Beyond Where Nightmares Lead

Sunlight gleamed through the window of Millee’s cabin, eking through the sheer curtains that kept the barren walls from becoming a glowing box of white light. The clock on her nightstand read 7:12AM—early enough to be too early but late enough there was no time to even jump in the shower. Her shift started at 7:30AM, though the ceaseless noise from the clock’s alarm could make anyone wonder if she was ever planning to even get up.

A series of knocks came at the door, eager and hurried—there was an anxious lull between each one, like the person knocking wasn’t sure they should be knocking in the first place. Again—knock, knock, knock. Still no answer. The steel frame of the door stood motionless—no one was coming to answer it.

“I told her I would cover yesterday’s shift—not today’s,” Lailah huffed. “Can she even hear my knocking over the sound of that stupid alarm?” She waited for another moment before trying the door’s scanner lock that, to her surprise, had been left unlocked. “Did she not even bother to lock the door when she walked in? What is with this girl lately?” She scrunched up her hair, tossing blonde locks over her shoulder and across her chest. “I genuinely dislike how you get blasted in the face with air every time you walk inside the cabins on this ship… I thought everyone hated when the grocery stores did that back on Earth,” she mumbled.

Squinting through the sunlight-enhanced room, the white walls reflecting an ethereal, sunlit gleam, Lailah walked over to the alarm, silencing it with a swift hand-chop as it fell silent once more.

“Thank God…”

She turned her attention to Millee, tangled inside the midnight-blue bedsheets, head half smothered by the seemingly endless mountain of pillows that had collapsed in her sleep. Random tufts of silky brown had been flattened underneath, sticking out in odd places and plastered to her forehead from night-sweats.

“How is that comfortable, like, at all? She’s breathing in her own morning breath absorbed in the pillows too. Gross. Better get those off of her before she actually suffocates to death under there…” One by one, Lailah slowly removed the pillows as she listened to Millee sleep—ragged breaths and the occasional distressed murmur rose from her lips. She leaned in closer. “What is she saying…?”

The murmurs were soft, muffled but still just audible enough. “…I’m sorry… Not… my choice.” She tossed and turned, more pillows shifting and tumbling—some fell to the floor, others sealed breathing spaces while opening new ones somewhere deeper within the mound. “Didn’t do… it.”

Without warning, Millee suddenly shot up where she lay, ramming into Lailah’s forehead this time effectively waking both girls up. Not even the mound of pillows had been able to soften the blow as the skull-splitting force knocked Lailah to the floor and Millee back into the bed.

“Ow, ow, ow… What…? Time—!”

“Mmm… What the hell?” Lailah groaned. “Why does this keep happening to me…?”

Millee turned over in the bed, peering over the edge to find Lailah sprawled out on the floor. “Lailah? When did you get in here? …And how? I thought I locked the door.”

“Yeah, good morning to you too, hun,” she groaned, rubbing her head. “You left the scanner lock off, so I walked in to turn your alarm off when you didn’t answer the door. I did knock.”

“My alarm?” She paused for a moment, sleepy emerald eyes falling on the now-silent alarm clock. “I for real don’t remember setting that. And why would I set it for such a late time? I still have to shower, dry my hair, do my makeup—”

“That great and all, but what’s going on with you lately, and why does every instance of me trying to wake you up end with me being the one in pain? More importantly,” she said, catching Millee’s sleepy stare, “what were you dreaming about? You were mumbling something in your sleep—something about something else not being your fault? You brushed it off yesterday when I asked, so I let it go, but something’s clearly up.” She stared back, one eye open—the other was closed as she tried to temper the pending headache, one hand pressed against her temple. “Mm…”

“No— There’s nothing going on. Nothing’s the matter.” She pulled her eyes from Lailah’s one-eyed stare, twirling a twist of hair around her finger nervously. “Don’t wo—”

“So you’re just going to ignore the death of your parents like it never happened, telling me not to worry, then? Or what? What’s the deal, Millee?” Lailah pestered, opening her other eye, hand still pressed against her head. “Because you can’t run from your demons forever, and I can’t cover your shifts forever, either.”

Her words ignited Millee’s budding temper. “What the hell do you know, Lailah?! You’re not the one living my life—” She paused, recalling the first dream, how her reflection resembled Lailah’s. She shook her head, unraveling the hair she had twisted around her finger. “I’m not running. I’m just… trying to figure out who the hell I am right now,” she said softly.

Lailah exhaled sharply. “Geez… Ok, whatever then I guess.” Lailah rose to her feet as Millee watched her from the corner of her eyes, bed comforter now wrapped around her arms like a blanket of cherry blossoms. “Do you want me to get you a coffee or tea or something? Water…?”

“Lailah. I’m serious. I don’t want to involve you in my business—”

“Too bad because I just committed. Also, we’re not done having this conversation yet, so don’t think you’re getting off the hook so easily.” Millee groaned, falling back into the bed with a gentle poof. “I’ll be back in a few. I’m going to let work know we’re both sick today… It’s a holiday, err, what used to be a holiday, so it’s not like we’re needed today anyways. So— Coffee, water, or tea?”

Millee sighed. “Tea, extra milk and sugar today,” she muttered through a pillow.

“Got it. I’m going to stop by my cabin and get changed first, if that’s ok. I’m not one for walking around these freezing hallways in just a nightgown.”

“I can turn the heat on in here if you’re cold.”

“It’s fine. I’m just going to grab a sweater and some leggings or something. Be back in ten,” Lailah said, waving her hand through the open doorway. “And don’t even think about running off or you get to foot the bill for drinks this morning.”