A restless nap was all Kevin could muster that night. The rage had been bottling up in the back of his mind for all these years but it was only now that the cracks were becoming apparent. He desperately wanted out of here yet he had nowhere to go. He wanted her dead but visualising that would only add to his decaying state of mind. Even if she did leave, he would still have his deadbeat father to contend with. His thoughts reformed into fantasies of escaping and beginning a new life somewhere far, far away.
He had it all planned. A quiet life with his lover, both nestled deeply in a stone cabin atop a mountain. He always fantasied about that life before he went to sleep at night, and sometimes when he would just lay in bed listening to music. It was all he wanted. A life, hidden away from the terrors of this one, in that little stone cabin with the brown door and its grey lion knocker engraved in the middle.
Kevin used to sit for hours on occult websites, ravings of manifestation and witchcraft. Their popularity had soared in the past few decades, replacing many of the Old Religions. Most people who practised believed they would attract money, power, and success through the New Religio. Kevin learned to filter this out. Unlike everyone in the Market these days, Kevin had no interest in wealth or power. His favourite of the many occult websites was called "Magick is Ecstatic". According to its teachings, if one desired something so badly – it would be delivered to them through some manipulation of fate should one alter their mindset.
Maybe, Kevin thought. Maybe fate can set me free.
His brief glimpse of hope was crushed by his cynical mind as quickly as it had entered. Just the desperate attempts to circumvent the dystopia we all live in. False hope won't do. He had been envisioning some hero to come and rescue him from this hellhole, and take him to the stone cottage in the forest for years, and what had it amounted in? Absolutely nothing. One day, he told himself.
If wishes and fantasies wouldn't suffice, he would need a direct plan to escape. Find the actors, create the events, gather the resources and be free, once and for all. This will be challenging, he realised, as he sat down at his barren, scratched-up desk and took out some paper from a drawer, and a pen from the holder and got to thinking.
Maybe he would find some homeless person and plot with them to run to one of those settlements... No, too risky. He had no friends, and certainly no family. The only social life Kevin had maintained was a homeless boy of his own age, but he had fled the city after some altercation with the law that Kevin was never interested enough to learn about. Anyway, he supposedly lived tens of miles away in some other city now. Could he help me? Run away and start a new life elsewhere? The thought of the risks involved sickened him, but it could be worth it. He pulled out his phone and entered Starmail, scrolling down to find the old conversation. Isaiah was his name.
"I'm going to run away from this shithole. Is Dundee a good idea?"
With hesitation, Kevin pressed send. He hadn't been in contact with this guy for ages and his social media status had been inactive for almost two years. Nevertheless, the optimism energised him slightly. Perhaps he had turned his visibility setting off. Ten more minutes on my phone and I'll head to bed, Kevin promised himself.
Those ten minutes turned to twenty, which turned to thirty. All he did was read horror stories on his phone. Redirecting his fear of reality onto something fictional always proved a successful crutch. When he got bored, he decided to search for homeless settlements in the country. After all, he could potentially be homeless if the plans go wrong. He started his search on the various national news sites which he typically avoided. The headlines were as grim as they always were, but Kevin's morbid curiosity kept him scrolling.
'Leftist groups branded 'conspiracy theorists' by the UK Government following recent pro-homeless publicity stunt' – The Weekly Anchor.
'Debunking the Communist myth of Homeless Disappearances' – Capital Right.
'Homeless people are economically viable, say experts in wake of recent Liberal vote' – The Amethyst Mail.
Kevin never believed anything the Government, or the mainstream media said. He knew where his suspicions lay. Scrolling onwards, the articles soured. He barely knew much about politics, other than it was a two-horse race between the Liberal Party and the Conservatives – two fatcat parties that hate humans.
'The homeless can serve our Market, here's why we should assist them' – Starlord's Opinions.
'Opposition propositions to create public assistance for the homeless rejected by UK MP's by 461-22, in wake of recent assassination scandal'. – BBC.
In the latter article, Kevin managed to stomach reading only the summary of the article,
'UK MPs have overwhelmingly rejected a proposition from the opposing Liberal Party, which sought to reduce the price of healthcare for the underclass. The initial proposals for the Bill included extending this reduction for the lowest income brackets in the working class. However, these were revoked from the final proposition as a result of opposition from Super PACS and pressure groups led by Starlord and Bank of Earth, who, in a multilateral statement, claim that the propositions will 'lead to communism' and are 'diametrically opposed to the constitution of the Grand Market'. The recent scandal which saw assassination threats from right-wing vigilante groups across the UK, may have played a role in this decision. Additionally, the BBC can confirm 17 more arrests have been made today in regards to this scandal. Officials from the Conservative Government, and from Grand Market's ruling Classis Elitist body themselves have declined to comment.'
Kevin shuddered, This is the reason I never pay attention to the dystopia we live in. He crawled back into bed and began to daydream again. A knight would burst through the front door to rescue him, to take him past beautiful scenery in Greenland. Maybe, in real life, he would somehow move in with his sister if he found her. I can pretend. In his fantasies, none of the areas Kevin and his knight would adventure to were tainted by the smog, the Grand Market and its oligarch, or bitchface. Unrealistic, he thought, moments before he fell into dreamland.
Kevin dreamed of the hotel he had stayed in during his holiday in Grenland. His real mother was there, and his father too, looking vibrant and full of life. His sister Morgan was dancing with them, as young as she had been then. The hotel was distorted however, The rooms were all bathrooms, and the staff were all characters from TV shows. I must find her, he thought, yet the identity of this woman was unclear. When Kevin exited the building, he saw a dark and ruined landscape. The black smog ruled over Greenland and people were nowhere to be seen. A screen sat on the ground atop a pile of rubble. On it, played a video of zombies marching across the streets of some city, the smog marching behind them. Some feasted upon some purple substance. In his dreaming mind, this substance was familiar, important even. The dream ended here, but his sleep didn't.
Another dream began. There was something different about this, everything felt wrong. This is no ordinary dream, Kevin realised. But just then as he realised this, the dream became lucid. He was literally inside the dream. Lucid dreams weren't entirely rare to Kevin, but he still had trouble maintaining his presence within the dream. He had to stay grounded within the dream or parts of his body would turn numb and he would wake.
He looked around and realised he was on a small stone bridge in a very dark forest. The only light source was from thousands of strange, luminous bugs who formed a purple stream in the air alongside the bridge. It was a pretty sight, which helped alleviate some of the unease Kevin felt. He decided to follow the bugs into the forest they were entering. The sensations throughout his dream body shifted and distorted, but onwards he pushed. If I panic, I will wake.
The forest path seemed familiar, but there was no smog here. A silent voice called upon him to embrace the sky. When he looked up, the clouds parted, and the Moon shone down upon the forest. Kevin could see many galaxies in the sky, one was red and pulsating, another was purple and swirling fast, while another was green. He could make out details he never knew was imaginable, the texture of the stars and mutating details throughout the galaxies. Everything was moving rapidly as if time was accelerating. Suddenly, the whole planet he was standing on was thrust backwards and the galaxies grew distant, the stars around him turned into white lines. Kevin desperately held onto the bridge's iron railings until the travel had ended.
When all had settled, Kevin arose and gazed up into the sky. Instead of the previous display, Kevin could see the planets of the Milky Way all up close in extreme detail, whooshing fast around the Earth. While the moon stayed in the same position, the other planets did something even more curious. All but two planets span fast and flew fast across the sky and eventually disappeared, leaving only Pluto and Saturn, slowing down their pace to meet each other in some sort of eclipse, The stars behind them shuffled and formed a curvacious pattern– causing a massive spectacle of light to surround the two planets, and shine onto the ground Kevin stood on. It whispered to him. The moon was above them as if it were puppeteering the galactic orchestra. A beautiful sight, despite the terror and dread the display seemed to radiate. Somewhere in the distance, an asteroid fell down to earth and shattered, leaving a green streak in the atmosphere. This is incredible.
The light from the two planets then beamed upon the ground ahead of Kevin, creating a path as if to guide him. Kevin walked onwards until the bugs to his right side faded away and he found himself within a clearing. The figure he saw should have terrified him, but an odd sense of calm kept him grounded in the dream world.
The figure was that of a man, but his body was huge. Everything about the figure was wrong. He had wings instead of arms, wrapped around his front in an embrace. His body was covered in dark feathers underneath what was either armour or a cloak. A crown sat awkwardly upon his head as if it were too small to fit. The feathered giant walked down a path in wide strides, his black cloak trailing along the mossy dirt path with every step. He ventured into the trees and vanished out of sight.
Suddenly, Kevin was struck with an intense desire to follow this figure, yet a voice in the back of his mind manifested. "Go back", it whispered, "Turn around and wake up". Curiosity won in the end, somehow quelling sensations of being ejected from this realm. As Kevin walked over to the opening the giant had passed through, another creature rose from somewhere and trod over to the path and sat in front of it, blocking his entrance. It appeared to be a giant Sphinx, but something in his mind made him believe it was an eagle. The Sphinx sat in front of him, studying him. Kevin got the idea to reach into his pockets and pull out meat and threw it at the beast which gracefully caught it in the air. It silently moved aside and fell asleep, allowing Kevin to pass.
Somehow, nothing about this dream struck Kevin as odd or out of the mundane. He was guided down the path by an intense, alien intuition. The further he delved, the darker and quieter it got. Time was speeding up, but he knew he had been traversing throughout this forest for hours. Suddenly, time returned to normal and Kevin realised that he was completely lost. The whispering returned. It was a woman's voice. Her accent was strong and strange. "Wake up. Wake up-- ", and then she spoke a man's name. Asmo? Asmall, Asmel? Whose name was that?
"The owls are coming for you", the whisper was urgent, quick, and demanding.
After a delay, the realisation hit him and panic set in. The giant figure was nowhere to be seen, yet from behind Kevin came an uproar of hooting which grew louder and louder, closer and closer. When Kevin turned around, his vision stretched and blurred as he fell slow-motion into the ground. The only other thing he could see was thousands of purple eyes staring back at him, charging forwards.
Kevin woke up in his bed, sweating and scared. He immediately reached for his bedside lamp and turned it on and reached for his phone to browse the internet in an effort to ground himself in reality. Before he unlocked the phone, a text message lit up his lock screen. It was from the friend he had texted before his sleep, Saul.
"Hey. I can meet you at the train station if you're coming here. There are some helpers going about helping the homeless here. A local group, they're helping me out just now. They've done so much for the homeless folk here, and anyone else who needs help too. Text me a time to meet you at the train station here and I'll be there since I'm not too far from it. We'll go with them together".
That message gave him more life than he had felt in over a year. There was something to live for now, and someone to be there for him. He was glad to be reunited with his old friend again. Ignoring the sleep in his eyes and the incredible dream he just experienced, he rushed to pack a small messenger bag with some essentials before sitting back at his desk to check the train times on his phone. I'm going to be free. I'm so close. I'm going to have a new life, and everything is going to be perfect.