Imagine If....

Your 'Dreamcatcher' Works...

You flop back on the couch after a long day's work. It may not seem difficult at first glance, but fielding phone calls for customer service was turning out to be a bitch. It wasn't helping that you hadn't gotten a decent nights sleep in weeks. Only getting an hour or two a night was really starting to drag on you, which was evident by the dark circles and bags starting to form under your eyes. It was the nightmares that haunted every corner of your mind that kept you up at night.

As you laid there, sprawled out on the couch, your phone starts going off where you set it down on the coffee table. Groaning, you swung your arm out and picked it up. Glancing at the screen, you saw it was your best friend, Mark. While you were stuck here in Ohio, Mark was out in California. Knowing that if you didn't answer his call, he'd keep calling until you did answer.

You answered the phone as you put it up to your ear.

"Yeah?" You asked, trying to fight back a yawn. 

"Wow, someone sounds like shit." Mark's deep voice held a joking tone.

"Way to boost a girl's confidence!" After you replied back sarcastically, another yawn erupted from within you.

"Did I wake you up?"

"Shouldn't I have had to sleep for you to wake me up?" A long sigh came from Mark, as he knew about the problems you've had trying to sleep lately.

"You're still not sleeping? Y/N, I'm worried about you. All this not being able to sleep isn't good for you." Like the flip of a switch, Mark had transformed from being the joking, sassy best friend to the kind that cared endlessly about your safety.

"I'm fine, besides sleep is for the weak." That was you, every time something turned serious, you had to break the ice with some sort of joke. Once again, you heard a sigh come from Mark's end, as he knew he wouldn't win in this case.

"Well, I gotta go. I have to finish editing the videos to upload today. If anything happens, you'll call me, right?"

"As always.." You responded, yawning once more. You hung up, throwing the phone back onto the coffee table. Just as you started to drift off, there was a knock at your door.

After you managed to get up off your couch, you trudged your way towards the front door. Swinging the door open, you looked down at your doorstep. A rather small white box sat at your feet, with nothing but the mailing address on it. Normally, this would have creeped you the fuck out. You've seen too many crime shows to know that unmarked packages lead to nothing good.

With your sleep deprived mind, you bent down and picked up the box. As you walked back in and shut the door behind you, you began to open up the box. Once you got it opened, you peered inside. Sitting nicely in the box, was a wooden dreamcatcher with multicolored feathers hanging off the end.

Not that it wasn't beautiful, but who would send you a dreamcatcher? Your question was answered as you saw a small note beneath it. You gently lifted up the dreamcatcher to grab the note. Your eyes quickly scanned over the neat scrawl on the card

Put  this on your headboard and let it chase the nightmares away...

Mark

If your mind wasn't so drained from getting no sleep, you'd be crying right now. It was moments like these that you realised why Mark was your best friend. It was also moments like these that made you realize why you had fallen in love with him.

Grabbing the dreamcatcher from the box, you slowly made your way towards the bedroom. It couldn't help but try, right?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The dreamcatcher didn't work, in fact, it had the exact opposite effect. The nightmares came upon you ten times stronger. They were now so strong, you had barely gotten an hour of sleep. There has never been a moment where you've wanted to pass out for several days like you do right now.

As you stared up at your living room ceiling after you moved to the couch after your last attempt to sleep, your phone blared. This time, you didn't even bother to check who was calling before you answered.

"Hello?" When you heard your own voice, you realised that is sounded worse than yesterday, if that was even possible.

"Let me guess, another sleepless night?" Mark questioned you with a hard tone in his voice.

"Yeah, the dreamcatcher you sent didn't help, made things worse believe it or not. The sentiment was nice, though, so thank you.."

"I figured it wouldn't work, but it was worth a shot." You heard him sigh, which you've just been accustomed to hearing now. 

"Seeing as that didn't work, would mind opening the door now? You can't expect me to stand out here all day do you?" Instead of just dropping your phone down onto the couch cushion, you hung up. Mark was here??? There was no way, you thought to yourself. Mark was just messing with you. He was out in California, getting ready to record yet another video.

A sudden alertness ran through your system as you made your way towards the front door. Similar to yesterday, you swung the door open. Instead of being greeted by nothing, you now faced with Mark.  The ever present smirk that seemed to reside on his face was there. You took a minute to admire him in his lucky red flannel and dark jeans. What were you kidding, now was not the time to admire him.

Stifling a yawn, you asked Mark, "What are you doing here?"

"Figured since I was here visiting my mom, I'd come over and help you out." Without letting you move out of the way, he stepped inside your place and shut the door behind him. Mark lightly grabbed your hand and started pulling you towards the couch. You were still dazed by the fact that Mark was actually standing there, so you hadn't even begun to process what was happening now.

Once you arrived at the couch, Mark let go of your hand to lay down. Once he was comfortable, he grabbed your hand once more and pulled you down on top of him. After a minute or so, you eventually got comfortable. Your head was tucked into the crook of his neck as his arm came around to hang loosely around your back.

"Focus on nothing but my breathing," Mark whispered. You forced yourself to slow your breathing down to match his. In and out, in and out. It took a few minutes, but eventually your eyelids started to droop.

"That's it, there you go." He announced once he could feel you relaxing. This had been the first time in a long time where you felt safe to fall asleep, thinking that the nightmares couldn't chase you down.

"I'll be right here if anything happens." He whispered once again. With the combination of his warm body beneath you, and his hand slowly rubbing circles into your lower back, you drifted off to sleep. That night would be the first night in weeks without a nightmare.

Dreamcatchers do work, it's just some people require different forms.