Dream in Colour

Chapter Three

"The closer I got, the more I noticed. There was a young boy sitting underneath it in the shade, holding a, uh, a snake, I think. He was very upset. Crying and shaking. He kept repeating, "He's dead." Over and over he said it, until he heard me approaching. When he saw me he got terrified. His hands tightened almost protectively around his dead snake and he demanded to know why I was there. He asked me how I was there too, which I found odd. And that's when I woke up."

The sound of pen on paper becomes more clear as I open my eyes and return to the present. Dr. Riymund, or Hector, is nodding as his pen furiously flies over his paper. "Okay. And it was at school itself that you first saw colour, yes?" He glances up briefly before flicking his eyes back down to the paper.

   "Yeah. I was in the hallway near my locker and I saw the colour of my principal's shoes." I almost comment on how ugly they were, but I manage to refrain.

   "And it was just the once?" When I nod, he hums. "What was your second dream last night?"

I inhale sharply. "This one was... much darker. I was standing across the street from a cemetery. The same boy from before was kneeling next to a gravestone. It was different from the rest though. I don't really know why. Maybe because there was no fresh mound of dirt or flowers or anything. His snake was laid out before the stone and the grass all around them was dead. Hovering over him was an... not quite an Angel. It had wings, but it's face kept flickering between normal and... I guess evil is the only way to describe it. It had snakelike qualities. One of its hands was on the boy's shoulder, but he didn't seem to notice it. Then there was a flash of bright white light and the boy looked up and saw me and again asked, "How are you here? Who are you?" Then the being looked at me, and I swear this thing looked right into my soul and... it nodded at me. Smiled and nodded."

Hector hums and nods again, still scribbling almost frantically in his notebook. "You only saw colour once again today?" He prompts.

   "Yeah. This time in the afternoon instead of the morning." I don't bother to add that it wasn't the same thing as before because that's normal. There is silence in the room as Hector looks over his notes.

   "So, as you probably already know, when someone loses their soulmate, that's it. They don't get another. However, I have a theory that if someone loses their soulmate due to something not planned by God or the Universe, whatever you believe in, they could be given a new one." I stare across at him blankly, not really sure what he's getting at exactly.

He chuckles at my incomprehension. "I'm talking about suicide, Connor." My eyes widen. Of course I know what suicide is, but it's all but unheard of. It hasn't happened in my lifetime, or that of my parents, not that I know of anyway. "You see, when someone chooses to take their own life it disrupts the whole existence of everything around them. It's unnatural and goes against nature to the very core. Basically, the universe didn't choose it to happen so it has to, for lack of a better word, fix the consequences left behind." I let his words sink in.

"So you think someone committed... took their own life and now everything around them, either directly or indirectly, is being pushed and pulled to fix the timeline?" Hector nods, a weird look of excitement taking over his features.

   "Precisely!" My mind is reeling as I slowly make sense of everything.

   "And what about the dreams? Why am I dreaming in colour?" His eyes spark with intrigue.

   "I believe that whoever is your soulmate had already met his, therefore he could see in colour, along with his partner. When they unnaturally took their own life, it was switched to you. Not their consciousness, per se, because you are still you. Your personality hasn't changed. It's more the fact that they now saw in colour was passed on to you. For some reason, it was only passed into your dreams. I can only assume it's because you haven't come into direct contact with your new soulmate since the switch."

I freeze at his words. "My new soulmate? What happened to my original one then?" Hector lifts his hands up in a shrug.

   "Who knows? It's anyone's guess how big the ripple effect of this really is." I close my eyes, bringing my hands up to rub my temples in a desperate attempt to ward off my headache.

   "So, the boy in my dreams... that's my new soulmate? And the snake, and I guess the weird spirit, are his old soulmate?" The doctor nods.

   "I think that it's safe to assume that." I feel a shiver run up and down my spine.

   "Wow." Silence once again takes over the room. I appreciate Hector letting me take everything in, in silence. This is hands down the craziest thing that I have ever heard. If I wasn't currently experiencing it, I wouldn't even believe it. Which raises the question, how do I tell my parents everything that is happening right now? They'll call me crazy. Hell, maybe I am.

   "What do you think the significance is of him asking me how and why I'm there?" I now ask. Hector nods and strokes his short stubble of a beard.

"Now that is the interesting and confusing part. Maybe he, too, is having dreams that feature you. In a way, soulmates are connected in almost every way. He obviously knows that he lost his soulmate. As soon as they're gone you lose the colour and go back to greyscale. Perhaps he is somehow sharing dreams with you now that you are his new soulmate. You have met each other already. You mentioned that you already knew everyone at your school." I nod to show him that he is correct on that. It's not a huge school, and I have, in fact, directly met everyone in it in at least some way.

"That must be why you are dreaming in colour. The universe knows that you've previously met." He nods, like this is all making sense to him. If it is, then he is doing far better than me, and I'm the one going through it.

   "So, we're having the same dream, and the real him, or his consciousness anyway, is asking how I'm in his head? Like he knows that normally I wouldn't be there?" Hector nods, a very large grin taking over his face.

   "And there is a very good chance that the ages are swapped. In your dreams you are as you are now and he is a small boy. In his dream, he could very well be his current age and you could be the young boy." Man, just when I thought it couldn't get any weirder.

We're interrupted by a knock on the door. "Come in!" Hector calls. Shelley opens the door and peeks her head in.

   "Hi. Sorry to interrupt something so important, but it is closing time." My eyes widen in surprise and I pull out my phone to check the time. Sure enough, it is actually 5:30. There's a new text from my Mom asking where I am. I had silenced my phone when I first got here, so I must have missed it.

"Oh, goodness. Time really does fly. Head home, Shelley. I can close up." Shelley nods and retreats from the room. Once she's gone, Hector turns to me. "I will let you go now. Hopefully I have helped somewhat. I would like to continue these sessions to really figure out what exactly has happened, if that's okay?" I nod, making him grin like an excited five year old just given his dream toy. We both get to our feet and he walks me to the door.

   "Perfect. Thank you once again." As I leave the building, I notice that the bricks are what I learned are red, and across the street is someone vaguely familiar walking away from me.