Dreamscape

He’ll pay. He will. Things and people who annoy me usually do in dreams like these. Bonk! A mannequin fell to the ground with an unsettling grin on its face, and this part of me regrets allowing itself to stay. “All this mental energy into this visual thought is unnecessary waste. I was going to insult you further, but you wouldn’t listen anyway.” Came a response from somewhere near. Who knew Edward Hyde would still go at this after such a hostile gesture? Certainly not Dr. Jekyll. “Imagining so takes my mind off things.” Replied his creator. That's me, if context clues weren't enough. “It still doesn’t negate the fact that I exist.” As if it lessened any of my regret. “It compensates for your inconvenience.” I responded. On occasion I wonder how long I've been talking to myself like this. “HA!!! Along with these plentiful visual antics? That’s so ironic because normal people don’t see that much detail of the fantasies in their heads. Contradiction must be your pet if I’m your evil twin!” Said the voice. If he enjoys annoying me, does that mean I'm enjoying it as a paradoxical burger and fries? My name's Aspirin, and I named that weird side of me Snake Eyes for every time I see him in the mirror, and for symbolism in that he’s a part of me. Normally dreams like this last as long as any other dream. I couldn’t wake up from this one for some reason. Green snow fell from the sky, and it was Snake Eyes' doing. “Are those your scales? Ugh! How are they falling!?” I asked in feigned disgust. I should have asked why it's snowing snake scales, but making light of his edginess is justice. “You wanted me knocked out, remember? I’m part of this dream and it seems this one’s a long one! Oh I’m going to have fun here.” Snake Eyes said. BONK! “I’m out, we’ll continue this round never.” I said, and with that I jumped to the surface of the moon, leapt over a crater into a teleportation device into an airspace 15,000 feet above my house. Lucid dreams are fun, and this dream had all the condiments. “You have quite the active imagination, guy.” Said a girl named Leslie, but she didn’t look the same as I remember her in real life. Suddenly the 10 minute fall only took 3 seconds; I dislike interruptions. “That fall was supposed to be a whopper!!!” I said. Just before I imagined Caucasian Christ smite her down with lightning, she hit the deck unexpectedly. My targets typically grow bigger and stationary in my heavier lucid dreams. “PLEASE! Don’t!” She said. Her voice had the same pitch as the real life Leslie, but sounded different at the same time. As I dismissed the Big Man upstairs, her hair color changed from whatever it was a second ago into black. “How do you know my types are brunettes!? Ah, dream, never mind…” I said. She either knew me, or I imagined her. “Was your first crush a brunette?” The Leslie lookalike asked. “…What?” I asked in genuine confusion. “I see, how old were you when you two first met?” Asked the increasingly uncomfortable girl. “This is weird.” I replied. “Ah, such a long time ago. Hmm, would you prefer how she looks now?” She asked. “I can’t tell if I like this or –no, I don’t like this.” I poked the ground which turned into a mouth that swallowed me up and spat me out onto a mountain somewhere in the Rockies. Sitting down to one of the most serene places in my memory library lasts too short in normal dreams I have, but not for this one. Realizing that this is a dream, space between the surface and outer space grew small, and rivers at the valley became transparent revealing their depths to be the reflection of the sky. The clouds at the bottom moved faster and more fish-like. Asteroids started falling with less bright light interference than with what normally happens in reality. The falling objects morphed into a pod of dolphins and landed into one of the rivers. The distance between them and the clouds were so great that the pod turned into dots by the time they disappeared into the clouds. This posed a question: to jump into space, or to launch myself towards the depths of one of the rivers. Either way I knew my imagination wouldn’t cease to amaze with this much control. “Wouldn’t going into the river wake you up?” The Leslie impersonator asked. She followed me somehow. Going into the river would probably wake me up… “-Wait, how would I wake up? If I’m in a dream this long what control do I have of my conscience? This long? Did I go into a coma? Did I die? Who are you? What’s happening?” I wanted to ask more questions, and my mind started racing. “I’m anyone you want me to be.” Ms. Stranger Danger interjected. “What are you? People usually don’t follow me after I - never mind. If I’m in a coma, how would jumping into water wake me up? It’s a coma!” I asked. “You forgot Aspirin. Your head was hit pretty hard.” Ms. Amber Alert said while smiling. I'm kind of embarrassed I didn't see that smile. “Right… Oh wow I just agreed with dream logic. Never mind, who are you?” I asked in a bit of annoyance. She turned into a tall stranger with brown hair, then a short person with red hair, and finally a person exactly my height with blonde hair. “I’m anyone you want me to be, I am, however, my own person. I'm an oneiric being.” She answered. “I was hit pretty hard… Wait, why can’t I remember the last thing I saw?” I asked as it hit me that I couldn't remember. “You tripped.” She replied. “On what?” I asked in a mounting irritation. “A trip line set up for you, but you missed a sharp object and hit your head on something else instead. It still caused the person to think you were dead at first, but now you’re in a hospital under the care of the person who put you into this coma.” She replied. “You’re giving a lot of information for someone who’s in my dream; I’ve never talked this much in a dream before.” I said. Just then Snake Eyes popped out of one of the rivers and threw a rock in our direction. He missed by four feet. “You should’ve died Aspirin!” Snake Eyes said in a display of more hostility than usual. Considering more than one person was able to follow me, I began to feel the impulsive nature of dreams slipping out of my control. “Go away you obsolete moron!” I shouted back. Snake Eyes' appearance ended with the Gingerbread Man knocking him back into the river with a golf club. A shark burst forth and bit into his torso and dragged him down to the clouds below. I spat into the river. “Why did he show up? Is he your evil side?” The girl asked. “Good point, anytime I have a moral decision he should be everywhere. No, that would be too much annoyance to deal with. Why? Do you want to have him around more than necessary?” I said. “You don’t understand evil isn’t something to deal with at convenient times. If Snake Eyes is your manifestation of evil, then you’d see him much more often.” She said. “If you’re another person out of my dream control, why are you here?” I asked. “You’re about to find out.” She said. “By the way it doesn’t really matter how you make Leslie look. It’s not like that would...” I didn't want to finish the thought. “She’s in pretty bad shape, and her appearance is more disturbing than you last remember.” She said with uncomfortable confidence. I'll have to check up on Leslie after I wake up. “I don’t suppose you can tell me where she is if you’re really another person. Do you have any control over this dream? Wouldn’t our imaginations run into each other somehow?” I asked. The concept grew increasingly interesting to dig into. “No, I live in dreams, but only one of us can control the overall dream. I can take over if I wanted to though.” She said. “Would you be able to wake me out of this coma?” I asked. “Yes, but it would take lots of effort. I think someone’s coming.” She said. A dragon rocketed over the general area from the horizon. The belligerently large creature dropped a person next to us. “About time you imagined me here you idiot.” Said the guy named Fles. He's another imaginary person I kept around since I first considered keeping one past childhood. He’s critical about nearly all of my decisions due to his objective thinking preference. It’s always nice to have a desire to find flaws in his thinking because it makes me weigh decisions longer and heavier. “If a tired mascot magic’d itself into my imaginary library every time you said ‘i***t’, I’d be able to turn Snake Eyes into a sponge to soak up any reason you have to call me that!” I said. It sounded better in my head than when I said it out loud. “You’re an i***t to think that Snake Eyes is the only one who messes up.” Fles replied. True, but it’s Snake Eyes’ job to torture me for negative outcomes. “Do you know this stranger by any chance? She says she’s some other person who linked into this.” I said while turning her way. “No. If you have this much control then she’d definitely be someone more recognizable.” Fles said. Good point. “You shouldn’t put yourself down all the time. A lot of the time it wouldn’t matter what you do because he’d still put you down.” She said as her hair regressed into black. “Come now! Should you really tell him that? With all the playful insults he exchanges on a daily basis in real life, it makes sense that he would have me as an imaginary friend.” Fles replied. His face suddenly glinted with "perfect target." BONK! “Was that a landmine you stepped on!? I’m sorry I can’t hear you through the 10,000 feet of air between us!” I shouted. Ms. Dream Girl's eyebrows shot up in surprised reaction. Priceless. “By the way I’ve never asked you your name. I’m Aspirin, what’s yours?” I asked. “Rachel. Rachel Dream.” She said. “So, Rachel, where would you go if everyone stopped dreaming?” I asked. “That’s very unlikely to ever happen, but if it did, I’d be in my own dream until something else started to.” She answered. “Something else???” I said. I fell into a rabbit hole of intrigue. “Yes, I also appear in animal dreams too.” She said. “…What animals?” I asked. “Pretty much any that’s capable of dreaming. Too much for anyone to count.” She said. “Are you everywhere at once?” I asked. “I’m not omnipresent, but wherever dreams happen, I can be there.” She said. “What kind of dreams do you visit?” I asked. “Sad ones. I’ve been to a few nightmares only when I had enough courage. I don’t visit every single dream, otherwise people would notice.” She said. “Who’s to say I won’t tell anyone? Oh wait…” I said. It dawned on me that I might've seen her before. “You’ve already seen me a few times, but this is the last time you’ll see me for a while.” She said. “Am I… Dying?” I asked. “Don’t worry, you have a little time before you die. However, you’re not going to make it very far outside your waking hours.” She said with a slight sad look in her eyes. “How long do I have?” I asked. “It’s not a problem if you stay asleep, but when you wake up your killer, or one of his friends will finish the job.” She said. “Ah! That’s more comforting! I thought it was something more definite, like a terminal sickness!” I ignorantly replied. “Aspirin, you’d have more of a chance fighting cancer or tuberculosis. The moment you blink someone will be on their way to finish you off.” She said. “Does this son of a ballistic work in the hospital?” I asked. “Yes. All he’s there for is to make sure you never wake up.” She said. “I think I remember now.” I said as more details resurfaced. I work at a local gas station. I became fast friends with someone who shouldn’t have accepted me. Her boyfriend got jealous as our friendship grew, and I was the focal point of his wrath. Unfortunately for me and the apparently forbidden friend, he had dangerous connections. Ironically, one of them worked at the local hospital where my final moments are. What he didn’t know, however, was the girl’s history with me as a moderately close childhood friend. Regardless of the reason for the fast friendship, his hit order for my life insulted our value and would become a complete transaction nonetheless. Leslie’s poor choice of friends, however, isn’t to go misunderstood. At first she thought that her sociopath boyfriend was like any other normal guy on charm steroids. They got along very well for two completely different people, but that’s because he never shown her the monster hidden with the few animal bodies he buried under his house basement. In contrast, our friendship started with an accidental ball throw to her head. Some kid playing catch on a see-saw misjudged a throw with a baseball and hit my head. I picked the ball up, and before I could knock his baby tooth out his buddy jumped his side of the see-saw up as it flew over his head and saw the ball hit Leslie in the side of her head as she walked by. At first she thought it was the kid on the see-saw, but I quickly confessed and apologized even though I was laughing a little inside. We saw more of each other because we went to the same elementary school, but we didn’t notice each other as much before. We got closer and closer for two years until her family moved away. After a long time I eventually moved away from home and lo and behold: we ended up at the same city and in the same block. As for her bad shape she's in that Rachel Dream alluded to, it was the sociopath boyfriend's doing after I passed out. The reason I’m still asleep now is because of a drug induced coma his friend gave me after he found me still breathing. His reasoning and explanation somehow kept his customer from finishing me off in the bed I lay in now. “It’s kind of surprising, but not outside of expectation of how well you two get along. After all, I had this kind of thing back in my side of this parallel universe.” Ms. Dream Girl said. Her crazy-to-pretty ratio must’ve been pretty close. No. She was a victim of circumstances. “Multiverses exist?” I asked. Why not? She probably knew more than I do. “Funny you should mention ‘exist.’” She replied with a chuckle. “Never mind. How did you become what you are now?” I asked. “After I died, Death was going through something, and so he gave me this job to keep him company.” She replied in a way where I couldn't tell if she was serious or pulling my leg. “Wait – can you talk to dead people???” I asked. Maybe reasoning will give her up. “…No, and we are not talking about that.” She said. Rachel’s expression of annoyance survived three seconds before the sun burnt out in the void. The far off starlight eventually lit the planet up with more brightness than the moon would've. Clearly: this marked the transition to what a resolution this dream would play out to be. “Why did the sun go out just now?” I asked. This alarming event shaken me up despite the fact that this dream world went on longer than normal. “Sorry, it’s just that death was brought up, and it reminded me of someone.” Rachel said. She wouldn’t tell this to anyone who’d remember the dream after waking up. Besides, who else would be in a coma right now? “It’s too bad most dreams don’t have the same energy as coma dreams usually do, otherwise-” Rachel trailed off. “More people would remember who you were to them?” I asked. “Yes and no.” She said. “Why not?” I asked. “Because not everyone can be trusted. If even a few shady people remember me, rumors would go around of some dream thing, then more people would try to have sad dreams when they’re not, and it’d be more trouble to be remembered.” She said. “They wouldn’t know your criteria.” I said. “They’d eventually figure it out, and even if I hid from one generation it’d be a waste. Some people are worth knowing, yet others do hateful or wrong things as often as they breathe. The rest of everyone are unpredictable in the long run, especially with the risk of becoming deep web material I can’t have anyone remember me.” She countered. “How do you know the difference between people who remember dreams and people who don’t? Isn’t that an obvious risk? And if they do wouldn’t that help humanity more than staying forgotten?” I asked. “I’m oneiric. I can tell if a dream’s going to be remembered or forgotten. As far as I know I’m the only oneiric being capable of being corrupted; I’d be so much worse for humanity in a month than the help I’ve been since I became one.” She said with a growing frown. “What’s the point of calming people if you’re going to be forgotten anyways? And what’s the difference between them having a dream of their loved ones and meeting you as their loved ones?” I asked. “I’m not entirely forgotten, they just don’t recognize me as the person they see their dreams. Whenever I enter someone’s dream, I amplify the details, clarity, lucidity, and even their prior memories when necessary. Basically anything with a positive label. Speaking of, you are in a coma, and I’m in here. How does it feel-” She said before getting interrupted. As interesting as it was to learn more about her, my subconscious detected… something. The clouds dissipated to reveal stars acting unusually. A small batch of stars in a far off distance disappeared, then reappeared. “Rachel, are you doing this?” I asked. “I’m literally clueless! I’d say speechless but that’s all I can… say.” She said. Confusion and curiosity crept up to our heads as our focus increased on a black hole (if that’s what it was) in the unknown distance. I had no control over it to begin with. A loud explosive noise sounded, and its loudness rose. “It’s so loud!” Rachel’s hands covered her ears, but it didn’t seem to make a difference because she uncovered and covered her ears again. She looked at me. “Who and what are you!?” She asked. “Don’t look at me! I’m as lost as you are!” I shouted back. She closed her eyes in concentration. “I can’t get out of here! I’m scared! What's happening!?” She asked. The black hole either moved closer or grew bigger. The stars suddenly moved in different directions for a few seconds, and then the black hole disappeared. The noise lingered for a bit before disappearing. Rachel’s face reminded me of one of my friends after he saw a jump scare video. I felt the same way. “I don’t suppose your oneiric senses saw whatever that was any closer than I did, did you?” I had to ask. “No, but it gave me the weirdest headache. My ears hurt.” She replied. I felt a sense of déjà vu. Something felt off about those from then on. “I had another déjà vu, do you-" I started. “Aspirin.” She interrupted. “Yes?” I said. “I just now had a déjà vu.” She said, like it was a sign of impending doom. “So did I, I was about to ask you-” I said. “I never get déjà vu's.” Rachel said. Unease fused itself to my confusion along with forced sarcasm as I started to clarify. It shouldn’t have. It was only something that happened in a dream. “Wouldn’t you get those all the time?” I asked. “No, I told you before, but… I… didn’t.” She said. Another Rachel bumped into me. “Rachel, why are there two of you?” As I was asking, the other Rachel disappeared. “I saw another me! I can’t have déjà vu's, I must be in another parallel universe yet an abyssal vortex appeared and gave me an ear ache, I can’t get out of this dream, and it’s happening while I’m in Wesley’s head! Am I dying? Abyssal vortex’s don’t exist on this side!” Said this new version of Rachel. “Who’s Wesley? Are you okay?” I asked. She suddenly disappeared, and another one appeared. “Black holes are those gigantic masses that – Aspirin, if you keep disappearing I’m going to exit this dream!” Rachel said. “You just now called me Wesley, What’s happening?” I said. “…I think our parallel sides are getting mixed up. I wonder what happened to the other me to look that freaked out though.” She said. “OK, maybe if we don’t think about it, it won’t happen again, by the way how long were you talking about this?” I asked. “I lost track of time. A decade I think.” She said with sarcasm dripping from every word. “LOOK OUT!!!” I shouted. Via dream logic, in that moment I sensed the ultra-focused beam from a pulsar approaching the spot Rachel was standing on. I tackled her to the ground. You’re welcome, weird girl. “Too long have I endured suffocating under your pathetic existence! I can never truly live without your dying worm writhing in the hellfire I hail from! Die! I’ve come for what’s mine!” Snake Eyes said as he chucked the lens he used to focus the pulsar beam in my direction. It was a deceptively big thing to dodge. “I hate you for being so weak!” Snake Eyes continued on as drew a taser out with an etching of a hawk with antlers protruding from its head on both sides of the weapon. “I hate you for getting us into this situation!” He said while taping metal rods out from its contact leads. He took aim in our direction. “If only you killed him before he knocked us out, we wouldn’t be waiting for our death because you wouldn’t listen to me!” He said before throwing the modified weapon. I had the sense to imagine a rock to take cover under. “Now we’re about to die because of your weakness! I would’ve saved us all if not for you! Don’t blame me if Leslie’s already waiting for us on the other side!” He said. He. Did. Not. “FOR US!? I WOULD DIE BEFORE I’D LET YOU NEAR HER!” I screamed. The spot where Snake Eyes was in suddenly exploded into an iconic mushroom cloud resembling an atomic bomb. As to how it happened, I think it was an emotional landmine Snake Eyes stepped on. Fortunately for me, that outburst wasn’t unrestricted enough. “YOU’RE THE REASON WE’RE ON THAT SOCIOPATH’S HIT LIST TO BEGIN WITH!” I continued. I was about to let a supernova go off in all our faces, but Rachel didn’t want me to wake up just yet even though her timing was off. After the blinding light of the nova bomb started surging, Rachel took the dream over. The bright lights died down unveiling our surroundings into what appeared to be a snowy mountain in a cold blue night. Snakes Eyes was gone. The night sky had a clearer blue that transitioned into a cold magenta towards the horizon. It reminded me of a picture I saw of Antarctica at night in a National Geographic magazine I read. “What happened to Snake Eyes? I didn’t get to incinerate him.” I said trying to calm down. “You shouldn’t have done that. I was forced to take this dream over, and judging from how much mental energy that used up, I’m pretty sure I was too late. Your heart rate was raised from that anger outburst. At any rate, you’re going to wake up soon.” Rachel said. Her face had worried written all over it with a footnote of sadness. I must admit for a scenic picture of the current landscape I barely remember, it was nostalgic and calming somehow… for a place I’ve never been to, apparently. “This place seems familiar somehow, but I can’t remember it. This feeling is so weird, why am I having déjà vu in a dream?” I asked. "This is Fles, you’re discovering something about yourself within someone else’s dream; that’s suggestive that you two possibly have some kind of history together. Maybe I should be scared, but I’m not at this point." Fles interjected somehow, though he wasn't there. “Aspirin, in my side of this parallel universe, you were my crush, and I was yours, but we didn’t say anything. I was killed shortly after I met you. I don’t know how your parallel counterpart is doing, but I guess in this side you’re the one who’s going to die. If this side is anything like mine, I just want you to know how much she will probably miss you.” Rachel said. You know that feeling between waking up and still dreaming? I felt a little tinge of frustration that I was closer to waking up than Rachel Dream thought I was along with sadness of not discussing this new piece in the puzzle before I woke up. “That’s too bad. Either way I will be missing both of you. It really is too bad I couldn't get to know you more though.” I said. “Wait what?” She asked. I remembered that if I’m in a hospital bed, then that meant my pulse was being monitored. I didn’t have time to put energy into remembering the confused look on Rachel’s face if I wanted to live. Thankfully Rachel told me I wasn't, so I savored every wrinkle in her frowning face. “He’s awake!” Someone yelled nearby. A few people were already at my side; this couldn’t be good. “His heart rate’s slowing down, this is bad, get him to the operating room!” Someone else said. I couldn’t say anything, paralysis didn’t even allow me to look at any of the potential killers. “I’m not getting a pulse!” Said a third voice. I was starting to regret not talking to Rachel longer. My sense of time was still adjusting when things started to go black. “Clear!” Said a final, deeper voice. That’s the last word I remembered in life. “You died. Would you like me to take a message to Ms. Dream before you leave?” A hooded figure asked. “Yeah, tell her the Aspirin from her side was an i***t for not telling her. By the way why do you have a leaf tied to your scythe?” I said after consideration. Death didn’t answer. “Well then, I guess this is the end. I can’t criticize you hereafter, so remember me as you.” Fles said. That was weird of you to say that Fles. “He’s right, congratulations, Aspirin, your good side wins. I’m me.” Snake Eyes continued. The way he talked sounded weird too, but then again, they were only a part of my imagination. Fles and Snake Eyes are no more. As for Rachel Dream and Leslie, their stories aren’t mine, so who am I to tell them? The hooded figure lifted up a spent hour glass that was hanging from his belt. Many others were tied to the handle of his scythe. The sand grains from the spent hour glass floated back to the top and changed color, then Death handed it to me. "This is your ticket to cross the River Styx." Said Death.