Echo

Chapter 2

                The entire day at school, I couldn't really focus on what was being taught. All I could do was wonder. Why did this happen now? Why did I feel something? The last time something changed about the dream dimension was when I was 14. That was when I started seeing people in my dreams.

                 I've always wondered what this really is. It's so close to a dream, with everything kind of blurry, but somehow, it feels very real. I just feel so awake during these dreams. Like I know it really is happening.

                This world is like an echo of reality, but so unreal at the same time.

                 And it's not like I haven't tried to figure this out. As soon as I was old enough to understand what was happening, I began to find some clues, something to tell me what this is, but it hasn't been much of a success.

                 I even talked to uncle Steph in one of my dreams, but it really did not go as well as I had planned, considering how he doesn't really exist in the 'real' world. All those who I have seen in my dreams are not real; I haven't found any evidence or proof of their existence in real life, which only made me come down to one conclusion: maybe they don't exist in the real world.

                Though there is one person who does exist in the real world. Dad. Sometimes, perhaps rarely, dad has an appearance in my dreams. Sometimes for minutes, sometimes for hours. It really used to confuse me in the beginning, how he would be with me in the dream and forget about it the next morning. Though this dream dimension is nothing but confusion so....

                 All the people that I see, that I meet here are just faces. Faces without identities. Faces without expressions. All but three.

                 One thing about dad in this dimension that is always constant is that, uncle Steph is always dad's best friend.

                 I was intrigued how dad calls him his best friend in D.D. and doesn't remember him in the morning. So I dared to go and asked dad if he knows a Stephan Arden. I even gave him a full discription of his physique - a tall middle aged man with dark brown hair and deep hazel eyes - yet nothing. He couldn't identify anyone that would suit the description.

                  This is like an investigation to me. I have to figure it out. I have to know what this is and why it's happening to me, so I've been trying to collect as much information as I can.

                 I have lots of theories about this. One of them being, dad does have these dreams just like me but what's different with his, is that he forgets it once he wakes up. He doesn't forget what happened in the previous dream when he already is in one though. I've seen it. I've seen him being able to remember. It's like he's a different person altogether in the dream dimension. Maybe the same person, but with a different life history.

                I should talk to him about this. But not in the real world, that would be no use. I have to talk to him in the dream dimension.

                I flinch as I hear the bell indicating the end of school ring, breaking me out of my reverie.

                I hurriedly pack my stuff and move towards my locker to take what's needed.

"Heyy Aai. How was your day? Did you notice how Mr. Parker was drooling while he gave us time to work on our assignments? I mean, how much more gross can he be?"

               I close my locker and look towards Caden to see her making the most adorable disgusted face ever. As an instinct, I chuckle and begin walking ahead.

               Cade and I stay a few blocks away so we usually go home together, talking and goofing around. We could walk to school together in the mornings too but Cade has her dance club every morning. How someone can wake up at 6am to dance, is beyond my comprehension.

               Today though, as Cade talked about someone moving or something, I couldn't seem to keep focus and fell deeper in my thoughts, wondering the same thing time and again. 'What is it, that's happening in the dream dimension that I can't figure out?'