Element of Dreams

CHAPTER VI

The Element of Dreams

Layla woke up with a bright light that shone on her face.

     “Woah... God? Am I in heaven?” she said, covering the light with her arms, “Don’t send me to hell even though I’m working with a thief scientist please.”

She rose from where she was lying and was frightened by a voice. Apparently, It wasn’t God’s.

“I heard that, Layla.” Said a familiar voice. She heard the man’s footsteps come to her and he adjusted the lamp so she could see normally. Pax. Of course, it was Pax, I just fainted. “So eventually… You fainted after.” He explained.

“And eventually, you were too dumb to realize I needed water.” She snapped back. “Woah, that was a ride. I guess you can’t drink the other elements.”

“What? No. I’ll still drink them.” He said. Layla stood from where she was lying. Pax’s bed wasn’t that bad. Course, he stole it somehow from a luxury store or something. The idea of her fainting really sucks. It was like she was falling into a creepy big black abyss. Her sight being all messed up. Although, she woke up with the best feeling ever. “So… do you feel anything unique?”

“Me? Aside from fainting for the first time… No.” She lied. Waking up with the best feeling ever wouldn’t please him. It doesn’t connect to whatever element she drank… wait. “Wait. What element did I drink?”

“Oh, I forgot to tell you that. I don’t know if you’d like it or not but you got the element of dreams.” He said. He was standing next to the table again. “I don’t know how it works but… Let me know if you feel anything off.”

“oh okay.” She replied. Something was indeed off. It was Pax. Pax’s attitude. 

A moment later he was really kind, friendly, and polite. Now he sounded bossy. Just like before. What the hell is happening here? She wanted to say. But instead, she said

“So… I’m gonna leave now. Don’t drink those unless I tell you because they might be dangerous.” She picked up her cardigan from the corner of the bed, went to the door… “Bye, Pax. I’ll just inform you on anything odd.” She smiled, he didn’t, she went off.

The other day, Layla woke up at her usual bedroom. Dandelion walls, pale pink bed sheets, a picture frame corner filled with her high school and college friends, her family, some childhood pictures, and a square stool beside her bed (just for the purpose of charging her phone and a place for her lamp), of course, she would never miss her loneliness of living alone in a small apartment without a frie-

“Something’s off” she thought. “oh my gosh, holy hell, I remembered what I dreamt about!” she decided to call Pax about this because it somehow seemed connected to her element. At least it’s connected, what’s Pax expecting a floating bed? She thought. Telling herself that’d be way too crazy.

“Wohooo!” She celebrated. She jumped out of her bed and stumbled on the floor, and soon realized-

“Aaand my bed’s floating.”  She said staring at it for awhile. “Aw man, how can I let this stupid thing get back to it’s pla-“

BANG!

“oww you hit my elbow you filthy floating bed.” She called out, lying at the floor with her palms at her left elbow. Cursing with loud whispers.

     She didn’t use the keychain notifier Pax gave her. Instead, she took a long bath (with her usual shower thoughts while doing so), dressed up, grabbed her keys, and her shoulder bag. 

“Oh God I just remembered” she paused, “What if I lose control and lift up an object or…even a person?”

Staring at the ceiling, thinking about what to do. She was arguing with herself weirdly. People do this often, right? LOL.

“Why not just call Pax?”    

“Then he’d drink the other elements quickly and if something happened to him I would be there and it’d be too late!”   

Oh god, she was replying to her thoughts out loud. Let’s just hope the neighbors won’t hear her.

“But if you go out there on the streets you can lose control and do bad things!”

 “Let’s just call Pax and then say not to drink the other elements.”

“But can you trust him?”

“I don’t even know! He seems odd yesterday!”

“he might seem jealous about you.”

“Jealous about what?”

“You having an element before he does?”

“Neh, probably not.”

“Call him?”

“Call him.”

Grabbing the notifier made her have butterflies in her stomach. Pax knew all the shortcuts and alleys of the city and he might be amused by this news. Maybe he can let her go through a way where no one else would probably be and she’d end up in his laboratory safely. Great idea, really great. Thank you, self. She thought. Praising herself was not her thing but today, it was.

RiInG riInNg! RiInG rIiNg!

“Hello? Layla? News? Have you become an elementum yet? Hey. You still there? Tell me!” he answered the phone.

“Woah hold on Pax it’s jus- wait what?”

“what, what?”

“Elementum? What the hell is that?”

“I invented the name. It’s what we’re going to be called. See, a person who carries an element is an elementum and so- “

“Okay, I get it.” She intervened.

“So, what is this call about?”

“I woke up, and I remembered my dream. Great, am I right?”

Pause.

“that’s it?” 

“Ok fine, I stumbled on my bed and saw it was floating.”

“wohohoaah, WHAT?” he exclaimed, “And then what happened next? Oh, this ought to be good.”

“No. It isn’t good. The bed just went down and it hit my left elbow.”

“Oh okay then.”

Pause.

“So… why don’t you come here and talk about it then?”

“Pax, don’t you get it? I might lose control if this thing and move objects or hurt people.”

“So… I’m going to go there?”

“No! Pax! You don’t even know where I live!”

“Okay then, why won’t you just go in the streets normally and look down?”

“Pax…I lifted the bed up while I was asleep.”

“Okay, why don’t you just go to your apartment’s alley and then there’s a way there that’s just like the normal streets but it has garbage and rats and roaches an- “

TOoT. TOoT. TOoT. 

“guess she hung up on me.”  Pax thought while putting put the phone down.