A Dream Come True

 What if I told you that sleep was the most dangerous activity I could possibly perform around others? Laugh perhaps? Or maybe you'd ask why, and when I told you then you would laugh and roll your eyes. Maybe call me names.

My parents know the truth, but they prefer to hide it; telling me it was best if we just pretended it wasn't real, that it would go away eventually. They wanted a normal child, or at least to pretend to have one.

At 16 though, it was harder and harder to be the kid who wasn't allowed to out at night or allowed friends over at night.

No explanation of course ever really helped in my having friends either; after all, they all came across as some form of sickness that inevitably I would get laughed at for.

That's me, in the deep purple hoodie, hair cut short and jagged and face down; yeah I'm crying into my lunch a little that fine. It's the school's fish sandwich; I wasn't going to eat it anyway.

Today's breakdown is brought to you by the haircut actually, Mindy and her clique thought it was funny. I had been growing it out for years now, ever since it was burned one night, in hopes of maybe fitting in just a little bit.

Should have known better, I'm not allowed that kind of happiness. Not with this curse.

"Hey this seat open?" another girl's voice, unfamiliar though; I look up.

It's the new girl, just transferred today from West L HS. She has the goth/emo vibe going on, plus a little "The Lord of the Rings" branded notebook.

The rest of the school Goth crowd usually just leave me be, a few of them might slip me food if my lunch gets swiped, but for the most part, they keep a distance. The last time they played the black knights a mandatory uniform policy got floated around until they backed off.

Might as well get this over with.

"Yeah go for it, but Mindy might give you shit for it which means principal Rutherford breathing down your neck."

"Mindy is a bourgeois bitch with daddy issues. She can suck it." The new girl, Angella I think, plops down while I giggle.

"And if the principle is like that with her own daughter's BS, she can too. Won't be my first expulsion." She sips her chocolate milk and rolls her eyes while I go bug-eyed. This girl is either talking tough to look cool or actually doesn't care, regardless it's nice to have lunch with someone.

"I'm Angella by the way, I'll assume any name I've heard from the crowds isn't your real name."

"Uh, I'm. Shaelin. Yeah no, I uh... don't have the best reputation." Now I'm nervous, of course I am; can I not for 5 minutes be mildly normal?

"meh, neither do I girl, neither do I. So what are the odds I get expelled if I give Mindy that same fancy hairdo she gave you?"

I sputter for a moment.

"Oh please don't it will be sooo much worse after, please it was weeks after the last person did anything for me before I could breathe right again. Just leave it." I'm begging, tearing up more, I must look pathetic.

She puts a hand on mine.

"I getcha, it's alright; I'll leave it be." She smiles a lot brighter than she dresses, and I flush as I pull my hand away.

We sit for a few minutes, her eating as I sit awkwardly.

"So" She starts suddenly making me jump. She's smiling again.

"From what I hear, your parents have some strange reason not to let you out at night. Disease, mental illness, some other random shit. All of it smells worse than a gym teacher. So what's the real scoop mate?"

I shake my head, "You wouldn't believe me, so just. believe whatever ya want"

"Nah give to me." She's rubbing my hand, and my brains all foggy now.

"I uh... when I sleep... Bad things happen. It's... hard to explain." I fidget, waiting on the rejection.

"Fuck yeah mysterious bedtime shit, I'm in for that. Sounds a bit far-fetched, but I’m down to check it out." Her eyes are manically wide and interested.

"M...my parents wouldn't let you in! They'd make something up and make you leave!"

"Your bedroom got a window?"

"No it's a hazard... why?"

"Bathroom?"

"Yeah, the second floor across the hall... what?"

"Cool just pop it open before you head to bed tonight, and I'll slide over!"

My brain freezes. is she... planning on breaking into my house... to.... to see me?

"You.. you can't! Dad locks the door to my room at night, you'd never get in!"

"Then I'll slide in before that happens. I can hide till he locks up and leaves."

She is so serious about this, her eyes are set like crystals.

The bell rings and I jump.

"Tonight then!" She winks at me while standing up before I have a chance to argue.

I float through the rest of the day in a confused and excited daze.

Mom says nothing when I get home with my hair a wreck, just rolls her eyes and goes back to the computer.

By the time dad's home, my homework and chores are done, his gaze goes right over my head as though I left home that way.

I'm still riding that daze, but it's begun to fade into panic and worry.

What if, for once, it doesn't happen; and then I look like a fucking idiot. Surely the fact that my room is sealed like a vault at night is enough to prove something right? And my sleep clothes, would my normal outfit be weird? should I put on something else?

Still nervous as I unlock the bathroom window, brushing my teeth, I nearly jump out of my skin when the screen pops almost silently out and Angella crawls in.

"Right across the hall, you said?" She whispers, and I nod; scared to fuck everything up by speaking. She came prepared, jeans and a thick t-shirt. I feel less self-conscious about my sleeping attire.

I hold my breath as she slides out the bathroom and across to my room, no one notices.

By time I slide into the room and shut the door behind me, Angella has a metal detector out of her bag. I hadn't even noticed the bag, much less the duffel she seems to have prepared.

"Reinforced concrete walls and a vault door? Something strange is happening in here for sure." She's whispering and there’s that glowing smile again, glad she believes me at least.

I nod and grab my own prep bag out of the closet.

Angella says nothing, just raises a brow and lies on the bed.

Dad's feet come down the hall. "Good Night." "Night Dad."

The Heavy Thud of the massive lock reverberates for a moment, and all is quiet.

"So how’s this work?"

"Um... I sleep, and uh. Well you'll see."

She smiles and gets comfy on the bed.

"I've uh. I’ve never had someone in bed with me... not sure how quick I can; Ya know." Jeez. I sound pathetic.

"Oh totally get that." She pulls a camping chair from her bag and sits beside the bed instead.

"Thanks."

Then the night is quiet. The lamp goes off, and I lay down. I’m drifting faster to sleep than usual, and here I thought the nerves would make this hard.

I dream of a deep cavern, red and hot. A lava lake bubbles in the distance; when I open my eyes only minutes after closing them, I know it happened once again.

Angella is beside the bed gaping at the deep red portal that opened at the foot of my bed, through which a lightly glowing cave can be seen. My dream portal.

"It's the volcano, fuck, okay. Grab your things; we need to go through before the room fills with toxic gas." I snatch my own bag, drowsy but practiced, and walk toward the portal.

Credit to Angella, she didn't need told twice; grabbing her own bag and following after.

"This will feel really weird for now just follow me; I know a safe place on the other side." The gasses are already starting to leak in. I can smell the sulfur in the air.

Rushing through the portal, feeling its effects tingling along my skin, I lead Angella across the cave to a large hole in the wall big enough for us to side-step through. Evidence of my past occupation is scattered about, a couple of cushions, a small collapsible desk, and a spare laptop.

"Come here often then?"

"Yeah, it's one of the more common destinations for the... portal thing. It's why there aren't any smoke detectors in my room, they would go off at least once a week for basically nothing."

"So uh... how long are we here for?"

"oh... uh.. see the thing is, most of these places are kinda... on a different time scale than ours. Like some are in fast forward, some are in slow motion. Technically it's 8 hours in our world till the portal closes. But in here it'll be 16 days." I'm worried about her response. There wasn't a good way to warn her about that, but now she's trapped with me.

"16 days! Hot Shit I can get my Homework done then maybe. At some point. Wait. If it's 16 days. Won't another portal open when you ya know, eventually have to sleep. Or do you secretly also only need a few seconds once a month or something?"

I sigh in relief at her enthusiasm and then giggle. "No it only opens 1 at a time, so until that one is gone, I can sleep safely. They don't get extra time or reopen if I'm already asleep when they end, which is... a bit of a double-edged thing."

"You've gotten stuck inside before?"

"Yeah, slept through the portal closing; turns out our world comes up kinda rarely. Thankfully the time thing meant it was only a few extra hours, and I was only late for school. Can't exactly go "Sorry I'm late, I was trapped in another dimension"."

"Wild. So what else is here besides this cave, can you get outside of the mountain?"

"What? No, I uh. I never try. It's... I'm already trapped in this cursed mess; I don't wanna get lost here too. Besides. It isn't like I would find anything but more misery if I did."

"Whoa Whoa Whoa Wait a minute. You've been getting sent to wild other dimensions with weird time rules for, I assume most of your life, and you've never gone out to just. See what's there? Look around and see all the cool shit! ADVENTURE my friend! You've a gateway to possibly infinite adventure! Why just sit here, when you can do things normal people only ever dream of!"

Shrugging I respond "Sure wander around and even if something cool happens? What just. Another weird thing that I can't talk about. Another "Weird thing". Get hurt and my parents have to make up something to justify it, and then what? Everyone just talks down and shits on me more? What's the point." I'm crying.

Angella hugs me, and just. Cradles me. While I cry. It's embarrassing but I can't stop. It's all just. Coming out.

I don't know how long I cry, just that at some point she slowly lowered us both to the ground while I sobbed, screaming about how terrible everything is, how much it hurts, my parents, Mindy, school, the principal. Everything.

By time I stop my body aches from it all. She's stroking my hair. It's nice.

"Would hearing my dark secret help. At least help trust me with this breakdown?" She's smiling at me again, gently though. It's messing my stomach up something fierce.

"maybe?"

She gingerly helps me sit back up, then stands across the cavern a bit. I've never seen her nervous, but she is now.

She jumps. High. Too High.

She reaches the top of the cavern, 3 stories easily, in seconds and then falls. I bite back a scream, terrified she will hit the ground and die.

She lands softly, so soft her knees barely bend; and even over the low rumble of the volcano I should have been able to hear her land, but nothing.

When she looks at me, a nervous smile on her face; but now her eye teeth are enlongated. Like fangs.

"o.oh... I uh... Are you a... a..."

"A vampire. Yeah. I am really 16 though." She blushes, vampires can blush?

"Wow...." I'm about to give a glowing "That’s so cool!" but remembering my own response to her saying that I stop myself.

"Does it... hurt?"

"Nah. Not my species at least."

"Species?"

"Yeah, there's a fair few, too many to list. They used to call them "lines" before it was better understood. Ya know with science and all that. You probably know of "Dracula" his "species" got renamed cause people were tired of being "Dracula Vampires". Him being a monster in a literal way and all that. Then I'm a "Dawn Vampire" or Vampír tis Avgís if you wanna get science-y with it."

I sit there awestruck.

"What else can you do!"

She smiles and reaches for my hand. Taking it with a smile and a wink.

"Not much, but come with me and will see how much I need to show off to explore this place?"

"Sounds great.."

---

With that we stood and explored the mountain; finding an exit eventually onto a beautiful island and I'd never felt happier.

When our time ended, she kissed my cheek and asked to come over again.

She came every night, and for the last 20 years, we've gone on so many adventures in so many places together.

But the greatest adventure came on our honeymoon, 10 years after that first night as I joined her in Vampirism. Those adventures, from the most mundane to the most magical, are tales for another day.