Not just a dream

It was a warm autumn morning, a gentle breeze blowing slowly and refreshingly. Bugs were quietly buzzing, flying, or crawling through the tall blades of grass. Birds were singing beautiful and melodious songs, perhaps trying to attract potential partners, or simply trying to make the world brighter with their chirps and cheeps.

Unfortunately, all of those peaceful and aesthetic sounds were brutally drowned out by a deafening mix of ringing, screeching cars and buses—most speeding—and their incessant honking. Pedestrians were crossing the roads, disorganized, not even bothering to find a crosswalk. That, in turn, made the cars only honk more frequently, with the offended pedestrians shouting at the drivers in retaliation.

All of it was a massive, disorderly, and somewhat useless mess. It was just an average morning rush in the city.

Everyone had places they had to be, and everyone always seemed to be in a frenzied hurry, as if being late would cost them their very lives.

One such person was a young boy, seemingly in his teenage years, wearing an old backpack and running down the sidewalk.

His face was rushed and tired at the same time, with a couple drops of sweat rolling down his forehead. His hair was short, messy and dark brown, his eyes of the same color. He had a deep frown on his face, and was muttering curses under his breath.

“Dammit. God fucking dammit!”

While running, he glanced at his watch. It showed: 7:50.

“Shit! That rotten bus driver!”

The reason he was running was in such a hurry was because he missed the bus. He had almost made it in time, but the bus driver refused to wait, already on a tight schedule and also probably delayed. So, when the boy was only a couple steps away, shouting at the driver to open the door, the driver just ignored him and drove away. Left at the bus stop alone, coughing from all the smoke from the exhaust pipe, he had no choice but to run to school instead.

He suddenly shouted, making a couple of startled heads turn his way, before continuing to run even faster.

“Fuck you!”

His hateful, and quite loud remark, was, of course, aimed at the bus driver, who could not even hear him. That did not mean that the other people on the sidewalk couldn’t, though.

Most simply ignored him, but one random stranger seemed to take the boy’s noisy curse personally, for some reason.

It was a tall in a suit, somewhere between his thirties and forties.

“You little brat!”

He spat, and suddenly raised his fist, bringing it to the teenager's face out of nowhere.

The boy didn’t even notice the man’s presence until his fist was mere centimeters away from his face. With no time to react, plus already running at great speed, at least by the boy’s standards, the fist ruthlessly slammed into his face, knocking him back. He fell gracelessly on the ground, rolled back several meters before finally slamming into another passerby.

He was knocked out for a few moments, and when he came to, his head was spinning, a ringing sound piercing his ears. Dazed, he reached up and touched his face. Wincing from the pain, he pulled his hand back and realized his nose was probably broken. Blood was now smeared on his palm, with more of it running down his nose to his mouth. He unconsciously licked his lips, tasting the blood in confusion. Then, his confusion turned to anger, which ultimately turned to rage.

‘What the hell?! Some idiot just straight up punched me in the face!’

He hurriedly stood up and looked around, trying to find his attacker. But the man was already gone. All around, people gave him weird glances, but everybody just went about their day, not sparing the injured boy more than a second of their attention. There was no one attacking him, and no one who seemed to be the attacker.

“Coward...”

Speaking softly, partly out of fear that his attacker would somehow hear him, he brushed himself off and looked at his watch, which now showed: 7:52.

‘Shit!’

Grimacing, he continued running, forgetting about the blood that now stained his school uniform.

*

A large building was standing proudly in the middle of a city. Despite the fact that it was quite smaller than all of its concrete neighbors, it stood out among them the most. It almost looked like a small fortress, with thick walls and a large gate in front of it. But instead of armored, fearsome, and proud soldiers guarding its entrance, there stood a tall middle-aged woman in a black suit. As if trying to impersonate the knight of the distant past, she wore a proud expression and held a long and sturdy wooden pointer in two hands, the pointer facing down to the ground, as if mimicking holding a sharp steel blade, resting her weight on it. She stood behind the open gates, looking sharply into the distance.

Her gaze narrowed, seeing a running figure approaching. She glanced at her left wrist. On it, she wore a beautiful and expensive watch, covered in white and pink gemstones. The fancy watch showed: 7:54.

The proud woman continued to stare at her watch, as if forgetting about the approaching figure completely. But, of course, she didn’t. She was simply waiting...

Only a second after the running figure, who seemed to have his face and shirt covered in blood, ran through the gates, the time on the watch changed, now showing: 7:55.

The woman finally looked away from her watch and pressed a button on the side of the gate. There was a mechanical sound, and then the gate moved. Appearing from both sides, more metal bars started to move, soon closing the gate, thus preventing anyone from getting in... or out.

The tall woman turned around and looked at a heavily breathing and somewhat bloodied boy, who was kneeling on the ground.

After a few seconds, she spoke, her voice cold and without emotion.

“I will tolerate it today, but have your shirt thoroughly cleaned by tomorrow, or better yet, buy a new one.”

She turned around and started to walk away, towards the magnificent building, the school, when she suddenly stopped and spoke over her shoulder without turning around.

“And stop by the nurse before you head to class. And don’t be late.”

With that, she walked away, her steps measured and confident.

The boy looked up, glaring at her back,  and muttered under his breath, as quietly as he could, but still aloud:

“Old hag...”

He slowly stood up, took a deep breath, and walk towards the school building.

Indeed, the striking and majestic building was his school. His middle school, to be precise. He was a second year, turning seventeen in a few months.

The school was built over a hundred years ago, but it still stood strong and proud.

Not paying any attention to the grand building in front of him, the boy walked inside. After changing into his slippers and leaving his shoes in the locker, he headed to the nurse’s office.

The boy knocked on the wooden door, and soon, a pleasant and soothing woman’s voice responded.

“Come in, please.”

The boy opened the door, and as soon as he stepped foot inside, the woman’s relaxed voice turned panicked.

“My god, Vrak, what happened?! Come here quick! Oh no, I think your nose might be broken, you poor thing. You should be in a hospital, not school!”

While the woman led the boy to a chair and invited him to sit down, the boy, Vrak, smiled slightly.

He didn’t have many friends in school—quite the opposite actually—but he was quite fond of the school nurse. Her name was Brusinka Cukr, and she was the only person in school whose company he didn’t mind, while she didn’t seem to mind his. At least he hoped so. In truth, he might have had a little crush on the nurse Brusinka, but he would take that secret with him to the grave.

Brusinka bent down in front of Vrak to carefully wipe the blood from his face and his smile froze.

‘S-she’s so close...’

Averting his gaze, he coughed awkwardly.

“Thanks for your concern, Brus, but I really need to get to class. Can we hurry it up?”

Brusinka looked up at him, a frown appearing on her sweet face.

“Class? You’re bleeding like this, and you’re worried about class? Since when were you even worried about studying to begin with?”

She continued to wipe his blood, then stopped and looked at him again, this time, with a hint of a smile hiding behind her worried gaze.

“And it’s nurse Cukr, for you, young man. Or at least nurse Brusinka... Don’t forget that I am technically a teacher.”

She finished cleaning his face, then regretfully looked at his shirt. There wasn’t that much blood on it, but it was still really noticeable. Also, it would have been hard to clean a white shirt stained with blood, so Vrak would probably have to buy a new one.

“Luckily, your nose isn’t broken, so you don’t have to go to the hospital, but I’ll keep you here for at least the first period.”

Vrak sighed and slumped into his chair.

“As much as I would love to skip that class, because principal Cibula is teaching it, I also can’t skip it for that exact reason.”

Brusinka giggled a little.

“Hey now, you can’t go around badmouthing our principal you know?”

She pulled a chair in front of Vrak and sat down with a sigh of her own.

“She should have seen the way you look, so there won’t be much trouble if I speak on your behalf. Besides, the class has already started, so she would mark you as absent regardless.”

She pointed at a clock behind her, prompting Vrak to look up. The clocked showed 8:01.

He looked at the clock for a while and sighed again. This one was slightly more exaggerated.

“Fine, you don’t have to tell me twice. Just make sure I really don’t get into any trouble... again.”

Instead of answering, Brusinka just stared at him, with an expecting expression.

Vrak just looked at her for a while, then turned away, sighing for the third time.

“...Please.”

Brusinka smiled and nodded approvingly. She then reached into a nearby drawer and pulled out a band-aid, sticking it gently on his swollen nose. He already stopped bleeding a while ago, but she also put a little cotton up his nose, just in case.

“Now, go lie down on an empty bed and rest. I’ll go wake you up for your next class in case you fall asleep.”

Vrak smirked.

“Yeah, yeah. Good night Brus.”

With that, he went to lie down on a nearby bed, closed the curtains for some privacy, and comfortably closed his eyes.

Brusinka just shook her head in resignation, wrote something on a piece of paper, and left, closing the door behind her quietly and carefully.

*

Vrak was lying on the ground, soft and perfectly cut grass tickling his cheeks. The wind gently caressed his hair, making it even messier than it was before. He was breathing calmly, his eyes closed, a relaxed expression on his face.

A strong gust of wind suddenly smashed into him, prompting him to finally wake up. He opened his eyes lazily, but the sun light shined too brightly, making him cover his eyes with a hand and closing them again. Slowly coming to his senses, Vrak frowned slightly.

‘Why is there so much light in here? Did Brus put the lights into some ultra bright mode?’

Vrak supported himself with his hands and slowly sat up.

‘The hell?’

Feeling the fresh grass and soft soil underneath, his frown deepened. He opened his eyes, looking at his legs, and the ground around him, in confusion.

“Huh?”

He sat still, unmoving, for about a minute, his mind blank.

Finally, he raised his head, looking ahead curiously, but also fearfully.

“Huh...”

As far as his eyes could see, there was nothing but grass and a vast blue sky—both stretching endlessly in the distance—with only a bright and yellow sun hanging in a cloudless sky.

There were no trees, no houses, and no animals, neither on land or in the sky. Most importantly, though, there were no walls of the nurse's office, no curtains around him for privacy, and no bed with white sheets one could comfortably fall asleep on, just like Vrak had, countless times in the past, as well as this morning.

All there was to see was a flat meadow and a bright blue sky, nothing more.

“Huh. Wait, no. I said that already.”

He slowly stood up and wanted to brush himself off. It was then that he realized...

“Huh?!”

...That he was entirely naked.

He covered his... private parts with his hands, looking around in embarrassment. As he spun in circles, his eyes widened, and he froze on the spot. Of course, it wasn’t because someone was looking at his thin, naked body. Rather, it was something he glimpsed, instead.

There in front of him, far, far in the distance, was... something. It was too far away to discern what that something was. In fact, it was purely by luck that Vrak had even managed to see it, but now that he did, it was impossible to ignore. From where he stood, it resembled a tiny dot. If one wasn’t looking for it carefully, most people would simply miss it.

Without thinking much, Vrak stepped forward, towards the almost invisible, tiny dot. While he walked, his mind cleared somewhat, and he was finally able to think. Mostly about where he was and how he got here, but also about what happened to his clothes.

One conclusion he came up with, and also the most probable, was that he was simply dreaming.

‘This is kind of cool. I don’t think I’ve had a dream this lucid and real before.’

Vrak’s mind simply convinced itself that he was dreaming, so his initial fear was slowly subsiding. He walked on the flat surface of the meadow, looking around in wonder. Not that there was much to see, of course. Just grass, grass, and more grass.

At first, he felt great, exited even, wondering what this lucid dream of his would produce for him. He thought about what that distant dot could be.

‘A castle? A large fortress? Or something mundane like a tree or a simple boulder? This is fun. I haven’t been outside the city in ages.’

He walked forward. He walked and walked still, whistling a simple and cheerful melody. Soon, though, his happy demeanor changed.

“What the hell? I feel like I’ve been walking for hours, and the damn dot isn’t getting any bigger!”

In fact, he was walking for only about thirty minutes, but that didn’t stop him from complaining.

Frustrated, he started running, but after only about a few minutes, he started to slow down, before eventually coming to a stop, gasping for air.

“Damn it... Why is it so hot here?”

It was indeed a little hot. The sun was shining brightly from the cloudless sky, aiming its light and heat on the vast expanse of the fresh and green meadow.

Vrak glared at the elusive dot, but it didn’t get any bigger.

“Wait... Isn’t this supposed to be a dream? And a lucid one at that! Shouldn’t I be able to like... imagine stuff into existence?”

Full of hope, he tried imagining something into existence... And nothing happened. So, he tried again, but still nothing.

“This is so unfair! Why am I unable to do anything in my own damn dream?!”

He slumped on the ground a little too hard and ended up hurting his behind.

“Ah, shit!”

He massaged the place where he his butt hurt the most, then thought bitterly:

‘I wish I wasn’t naked at least, damn!’

As soon as he finished that thought, he started to feel different. He experienced a weird sensation, and his whole body was tingling. He looked his body up and down, noticing his pale skin looked a little... less pale, as if ever so slightly glowing. He felt his heart beating faster, his chest growing a little heavy.

In a couple of seconds, he suddenly wasn’t naked anymore. Instead, he was wearing a simple white T-shirt and grey shorts—both of which were worn-out and dirty. He also wasn’t barefoot anymore. Instead, he had a pair of slightly torn and old shoes he had inherited from his father, with holey light gray socks.

The tingling sensation was gone, his rapidly beating heart starting to settle down. His chest didn’t feel heavy anymore, but he had a minor headache instead.

He didn’t pay any of that much attention, though, simply staring at his fully clothed body.

He was too stunned to speak.

‘It... it worked!’

Breaking out of his trance, he jumped up in excitement, checking his new clothes in curiosity. In fact, they weren’t really new clothes. Vrak knew these clothes all too well. They were his own clothes after all. The ones he wore most of the time, when he was not in school. The only difference was that they felt a little different on his skin, but Vrak dismissed that thought without dwelling on it too much.

“Curious...”

Why did these clothes appear, in particular? Was it because he wore them the most often? Or because they were the ones he was most comfortable wearing?

These thoughts ran through his head in a split second, then were instantly replaced by new, more exciting ones.

‘Wait. If I can summon clothes, does that mean I can indeed make something else?’

His sour mood was lifted yet again. He hurriedly tried to summon the first thing he could think of... Which was money. To his surprise and joy, he actually succeeded. After a couple of seconds, an almost unnoticeable glow appeared on his palm, and in his previously empty right hand was now a thousand crown bill. He stared at the bill in astonishment.

He was about to summon some more money, when he realized it would be pointless, since he was currently dreaming.

'Right... Shame.'

Looking ahead, he saw the mysterious dot, which had not gotten bigger at all since he started walking toward it.

Vrak smirked.

"Well, if I can't reach you on foot, how about in a car?"

But, to his disappointment, none of the multiple types of different cars he tried to summon appeared.

Vrak smiled bitterly, kicking the empty space in front of him.

Wanting to summon a bunch of different things but also finding all his ideas useless immediately after thinking of them, he simply gave up and walked toward the distant dot on his own two legs.

While he walked, he kept summoning and dismissing various bills of money to keep himself entertained. He summoned other things, like a tennis ball, which he threw in the air and caught it again a few times.

The huge sun hung still, in the position of noon, having not moved even a little since Vrak had first witnessed it.

After about an hour or two of walking and summoning different things, his fatigue and headache finally made him stop. Looking at the dot, which had still not grown at all, he cursed loudly and collapsed to the ground.

"This sucks! What kind of lame lucid dream is this? All there is this damned meadow!"

He tried to change his surroundings or location by focusing the same way he had when summoning each item, but to no avail.

Looking at the bright sun through squinted eyes, an interesting thought came to him.

'If I can't change my surrounding, can I change... myself?'

Without getting up, he thought about how he would change his own body.

Eventually, he closed his eyes, concentrating the same way as he had before. This time however, instead of making something appear out of thin air, he wanted to make his body grow wings. He imagined how angels had their wings grow from their backs, white, pristine and graceful, then tried to make those same wings appear on his back.

He didn't have much hope, but to his surprise, it worked. Although a little differently than Vrak had wanted it to.

He yet again felt his chest grow heavy a little, making him beyond excited at the concept of flying.

A moment later, his hopes and elation were crushed, replaced by horror and agony, and he let out an inhuman shriek.

He felt the bones, muscles, and skin on his back start tearing apart. Then, they were being restored and healed, only to be destroyed and healed again and again. It was as if a hungry beast was tearing into his flesh and spine, over and over again, endlessly and without rest.

Each time the process repeated itself, it changed ever so slightly. New bones and joints started forming, ripping his already mangled back even more. These new parts of his body tried to grow and form outwards, gradually extending from his gruesome looking back.

Vrak was writhing and rolling on the ground in agony throughout the whole process, screaming in pain unlike any he had ever felt before in his life. He tried to claw at his back with his nails, but couldn't quite reach, so he left many bleeding scratches on his sides, instead.

Slowly, thin bones and skin in the shape of two large, magnificent wings, started to form from his massacred back. When they were complete, the pain stopped getting worse, but it stayed, refusing to let the young boy rest.

White and pristine feathers started to grow from the bare wings, covering them fully in mere seconds. They were glowing with a bright gold radiance, putting the sun itself momentarily to shame. Their golden shine disappeared as suddenly as it appeared, but never really went away, instead shining subtly, as if being suppressed by an unknown force. Perhaps the sun was taking its revenge, as if offended by the newly born wings for shining more brightly than itself for even a fleeting moment.

The whole process only took about a minute, but it certainly didn't feel like a mere minute.

After the painful transformation was  nearing its end, Vrak’s body and mind finally gave out, and he mercifully passed out.

*

“AAAAAAAGHHH!!!”

Vrak woke up in utter terror, screaming from pain he wasn’t even feeling, but vividly remembered. He rolled off the bed and fell on the ground with a loud thud, trying to tear open his own back. Not managing to reach, and being somewhat protected by his white shirt, he only managed to damage his clothes and scratch his sides a little.

Hearing the loud scream, Brusinka rushed to his side immediately. Her face contorted and her eyes widened in confusion and horror. From her point of view, it must have looked like Vrak was trying to tear his own flesh apart. Which was actually true, in a sense.

Only hesitating for a second, she rushed to Vrak and tried to hold him down. She struggled a little at first, but eventually managed to restrain his hands, preventing him from hurting himself further.

Vrak, realizing that someone was near him, holding him down, but also not knowing who it was, he shouted in fear and panic.

“Let me go! I have to get rid of them! Let me get rid of them!”

Brusinka, not letting her grip on the boy loosen even a little, forced herself to ask in a steady tone, trying to calm him down.

“What do you want to get rid of, Vrak. Tell me, and I’ll try to help you. I promise. Just calm down first, please.”

Still resisting, but not managing to hurt himself anymore, Vrak seemed to calm down a little, but was still in a state of frenzy.

“The wings! Tear the wings off, please! It hurts! It hurts so much! Please!”

His face and voice were both smeared by his tears and anguish. Listening to the usually arrogant and somewhat carefree boy beg and scream as if he was being tortured, Brusinka’s face contorted in pain, as well.

Vrak, meanwhile, was starting to struggle less and less, his pitiful wailing growing weaker. His loud screams turned to a distressing begging.

“Please... Please, get rid of the wings. They hurt me so bad. It hurts. Help me, please...”

By that point, Vrak’s body grew still, only trembling slightly. He stopped resisting, now only crying softly in Brusinka’s arms. He was once again bleeding from his nose. He hit the ground face first when he fell on the floor, his earlier injury re-opening itself. He looked quite pitiful, with blood, tears and snot smeared all over his face. After a couple of minutes, he somewhat regained his composure, looking around in fear, disoriented.

His gaze eventually met Brusinka’s own, slight relief showing on his otherwise terror-struck expression.

“Bru-Brusi...?”

Brusinka sighed in relief, patting the weak and panicked boy on his head, gently stroking his disheveled brown hair. Her own hair, bright and blond in color, distantly resembling gold, was also in disarray, having wrestled with the boy a few minutes prior.

But she didn’t mind that at all, not even noticing it during the current situation.

Brusinka tried to smile gently, but it ended up being a little stiff. Her emerald-like green eyes were full of concern and worry.

“Yes, that’s right. It’s me. Everything is alright now. I’m with you. I’m right here.”

Her comforting words seemed to have worked, calming Vrak down. His body stopped trembling, his tears slowly subsiding. Vrak opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but then closed it again, as if giving up, and closed his eyes.

Brusinka hurriedly checked his pulse and breathing. Confirming that he was alright, having only fallen asleep again, probably from exhausting both his body and mind.

Still holding the boy in her arms, Brusinka herself slumped to the ground, utterly defeated and mentally drained. She let herself catch her breath for a second, then picked Vrak up in a princess carry, straining her untrained muscles, lifting him off the ground and laying him on the bed with a little difficulty.

Even looking at him now, sleeping peacefully, she couldn’t help but think that she could discern a hint of alarm on his pale and delicate face.

Not caring about any of her other responsibilities, she pulled a nearby chair to his bed and sat down, deciding to not leave his side until he woke up again.