STARS IN YOUR EYES, doctor who

prologue

Morning light filtered through the window of Meilin Ren's bedroom window, hitting the wall above her bed and lighting up the whole room. She rolled over onto her back and stared up at her ceiling, not wanting to get out of bed just yet and face the rest of the day.

In her mind, she was replaying the events of her dream, going over the details again and again. For most people, they would struggle to keep a grasp on their dream, hopelessly trying to remember as it slipped through their fingers like sand, but not Meilin. She could remember with perfect clarity what her sleeping mind had shown her and that was exactly the problem.

She sighed and ran a hand over her face before she sat up and looked around her room, sighing again. Today was a big day.

"Meilin!" a voice called.

"What?" she called back.

"It's time to get up! Come get your breakfast!"

Another sigh fell from her lips as she reluctantly pushed herself up into a sitting position. It was time to get up, but that didn't mean that she was actually looking forward to the day ahead. She may have been the one to arrange the whole thing, but she was still dreading it.

"Meilin!"

"Yeah, I'm coming!"

"I made pancakes, Mei!" another voice called and made her laugh. "Hurry up before I eat them all!"

Smiling now, Mei pushed herself out of bed and grabbed a cardigan, pulling it on as she shuffled out of her room and towards the main room where the smell of breakfast was wafting towards her. Right in her view as she turned out of her room and to the main room was the dining room table and the plate stacked up with perfectly golden pancakes, a pitcher of orange juice and a bottle of maple syrup.

Standing at the table and pouring out a glass of orange juice at one of the place settings was her mother, Liena. As she came up to the table, her brother, Jianyu, came out of the kitchen with a second plate of pancakes.

"Are you ready for today?" Liena asked her.

"I... I'm ready to figure this out. Or make it stop."

Neither her mother nor brother had an answer to that. Mei took her fork and dished herself out some pancakes to her plate and reached for the maple syrup, pouring some over her pancakes.

As she cut into her breakfast and moved the piece into her mouth, she looked around the rest of the living room. As she looked at it, the living room of the home she'd been in for more than a few years now, she couldn't help the strange feeling that something was missing. This was, of course, not a new feeling. It was the same one she'd been having for nearly six months, ever since the day that she'd woken up in a cold, dead sweat, panting and terrified and calling for someone who's name she couldn't even remember now. Who's name she didn't even know then.

Though she'd lost her appetite, Mei continued eating, knowing that she needed food.

"Do you need a ride?" Liena asked. "Jianyu can drive you."

"Says who! I could be busy!"

"Says me, Jianyu!"

Mei hid her smirk. It felt nice, these moments of normalcy. Where she wasn't the girl who was having nightmares about impossible things, about an impossible man. Where she didn't wake in the middle of the night, screaming or crying or calling out names of people she didn't know. Where she was just normal.

"No, I'll take the bus," she said.

When they'd finished eating, her mother and brother collected the dishes to be washed while Mei got ready for the day ahead of her. Her big day.

Once she was dressed, she said goodbye to her family and was out the door. The office she was going to was just a short bus ride away, so it wasn't long before Mei arrived. A therapist's office. Time to get to the bottom of what had changed that night, nearly six months ago. She waited in the waiting room for her name to be called, trying not to be too impatient.

"Meilin Ren?" The therapist stood in the doorway of the office room.

"Yes, that's me," Mei said, standing up.

"Right in here."

Holding the door open for her, she followed inside and sat down in the lounge chair across from the therapist. At first, neither of them said anything while Mei prepared herself and the therapist began scribbling notes.

"Okay, Meilin, so you've been having strange dreams?"

"Well, I don't know if dreams is the right word. They come as dreams but they always feel like something more than that," she explained.

"How so?"

"Like I've forgotten something about them or... Or someone."

"Someone?"

"There's a man in all my dreams, it's always the same man, although sometimes he has a different face. I have no idea who this man is."

"When did this all start? What's the first dream you had with this man of many faces?"

"It started six months ago," she answered. "And I think... well, I think the first dream was of when I was still working at this department store with my friend Rose..."