HIDDEN

Asleep

I stared at my swirling hot tea in front of me, its smoke rising in front of my face. 

The morning broadcast was on, and I was watching it through the rays of sunlight that had filled the room. 

I don't remember much of what happened last night, in fact I don't remember anything at all...

I knew that I couldn't sleep, that the Doctor had been there, that the whole world was awake...but it all seemed fuzzy to me. Had I imagined the whole thing? Was any of it real? It felt real, but at the same time, like a dream.

And based on the news report, the whole world seemed to have faced the same issue. 

"Entire countries fall asleep at once, miraculously nobody injured," the news report said. 

There were clips of people waking up in the middle of the street, others wandering around not remembering what had happened and where they were, and others were still asleep. 

I sat there for a while, trying to remember what had happened and if I had gone through the same thing as everyone on the news. 

The sound of the television was soon hushed out by the whirring and wheezing sound of an engine. 

Despite my windows being closed, air rushed in and blew my hair back, as well as the magazines on my couch. 

A tall, blue police box appeared in my living room; its door creaking open and the Doctor stepping out. 

"Sleep well?" he asked, wearing his velvet-lined suit. 

I thought about the answer. Despite not being able to sleep, or remember what had happened, I do remember one thing, that I was sound asleep the entire night. 

"Actually...yes, I did sleep well, Doctor. And apparently so did the rest of the world," I said pointing at the television. 

"Ah, yes about that, nobody remembers what happened last night, and I do mean nobody. Across the entire universe, it seems as if entire civilizations had decided to sleep and had forgotten what happened," the doctor said looking at the news broadcast, "As if reality decided to fall asleep, taking everyone with it. In fact even I fell asleep at one point, and not even I remember what happened." 

The Doctor had a look of surprise on his face, the baffled look he so scarcely put on when he wasn't able to explain the situation, when he actually didn't know what had happened. 

"The Tardis sensors do indicate that a telepathic presence was connected throughout a wide region, including, you, me, and everybody else that can't remember," the Doctor said, "it must have something to do with that. We'll probably never know, we've all been erased of the event. Perhaps what ever was telepathically connected to all of us decided to wipe our memories of their existence, before they left..."

There was a pause. The Doctor and I stared at the television. Before, I would've continued to stare at the screen, even if i was no longer paying attention to the news, just to stare at empty space. But now, I didn't have to. As if whatever was compelling me to stare at nothing was gone, and simply doing it didn't feel natural anymore. Maybe it had to do with the sleep? Maybe something was taken with the loss of memory of the events that had happened last night?

 Whatever it was, the Doctor seemed to have realized the same thing as we looked at each other simultaneously, as if we both snapped out of the same trance from the television, or whatever it was that made us stare into blank space. 

"Well then," the Doctor said, "we've all seem to have forgotten what had happened, and it seems that the telepathic link and whatever, or whoever, was holding that link seemed to have vanished." 

A grin appeared on the Doctor's face. The grin of adventure, enthusiasm, excitement of the unknown and all the possibilities of what could happen. 

"Care to step in the Tardis and see where she'll take us now?" he asked, his tone matching the eager look on his face. 

I stood up. 

"After a good night's sleep like that," I began, "I feel like I have the energy for anything." 

The Doctor continued to smile as he turned around, creaked open the doors to the Tardis and stepped in, with me right behind him. 

As I walked into the Tardis, i felt as if I was just in there, as if my dream or whatever had happened that I had forgotten had something to do with me being in the Tardis. Had I been in here? Had whatever I forgotten happened in here? 

As the Doctor began pressing buttons and flipping switches on the Tardis console, as well as staring at the monitor, I soon accepted the fact that what had happened had been forgotten, and if it was of any importance, I'm sure that it'll come up later at the right time, and we'll both remember it, along with everybody else who couldn't remember, at the right time when we needed to. 

"So," the Doctor began, "All of time and space, anything that ever happened or ever will," he looked at me, eagerness in his expression, smiling, grinning from ear to ear, ready for the unknown, the fact that anything could happen, "where would you like to start?" 

I returned the grin back to him, and responded, "Anywhere she'll take us. I'm as ready as you are, ready for anything, ready for adventure in the fourth dimension!" 

The Doctor flipped the switch on the Tardis console, the engines beginning to start whirring and wheezing, taking the Doctor me across time and space. 

"Just another day with the Doctor and Clara Oswald in the Tardis!" the Doctor said, his grin unbroken along with his eagerness. 

And he was correct. 

Just another day with the Doctor.