Historical Hallucinations

5. Diagnosis

Sweat pouring down his head and bed, John sat up.  He mentally prayed while he looked out the window.  The sunlight smothered his face, energizing him with a sense of extreme relief. He was back home, but something was clearly wrong. These dreams were slowly becoming a nuisance; he needed to find a solution to the terror. As long as he could be harmed or die in the dreams, they were certainly not beneficial, despite him being able to visually recall moments in history.
That thought tugged at his head, pulling him back into bed.
"Do I do away with this amazing experience and miss out on a chance to be a part of history or is it better to be safe than sorry?" John asked himself.
By now, the answer smacked him in the face, waking him up and making him realize what he needed to do.

"Okay, so let me get this straight.  You have historic dreams every night?"  The psychologist asked, his eyebrows raised. 
John was creeped out by the facial hair his savior had.  Right in the center of the man's face was a prominent bushy mustache, the kind that was thick and curled at the end.  To add to the discomfort, his doctor had an abnormally large nose and pair of eyebrows.  And to top it all off, the man was as bald as a baby. His eyebrows was unmistakably the same type of large eyebrows on a typical villain in a game or book. 
"Well, you see Dr. Nichen," John stammered, unable to find words in the presence of this man. "The haven't happened that many times yet, just two nights in a row."
Dr. Nichen uncrossed his legs and sighed. "So what? Isn't that good? Sounds to me like there's no need for this session," he said irritably. "Aren't you pursuing a job as a history teacher?"
John winced. "Well, yes-"
"THEN WHY ARE YOU EVEN HERE?!" Dr. Nichen exploded. "I have other patients that have real problems!"
As if the psychologist wasn't creepy enough on the outside, John had managed to piss him off.
John attempted to keep a straight face while trapped in his chair even though he was terrified of Dr. Nichen. "It is a real problem," he whispered.
Dr. Nichen adjusted his tie and sat back down, but his face was still surging with redness. "Then tell me quickly because I have other matters to address after you."
"It may sound crazy.......but I can feel things in the dreams," he said. Meanwhile, the man opposite of him was not impressed.
"That....is the problem?" Dr. Nichen responded. It was quiet for another thirty seconds after that. The only sound that filled the room was the humming sound of the air conditioner. It calmed John down, and he hoped it would also calm down his mentor.
"Yes." Needless to say, those were John's last words in the office that day.
Ten minutes later, John was strolling back to his apartment, fearful for his life and what would await him tonight.

Tyco had called while John was either sleeping or at the doctor's; the phone was beeping occasionally.  John was qualm at the moment, so he tried to exhaust the feeling out of his system.  Reluctantly, his finger exerted force on the "playback message" button, and the message started to play. 
"Hey man, where have you been?  I haven't heard from you in days!  I just wanted to call and tell you I have an amazing story about this girl I hooked up with last night.  It was the best night!  Anyway, get back to me when you can, see ya."  Then there was a period of silence in which John was debating whether he should enjoy his life before it possibly ends that night or continue to grind through the history textbook pages.  He chose wisely....

"After the dark ages, came the Middle Ages, and then the Renaissance," he repeated to himself.  Even though it was common knowledge, he had to review everything just to make sure he didn't screw up.
John carefully scanned all the information.  "Some of the artists were Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, and Michelangelo.  The most well known writer was Shakespeare, who advanced the English language by almost doubling the vast slew of words."
He looked up, his eyes starting to beat because of all the strain.  "I know all this I can easily skip it." 
However, he was afraid to turn the page, not because of the fact that he would have to cram more facts down his brain, but for his own well-being.
The way the brain chooses dreams is by your conscious most before you sleep. Whatever dominated his brain when he laid down would be his dream-and his demise.
So he read all about the nice times in history, topics such as the age of exploration, Byzantine empire, and the Renaissance. John eventually fell asleep, his head perched vertically above his pillow. His snoring amplified throughout the whole apartment. He was back in the dream world.