non-lucid

I woke up and I was on a bus. I wasn't too freaked out because I've nodded off on buses before. I was sitting near the front and there were two old ladies near the back. I could just make out what they were saying.

"Well, I'm somewhat glad we're finally on our way."
"I don't really regret anything."

I didn't think anything of it. I looked out the window and noticed this wasn't any usual bus route I remember. Instead of driving around town, we were driving across some kind of desert on a worn trail. The bus left a big cloud of dust behind it as it drove. I walked up to the bus driver.

"Hello, sir?" I asked.
He turned to look at me. "Yes?" he asked.
"I'm just wondering... where are we going?"
He looked solemn. He just turned away and said out of the side of his mouth, "Just... please, take your seat."

I was beginning to worry. I walked back to where the two women were so I could ask them.

"Um... pardon me a moment. Where is this bus going?" I asked.
They looked uneasy. "You don't know?" one of them asked. I shook my head.
The other just mumbled, "Oh dear..."
After a pause, the first woman said, "Sweetie... you're dead."
"...what?" I finally managed.
"Why didn't you tell him?" the second woman yelled to the bus driver.
"I didn't want to tell a kid the bad news!" he answered.

I wandered back to my seat in shock. After a while, I looked up to the driver again and said, "I can't be dead!"
"No?" he asked.
"No!" I said. "I was just napping in my bed!" This was true, I was napping around two in the afternoon when this dream happened.
"Really, now. Then why don't you just wake up?" he asked.
And I tried. I tried to wake up. I tried to open what was my physical eyes beyond what I could currently see and feel. After a while, I could not wake up. Panic began to build in me.

As time passed, some more people started to just appear on the bus. Some people in army uniform, more older women and gentlemen, but I just sat there not knowing what to think. There was so much I wanted to do. So much I didn't get to experience.

At some point, there was a bright light building on the horizon. We started to drive into it and it got brighter and brighter. When everything was perfectly white, I felt myself floating. Then I was on my feet and when the brightness went away, I was in my house.

"So... that's it?" I thought to myself. I wandered into the kitchen. I opened up the refrigerator looking to see if anything had changed. As far as I remember, everything was the same, which meant the fridge was not that full. "I'll have to go to the store later," I said out loud.

"The store?" someone asked behind me. It was followed with a disapproving sigh. I looked behind me to see who said that. Of all the people I hoped it wasn't, who I saw was at the top of the list.

It was the bus driver.

"I can't be dead!" I yelled. "This is my house! This is where I live! This is my neighborhood! Look!" I ran to the front door and opened it. I could look down the street both ways and it was exactly how I remembered it. "See!? I can see down both directions!"

He just shook his head at me.

"I-I can't be dead!" I pleaded. "There are so many stories I haven't written! So many comics I haven't drawn!"

"I'm sorry," he said. "We can't let anyone go back except for special cases."

"What about stories?" I asked. I knew it sounded ridiculous, but I had to try. "What if I wrote a story so good that they had no choice but to send me back to share it?" He shrugged. I didn't know what he meant, but anything that wasn't a flat out rejection gave me hope. I thought for a while. "I'll have to do it within a certain someone's lifetime..." I said to myself.

After that, I woke up. I laid there staring at the ceiling not knowing if I was really alive or not.