Abra

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...