The Dream

Chapter 1

I woke up, in the middle of the night; panting and sweating. It felt like, I had run a full marathon. I looked at the floor, where my pillow and sheet now lay. The crumpled fabric made it impossible to identify the abstract print I knew so well. The stains on the memory foam, showed just how much I'd tossed and turned. My heart throbbed, and my chest ached. All I could do was reach for the bottle of water on my nightstand.

I had a few sips of water, to calm my nerves. I tried to look at the clock; my eyes still heavy, trying to look clearly. It was 3:15 AM and my eyes were wide open now. I had the exact same dream, at the exact same time, for a week in a row! That can't just be a coincidence. What the heck was going on with me! I had to find out.

The next morning, I had my usual breakfast, A bowl full of cereals, and a banana smoothie. I packed my box of salted nuts and left for my office. I couldn't get a good night's sleep and I felt so drowsy, but I couldn't even rest my eyes for a minute. I paced through the corridor and finally reached my cabin.
I organized my stuff and got ready to work on the ongoing case report. Just then something suspicious caught the corner of my eyes. There was a box on my corner table, lousily wrapped in a gifting paper as if the person never intended to wrap it in one. I tore open the wrapper and opened the box in which I found an envelope addressed to me.
In it was a note in shabby handwriting – "Wanna know the truth? Just follow the orders".

All the mist of drowsiness fogged up in my eyes, cleared up in that instant. I turned the paper over to see if anything else was written but to no avail. By my instinct and all the experience in forensics told me that there is more to the story than just what's visibly written in the note. But the bigger question I had in my mind now was who was this person? What was the truth he was talking about? Was it about my recurring dreams and if so, then how did that person know about them?

Amidst this tsunami of thoughts, I was searching for any fingerprints or any other clues which might lead me to the person behind that box, but I couldn't find any trails and now I had, but one choice to find out the mysterious person. I placed the letter under Ultraviolet light and Voila! I got my cryptic note. But that was the easy part as decrypting was not limited to invisible notes but it had a lot more work to do.

Whoever the person was, he wanted to work me to the bone. The note spoke about a set of instructions about different locations from where I had to piece together more clues. They were locked in separate compartments of the box which were locked with different keys. The first key was with the note itself. Even though I was annoyed by this, I was intrigued to know the mind behind all this, and knowing the truth was an absolute deal-breaker for me. So, I decided to follow those instructions and try to understand all of this.

The first set of instructions was fairly easier, but here was the catch, I had a clock ticking on my head because the instructions were too precise to miss anything.
I had to leave my office building precisely at 6:05 PM, cross the lane and take the subway at 6:08 PM. I had to get down at 21st street station as the note said and walk down the lane for 5 minutes. The note further said to take the second right and then walk past the signal for 500 meters and take the next left. I am sure that man used Google maps to write those instructions owing to the precision. I was just one moment away from saying Okay Google but then I thought to myself, "What if it isn't google maps? What if it was Apple Maps?". Well, jokes apart I had to reach that rendezvous point at precisely 6:30 PM, not a minute late. I couldn't leave early either because I had a case on my hand and I had to run lab tests and submit the report to the officer of CSI by 6:00 PM.

I left my office, and I followed all the instructions to barely reach the rendezvous point on time. But I was faced with a sea of disappointment. It was nothing but a deserted lane with few people here and there. I waited for some time for someone to show up. In the meanwhile, I walked to and fro, paced along the lane, desperately trying to find some led. I decided to give up. I thought that all those complex instructions were some prank being played on me and decided to go back home. Just then an ice-cream truck drove right by me and stopped a few meters ahead. I couldn't but resist my temptation to have a triple scoop ice cream sundae. I already started drooling.

I walked up to the truck and placed my order. I got my ice –cream and just as I was about to leave the vendor handed me a tissue paper. I acknowledged the gesture. I took the tissue and started moving in the direction of the subway station when I noticed the driver wink at me and take off. I sensed something odd about that wink and that was when I thought; Was he the person I was supposed to meet? Does this make the tissue in my hand the next clue? A moment later I realized another chilling fact and my eyes went wide. He was one of the people I saw in my dreams. It scared the shit out of me and I started following him but he was long gone.