I am a daredevil, I have always been a daredevil, when someone tells me not to do something I do the exact opposite. When I was little I was the kid who said “Bloody Mary” 3 times in the bathroom mirror. The one who played with the Ouija board. Other than the occasional scolding from my mother, there were never any true repercussions from my actions. That is until one fateful night.
I was lying in bed, and the next thing I remember, I was walking down the streets of a town that I couldn’t even recognize. All of the buildings were the same almost black-gray. The sky was gray and it was foggy. Everyone was wearing black or darker colors, faces were dull. No one looked like they wanted to be there.
“Would you like a paper?” A raspy voice interrupted my thoughts. I turned and a middle-aged man no taller than about five foot two with a gold tooth was looking at me. I didn’t respond right away because I was focused on his beard. It looked matted and wild like it had not been cleaned up in months. “Do you not hear me talking to you?” I heard the anger begin to settle in. My palms begin to get sweaty and I feel my heart in my throat. “I-I..” is all I could muster out before the old man suddenly began walking towards me. I immediately began walking backward before I could process what was going on. Within a few steps, I bump into someone almost sending us both to the ground. The guy I almost knocked over caught himself and picked up his hat “Aye, watch where you are going!” he spat followed by a couple of choice words. I turned to him “Sorry,” I turned back around and the man with the newspaper was gone, not just him, but his whole newspaper stand had vanished and everyone was carrying on as if a whole person didn’t just disappear. That’s when I realized I was in a dream. I turned back to the man I almost knocked over and he was gone too.
Suddenly, it was like the whole world began to change before my eyes. The colors of the buildings changed from almost black to a nice beige color with ivy growing along the sides. The warmth of the sun replaced the previously dreary sky. Frowns became smiles on everyone’s faces. Previously lifeless clothing is now bright and colorful. I walked around taking everything in. When I was younger my friends would tell me about all of the cool dreams they had. I could never take part in the conversations because I never had a dream before. This led me to extensive research on dreaming because I wanted to see everything that I was missing out on. I learned just about everything you can about dreaming everything from why you dream, what your dreams mean, and things you should not do in a dream. When you dream, they tell you to never ask about the time. I have always wanted to test this theory, but I couldn’t because I had never had a dream before. This opportunity led me to do something that I will regret for the rest of my life.
Taking the scene in, I looked around for my victim. After looking for a little I saw a little girl handing out roses on the street. I walked up to her “Would you like a rose?” She asked in the sweetest voice “No thank you,” I hesitated before I finished the next part of my sentence, the sudden pit in my stomach making me unsure if I was ready to follow through with my plan. But her curious and reassuring eyes gave me confidence. “Do you know what time it is?” I tried speaking low but it is as if everyone heard me. Everyone looked my way and smiles began to fade, it was as if the world went quiet. “I had a feeling you weren’t one of us.” The little girl’s voice was now distorted sending shivers down my spine. I looked back at the girl as she began to morph. Her amber skin became pale and scaly. The brown in her eyes changed to iridescent. The white in her eyes to black. Her long kinky hair became stringy and chunks began falling out. The little girl began to grow, her eyes became enlarged and her pearly white teeth began to rot. The little girl was no longer standing in front of me but in its place a beast. I took off running, people-or entities in the form of people- reaching out for me narrowly missing. I ran down the alley finally stopping for a breather, there was nowhere for me to go. As long as I was sleeping, I was stuck in this dream. I didn’t hear any footsteps so I finally built up the courage to look around the corner. The beast was gone, it was as if nothing ever happened. People were going about their day. My heart rate finally began to slow. I am safe for now, I told myself. That is until I noticed something in the crowd. The little girl was smiling at me. Not just any smile, but a smile scary enough to make you question your very existence on this Earth. She watched me the whole time yet didn’t run after me, why? Her smile was so sweet yet so twisted, her kind but devious eyes scared me so badly that I immediately snapped out of my dream.
I looked at the clock- 3:38 am. I still had a couple of hours before I had to be up. I could not go back to sleep. Every time I closed my eyes, all I saw was the smile of a little girl. Eventually, I got up at 6 am with a migraine because my mind was racing, I felt uneasy about the whole situation. A tinge of regret twisted in my stomach. I went to the bathroom. As I was washing my hands, I looked in the mirror. Looking back at me was myself, but something was off. It was like my reflection had a soul. And not a good one, looking at my reflection gave me the chills just like the little girl who was smiling at me in my dream. I leaned over to grab my bottle of painkillers from the shelf above the toilet. That’s when I noticed out of my peripheral that my reflection did not follow me. But it was instead looking at me. I grabbed the bottle and stood back in front of the mirror, my reflection looking back at me, but not in the same way that I was looking at it and not holding a bottle of painkillers. I stared unable to process what was going on through exhaustion. Suddenly my reflection smiled at me, an ugly twisted grimace filled with the same rotting teeth of the little girl-turned-entity in my dream. I fell backward into the tub, taking the shower curtain and shampoo bottles with me. My heartbeat in my throat, my mouth dry, my hands shaking uncontrollably, my legs so weak I was unable to stand. I lay in the tub for about a half hour before I was able to coax myself to stand up. Forcing myself to open my eyes, the demon in the mirror was gone and it was just me and my reflection.
Although I woke up an hour early, I was still late to work because I moved so slowly getting ready due to being already shaken up, it was like I was carrying an extra weight on my shoulders. I missed the early train. I was able to get to a later one and got caught in all of the work traffic. As I get packed into the train like a sardine I am standing next to an older lady and a school kid on his phone. In normal circumstances, I would be thinking about how I am late to work on the day that I have a huge presentation. Instead, I am thinking about the reflection from earlier. “You fucked up big time” a shrill voice from beside me snaped me out of my thoughts. I turned my head in confusion toward the little old lady beside me. “I’m sorry, what,” I asked thinking I misheard. “You, you fucked up big time,” she said a little bit louder. I stay quiet, unsure how to respond. “What do mean I fucked up?” I finally mustered through the lump that formed in the back of my throat. “You know what I mean. You know what you did…” the little old lady gestures her hand and looks around, “we all do.” I follow her gaze. Everyone on the train is staring at me. I am at a loss for words. Some people began smiling an evil grimace, and others began laughing. Some began moving towards me. I closed my eyes, unable to run anywhere the laughs became louder “STOP IT!” I finally screamed, shaking. The laughing suddenly stops. I felt a cool hand on my shoulder and I jumped “Honey are you okay?” A more pleasant voice this time. I opened my eyes and the old lady from before suddenly had concern written all over her face. I look around at dozens of eyes staring back at me. Embarrassment overtakes me. “Y-yes, I am fine, thank you!” I said trying to hide my shaky voice. The school kid switches seats and people stare at me scared. Little do they know that I am scared of me and my mind right now too. As soon as the train stops, I push through the crowds and out of the subway station as fast as possible.
“Ready for the big day?” My boss asks. “Uh… yeah?” I say praying that he is too preoccupied he doesn’t hear the fear and uncertainty in my voice. Unfortunately for me, he does. “Don’t be nervous, you’re going to nail it.” The rest of the morning was a blur, I went to the bathroom to pull myself together for the presentation. “We are coming and we are so thankful for your generosity” a disembodied voice in my ear. I turn towards the bathroom stalls, but I am the only one in the restroom. I hear a giggle coming from in front of me. I turn back towards the mirror and in place of my reflection is the little girl smiling back at me. “Leave me alone,” I said. Her smile drops. “No, that is not how this works.” she said flatly “But don’t worry,” Her smile returned “it will all be over soon”. I opened my mouth to speak but then the bathroom door opened and I turned to see my coworker walking in. When I turn back to the mirror, she is gone, my reflection in its place. I walk into the conference room and greet the clients trying to forget the girl in the mirror, trying to forget the subway, and trying to forget the dream. But every detail is burned into my mind. The memories were so vivid I almost felt I was back in my dream. I walk to the front of the room to begin my presentation. I am on autopilot. The eyes looking back at me take me back to my dream. I glance down at my shaking hands clutching my flashcards to regain my composure. When I look back up in the corner of the room I see someone that wasn’t there before, but not the little girl. The old man from the newspaper stand at the beginning of my dream. My heart begins to race and my palms get sweaty. I realize that I am having a panic attack. I haven’t had one since middle school. I attempt to take a deep breath but a choking sound comes out instead. “Are you okay?” I hear my boss say, but he sounds so far away. The only thing I can hear is “Don’t worry it will all be over soon.” My legs became so shaky that I no longer trusted them to hold me up. I lower myself onto the ground and black grows at the corners of my eyes. I see people standing over me and the next thing I see is black.
The steady beep of a heart monitor woke me up. “Oh my god you are okay” My best friend, Jana rushes to my side. I am so glad she is here, my best friend knows everything there is to know about dreams, horoscopes, and myths. At that moment, I had so many questions that I needed to ask her. I blink my eyes and smile. “The doctors said you had a panic attack,” she looked me in the eyes. “I am okay,” I tried to sound convincing but Jana and I have been best friends since kindergarten, she can read me very well. “You haven’t had one since middle school. And you were perfectly fine when we went out to lunch the other day” a moment of silence and I looked away. I felt like I was being interrogated. “Hey,” Her voice brought my attention right back to her “What is going on”. I let another moment of silence pass before I answered her. I knew she would be very disappointed but she was the only one that could have possibly helped me “I…” I swallow once… twice. “I had a dream the other night” Jana perks up because she knows that I have never had a dream before “and I asked for the time”. Fear crossed her face immediately followed by an unreadable expression. “You did what…” This time she was the one who let a beat of silence pass before she responded “Why would you do that?” I had never seen my best friend so worried in her life “I don’t know, can you help me”. She looked away “I don’t know, I have never encountered anyone who’s done this before. But I have heard of a few instances.” Her voice trails off “And…” She grabbed my hand “And.. it didn’t turn out well.” She must have seen the shock on my face “But we will figure this out, but first you need to get some rest.” She was right, I was not sure how to feel. Exhaustion pulled at my eyes and despite everything that was going on, I quickly fell asleep.
I was on autopilot for the next day. I was discharged from the hospital and Jana took me home and had been caring for me. She had also been doing so much research to try to help me out. I see the tiredness on her face. “I appreciate everything you are doing, but you need to go home and get some rest,” I told her.
“Are you going to be okay?” She asked, concerned. I didn’t know the answer to that question, but I hadn’t seen anything since I had been home, so I thought I would have been okay for a little while. It took a little bit of convincing but I convinced her to go home and spend the night at her place.
“I am going to call you every 2 hours” She hugged me as she walked out the door. “The minute you don’t answer I am driving over here”
“I don’t doubt it” I laugh. When she finally leaves, I was left with an empty house. It felt odd but nice. I went to take a nap and woke up when Jana called “Just checking in” “Perfectly fine” We talked for a little then we hung up.
I finished my book and ordered a pizza. My boss gave me the rest of the week off from work. It was nice to finally have time to myself. When I checked the time, it was almost time for Jana to call again. I got up to go to the kitchen for a glass of water. When I exited my room, I froze in my tracks. The little girl from my dreams is sitting on my couch, sitting at the counter is the man from the newspaper stand and the man from the man I almost knocked over from my dreams is leaning against the counter. The little girl from my dreams stands up “I think it is time we introduce ourselves, my name is Esmeray”. Esmeray points to the man I almost knocked over “This is Hadeon.” She points to the old man sitting at the counter, “This is Silas.” Silas gets up from where he is sitting and walks over to me “Thank you so much for inviting us in your world-”
“I didn’t invite you into my world” I spit.
“Oh yes you did,” Esmeray says mockingly, “when you asked for the time” “What”
“Not only did you reveal to us who you are but when you wake up, you take back the spirits of anyone you have interacted with in the dream”
“No, I don’t want you here,” I say, voice shaky.
“It is too late,” Hadeon says, “Thanks to your generosity we can take your spot” “What do you mean” My heart is in my throat.
“It means you belong to the dream world now” As if on queue my body begins to heat up, so bad that my skin begins to blister and turn red from the heat. I scream in pain and sharp pain shoots through my gums and my eyes. My vision begins going in and out. “You freed us,” Haedon laughs. “After 47 years, we are finally free” I continued screaming through the pain. Bones breaking. My phone rings. Jana. I attempt to crawl over to the phone but Esmeray gets to it before I do. “You won’t be needing this where you are going” “Where am I going?” I manage between cries.
“To the dreamworld,” They say in unison
“Please help me” I beg
“I can’t. Try to stay calm” Esmeray says “The pain won’t last much longer.
The first transformation is always rough”
Just like in the office earlier I begin to black out.
“The only way you can be free is if you interact with a dreamer who asks you the time,”. That is the last thing I heard before I woke up in the dream world.
3 years ago, I asked someone in the dream world the time. Now I spend my days in the constantly changing landscapes of the dreamworld. Waiting for a daredevil like me to break the rules. If you are ever lucid dreaming, never ask a person in your dream the time unless you want to end up like me.