Part One
Emma was a strong person. Or, at least, on the outside. Acting tough and flippant, like she doesn't give two shits if the world is ending. Like, yeah, oh shit, we're all gonna die...but I'm good with that. Yep, that's Emma. On the outside.
The insides...well, they're worse than the outside. They're made of freaking marshmallows. On the inside, Emma loves romantic comedies, she fucking loves cuddling, romantic or not, is hopelessly in love, and is...afraid. she's terrified and haunted.
Every night, shadows creep and whisper and tiptoe and seep into her dreams, into her soul. They pry open her chest and fill it with a black, choking tar. And every night, she fights it, fights until her screaming destroys her throat, her lungs are torn and deflated, mind is consumed by black tar.
But not when he shows up.
Paul. His name is Paul. He comes into her dreams like a ray of sunlight, like an angel coming to save her from the demons dragging her down to hell. He's her soulmate. And she is his.
For the longest time, Emma struggled through the first twelve years of her life, believing that she had no soulmate. She wasn't worthy of one, wasn't good enough, couldn't be loved. That's what her mother told her.
So Emma believed she didn't have a soulmate. But her sister did. Jane told Emma every night, whispered into her ear that someone was out there, waiting for her. And Emma would have just a small glimmer of hope. And then she woke up every morning to her mother yelling at her, bottle of pills in hand.
Jane always helped her through everything, was always there for her, and Emma was always there for Jane. Not that she needed it that much. Jane had good grades, a secret boyfriend, and her mother loved her.
And then her car crashed, with her husband and child inside. And Emma wasn't there. She was off escaping, leaving her sister behind.
But once Emma came back...oh, boy. Her sister didn't leave her behind. Every night she sat in that car, in the driver's seat where Tom, her husband, should've been, her sister asking her a slew of questions.
"Will you come to my wedding?"
"Will you come to the baby shower?"
"Will you be by my side when I have my first child?"
"Will you come to Tim's first birthday?"
And then someone smashes into the passenger seat, and the car spins. Emma is awake, while Jane is unconscious, free from the pain and horrors. Her blood and guts splatter onto her. Broken glass flies everywhere like angry snow. No one stops to help. The person in the other car steps out and walks away, totally unharmed. Emma screams, and screams, but no one comes. No one cares.
She used to have this dream all the time, every night, ever since Jane died. but Paul figured out how to lucid dream more, and so he came. He came to help her.
When she as thirteen, he somehow managed to slip into her dreams every once and a while. Emma remembered only his voice and name when she woke up. And after it happened so many times, and the way he made her feel when she was around him, even in if was in a dream, was absolutely amazing.
And so from there on out, Paul came to the rescue whenever he could. She wouldn't recognize him at first, seeing as how she didn't know his face. But in the backseat, he leaned forward, gave her a quick peck on the cheek, and told her it'd all be over in a little while. He gave her a hug as best as he could by wrapping his arms around her waist, and for some odd reason, it did comfort her.
Once Emma saw him in real life...she would be forever in his debt. She'd always been trying to lucid dream, trying to escape her own dreams and visit Paul. She wondered what kind of dreams that Paul had. Did he have nightmares too? Did they vary or were they all basically the same? Maybe he just has boring dreams, like a dream of just his every-day life.
Now, she lay in bed, mind trying to decipher what things are words and sentences, eyes fluttering. She was scared, as always, to enter her dreamworld, yet eager to see Paul once again.
As her eyes closed, her last waking thought was a flash of Paul, his kind face, his dazzling blue eyes. And then she plummeted into the black.
°°°
"Emma where are we going?" Jane asked.
"I don't know," Emma replied. "Somewhere. You were supposed to be going to the zoo with Tom and Tim, but something happened, remember?"
"I guess so. What do you think happened?" She queries.
"I...don't know," Emma murmurs.
It was true, Emma didn't know, but she had this sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach, and the growing feeling of nausea was almost overwhelming.
And then, it hit her. They were going to die. The car was going to crash. And she was dreaming, she was in a dream, and soon Paul would appear. He would appear and everything would be okay.
And he did. He appeared in the backseat as if he was always there.
"Paul," Emma whispered.
"Hello. It's gonna be alright, okay?" He assures her.
She smiles weakly. "I know. I'm dreaming."
"Can you control it?"
"I don't know. I can prevent the crash, right?"
"Yeah. Park the car. You can control that part, at least."
"Alright." I take a deep breath.
I slowly bring the car to a stop and pull over.
"What are you doing Emma?" Jane asks. "We have to go. And who is in the backseat?"
"Jane, it's okay," I reply. "We're dreaming. Or, I'm dreaming. You're just a part of my dream."
"...oh," she murmurs, looking confused. "Okay, so, now what?"
Emma sighs. "I'm going to give you the goodbye you never got from me."
"What?" Her confusion increases.
"Listen, in real life, you passed away. You, Tom, and Tim were going to the zoo, and your car...crashed. I was away in Guatemala. I hadn't seen you since I was eighteen. I'm thirty now, and you passed away a year ago."
"No way. You do not look thirty, Emmie," Jane exclaims.
"Jane, that's the thing you're going to focus on?" She asks. "You're also older than me so you're about...thirty four.
"Well, yeah, you still look like you're eighteen, minus the fact that you look like you gave up straightening your hair and just grew it out more."
Paul, in the backseat still, coughs a little, but tries to muffle it.
"Oh, and that's Paul, by the way," Emma turns and points to the akward looking man in the back of Jane's Sedan. "He's my soulmate. Turns out we're connected by dreams."
"Ok, what the actual fuck. This makes absolutely no sense. I'm going to take a walk to clear my head," Jane announces, stepping out of the car and walking randomly.
"Wait!" Emma shouts, frantically unbuckling her seatbelt.
She hops out of the car, Paul following. She races towards Jane, who, when hearing her shouts, had turned around.
Emma flies over to her and wraps her sister, her beautiful fucking sister, in a giant hug, breathing in her scent, embracing her. Jane, startled, hugs her back.
"Bye, bye, Jane," Emma whispers into her sister's shoulder.
Jane disappears.
"You made her disappear?" Paul asks in confusion.
"Yeah, I...I'll see her again tomorrow night, but I wanted to say goodbye. Give her a hug. And hopefully in the morning I'll remember this," Emma replies solemnly.
"Oh. Well, uh, can I ask what your name is? Your sister called you Em...mie?" Paul scratched the back of his head.
"It's Emma. Emmie was just a nickname my sister gave me when I was young," she explains. "I...um, where do you live, Paul? State, town? I live on an island called Hatchetfield, it's in-"
"No way, I live in Hatchetfield, too!" Paul exclaims.
"Oh my gosh, that's crazy!" Emma squeals, something that's very rare to come from her. "Do you know the coffee shop down the street from Starbucks? I work there. Not happy about it, but college is brutal. You should come see me sometime. I work...a lot. You could walk in at random and I'd probably be there."
"Wow, guess I'll have to make a trip there tomorrow. Or today?" Paul looks thoughtful and slightly puzzled. It makes Emma chuckle a bit.
"Oh," she says suddenly, voice grave, "I have to warn you. Our coffee is absolute shit. My boss, Nora, will only let us make the coffee a certain way, same with the pastries. So all of it's shit. If she wanted to start a coffee shop so badly, she probably should've learned how to make pastries and fucking coffee."
Paul, who had sort of been staring off into space it seems, nodded his head. "People are pretty stupid sometimes."
Emma laughs a little, looking down at her shoes, which are...covered in blood?
"What the-" Emma starts, suddenly panicking, forgetting that she's in a dream.
"Emma look out!" Paul screeches, reaching for her, desperately trying to either grab her or push her out of the way.
But a car screeches, and the last thing Emma sees is a car flying towards her.
°°°
Emma shoots up, body shaking with both fear and adrenaline. She lets out a sigh and looks at the clock beside her. It's only one in the morning. She still has around four hours of sleep left, thank god. She's still tired from her late classes and last shift at Beanies.
What was she dreaming about again? Emma knows that the dream was different this time. She remembers the car. And...Paul. Paul was there again. But she still couldn't remember him, nor what they talked about.
Oh well, she'd find out later.
Oh man. This was supposed to be shorter. But I pretty much wrote this all sometime around one so if its A) cringey B) Incomprehensible or C) Has a lot of errors, I'm really sorry. This was supposed to be based off of soulmates, and Emma and Paul were supposed to be connected by their dreams, but it kind of turned into a story about Jane and Emma. So sorry about that. Hopefully the next part of this will be better.