The Dream Valley Survey

Where does the line between the dream realm and reality begin and end? How do I know if I am awake or If I’m still asleep when both worlds feel like second nature to me? These are the questions I have been asking myself ever since my out-of-body experience when I was a child. I was about six or seven years old and I was sleeping over at my grandmother’s house. My cousin and I were sleeping in her bed until I woke up in the middle of the night. I don’t remember what time it was but I know it was the dead of night because even the streets were quiet. I saw a white glowing figure walking down the hallway. The figure was tall, I couldn’t see its face. When it passed the doorway and disappear, I ran to my grandmother who was sleeping on the couch. I tried shaking her awake but for some reason, I couldn’t touch her. I was like a ghost because my hands would go right through her. I was terrified. I thought  I was dead. Then out of nowhere, I felt a presence, like a being that was not supposed to be there. I turned around to see a child-like shadowy figure peeping its head out my grandmother’s bedroom door. I tried and tried to get my grandmother’s attention but she couldn’t hear me. With no luck with my grandmother’s help, I ran back to the room to see not one but five shadows surrounding the bed. I saw my body still in the bed next to my cousin. I looked down at my body and back at the shadowy figures. I didn’t know the weather to jump in now or wait. But wait for what? For these beings to take over my body? How was I going to get back in there? I thought. And then I thought about what my grandmother would say to me when I feel stuck or lost, she said to pray about it. I closed my eyes, put down my head, and started to pray. 

The next thing I remembered is waking up to the smell of pancakes and bacon being made. My cousin was not next to me when I woke up. I got out of bed and walked to the kitchen. My grandmother was cooking and my cousin was watching Curious George on PBS Kids. 

“Go sit in the front room baby, Nana is almost finished cooking y’all breakfast,”  Grandma instructed. 

I sat with my cousin but no amount of TV can erase what I saw last night. 

My cousin turns to me, being my twin, he always knew something was wrong. 

“Nee, what’s the matter?” He asked. Just thinking about it, I can still hear his little cute voice. 

I told him about what happened last night and even as a child, I knew he wouldn’t believe me. 

“Maybe you were sleepwalking or you just had a really bad dream.” He suggested.

“But how do you explain me running to grandma and I couldn’t touch her?” I rebutted. 

He was stuck with his response. I don’t know if it was his seven-year-old brain that couldn’t process it or if it just wasn’t real at all. 

Ever since that night, I have been having strange dreams and daydreams. Just last night I had a dream I was walking down a long hallway, the walls are beige with paintings hanging off them. Potted plants are sitting in yellow chairs in front of every closed door in the hall but each plant is dead, except for one. There was a chair next to the light blue door at the end of the hall. The plant that guards the blue door, stood tall, it was a bright red rose with thorns. And every time I get close enough to open the door, the rose will strike my arms with its thorns, and I’ll wake up with a scratch on my arm. I searched on Google, and I called local psychics, but still, it led me nowhere. The dreams were starting to get worst as the days go on. Days will turn into nights in a blink of an eye. My family hardly sees me and my friends feel like I am neglecting them. It’s funny to see people think everything is about them the moment you start going through situations you don’t have the courage to talk about yet. Your family thinks you are on drugs or getting bullied to silence yourself in your room. Only if they knew what was really going on. But just like my cousin not knowing what to think back then, what would everyone else think when I tell them what was happening to me? What good will come out of me telling them my dreams if not even my own twin could help me? They don’t have the slightest idea, the slightest imagination to understand. But I guess that saying is true, “What happens in the dark, will soon come to light”. One day in homeroom, everything is quiet. Mrs. April was at her desk grading paper, and my friends and I were in the back of the class trading answers via text since we couldn’t talk. And then I hear a knock on the classroom door. I must have been the only one who heard it because I was the only one who looked towards the door. The knock was pretty loud, how could they have not heard it? I stared at the door and the knocking stopped. Nobody came in and Mrs. April didn’t get up to answer it. I looked back down into my textbook and the knocking came back but this time it was louder. My eyes darted to peek at the door, but once again the knocking stopped and the color of the door changed. It was no longer the dull brown door with the small window in the center but it was the light blue door from my dream, with the same yellow chair, and the bright red thorn rose sitting right next to it. 

I looked around the classroom to see if anyone else notice the change but everyone was gone. The classroom was empty but everyone’s stuff and textbooks were still open, still on the same page but what was missing was the class itself. It's like they evaporated, leaving the class untouched. I got out of my seat and walked towards the door, it felt like the dream all over again. I reached my hand out to grab hold of the knob, but before I could, a faint but hoarse voice called out my name. 

“Janeen.” 

I spun around, and the whole class was back sitting at their desk but something was wrong with them. They were covered with dead leaves and the color of their skin was identical to the dead plants in my dream. They were this molded green color. They all smiled at me with their destroyed black teeth. And all in sync, they said, “ Don’t open the door, Janeen.”  

I turned to look at the door, the knob was disappearing. I try to catch it before it was gone completely but a green vine covered in thorns wrapped itself around my body. The vine picked me off the ground and twirled me around. The long vine trailed back to my best friend, Tabitha. The vine dropped me and when I collapsed to the floor, I woke up to the sound of the bell ringing for lunch. 

At lunch, my friends and I sat at our usual spot, the east wing hall, with a view of the football field for our amusement. While my friends talked about the latest school drama, I was caught staring down the dimly lit hall and saw a shadow move away from the blinking light. 

“Janeen?” Tabitha touched my shoulder. 

“Huh? What?” jumping out of my trance-like state. 

“Are you feeling okay?” She asked. “Lately, you haven’t been yourself.” 

I looked at the rest of the group and I saw that they were also concerned. We have been friends for years, and keeping this from them was killing me. 

“Yeah, I am fine.” I lied. 

Ethan threw down his sandwich. “You are literally the worst liar.” 

“What is that supposed to mean?” I said defensively.

“Janeen, we know something is wrong with you. Like come on, you literally stabbing your sandwich and looking off into the distance like you saw the person who killed your dog.” Ethan said. 

Take aback, I looked down at my sandwich, and with the splattered ketchup on my plate, it looked like a murder scene.

“Look, I am sorry. I just have been going through the worst type of spiritual awakening I guess and I just don’t know what to do.” 

“What do you mean?” Naomie asked. 

I explained to them the strange dreams I have been having, going as far as when I was seven, seeing those shadowy figures surrounding my unconscious body. 

“Whoa,” Naomie said. Her eyes widen with amazement. 

“And you have been having these strange phenomena since you were seven?” Ethan asked. Reaching for his laptop bag. 

I answered yes. Ethan got on the internet and began typing. 

“And how come you are just now telling us? Why keep it from us?” Tabitha asked. I saw hurt in her eyes and it made me feel bad. Out of everyone in the group, I always went to Tabitha for everything. That’s what made our friendship golden, we trust each other with every secret, every thought, and every trauma.  

“I’m sorry tabby, I didn’t mean to hurt you, I was just scared that you guys wouldn’t believe me, or thought I was crazy.” 

“Girl, you have always been crazy.” She said. Pulling me in for a hug. 

After school, My friends and I always go get Domino’s two-dollar pizza with two bottles of soda and picnic on the field at our school until the late hours of the night, but after my episode in class, I wasn’t up for our after-school shenanigans. But

Of course, they protested and try to convince me to stay, and that it would cheer me up. We stand in line for a while but something felt wrong. There was something in here that wasn’t supposed to be. 

I tapped Tabby on the shoulder, “Hey, I gotta go home, something feels off.” 

“What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know, I feel far.” I looked around, holding Tabitha’s hand. 

Tabitha grabbed my face and looked me deep into my eyes. “Hey hey, you are okay,” Tabitha reassured me, trying to keep my eyes focused on her. “Nothing is wrong.” 

But there was something. A shift was about to happen, and the room felt like it was changing. My heart began to race and my breathing was too hard to control. Tabitha grabbed me and held me close.

“Just listen to the sound of my heartbeat.” She said. Brushing my hair down as she tries to help me stay calm. 

Being in her arms soothed my panic, and I was really starting to relax. But 

the longer I held onto her, the slower her heartbeat was getting. Tabitha’s body began to feel stiff, her heart stopped beating, and her body grew cold. 

“Tabby?” I called her. Lightly shaking her. But she didn’t move. 

I slowly pulled away from her and my heart dropped 15 stories below into my bowls. Her skin was that molded moss green, her eyes are dead white, and that smile… she slightly opened her mouth and black goo began to drip down her lip. I wanted to pull away from her, but trying to shift my body away, she wrapped around her long vine-like arms, covered in sharp thorns around my body, and then, the creature said,

“Don’t open the door, Janeen. You won’t like what you might see.”

“Get off of me!” I fought back. Trying to jerk myself away, stabbing myself repeatedly with its thorns. 

“Trust me, all I want is to help you.”  It Laughs. 

“Let me go!” This time yelling at the top of my lungs. 

I fell backward, falling on my butt. My head is down, scared to look up at the things that are possessing my friends. Once I was able to catch my breath, I lifted my head and saw everyone in the pizza shop staring at me. Some were horrified, and some were laughing and recording me, but my friends looked at me like I wasn’t their friend anymore. They looked at me I was some crazy stranger. I looked at Tabitha, she was crushed. Crushed at the fact her friend is sitting in front of her hurting and she doesn’t know what to do to help. Ethan and Naomie grab Tabitha and she bellows into their arms. Causing enough heartache and making a complete fool of myself, I ran out of Domino’s and I didn’t stop running until I was far away.

After running as far as I can, I stopped at a bus shelter to rest. My lungs were burning, and breathing was a painful activity. Out of breath, lungs on fire, I was wheezing for water, but the store was too far and I didn’t want to go back up there. I’ll rather die from dehydration than go back up there. As I sat on the bench, my leg shaking from the pain of breathing, a passerby walked to the shelter. They wore a grey hoodie and jogger set and were carrying a stack of flyers. They hung one up on the window and they walked away.

I got off the bench to take a look at the flyer they have posted, I pulled it off the window and it read:

Dream Valley Survey 

Are you having dreams that feel too real? 

Are your dreams keeping you up at night? Causing you night terrors? If you answer YES to any of the following questions, please call this number: 1-800-555-3838 and tell us in detail about your dreams. I hope our service could be of help to you. 

I turned around to see if the hooded stranger was still there, but just as he came, he was gone, leaving the only essence of his existence on my mind. About time I made it home, I was so drained, I wanted to go to bed. But I wanted to call the number first and seek some help. I take out my phone along with the Dream Valley flyer from earlier. When I clicked my phone on, I saw I had 30 missed calls, all were from Tabitha. She texted me about 100 times but I wasn’t ready to talk to her, I had to deal with this alone. I clicked the phone Icon and began to dial the number. 

It ranged once and then it went silent. 

“Hello?” 

“Hello, and welcome to the Dream Valley Survey hotline. After the tone please state your name, address, and number, and then go into full details about your dream. After you have finished your recording, you may hang up and you will receive a call back in an hour. Thank you for participating in the Dream Valley Survey.” 

After the automated voice recorder stopped, at the beep I did as I was instructed. 

“Hi, my name is Janeen Paterson, I live at 5111 42nd St NW, Washington, DC, and my phone number is 202-567-8760.” I described my dream in lengthy detail and when I was done, I hung up. 

After a while, everything fell silent, my room was cold but the AC was off and the window was closed. I tried laying down but I couldn’t. if I lay down, I’ll fall asleep and miss my call. I check the time it was 8 PM. I was going to reach for my phone again but there’s a knock at the door downstairs. I crept down the stairs, with my phone’s flashlight on. I didn’t know what to expect, for a second I thought the dream valley survey people were at my door instead of calling me. I pulled back the curtains in the living room to see who was at the door and turns out it was just my friends.

“What are you guys doing here?” I answered the door. 

“We found something that you’d want to see,” Ethan said.

We ran upstairs to my room. The girls and I sat on my bed and Ethan stood with his laptop in hand like he was about to give a presentation. 

“So after your episode in class and at Dominos, I have done some research and I want you to know that you are not the only one going through this phenomenon,” Ethan said. Clicking through different tabs on his computer. “It's a wake dream state. This means you are consciously awake in both the dream realm and the real reality.” Handing us the computer. “This is a Reddit forum of other people who also experience dreaming awake.” 

We skimmed through comments and their stories and how similar it sounds to mine. 

“Does anybody talk about how to stop it?” Tabitha asked. 

“No, not really. Come to think of it, the people who posted their stories are from two and three years ago.” 

“Are you serious?” Naomie asked.

“Yeah, After they called this number….” Ethan took the computer back.

I hope he’s not talking about…..

“The Dream Valley Survey,” Ethan confirm. 

I slowly got up from the bed and walk to my desk on the opposite side of the room. 

“What’s wrong Janeen?” Tabitha asked. 

I picked up the phone. “I called that number before you guys showed up.” I looked back at my friends and the look on Ethan’s face told me I fucked up. 

Ring Ring. A block number is calling.