Dreamscape

A Little Change Goes a Long Way

1 | A Little Change Goes a Long Way

It was late at night.

Again.

Monday morning at 2:30am. I should probably try to get some sleep now... I thought to myself. One of the few ways I usually try falling asleep with is an amazing, unique, creative technique that I call- reading. (Yep. I'm just that good. *Cough cough*) I grabbed the nearest math textbook and just began to read whichever page I happened to flip to.

When I first began, I randomly just grabbed the closest book within my reach. I'm pretty sure it made the insomnia worse. However, one day, the book just so happened to be a math textbook. I was weary at first but soon realized it was the one thing that would work properly on my insomnia.

Anyways, I was just casually reading and suddenly felt myself start zoning out. I put the notebook away and turned off the lights. All that was left was just wait and hope to fall asleep...

2:45 and I'm still awake. Maybe it's time to try something different. I went outside and stared up at the blank night sky. It made me sad to think about the endless but blank sky with no stars. I mean like- what's the point in learning about the stars and constellations in class if we can't even see them? I sighed.

Suddenly, a gust of wind blew into my face. Normally, this wouldn't have bothered me too much. However, this was different. Perhaps it was just me, but the wind felt a bit peculiar. It was like something was wrong and it was trying to right itself.

Eh, I probably just imagined it. How does wind feel different anyways? I continued to look up at the night sky. Huh? A singular star had appeared in the middle of the night sky. That's weird. I blinked and as fast as it had appeared, the small white dot  had been covered up by mist and clouds adrift.

Maybe I was just going crazy. This was one of the brighter bits of my town. There was no way any stars could possibly be seen by the naked eye. Except I had. Or at least I think I had. Maybe this was actually happening- or maybe I was just overworking myself so much that I started to see things. Was I already dreaming?

Drip, drop.

Nevermind, I felt that. Rain. I knew that water was going to cause me to become more awake, so I headed inside the house.

I'm still kind of sad that the star I saw disappeared so fast, if it was even real. It reminds me of how busy this town is. I knew that I would probably continue wondering about that for maybe even the rest of my life if I remembered but I couldn't focus on that at the moment. I had a bigger issue. I needed to figure out how to sleep.

I mean, all the websites that have strategies on how to beat insomnia always mention finding a quiet place, and with my circumstances, that just... can't happen. Heck, I bet the car that's honking outside just now probably set back my sleep counter by thirty-something minutes if that's even possible.

Whatever, I desperately need to sleep now. It's like, 2:55. I started concentrating on my breathing and closed my eyes. A wave of darkness took over me as I started getting a vision.

I was in one of my lucid dreams again. It felt familiar, like I'd already been in it before, but I couldn't place my finger on where I was. I looked around and saw some of my friends, but they looked blurrier than they usually would be in my dreams, as if they were in some sort of trance.

Nevertheless, I went up to them.

"Hello?" I said.

No response.

I waved my hand in front of their faces.

Still nothing.

"This doesn't make any sense..." I muttered.

I concentrated. As a lucid dreamer, I could control my dreams. I willed their arms to go up. Almost instantaneously, it happened. Except... it wasn't supposed to work- I wasn't supposed to be able to control people in my dreams.

Something was definitely wrong.

    Just then, I felt a gust of wind in the dream just like I had in the real world.

    Wait, I... felt, that?

    That couldn't be right... I was lucid dreaming but it was still a dream. How was I feeling something?! My head raced with thoughts.

    Instinctively, I held up my arm and tapped my friend's shoulder. It was solid.

    This shouldn't have been possible... How was I touching and feeling things in a dream?! I backed away.

    My friends' faces were all blank, and none of them made a movement, as if they were puppets on a string waiting to be controlled by their puppetmaster. Even worse, I was pretty sure that I was supposed to be the puppetmaster they were waiting for.

    What kind of nightmare was this?

    I focused harder, trying to change the scene to something else.

    It didn't change.

    Everything was deathly silent, the wind still softly blowing at me. This dream wasn't just a dream. More importantly - I was losing my very ability to lucid dream.