“I wonder if in fact your dreams are my dreams.”

☆

The cliff… that same cliff once again. The darkening sky, the wind and the crashing waves…  It was all there, laid out in front of Adam, apart from the scream. 

Adam cautiously moves his hands from his ears. A habit he had adopted over time in readiness for the piercing sound, but there was no such sound to be heard. He looks down at his feet. He is again in the same spot as he was when he had last ended up here, when he had taken that drink from that old crazy woman. And he had done it once again. When will he learn to not take strange mixes from people? 

The sight before him had a sense of familiarity about it. But whereas before, there were two figures, this time there only seemed to be one. A body laying on the ground. Still and lifeless. Adam instantly puts a hand to his mouth. Were they dead? 

He finds his feet quicken in pace as he makes his way towards the still figure. As he gets closer and closer he sees the body on the ground…. A child. “No,no,no…” Adam crashes to his knees. That fact alone was difficult enough to take in. That a child was in front of him needing some kind of medical attention, and he felt totally helpless  whether this was a dream or not at that moment, it didn't matter. The child's clothing was wet. Their chest looked like it had a strange dark stain over it, blemishing the otherwise white cotton. But what got Adam the most was the familiarity. The face. That face. At that moment he knew who the child was. 

“Isaac?” He utters a little cautiously at first but there is no response. “Isaac… Isaac.!” But again the still body gives nothing away. 

Adam reaches out his hands and puts them on each of the child's shoulders. He begins to shake as he should with all of his might. “Isaac!”

***

Isaac jumps himself awake, needing a moment to process the voice which had woken him. “Adam?” He stays still as still in the bed, eyes scanning the room, waiting for an answer, but there is no reply. He sits up in the bed, he continues to look around his room as he calls again. “Adam. Are you here?” Silence is met like before. His room looked as it always did.  He could have sworn he had heard his voice. Then his phone begins to buzz. Isaac pulls the device from the nightstand, seeing the very man's name in question written across the screen. “You're calling me.” Isaac says down the line, wanting to get to the point. 

“I'm sorry. I didn't intend to phone you now. I know it's probably not a good time…”

“No… not now on the phone, what I mean is. I heard you call my name.” Isaac says, again with clarity. He was certain of it now. 

“I… I did? …. I did.” Adam is now the one to feel confused. He had indeed called Isaac's name in his own dream. That was why he was calling, “How do you know that?”

“I heard you. It woke me up from the blackness. So did you really call my name or not?” Isaac scratches the back of his head in wonder. He didn't need to overthink this. It was complicated enough. 

“I saw a child lying still on the cliff, in my dream.  Not too far from the edge. They were alone, but it was not like before. The screams were gone. As I got closer, I saw it was you. It was you Isaac. You as a child.” Adam swallows hard before he continues. “You wouldn't wake up. I thought you were…. I called your name.” 

“Wait…. You saw me? On the cliff?” Isacc sits bolt upright in the bed. “Surely that's a coincidence. How can you dream my dream?”

“Your dreams?" Adam begins. “I wonder if your dreams are in fact my dreams.” Adam furrows his brow in thought, trying his best to explain, though he didn't quite know how. “Is this why we are drawn to each other? Is that why there is this connection? “ 

“I'm coming over.”

“What? Now?” Adam runs his hand through his hair as he looks around him. “It's late.” 

“We need to talk in the same room.” Adam hears Isaac shout. His phone had been switched on loud speaker as he heard the opening and closing of drawers as the other male was evidently getting dressed in something more suitable. 

“Ok.” Adam rolls his shoulder a few times cursing and blessing Jojo's medicine in equal measures as the odd dream had at least made way for a physically painless body. 

“I'll be half an hour.” Isaac abruptly ends the call. Adam looks down at his phone. He felt a mixture of fear and excitement with the thought of Isaac coming over. He knew he had to let his guard down. No more hiding behind the nightmares. No more pushing them to one side, to deal with them alone. Something was bringing them together and whether they wanted this or not, together they had to figure it out once and for all.