Dreamwalker

3. Chapter 3

Someone was banging on my front door.

I shot out of bed quickly, my eyes adjusting to the light streaming in my bedroom window. I was back at home. I was back in my bed. I was waking up once again. I was alive.

I reached out to push back the covers, but as I moved forward, I realized my hand was closed tightly around a metal object. It was the pocket watch that Lucas gave me earlier.

I freaked out, immediately dropping the watch on my bed. The action jostled the necklace around my neck, and I jumped out of bed, running to my full length mirror. Sure enough, the jade pendant that Lucas had given me was still there.

I touched the chain of the necklace briefly, feeling it against my fingertips.

“What. The. Fu-!” I began to panic, but I got distracted by the sound of keys jingling at my front door. Someone slid a key into the lock, but the door wouldn't budge.

“Jade! Girl, if you don’t take the deadbolt off this door, I’m calling the cops!” Came a loud shout from the hallway.

I rushed to the front door, unbolting all the locks, and swinging the door open. I came face-to-face with my best friend for life, Willow. She hugged me tightly and pushed us both into my living room, closing the door with her foot.

Willow was the human embodiment of her name: wispy, thin, and tall. Her freckles and auburn hair contrasted significantly with her tawny skin color, paired with catlike eyes that were a little too big for the rest of her face. She was beautiful nonetheless.

I breathed in deeply, smelling a mixture of paint and Willow's shampoo, trying to calm down. It helped that she was here.

“Jade, do you even know what time it is?! Do you know how many times I’ve called you? Where the hell have you been?!” Willow wasted no time lighting into me, her hazel eyes searching my face in concern.

“What… time?” I glanced in the direction of the clock on my microwave and gasped out loud. It was already noon. I had already missed two of my classes for the day, and would miss the third if I didn’t start getting ready soon. “!”

“ is right! Do you know how many times I called you today?! I told Delani that you were sick this morning, and passed the message on to your other two professors. You don’t have to go to class anymore,” Willow explained, taking a seat on the couch. She set her bag down on the coffee table and looked up at me expectantly, “So? Did you drink too much last night, or what?”

“H-How’d you know about that?” I asked her, taking a seat on the couch beside her.

“You don’t remember texting me before you guys went to the bar last night? Sorry, I missed out, by the way; I couldn’t get off of work.”

I nodded, remembering the text I sent her while we walked from the campus bookstore to the pub. I frowned, my fingers going to the pendant around my neck. How did I explain everything that happened to me last night?

Willow watched me carefully for a moment, narrowing her eyes. After a few seconds, she nodded, “Ok, forreal, tell me what happened? Whatever it is, we can handle it, girl. I got you.”

I nodded slowly, taking a deep breath. Willow wouldn’t judge me. She never had, and she never would.

“So you know how I told you I’ve never had a dream before?” I began, trying to ease her into the tale.

“Yeah, my Mom was the one that suggested you see a therapist, remember? You’ve never had dreams for as long as I’ve known you,” Willow commented, since my lack of dreams was common knowledge between the two of us.

“Well last night… I had one. For the first time.”

Willow leaned closer into me, her eyes wide in surprise, “Like an actual dream? Are you sure you weren’t drunk and you just…. Imagined it?”

“No, Willow. I’m sure of it.”

“How do you know?” Willow asked curiously, and I frowned at her skepticism.

“I met this guy, Lucas, in my dream. He told me that I was something called a Dreamwalker.”

At that point, I launched into a lengthy re-telling of everything that happened to me from the moment I laid down to sleep until I woke up again in my apartment. Willow listened to my every word intently, her jaw dropping lower and lower as I spoke. By the time I had finished, her eyes were wide in shock.

“Whoaaaaaa.”

I nodded, “I would have just chalked this up to alcohol too, but I woke up with this necklace around my neck. The guy in my dream gave it to me, and here it is. Right where he put it on me.”

“That’s scary as hell,” Willow commented, reaching out for the necklace. I let her examine it for a moment, then moved to stand up from the couch.

“That’s not the only thing he gave me,” I told her, heading into my room, and picking up the pocket watch from my room. “He gave me this too. He said I can only go back through the door when this chimes.”

Willow took one look at the watch, and then dropped it on the couch like it burned her fingers, “This is mad weird, girl. And you’re sure you didn’t have either of these items when you went to bed?”

“I know I didn’t. Where the hell would I even find something like this? I didn't even know pocket watches could chime!” I exclaimed, picking up the watch, and setting it on the coffee table.

“Normally, I would suggest we find a dream interpreter to help us understand your dream, but there’s no way we can tell them that objects are magically appearing in your bedroom. They’ll lock us both up,” Willow tapped her chin thoughtfully, and I found myself smiling despite how the entire situation was making my skin crawl.

“Thank you.” I told her simply, leaning forward to hug my best friend once again.

Willow shrugged me off, “For what? I just came over to check on you.”

“You believe me.”

“Well, you’ve never lied to me before, so why would you start lying now? You’re too lazy to lie anyway, let’s be honest,” Willow joked, and I nodded because she was absolutely right. “I don’t know what to tell you, babe. This is wayyy outside of my amateur palm reading skills.”

I considered her suggestion carefully, an idea springing to mind, “Do you know anyone in our area that can interpret dreams? Maybe we can ask them about what a Dreamwalker is?”

“Hey Google,” Willow called out loud, and I giggled as her cell phone lit up, coming to life, “What is a Dreamwalker?”

“Here are the search results for Dream Walker,” came the automated response, and we both leaned over Willow’s screen to see what came up.

“It says here that a Dreamwalker can pass through dreams. They can walk through and access other realms, and even other people's dreams. Everything that Lucas guy told you lines up with the Google search.”

I fell back against the couch in disbelief. Lucas’ words echoed in my mind, “A lot of things are simple if you accept them.”

“What?” Willow asked, looking up from her phone.

I shook my head, “Nothing. Does it say anything else? Maybe like who I can talk to?”

“It says here we need to find a shaman,” Willow replied, matter-of-factly.

“Do we just Google that too?” I asked sarcastically, rolling my eyes.

Willow shrugged, “Might as well! We’ve already got the tab open.”

I laughed and Willow typed into the search bar once again. A map of potential shops and communities appeared for us to visit. I couldn’t believe my eyes.

“This really shouldn’t be so easy,” I commented, reading over the list of people.

“It won’t be. Most of the people on this list are probably fake, and we’ll have to go through them all to find out. Luckily for you and I, our BS meters are the best in the nation,” Willow joked, making me giggle.

“Well since I have a free day now, I guess we can start with-”

Willow held up her hand, “Hold up. I still have to go to work in 2 hours; I can't go running around the city with you today.”

“Will, I can't go by myself,” I whined, pouting out my bottom lip for good measure.

“No, you can't. Let's hold off until tomorrow when both of us are off.”

“Nah-uh. I have two rehearsals in the morning, and then work.”

"Sunday?”

I mentally ran through my schedule. I was free on Sunday, “Yeah, Sunday is good.”

“Good! I'll drive.” Willow teased, knowing I didn't have a car. I was saving up for one though.

I rolled my eyes, “I mean, we can take the bus, Princess.”

“Nah, I'll definitely pass on that.”

I chuckled, “I thought so.”

Willow grinned, “I'll text you on Sunday when I'm on my way. In the meantime, let’s do some more research on this Dreamwalker thing. How did you become a Dreamwalker, and how does it work? Is what you're seeing a dream or is it another reality?”

All of a sudden Jun's face appeared in my mind. I remembered the feeling of his arms around me, and the warmth of his breath against my ear.

...And a tiny part of me started to hope that he was real.

“I-I’m not sure,” I replied, the uncertainty clear in my voice.

Willow patted my shoulder sympathetically, “We'll figure it out, girl. Try not to worry too much.”

I swallowed the lump of fear and worry in my throat, once again grateful that my best friend was here, “I'll try!”

Willow hugged me tightly, “All right, since I've discovered you're not dead, I'm gonna head home and get ready for work. Make sure you write down whatever information you find tonight, and we can talk about it on Sunday.”

I returned the gesture, thinking about all the things I needed to write down. I probably had an empty notebook somewhere in my apartment.

Willow hugged me one more time before she left, and I was alone with my thoughts again. I walked into my room and took a seat at my computer desk, powering up my laptop. I spent the rest of the day doing research on Dreamwalkers, taking a few breaks to eat and shower.

Finally, at 2 am, I was too tired to read anything else. I climbed in bed with the pocket watch in my hand, running my fingers against the cool metal in the dark.

“Since this hasn’t chimed yet, I can’t go back,” I said out loud in the darkness, to reassure myself. I could feel my eyelids getting heavy, my exhaustion hitting me all at once.

This time when I went to sleep, I didn’t have any dreams.

End Chapter 3