Little Sweet Dreamer

Chapter 2

Darkness shrouded me. An uncomfortable feeling developed in my chest as if I was out of place. Even so, I kept walking. I knew what I had to do.

In the distance, lights glimmered softly. I continued walking towards them until they became brighter, and from an actual source; I was approaching a mansion. Every window glowed yellow-green, which illuminated the exterior as well—literally... the whole place and outdoor garden glowed.

Whose dream am I in now? I wondered. I had more than just the burden of my past haunting me in nightmares. I was also burdened with being sucked into random people's dreams. First, I'd be asleep; I was being dragged into someone else's dreamland the next moment. This ability was with me for as long as I could remember, and my dad used to be the only one who seemed to understand. I didn't tell him I went into other people's dreams, only that they were so vivid. But he had a knowing look in his eyes. So I knew he got it—that he could empathize even.

I miss him so much.

It took a while to realize I was in other people's dreams. I thought I was just a frequent lucid dreamer—but it turns out that the faces I saw in my dreams, I saw in real life before or after the dream. Of course, when you know a person and then end up dreaming about them, your subconscious could've just put them there. But one day, a writer from out of town visited my elementary school. I already knew what he looked like because we had to read a bit about him before coming to the school. We were also shown his picture, so the fact that I had a dream with him the night prior was no biggie to me.

He started off his speech for us and told us about how most of his stories stemmed from dreams he had that he'd write down every morning when he woke up. Then, much to my surprise and dismay, he described the dream I had about him from his perspective. Everything that happened was the same. We were at a waterfall; I was standing underneath it. I waved at him before jumping into the water below and turning into a mermaid (I was obsessed with the show H2O at that time). He even told them about the beautiful chromatic colors of my scales.

We shared a dream together?

At first, I thought people could share dreams with others. But whenever I recognized people in town after sharing a dream with them, if they saw me, I was rarely acknowledged. It took some time, but it finally clicked in my mind that I was the one who was going into other people's dreams and the only one aware of it.

With that revelation, I started noticing things I hadn't before. Like in my dreams, there was always a sense of belonging and comfort. But when I was in someone else's dreams, I knew I was viewed as a foreign invader. I didn't belong in other people's minds. And I was always desperate to get out of them.

I approached a large golden door and returned my focus to the present. The splendor was magnificent and unreal; a large, golden archway held an equally as large door. The outside of the house seemed to be made of marble and smooth stone. Hesitantly, I knocked on the large double doors. My knocking echoed around the nothingness behind me and inside the house until the door slowly groaned open.

The house was grand. The ceiling arched into a dome high in the sky; the walls consisted of the romantic era style of paintings that brightened up the room. A large staircase ascended and split off to the left and right, with a grand window in the middle where the stairs split. Unfortunately, the window only exposed the darkness beyond. The banister was lined in gold, and the marble floor was so shiny that it practically glowed.

"Do you have an appointment?" a Butler asked.

"Uh," I said, my own voice slightly scaring me—it always did. "Yes?"

He stared at me blankly for a moment, and I shifted uncomfortably. "Very well then, miss. May I take your jacket?" I looked down at my body. I was wearing a white fur jacket, a skin-tight black sparkling dress that ended right above my knees, sheer stockings, and white high heels.