2008. Fifteen. 4913, Ashdown Ridge. Resident of Canada. Student at Richmond high school.
...
Emma blinks for a few seconds, and shakes her head, remembering who she is all at once. In one moment, she suddenly realizes that she’s in a dream. She realizes that the man with black hair looks a lot like her math teacher, Mr. Hills. This doesn’t weird Emma out. She knows that brains reuse faces they’re already familiar with. Mr. Hills whips around at a neck-breaking speed, looking at the taller man with desperate eyes. Her attention turns to the other two, as she doesn’t recognize their faces.
The three of them start to speak to each other urgently. Emma doesn’t hear the entire conversation, but she picks up bits and pieces.
“I thought that we fixed the patch.. –”
“ –What is she doing here!?”
“We can’t let her stay.”
“We should remove her–.”
“No!”
“– She’s just a kid, Sally!”
“Well she can’t just know about us…–”
The group suddenly hushes, and Mr. Hills takes a step away from the other two, fiddling with his nails. His nervous demeanor makes Emma nervous as well, but she remembers that it’s all just a dream. She smiles and plays along, “Where am I?” She asks. He takes a breath, and looks up after a moment's thought, “Emma, this is hard to explain. You’re in The Hourglass.” He starts. Emma nods, “Right. And what does that mean, exactly?” She asks. Mr. Hills pauses, “Well.. The Hourglass is like an interdimensional wormhole. You.. initiated the dream sequence somehow.. And now you’re here… And..” He looks over to the others for help explaining. The other man nods, and steps up beside Mr. Hills, “My name is Matthew.” He says, introducing himself briskly. He looks down at Emma, and then gestures out to the many doors, “You see all of those doors? They’re portals, and each one has a different dimension behind it.” He says with a small nod. Emma looks down slightly while she processes this information. “Sweet.” She says after a moment. Mr. Hills shakes his head frantically, “No! No, it’s not sweet!” He exclaims, “This is… this is a matter of life or death!”
Emma’s eyes widen dramatically as she continues to play out the dream, “Oh, it is?” She asks, trying not to sound sarcastic. The short woman with blonde hair speaks, her tone flat and serious. “It is a matter of life or death, you know.” She says. She takes a step forward, and holds out a hand. “Sally Boothe. Senior member of the Anomaly Correction Unit— A.C.U.. Pleased to meet you.” She says. Emma looks at her outstretched hand questioningly, and then back up at her face. Her expression flattens even more, and she pulls her hand away slowly, “You’re a shy one, aren’t you?” Mr. Hills begins to speak again, “Sally! This isn’t a time for formality we- we have to–” He’s cut off when Matthew raises a hand, gesturing for him to be silent, “Calm down, Elliot. We’ll figure it out. For now, we need to prioritize explaining everything to her.” He says. Mr. Hills’ eyes widened, “But– we– I–! You calm down!” He exclaims accusingly. When he sees the no-shit expression on Matthew’s face, however, he hangs his head in defeat with a sigh, silencing himself, “Okay..”
Emma turns around and scans the space with her eyes. She sees the many doors. One of them has an odd pull to it. Without thinking, she begins to wander in the direction of the door, everything around her starting to drain out, her thoughts going blank. “Emma!” A voice suddenly calls out. It’s Mr. Hills, who had noticed that she’s walking off. “Come back here.” He commands. Emma reluctantly starts to walk back to the others. All of the adults have a stressed look on their faces.
“I don’t know why I’m listening to you. It’s my dream, you know,” She says stubbornly. Mr. Hills raises an eyebrow, “Oh, so you want to go into another dimension? You want to get lost? You want to get eaten alive by a foreign creature?” He asks, his eyes widening slightly. Matthew crosses his arms, “Elliot, that’s enough.” He mutters. Emma looks at Mr. Hills, “What do you mean by that, Mr. Hills?” She asks, her curiosity peaking. Mr. Hills opens his mouth to speak, but is interrupted by Matthew, who seems to be getting angrier by the moment, “It’s classified information that is not meant to be shared. Right, Elliot?” He affirms through gritted teeth, looking at Mr. Hills with narrowed eyes. Mr. Hills throws his hands up in defeat, “Fine. Whatever.” He walks off, retreating over with Sally. He casts Matthew one last disapproving glance, and then snaps his head back to Sally defiantly.
Emma raises an eyebrow, “You two don’t seem to get along very well.” She looks at Matthew questioningly. Matthew pinches the bridge of his nose in annoyance, his head tilting slightly downwards, “Tell me one thing I don’t know,” He groans, “Elliot is such a.. A damn topper! He thinks he’s so much better than me! Everything I do…!-” He cuts himself off with a sigh, and shakes his head, “Nevermind that. Forget I said anything. It doesn’t really matter. I guess what I’m trying to say is that you’re right. Our group is not exactly functional.” Emma’s taken aback by this information, “But Mr. Hills is so nice!” She says. Emma’s beginning to get frustrated with herself. Why is she explaining this to a dream character? She knows that none of this is real. And she also knows that Mr. Hills is a good person. She continues playing into it, interested by how the conversation may play out.
Matthew shakes his head quickly, “Oh no, he isn’t!” He exclaims. Emma’s eyes widen at the certainty of his response. “Immature… snooty.. ugh, I just can’t.” Matthew groans. Emma raises an eyebrow. Mr. Hills walks over somewhat cautiously, slow moving. He crosses his arms, “Well, we came to a conclusion. You’re one of us now, Emma.” He announces with a prompt nod. Emma looks at Mr. Hills, “One of what, Mr. Hills?” She asks. Mr. Hills takes a breath, “You’re a part of the A.C.U. now–” He smiles softly, “And.. I guess that it’d be better that you called me Elliot now.. Seeing as—” Matthew crosses his arms, his voice cold, “We get it. You can stop now.” Elliot’s eyebrows furrow, and he lets out a loud ‘hmph’ sound, crossing his arms. He turns his back to Matthew. “Whatever.”
Emma rolls her eyes and looks over at Sally. “What does being a part of the A.C.U. entail?” She asks curiously. Sally looks at Emma for a moment, examining her, and she then speaks crisply, “It means that you stay out of the way and let the adults do everything. The last thing that we need is a ten year old to get involved.” Emma’s about to talk back – she’s fifteen, not ten – when suddenly, a loud beeping sound echoes through the space. Sally looks up into the distance, “That’s someone’s alarm. You’re going to wake up, and everything will seem normal. When you go back to sleep tomorrow, you’ll come back here.” She instructs. Emma nods softly, and suddenly sits up in bed, her eyes shooting open. She looks around her bedroom. She wiggles her fingers, doing a reality check to ensure that she is no longer asleep. She then gets out of bed, lifting her dream journal off of her nightstand. She flips through the pages, feeling the brittle pages between her fingers. She writes down her lucid dream in detail. The portal.. the dimensions.. the space.. the doors. The hourglass.
