Dreamwalker

Chapter 1

Wake up.

Shut off the alarm.

Stumble to the bathroom.

Pee.

Wash my hands.

Brush my teeth.

Wash my face.

Every day, like most people, I go through the same repetitive motions. It’s so easy to start the day on autopilot because I’ve been following the same routine for as long as I can remember.

The human body is a wonderful thing -- muscle memory can guide you through more things than you know.

It’s during these mundane tasks, at the edge of wakefulness, that I always felt the emptiest.

I have never had a dream.

Every night, when I fall asleep, I slip into an abyss of darkness. There is no sound, no light, no feelings or emotions. There is only nothingness and a suffocating, overwhelming silence.

As a child, I didn’t think being dreamless was a problem. Not having any dreams means that I also don’t have nightmares, a fact that my friends consider a wonderful blessing. But they don’t understand how hollow it feels, to never have dreams. They don’t hear that annoying voice in the back of their mind, taunting them for being abnormal. Soulless. Weird.

According to them, I wasn’t any of those things, at least, not during waking hours. But at night, when I finally closed my eyes to sleep, I would find myself praying, wishing, that finally, I would have a dream.

But for 19 years, I slept in a sea of nothingness.

Frankly speaking, it probably shouldn’t bother me so much. Yet every morning, when I looked at myself in the mirror, I found that it truly scared me.

Was something wrong with me? Was I sick? How could a 19 year old never have a single dream or nightmare for her entire life?

Much like the motions of my morning routine, these thoughts plagued my mind every single day. I always forced them from my mind as I worked through my morning rituals, because I knew that if I sat around and dwelled on it, I’d never get out of bed.

This morning wasn’t any different. I grabbed my hair brush, smoothing down my tangles and strays, shaping my unruly curls into a giant bun at the top of my head. I had Ballet this morning, followed by Contemporary Dance, and my most favorite class of the semester, Intermediate Hip Hop. Once classes were over, I’d have to hurry to work at the campus bookstore. Today would be a busy day.

I dressed simply in leggings, an off-the-shoulder crop top, and my favorite pair of all black high tops. I stared at myself in the mirror, giving a somber smile at my reflection. At five foot four, I wasn’t the tallest girl in the room, but I certainly wasn’t considered petite either. With my brown-black hair, and hickory brown, deep-set eyes, I stood out in my class of pale skinned ballerinas, but fit in with the various brown hues of my Hip Hop classmates. I had a dancer’s form and figure shaped by years of moving to the rhythm of the world.

“Happy birthday, Jade.” I whispered to myself, on a sigh. I grabbed my backpack and headed out for the day. There wouldn’t be any time for cake and ice cream, unfortunately.

Once my day began, time passed by in a blur of activity. My classes went smoothly, and work was a breeze. At the end of my shift, two of my coworkers, Aria and Isabella, stopped me by the time clock.

“Today’s your birthday?! Why didn’t you say anything until now!” Aria exclaimed as our digital time clock sang a cheerful tune to alert anyone within range that it was my birthday today. Aria was a blonde haired, green eyed cheerleader at our university, and just so happened to be rooming with Isabella, so they were always together. Aria was petite, but fiesty.

“It’s not a big deal. I’m only turning 20.” I replied, shrugging my shoulders. Aria gasped.

“Turning 20 means you’re no longer a teenager. That’s a big deal!” Isabella chided, crossing her arms and frowning at me. She was on the Women’s basketball team and towered over everyone. Isabella was beautiful, tanned, and had an amazing body to boot. There were guys that would come to our bookstore just to get in her checkout line.

“Honestly, it’s really not. At the orphanage-” I caught myself mid-sentence, realizing I was doing that thing again. My best friend, Willow, constantly warned me not to bring up my childhood. She said it was depressing. “When I was a kid, I just got a cupcake, and maybe a homemade gift. It’s really nothing huge.”

“Well, can we at least take you to dinner?” Isabella asked, hooking her arm around my shoulder. Aria nodded in eager agreement.

“I don’t know, I’ve got a lot of studying to do, and-”

“Studying? You don’t study on your birthday! Come on, we can go get hot wings! Our treat!” Aria cheered, and I smiled, giving in. They were too sweet to turn down anyway.

“If it makes you two feel better, sure.”

“Yes!” Isabella gave her roomate a fist bump with her free hand, and then steered me away from our time clock, “We can just go to Lucky’s. It’s a Tuesday night, so it shouldn’t be too packed.”

I just followed along as the two girls drug me a block away from our job, heading into the most popular hangout spot on campus, Lucky’s Bar and Grill. The three of us grabbed a table, and Isabella lowered her voice conspiratorially, “So I’ve kinda got this thing going on with the bartender and he never cards me while I’m here. Do you drink, Jade?”

I nodded, admitting to the bad habit I had picked up in high school, “I haven’t in a while. Trying to behave myself.”

“Well, beers are on special tonight, so I say we get a few pitchers with our wings!” Aria sounded excited to break the law, and I prayed she could hold her liquor.

“Cool, I’ll be right back,” Isabella stood, adjusting her dress before heading over to the bar and batting her full eyelashes at the bartender. She flirted hard, and Aria laughed when she came back to our table with not one, but two full pitchers of beer.

“This enough to ring in your cake day, Jade?” Isabella questioned, grinning mischievously as she poured the amber liquid in our mugs.

“Plenty.” I replied, taking my first sip of beer in three years.

Later

I stumbled into my single-unit dorm room, barely able to stand on my own two feet. I was a quiet drunk -- I never said much, I only laughed at those around me and observed. Isabella and Aria, on the other hand, had to be escorted back to their dorm by her bartender not-boyfriend, because Aria had become a giggling mess and Isabella was two seconds from taking her clothes off right there in the restaurant.

I fell face first onto my bed, kicking my shoes off as I struggled to keep my eyes open. I made sure to set my alarm clock so that I wouldn’t oversleep and miss class. I didn’t even bother taking down my hair or changing clothes. I was too exhausted.

Today had been one of the better birthdays of my life though, and for that I could only be thankful. As my eyes drifted shut, I whispered into the darkness, “Please… Just for my birthday… Let me have a dream.”

I could feel myself losing consciousness, falling into the depths as tiredness pulled me under. I gave way to sleep, my last thought focused on my one birthday wish. Yet, there was nothing as I slept, as usual. No sound, no sight, no visions.

There was nothing, only silence and darkness until…

There was a door. I stared at the dark oaken door in shock, as the edge of my vision gained color and light. The door wasn’t intimidating at all, the old-fashioned door knob gleaming golden in my eyes. I looked down to find my hands, legs, fingers, everything was still in place. I knew I wasn’t awake, I couldn’t be.

Was this what dreaming felt like?

I reached out to the door knob and twisted it, pushing the door open as slowly as possibly. A bell chimed over my head, and I looked up to find I had entered something like an antique shop, with old clocks decorating the wall. There were odds and ends on every table, and a clothing rack against the wall. The sound of the clocks ticking filled my ears.

“Hello?” I called tentatively, testing my voice for the first time. My all black high tops creaked on the floor boards as I delved deeper into the shop, where another door stood at the far back wall.

“Is anyone here?” I called again, reaching out for this new door knob.

“I’m here, but I’m not sure how you are,” Came a deep, masculine voice from behind me. I spun around to find a toned young man with tanned skin, in snug fitted jeans and a black t-shirt. He was sporting a cheerful smile, and a warm gleam in his wide-set, hooded eyes. He had an angled jaw, two-toned copper and brown hair, and was much taller than me. Hell, he was probably taller than Isabella too. He wore small hoop earrings in both ears, and he was unreasonably beautiful.

The guy stared at me for with dark brown eyes for a long time, circling me as I stood there. I was panicking, still trying to make heads or tails of what was going on.

Finally, he stopped in front of me, nodding his head, “Ahhh, so that’s why!” He said matter of factly, as if by just looking at me, he understood everything.

I had no idea what the hell he was talking about, so I asked, “Do you know why I’m here? Where even *is* here?”

“You’ve reached the edge of our two worlds, Dreamwalker.”

I knew I must have looked at him like he was bat insane, because he burst into a fit of laughter.

“Hahaha, look at your face!” He cackled, holding his stomach as if I was the funniest comedian he’d ever seen.

“Well, I probably wouldn’t look this way if I knew what you were talking about!” I exclaimed, crossing my arms over my chest with a pout.

“You don’t know? Is this your first trip or something?” He asked, his look of confusion now matching mine.

“My first trip, what? Can you talk in a way I can understand?” I begged, not understanding his words at all.

“Oh my Gods. You really don’t know, do you?” He questioned, tilting his head curiously.

“Look, if this is some joke, let me tell you, I was raised-”

The young man turned his head suddenly, holding up his finger, cutting me off abruptly. One of the tallest grandfather clock in the shop began to chime loudly.

“You’re being called. There’s no time for me to explain anything else to you.”

“What? Called? My phone isn’t ringing; please say words that make sense.”

He shook his head, placing his hands on both of my shoulders and placing me directly in front of the shop’s back door, “There’s no time. You have to go.”

“Will you at least tell me where I’m going?” I asked, as the door opened wide in front of me, and a white light poured out. I couldn’t see anything behind the blinding brightness.

“Into the world that I protect.” He elaborated, “My name is Wong Yukhei -- you can call me Lucas. I’m the guardian for this world, and you, Dreamwalker, are being called into it.”

“Called into….what? What world? Where am I? How did I get here?” I asked, but Lucas shook his head. He placed a gold necklace over my head instead. The pendant on the necklace was comprised of a jade stone with textured gold, woven around the stone in a flower motif.

“Tell me your name instead,” Lucas asked me softly, securing the necklace on my neck.

“I’m Jade.”

“Good luck, Jade,” He smiled, his focus on the necklace as the pendant began to glow. I was momentarily stunned, staring at the glowing object around my neck. “Don’t let anyone remove this pendant from your body,” He warned, and without another word, he pushed me into the bright light and slammed the door shut behind me.

End Chapter 1