When Dreams Consume Reality

Prologue

There was no moon, no sound and no activity. The night air was calm and still, as if patiently waiting for the string of events about to unfold.

And then, it happened.

The roar of an engine cut through the eerie silence of the highway, making the bats hanging from the branches of the nearby tree flutter away in fright.

A speeding motorbike.

Two teenage boys.

"Woohoo!" One of them shouted at the top of his voice.

The one riding the motorbike smirked seeing his friend's excitement.

An evening filled with noise and music, expensive alcohol in their bloodstream and now, the feel of the cold night air brushing past their skin. What more could delinquent teens like them ask for?

"Come on, baby!" the rider muttered to his favourite bike, a seventeenth birthday gift from his rich father, and pressed hard on the accelerator.

Ah! Nights like this...

No sooner had the thought left his mind, than out of nowhere a stray dog jumped in front of the motorbike.

He hit the brakes, but it was too late.

Everything seemed to happen in the blink of an eye- the screech of tyres, the yelp of the animal as it landed at the side of the road, the front wheel hitting the pavement, the boys thrown out of their seats.

The rider of the bike landed on his side, hard. Pain seared through his entire body as his left elbow and the side of his head connected with the concrete of the pavement. He was blinded for a moment. He tried to scream in pain, but no sound left his lungs.

His vision returned in a broken fashion, just in time to see the body of his friend hurtling through the air and hitting the nearby lamppost with a sickening 'thwack'. His friend didn't stir again.

Another jolt of pain seemed to slice open his head as he tried to move his hand by a centimeter. The yellow glow of the headlight of the battered bike seemed to fade and he was on the verge of losing his consciousness.

The last thing he felt, just before the darkness engulfed him, was a warm, sticky fluid trickling down his face.

---

All this while a woman lost in time, but very much still alive, had been watching the whole scene from a distant realm, waiting for the right moment to put her carefully crafted, sick plan to action.

"It's all about timing," she chuckled to herself.