Dreamy Waltz

Chapter 3

Dakota sat on his bed running his hands through his hair once again. He glanced up to see the book that Dr. Laumann had given him sitting on his desk. It had been three days since his appointment and he had yet to touch the book since he had gotten back to his apartment. The dream still took over his dreams at night and he still didn't understand why. With a heavy sigh he stood up and walked over to his desk. He. Slowly sat down in the chair and placed the book right in front of him. If this dream was going to keep him awake at night he might as well do something productive with his time. He looked over the cover of the book. Four distinct symbols stood out with six smaller ones spread out. The only lettering on the cover were the words The Dream. There was no author on the cover like any other book. He slowly lifted up the cover of the book and the name Malcom Lake jumped out.

"That must be the author" Dakota thought.

He turned the next page and was immediately enveloped in the story of ten young children gaining strange powers after traumatic events. The book then did something that Dakota wasn't used to seeing in books. It started sectioning off "chapters" that were dedicated to certain characters. He quickly noticed that each character didn't have a name, instead they were only defined by titles or nicknames. As Dakota read, nothing was really standing out.

"Why would that doctor give me this book if it wasn't going to help me?" Dakota questioned in confusion as to the doctors antics.

He started flipping through the book in random sections. He didn't stop flipping until the word fire caught his eye. He quickly flipped to the front of that section. The word Flame was the header. Dakota started reading everything as quickly as he could. He knew that it was this section that would give him the most answers. It talked about a young child who developed the ability to create and control fire after the loss of a friend. The book then started to describe how the child learned to control their powers and were able to create fire balls out of the palm of their hand.

Dakota quickly snapped the book shut. He brought his hands up to his hair and started tugging at it.

"This is crazy. None of this can be remotely real." Dakota told himself. After a few minutes of trying to convince himself that it wasn't real, he slowly started to stand up. He made a quick decision that going to sleep would be good for him and that the book was putting ideas into his head due to his tiredness. "I will look at it tomorrow and hopefully get some answers that make sense."

~*~

"You look like shit dude." A voice said from over Dakota's shoulder. Dakota turned slowly to see Chase standing there with a look of worry on his face. "I take it that my brother-in-law didn't help?"

"No. He helped alright. I just don't know if I want to believe it." Dakota sighed. He hadn't gotten much sleep the night before due to the fact that he was trying to rack his brain as to the reality of the book.

"Well, what did he say was causing them?" Chase asked sitting in the chair to Dakota's left.

"He didn't say much." Dakota said looking straight ahead. "But he did give me this weird book to read. He said that it might give me some answers."

"Have you read it yet?" Chase asked in curiosity.

"I didn't get much sleep last night due to some of the content of it." Dakota said running his hands through his hair again. "I just don't know if the book is real or not."

"Then why don't you ask the author?" Chase suggested. Dakota turned to look at his friend with an eyebrow raised. "I mean, you can probably find the guy online and ask him. Or better yet, find his address and ask him in person. Then you can have some peace of mind while you try to sleep."