Chapter Five

That night I didn't get home until almost four in the morning. 

I worked a late shift at the twenty four hour dinner I had been at for a couple years now, and since I could now drive myself home, I decided to go through a drive thru and eat my dinner in the parking lot. I was fully, all the way, avoiding my own dreams. What my mom had said earlier kind of… shook me. I sat in the empty parking lot for almost a whole hour, just thinking about everything that was clogging up my brain gears recently. 

I had compiled a list of observations: 

One: this guy was obviously some miserable creation my own lonely mind created to compensate for the lack of male presence in my life. I mean, I had no dad, no boyfriend or even a close male friend for that matter. That was bound to cause some inner turmoil, right?

Two: my mother probably thought I was dreaming about becoming a doctor and wanted me to take that into consideration when choosing what I was going to college for, and that’s why she acted like a crazy person when I mentioned dreams. It was weird enough to know that my mom thought dreams were some kind of vision, because as far as I knew, her beliefs were very… non-existent. She has never believed in ghosts, paranormal things, not even God. I didn’t really either, but I had always wished the proof was there that they did exist. 

And three: I couldn’t avoid sleeping forever. While I had been sleeping okay the last few nights, I had a weird sense of dread all day. Like my brain just knew that tonight, I would be returning to the field.

The last observation was extremely prevalent as I laid down in my soft bed after taking the longest route home possible. My mom had already gone to sleep since she had to work in the morning, and my dog was snoring at the foot of my bed. I slipped my cold feet under her warm belly.

I covered myself up with the same blanket my dad used to sleep with, the one I had been using ever since he died. I listened to the sound of my noisy fish tank gurgling across the room. It was kind of soothing, like white noise. Despite being scared of what was going to happen when I fell asleep, my long work day and stressful experience getting my driver's license was starting to catch up to me. My body was tired, and my eyes were growing heavy.

The last thing I thought of before falling asleep was how my fan felt like a cool night breeze.

“Are you okay?” An unfamiliar voice rings through my head.

I sit straight up, breathing heavily. I look around wildly, too disorientated to really take anything in. A woman jumping away from me catched my attention. It’s funny, she’s scooting away from me as though I’m the one who was creeping on her while she was sleeping.  She’s large, both height wise and weight wise. Had to be at least six four. She kind of looks like Cinderella before she got her glass slipper. Heavy brown dress with an apron over the top, flat black shoes. She has lovely, creamy skin with flushed cheeks and perfect blue eyes. 

I look around. I’m laying in a field, but it’s not the field I wanted to be in. This one was dried up looking, dead and sad in appearance. I looked up at the sky, and was surprised to find the same bright white moon from before. The moon assured me that I was in fact in the right place. Or, at least in the general vicinity of the right place.

My eyes fall back on the woman. She’s still staring at me, but she is visibly uncomfortable and obviously wants to leave. “Yeah I just… have you seen a guy? Really tall with a tattoo on the back of his neck.” I stand up, dusting dirt off my sleeping shorts. 

“Well sure.” She looks at me, continuing to back up little by little. “Everyone knows everyone here.” I furrow my brow at her, becoming increasingly frustrated with her avoidance tactic.

“Well can you tell me where to find him?” I ask, raising my brows at her. “Please, it’s really important.” 

She points to our right a little, a worried expression on her face.

“Thank you.” As soon as those words leave my lips she spins around and runs away, her feet making loud slapping noises against the sad dead ground. It was strange enough that I had even run into someone else in the first place, considering I knew I was dreaming, it was even more strange how she acted like she was… scared of me.