Call of the void

Prologue

Beyond a shadow of a doubt, I was dreaming and the corpse of the girl in front of me would prove it. I took a deep breath and began to inspect the body. The only identifiable features on her was a match set of brown hair and lifeless golden eyes. Her clothes made me pause. Even with their acquired wine red stains I recognized them. They were an exact replica of a pair of clothes that I had bought online recently. Cheap American eagle jeans and a brand-less long sleeve sweater. An unfortunate coincidence because this was souring the good mood my new shipment of clothes had given me.

Another characteristic of our Jane Doe was that she had a jade necklace. The very same jade necklace that my mother gave me before she died. I breathed out a loud sigh mixed with disappointment and relief. A dream so obvious made me almost disappointed in my own imagination. I thought my first lucid dream would take a little bit more effort on my end than this. Regardless, I’ve solved the case. In fact, if not for her disfigured face I would have recognized the girl on the ground immediately. Her name is Viola Robins. Time of death unknown. The formulaic twist to this mystery being that the person decomposing on the ground was me. The fact that this was a dream was not as reassuring as I wanted it to be.

My rapid heart thumped like it didn’t get the memo that non of this was real. Furthermore, a cloud of darkness was creeping around the sides of my vision. It seems the dreamscape has decided that my time of playing detective is up. I tried to wipe away the void with my hands but it was here to stay. There was but one thing to do. Accept its call and wake up. My eyes drifted closed. In an instant some form of invisible glue fused them shut. Such darkness invited me to sleep and I accepted. It was the best sleep of my life. There's no sweeter lullaby than the sound of a heart stopping.