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Dream or Death
by
Matt Robison
Waking up on a Monday for school is one of the most exhausting everyday exercises. John knows this, and he does not like to wake up ever. John hates waking up from his dreams because they are his reality. John's thoughts and feelings during the night are not like any other human's. Could this be because he is not like any other human? Or is it because his thoughts and dreams are all he has left and he wants to cherish them?
John would seem like any other ordinary thirteen-year old eighth grader. He goes to school everyday, and has his very own crush. Only if you got to know John would you figure out that he isn't ordinary, he isn't normal. He is all alone. Meaning that he has nobody but himself to depend on. He only has himself to care for, and think about. John dreams about having his parents back before they were brutally murdered.
John's parents were not just murdered, but by John's sister and brother together. They were both put into the "nut house," as they said when they were leaving. The two planned on killing their parents since the age of ten. They were twins and had to deal with their parents for eighteen years of their lives.
Now John seems to be somebody that the government would try to take care of. And the government did. They have tried to take care of John by putting him in several foster homes, but it seemed to the government for him to be better alone. They gave John a house of his own, where he would not have to pay for it or the food he eats. John has many times before tried to get a job, but they wouldn't take him without his parents' permission.
John gets up for school everyday, and goes through every miserable class waiting for the final bell to ring. He isn't the best student in school, nor the worst. John has no true friends that he keeps close to him, because he does not want to lose them as well. The kids at school are not the most appreciative for having John with them. They seem not to ever bother with him, or his weird dreams and fantasies. John sits in class trying to feel the same as he does in his dreams, but it never works. He always wishes that he could control the life that he lives completely, but his accomplishments in life never really seem to accomplish anything to John.
John's last dream, that he can remember, had to do with the person that means the most to him: Katie Thomas. This is the girl who means the real world and his world to him. She doesn't know how much he loves her, and he plans on keeping it that way. The dream was about how he has figured out every possible fact about her, and he showed her that she meant his life to him. As he may have suspected she pushed away and didn't want anything to do with him. This seems to be one of his dreams about her. Most of the time John always gets his way in his dream, but he couldn't control this dream. She seemed to be controlling it.
All of his dreams after that day seemed to be controlled by Katie, and it seemed like there was nothing John could do. He tried staying up all night instead, but the urge to sleep, the urge to go back to his world was too great. It didn't work, he couldn't stay up all night, he had to sleep. He had to have everything his way, but it never worked. She took over his world, and made him love it even more.
You may think that he would hate it if just any somebody took over his world, but that's the weird thing, Katie wasn't just any somebody. She was his one and only, the one he truly felt love for. She was his everything, she was his life, and her taking over his reality was the thing that he would like the most: her in control.
*******
As one day he went to school, he saw the most precious sight in all of history. Katie was there, standing at his locker waiting for him. His heart immediately skipped a few beats. She started to walk toward him, and he took a few steps back. He had a great feeling for some reason, warmth covered his body for the first time in months.
As she said his name, he couldn't believe what was happening. She hasn't talked to him since he told her how he felt.
"John, we need to talk about something," she said, "There is something I've kept inside for, it seems like forever."
"Wha... What is it?"
"The way you told me you felt, I need to tell you something about it."
John couldn't believe his ears.
But in an instant he could believe his ears. He heard his alarm clock, and figured it all out. It was a dream. All of it...
*******
In real life, John goes to his locker. As it opens, he finds a note in it. He unfolds the letter, and reads:
John,
I've been
waiting to tell you this for a long time. But I
know your dreams...
It was not signed by anybody. As John looked
around, he felt like he was being watched. He
did not actually see anybody watching him. He went
to class expecting nothing to differ from the norm.
Again he was wrong. After twenty minutes, he was
called down to the office.
"Do you know why I called you down here?" asked the principal.
John just shook his head.
"This was dropped off here a little bit ago," said the principal handing the item to John.
He opened the envelope and found a folded up piece of paper. He unfolded it, and saw a piece of paper with his poem on it. The odd thing was that the poem was only written in one of his dreams. This person doing this is starting to scare John. The rest of his classes were just normal, but John couldn't get the letters out of his head.
*******
As he entered
his house, he tripped on the couch, and hit his
head on the table. He got knocked out. While
knocked out, he had yet another dream...
John walked down a darkened street, he felt like he
had to look up. As he looked toward the blackened
sky, he saw letters re-arranging themselves. After
a few moments, the letters began to spell
something: EXPECT ME AFTER TWO MORE DREAMS.
John awoke after that, remembering what it said. He
fell asleep again, and had a dream about his
parents. That's one dream down, one more to go.
*******
The next day,
John's second class felt strange. Katie was in this
class, and she kept looking at John when he walked
in. He noticed a black piece of paper on his desk,
saying: EXPECT ME IN YOUR NEXT DREAM.
Everything got slow, and he looked at Katie. She
walked over to his desk, and said, "Talk to me
after class."
He was glad she was talking to him, and that made him a lot happier than he had been lately.
After class he felt really dizzy. But he had to talk to Katie. He saw her and started to walk toward her. About half way there, his legs became weak. He fell to his knees, and Katie ran towards him.
"John! Stay awake!"
But he couldn't help it. He lost all contact with his body, and collapsed on the floor. She grabbed his head, but he was gone. All he heard was Katie talking: "John, I am so sorry! I should have told you, but the dream you had about me telling you how I feel, I made that dream to show you that I love you. Please don't forget me! I will meet you when my time comes... ... Goodbye for now John."
*******
John turned to see his parents waiting for him.
"Mom, Dad... Thank you for waiting, but now I must wait for my love. I know she has been the one with the notes and the dreams. Thank you." He would wait at a gate, until Katie came.
*******
Two months
later, Katie got in a car accident. And for the
first time in a while, she saw John waiting for
her, and she said, "Hello..."
Now you tell me...
Is it Dream Or Death?
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