In the Year of the Cat (Queen or Freddie Mercury Fanfic)

44. Mother Mary's Words of Wisdom

I was lost in a troubled sleep when Freddie came back, so I wasn't awake to see what kind of state he was in, or even to find out where he had gone in the first place.  Not that he would tell me. 

That night I was thrust back into the same recurring dream, but this version drastically differed from its predecessors.  The first half, I knew to expect, with Freddie leading me, then pulling me down, putting his hands all over my naked body, earthquake, et cetera, et cetera.  As before, Freddie hung suspended in mid-air, hanging over the rift, hand still extended to me, still smiling, still inviting me to fall with him.  And the Relic, too, awaited my choice- but now it was well within reach.  All I had to do was raise my hand up and grab it.  Had this been the dream a week ago, the choice would have been made in a split second.  But even now, I couldn't make up my mind.

Then I heard a "Psst!"

I turned toward the source of the sound.  Freddie was looking straight at me, the fingers of his outstretched hand twitching with impatience. 

"Are you going to choose or what?" he hissed playfully.  "I can't just hang around all day, you know, I have a fall to take."

I blinked.  "So you're talking to me now?"

He shrugged.  "Why shouldn't I?"

"Because you're mad at me."

Freddie cocked his head.  "Why would I be mad?"

"Because I wasn't very nice to you."

Freddie shook his head.  "I don't think that's it."

"How do you know?  You're not real, you're a dream."

"I'm a figment of your subconscious," Freddie said mysteriously.  "I know much more than you realize."

"But the real Freddie is mad at me."

Freddie shook his head again, this time with a roll of his eyes.  "Oh, you pretty little idiot.  He's not angry, he's hurt."

"Okay, I stand corrected.  I'm sorry I told him the truth, and I already apologized to him, but he won't acc-"

"That's not why he's hurt," Freddie whispered.  "That's not the whole reason, anyway."

"What are you saying?"

"Darling, you're so clever most of the time, why do you have to keep being so stupid about this?"

"I don't like your tone."

"What are you afraid of?"

"Nothing!"

"If that's true, you should already have made your choice by now."

Before I could respond, someone pressed "Play" on the dream remote control, and Freddie and the Relic both plunged into the gaping canyon.  Screaming "No!" I ran to the edge to watch them fall-

But then my Android's alarm went off at eight a.m., and my eyes opened to reality.  Memories of this dream faded faster than those of the previous- but maybe that was because of the music I had set as my alarm.  The "Seinfeld Theme" is indeed one very distracting little song. 

(And selecting this tune happened to be perhaps the biggest mistake I could have made.  While it's a very bouncy, unconcerned little tune, it also seems to be associated with extreme bad luck, I've noticed.  This is not to say that what happened this eleventh day is a direct result of a peppy bass synth track- but today would soon become the worst twenty-four hours of my life, and I had never awakened to the Seinfeld Theme before.  Let's just say it kind of set the tone.  So, Jerry Seinfeld, what happened to me that day is partially your fault- not that there's anything wrong with that...)