The Dreamer Trilogy: Book One

Chapter 14

That night I dreamt of an Overseer coming into my room and I had to hide under my bed. I could see his white shoes from under the bed, and when he stopped to look around. He circled the bed, and I could barely hear him over my own heavy breaths. He moved back out into the living room, and I slowly crawled out from under the bed. I silently stood up and could see him looking around in the living room. He started turning his body to face me, and I ducked behind my bedroom door just in time. Again, my heart started to beat out of my chest as I heard him enter. I’m behind the door, but I’m also not skinny enough for my entire body to fit there. A bit of my clothing is within vision if he would turn around. But thankfully, he walks into the bathroom. As the opportunity presents itself, I slip out of my room into the living area. I run quickly to the door, but still keeping silent. I turn the door handle quietly, and then open it slowly, never taking my eyes off of my bedroom door. I close the door, watching the handle as I turn it; It’s cool metal on my fingers. I hear the click, and turn around. The Overseer now stands in front of me, and hits me with the end of his gun. I see stars swirl around my head, and he punches me square in the jaw, knocking me out as well as waking me up. I sit straight up in bed, with my heart beating fast and panting. I gasp for air and instinctively reach up to make sure the wires are still connected. The suction cups are holding true to their name, still clinging on to my forehead, despite all the beads of sweat rolling down. I reached over the bed to the nightstand, and checked my glow-in-the-dark watch. 3:30 am. I don’t know how to fall back asleep after having a nightmare. I could still hear the slow click of the door and see his shoes from under the bed. I can’t go back to sleep imagining him still here. Although, I have no other choice unless I want to be sent straight to The Room for disconnecting my cords. I fell back down onto the pillow and stared up at the ceiling, pulling the covers almost up to my nose to “Protect” me from any unwanted Overseers. I twisted and turned a lot that night, I know this from the abstract art of the sheets I had created in the morning. I slid out of bed, and made my way to my bathroom. I followed the usual routine; Shower, brush my teeth, comb my hair, and then exited back into my room. I picked up my watch from the nightstand and snapped it onto my wrist. The time reads 6:30 am. From there, I proceeded to pick up my badge, as well as the tablet to check today’s schedule. It looks like I have the regular four hour Dream Study class, starting at 8 this morning. From there I have Physical Workout again, and then Cafeteria. This looks like the same schedule as yesterday. That’s weird, when I lived on The Bottom, our schedule changed daily. Oh well, nothing I can do to change it anyway. I walked out into the living room, and sat down on the couch. According to the Overseer from yesterday, my new roommate will arrive sometime this morning. I hope it’s not some workout jerk like Chris3’s roommate. I would hate to lose all of my furniture. Thoughts of Hugh rushed back into my head, and my stomach started to ache. I pushed all of the questions of his death to the back of my mind before turning on the television. It flickered on, displaying a full color video of the Main Living Space. It isn’t as busy in the mornings, but is still crowded. I scan through the channels seeing the little “Recording” sign in the lower left corner of the screen and the number of how long it has been recording. A few channels had frozen numbers from being on so long, but one of the numbers caught my eye. 52737. I remember that number from somewhere, but I can’t quite remember where. I’ll think of it eventually, but for now it just gets stored away with the rest of the questions I have for this place. I hear the door open, and I already know who it is. My new roommate has arrived. The one thing that keeps going through my head is that I hope he won’t be a fitness buff who makes me clear out the living room. When I can actually see the face of my new roommate, I have a totally different reaction.