u n r e a l • b o o k t w o ✓

five

I decided to make a cast! That's just how I picture the characters so feel free to use anyone that you want to portray them.

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↞ F I V E ↠

I looked and felt terrible. I had taken it upon myself to call in my job and take a personal vacation, leaving me with nothing to do besides attending another session, drowning myself in pity and visiting Eliza. Currently, I sat in my fourth session, three days after the last one.

"Have you seen her again?"

I froze up and adverted my gaze to the floor.

"No. I have not," I bit out. "A part of my hoped that I was just working myself up for nothing and that she would show up again in another dream."

My heart ached just by thinking about her. My mind hurt too. Dr. Campbell sent me a sad smile, his eyes studying me carefully.

"It's okay. To think I'm crazy. I know you probably want to diagnose me with something like psychotic depression, you probably want to tell me that I'm just hallucinating in my dreams. If that's even possible or makes sense. I promise though, I'm not psychotic," I defended.

Dr. Campbell frowned.  "If you think that what happened to you is the craziest story I've ever heard then think again. I don't think that you're a lunatic, or that you're psychotic, and I don't think that you have depression. The signs are pointing no where near that. I think that you've lost yourself somewhere in those lucid dreams and I think that you can't even tell the difference between reality and your dreams anymore."

I closed my eyes tightly and sighed.

"I don't know what's happening. I felt like I needed help, I felt like I needed to seek a professional, and so I came to you."

"Ezra, you are the only person who can help you."

"Am I though?"

"Your dream girl. She wanted you to find someone, right? Then do it, that's what she would have wanted Ezra. Real or not real. Dream or no dream. Just do it."

"I−I can't."

"You can."

I wanted to drop the subject. I wanted to get a refund and get out of here. "This is crazy."

"Then why are you here? You're telling me that after a sudden mental breakdown you feel that you're just wasting time?" Dr. Campbell sighed. "I can't help you help yourself if you keep shutting me out. I don't care about this because I'm getting paid to, despite what you may think. By all means though Ezra, feel free to leave."

I groaned. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry okay. I just– god I don't even know what to say."

"For most humans it is easier to tell a stranger their whole life story more than it would be to tell someone they've known for a long time. I believe that's why you're here, because you believe that someone with a profession like mine would be easier to talk to? Does it seem to be working out for you so far?"

"No," I answered.

"Truthfully," Dr. Campbell started, "I can't figure out exactly what's wrong with you clearly. What I can say is that I believe you are aching for a significant other and these dreams are depicting that."

A part of me didn't feel that this was going anywhere. A part of me knew that it was because I wasn't trying. A part of me felt that this issue was stupid and I needed to get over it because there were much more important things to worry about in the world right now.

"Maybe."

"I've got an idea. You are going to lie down on the couch over there," he pointed, "and we are going to start doing our sessions this way. I will hypnotize you into remembering each and every dream you ever had with this dream girl. You will describe to me each and every detail. What I hope to be the end result from all of this is that you will be at rest and move on."

Move on? Would I? Could I? Should I?

I chuckled lightly and stood up. "Now you're really making me sound crazy."