ILLUSION?

The World-connecting Newspaper

I looked at the alarm clock; it read six a.m. I knew that I wasn't gonna get any sleep so I threw off the covers and got up. On my way out of the room I saw Arya sleeping in her own basket-like mini dog bed, which was a BIG surprise.

I found my way to the kitchen and started to make me a cup of hot chocolate. I was contemplating the meaning of that dream when mom walked into the kitchen and almost jumped through the roof.

"OH MY GOD!", she shrieked, "You scared me"

"Apparently", I said sipping the chocolate.

"You're up early"

"Couldn't sleep", I said – well it was half of the truth, "Thinking about what to do in the holidays, aside from reading, eating and sleeping"

"Well aren't you guys going somewhere - a cinema or a picnic?"

The thought of Eddy and Terra made me feel queasy. I shouldn't have lashed out at them like that yesterday, and after last night, I was starting to doubt myself even more than before.

"No...", I said, my voice suddenly in a low volume, "...not yet"

"Hmm...", she got to work around the kitchen. I had learned over the years that she could sense when things were wrong and knew when to and when not to talk.

"I'll go get the newspaper", I said and went out to get it. I opened the door and the cold morning air hit me. It was that time in the morning when the air stung your nose and prickled your skin which really woke you up.

"March nineteen, twenty-seventeen', I read the date out loud.

I turned and headed back inside. I saw the day's headline and couldn't believe the following report:

DEAD MAN ON RAMPAGE

Yesterday at 6:00 p.m. Central Time, the police were called by agitated citizens in Cadal. They reported loud voices coming from a house nearby. The police arrived at the scene to a destroyed house and two elderly dead who were supposedly the parents of the man, named Sebastian; he had falsely been reported dead 11 years ago. Near them was also the body of the neighbours' daughter Anna, 13, whose missing report was filed by her parents a week before this incident. Anna's father said, "Our daughter went out with her friends a week ago and didn't return. We asked her friends, but they didn't seem to know either. So we filed a report and waited but the police didn't seem to take much interest saying it was just a show of teen angst. We didn't believe them. So we started investigating on our own. We were so close to finding her but...", the father broke down at this point, "We were – we were too late". Sebastian seems to have done this with the help of his daughter, Alda, as neighbours report that she was known to be different from the others and was quite delusional. The police are investigating this case with all their forces and have alerted neighbouring cities of these on-the-run fugitives. If you happen to see them anywhere or notice suspicious activity in your area, please call...

Given below was a hotline for this and the photos of the man and his daughter. Next to it was also a photo of a broken down house. I couldn't believe it. They thought that the man had done this to a house? It looked like it was struck down by lightning as half of the house was gone and smoking, the police were mad. I had a feeling they were after the wrong people.

I sat there on a chair, already the news vanishing from my thoughts, though it did strike me as out of he ordinary but i just pushed it into the back of my mind as i started thinking about what I was gonna tell to Eddy and Terra and if they would understand or just stare at me like I had just told them they were gonna die. I didn't know what to do, I had no clue what I might end up doing and also the fact that I was taking a dream seriously. It just didn't feel like a dream, it felt real. When I was dreaming, he could read my thoughts and sense my emotions – that connection worked both ways. In those few moments when we talked, I felt like I was in his place – that we were the same being.

His mind showed many emotions – fear, anger, anticipation, self-pity, and in there somewhere in the farthest corners I sensed hope. It was like a match had lit up when he talked to me. His mind was a blizzard of words. He didn't know what to say and only one word resounded in his mind – Escape.

I snapped out of my trance when mom placed a plate with a sandwich (toasted on both sides) in front of me. I finished it up in a few bites and went to my room.

Arya got up when I entered the room and started sniffing my legs. I scratched her under the jawline and she purred like a cat. "You've got chicken bits for breakfast today".

But she had already bolted at 'bits'. I sat down on my bed and saw my phone. No messages.

I went on our group chat and typed, 'hey guys, sry bout earlier'

Eddy responded, 'it's ok'

'I had another dream'

'ok...'

'it was different'

'different how?'

'I can't explain it...how about we meet up'

'OMG, you had abpther drem', Terra joined in. she had shaky hands so we excused the typo.

'another dream*', she corrected herself.

'yes', I typed.

'when do we mrrt ip', she asked

'only if Zach promises nt to blow up agn', Eddy proposed.

'ya ya I wont, I said I was sorry', I answered

'gr8 we'll meet ay library', suggested Terra

'why', asked Eddy

'bcs whynot and its quiet there', answered Terra

'we dont need quiet we can go to the park', told Eddy

'no, anywhere but the park, I don't want the risk of getting hit in the face with a football', Terra rejected

'kk then the library, today, at noon', I agreed