Lucid

Chapter One: Dreams and Reality (The Girl)

Willow stared into the dark eyes of herself in the bathroom mirror. She concentrated, staring harder, and they turned lighter than before.

She knew it wasn't real, just her unconscious mind working its magic. Willow knew it was just a dream, so she enjoyed it, it was a chance to escape reality, without any consequences.

She took a deep breath and stepped out of the bathroom. It was her turn to battle the great Takia Kensea from her favorite TV show. In her dreams, anything was possible. She held her head up high. Her now light blue eyes and long pink hair, tied up in a pony tail, sparkled in the artificial light.

Willow was tall, and sometimes, like right then, she could use it to her advantage. Everyone she made eye contact with looked intimidated, which made her feel powerful. She half smiled to herself.

That all changed when she locked eyes with Kensea. As tall Willow she was, he was twice as tall. As much as she was intimidating people, he was scaring even her. Willow gulped, smug expression vanished.

"Everyone welcome Willow Oneiroi to the mat!" The announcer bellowed. No one clapped. All eyes were on Kensea. Willow shivered.

"She will be facing the great Kensea!" Everyone just bowed to him in slow motion. Willow strolled onto the mat, as slowly as she could without appearing as if she was stalling. Which she was.

Walking into the cage from a door on the side, Willow noticed that the whole box was made of a two sided mirror, in which the people inside couldn't see out, so the audience on the right-hand side of the small dojo could watch in.

The door slammed shut behind her, and Willow whipped around to see her only source of exit gone. She reached for the knob, but there wasn't one. She was trapped. Willow took a deep breath and exhaled. She knew it wasn't real. Then why did it terrify her so much? Calm down, she told herself, it's just a dream.

She and Kensea shook hands, Kensea's iron grip causing her hand to redden, and they bowed to one another. Kensea strolled back to his side of the mat, and Willow did the same.
On the announcer's count of five, Kensea ran, correction: flew, towards Willow. Luckily she ducked, and put her foot out to trip him. His pale white face hit the ground with the amount of force that made his nose start to bleed. Willow smiled cockily.
"Clever, Miss Willow," Kensea mocked. "But not clever enough," And with that, he took Willow down to the dirty mats with him with a pull of her leg. She yelped out, for someone, anyone, to help her. She didn't stand a chance against him!

All she got in response from her yells to the audience was a glimpse of her reflection form in the mirror. Her pink hair now had gray streaks in it, she assumed it was from her own distress. Her eyes were now back to her usual dark brown color. She was losing her control over the situation, which meant that the dream would spiral out of her grasp if she didn't do something- and fast.

After about two seconds of staring at herself in the mirrors, Kensea pulled Willow's legs back again, causing her to fall back down. In response, Willow flailed her arms, and kicked her legs as much, and as hard, as she could, to no avail.

Willow knew that Kensea's strength wasn't physical, it was mental. He got inside your mind, and found your true weakness. She told herself that she wouldn't let that happen. Willow had enjoyed watching the T.V. show, and reading the comics about Kensea when she was little. She thought hard about what she knew. Willow knew Kensea was wanted by the police for his horrible crimes, that his evil power was mind reading, and that he was a back stabber, literally.

While in the midst of trying hard to think of something, Kensea spun her around and punched her in the face, point blank. She fell backwards, towards the ground. Things felt like they were going in slow motion.

Willow looked into his cold blue eyes, and then at her own complexion, pale and dirty, with a  now completely gray head of hair through the mirror behind him. When her head hit the ground, she literally felt the whiplash. That usually didn't happen in her dreams... Willow turned her body over, defeated.

The two sided mirror turned into regular glass, to signal the round being over. She knew her nose and mouth were bloody, but the rest of the body hurt so much, she decided not to wipe it off.

Everyone in the audience was getting up to walk out of the dojo, and nobody looked surprised by the outcome. Willow caught the eye of The Boy. She had nicknamed him that ever since she had noticed him appearing in every dream she had. He smirked his annoying smirk and stood up. He had deep green eyes, black hair, and Willow had observed his obvious arrogance.

Willow rolled her eyes, and concentrated hard on waking up. It didn't work. That usually meant that there was more to the story or rather, dream. She decided to try to stand up to investigate the situation.

She opened her eyes and just as Willow was pulling herself to her feet, a bullet, aimed towards Kensea (who stood directly in front of Willow) came flying towards them.

Unfortunately for Willow, Kensea ducked. Leaving her the recipient of a seemingly gigantic piece of ammo. Willow heard the audience, including The Boy, scream in unison. After that, she couldn't hear anything.

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When she awoke, she was lying in a hospital bed, highly confused. Willow blinked a few times and looked around the room. There was a small window to her right, and another big window to her left. Out the window to her left, she saw her parents and a woman in blue scrubs.

Obviously this was still a dream.

She knew that in her dreams, when she looked at a clock, and then looked back, the time would be different. She saw that the time was 2:30 A.M. She looked at her hair, it had gray streaks.

Obviously still a dream.

She looked back, and the clock read 2:31 A.M. Not a big difference, but Willow guessed it would it would suffice.

Her mother looked over at her with concern, and was shocked to see that she was awake. She tapped Willow's dad's arm gingerly, and Willow moved her fingers in greeting. They both rushed in to see her.

"Are you hurt?" Her mother asked.

"What happened?" Her father inquired.

She glanced at the clock behind them, then at the wall, then back at the clock.
Oh, God. Oh, no. Oh my God! Willow thought.

The time didn't change.