Adventures in Dreamscapering

sleep paralysis

That night I went to sleep hoping to escape from the problems of the day with some casual lucid dreaming. I allowed myself to relax in bed and float away...

I felt myself descend into what felt like a dream realm, so I allowed myself to become aware...

...but I wasn't quite asleep or awake, lucidity came too soon and now I was trapped in the middle, unable to move. My eyelids felt like lead, I could see something moving, dark and scary in the corner of the room through the slivers of my eyes.

If you've never experienced sleep paralysis, it is quite terrifying. It's like having your dream nightmares projected into the real world while you are helpless to watch...

The figure came up to me, his face was a blurry white blotch against the blackness of his hair and body. Now I was confused; normally sleep paralysis hallucinations typically remain looming figures in the corner.

The boy appeared to turn, perhaps to retrieve something from his pocket. He held up in his blurry hand a bright blue marble. He pressed the sphere to my lips, it was so cold that it burned like I was kissing dry ice. 

As the marble slipped past my lips, my focus drastically shifted. Everything brightened and dimmed so the contrast was sharp. The boy standing over me became incredibly clear and my room around me faded to fuzzy shapes and colors. The boy was wearing jean shorts that hit his knees in frayed ends and an orange shirt with random symbols on it in blue.

"Hey." The boy reached his fingers under my chin and pulled me up, except he wasn't pulling me up, more like my soul. I stood up and looked at my stiff body with the eyes still half-open. 

"Am I dead?" I cried, shrinking away from him and touching my body. I pressed my fingers into the arm of my real body and they went through.

"No, you're not dead. But we gotta go, they're gonna notice we're gone."

Who is they? I wondered to myself. 

I squinted at him and recognized him as the boy from my dream in the subway.

"Hey, I know you! You're, you're--"

"I'm Max. Nice to meet you, although I'm sure we're past formalities since we, you know." Max made fish lips and kissy noises accompanied with raising his eyebrows.

"You kissed me !" I protested, but I wasn't sure exactly what for. I looked hesitantly again at my body on the bed.

I supposed I wasn't dead. My stocky frame slightly rose and fell in the bed; my toned skin contrasting slightly with the bedsheets in the dim glow of Max and I.  Max leaned forward and closed my eyes with his skinny fingers. This freaked me out.

"Come on!" Max grabbed my hand and pulled me into the hallway outside my room, phasing through  the door and into my bathroom. I could see my reflection in the mirror but Max's wasn't there.

"Ready?" Max asked.
"N-no--!"

Max disregarded my disgruntled denial for this impromptu adventure. 

He crawled atop my counter, dipping his head and shoulders all the way through my mirror. It ripples a little bit as he does, with mirror-colored slime dripping out onto the counter's vinyl. His clumsy hand knocked over a few bottles next to the sink, I rushed to pick them up before they hit the floor. 

Max pulled his head out and turned to face me. 

"The coast appears to be clear," he said. He extended a hand towards me and I realized that I could have very easily run away from this stranger just now. 

"Are you coming or not?" Max wiggled his hand in front of me, presumably to prompt me to take it. 

Against better judgment, I do. Max dipped into the mirror and pulled me in after; a sensation like gelatin engulfing me as I make my way through this mysterious portal.