When we all fall asleep, where do we go?
-bury a friend, Billie Eilish

It is a lie that you do not dream.

Everyone dreams. Dreams are the essence of life. These 'non-dreamers' who swear upon the deities they believe in are the ones who forget their dreams rapidly at the sudden consciousness of the waking mind. We do dream and then forget like insignificant details of a good story. That is the cycle for these non-dreamers.

What about the dreamers?

Being a dreamer is a blessing and a curse. It's a paradox and at the same time, oxymoron. It is either an escape from reality or the reality bleeding in thoughts. Dreams are the visions of future, bittersweet memories wistful or hopeful outcomes of the present. This is where our soul goes when we are sleeping.

Dreamers are the ones who are able to harness these fragments of images they see when they are the most vulnerable during a 24 hour time period. That is when they let sleep posses them with it's heavy drugs and lure them into a state of calm delusion.

Only few of those dreamers are lucky enough to remember these images so vividly like a realistic painting that hangs on many walls. Making it appear it exist, as if its there.

I am one of those accursed dreamers who live with this blessed curse of remembering his dreams vividly enough to produce a painting out of, except I am no painter.

I wake up with a start, cold sweat sheathing my feverish body. My eyes fly wide open trying to distinguish between the image of the objects in my room illuminated by the moonlight pouring in from the windows and the distorted images I was seeing a few seconds before, draped in a similar silvery light. My heart is racing, mouth slightly open to gulp down air to my lungs. My arms throb with pain from the deeds I have done blinded by lust of pain.

I sit up, letting the covers fall from me, as I walk to the French windows and open it lightly with shaking fingers to let myself out in the connected balcony. The sudden cool breeze hitting my bare skin sends a chill down my spine. Enough for now to distract me from the unwanted thoughts. Putting my hands on the railings and bracing myself with my head tilted down, I calm my heavy breaths to normal. I close my eyes when I feel slightly better but again open them quickly like a reflex action as the distorted nightmare pops in for a second, shaking my inner sense.

Again. The same images. They won't stop appearing in my sleep when my mind is vulnerable, unconscious due to the drugs induced by sleep and exhaustion after a long day.

They are just stupid nightmares, Edward. Insignificant. They are wisps of nothing. Nothing. Forget them.

I look up at the dark sky adorned by the few stars that can be seen. A full moon night, one that lovers talk of seeing their significant other's reflection in and poets writing their love to.

A wave of emptiness washes over me at the thought of love as I trail my hand over the healing lines on my skin. A hollow feeling settles deep like an intruder inside me, making my mind blank of any thoughts that were clouding my senses. The October winds were snaking it's cold tendrils around my skin which makes me succumb back to the warmth of my room after gently shutting the balcony windows I came through.

Tying a robe around me while flinching at times when the soft material frictions against my arms, my feet quietly trod upon the path to the kitchen downstairs on it's own with my eyes barely making out the images in the darkness of the house. A sudden sound halts my path as a step is outreached on the threshold of the kitchen door. I stay frozen for a few second praying that it is just a figment of my imagination, the after thrill of the nightmares.

But no, I hear a sound of wood against ceramic this time causing my heart to lurch. Praying that a thief has not entered my parent's beloved home, I reach my hand towards the wall and flick on the lights in hope the intruder does not end up attacking me in the process.

"Dani?" My voice comes out hoarse which assures me that my body recognised the parched thirst of mine to lead me here.

Hazel eyes peek out from a curtain mess of dirty blonde hair to see me staring at her, briefly looking at the clock, past 4 am state . She stays like that, unmoving, in her grey overlarge hoodie with a bowl of something in her hand. I never found her in the kitchen at this time.

"Hmm, morning I guess?" She says like a child caught with her hand in a jar of cookies.

I let my eyes gaze at her antic as I grab a glass to fill it with water and gulp it down with relish. While getting a refill, I hear movement from her direction and see that she is hiding traces of her late night eat.

"Dani, what are you doing up so late? You should be sleeping peacefully in bed now.", I ask after done quenching my thirst completely, my concern for her bordering on curiosity.

My disregarded sleep induced haze forces me to observe anything occurring at this state of my mind. She bites her cheek while moving her hair out of her face, tying it up in a makeshift bun with few wisps of hair come out of it. Then she pulls her sleeves over her delicate hands while hopping from foot to foot.

"Why are you awake so late with comfort foods?", I ask yet again.

She finally meets my eyes and I can see those dark traces of sleep deprivation in her barely open gaze.

"Well, see brother, I remembered just tonight that I had an essay for English to submit tomorrow, I mean today if you get it, and considering my grades of junior year depends on its words, I had to stay awake and do it and while doing so I got hungry and yeah that's it".

"Daniella, calm down. I'm not an inspector doing an investigation. Why are you even bothering to answer me?", I say with light humour, hoping to ease her nervousness. 

"You asked me Ed, that is why I answered. Now excuse my poor soul and goodnight. "

She flashes her teeth in a sort of some smile with a hint of wryness before walking out of the kitchen, perhaps to her room hopefully to catch some sleep before her school tomorrow. I mean today, my bad.

"Goodnight", I say to no one.

Yes.
Finally.
The first chapter.
We have our our MC caught after 4am lurking in his house after a nightmare woke him up. My poor baby. Now my 2 am self is going to go and sleep while you let me know what do you think.

Love,
Luna.