It Started With a Dream

Chapter 2: The Boy in White

Chapter 2: The Boy in White

After 3 hours of “that’s what happens”, “yes, I’m sure” and “no, I’m not making this up” the psychiatrist finally said I should stop watching scary movies and spend any free time studying because ‘re-grasping reality will stop my silly dreams’. Nathaniel, who was staying at my house this week, was waiting for me at the school gates. Though he drives me crazy, he’s the closest thing I have to a brother and can be serious on the very rare occasions that I need a brotherly figure. This day was one of those very rare occasions. As we walked home I told him all about the dreams, the gray land and the boy in white. “I’m sorry I snapped at you” I said at the end

“Oh I’m sorry, did you say something?” Nathaniel replied, a smile on his face.

“I said you have a big ego”

“I thought you said sorry”

“Nope, I was definitely insulting you.” We both had a laugh after that conversation, the day’s arguments forgotten.

“Dose Jackie have a crush on me?” Nathaniel asked when we where almost home, returning to his normal annoying state.

“Almost every girl in the school dose” I answered with a sigh.

“Even you?” he asked.

“No, your like a brother to me and I’ll never see you as any more” I said before I could stop myself. Nathaniel stared at me blankly, obviously shocked by what I’d said. “What?” I asked, going red.

“Seriously? Brother?” he said looking as though he was about to laugh.

“Yer! So what? Shut up Nathaniel!” I answered, blushing due to both embarrassment and anger. I then stormed off ahead of him the last street home. An example of why we didn’t get along.

*  *  *

I lay awake in bed trying, for the first time in weeks, to get to sleep. I couldn’t shake the felling that something bad was going to happen to the boy in white if I didn’t fall asleep fast. I turned to look at the clock; the flashing red numbers said 1:00. It took me several seconds to realize that something was wrong; mainly because my clock had yellow numbers not red. My blankets started to ripple and rap around me with violent force, pulling me slowly down, through the bed and into the pits bellow. I wasn’t moving anywhere so I tried to scream instead, but my mouth was filed with the cold, dark, water. I had bypassed the noose and the wandering off barren land and come straight to the end destination: the river of darkness. I couldn’t get to the surface because I had no idea which way was up and which way was down. I felt the water pressure closing in around me, pushing the air from my lungs, making my ears pop and my head spin. I was going to die in a world that seemed more real then the real then my own but was only a dream; I remember wondering if it would be like that movie, where you die in your dream and you die for real? Was my mum going to come into my room to wake me and find my drowned corpse lying on my bed? I had so many questions that would never be answered.

          Something white glistened in the water just bellow me. I didn’t know, because my vision was so blurry, but I could have sworn it was a human hand. I guess I’m not the first to fall victim to the river of darkness, though the hand still had flesh so it hadn’t been their very long. Maybe the boy in white had fallen in too, the thought making me strangely sad. The hand then moved, reaching further into visibility, I heard a gasp of pain as it did so. I then realized that I was floating not sinking, my last hope for survival lay in whoever was up there’s, hands. With my last ounces of strength I tied to grab the hand, trying to lift my arm high enough to reach. My fingers were only centimeters away when I started to sink again, the last bubbles of air leaving my mouth as I gave up. Then something, so cold it made the river seem warm, grabbed my hand and began to lift me with as much ease as someone lifting an empty schoolbag. As the water rolled away from my face and oxygen returned to my surroundings I tried to breath but didn’t have the strength. I looked up at the smoke gray sky with its three strange suns and found myself smiling at the strange beauty of the last thing I would ever see in my life. Spots covered my vision and a voice said “I’m sorry; this is all my fault, I…” but the rest was never heard because at that moment I fell into the eternal sleep that is death.