The Dream

The roar of a passing train shook the capsule room walls around Adrian. His tiny room, barely large enough to stretch out in, felt like a coffin. The honking of the obnoxiously boisterous train’s horn was deafening, but Adrian didn’t flinch as he lay there, motionless and accustomed to the constant rattle of the clattering wheels against the steel tracks.

Adrian’s eyes began to shut as the hum of the city faded beneath the soft pulse of his heartbeat. Sleep came quick enough and for a moment, the weight of the world lifted from his shoulders.

When he opened his eyes again, the night had vanished and to his surprise, the suffocating, cramped, peeling walls were gone. Instead, a warm, golden light filtered through towering trees whose leaves shimmered in deep purples and blues that pulsed with an inner glow. The air smelled of rain and wildflowers, pure and sweet as if untouched by time.

Adrian’s breath caught in his throat. Colours he'd never imagined glowed faintly, pulling him into a trance.

He stood up barefoot on the cool grass as the Earth hummed beneath his ankles as though alive, whispering through his bones. Adrian turned around and saw a landscape that stretched endlessly within a realm that felt alien. This was too real to be a dream he thought as the faint melody of a choir rose in the distance, accompanied by the tolling of a great bell, ethereal and haunting.

Adrian’s heart was a mix of wonder and disbelief.

Where am I? he thought, turning slowly, taking in the sprawling valleys and crystal-clear rivers.

This can’t be a dream can it? Adrian thought as he pinched himself. The pain felt real.

That’s when a voice whispered.

Soft at first, like a breeze threading through the leaves. Then clearer.

“You belong here.”

Adrian froze. No one was in sight, yet the words wrapped around his mind like a silk thread.

“You belong here, Adrian. Return, and you will never want for anything.”

The voice was cold, neither cruel nor kind, but absolute, almost commanding in its tone.

Adrian reached out for it, as if to grasp the promise hanging in the air. Before he could clasp anything however, the world shimmered again, and in a heartbeat the golden light fractured, shattering into a thousand shards and giving way to a pitch black darkness that surrounded Adrian.

From within the obsidian black shadows all around, a figure approached. It was a woman radiant with warmth and strength, her visage shining around the edges with endless golden hues.

This is your home, the voice whispered again, but this time, it felt wrong. Too close. Too cold.

Adrian’s gaze rose to the woman’s face and froze. Her eyes were hollow. Empty like an abyss ready to consume his soul. Her soft smile twisted, splitting into a wide, inhuman grin.

“No…" Adrian staggered backwards 

The figure lunged, her mouth splitting into rows of jagged teeth that sank into Adrian’s shoulder! He struggled, shouting in pain and gasping from the brutality and in the next moment he sat up screaming up in his bed!

Shit… that was too real to be a nightmare… what just happened…

Adrian thought as he picked up his phone and saw the time. He was late for work but he didn’t care. He threw his phone back onto the table and relaxed back into his bed, the phantom ache in his shoulder gnawing at his thoughts.

A call from his boss woke him up once more as Adrian answered the phone to an ear full forcing him to move. He slowly lurched out of his bed and made his way to the shared bathroom of his small flat. The door was locked.

Great

Adrian grimaced as he rubbed his temples, but luckily the door swung open just at that moment. His neighbor stepped out wrapped in a towel that was too small to fit all over her body. She was nothing but a flash of skin between a damp bathrobe with the smell of soap and shampoo trailing behind her.  She barely looked at him.

“Bathroom’s free,”  she said flatly, brushing past him as water dripped from her hair, leaving a trail across the hallway tiles.

Adrian watched her retreat, the door to her room closing without another glance in his direction. A strange ache tightened in his chest, not desire, but the hollow reminder that he was invisible here, just another tenant stuffed into this concrete hive.

He stepped inside the bathroom. The light flickered once, humming faintly, and for an instant, he thought he heard the faint toll of a bell.

He turned on the shower, the pounding water numbing the tension in his muscles and washing away his thought of inadequacy, finishing quickly and making his way to the mirror to brush his teeth. The steam from the shower contorted his reflection into a ghostly blur.

For a moment, he thought he saw something move in the fogged reflection...something watching him from over his shoulder.

Adrian spun around. Nothing. Only the hiss of water dripping into the drain.

Heart pounding, he wiped the mirror with his hand.

And froze.

A bite mark, deep and crimson, bloomed across his shoulder. The same one. The same pain he had experienced in his nightmare. The toothbrush slipped from his fingers and clattered into the sink. His knees trembled as he stared at the wound, the echo of phantom teeth sinking into his skin..

The dream had followed him back.