Hypnopompic | A Grumbo Fanfic

2

Grian got up from his desk to direct a client to the meeting room. Down the short hall, they arrived at the last glass door. He was about to leave, but he then noticed red fog within the room. He peered throught the door and saw an empty table coated with red dirt as it pillowed through the air. The cloud became so dense that Grian could no longer see into the room.

He looked behind him at the client to see if they saw it too, to his surprise they had disappeared. The hallway stretched on for miles. Grian turned back to the room, the door was covered with opaque red.

He covered his face with his sleeve and opened the door. As Grian walked into the room, it had rearranged itself. The dirt was gone and the space was significantly smaller.

Grian turned back but the glass door was now a wall. His heart rate went up and he started to panic. He took deep breaths but it seemed as though he couldn't breath. The red dirt came out of his mouth as he coughed, he was being asphyxiated. Dying.

Suddenly, he could breath. Heaps of air filled his lungs as Grian lurched forward off of his couch. Breathing heavily, tears welled up in his eyes. He quickly wiped them away and regained his composure. And sat in silence.

He got up and straitened his couch, that was when he noticed the TV on with Netflix asking if he was still there, he honestly didn't know. Grian turned it off and layed back down on the couch.

The dream resonated with him, the red dirt, the long hallway, the door disappearing, and the coughing. "Could there possibly be an any more blizzard nightmare?" He started talking to himself again.

"What could have possibly caused that though? Aren't dreams supposed to be based off of your brain or something?"

He thought for a moment. Grian's eyes lit up as if he had an idea. He grabbed his phone off of it's charger on the kitchen counter and navigated his way through Google search.

"Aha! I knew it!" He had found a series of articles that stated that some sedatives could cause a distortion in sleep condition.

He was proud that he figured it out on his own, and celebrated. Grian then realised that this meant he was going to have a harder time sleeping if he has to do it naturally. He quit celebrating.

"Ffuuuuuuh! Godammit." Reflecting on the past, Grian knew he couldn't do it half of the time on his own. "There has to be an easier way."

Search after search, web page after web page, Grian was on the hunt for something, anything, that could help.

"No, can't do that, I don't know where to get one of those."

"Uh, that looks uncomfortable."

"When will I find enough time for that?"

"That takes too much dedication."

"Okay, that's just plain gross."

Everything he found wasn't suitable for him, until.

"Huh, this... This doesn't seem that bad."

Grian's phone screen showed a rather appealing result, therapy.

He had to put it all together of course. Do the research, consider their methods, calculate the total. After looking through a list of sleep specialized therapists near him, Grian had narrowed it down to five, which he liked.

The first, Dr. Whitney, had high ratings for insomnia, but also a high bill. Next was Dr. Luten who had very good pricing, but specialised more in dream interpretation. Another was Sorren, nothing formal about her name, she works best with men and apparently brings food. Then there was Dr. J, they didn't have a bad reputation, but they also don't have many clients. And last was Dr. Smith, he seemed pretty average across the board, he was a fail-safe.