When you’re the only one left in your state, your country, or in your world, you’re never alone in your head. There is imagination to be spread.


Stay Seventeen

Driving home was easy, going to sleep was not. I lay in bed, wondering about her, just thinking. Then I fell asleep, I dreamt. I dreamt of her and I, we were together, hugging and kissing…But then turned to smoke in my hands. This smoke covered my body, leaving me breathless. I jumped up as I awoken, seeing blood on my sheet. I coughed and coughed really hard until blood spurted out. I ran into my bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror. I saw that there was a red ring around my neck, like someone just finished choking me with a rope. I washed my sheets where the blood was and went back to sleep. Same dream woke up with more blood. I needed to know why this was happening, so I drove over to the hospital at 2:43 in the morning.

The nurse walked in. “So Aiden tell me how you’re feeling.” She said. I explained to her about my dream, and that I woke up coughing up blood. The look that came upon her face was horrid, as if she saw some sort of evil monster thing. “I’m going to get the doctor, I’ll be right back!” She said as she stormed out the room. I waited patiently as the doctor came on a few minutes later.
“Aiden Monroe, correct?” He stared at me intensely. “Yes…” I replied. He gave me a very serious look. “Listen to me. And don’t be afraid, okay?” I rolled my eyes in my head. He paused for a moment, and then continued. “These sort of…sleep disorders happen to not many people in the US. Maybe just 100 or so a year. Look, Aiden, I’m not sure how to tell you this. I don’t know if there’s a pill for it, but…” I interrupted him. “What’s going to happen to me?” The doctor looked away. “If you keep having these sorts of dreams and coughing up blood, you will eventually…die.” My eyes widened. “What? Isn’t there a pill for this or…something?!” “No,” he sighed. “I don’t think so. You could go to therapy, but it may not work. You can’t help it, Aiden. These dreams are just going to keep coming. Maybe it’s your time.” “My time?! I’m sixteen! My birthday’s in a few days! How much longer do I have?!” I was hyperventilating badly. The nurse calmed me down. “Aiden, we don’t know how much longer you have. It may take a few months, or days. All you can do now is wait.” I stood up with my hands in my pockets. “Okay then. Thank you for…letting me know, I guess.” I walked out and drove home. I walked in my room and sat on my bed. I heard a loud noise come from downstairs. Like a gunshot. I ran down to see, but no one or nothing was there. I shrugged, walked back up, but when I reached the top step, Selene was there, grabbing my waist.