Nerefa

Was spending time with my dad and he said "It just occurred to me in bardo that, this whole time, you wanted to spend time with me..." and he and stared straight ahead in shock as the realization hit him.

I nodded. I wanted that more than anything, but gave up because he was cold towards me. I tried for years and he always shot me down.
One time I asked if he wanted to go to this festival we went to once when I was a kid, one of the few memories I have of him, and he said "No, that's for young people. I don't do that anymore." with bitterness as though he thought I cared about the festival.
That was when I realized he didn't cherish those memories. I don't know if he ever thought twice about me and the more I tried to spend time with him, the more it seemed he didn't.

"...No one ever wanted to spend time with me. Why?" he asked me, looking so shocked, confused, and heartbroken.

I lifted my hands struggling to come up with the words, but gave up. "I don't know. Your my dad. I love you. And... I thought you seemed fun to be around, anyway." I said but couldn't hold it together and started crying. I had to leave, so I walked away.

I saw it on his face that he finally understood.
If only it wasn't a dream. I cried for a bit as I put away the dream ice cream I was going to eat—but no longer felt like eating—and then woke myself up because I was only dreaming to avoid waking reality. It's like 10 AM...

Was listening to my grandpa tell a story about how he purchased a boat to escape enemy forces during wartime and helped a bunch of other people escape, then built his house out of the lumber from that boat.

The whole thing seemed pretty out there and I thought to myself "Am I really going to believe that any of this is even remotely feasible when I wake up."

But I kept listening and made a mental note to remember it, nodding my head until he was done. Blood started coming out of his mouth and he lulled his head onto the table when he finished the story.

So I was like "Alright. Later, GP." and exited the dream. I was still asleep with all my senses shut off but was thinking about the dream to make sure I'd remember it. Then I heard the noise machine in my bedroom and played around with the volume, making it sound louder or quieter, just because I've been practicing lately.

Eventually woke myself up and immediately realized how dumb that story was.

Before going to bed, I told my SO about a strange feeling I had. "It feels like we're not alone. Like there's something in the kitchen." I said and shrugged, going to sleep without a second thought.

--- The Dream ---

Me and my SO were organizing our house and I found a pair of child-sized dolls with real black human hair. They were in the same area that corresponds with our kitchen.

I touched the hair and noted how it stuck into my skin and started burrowing into my finger.

“Well, these are definitely haunted.” I said.

I yanked the hair out of my finger and we arranged to meet up with a professional who could get rid of the haunted dolls for us. We met up at a restaurant.

“My rate is $500 an hour.” he told me off the bat.

My heart sank a bit as I wondered what I would have to do to earn money like that. That sounds like a lot. Sure, I could just materialize $500 into my hands at any moment, but that’s only useful for native laypeople (who don’t know the nature of dream reality) to spend on normal goods in dream world.

This guy is a lucid spirit worker. He wants payment obtained through legitimate means, not cheaply manifested dream notes.

“Do you have any use for my services? Would you be up for a trade?” I asked, but he shook his head with a politely dismissive gesture.

“Shoot. Alright. I’m not sure if I can afford your help. Do you have any DIY advise for someone with my abilities to deal with this on my own? I’n a… I guess you could call it a dream deity. This is my dream state right now.” I explained.

“So like a time traveler.” his assistant commented.

“Well, I can manipulate space, too.” I added.

--- Awake ---

Then my SOs work alarm woke me up.

--- Back to Dream ---

We were back at the house again. Sigh. That’s kind of embarrassing. Just as I’m explaining my abilities, I disappeared right in the middle of a conversation.

That is so something a dream traveler would do.

So I wasn’t feeling particularly competent by then. We loaded the dolls up into the car and drove to my grandfather’s house to talk to him. He was living with his girlfriend and was putting up some cabinets when we arrived, so I helped him out while we talked.

He asked us things like how it was going, and talked about his house. All was going good at first. I told him about the dolls, and he criticized everything I did, of course— because that’s what he does. Criticizing me over the dolls eventually evolved into them both blaming me for everything else in their lives. Even stuff I was completely unaware of/had no involvement in was all my fault and they reveled in complaining about me at length.

So I took the dolls out of the car and left them there.

--- AWAKE ---

Woke up in the morning shortly after. I told my SO and she lost it, thought it was hilarious because she knows how malicious my grandpa gets. Haunted doll problem solved the DIY way, I guess. lol Also it dawned on me afterwards: I forget who, but either the realtor or a family member had referred to this house as "the doll house."