He couldn’t remember what happened during his sleep. He couldn’t grasp how long he had been sleeping, and how much time had passed. All he could see was darkness. He wasn’t sure if he was in a dark room, or if his eyes were closed. He tried to blink, but nothing happened. There was still darkness. He realized something strange with his circumstances; he wasn’t able to tell if he was blinking.

“Maybe the nerves in my eyes disappeared,” he thought to himself. “Or, it could be sleep paralysis again…”

He attempted to move his feet. It was the first method he used in order to break out of sleep paralysis. However, he realized that he couldn’t feel it either. Maybe someone had locked him in a black coffin, and injected some antimuscular or antisensory substances within him. After trying to move other parts of his body, he gave up.

“Why can’t I feel my body? This is odd…I should be able to at least move some part of my body and feel it moving too…”

It was possible that he was having one of those “out-of-body” experiences – he didn’t know. He decided to try and open his eyes again. During other instances of sleep paralysis, he’d been able to open his eyes, albeit only slightly and with significant effort. He wanted to see what situation he’d gotten himself into, and if he was truly within a dark coffin, or still frozen on his bed. His attempt, again, failed. Desperate, he decided to try and invoke a reflex to make his eyes open. He thought hard in his mind, trying to replicate what would cause him to blink. He imagined himself getting dust into his eye, remembering how much it would irritate his eyes and force them to close and reopen.

It worked. His vision recovered, and he felt his eyes creak open. Something was going on in front of him. The darkness that consumed the light parted somewhat, and he saw what appeared to be a person in front of him. As the darkness slowly dissipated into the light, he squinted his eyes. He tried to bring the scene into focus, but the strangeness of the encounter and extreme contrast between the light and dark made it difficult to see.

He saw a single figure approaching him. He couldn’t see any particular features of the person at first – the glare from the light darkened the features of the person. As the figure came closer, he could distinguish a few things.

Whoever it was, it was a girl. The dim light weakly grabbed onto her, elucidating her physical appearance. There was no doubt; the soft shoulders, curvy waistline, and slender legs revealed it. Her long, black hair swished from side to side behind her as she walked further into the darkness. What was she doing here? He tried to grasp the situation he was in, but his attention was focused on her.

The more he looked at her, however, the more he felt confused. There was something about her that was familiar, but he couldn’t put a finger on what it was. He felt a memory trying to surface from the deep confines of his mind.

“Hello? --- are you ---?”

He could imagine her lips moving, but he couldn’t hear everything she was saying. It seemed her words were blocked – they were replaced with incoherent sounds.

“--- I ---- you’re ----! Please, where --- ---?”

The words were cut out again. Her voice seemed urgent and scared. He could feel the beginnings of a headache.

“--- where ---?!? – don’t want -- -- live ---- this…”

There was sorrow and desperation in her voice. It echoed in the darkness.

“--- before it’s --- late, -- must ----! You’re ----- my ----!

Even though he couldn’t hear the words, he seemed to know what she said. The dull pain that was in his head became more severe.

“---! Pl---, we ---

This time, the words were cut off. Something grabbed her from behind, its arms locked around her waist. He saw her being pulled into the light. She struggled to break free, but it was no use – the arms were too strong. He watched as she was lifted into the air, her legs flailing like an unruly child being forced into timeout. He could see opening to scream, but he couldn’t hear any of it. The light was just too bright, and he couldn’t see the would-be assailant. There was something about her and the unknown figure that brought up feelings of nostalgia, as if he knew exactly who each of them were.

A sudden burst of pain erupted in his mind, forcing him to recede. Everything was dizzy and blurry. He could feel his eyes and his consciousness collapsing. The brief window of light that had shone so brightly was dimming, with the two silhouettes being slowly engulfed in the dying light. He felt so useless and pitiful, not being able to help this girl who was looking for him. In the end, he could only look only helplessly as others suffered. As his eyes failed him, he felt himself becoming engulfed in the cold darkness. He could feel it permeating his body, entering every orifice without resistance like the air he breathed in the real world. Sheer terror and helplessness overtook him as he felt himself slip away. He opened his mouth in desperation, trying to scream at an unknown force that took pleasure in showing the extent of his weakness.

++++

I opened my eyes, and found myself staring at the ceiling of my room. The light from the midnight moon bounced throughout the room. I instinctively closed my eyes; it was too bright. Opening my eyes with caution, I let myself get accustomed to the light.

My head was throbbing with so much pain; it felt like someone hit me across the head with a baseball bat. I could feel my blood pulsing – no doubt my heart was also stressed and overdoing its job, having attempted to rile up energy against an unknown foe. I tried to sit up, but I was brought back down to the bed as the room suddenly started to spin in every direction. Resignedly, I lifted the comforter up to check myself – I was hot, and soaked in sweat. I didn’t have to remove it to feel the sweat being leeched off my body and absorbed into the comforter and the bed.

I tried to sit back up again, this time supporting my body with my arms. I needed to calm myself down. I crossed my legs, and positioned myself into a meditative position. My head and heart were still stressed, and it made it a bit difficult to concentrate. I controlled my breathing, slowing it down to a steady pace. I closed my eyes, trying to focus on nothing. I let my mind wander, creating things that would never be possible in this world. It settled on one – a quiet, tranquil island. A place where I could think and act in whatever way I wished for. A place where no one could tell me what to do. A place with no pressure.

I could see myself lying on the beach, digging my feet into the coarse grains of the white sand. The sun would gently warm and massage my body, coercing my muscles and mind to relax, telling them that there’s no longer anything to worry about. I would feel the balmy sea breeze pass over me, the familiar smell of the salt filling my nostrils. The rhythmic sounds of the ocean lapping continuously at the beach, in a futile struggle to overcome gravity and invade the land, would cuddle my ears, tempting me to fall into a satisfying and soul-nourishing nap. I would wake up, and see a person, one that I had not seen in a long time. My mind was not being kind to me again – I was not expecting to see this. In my mind’s eye, I strained to see who this person was. It was a girl, and she seemed so familiar. There was something about her that seemed so familiar, as if I had actually talked to her in real-life in these utopian conditions. I could feel my mind trying to grasp at some vague memories and thoughts, attempting to unlock an object hidden within the deep confined of my memory banks.

I felt something explode within my head once more. I opened and squinted my eyes in a mixture of shock and pain, and fell forward onto my bed. I gasped for breath as I tried to get myself together again. I was close to reaching whatever memory it was.

“What the hell is with my dreams, and this pain?” I muttered to myself.

There was something that I had to find out. Even though it was painful and possibly life-threatening, I needed to try and recollect whatever it was about her. I straightened up my body and closed my eyes. Deep breaths. I needed to calm myself down first.

“I think it’s enough self-searching for tonight – I need to get other things down for now.”

I opened my eyes. The room was no longer spinning. I still had some dull pain from whatever it was that blew up in my head. I looked at my dresser - I blinked as I recovered from the brief but blinding light reflecting off of it. It was strange how the top, being flat, was able to send the light back into my face. I looked closer, and realized it was the fault of some jewelry. Lying on the dresser was a necklace and a small bracelet. I stared at both of them in silence, trying to remember how they got there.

I continued looking around the room. Everything else seemed to be in order. To the left of the dresser was a small metal bar. On either side of it, the wall jutted out in such a way that it attempted to fulfill the role of a closet, with both side of the bar attached on both sides into the two partitions. There was no cover that hid clothes from view. Although it wasn’t a closet, it seemed to have the same scary feeling like a real one. An eerie darkness embraced the hanging clothes, and I couldn’t make out their outlines, even with the unusually bright moonlight. A few feet away, my roommate’s bed sat empty, its covers thrown over in a mess. It, too, was covered in puddles of darkness. It was as if someone had condensed darkness into water, and sprayed it all over the mattress. How interesting that would be, to bottle darkness up and carry it around.

I laid on my bed, and closed my eyes.

It reminded me of the fear of the dark that many kids had in the past. There would be a lot of talk about the dark holding dangerous and supernatural creatures, and how we would all express how scared we were. We would cringe hearing about the things that happened, and even make up our tales and monsters. Among the many creatures, the boogieman was the most common. It was said to hide underneath our beds, waiting for the right moment to strike. Caution was the motto,  and wariness of any limbs dangling was the axiom. The movies, too, took the matter seriously, but only in the sense of monetary gain. The stereotypical situation was that a character, fearing the boogieman, would slowly lean over his or her bed. In most cases, it was child’s play to get yourself grabbed – you’d leave yourself extremely vulnerable that way. It wasn’t limited to the Boogieman, however. We would talk about other creatures like werewolves, vampires, ghosts, and everything in between. Our minds and imaginations were aflame, attempting to make every possible evil-looking creature come into existence.

Such stories, of course, were only fantasies. In the back of our minds, though, we knew they weren’t true. There was no way such irrational things existed in this world. And yet, we wanted them to exist. We engulfed the stories of heroes fighting darkness and evil in all forms, protecting the innocent from their clutches. Whether it was holding magical powers, or being skilled in fighting styles, we all took our pick at how we wanted to save the world. The other kids always talked about the fame and glory that the heroes had, and how they envied them so. But I always wondered if that was truly what we wanted. Instead, it was more than that. Even though we were still young and immature, we wanted to feel like we were making a difference in the world. We wanted to believe that we had the power to fight back, and show that we weren’t useless. Our imaginations turned the unknown darkness into evil, which served as a scapegoat for our lofty ambitions.

My sweat and fever already over, I sat up, uncomfortable. It felt like something – or someone – was in the room with me. I looked around the room once more. I couldn’t help but suspect the darkness was concealing something from me. Something that a part of me preferred stayed hidden.

I laid down, covered myself with my comforter, and closed my eyes.

I wanted to stay in the dark.

+++++++++
 

"So you must remember this - this phenonmenon is what allows each and every one of you to live. It is a simple, yet critical mechanism that allows your body to utilize oxygen as the final electron acceptor..."

The teacher's stern and unempathatic voice, on top of the boring and uneventful hour and a half, was leading the class to tears and sleep.

“Hey, you should really pay attention…”

Trying to keep a façade towards the teacher, she whispered to his friend next to him. He was focused on writing something.

“What are you doing?”

“I told you – I’m writing something.”

"Exactly WHAT are you writing?" She glanced over at the desk next to him, his eyes attempting to decipher the chicken scratch that had been plastered all over the paper.

"Wow, can you even read that?"

"Yes. Why?" He glanced at his friend, and continued writing. He left hand scribbled at a furious pace, trying to keep up with an imaginary deadline.

"This isn't the time to be writing stories, you know....This lecture is over one of the hardest topics in class. Can't you put that off?"

"No. I must do this. It's important." She couldn't tell if he was being seriously sarcastic, or sarcastically serious, or a terrible mix of both.

"Why would you-" She was cut off by a booming voice.

“Excuse me!”

The sudden exclamation woke up the class. All attention was on the teacher. There was a moment of awkward silence as the students followed her gaze to the unfortunate soul who had aroused her anger.

“It seems you’re eager to answer the question Elia, seeing as how you’re making a lot of noise back there. Care to answer it?”

She suddenly stood up straight in her seat, the unwanted attention squeezing her into the position. She looked past the teacher, towards the board. On it were  were massive formulas and text, spanning from one end to the other. The miniscule font made it nearly impossible to read, much less answer. A circle was present on the right side, waiting for a victim to fill it with an appropriate answer to the mind-numbing equation.

"Umm..." She gripped her head with both of her hands, indecisivenss gripping her being simultaenously. She glanced briefly to her left, her friend giving a mixed look of empathy and discontent on the desk. She squinted his eyes at the board, attempting to pull an answer out of her bodily crevices. “The answer is…out?”

The room was filled with suppressed giggles and silent condemnation. The teacher's face crumpled, her face scrutinizing her target.

“Let this be a final lesson to you. If you put the same amount of time you talk to others into studying, I daresay you would be the smartest student in class. But the harsh reality is, you’re not. And your lackluster grades reflect that. If you want to pass this class, I suggest you start paying attention – NOW.”

The verbal beating was expected, but the final word was said with such force that several students jumped in their seats. With the agonizing moment finished, she bent her head down in shame, her body engulfed with hot embarrassment and anger. The teacher continued her talk, her eyes scanning the room for someone else to answer. Her gaze quickly met with a student. Unlike Elia, however, she was expecting it.

“You there. Please explain this process and provide an answer for us.”

“In this scenario, the entire basis of the process depends on the relative levels of air pressure between the lungs and the atmosphere. Inspiration occurs when the muscles in the rib cage contract, expanding the chest cavity. This is coupled to the contraction of the diaphragm, which expands the intrapleural space, causing the lungs to expand as well. This causes a drop in the partial pressure of the lungs. As a result, air outside the body, having a higher relative partial pressure, attempts to fill this drop in pressure, and air enters the lungs. The opposite occurs in expiration. The diaphragm ultimately pushes on the lungs, causing its volume to fall. Consequently, this results in increased partial pressure in the lungs, and air is exhaled to the environment, which has a lower partial pressure. To answer your question, the partial pressures given on the board indicate that the latter occurred – expiration.”

Her voice was calm and relaxed throughout her answer. The class couldn’t help but express signs of jealousy and awe at her straightforwardness. Several students in the back mumbled insults. The teacher, thoroughly satisfied with her pupil’s answer, did not hide her expression – it changed from one of condescension to admiration.

“Exactly! Very well put answer! I’m happy to see someone who knows what’s going on in this class, and one who has no hesitation either! I hope all of you realize how much more studying you have to do." She turned back towards the board, and continued writing. The student who had answered remained focused and still - she continued looking forward, ignoring the death stares of the students around her.

"Ugh, that damn girl..thinking she's better than anyone..." Elia, humilated and anger by what occurred, lowered her head and clenched her fists. She turned back towards the one who started it all. "Great job getting me in trouble!"

"Sorry about that. I wasn't trying to get you in trouble," he said with guilt in his voice.

"Hmph."

"I really meant it when I said I had to write something down. But you didn't have to be so pushy about wanting to know why, though."

"Fine, fine, it's done and over anyway," she replied nonchalantly, her anger already gone. "So, what was it that you had to write?"

He looked back at his notebook, and whispered. "I had this really strange dream last night..."

"Oh? Strange? What was it?" A curious tone resonanted in her voice.

"It's like...you've had those stories where you're running from something, or someone, right?" She nodded. "This one was kind of the opposite...Someone was running to me, while I was trapped. I was probably stuck in sleep paralysis, but I managed to wiggle out of it. The other person was in trouble, and I wanted to help, but before I could, another person came in and kidnapped her..." His voice trailed off from his whisper.

"Hmm, interesting dream..." She laid back in her chair, and tried to think. "Ah! Maybe it means you've gotta do something?"

"Probably, but I don't know what it is." After he spoke, his eyes met with the teacher, who was scrutinizing the two of them again. He suddenly sat up, trying to pretend he was paying some attention. "Psst, let's just talk after class, okay?"

She nodded silently, her body frozen by the devious white eyes of a teacher scorned.

The rest of class passed with a dull, if not intimidating aura. The digital clock, hung above and to the right of the board, radiated the time:  2:15.

"Alright, class is over. Read over chapters 6 through 10, and make sure you do the difficult questions. Hey! It's your necks on the line, not mine." Her last sentence was in response to the class's collective groaning over the large amounts of homework.

"Augh, that was such a long and boring class. She really is a scary one." Elia stretched her arms together into the air, trying to release the boredom that had seeped into her body.

"Yeah, it was." He waved his arms back and forth, trying to stretch out. "Looks like the rest of class thought the same..." A large crowd of students were gathered at the front of the room, all trying to escape as quickly as possible from the room. They both looked at each other, and decided to wait until it was clear to leave.

Their classroom was not too large - it was made to accompany approximately 200 students, enough for most of the middle-tier classes. Though most people left through the entrance at the front of the classroom, another exit was present in the back of the room. The classroom was organized in an amphitheater fashion - a sloped, semicircular array of singular rows of block-desks were arranged to all face towards a wood-floored area in the front, the lowest area in the room. Normally designated for the attending teacher or lecture, two boards, a blackboard and a whiteboard, were installed in the wall behind it. Since teachers and professors had different paths in their methods of teaching, the university had decided to included the traditional chalk-format alongside the more modern marker-board. In addition, a mobile smartboard was also placed in the room, giving a touch more flair to how students were taught. A projector, hanging from the middle of the room, could also be used for displaying electronic media. After waiting for the majority of the traffic jam of bodies to leave, they both began walking down the grey-colored stairs towards the entrance. However, their attention was caught by a pair of eyes. It was the same girl who had answered the professor's impromptu question from earlier. She was looking at them.

Elia leaned her head over to her friend, and whispered. "Uh, why is she staring at us?"

"I...don't know. Let's just leave-!" At the end of his sentence, he felt something grasp his body.

Suddenly, the girl's eyes flickered. It was as if some mysterious source of light shined on her eyes, deflecting it back towards his eyes. For an instant, a terrorizing paralysis clamped onto his body. It was as if all time stopped around him and this mysterious girl. All the color in the world suddenly drained away. The gentle white color of the room sloughed into black, and the brown floor, too, tore open into a darkness.

"What...the hell...is this?!" Unable to speak, his exclamaton only reverberated in his mental cage. He twitched his eyes to the right - Elia was frozen in time, her face still holding the same skeptical gaze in the moment before. The color in her body was still present, albeit in a grey manner. She looked like the photos of old, when greyscale was the only method of optically recording the world. He could feel his entirety trembling in fear, unable to process what was going on. Trying to keep calm, he twitched his eyes back to his front. She was still looking at him. He could see her pupils moving, alternating between irregular cycles of expansion and compression. Her face was also frozen, emotionless.

Something began to form next to her. He could only see a faint outline of what it was. Portions of the decaying world began to coalesce into what appeared to be a spear. When it was finished forming, the darkness fell off of it in blobs, merging back into the dark floor from where it came from. 

"Is she...she's going to hurl that at me?!?" Panic and fear frolicked in his mind, unable to take action against this unknown adversary. The object began to right itself, oriented in his direction to be launched. "This....is how I'm going to end? In the hands of some reality-defying, possibly crazy, killer?" He closed his eyes, futilely trying to spare himself from some of the pain that he would soon experience. His thoughts, however, changed.

"If I'm going to die this way, though...I might as well not do it in a cowardly manner!!!" He opened his eyes again, his gaze set upon the whites of his murderer. The spear was levitating just above her hand, her posture not unlike that of someone about to throw a spear.

"Do it. I have nothing to lose now." Those were his last words in his mind.

The girl's eyes suddenly flickered again. Her pupils once again opened and receded in an unnatural pattern. He kept his gaze upon her as the strange action occurred. After several tense seconds, the girl's posture relaxed. Her left hand fell, and the object broke apart into miniscule fragments, returning to the dark arsenal from which it was pulled. His eyes moved to her lips, where words were spoken but not heard.

The world began to once again break apart, as color and substance regained their true forms. The darkness withdrew, losing it grips on time and space. Before he knew it, he was alive again.

"Yeah, let's go..." The words came from the figure next to him. However, he refused to move. He continued to look at the girl. "Hey, what's up with you?" Her hushed voice tried to grab his attention.

The both of them continued to stare in silence for several seconds more, before it was finally broken by the girl. She blinked, and walked calmly towards the now-empty entrance, and disappeared into the hall.

When she was finally out of sight, he fell to the ground. "Hey, are you alright?!?" Surprised by his sudden collapse, she kneeled down.

"Yeah, I'm...ok..." She put her arm under his left arm, and helped him back to his feet.

"Are you sure? Because that didn't seem like ok at all." Her worried voice made him feel more worried.

"No, I'm really fine. I'm just staying up too late at night, that's all."

"Oh....yeah, you really need to cut down on that. You're going to drop dead if you're not careful!"

"Hahaha, I know." His laugh was fake - he was doing his best to hide what just happened.

"Tch, so stubborn. Really."

They both left the building, and, after saying she was late for an appointment, they parted ways.

Making his way back to his dorm, he walked through the campus. As he walked up the stone-pathway, he glanced at the amphitheater. He wanted to watch some of the student-led activities they had here, but he just never had time. So he continued to walk.

He thought back on what just happened. It was surreal, no doubt. Most people would say they were losing their minds after experiencing something like that. It literally felt like it was taken out of a cartoon, or anime. But it happened, nevertheless. He wasn't on any reality-altering medication, nor did he have any conditions that would cause something that would make something so real.

As he trudged through the dimming sunlight, he repeated what the girl said.

"Mistargeted hostile entity. Analyzing new data. Creating new commands."

What could that mean? He was stumped. It could mean anything.

He felt his chest - his heart was still beating fast. There was no way he would relax anytime soon after something like that. All he could think about was her. Her short, blue hair, her black light jacket, and her brown shorts.

He held up his hand to his head, a new pain suddenly emerging. "I've had too much happen for today..."

Deciding to retire for the day, he skipped his dinner, and instead returned back to his dorm. After changing into his sleeping attire, he fell onto his bed.

"Life can actually be interesting, huh..." After several moments of daydreaming, his retired to his world of dreams.