Dream Lover - 1. Dream Lover

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"Dream Lover"

by Comicality

 

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I felt my eyes slowly flutter open....

Staring at the dark ceiling above me from bed, I felt a wave of sleep deprived dizzyness wash over me. Ugh! It was that damn noise again. The one that sounded like it was coming from the other side of the wall. Or maybe it was from upstars. I could never quite get a lock on where it originated, I just knew that it never failed to wake me up out of a deep sleep every time. It was this slow, rhythmic, knocking. A thump, like someone tossing rocks at the wall. It would start in the middle of the night once every week. Always on the same day too. Late Tuesday night, early Wednesday morning, around 3 AM. I really didn't need this tonight.

I turned over in my bed, trying to block out the noise by pulling the covers up over my head. But it only seemed to get louder. You'd think that anything making such a racket would cause the wall to vibrate, but it didn't. I always stuck my hand out to test it. Nothing. So I pulled my pillow over my head and just tried to go back to sleep. The sound began to slow down in frequency, but it kept going. It was like a ball or something...hitting the wall, and then rolling back across the floor to be picked up and thrown again. Right over my headboard.

Finally, after another few minutes of being too frustrated to drift off again, I sat up and swung my legs around to put on some socks. It was beyond the second half of October, and the weather was already turning cold on us. The house seemed to reach near freezing temperatures in between the moments where the heat would shut off, and then come back on again. I tied a robe around my waist, feeling a chill as I walked out of my bedroom and into the hallway. I could still hear that haunting thump, repetitively played out against the wall, and I let my eyes adjust to the darkness as I tried to figure out where it was coming from.

I could feel the cold air sliding past my ankles, as the heat finally kicked on again, and the furnace fired up in the basement, preparing to make the house comfortable again. My nose and lips were a bit cold, but rubbing them with the sleeve of my robe was enough to warm them up again. I could vaguely hear my parents snoring in their bedroom down the hall, obviously not affected by the noise. I guess it was closer to my room though, so it makes sense. Besides, the way my dad snores, a herd of wild pigs could charge through the living room and neither one of them would notice.

I walked slowly forward down the hall, hearing the sound of the decelerating measured thump get stronger. And then...just as I was close enough to figure out where it was, it seemed like the sound moved altogether. All of the sudden, it was coming from behind me. I looked back towards my room for a second, where I saw a baseball glove sitting on the hard wood floor right outside my bedroom door. I squinted my eyes a bit, and it looked like it was 'stained' with something, but I couldn't quite make it out. I took a step closer, and heard the sound of a rolling baseball creeping up behind me. So I turned my head, and stepped sideways against the wall as I watched it slowly roll by. The baseball was smeared with blood, and left a long red trail of wetness behind it as it traveled lazily towards the glove on the floor.

I watched in silence.

What the hell is going on?

The ball finally reached its destination, and the second it touched the glove, the mitt opened up and held onto it. I stared at it for a second, not knowing what to do, or if it was even ok to move. And suddenly, in a flash, the glove was 'yanked' into my bedroom by some kind of invisible force! It was literally sucked into it in the blink of an eye, and the door slammed shut! Then, the thumping began again. Slow, steady, continuous. So I began to inch my way closer to my room again.

As I got to the door, I could clearly hear some old time music playing from inside. Some slow jazz ballad. But not on cd...it sounded like it was playing on an old school record player or something. I could clearly hear the crisp snaps and pops of aged vinyl, as the haunting female voice sang softly over the tune.

"Somewhere, someday....we'll be close together, wait and see. Oh, by the way....this time the dream's on me."

The pounding was slowing down again, each bounce of the ball getting softer and softer as it barely touched the wall with each toss. And as I leaned to put my ear up to the door...I heard a sniffle or two. Like...like someone was quietly crying to themselves inside. I stood up straight again, and just stood there for a moment, frozen in a dilemma between curiosity and a touch of fear over what was going on. The music was right on the other side of that door, and I swallowed hard as I nervously made the decision to open up and look inside. At that moment, the song came to an end...

"This time the dream's...on meeeeee....."

The record stopped, and I heard the needle move inward, the gentle scratch of it hitting the middle of the vinyl, snapping softly in the background. But the thumping continued. 'Thump'...I moved closer. 'Thump'...I took a deep breath. 'Thump'...I reached my hand out. 'Thump'...I grabbed the handle of the door...and gave it a twist....

The next thing I knew, my eyes shot open, I jumped up, and found myself waking up in bed again. The sun was shining outside, gliding in peacefully through my bedroom window. Was I dreaming again? Shit...another false awakening. Those can be SO annoying! I rubbed my eyes, and immediately rolled over to my bedside table, where I had a pen and a small notebook ready and waiting for me. Just as I had taught myself, I instantly began to scribble down what I saw...

'It happened again. Another false awakening with identical results. This makes six weeks in a row now. Every Tuesday night, Thursday morning. I heard the same thumping sound on the wall, noticed the same music, felt the same chill in the air. I can't really explain it. And the dream always ends in the same place. The second I turn the knob to open the door, the music stops, the dream ends, and I'm tossed back into waking consciousness. For some reason, it feels a lot stronger now than it did the first few times. I'll have to take more notes and see what happens.'

I closed the notebook and slid my pen into the wire binder on the side of it, putting it back into my side drawer. I laid back on my pillow, and thoght about it for a few minutes. The imagery was always so vivid. I wonder what it means. If anything. Or why it keeps recurring every single week. The dream would almost be somewhat creepy if I could make any sense out of it. But for now, I'll just chalk it up to having pizza before bedtime.

I got up and got myself ready for school, my sandy brown hair maintaining its 'fashionable mess', my blue eyes catching all the sunlight they could. I won't lie, I liked the way I looked. I wasn't conceited about it, but hey, why walk around telling yourself you're ugly when you're not? Waste of time. Besides, being 16 and having the good fortune to avoid the full fury of the acne monster is a blessing. Thank God for my mom's genes in the smooth skin department. Both of my parents had a long drive to work every morning, from the distant suburbs to the downtown area. So they were gone by the time I had to get up for school. It was kinda cool though. I got to eat whatever I wanted to eat for breakfast, I got to blast the music loud while I was in the shower, and if I decided to go into school a little bit later than usual, there was nobody hounding me to rush. It was paradise as far as I was concerned.

"YO!!! Dickwad! Open up!" For some odd reason, my friend Baxter always preferred shouting obscenities outside my window to ringing the doorbell. Still, it was music to my ears, because it meant I had a ride.

I opened the back door to let him in, with my other best friends April and Jeff right behind him. "Hurry up, it's cold enough in here as it is." I told them, as April gave me a kiss on the cheek.

"Awww, poor baby. You act like you've never been through October in Chicago before. Get used to it." Baxter helped himself to some orange juice out of the fridge. The whole squad could easily take over reign of the house in seconds when they stopped by.

"Not in this house. We've only been here four months, and having this big spacious house in the summer time was sweet...but it's almost impossible to warm it all up now that it's getting cold."

"Soooo....?" Jeff asked. Knowing what I was up to with the dreaming techniques I had been trying to figure out for the last two months. I was blessed to have friends who were ok with the fact that boys turned out to be my preference, but Jeff and I were probably more alike in nature than any of us. And I'm not just saying that because he happens to be gay too.

"Sooooo, what?" I teased him.

"Oh come on, Donnie!" Jeff grinned, and it caused April to back him up.

"Please, Donnie, just tell him already. It's all he's been talking about for two days now." She said.

I smiled in Jeff's direction, and said, "It worked. Twice!"

"Bullshit!"

"No bullshit! I wrote it down, I thought about it all day long, looked at the pictures, and when I went to sleep....it just happened." I giggled. "I got to have very, VERY, hot sex with Mr. Jesse McCartney....twice! Once in my own bed, and once in the shower."

"You are so full of shit, I don't believe you." Jeff grinned. Ever since I started finding ways to influence what I dreamed about here and there, he's been trying to do the same. Unfortunately, he hasn't had much luck yet. He tried to dream about dating this cutie we saw in the park one night....and somehow ended up dreaming about making out with his grandmother in the bathtub. The poor boy was scared to close his eyes for a week. Ever since then, the very idea of lucid dreaming has becme a tainted topic of conversation. He really needs to see a therapist about something that weird. Honestly. "Are you really being serious?"

"Dead serious. And it was HOT, believe me! Dude, you've got to get a handle on how to do this. It feels like it's getting easier these days." I said. "I still haven't found a way to really 'control' anything yet once I'm there. There was a few times I felt like I became aware that it was a dream...but then it wakes me up right then before I'm able to do anything about it. I don't get it."

"Well, I for one, am happy for you, Donnie." April told me.

"Happy? I'm not happy. I think you both need some serious help." Baxter said, leaning against the counter. "Especially you, Jeff. You're just plain perverted, man."

"I told you it was an ACCIDENT! And I thought we agreed not to bring that dream up again." He said.

"I'm just reminding you how damaging a dream about groping your own granny can be."

"Yeah, I REALLY don't think I need you to remind me of that."

"Enough! Geez, you guys are making my head hurt." April told them.

"Come on Baxter, you know you wanna try it out." I said.

"Try what? Waking up with sticky sheets and a fond memory of something that didn't even happen? I'd rather get laid in real life, thank you."

"Yeah, good luck with that." I snickered, remembering that for all of Baxter's golden boy good looks and killer body, the girls often warned each other about him before he even got a chance to ask them out. His strong confidence and excessive 'honesty', as he called it, with them could make him come off as somewhat of a.....um....jerk. But a lovable one, as far as we were concerned.

"Besides, you're wasting your time. Jesse McCartney's not gay." Baxter added.

"You don't know that. He might be."

"He's got a girlfriend, doesn't he?" April asked.

"Nope. No girlfriend that I know of." I said.

"Well, I bet he's got plenty of 'auditions'." Baxter finished his juice and left his glass on the sink.

"Can't you just say, 'well done', and leave it alone?" I asked him.

"What for? Because you boned an imaginary boy in your sleep?"

"Baxter..." April warned.

"Fine! Alright! Donnie, I'm extremely happy to hear that you indulged in your unhealthy obsession with an undecidedly gay pop star." Baxter surrendered.

"Thank you. Now grab your shit, we'll be late." We all got up and walked out to Baxter's car. Still almost new, Baxter took care of that car like it was a newborn baby. So much in fact, that when Jeff accidently bumped his bag against the side of it, he nearly flipped out.

"Dude! Can you watch your bag???"

"What, it was a mistake. I didn't mean.."

"Your bag's got, like, buckles and shit on it! If you scratch my paint, I am making that your last ride!"

April and I both shrugged our shoulders, knowing that there was no defense when it came to Baxter's automobile. Besides, we weren't gonna lose out on our mode of transportation for arguing with the only driver in our group. Jeff rolled his eyes, "Sighhh...it's not like I ran a key across it. Geez..." He whispered under his breath. And we all climbed in, with me and April in the backseat. Baxter took off slowly, and we were on our way.

"Oh...what about last night?" April asked me. "Did that weird dream with the baseball happen again?"

Just having her mention it seemed to bring it back into full color for me. Instantly. It was like...this strange sensation, that made it all seem so real. "Yeah. Same as always. I don't know why it keeps happening. But it's every week, like clockwork. Ever since I've been trying to do this dream stuff, it's been coming back to me over and over again."

"The exact same way?"

"Exactly. Except...I think it gets stronger. Like, this time I heard some sniffling behind the door. Like...like someone was crying. You know?"

Baxter got a sarcastic lopsided grin on his face. "Maybe it was Jesse McCartney, wondering how long you were gonna keep anally raping him in your dreams." April gave his seat a little kick to warn him again. "Hehehe, hey, was it good? Was it hot to fuck someone while they were crying?"

"Bax!!!" April yelled, not able to hold back her smile.

"Was Jeff's grandmother there?" At that comment, Jeff promptly slugged him in the arm. "OUCH!!! Shit!! I'm driving here! Hellooooo?"

"Did you get to open the door this time?" April asked me.

"No. Everytime I reach for the door handle...the dream ends, and I wake up again. It's weird."

"Well, just don't push yourself too hard. That book said you've gotta 'free dream' every now and then too. Take a break or something. Ok?"

"I know. I will. Besides, I could use the sleep."

"Yes, you could." She said, tracing a finger over the small, but growing, bags under my eyes. Seeing an opportunity, she took out her digital camera and snapped a quick pic of me.

"I certainly hope you're not planning to put THAT one in the yearbook." I told her.

And she smiled, "Nope. That one's just for me." April had been with us since we were about 12 years old. A bunch of seventh graders all hanging out at the same park every day after school. She was a girl, but she could climb a tree, throw a football, and kept the high score on Mario Kart for eight months straight. So we gave her a free pass to be around the guys anytime she wanted it. She kinda made a rough transition into girlhood though, and growing out of that tomboyish phase of her life was more depressing than liberating for her. When she was fourteen, she tried cutting her wrists after school one day. She never talks about it, and we never bring it up. But we've all become ten times more protective of her ever since. Especially me. Anytime she's feeling even a little bit down, she knows that she'supposed to call me and talk it out. Everything remains private and off the record, she had my word. And she always kept her end of the deal. Between those conversations and her fascination with taking pictures, she's found more strength than she thought she had before. But we're still here for her if she ever needs the saty net, and she knows it. In the past four years, she's gone from that girl that we kinda let hang with us, to the twin sister we would drop any guy off a roof for. Out of all of us....she remains the designated 'mature' one.

April got a buzz, and reached into her handbag to grab her cell phone. "I just gotta text message from Chucky, he says to meet up with him by the chem lab after second period." She typed something back to him, and waited a moment for his reply. "He's gotten another dream excercise he wants you to check out, Donnie. Since you're the one having all the luck with this." She said. "He also says that wasting serious scientific experimentation on Jesse McCartney sex dreams is an abuse of your talents."

"Can you take a picture of my nutsack and send it to him as a response?"

Baxter quickly looked back from the driver's sat. "You can DO that?"

And April swatted me on the arm. "Please, Donnie...don't encourage him. Baxter is screwed up enough." She said. "He just wants us to meet him, that's all. Did you guys ask him to come out to Cory's Halloween party with us next weekend?"

The car fell silent, and Jeff was the first to speak, "He's not gonna go. Chucky doesn't like that stuff."

"Nice, you guys. You could at least invite him. He might just wanna hang out with the rest of us one of these days." She said.

"Chucky would get invited himself if he actually did anything besids go to school and lock himself in the basement." Jeff told her, but she didn't reall buy that as an excuse.

"I'm just saying that we should help him break out of his shell a little bit. It wouldn't hurt to make an effort." We could have argued the point, but it would have been in vain. Besides, it was always easier to let Chucky say no on his own so April would leave it alone.

By the time we had gotten to school, we were all about ten minutes late for our first class. But continued to stroll towards the building calmly anyway. Jeff closed the door and Baxter gave him a look. "WHAT????" Jeff asked him.

"You wanna slam my door a little harder there, Goliath?"

"Dude...get a girlfriend." Jeff told him, and we all walked inside.

We all went our separate ways as soon as we got inside, me feeling the anguish as I walked towards Mr. Lipton's class. He was my English teacher, and a hard ass to boot. One of those wannabe professional writer's who never made it, despite the fact that he thinks he's better than everyone else, so he decided to teach high school in order to make us all feel miserable about it. Shattering one dream at a time like some comic book super villain, trying to get revenge on an unsuspecting public of hopeful children. As I opened the classroom door, his eyes met mine, and he stopped addressing the class to make me enter and walk to my desk in silence. Great, he was in a slightly nastier mood than usual. This is going to be a long period.

Mr. Lipton made sure that I came to see him after class, giving me the lecture on tardiness and taking the opportunity to tear down the last paper I handed in for credit. And he was also nice enough to spend a few minutes talking about how my grades were slipping in his class the last month or so. Most of it, I had already heard before, and did what I could to tune out most of what he said and filter the annoying insults out of his speech. I caught a few words here and there though. Words like 'detention', and 'straighten up', and 'tutor', and 'won't graduate'. Like I said, nothing I haven't heard before. Normally, I respect my teachers a lot. But with Mr. Lipton...after all the shit he's given me for little to no reason at all...there was really no incentive to work hard anymore. He hated me, I was sure of it. For me to succeed in his class would only make him more bitter, and he'd push against me even further than he did before. I'm better off just serving my 'sentance' in his class until the end of the year, getting a somewhat decent grade, and then starting fresh with a new teacher next year.

I went to my next period class and spaced out through most of it. Trying my best to figure out that dream from last night. I could almost still hear that thumping sound on the wall, as if it was happening all over again. That rock hard ball, slamming up against the plaster, again and again...gradually slowing down with each bump. Over the past few weeks, the image of that damn ball and the catcher's mitt being sucked into my room has been haunting me. Covered in blood. And the music....the music...I could hear it clear as day. And I could feel the cold wrapping itself around me. It was all so real. I couldn't shake it. And anytime that my mind would wander, even just a little bit, the images were right there waiting for me. Chasing me. It was almost like they wanted me to notice them. To remember them. I just couldn't stop thinking about it.

When the bell rang, and it was time to meet up with Chucky and the others, I tried to rush through the halls as quickly as possible. He was the on who started us on this whole 'dreamweaving' kick, and even though I doubted the whole idea at first, I have to admit, he was on to something special this time. I was the only one who really stuck with it. I don't think the others really believed in it enough to work at it with any kind of regularity. But Chucky studied it like he was gonna be a part of his S.A.T. score. I think he enjoyed having a subject to work with.

I was almost to the second floor chem lab when I saw....him. Nobody that I knew particularly, but someone I saw in the halls on an almost daily basis. Most of the time these chance encounters were completly random, but as they became more frequent, it felt like it was more than just a coincidence.

His name was Austin. I knew that much. And only because I had heard a friend of his call his name out from the other end of the hall once. I kept it in my mental rolodex. Austin was what most people would refer to as unnaturally gorgeous. The kind of curly blond haired, blue eyed, boys that they pick to play the role of the high school 'crush' in every teen movie and tv show known to man. He was on the track team, and he wasn't really bulky or overly muscular, but his slim and trim frame was well defined. Almost sculpted. And his lips always had ths potential 'smile' ready to be born. The kind of boy that just looked friendly and sweet. You almost felt bad for noticing how extremely hot he was. As we passed each other in the hall, with him not noticing me as always, I found myself looking down at his crotch area. I don't know what I actually expected to 'see' there, but I looked anyway. Just for the HINT of a bulge. Anything. Just to know what way it was dangling, or maybe see the head of it when his pants wrinkled up with every step, or just an idea of the shape of it. Anything would make my constant glancing worthwhile. But I never got to see anything real, so my imagination was forced to pretend that I saw a bulge and it would give me a shiver anyway. Damn...one of these days, I have GOT to get that boy naked in front of me.

I walked into the chem lab, and April, Jeff, and Baxter were already circled arond a desk with Chucky waiting for me to show up. Now Chucky was a year and a half younger than we were, but he had skipped a grade due to his apparent 'boredom' with the academic schedule directed towards kids his age. He had short brown hair and light brown eyes, covered by a pair of acceptably 'hip', glasses. A bit of a neurotic about a lot of things, Chucky somehow was able to walk that fine line between being a cool kid and a geek. Mostly because of his dry sense of humor, and his almost nonexistant ability to smile. But he made straight A's without blinking an eye, and managed to still have time for his friends....when he felt like it, that is. Just looking at him as I walked in that room, I could already tell that he was regarding me as being 'late on arrival'.

"So, you've got something for me?" I asked, setting my bag down.

Chucky opened up his notebook for me. "I do if you'll consider using it for something a bit more productive than a nocturnal emission for a change." He said.

"Give me a break. I'm sixteen, and a virgin. If you ask me, you could use a couple of nocturnal emissions yourself."

"I have plenty, not that it's any of your business." Chucky never looked up from his book, and found the notes he was looking for. "Ok, have you been doing your reality checks throughout the day?"

"Of course." I said. And it was true. They say if you want to wake up inside of a dream, you have to make constant checks throughout the day to make sure everything is as it should be. Basically, if you look up at the sky and it happens to be purple instead of blue...chances are, you're in a dream.

"And you've been recording everything you remember in a notebook a SOON as you wake up, right?" Another ritual that I had been training myself to do.

"Yes, Chucky." I said, rolling my eyes. "Keep the pen and the notebook right next to the bed, and jot down notes as I remember what took place. I know the drill" I looked over at Chucky's notebook, but he drew it back from me and covered it with his hands. "Oh...I've been waking up a lot in the middle of the night." I told him. "Is that ok?"

"Perfectly normal. In fact, by programming yourself to wake up periodically through the night, you'll have greater frequency of dream recall. So keep doing that."

"It's not like I do it on purpose." I said. Baxter reached for one of Chucky's pens, and began to click it rapidly. One of those habits he entertained when he wasn't getting any attention.

"Tell him about last night." April reminded me.

"Last night? What happened last night?" Chucky asked. Then, annoyed with Baxter's clicking, he snatched the pen away from him. "Can you NOT do that right now?" He said, putting the pen back in his bag. "Ok...last night. What happened?"

"Same as always actually."

"Ahhh, the dream with the ball and the record player, right? Doesn't this make six weeks in a row?"

"Yeah. It happens every week. I can't understand why." I told him.

"Hmmm....maybe your subconscious is trying to tell you something. Something that needs to be expressed. Have you been doing any 'free dreaming' lately?"

"All the time. I haven't really been lucid enough to control anything yet. I've influenced the content of my dreams a few times, but that's all I can do."

Chucky looked back over some of his older notes, and asked, "Was there anything different about this dream last night? Because looking at your notes here, something else shows itself every week."

I was confused. "What do you mean?"

"Well...the first week you were extrmely vague about the dream. You remembered a loud noise, and a baseball, and some music." He turned the page. "But a few weeks later, you could pick out the lyrics to the song, and you noticed that the sound of the pounding was slowing down. The week after that, you noticed blood on the ball, and a catcher's mitt. And so on, and so on. It seems that your recall is getting stronger, and constantly picking out new details. What did you notice this week?"

I thought for a second, and I said, "Oh...I heard sniffling this time? Like...crying, you know? I don't think I ever heard that part before."

"Hmmm...fascinating." Chucky wrote the details down in his notebook and then closed it up. "If it happens again next week, remember to pick out everything that you possibly can. Ok? It's important to the research."

"Research? I'm just doing this for fun, Chucky, don't make me a lab rat." I told him.

"Fun? This is not for fun. You have the chance to make a breakthrough here. These notes could prove very helpful to...." At that moment, Baxter started tapping away on the desk with some other pen. We didn't even know where he GOT it from. Chucky looked at him for a moment, then snatched it away and threw it across the room without sayng a word.

"Oh, very mature, Chucky." Baxter moaned.

"...Could prove very helpful to dream research someday." Chucky continued.

"I don't see what the big deal is. It's not even real." Baxter said, retrieving his pen from the other side of the room.

"That's exactly what the big deal is. It's not real." Chucky told him, making sure that he put all of his pens back in his backpack and zipped it up before he was forced to toss them 'all' across the room. "A lot of personal truths remain hidden inside of our subconcious mind. Locked away where we mentally close them off from ourselves. But dreams? Dreams are our own personal view of the world. While all of the information we take in during the day is limited and governed by a solid reality...the same isn't true when it comes to dreams. When we sleep, our reality reflects who we really are. Our own personal flaws, assumptions, fears, and motivations, warp the picture to represent what we really believe the world to be like. We could learn SO much about ourselves by studying these images. No matter how crazy, obscene, magical, or horrific, they might be. It could be the key to discovering all of the secrets we hide behind our so-called 'rational' thoughts."

Although Chucky was excited, Baxter didn't really share his enthusiasm. "Gee, sounds great. Stupendous, even." He said sarcastically. "I never thought I'd say this, but can I go to class now?"

"I'll try harder to get something to work tonight, Chucky. Ok?" I promised.

"Do that. And here..." He handed me a few sheets of paper. "I looked this up at the library. You said that you were constantly waking up once you became aware that you were dreaming. Well, it appears that spinning around in circles helps to keep you locked in the dream. It's like...a focus thing. Your brain concentrates more on the movement than returning you to reality. Give it a try."

"Spinning around? Like in bed?"

"In the DREAM, Donnie. In the DREAM. Geez!"

"Ok, alright...no need to get snippy. I got it." I told him.

"Good. Read those pages over, and concentrate, ok? I wanna know what happened tomorrow so I can complete my weekly analysis." Chucky turned to Jeff, and with a slightly timid look, he asked him, "So....how about you, Jeff? Any...um...progress....with stuff?"

"No. Not yet." He answered.

"Ok. Well...cool." Then Chucky added, "No more.....uhh...I mean...no more dreams about....you know?"

Jeff sighed outloud and grabbed his backpack. "I don't even know WHY I told you guys about that! It was...an...ACCIDENT!!! Ok? I haven't even SEEN my grandmother in over six months!"

"Ok...alright. That's....that's good. Just....just wondering." Chucky opened up his notebook again to take a few more notes while he was still thinking about them. "Alright, I'll see you guys at lunch. And don't forget to do your reality checks, Donnie. It's important."

April nudged me in the side, and I took the hint. "Um...hey Chucky?"

"Yeah?" He answered, with his head still in his notebook.

"There's this...um...Cory's throwing this Halloween party next weekend. A costume party. We were all gonna get together, hop in the car, and check it out. So..." I stopped talking to see if he'd answer me. But he never looked up, and April nudged me again to finish. "Well, I mean, do you wanna come with us? It'll be a lot of fun. We're gonna go pick out costumes tomorrow after school, why don't you come with us and find something cool to wear?"

Chucky still kept his head in his notebook, writing with his pen. And said, "Is this a social function, Donnie?" I sighed when he said it, knowing the routine.

"It's gonna be a good time, Chucky..."

"Is this...a social function?" He repeated.

"Yes."

"And what is my rule about social functions?"

I remembered his motto almost word for word. "You wouldn't be caught dead there, and even then your soul would rather be someplace else."

"That's right." He said, finally closing his notebook and putting it back in his bag.

"So I take it that's a no?"

"That's a no." Chucky looked over at April, knowing that she must have had something to do with this. "I'd say 'maybe next time', but that would be a lie." He was pretty definite about it, and there was nothing else to be said. Well, you can't say we didn't try.

We separated once again as the chem lab students came in to start class, and left Chucky to his assignments. The rest of the school day went along pretty normally. I had no idea, that this would be the night that would change everything.

 

I remember being extra sleepy when I went to bed that night. I barely had the energy to keep my eyes open while reading Chucky's new notes and excercises. One thing about constantly remembering and writing down your dreams...you're always waking up two or three times during the middle of the night. It happens automatically, and you lean over and write down what you recall, and then you can usually roll over and go right back to sleep. But a few nights of that in a row, and you'll find yourself growing a nice set of matching luggage under your eyes. So when I crawled under the warmth of my comforter that night, I spread out and was out like a light. Sleep never felt so good.

That night, I found myself standing in the middle of a sunlit street in my pajamas, a warm wind blowing all around me. There was no sound. None at all. I was walking forward, feeling the gravel and asphalt beneath my bare feet, noticing the stillness in the scene around me. I looked down, and noticed that my feet were...blurry. I knew they were there, I knew I had no shoes on, I could feel it...but for some reason, I couldn't see them clearly. I kicked a rock, and as it flew foraward, bouncing just once on the street in front of me, I saw it slowly float upwards until it was out of sight. This wasn't real. None of it. I did a quick reality check by looking at everything around me, and it looked real enough, but certain details were off. The Mackey's house next door was painted blue instead of white. And the tree across the street looked monsterously huge in comparison to the real life version. This was a dream. I was HERE! I was doing it!

As soon as I realized that I was becoming aware, the colors around me began to warp and fade away. There was a pounding in my chest, as the excitement of what was happening took over. Everything began to blur and lose detail, which scared and frustrated me. NO! I was losing it! Don't wake up! Don't wake up! Not now! I could practically feel the pillow under my face as I slept on my stomach, and my limbs began to move as this reality melted right in front of me. Think....what did Chucky say? Spinning. Try spinning. I concentrated as hard as I could, and my dream body began to turn itself in circles. My arms raised, I moved around and round, expecting to get dizzy, but I didn't. As I focused more on what I was doing, I felt myself spinning faster. Unnaturally fast. And soon, my feet weren't even moving. It was as if I was floating above the ground and spinning all on my own.

As I maintained my movement, the fuzziness of detail and the world around me began to rebuild itself. Regaining clarity and solidifying everything around me. Until finally I could stop spinning and remain in the dream world without effort. I steadied myself...listening to see if I could hear anything. I can't describe it. I was completely awake inside my dream. Aware of everything. It was, quite possibly, the most exhilirating feeling in the world. I was almost scared to move for fear that I might lose it again. It was like being able to actually see inside your own mind, the concious and suconcious colliding with a gentle bump that seemed to surreal to comprehend. Certain things around me were floating, or hanging in mid air for no reason whatsoever. And the wind wasn't consistent. It would blow for a second or two, and then stop as though it never happened, and then blow again for another few seconds. And everything that was in motion seemed to move with this weird jagged animation, like looking at the pictures of a slow moving flip book. Even when I put my hand in front of my face, the movement was a bit jerky. Wow.....this was sooooo cool!

I slowly turned around to look at my house, which seemed normal enough, but the grass was pink. And there was a swingset right outside the front door. Literally on the sidewalk. And it was the same swingset that I had when I was 4 years old. I remember that. It was locked away in the garage now, rusted and half broken from years of my friends and I wearing it out, but this swingset was shiny and brand new. God, that's so weird. I noticed the number on the side of the house because they wouldn't stay still. In fact, they weren't really numbers at all. Just these constantly morphing shapes and criss crossed lines that couldn't seem to hold a stable appearance in my sight. I took a few steps forward, and just marveled at everything around me. Was I really doing this? Was my mind really creating every last detail of this world all on its own? I wondered what I would find if I walked around and explored the place a bit more. I wondered what I would see if I went into my house, or should I say my 'dream' house. Whoah...what if I could get Jesse McCartney in here with me?

"Hey Donnie..." The second I thought it, he rode by on a bike. I SWEAR to you...it happened! My eyes widened, wanting to chase him, wanting to see if I could gt him to come back! But as my feet left the ground, I found myself hovering above the street surface. Just....floating there. And my sudden need to go after the blond celebrity left me. I thought about being back down on the ground, and my dream body lowered itself again. No way! No fucking way! I imagined myself flying a bit higher this time, and sure enough, my feet left the ground, and I began floating up higher. And higher. Five feet off the ground. Ten feet. Fifteen feet. It was the oddest feeling in the world, and as I reached twenty feet, I got a little bit scared. I was grinning the whole time, but it was a frightening experience to suddenly be so...'free' all of the sudden. I had to think hard to slow my elevation, and it didn't work right away, but soon I was still at about 30 feet above the ground. I was expecting to see the whole neighborhood from there, but everything was covered in a dense fog outside of that one particular area. As though all of existence faded away once it wnt beyond the few everyday details of my block. With a smile, I tried to move around in the air, but couldn't. I was stuck. I tried swimming, I tried diving, I tried the whole superman thing, but I could only go up and down. Not that it wasn't exciting enough as it was. And then, I felt myself drop down instantly crash through the cement of the sidewalk!

It scared the living shot out of me at first, but when I got up and saw the cracks I had made, all I could do was laugh. Sweet! This is the most awesome thing EVER! I concentrated on the cracks in the sidewalk, and with just a thought, I stretched them out in all directions, like a mini earthquake. I saw the front lawn split open, and the trees shake, and the houses were rattled. And then, with a wave of my hand, it stopped. And disappeared entirely. Seeing as this was my very first experience with such godlike powers, I suddenly felt the urge to do what ANY teenage boy would do in this situation....

...Cause an insane amount of senseless destruction!

I don't know how long I was doing it, not that time really existed in this place anyway, but I must have completely wrecked and rebuilt that block a dozen times over! I called tornadoes to rip the houses apart, I called lightning bolts to burn the trees down, I even went around smashing shit with my bare hands just for the fun of it. I don't think I ever had so much fun in my entire life. And that's when something really strange happened.

I turned to my own house, and with a few gestures of my hands, I began to rip it apart, piece by piece. I saw the foundation collapse, and the windows break, and the roof cave in...I was really having a ball. But for some reason, as the rest of the house was being reduced to rubble, my room remained in tact. It was like...I couldn't touch it. The door was closed, as the room hovered in the air where the second floor used to be. And it baffled me for a moment. I tried to send a shock wave towards it to blow it to smithereens, but it was hardly affected. It was the one part of the dream that defied my complete control. And then, I felt a wetness in my hands. I looked down, and I was wearing a bloody baseball glove, with the stained baseball in the other hand. Surprised, and a bit sickened by it, I pulled it off and threw both objects to the ground. Stepping back to wipe my hands off on my shirt. And as I looked down, it melted into the lawn in front of me, and the sound of music invaded the air around me. I looked back up to my floating bedroom, unable to see anything but that closed door and outer wall...and heard the same song playing softly...from an old record player inside.

"Somewhere, someday....we'll be close together, wait and see. Oh, by the way.....this time the dream's on me....

And then I heard the thumping sound begin. Thump....thump....thump. That hard baseball hitting the wall from the inside, again and again, like a rock. Slowing down with every bounce. The sound of sniffles could be heard much more clearly this time. Someone was definitely crying on the other side of that door. I was smothered with the alien feeling that I was being...'observed' by something else. And as I looked down at the end of the street, right where that obscuring grey fog reached its edge...I saw a dark silhouette standing there. Watching me. I squinted my eyes a bit, and stood there looking at the dark shape as it stared right back at me. It looked like a boy my age, but I couldn't quite tell. The fog was too thick. But I did notice it tossing a baseball back and forth between its gloved hand and open hand. It didn't say anything, it didn't even move. So...with a bit of confusion and a slightly creeped out feeling in the back of my mind...I spoke to it. "....Hello?"

Suddenly, the thumping sound stopped in my room. The shadow looked directly at me in silence for an extended moment. And then, even though the figure was all the way at the end of the street, its boyish voice sounded like it was coming from right over my shoulder. And in a calm and friendly manner, the shadow replied, "Hello."

In a FLASH, I woke up. The voice was so real, so so incredibly close, that it scared me out of my sleep. I was sweating a little bit, and had to feel my clothes and sheets to make sure that I was really awake. That everything around me was real. I was breathing hard, my mind reeling from what had just happened, and I was so harshly affected by it that I could hardly shake myself free of the dream. It was so vivid, so extremely real. I laid there in bed for a few minutes, just reliving it all with a smile, and nearly forgot to reach for my notebook to write it all down.<>

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I rolled over excitedly, and started jotting down notes rapidly, hoping to capture every last second of recall before it left me. But somehow, I doubt I'd ever forget something like this. Ever! Oh man...Chucky is gonna flip out when he hears this!

I had gotten myself all dolled up and ready for school, anxious and trembling as I waited for my friends to arrive. This was WAY bigger than a Jesse McCartney skin flick! This was full blown lucidity in the dream state! I remembered everything! Every detail, every sound, every action! I could hardly write it down fast enough, my mind racing past my penmanship at the speed of light. I was too amazing to keep from smiling wide until my face almost split. When I finally heard Baxter's daily insult shouted up to my window, I was nearly ready to burst.

"What? Wait...slow down, Donnie. You're not making any sense." Jeff told me as I rambled on about how easy it was, and how incredible it made me feel.

"I'm telling you, Jeff! It WORKED! It was, like, complete control, complete recall...everything just came together all at once! I was literally walking around and looking at stuff...in my own dream!"

"Looking at stuff? You mean you didn't blow anything up?" Baxter asked me.

"Oh yeah! Mass destruction! I wrecked the entire block dude! It was like being God!"

"Thatta boy!" He said, as we walked out of the house and to the car. This time, he opened the door for me and Jeff, and waited for us to get in, holding onto the door.

Jeff rolled his eyes at him. "Now what are you doing?"

"Since you don't know how to sit down in a car and close the door without slamming it shut, I figured I'd help you."

"You know, you really need to stop jacking off over this damn car! It's just a hunk of metal for crying out loud!"

"You see? It's talk like that, right there. You don't respect the ride, dude. That's why you don't care about what you do to it."

"I'll tell you what I'll 'do to it'...today at lunch, when you're not looking, I'm gonna go out to the school parking lot and kick the fucking windows in! How's that?" Jeff shouted, almost laughing.

"I know you love me, kid." Baxter said. And he closed the door lightly behind him, smiling himself as he walked around to the driver's side. April sat in the back with me, and even though I felt like they weren't buying my story at all, I just had to keep talking about it. My whole life just felt so different all of the sudden. Enhanced. Like my spirit was just given a healthy dose of adrenaline and I just couldn't sit still anymore.

"April...I'm telling you, I've never experienced anything like it before in my life. I could actually FLY! And make earthquakes and tornadoes! And blow up houses! Chucky is totally gonna freak when I tell him about it."

"Hehehe, I believe you, Donnie. Geez, I don't think I've ever seen you this happy before. You're starting to make me think you were bored with my company before last night happened." She grinned.

"Oh man, it's just...it's hard to even put it into words. I can't wait to do it again." I told her. Then leaned forward towards Jeff, "Dude, you've gotta start practicing again. Once you get it, it is SO awesome!"

"I think I've had my fair share of 'dreamy' surprises, thank you." He said.

"Afraid of what you might find in there, Jeff?" Baxter smirked.

"Aren't you supposed to be concentrating on driving your precious chariot?" He asked, and saw Baxter's smile get wider. "DON'T say it!"

"What? I didn't say anything!" Baxter giggled to himself for a moment, and then added, "I'm just saying that if I was secretly lusting after my own grandmother, then I'd probably turn gay too. That's all." And when he couldn't hold it in anymore, he burst out laughing as Jeff began repeatedly hitting him in the shoulder with his fist. Not that it stopped us from laughing in the back seat.

After driving a few blocks, April noticed me spacing out with a grin, and decided to take a picture of me. The flash snapped me out of it, and she smiled after being given the opportunity to capture the moment. "Don't you go getting goofy on me." She said.

"Sorry. I'm just...I'm amazed. I hope I can do it again tonight."

"What happened to the free dreaming? You're supposed to free dream, remember?"

"I know, I know. But I can't, not now. This is a major accomplishment here. I just wanna play around with it for a few days and see what happens."

"Donnie...I've read the books and Chucky's notes too, you know? Weird things happen to people who don't let their subconcious express itself without interference once in a while." She warned me.

"Don't worry so much. I'm not gonna get 'addicted' or anything, I'm just trying out a few things. Then it's right back to rules and regulations, I promise." I said. "There was one thing that was kinda weird, though."

"Weird, like how?"

"Well....you remember that recurring dream I've been having? Well...for some reason, it kinda happened again, but it was different this time."

"Well, I can see that. You've proably had it weighing heavily on your mind for weeks now."

"I know, and that makes a lot of sense, but...." I thought back to what happened, and remembered how strange it was. "...This was different. I had this complete control over everything else around me...except for that one piece of the dream. It's like, it wasn't even a part of me. It was separate, like it didn't belong there."

That got Jeff's attention and he turned around. "You mean, like you didn't create it?"

"Exactly. It was totally random. And there was this...boy in it. I couldn't make out what he looked like, or who he was, but....he didn't feel like he belonged there either."

April wrinkled her brow for a moment, and said, "You really should lay off of the dream work for a while, Donnie. I'm serious, ok? If you end up turning 'freak show' on us, I'm not coming to visit you at the asylum."

I grinned and gave her hug. Promising that I'd take a break this weekend. Well...maybe I'll take a break this weekend. We'll see what happens.

"Hey, don't forget, we're going Halloween shopping when we get out today. So meet me here in the parking lot, deal?" Baxter said as he parked the car. "DON'T 'lean' on it...just meet me here." He said to Jeff specifically. Jeff stuck his tongue out in response and we all walked inside.

Mr. Lipton couldn't humiliate me for being late today, as I was actually walking into the classroom when the bell rang. But considering the fact that he pretty much hated me, he took his shots at me anyway. "Once again, your writing lacks detail, and you fail to make your point. Too bad, Donald. You really have so much potential." He said, as he handed back papers.

"Why are you picking on me, huh?" I sighed. "I came on time today, and you're still giving me a hard time."

Mr. Lipton bent down and replied, "My class requires for you to be more than 'present', Mr. James. It requires you to be productive." He told me, and picked up my paper to show me the grade of 'C+' that he had written in big red marker up at the top of it. "This...is not productive. This is the work of someone trying to 'skate' his way through my English class. And I guarantee you, there are no free rides here. Or anywhere else in life for that matter." He put the paper back down on my desk, and went back to passing them out to everyone else. You have no idea how much I fucking hate that man.

Between second and third period, I went to see Chucky in the chem lab, and he was just as thrilled as I thought he would be. But he tried not to smile regardless, attempting to take a more professional approach to it all. I think I could see him trembling from the joy of it all though. "This is truly the next step, Donnie. You're making breakthrough right now. You've got to keep going. Ugh! I wish I could do it. I've gotta find out what I'm doing wrong."

"You're gonna love it, Chucky. I swear, I didn't want it to ever end." I said. "I literally destroyed everything. It was SO much fun!"

"Well, I don't know if destruction is such a good thing, but it's nice to know that it works." I gave him a look to let him know that I wasn't going to allow him to sap my enjoyment out of his 'project'. "Fine, whatever. Have your fun. But you know, how a person reacts in an environment without physical or social consequences says a lot about their sanity. And your first instinct was to start blowing shit up. What's that say about you?" He said while lightly waving his finger.

"It says 'goodbye, Chucky'." I smiled and started to leave the chem lab before the rest of his class flooded the room, but he stopped me.

"Hey! Did the spinning thing, work?"

"Like a charm, Chucky. Thanks."

"I knew it would work." He said to himself, and I saw a little smile break on his face. But when he realized that I had seen it, he got rid of the expression entirely. "Good. Well...keep it up and let me know what you find." He nodded, and I couldn't help but grin.

We met up in the parking lot as planned after school, and Baxter drove us out to this costume shop in the city. They had tons of really cool stuff there, most of it out of our price range. But there was always something sweet and affordable for us to pick up, and if we got to check out the horror props and expensive effects on top of it, how could we not have fun?

The first thing Baxter did was strap on a fake pair of rubber breasts and begin walking around the store with them on as though there was nothing wrong with this picture. April watched from a distance, shaking her head, as he took a private moment to scratch himself. Jeff looked at me with a grin and we both snickered to ourselves. Some guys are SO painfully hetero. The store was pretty crowded, but a lot of the merchandise had either been bought out or reserved in advance. So some of the shelves were empty, and some of the bins were beginning to look a bit shabby as a million greedy hands had swept through the place with their Halloween loot bags. We walked around in circles trying to figure things out, seeing what would look good. April already knew that she wanted to be a princess this year though. She had her heart set on it. The only issue she had was piecing together a convincing outfit from what was left in the store. But I think she liked what she had accumulated so far. Jeff and were searching around, but picking out a costume was always such a 'task' for us. You always have these amazing images in your mind of finding the perfect costume, but never go looking for it until the very last minute. Then it's all a hustle to choose what looks cool out of what they have left. I consider it my yearly ritual for Halloween, to be honest.

"I still think we should have gone as Charlie's Angels." Jeff giggled. "You, me, and Bax? We would have been awesome."

"I told you, I'm not dressing up like a chick for Halloween." Baxter said to us, and we all looked him over.

"You are of the fact that you're wearing a pair of rubber titties, right?" Jeff asked him.

"I'm not wearing these because I'm interested in being a chick for Halloween. I'm wearing them so I can feel 'em up while I shop." He said with a straight face.

"You can be such a pig, Baxter." April said, finding a tiara for her costume in the bargain bin.

"What? I'm not a pig. A pig would ask to squeeze yours while I shop, April." He smiled. "I'd be happy to trade if you wanna...."

"Ugh!" Naturally, April wasn't offended. In fact, being around three guys all the time, gay or straight, she was pretty desensitized to our comments. Still, she made sure to walk to another part of the aisle before encouraging anything dirtier to come out of Baxter's mouth.

"Maybe I could go as a pimp?" I said, picking up a wide, purple, pimp's hat with a leopard print band on it.

April took the hat from me and put it back in the bin. "You are NOT going as a pimp, Donnie."

"Why not?"

"Because I'm going as a princess, and you're my date for this party. So if you go as a pimp you automatically make me your whore."

"Princess Whore, to be exact." Jeff said.

"It's NOT happening! Pick something else!" She demanded, and Jeff and I set out to find something 'gory' to entertain us for a while.

We must have walked around for five minutes when Jeff excitedly tapped me on the shoulder to get my attention. "DUDE! Check it out!"

"What? Where?"

"Over THERE!" He whispered loudly, and lowered his head really quick so as not to be caught staring. And that's when I caught sight of him, standing over by the fake plastic tommy guns and gangster hats. The same sweet boy from the school hallways. Austin. Looking angelic in front of a wall of demonic props. My breath got caught in my throat, and I almost felt like hiding when I saw him. "Doesn't he go to school with us?"

"Um...yeah. His name is Austin." I said quietly, trying to take a few long glances at him from around the corner without getting caught. It was then that I noticed Jeff giving me a shocked look.

"You KNOW him???"

"Know him? No...not really. I just...I've seen him around you know?" I said.

"I'll BET you have. He's fucking hard to miss!"

Austin looked up for a second in our direction, and Jeff and I nearly squealed at the thought of being spotted. We turned to the side and put our heads down so he wouldn't see us. But as the seconds of fear passed, I realized that I kinda wanted him to see me. Maybe even come over and say hello or something. It gave me a jittery feeling in my chest, but I forced myself to look up again, and saw him examining the wall of costumes. My dear God, he was beautiful. His thick blond curls looked so soft and sweet, almost like a bowl of wet noodles. And even from the side, his shining baby blue eyes were mesmerizing beyond compare. I was already begining to lose myself in the thoughts of what it would be like to kiss those cherry red lips of his when Jeff lightly slapped me on the arm.

"Go talk to him!" He whispered.

"WHAT???" I whispered back. "WHY?"

"Because, he's too damn HOT for me to talk to! And if one of us doesn't go over there, I'm gonna scream my head off until security pushes me out into the street." Jeff was literally melting right in front of my eyes, but I was hardly a 'warrior' when it came to talking to cute guys. I was just as much of a virgin as he was. Well...almost, but Dale doesn't count. Not that having a slim and sexy straight boy dry humping me on a few occassions wasn't extremely satisfying for a 15 year old boy scout. "GO! C'mon! Talk to him!"

"What the hell am I supposed to say?" I asked in a near panic.

"I don't know! Ask him if he wants a blowjob and wing it from there!" Jeff said, and I giggled a bit, covering my mouth with my hand as he tried to hold it in.

"Omigod...ok...I'm totally gonna do this."

"You're gonna ask him if he wants a blowjob???" Jeff's eyes popped wide open.

"NO!!!" I snickered. "Well...not yet, anyway. But I'm gonna go talk to him though." I think I surprised him.

"Dude...fucking go for it!" He said, and watched as I walked my way over to that part of the store. I pretended to look around at the costumes near him, hoping that he would think bumping into him was an accident. But the closer I got to him, the harder my heart pounded. The more my stomach fluttered. The faster my mouth dried out. But I attempted to steady myself anyway.

Finally, I was standing right next to him. I was actually absorbing his shining light. I was close enough to reach out and touch him. I could smell the leather sleeves of his jacket. God, was I shaking! But my biggest fear was that I'd suddenly burst out into a shy fit of giggles and run away before I got a chance to say anything. I had to be cool about this. I wandered around the same area for a bit, taking little peeks here and there when I could, and just...tried to keep from sighing outloud. Does he have any idea how utterly gorgeous he is? Just looking at the smoothness of the skin on his cheek made me want dive over the closest rack and smother him with kisses. No...no, that's not right. He looks too delicate for something like that. It's more like...a soft and fragile slow kiss on those delicious lips of his. Where I would be able to feel his breath on my cheek, and could run my fingers through those big warm sunshine curls of his until I was too weak in the knees to stand anymore. Yeah...it's like that.

"Cough! Do it! Cough!" Jeff grunted from behind the wall, pushing me along. I shot him a mean look to shut him up efore he gave me away. Then, continued my slow aproach of the hot body before me.

My wandering put me right in front of him, and he was still kinda looking away from me and not saying anything. So I kinda cleared my throat, and when his eyes met mine, I mumbled, "Hi...." He nodded silently, that ready smile crossing his lips in the most polite manner, and as soon as we squeezed passed each other, he went back to looking at masks. I waited for a moment so that my 'courage meter' could build back up to full potency. And then I took a deep breath and asked, "Say, don't you go to my school?"

He looked at me again, and he said, "Oh yeah. I think so. I've seen you in the halls before. Usually after second period, right?" Omigod...he remembers! Ahhhh!

"Yeah. That's me. Cool." I smiled, trying not to blush. I waited a second, trying to find a way to keep talking, even with the oxygen rushing out of me twice as fast as it took for me to catch my breath. "I'm Donnie, by the way."

"I'm Austin. How's it going?"

"Ok, I guess...just....shopping for, you know....stuff." I said. DON'T giggle! You'll look stupid if you just start giggling for no reason. Hold it in. "You?"

"Yeah, me too. I was looking for something cool to wear to this party thing next weekend. I'm not sure what to get though." Wow...even his voice was cute. I knew it would be cute. I was smiling dreamily to myself as I stared him in the eye, and had to straighten up before he thought I was some kinda psycho. Looking back at Jeff, who was watching closely and biting his nails nervously as I interacted with the gorgeous boy, I took a step back so Austin didn't think I was rubbing up on him or anything. Sighhh....this is not how I expected this to go. But I'm here now, so I might as well find a graceful way to survive this.

"So...you're going to Cory's party too, huh?"

"Yeah, how did you know?"

"I'm pretty sure everybody is gonna be there." I said bashfully. "He's been talking about it for two weeks now."

"Well, this is the first big party I've been to since I've been here. So, I need to find a decent costume. First impressions and all that."

"I'm sure whatever you get will be awesome." No no no!!! What the hell did I say THAT for? Stop TALKING!!!

"I wish it was that easy. I was kinda thinking about going as a vampire. That would be cool." He said. "Have you seen anything kinda cheap over here for vampires?" Don't stop talking now!!! Start talking again!

"Um...yeah....I think I saw some stuff over...over there." I said softly.

"Can you show me?" Omigod, yes!

"Sure...........I guess." I was barely above a whisper, so nervous that tears nearly welled up in my eyes. But somehow the intense pull of his beauty gave me strength. "It's this way..." I started walking, and had to shut my eyes for a second as I felt him following me to another part of the store. It was the only way to contain the rush that I felt from having him interact with me. How I kept from floating away, I'll never know. I can only hope that I get this feeling to die down by the time I get to the vampire stuff. We walked passed Jeff, who almost smirked as we walked past, and just as he was getting ready to say something, the back of my hand lashed out and hit him in the stomach. Cutting him off before he took the opportunity to embarass me by saying...well...anything. And he grinned to himself as he watched me move forward, my legs trembling the entire way. Please don't let me screw this up.

I showed him the glass counter and some of the accessories, and Austin seemed to love checking stuff out with me. The fact that his blue eyes kept sweeping up to meet my own was the only thing that kept me from visibly swooning in front of him. I had never been so captivated and so spellbound by a boy this quickly before. He just...he seemed so complete to me. Maybe his looks were just blinding me from anything and everything that I could possibly find wrong about him...but it was just soooooo hard to look past it.

"Here. These fangs look expensive, but it's really the adhesive that costs all the money. You can buy them separate, and get a cheaper adhesive at the counter. They look pretty real. Much better than the plastic ones. So...." I trailed off, desperately hoping that he'd like my idea.

"Cool. So what do you do? You just put one on each tooth. Like here and here?" He said, his fingers lightly touching the outer corners of his lips. Sighhh...I wanna touch his lips too. Just think....he gets to touch them all day long. Any time he feels like it.

"Yeah...." I was stuck for words for a second, then shook myself back to normality. "And you can get the trick candy over there, that dyes your whole mouth the color of gumball. So...if you get red...it kinda looks like blood...and....you know...."

"Cool idea. Thanks!" He said.

"Anytime." I said, lost in my infatuated haze. And then decided to 'straighten' that comment up a little. Just in case. "I mean, it's no problem. I've been Mr. Budget Halloween for three or four years now."

"Yeah, well you know your shit. Thanks, Donnie. Say...maybe I'll see you at the party?"

"Sure. I'll be there."

"K. Later." He walked off, and I balled my fists up at my sides, trying hard not to dance right there in the middle of the store. As soon as I turned around, all three of my friends were standing there against the wall, a safe distance away, shaking their heads at me for being so blatantly obvious about my instantaeous crush.

With a mellow blush, I walked over to them and was hoping that they didn't make it too bad. But as soon as I got there, April took my picture to remember the moment. Then she turned to the others and said, "Well gentlemen, seeing as I've just been dumped by my date for the party, it looks like I'm going with one of you instead." She smiled. "What do you say? Jeff? Bax?"

Baxter told her, "Only if you put out at the end of the night."

"Jeff it is, then." April moved to take Jeff by the arm and lead him back towards the racks. "Now...what costume would appropiately compliment a princess?" Looks like Jeff was stuck. And....it also looks like I'm gonna get to talk to Austin again. SOON! I'm gonna have to! Shit! I need something to wear!

Later on that night, getting ready for bed and turning off the light, I felt myself getting excited all over again. I didn't even know if I'd be able to fall asleep at that point. After talking to Austin today, and the experience I had with the dream work last night, I couldn't get my heart to calm down. Thank godness for natural fatigue, or I never would have gotten my eyes closed.

When I began dreaming that night, it wasn't all that hard to wake myself up to it. In fact, it was easier than ever. With the single blink of an eye, I found myself walking barefoot on my own front lawn. For some reason, however, instead of having houses on the other side of the street from me, there was a dock, and a giant lake that stretched out as far as I could see. Way out into the fog. That was certainly....different. I began walking around, seeing what I could see. The clouds were all rainbow colored from the looks of it, and the concrete looked warped and mishapen. Rising and falling like small sand dunes. It was the same block that I had been on before, but everything was all different. Topsy turvy. I remember once that Chucky thought the 'scenery' would change depending on what kind of day I had, and how my mind interpreted it. But I didn't expect the difference to be quite this drastic.

"Well, well, well, Mr. James. Tardy as usual." I turned around and saw my teacher, Mr. Lipton sitting at his desk, in the middle of the street. "So happy you decided to be present today." I heard his voice slowdown into a deep guttural growl, then reverse as he said the sentence backwards. And then..."So happy you decided to be present today." Then it reversed again. And then...."So happy you decided to be present today."

"Stop it." I said, and he just kept repeating himself. "SHUT UP!!!" I shouted, and it stopped. Looking closely at his dream form, I noticed that his tie was much too long, hanging all the way down to his knees. His fingernails looked like claws, and his teeth were sharp. I could feel the frustration already burning inside of me.

"You have to be more than present to pass my class, Mr. James." He said, standing up from his desk and walking around it. "There are no free rides here. No free rides here. None. No free rides..."

To hell with this. I thought about the ground beneath his feet, and he immediately began to sink into it like it was quicksand. At first, he just crossed his arms and gave me a scowl. "Not 'creative' enough for ya?" I asked, and smiled as I caused the quicksand to heat up, and boil. At this point, he suddenly started to scream and flail his arms around like crazy. Then, instead of quicksand, I turned the street into lava, and he shouted even louder. Hahaha! I think I like this game! "Does it hurt? Do you need help, Mr. Lipton?" I walked over to the edge of the pit, and kicked a big splash of lava into his face...melting it off and watching him shout and twitch from the pain of it. Hehehe, Chucky was right...I'm a total psycho sometimes.

"Hehehehe..." I heard a giggle coming from over my shoulder. A light and boyish giggle. One that wasn't my own. And I turned around to see who it was.

Before me was a boy a my age. Maybe a year or two younger, but his eyes were so big and pure that he might have just had a baby face. They were shining bright green, and he had blond hair curtaining the sides of his face. He was extremely cute in the most exotic way. It was an almost unnatural beauty that went beyond your average teen heart throb looks. He was wearing a baseball cap, jeans, and a white t-shirt. And a baseball glove. The baseball glove. "Hello." I said to him.

The boy stopped laughing instantly, and seemed almost frightened of me. I looked at him for a second as he wrinkled up his forehead and checked me out. He waved his hand in front of my face a few times, and I followed his movements with my eyes. "Hello?" He said softly.

"Hi." I answered, and he moved a step or two back from me.

"You can see me?" He asked.

"Yes."

"You can hear me?" He sounded surprised.

"Yeah." He stayed silent for a second, while his mind tried to process everything. And sudenly, with a sad face as though I was trying to trick him, he faded away. Like a cloud of dissipating smoke. "Wait! Where did you go? Don't leave." The boy appeared again behind me. Still puzzled as to how I even knew he was there and watching. He looked at me sideways for a moment. It was the kind of look a hungry squirrel would give a stranger in the park when offered food. "What's your name?" I asked.

"Caleb." He was really thin with a light voice, his slim shoulders and tight waist gave him a slightly erotic shape. And he had these sweet lips that thickened ever so slightly in the middle. He was maybe 2 or 3 inches taller than me, but looked like he weighed a bit less. And he had a slightly feminine way about him, that in such subtle doses gave his every movement a sensual quality to it. "What's yours?" He asked.

"Donnie." I told him. He was quiet for a moment, and every now and then, his dream body seemed to go out of focus and become fuzzy. Nothing else in the dream was affected, just him. I didn't know what else to say, so I asked him..."Do you wanna help me torture my teacher some more?"

It was then that I saw him smile, and Caleb giggled a little bit at the idea. "I think he's dead already."

"I can bring him back. Or I could make a second one. We'll have a contest." I smiled, and he loosened up a lot more.

For what literally felt like days and days...Caleb and I just walked back and forth up and down that twisted street, and talked about one thing or another. We'd go as far as we could in one direction, get to the edge of the fog where we couldn't see any further ahead of us, and then walk back. I kept looking over at Caleb's smile, and wondered how I could even come up wth someone like this. What part of my mind was making this happen? It had to have been my conversation with Austin that started this. It had to be, at least in some strangely indirect way. But as I listened to him speak and talk and joke around...it felt so foreign to me. Like...how was my brain keeping this boy so vivid and original from everything that I had ever dreamed of before? How?

We talked for what seemed like forever, until, at one point, I found myself worrying about how long it was. I stopped for a moment and looked at the dream world around me. The trees seemed to be drooping a bit, the ground was slightly rippling up beneath my feet, and the clouds were never in the same place twice when I looked up at them. "What's the matter?" Caleb asked me.

"How long have we been here?" I asked. "I mean....shouldn't I have woken up by now? I've been here for an awfully long time."

Caleb just smiled warmly at me. "Hehehe, silly. Time isn't measured the same way in this place." He said.

I was confused. "So...how is it measured?"

He shrugged his slim shoulders, "I dunno. However you want it to be measured, I guess. It all depends on you." He told me. "One minute can be a minute, or one minute can be an hour. It all depends on how you remember it. It could be a whole year if you wanna spend that much time with me." He grinned bashfully, and it was so cute that it made me grin too.

"Nah, I like being in here with you." I said, and his eyes seemed to glow with joy at the mention of it.

"I like being here with you too." He blushed slightly, and believe it or not, I felt myself growing rather attached to this imaginary boy. I just wish he was here with me in real life so I could spend more time with him. I'd have a hardcore crush on him for sure.

"So what happens if I wanna wake up?" I asked.

"Then....wake up..." And the second he said it, my eyes opened, and I was laying in bed again. It was already morning, and I was surprised that I had actually made it through an entire night without waking up once. It was the most consistent and relaxing night of sleep that I could remember having over the past few weeks. In fact, I was almost sluggish when I tried to sit up straight.

I put my feet on the floor, and looked around the room in silence. My mind was stuck on what had happened in the dream, and I was just....amazed. Caleb was right. I looked at the clock, and I had only been asleep for eight hours. But...in the dream it felt like it was much much longer. As a matter of fact, it seriously felt like Caleb and I had been friends for months now. Even though I never experienced a single nightfall or sunset the whole time we were talking, even though I didn't notice a single day pass us by...my mind seemed to create this entire history between us that stretched back a hell of a lot longer than eight hours. And what was even more weird was the fact that I had already become emotionally attached to this incredible person who wasn't even real. Someone I'd probably never even see again. I had to shake myself out of a daydream, and stand up to get my senses back. That was extremely weird. April was right, I need to free dream a bit more before I end up losing it.

I didn't really make an effort to talk to my friends about it that morning in the car. I joked around a bit and laughed as usual, but for some odd reason, Caleb seemed a bit too personal to talk to them about. I don't know, maybe it makes me sound crazy to be involved with a dream character. If someone else told me that, I'd probably laugh at them too. So I pretty much kept my mouth shut about the whole thing. But I want to talk to Chucky about it and see what he says. Chucky never laughs when it comes to one of his 'projects', so hopefully he'll spare me the humiliation of telling me that I need some serious therapy.

It was a long two periods that I went through as soon as we got to school. My mind kept being sucked back into memories of the vivid recall I had gotten from talking to Caleb for so long. Caleb....geez, I had even given him a name. I scanned my brain all morning long, trying to see if there was ever somebody in my life that resembled the boy from the dream. Somebody who was actually 'real' at some point in my life, and just happened to waltz his way into my subconscious last night. I thought that maybe it was because of Austing that I was thinking of him. But then...why didn't I just dream about Austin himself? Or at least give this strange boy the same name? It's probably got something to do with that damn baseball dream or something. Arrrgh! I hope Chucky's got some answers for me today.

I was on my way to the chem lab, when I looked up and saw Austin heading my way, on his usual trek to his next class. I instantly felt myself freeze up, but worked up a smile and whispered hello anyway. "Heya Donnie." He grinned, and kept walking. Damn he looked so good today. I had to bite my bottom lip, the sexual frustration of him being so near and yet so far overwhelming me, and nearly ran into a locker trying to look back and take a peek at his firm little buns. Mmmm....if only I could have just TEN minutes to do what I wanted to him. Just ten minutes. I'd make him wanna stay for good.

Thankfully, when I walked in the room, I had gotten to Chucky first, before the others showed up. I needed to talk to somebody about this whole thing, and he was the only one who would take it seriously, I'm sure. I tried to explain to him in detail what had happened, making sure to face the door so I could see whenever someone came in. I whispered to Chucky everything that I could remember while he nibbled on a small bag of carrot sticks. It was like the whole dream just poured out of me to the point where even Chucky was amazed at how detailed my recall was. Then he asked me, "So who was he?"

"I don't know." I told him.

"You have to know. He had to come from somewhere. Maybe he goes to school with us somewhere?"

"Nope. I thought about that. But I've never seen him in the hallways."

"Maybe somebody from the Boy Scouts or something a few years ago?"

"Nope. None of them either. Chucky, I'm telling you, I would have remembered this boy. He was beyond beautiful. He was cool, and funny, and cute...but he doesn't match up with anybody I've ever known before."

Chucky put down his carrots and opened up his notebook to take down a few notes. "Interesting development." I walked around the desk to see what he was writing, but he pulled his notebook back from me.

"Hey Chucky...do you think that...maybe I could have just...'made him up' or something?" I asked.

"I don't think so. Dreams are usually a reflection of what you already know, what you've already seen. All they can do is sort out what your brain has absorbed and show it to you. So this boy, Caleb, must have crossed your path somewhere at some time in your life."

"I don't know...I've had weird dreams before, but this was really different. It was like he was somebody else entirely. I can't see myself being able to create that kind of random personality just off of the top of my head. I'm telling you, this boy wasn't a part of me until last night."

"Well how many dreams did you have about him?" Chucky asked.

"Just one. And it lasted forever."

"One? That doesn't sound right. Maybe you had a couple of dreams about him and just stringed them together or something."

"No, it was just one. And it never stopped. It felt like I was there for weeks. Maybe even longer."

"Donnie, the average person only dreams for about two hours a night. You have a different one about every 90 minutes or so." He said. "The book says they start off being about ten minutes long, and get slightly longer as the night goes on. The longest lasting about 45 minutes. So you must have had a bunch of little dreams or something and..."

"I'm telling you EXACTLY how it happened, Chucky. It was all one dream. And I didn't wake up once the entire night."

"Probably because you were exhausted, Donnie."

Arrgh! He was trying to rationalize everything out according to that damn book and those research notes of his. "I know what I saw. And I feel like it was so real. I honestly feel 'attached' to this boy in the dream. He's like nobody I've ever met before."

"What's this? You're getting a crush on your imaginary boyfriends now?" I heard Baxter's grin from behind me, and turned to see him, April, and Jeff, standing behind me.

"Ah shit..." I moaned.

"You know, that is really sick, dude. That's gotta be like...mental masturbation or something." Baxter laughed.

"It's not like that. It's just...it felt like somebody else was in the dream with me. Somebody else entirely."

"Maybe it was the dream police, coming to find you for the molestation of Jesse McCartney and many other crimes against heterosexual boys worldwide." Bax giggled.

Chucky closed his notebook and said, "Look, just take a break from the project work plan for a day or two and relax. Enjoy the weekend, let your subconscious untangle itself a little bit, and you can start looking into it a bit more on Monday. I don't know what else to tell you."

"Sighhh...yeah, I guess. Maybe you're right. It just...it was so real, dude. I wish you guys could understand how powerful it was." I told them, and Jeff gave me a concerned look as I grabbed my backpack and got ready to go to my next class.

"I'll walk with you." Jeff said, and the others split up to go to their classes as well. Jeff asked me, "So what happened? With the dream, I mean."

"I met this boy, he was really cute, he said his name was Caleb. We talked and hung out for weeks. We really jus...got to know each other."

"You've been dreaming about him for weeks?"

"No. That's just it, I never dreamed about him before last night."

"But you just said..."

"I know, that's what makes it so weird. He told me something like...time isn't measured the same way in a dream as it is in real life. It's...um...it's all in how I remember it, I think he said." Jeff mulled the concept over for a bit, and I told him, "Am I crazy, or what?"

"No. I don't think you're crazy. You're a few sandwiches short of a picnic, but I'd hardly put in the category of full blown crazy." He smirked.

"You'd be surprised at how much I find that comment comforting." I smiled.

"So, that aside..." Jeff asked, "...What's up with you and this 'Austin' guy? Is he taking you to the party, or what?"

"Taking me to the party? What are you talking about? No!" I cringed. "I'm not asking him to take me to Cory's party."

"Why not??? You guys talked, it was a cool vibe, I thought you had a good thing going with him yesterday."

"Jeff...dude, I don't even know if he's 'like that'. And besides, he was just being polite."

"Did you tell him your name?" Jeff asked me.

"What?"

"Did you tell him your name yesterday?"

"Of course I told him my name."

"Well...did he remember it today?"

I thought about it for a second. "Yeah, I think so. He said hello to me when I passed him in the hall."

"Bingo! So you're already past the 'unfamiliar face' stage and have moved right into recent memory. So now...you ask him if he wants to...?" Jeff silently coaxed me to give him the answer he was looking for.

"...Let me give him a blowjob?" I giggled.

"NO, stupid! You ask him if he wants to come to the party. With us?" He said. I gave him a suspicious look. "With all of us. You know? April and Bax too. That way, you're technically going to the party together...but you're not really on a 'date' yet. You see what I mean?"

"What happens if he's straight and he figures the whole thing out once he catches me staring at his crotch for ten minutes straight?"

"By then he'll be so overwhelmed with your charms and your wit, he'll wanna fuck you anyway. See? It's flawless."

I patted Jeff lightly on the head. "You are definitely a poster boy for wishful thinking, Jeff."

"I like to think of myself as a connoisseur of possibilities."

"Is that French for 'bullshit'?"

"It might be. But it doesn't mean you don't want it to happen." We laughed on our way to class, Jeff easily soothing my need to worry so much as he always did. And I attempted to make it through the rest of the school day without letting it get to me too much. It was just a dream. What the heck is wrong with me? Like I said...I'll probably never even see him again.

That night, even my parents could tell that something was on my mind. For me to not be overjoyed for the simple fact that it was a Friday night and there was no school tomorrow, was a rare occurrence indeed. But even though I tried to keep my mind off of meeting Caleb, it wouldn't go away. In fact, it lingered in the air around me. As though I could breathe in his scent just by letting his smile cross my mind. The funny thing is, after all that time I spent talking to him in the dream world, I couldn't really remember a single thing that we talked about. It was nonstop chit chat for days and days, and my mind couldn't pick out or define a single word spoken between us. I was just...sure that it happened. We had to have been talking about something right? When I climbed into bed, I was haunted by the memory of his laughter. The glow of his bright green eyes. The untouched softness of his skin. And when I was in my room, the sensation got stronger. I almost expected to see him materialize in front of me any second, the way he did in the dream. But, like I said earlier, I was just being silly. I'm supposed to be recording and studying my dreams...not falling in love with them.

When my eyes opened next, I found myself laying on the end of a branch in a tree. It was disorienting at first, but I had to look around to make sure that I knew where I was. I noticed my house in the background and figured that this tree must be the one in the front yard. But...geez, it looked so tall from up here. And it seemed to be slowly sliding away from the house, as I looked down and saw its roots moving gently out towards the street. There was a wind that breezed through the branches and rustled the leaves, and then a soft voice from above. "You came back. Rad. I missed you while you were gone."

I looked up and saw Caleb leaning up against the tree trunk, a cluster of branches cradling him like a mother's arms. He smiled at me, happy to have me back. "What are we doing up in a tree?" I asked him, and he just giggled in response. I watched him phase out momentarily, and then reappear on the branch at my side.

"Do you wanna play a game?" He asked.

"What kinda game?"

"I don't know. We could race." It sounded a bit childish to me, but his grin was irrisistable.

"You're on. Hw about we go down to the end of the block?" I started to sit up and hop down from the tree, when Caleb warned me not to.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

But I jumped down anyway, and suddenly felt the ground, the grass, the whole world, suddenly crack beneath my feet. I stood perfectly still, my eyes wide, not knowing what to make of it. I took a step forward, and it cracked even more, like a sheet of thin ice.

"Told ya." Caleb grinned. "You're not in a deep enough sleep yet. The dream's not finished being built. It's gonna take a while for things to be more stable. Me included."

"What do I do?" I said, afraid to move one inch to the left or right.

"Just climb back up." He said. How could I do that if I couldn't even move. But looking up at him, he motioned for me to join him. "Come on up. Go ahead. It won't hurt you." I took his word for it, and with a lean towards the tree, I lifted one of my feet and took a step backwards. The second it touched down again, the ground caved in around my right leg and I sank down into it.

Caleb laughed at my predicament. "I thought you said it would be ok!" I said, holding on to make sure I didn't sink any deeper into the plates underneath me.

"Stop thinking that you're gonna fall. You're doing it to yourself. Just concentrate on being back up here with me." He said. And it was no easy task, but once I was able to get my mind off of falling through the Earth...I was able to effortlessly climb my way back up to the branch we were sitting on. Caleb lightly applauded me for regaining my position. "See? It's easy."

As I looked up through the leaves, I saw fish swimming in the sky above us, and a series of waves and ripples breaking over the rooftops of the houses on the block. And, of course, in the background...there was the fog. "What's over there?"

"Where?"

"Behind the fog."

Caleb shrugged his shoulders. "What do you want to be over there?"

"Oh yeah. Right." I thought about it a second, and suddenly, some of the fog was wiped away from the background, and a tall mountain shaped like a giant penis stood in the distance. Baxter would have been proud.

"Hahaha! I like the way you think, Donnie!" He laughed. It was such a warm feeling, being near him again. Like visiting an old friend. I stared at him for a moment or two, admiring the gentle beauty of him, and wondered just how far I could take a dream like this.

"Can I ask you a question?" This was my dream, did I really have to ask?

"Yeah."

"Where do I know you from?" I said. "I mean...before the dream."

"I don't think you know me from anywhere. I've never seen you before." He answered.

"Then...how can you be here right now?"

"I dunno. You tell me."

He always had an answer that led to me remembering that this was all make believe. But despite it all, I couldn't shake the feeling that this wasn't 'me' making all of this happen. I know because, as we were talking up in that tree, I would occassionally try to focus on something else around us. I would think about making a leaf fall, and it would fall. I would think about hearing a dog bark, and it would bark. It was just like Chucky said it would be. The whole world was under my complete control. Except for Caleb. I thought about changing the color of his hair from blond to red, or purple, or black. And nothing happened. He didn't even notice me trying. He just kept happily talking away about this and that while I tried to influence his role in the dream. I wanted to change the color of his jacket, or make his voice deeper...but nothing worked. There was this weird 'block' on my influence when it came to him. And it led me back around to the exact same conclusion. He wasn't a natural part of this dream.

Even his conversation was strange. I didn't really understand a single word he was saying once I actually tried to focus on it. It was like this random mumbling under his breath. No real words or sentences. But when he smiled and mumbled and followed it up with a laugh...I felt myself wanting to laugh too. As though there was some shared meaning for what he was saying, even though I couldn't really decipher it. And it was cute. I was fascinated with the fact that this dreamlike mumbo jumbo was easily absorbed and translated into a language that only my subconcious could understand. Finally, after what seemed like an hour of witty banter between us, I felt myself drawn closer to him. I was watching the way his pretty lips were moving, and the way he would lightly push his blond hair back with two fingers every few minutes, and the way his eyes would sometimes catch me staring...and would give me a smile all their own. My heart was full of this unknown energy, and since this was only a dream, and I didn't know when I was gonna wake up again, I figured...what the hell? I might as well have some fun in here. So, without any more hesitation, I leaned over and kissed Caleb on the cheek while he was in mid sentence. It wasn't like I had to worry about being 'outed' in a place like this. Besides, it was an impulse that I had been trying to hide from myself since I first laid eyes on him.

Caleb was speechless for a moment, and then turned bright red. "Donnie...." He giggled.

The thing about dreams...you can be as confident and as bold as you want to be. You can take as many risks as you want to without consequence. None that matter in the real world anyway. I don't know what came over me, I just....I have been daydreaming about this boy all day long, we've been talking and laughing for what felt like five or six months now...and I just...I wanted to kiss him. So there. "I think you're beautiful, you know that Caleb?"

His blush deepend, and I felt this rush of emotion wash over me, like a warm chill cascading down my backside. "I'm...I'm not." He said shyly.

"No, I mean it. You're amazing. I like being here with you. A lot." Maybe it was a cool twist to not have control over Caleb. Something about this felt so real. I had no idea what he was gonna say next, but I got to just...lay it all on the line and ask. "Can I kiss you again?"

"You wanna kiss me?"

"More than anything. Sure." I said, and he hid his grin from me for a moment before bashfully nodding his head for me to continue. So, with a slight tremble in my chest, I leaned forward on the tree branch and lightly touched my lips to his own. I could feel it in my stomach. The nervousness, the passion, the longing. I had never shared a kiss with anybody before, but Caleb's embrace was just as real as any other. I was surprised at how my emotions just leapt up into my throat as if all of this was really happening. I was also amazed at how uncomfortably hard I was getting as I felt Caleb's tongue slide timidly forward to touch my own. My arm went around his back, and my other hand went to rub small circles on his chest as we slowly began to find a comfortable rhythm. Our lips getting in sync with each other as we gently chewed at one another with a moan. I could taste the saliva on his tongue, and its sensual flavor caused my pulse to race like never before. It was like...the more I kissed him, the more 'real' he became. And his kiss was getting stronger by the second. I heard a noise and stopped our kiss just long enough to look around. The whole neighborhood had become ten times brighter, the sky was more blue than it had ever been, and the buildings themselves seemed to lean and sway with every comfortable gust of wind. The grass was greener, the street was cleaner, the air was sweeter...my entire reality seemed to wrap itself around the good feelings in my heart and make everything beautiful. If only April were here to take a picture of this place.

I felt a hand on my chin, and Caleb turned me to face him so he could kiss me deeply again. This time with more passion. This time he was hungry for it. And I felt his hands pull me close to lay down on top of him, as the tree branches cradles us both. The world around me began to rise in temperature, and I swear that I could feel a sheen of sweat breaking out on my forehead. The flowers bloomed, and the birds sang, and the fog was pushed back to reveal huge green meadows and oceans of silver. We were making out as if our lives depended on it, our lips smacking as Caleb whimpered desperately beneath me. As though he had been waiting for this moment his whole life. Out of all the wet dreams I had ever experienced, not a one of them could come close to the heat generated by the passion of this unknown boy. A dream figure that seemed to materialize out of nothing at all. Caleb reached down to grab my ass and pull me deep into his spread legs, and moaned as he pushed his tongue further into my mouth. For such a shy boy, I never once expected him to be so openly lustful all of the sudden. Not that I was complaining, but he went from 0 to 60 in the matter of a few minutes. As I felt his legs wrap tightly around my waist, his whimpers and heavy breathing increasing in their intensity, I had to open my eyes to make sure that this was the same boy that I had been talking to just seconds ago.

Then, I stopped for a second. "Hey..." I said, as Caleb clung to me with both his arms and legs, not wanting to stop. He craned himself up and began to kiss my neck, sucking on the flesh and trying to continue our game. But I wanted to really enjoy this some place nice. "Hey...why don't we go inside? We can get out of this tree, and just...have some fun." I suggested.

His eyes peered into mine, the green orbs almost showing a hint of fear. "Inside?" He asked.

"Yeah, so we can spread out a little bit. Get out of these clothes, maybe?" I smiled, kissing his lips briefly. His expression had changed completely, and he looked away from me as though something were bothering him. "Caleb?"

"Yeah?" He said, his voice trembling. He stared off into space, as if he were remembering something...tragic.

"Caleb, I wanna be with you. We've got all the time in the world, right?" I said with a smile. But his smile was no longer existant.

"I can't." He said.

"What? What do you mean you can't?" I kissed him again to persuade him, and I could definitely feel his hardness rubbing up against me as I pushed my hips into him. "Come on, let's go." I whined playfully, making a few circular gyrations to get him to follow me. But as he turned his head to look at the house...he refused.

"No. I can't. Not in that house. I don't like that house." At that moment, the world around me started getting grey. I looked up at the sky and saw this thick army of stormclouds rolling in quickly. Covering the entire neighborhood in a pitch black shadow. The wind picked up immediately, and lightning and thunder began to strike around us. What the hell was going on here? I wasn't doing this. Was I?

I used all of my focus to try to change the dream back. To clear up the storm and get things back to normal. But all of my once 'god-like' powers were suddenly useless in this place. And Caleb was the one in total control. "What's happening?" I shouted over the wind, and the sky got even darker. The winds nearly making it hard for me to breathe. As the clouds covered us, and the fog swallowed up the background, the clouds opened up and began to shower us both with a rain of blood. It came cascading down upon us, first staining the leaves, and then drenching us in the warm wet liquid. I looked at my arms and legs, covered in dirty crimson, and could taste the bitter flavor on my lips. Caleb's eyes were focused up at the sky, and when I looked down towards the base of the tree...a baseball glove was sitting there on the ground. A single ball, covered in blood, came rolling towards it to land directly in its grasp. Caleb began to cry and sniffle next to me, and his tears were pure black, running down his cheeks, as the wind nearly blew me right out of the tree and onto the ground below. It got to be so dark that I could barely see my hand in front of my face, and the air grew stale and rotten as the trees and plantlife around us began to wither and die.

"You don't love me, Donnie..." He cried. "Nobody loves me. Nobody."

"What? What are you talking about?"

"I'm unworthy. You hate me. Everyone hates me for who I am." As he cried, the thunder got louder, and lightning began to strike all around us. Long rivers of blood ran down the street, flooding the sewer drains and the gutters on the roof of every house on the block.

"I don't hate you Caleb!" I shouted, still trying to figure out how I lost control of everything. Nothing I thought of would work, an everything spiraled down into the horrific images of a nightmare.

"Don't lie to me. Please don't lie to me. I can't take anymore...." He said, his voice doubling and tripling up on itself as it seemed to cause the blood rain to fall down even harder than before. "No more hearbreaks. I can't survive another heartbreak. It hurts too much...." He sobbed.

And then...behind us, coming from my room...the record player began to play that mellow tune again....

"Somewhere, someday....we'll be close together, wait and see. Oh, by the way....this time the dream's on me."

"Caleb?!?!"

"I can't stay here with you, Donnie." He cried. "I'm not supposed to be here. I'm not supposed to be here. I'm a good boy. A good boy....." He looked over at me, his eyes turning completely black as his face went pale...nearly blue. And he said, "You can't save me..." And a bolt of lightning knocked me clear out of the tree to come crashing down on the concrete of my driveway. The last thing I heard, was Caleb screaming up at the sky, an unnatural echo rumbling through the heavens with a fury. "How could you let me DIE?!?!?!"

I woke up the second my dream body hit the pavement. This time, in the middle of the night, about 4 in the morning. It wasn't the long night of restful sleep that I had experienced before. I had been tossed out of the dream and back into the real world before getting a chance to even use Chucky's spinning technique to keep myself engaged. I jumped up in my bed, feeling as though I were still falling back to Earth. And clutched my hand to my chest as I felt my heart beating so hard that it hurt.

I sat up, my sheets damp from a cold sweat, and I wondered what the hell had happened to me in there. My mind was spinning around in circles, bewildered, lost in a world that wasn't real to anyone but me. And it took me almost five minutes to catch my breath again. What did I do? Why did Caleb react so violently to coming into my house? I know what Chucky said...that everything inside the dream was a part of me. Everything was my own creation, and if someone was there or something happened, it was because I created it personally. Right? But...nothing about that dream felt personal. None of that could have come from me, I'm sure of it. Am I cracking up, or what? I've gotta see Chucky and tell him to interpret this for me, because this doesn't feel right anymore.

I didn't go back to sleep at all. Instead, I stayed up and watched music videos on TV until it was time for my parents to go to work. My dad was in a rush to get out of the house, but he gave me the strangest look when he saw me on the couch in my robe, watching tv so early in the morning. My mom sat with me for a second to see if everything was alright. What was I going to tell her? I was having sex with a boy in my dream and it turned into armageddon, so I'm staying awake now? I just nodded and let her know that I was fine. She tried to convince me to go back to bed and get some more sleep in before school, but she could see in my eyes that it would have been a useless effort. I just told her that I was having trouble sleeping these days, and left it at that. She said, "Maybe you're still getting used to being in this big house. You'll get more comfortable after you settle into it a bit more."

"Yeah, I guess." She wanted to do a better job of soothing me, but she was on a schedule and had to get going. So she kissed me on the forehead and reminded me to eat breakfast before leaving the house. By the time Jeff, Baxter, and April, arrived to take me to school, I was almost ready to nod off again.

"You're awfully quiet today." Jeff noticed.

With a yawn, I told him, "I'm just tired. That's all." I saw another flash in the car as April took a picture of me stretching.

"You're so cute when you stretch." She laughed.

"Whatever." I giggled back.

April wanted to get to school early that day, as she wanted to check on her pictures for the yearbook committee. She had been waiting all weekend to finally see what they looked like. She was practically dragging me through the halls to get to the office and claim her photos. She rushed over to a nearby table and ripped the envelope open. Even through my fatigued haze, I couldn't help but smile at her eagerness. It's like watching an excited chipmunk stacking up a collection of chestuts in the hull of a tree stump.

"Awesome! I like this one. What do you think?" She said, showing one of her many pictures of me in the high school library. "Hehehe, this one is classic Chucky behavior..." There was a photo of Chucky, head down, resting on his hand at a desk, looking frustrated while working on his science homework. "I can definitely use this one for the Junior Class." I held back a yawn so she wouldn't see. Not that I was bored, just tired. But she'd take it to heart if she thought I wasn't interested. "Oh man, this one is cool too! I've got a great idea for this one." She walked over to a nearby shelf and carried over a stack of old yearbooks they used as guides to structure the next layout. And she opened a few of them out. "I figure, I can do one of the pictures like a collage, like this one. Or..." She flipped a few pages in an even older yearbook. "...I can kinda morph the pictures together like this one. Like if I change the pattern up a little bit..." She went through book after book, trying to get my opinion on what would look cool, when suddenly, I had to stop her!

"WAIT!!! What was that? Go back!"

"What is it?" She asked.

"Go back! Go back!" She was confused, but turned back a few pages in a yearbook for the graduating class of 1996. What I saw there caused me to take a step back and cover my mouth to keep from gasping outloud. "That's him..." I whispered.

"Who?"

"That's...that's Caleb. That's the boy from my dream."

"What are you talking about?"

"The BOY I've been dreaming about! That's him! I swear it is!"

She looked closer at the page. "Hmmm...Caleb Jordan, Sophomore Class of 1996...see 'memorial page'." She squinted her eyes. "Memorial page?" I couldn't speak. Just looking at that photo, with Caleb's definitive smile gleaming for me to see, had shaken me to the very core. April turned to the page and read the small inspirational message at the bottom. And she said, "Ohhh...I get it. Har dee har...Happy Halloween, right? You're joking, right?"

"What? No...April, I'm not joking, that's him."

"Suuuure. Trick or treat, very funny. Now stop playing games, I've gotta get some ideas floating around before class starts..."

"APRIL!" I said, a serious look on my face. She seemed a bit concerned, but she was almost ready to believe me.

"You're not joking around, are you?" I shook my head, not taking my eyes off of the page. "Donnie...this memorial says that Caleb Jordan died ten years ago. If what you're saying is true, then you've been dreaming about a ghost for the past few days."

"Maybe even longer than that." I whispered.

"Come on, Donnie, you were like...SIX when he passed away. How could you have possibly have known this guy."

"I didn't. I just met him." My mind wouldn't process it. It refused to acknowledge it. "How did he die?"

"Well, gee, Donnie...let me just look that up in the 'horribly morbid' section of the high school yearbook and find out." She said. "How am I supposed to know? Look, I've gotta get to class. Just...ease off of the dream walking for a while, ok? Get some sleep. You look like shit today."

"I thought you said I was cute?"

"I was trying to be nice."

"How sweet of you." I said. She wrote down the name of the yearbook and the copy number and handed it to me.

"I personally think you're going bonkers...but if you wanna come back at lunch or something and check the book out some more, I'll leave a note with the desk clerk to loan you the book for a while. K?"

"Thanks April." I said, and she gave me a hug.

"Don't you flip out on me, Donnie. You're one of the only best friends I've got." And she left to go to class.

My feet wouldn't move at first. I just stood there, thinking about the dream, thinking about the storm, thinking about Caleb's kiss. Whatever happened to him...he's still holding on to it. And somehow, he picked me to share it with. I've gotta look further into this. This is something I don't think Chucky can help me with. Or anybody for that matter. I'm on my own.

Caleb Jordan....that was his name. Where do I go from here?

 

 

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