Abra

Woke up around 7, then around 9. Eventually my body felt strange and distorted and fuzzy in certain parts all at once, and I recognized that I was entering a dream. I waited until the transition was complete by attempting to see without opening my eyelids. It worked, so I sat up. No temperature change. I stood up and wandered around my apartment, rubbing my hands together to stabilize the dream. For some reason my bra was loosely on (on, but not clasped on), so I took it off.

My boyfriend was sleeping in the exact position in which I last saw him in real life.

"I'm dreaming! This is a lucid dream!" I exclaim.

"Very good," he responds, falling back asleep.

I want to check out my dream guides, who are faggots and like to hide in the woods. I live in a city now, so I reshape my apartment such that it has a sun room which connects to the forest. My two dead dogs are there, though I didn't put them there or think about them much at all, and I figure they want to go in the forest. I open the door and go through the forest. There is a fence, but I go under it. Unfortunately, behind the fence is an open field. I can see tall buildings from the city, so I jump once and fall, twice and fall, and then the third time I jump very high and turn off gravity. I start flying towards the downtown area and then. . .

My boyfriend bumps into me and I wake up.

Got up this morning at 6, listening to shitty late 80's pop with the usual cheesy intro riff and a high bpm loop of the same 10 second vocals. As it turns out, the entrance to a city marathon is right outside of the apartment I was in. Their idea of "workout music." After about two hours of being angry about it the race starts and the music stops and I go try to go back to bed, race announcer infrequently interjecting an otherwise smooth contemplation of descent. Before I hit delta wave, I was thinking how I'd escape if the apartment suddenly toppled. No intention of really sleeping or dreaming.

I felt the vibrations anyway, to my glee. I haven't recognized dream entry in a long time. After about a minute, the scene materialized as a false awakening, I was alone in a double-bed setup. I reality check, just to make sure, and then begin exploring the dream apartment. Pretty much the same, a bit cleaner, brighter carpets and more floorspace. I make my way to the balcony to jump. I start hovering, and look up at the sky. Completely overcast and bright, just as in waking life. I float away from the balcony. . .

My boyfriend wakes me, I feel exiting vibrations as he pounces on me, tugs an arm, wrenching me from the dream. I shake it off, audibly and grumpily tell him to back off. The louse cuddles right on top of me, and I settle back in.

It's... Still a dream? I didn't reopen my eyes for the scene to appear. There's someone on top of me, but it's not my boyfriend. This guy's taller, older by a few years, brown-haired, skinny, with rectangular facial definition. I stare at him a moment and fear flashes through his eyes as we both realize: we have to fight, as he's an impostor! He dashes out the bedroom and exits the apartment, slamming a door which I can't unlock. I can hear the elevator. Unperturbed, I jump off the balcony in a dive, the sky is murderous grey here, and the buildings are greater in quantity and more densely packed. I see For Sale signs on some apartment buildings, including the one I was in, as I descend. I land softly, on my feet. He's just now exiting through the front. I need a weapon, something with range. I reach behind me and whip out a bow and three arrows, firing them in quick succession, missing twice and hitting the third against a shield which he conjured. The bow morphs into a boomerang, which I throw. He jumps supernaturally over it. I fly up to avoid having to catch the weapon's hefty return. As it turns out, he can fly, too.

There's no fear here. Neither of us are afraid. I'm in it for the hunt, the adventure. He knows he's a minute dream character and will cease to exist after I wake, save in this dream journal.

But he chooses to run. He meanders under bridges and through smaller and smaller alleys, places with ceilings I can't fly through. I follow on foot, and spawn throwing stars. We're in a clearing with cement brick tiles and an outdoor cafe surrounding an open center. I can't throw the stars there. Instead, I fling them into the air, knowing by self-fulfilling lucid dream prophesy the exact points at which they'll land. Time for a new weapon. How 'bout a longsword? I know shit about swordfighting, by the way, he no longer had a shield but another two-handed sword, smaller, lighter. I'm nearly out-maneuvered when the ninja stars land, tearing a rip in the cloth of his shoulder, distracting him such that his sword disintegrates under one whack with my new hammer. He flees. Typical.

I follow, it's now a footrace with that announcer guy from the real world. People are watching us, which seems to amuse him for a bit, but ultimately he leads me out of the city. We turn one more corner, and suddenly he's gone. I take the time to materialize a weapon I do know how to use: a pistol. Amazingly it morphs right between my palms as I made my hands into a fake gun. I take off the safety, peer around the corner, business end of the weapon never leaving the direction of sight. The man comes into view again, and runs into a white domeish building at the end of a heavily-treed (mature trees everywhere, creating shade from the now blasting golden sun) parking lot. I follow in, of course. I slow my pace to a walk. I know what room he's in. The building is completely empty, like a house but with a big, auditorium room at the end. Bright maple flooring, polishes and clean, with sunbeams draping generously on the floor, through tall windows, coming from both east and west sides of the building. I've still got my pistol at hand. He's cornered in that last room. I cross the doorway and he appears out from behind a spiral staircase. He looks at my pistol, at his own, and nods. We meet each other in the middle of the floor, turn around, and start stepping. Annoyingly, with each step I drew toward the duel, I shifted back into the waking world...

Just got up from this one...

House shopping, with friends, deal fell through in my apartment or some such. At some kid's house, selling cages for lizards, along with the lizards. It feels like freshman year again, for a moment. This house is a mess, but we'll buy it and fix it ourselves, it's so cheap. Outside the kid's father is building a massive sculpture out of metal, beer and soda cans.

Mom and this guy are talking on the porch, and the yard's muddy and our three dogs are outside going to the bathroom. I can see my little sister in the sun room, and the house is looking more and more like my parent's house. I take a second to reflect upon all this, the end of summer, the dogs... Wait. Two of those dogs are dead in real life. And I last woke up at 6:30. I reality check (not that I needed it by then) to confirm I'm dreaming. My sister wants to join me, but I still don't see the point of bringing people I know in real life with me on my escapades. I tell her to stay and draw, because things are about to get strange.

The sky deepens to a rolling grey, and the backyard curves and stretches, bending upward such that I can see the forest slope into expansive, pristine wooded valleys. 'Bout 70% conifers. So I fly, and it's easier than ever. I push myself off the ground and pull myself higher. I'm not focused at all on the tactile of the flight, but on the unbelievable control I have, in these three dimensions. I take one last look at my house, with its muddy yard and mangled dead tree, my mother, my sister avidly sketching, and then I look forward, and ascend even higher, farther, until they're gone and I'm somewhere completely new. I want to know how high I can fly. I want to know if the scenery will remain realistic. I ascend to the edge of the atmosphere, deep, blue, glowing, curved. Then I dive, using the dive's momentum I level out with intense speed. Parallel flight, I reach a city. It's like my college town in that I feel welcome, among people who share similar values, but the people here are more willing to show how developed they are. There are no roads here. The clouds are dusty and cumulus now, golden-brown against a backdrop of glowing grey. I want to reach them, so I spire climb. I grab onto apartment buildings with my eyes, and fling myself around and past them (like a satellite breaking orbit), grabbing onto the next highest, and the next, building speed and confidence. Eventually I reach a clock tower, the highest building. I'm at the top, admiring the view, and a man grabs my ankle. He's on The Drug, can't leave The Drug, but is fine on The Drug and has a good honest job (he loathes) which pays for The Drug. I'm dreaming, so what will it do to me? I take a pill, yellow and blue, from this young blond, and feel the weight of my body. The scene becomes metallic, and there are people after us now, people belonging to this new place rather than the one I flew through. We must run, but I'm not sure if I'll take him with me. He won't move on his own.

Construction noises goddommot.