Chapter 1
Prologue
Recently, I've been having dreams. Dreams about so many things, people and places, sometimes I fly on the back of a dragon, sometimes I walk along a railway track disappearing into the horizon. Sometimes I'm on the top of the world, and sometimes it feels like I'm shouldering it. There's a smell so foul my eyes water, my hair stands on end, but I have to endure it. I'm walking across a bridge, and feel as if I'll explode if I don't scream, but how can I scream if I can't even breathe? There's a pair of thick, warm fingers around my arm, uncomfortably tight. A glittering mound of repulsive gold. A tall hooded man with a sad face, as pale as chalk. Fear coursing through my veins. A lamp that moves by itself. A hand rubbing my back. A giant radish. Blood on my hands. A paper figure.
"The train used to run in both directions but these days it's a one-way ride."
I don't understand it. Any of it. The dreams scare me, because they have a strange power over me, they're like a familiar song, one that only your heart remembers. Each day when I wake up I remember less, and it scares me when I realise that everything I recall now is only a small fraction of what I once knew. It feels like I'm trying to catch rain with a tea strainer. I'm scared because I know that one day I'll forget that I ever had these dreams. I'm scared because I could have lived a whole other life and I'll never know.