Nightmares Alive

The Research

When I reached the school's office, I noticed that the secretary was on her phone, discussing something about a dentist appointment for her son. After a minute or two, I finally got eye contact with her. I motioned to the phone. The secretary seemed to understand and nodded, letting me know that I had her permission to use it.

Before I grabbed it, she pulled the phone away from her mouth and whispered, "Make sure you dial 8 first."

I nodded to her with a thumbs up. I decided to call a taxi over to school because I didn't want Mom knowing I was going home. Since I had to fake being sick and she was working, she would need to come home and pamper me with chicken noodle soup and an ice pack and tell me to stay in bed. Since she doesn't come home until at least 4:30 each afternoon, I would normally already be home. She would never know.

When the taxi pulled up to my house, I handed him a 20 dollar bill, more than enough to get me home. Because I felt guilty that I skipped school, I told him to keep the change. He grinned from ear to ear and thanked me.
         
As I walked up the gravel park up to my front door, I glanced around the neighborhood. Luckily, no one was watching me except for a white, stray cat that our community named Zeus. He meowed at my early arrival. I felt like a little kid when I put a finger to my lips and "shushed" him. He seemed to understand when he turned around and pounced into a neighbor's lawn, searching for any mice.
         
I chuckled at the sight of him when I reached for the doorknob. When it wouldn't open, I remembered the spare key under our welcome mat. I was surprised when it wasn't there. Thinking that it may have been just misplaced, I ran to the back door to luckily find it unlocked. I sighed and kicked my flats off when I got inside.
         
"Hello?" I yelled so the whole house could have heard me. No one replied just like I expected, meaning that I was alone. I booked it upstairs and grabbed my laptop.
         
Having no idea where to start looking, I searched "flashing images of dreams." As expected, nothing helpful came up. I searched it in images just in case, but only cartoons and memes came up. Maybe I am being a little bit too complicated with my searches. After endless searches, I finally slammed my laptop shut with no success. Groaning, I stuffed it under my nightstand and plugged it in so it could charge. I glanced around my room out of boredom when eyes came across an unusual pen on my dresser.
         
I stepped over to my dresser to find that it was engraved with an word: FIFMD. There was no explanation to what it meant. That's random, I thought. Oh well. As I was about to put the pen back down, my subconscious stopped me. I was unable to put it down. Like some unknown force was opposing me, I could only bring it closer to inspect it more. As it got closer to my face, I started to feel drowsy, but I was able to shake myself awake. The drowsiness, surprisingly, receded as quickly as it came. I quickly put it down onto my white dresser and grabbed my laptop from underneath my nightstand again. It wasn't done charging. Eh, whatever, I thought. It was only at 10%, but I knew it would be enough for this next piece of research. Looking at the search bar, I typed in 5 letters.

          F. I. F. M. D.