I lay my head down and close my eyes to dream. As I slip into the peace of oblivion, I wonder what world I'll go to today. The dark surrounds me as I begin to sleep, but soon it is replaced by a large room with doors all over the walls. Above each door hangs a display. On each display a different scene is playing out.

  One showed a girl getting married and dancing with her husband. Another depicted an epic battle between two glorious armies. This is my life, my power. I walk through other worlds in my dreams.

  Sometimes the dreams are based around history, and sometimes they're based off of something I watched or did that day. Occasionally they're even more original, being about something I don't really remember, though it had to have happened at one time or another for me to be dreaming about it...I think.

  On one of the screens there is a child sitting in a dark forest, cold, scared, and alone. He sits there crying, begging for someone to come help him, to show him the way home. I don't recognise him, but seeing him there breaks my heart. The poor boy....I walk through his door, he won't be alone any more.

Once on this side of the dream, I see my reflection in a puddle of water on the ground. In this world I look about 11, not much older than the boy. I have red hair and I think my eyes are blue. It's never the same. In these worlds it changes every time, though I seem to be ginger a lot, probably because I wish I was in the real world.

  I walk over to the boy and put a hand on his shoulder. "Hi. Are you lost?"

  He looks up at me with tears in his eyes and nods a little "Y-yes. do you know where my home is? I lost my parents, we were out for a walk, and I lost them..." He is shaking, both from the cold, and from fear.

   I take his hand gently and help him to his feet. "I'll help you find them." I smile softly at him. "What's your name? I'm Emily." While I talk I reach into my bag and get a pair of gloves and give them to him. The poor boy was turning blue!                       

  "I-I'm Daniel." He slowly takes the gloves and puts them on his freezing fingers. "You know where my parents are?" He looks hopeful, but almost afraid to trust my help. It's amazing how real these dreams could be sometimes!

  I slowly shake my head. "Not exactly, but I can help you get out of this cold forest." I take his hand. "Let's go. If nothing else, you can stay at my house for a while." I smile at him and we start to walk.

  "But, how can you know your way out of the forest? it never ends. I've been walking for hours and hours and I'm still stuck here." He looks down. "I don't think there is a way out at all anymore. I'll never find my mom and dad..." He tries to hide it, but I can hear hopelessness in his voice. He really thinks he'll be alone forever.

  "You will find them, and until you do, I'll stay with you. We can look together. Won't that be much better than being alone?" I hug him for a moment before pulling away. "Now, lets keep moving. It's getting very cold out here." I take his hand and we walk for a while. It's strange, normally I can take complete control in my dreams, but in this one the pictures are more vague. I normally would know where his parents were, or I could just make them appear, but here? No, here it's different. Here I feel like we both have to search. I know a safe place though, so I lead him there.

  Eventually we arrive at a little hut in the middle of the forest that I know is my house. "This is my house, you can come in for a little bit if you like. It's warm, and I can get you something to eat." I smile kindly at him. "You don't have to be alone anymore."

  He looks at the house like he isn't sure if he can trust it or not. "Are you sure it's safe? Won't your parents mind?" It's interesting how quickly he seems to trust me. What am I thinking? Of course he does! It's my dream. Isn't it? It's weird I can't control it all, but it isn't that different from my other dreams.

  "It's fine, my parents wont mind at all. I bring my friends over all the time." I smile at him. "You'll be safe here." I don't know why, but something about this forest makes me uneasy. A sense of uncertainty I'm not used to radiates through it. I finally manage to talk him into going into the house. Just as we were entering, a giant wolf comes running out of the shadows, it's eyes glowing red with large teeth and claws bared. He pounces at the boy and I stand in front of him "No!" With a single thought I send the wolf flying back toward the forest. He tries to come back, but whimpers and runs away as I stare him down. Well, there was that question answered. This definitely wasn't real. I could never do anything​ like that if it was real.

  I walk into the house after the boy. He watches me with a new-found awe. "W-what are you?" He asks in amazement. "You got rid of it." A small smile spreads across his face. He appears to feel much safer now.

  I smile a little at him. "I'm a telekinetic." Or at least in this world I am. Sometimes I choose different powers in different worlds, but that seemed to be enough here.

  "What's a telekinetic?" He asked. He seemed quite confused. That was weird. Usually they just understood me. This one was much less predictable than most. I kind of liked it. It made it feel like I was actually helping someone.

  "A telekinetic is someone who can move things with their mind, like I did to the wolf." I smile a little and lead him into the kitchen. "What would you like to eat?"

  "Can I have pizza?" He asks politely.

  "Of course you can! I'll make it right now." I smile at him and go to make the pizza.

   While the pizza was in the oven we talked for a while. When it was done, a loud ringing went off in the house.

  I wake up, in my bed as usual. I let out a soft sigh. I really wanted to see how that one ended... I get out of bed and put on my glasses.

  Unlike in my dreams, in the real world I was quite the unimpressive person. I was a nerd, a quiet, shy nerd. I didn't have any kind of powers. Nothing about my life was really that interesting at all. Maybe that was why I had learned to lucid dream so vividly, so that at least I could pretend interesting things happened to me. I got dressed in a t-shirt and jeans and walked down to breakfast.

  "Morning, Mom." I smile a little at my mother who was just putting my breakfast on the table. A boring breakfast of eggs and bacon. It was good... just, boring.

  "Good morning, Emily." She smiles at me. "Did you sleep well?" She asks. I nod.

  "Yeah, I slept fine." I smile a little. I don't tell people about my dreams. They'd probably think I was crazy if they did...

  "That's good." She smiles "Oh! Before I forget...I was talking to our new neighbours yesterday, and they said that they were looking for someone to watch their son tomorrow while they're out at some kind of conference or something. I told them that you watched kids from time to time, and they seemed interested..."

  "You told them I'd watch him, didn't you?"

  "Yes I did. Will you?" She smiled a little at me.

  "Of course I will." I laughed a little. "How else will I fund my addiction to comic books." I smiled. "What time do I need to show up tomorrow?"

  "They were hoping about 2 in the afternoon." She answered.

  "Okay, I'll go over then." I smiled a little and ate my breakfast. I ate quickly and picked up my bag to go to school. "See you later mom."

***
After school, I came home and did my homework. I somehow wound up awake until late writing down a story about the dream I had last night. I rarely got to finish my dreams, so I made up endings for them.

   I climb into my bed and fall aleep, but instead of the control room, I skipped straight to a dream. I see the boy in the forest again. He sits there, still alone and crying. Just behind him I can see the wolf getting ready to pounce.

  I quickly jump in between him and the wolf again, and the wolf takes off running. He looked up at me and smiled a little. "Emily? You're back!" He grins and jumps up, hugging me tight. "I thought I was alone again."

  I hug back, surprised, but happy. "Of course you're not alone, Daniel. I promised I'd stay with you, didn't I?" I smile a little more. 
 
  Suddenly, as happens in dreams, we weren't in the forest anymore, but back in my house. "Now, I think I know how to find your parents." I smile at him and help him get dressed in a coat and gloves.

  "You do? But...how do you know the wolf didn't eat them?" He looks worried.

   "He couldn't have eaten them, Daniel. They're still out there, they're looking for you with their friends. I saw a search party earlier." I smile at him and gently take his hand in mine. "They're safe, and they're looking for you." We walk out into the forest again. This time I know what to do. I couldn't just skip through this dream like the others, but I could still use my abilities to find his parents.

  We walked for a while, looking for his parents but we never found them. As he got more and more scared, the forest grew darker and darker... But...I thought this was a dream! how come I can't help him? I should have control here. It's my mind after all! Isn't it?

  We walked for the rest of the night before I woke, once again, to the sound of my alarm. I got up, very confused. It was my dream, wasn't it? How come I couldn't make his parents appear? I sighed and walked downstairs. At least I had a job this afternoon.

  "Morning​, Mom." I smile at her as she puts pancakes on the table. It was Saturday. On Saturdays there were pancakes, unlike on other days.

  "Good morning, Emily." She smiles at me.

  I smile back a little, though I am still confused, and I eat my breakfast. Once I was finished I walk back up to my room to write for a little while before I had to leave for the job.

  I come down again at about 1:45. "Bye! I'm going over to the neighbour's house if anyone needs me."  I leave the house and walk over to the neighbours house.

  I walk up to the door and ring the doorbell. A woman in her thirties of a relatively slim build answers. "You're Emily? Liz's daughter?" I nod. "Okay, come on in then. Our numbers are on the fridge, along with a list of Danny's allergies, he's allergic to peanuts, but that's about it... Your mom said you'd need to know that." I walk into the house after her, listening to her talk.

  "Yeah, that's just about right." I nod. "If you're going to be out late I'll also need to know what time to put him to bed, but other than that I think you're all set." I smile a little.

  "Okay, well, we should be back before he's supposed to be in bed." She smiles back "Hopefully we should be back by about 6, but just in case, he should be in bed by 9." I nod a little. A little boy walks into the room.

  "Mommy, do you have to go?" He walks over and hugs her. I can't help but smile a little at how cute he is.

   "Yes, I do, but here. This is Emily, she's going to stay with you while your dad and I are gone." She smiles a little and points over at me. He looks up and my jaw almost drops open. He looks just like the boy from my dreams!

  "Hi..." He looks like he isn't quite sure whether he can trust me or not. I kneel down next to him, smiling softly.

  "Hi there. How would you like to hang out with me for the afternoon. We can watch TV, or play games. Or whatever you want." 

   He nods slightly. "I...I guess that would be okay." He smiles a little bit at me and I ruffle his hair, standing back up.

  I talk with his mother about a few last things before she leaves, and then I look back over at Danny. He was watching me. He looks curious, like he wanted to ask me something.

  "Is something on your mind?" I smile a little. "You can ask if you want."

  "N-no...it's nothing..." He sighs. "Can I watch TV?" He asks quietly.

  "Yeah, go ahead. I'll make popcorn." I make it then sit down and stay with him while we watch TV. We stay there until dinner. By bedtime his parents still haven't shown up so I send him off to bed. About a half hour later I hear him whimpering in his sleep so I go to check on him. He was having a nightmare...I frown a little, then I get an idea.

  I go back into the other room and fall asleep on the couch, I enter the same dream again. This time though, I still look like what I would in the real world. I find Daniel again. He had been surrounded by wolves, and they were getting ready to pounce. I hurry over to him and push the wolves back again, they disappear into the forest. I kneel down next to the boy. "Daniel, there's something I need to tell you."

  He looks up at me, confused. "Who are you?" What? Wait! Doesn't he know who I am? Oh...that's right... he isn't used to seeing me in his dreams like this. I go back to the form I had before.

  "I'm Emily. I'm not a part of the dream. I'm your babysitter." He looks confused, very, very confused.

  "W-What dream?" He shakes his head. "And I don't have a babysitter. I'm alone, I was completely alone until you came..." He looks down. He looks like he's about ot cry. I frown a little. He doesn't realise this was a dream. Well of course he doesn't! otherwise he would be able to make this stop.

  "This dream, Danny. You're dreaming. It's just a nightmare. That's why I couldn't just take you to your parents earlier. It's your dream. You're in control here." I sigh. He isn't going to believe me. "I'm a dreamwalker...I thought it was my dream, but it isn't. I walked in on yours."

  He doesn't look like he believes me. "How do I know you aren't just a crazy lady..." he shakes his head. "How could this be a dream?"

  "It is a dream. Just..." I sigh. If he doesn't believe me, this wasn't going to work. "Just try believing me! I mean, isn't it weird? Why would a crazy lady like me be able to do things like this?" I make a little flower grow from the ground right where next to him. "And you have even more power here than I do. You can make the sun rise." I smile at him. "This is your dream, you can do anything you want to." He looks afraid, probably afraid to believe me, but he nods a little and looks up to the sky.

   The next moment it was the middle of the day. Instead of being a frightening place, the forest was now a beautiful place to be, with birds chirping and sunlight drifting through the trees to the ground where we were sitting.

    He looks up at me and smiles. His parents come running out of the forest just next to us and pull him into a hug. "Thank you." He smiles at me as he is hugged by his dream parents. I smile back.

  The next thing I know I wake up on the couch in the neighbours house, his parents had just come back. I get up a little bit sleepily and tell them that he had been very well behaved. They pay me for watching him and I go home and back to sleep.

  I fell asleep and showed up back in the control room. A part of me wonders which dreams are mine, and which ones are other's. I grin and look around the room. This was so much better that I thought! I pick a door and run through, off to a new adventure. It could be my dream, or someone else's, and I can't wait to see how it turned out!

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LiviieMarie

Word count, 2961 words.