Connections [2]

Dream or Reality?

"No, no, no, no, no. Don't let them in." I mumbled under my breath. "Don't let them in. No, don't let them in."

I opened my eyes to see that I was in a locker. I look out of it and start to bang on it to get out. Once it was opened, I fall out of the locker just to see that I was in the boys' locker room, and it was completely empty.

I leave the locker room and go out into the hallway to see an open classroom door. Curiously, I walk over to it, almost as if it was calling out to me, and I was surprised to see the nemeton in the middle of the classroom when I walked in.

Desks and chairs were everywhere, the whole place was a mess as I walked towards it. I go to touch it when suddenly these vines wrapped around my hand pulling me down.

I breathed heavily when I woke up, not feeling right.

"Hey, you okay, Casey?" I heard someone say, and I turn to see a boy around my sisters age, but I couldn't really see his face. But what did stand out to me were his eyes. They were this perfect hazel that made my heart flutter.

"I'm fine. I'm fine. Just a bad dream." I said as he placed his hand on my leg to help comfort me, and I look over to see my bedroom door open. "It was like a dream within a dream. But it didn't feel like my dream, if that makes any sense."

"Kinda doesn't. Let's just go back to bed." He said, trying to pull me back down, but I got up to shut my door. "What are you doing?"

"I'm shutting my door. You know who even are you? I don't know you." I said, backing away from him.

"Look, just leave the door, Casey. Casey!" He yelled at me, and as I touched the doorknob and walked out, I was in a forest.

I look ahead of me and freeze when I see the nematon, and that's when these field lights turned on, illuminating the forest.

"It's just a dream. This is just a dream. It's just a dream, it's not real, Casey. You're dreaming. All right? So, wake up, Casey. Wake up, Casey!" I started to tug at my hair, squeezing my eyes shut.

"Wake up!"

I opened my eyes to see that I was in my room with Hartley sleeping soundly at the end of my bed, and I slowly got up, feeling confused.

"Get up, squirt. You're gonna be late." My dad said from outside my room.

"Morning, flower." Allison smiled at me as she passed my room and I run my hand through my hair.

It was all a dream. It was just a dream.

-/-

"And you couldn't wake up?" Jocelyn asked me as we got out of her brothers car.

"Nope. It was horrible. You ever hear of sleep paralysis?" I asked her.

"Do I want to know?" She asked warily.

"Okay, have you ever had a dream where you felt like you were about to wake up, but you can't move or talk?"

"I think once." She replied.

"It happens because during REM your body is basically paralyzed. It's called muscle atonia. That way if you start dreaming about running, you don't actually start running in your bed." I told her.

"That makes sense." She said.

"But sometimes your mind can wake up before your body does." I added. "So for this split second, you're actually aware that your body is paralyzed."

"Well, that's absolutely terrifying." She said.

"Yeah, it turns your dream into a nightmare. You can feel like you're falling, like you're being strangled, or, in my case, like you're at the center of a grove of magical trees where human sacrifices took place." I said as we walked into school.