Disclaimer: I don't own Inception. If I did, trust me it would be a lot less confusing.
Another night, another dream. Except it's not really another dream; it's the same dream I've been having for a while now. It's just a normal dream (and that bit does change) for a while, and then I turn around and there's a handsome Englishman there. I don't know who he is, but I call him Eames in my head, because he's a lot like I imagine the guy my brother told me about to be. Yes, I realise that's quite weird, but it's my dream so whatever.
So this guy and I, we just sit there and talk. About anything. And it's my dream, so he ought to be my subconscious right? But he comes out with things I've never thought about, or never even knew. It's kind of confusing, and has even led to me keeping my totem on me most of the time. I haven't done that since the first couple of months after my brother left.
Even weirder, I keep seeing this guy who is literally identical to the guy in my dream. I genuinely can't tell the difference - hence the totem. And every time I walk past him, he always turns to look at me, and then makes as if to stop me. But I walk faster and he thinks better of it. It almost makes me want to talk to my brother, just for some reassurance that it is actually a dream and no-one's linking me up in my sleep or anything stupid like that. Crap, what if they are? I don't see how that would be possible though, and there's nothing people would want to know except my brother and I haven't said anything about him. Plus there are no projections. I thought there were always projections.
Whatever. Basically, this is how my story starts. Well, not the whole story, but the interesting bit of the story. To recap: there was some guy who kept showing up in my dreams. Wow I wrote a lot just for that. Never mind - my way's more interesting, right?
So every night I had the dream, and most days I walked past the twin on my way to work. And then one day, I guess I forgot to speed up, 'cause he grabbed my arm and pulled me round to face him.
"I don't know who you are, I don't know why you're in my dreams, but you are going to come and have coffee with me and tell me what the hell is going on." He had exactly the same accent as in my dream. Now I think about it, he never even gave me a chance to say no. How ungentleman-ly. Of course, that's not how he normally is, or I would never have... No that comes later in the story. Anyway, so he sat me down at a table and went off to get coffee. I didn't expect him to return with one for me, but he did. And the one that I told the dream guy was my favourite as well. Which just compounds the weirdness.
"Who are you?" Was, quite naturally, the first question he asked - before he even sat down fully. I just kind of shrugged and didn't answer the question properly; I've always been rather good at evasion. He gave me his name before I'd even asked, which I totally didn't expect.
"In case you're wondering darling, I'm Eames. Always have been, always will be." Things were most definitely taking a turn for the incredibly bizarre - so much so that I dragged out my little-used totem and dropped it, cross facing upwards. It fell exactly as it ought, which unfortunately ruled out this being an odder than usual dream. "You have a totem!" If he wasn't so composed, I'd imagine his mouth would have dropped open. But of course, having accosted me, he was now the epitome of gentleman-liness. Which isn't a word, but it's my story, and I'd thank you to keep your pedantry to yourself. So this guy was obviously in the business, or at least knew of it. I couldn't help but wonder if he'd had more contact with my brother recently than I had. Which was incidentally, nothing. I hadn't seen or heard of him for a long, long time.
"And you must be in the business." I told him. It was most definitely not a question. He acknowledged my statement with a nod of the head and I took this to mean that he was wanted in several different places, as I'd imagine most of them are. He told me to grab the coffee, and we were going somewhere more private. I rolled my eyes at the double meaning and followed him, as they are pretty used to violence. I was so late for work by this point that even if I did miraculously make it there in time to do anything, I was seriously considering not going at all.
We went to his apartment, though I seriously doubt it was his. Legal doubts aside, the whole morning so far was rather a cliche. Incidentally, it was a very nice apartment - pretty pictures and whatnot on the wall.
"You didn't tell me who you were." I figured he'd have remembered that. He was nice enough to let me sit down before he restarted on the questioning though. "You have a totem, and you know of the business, but I certainly haven't heard of you or seen you, and I know everyone." That last wasn't boasting, it was just a statement of fact.
"Yeah, I know." I had decided that I would try to come across slightly normal. "I suppose I could go into the business if I wanted - I have enough contacts. It's just that it never really drew me the same way it did- never mind. Point is, I know a fair few people, I have the relevant skills and as you saw, I have a totem. I just prefer my quiet little life with private, natural dreams. Only they haven't been recently. And I take it that yours haven't been either, or you wouldn't have stopped me. I don't understand" He still looked kind of confused, but oh well.
"And your name?" Oops. I did forget that bit, after all. I think I just ruined the good impression I'd tried so hard to make.
"I'm Anna. And you're Eames. Which is really fucking weird, because I didn't think I'd ever meet you." Yeah, he definitely thought I was a little odd in the head now.
"How do you know of me? I do generally try to keep a low profile." See, the thing is, my brother had told me all about him. Only, he'd also said that I shouldn't tell anyone I didn't trust about him being my brother. So, I had to decide whether or not to trust him. For: he knows my brother, and he's worked with him, so he must be fairly trustworthy. Against: I'd only ever met him in dreams. Plus that still hadn't been explained. At all.
"I'll tell you in a moment. I just want to know how those dreams worked." He rolled his eyes at me and indicated that we'd work it out after I'd explained it. "Fine. You know my brother, he keeps in contact with me, though he keeps changing phones. And I have a hidden one that I use just to contact him. My brother works with Cobb a lot. You know Arthur? The Fischer job and whatnot? Yeah, that one." He did look pretty thrown by that.
"Okay. That wasn't so much what I was expecting to hear. You're Arthur's sister? I never even knew he had one?" I shrugged, pretty nonchalantly, even if I do say so myself.
"Yeah, he doesn't want me to get in trouble for anything he does. And before you ask, yes that is the person that was drawn to the dream world as I wasn't." He was just looking at me, speculatively. "What? You're creeping me out..."
"Sorry. I'm still trying to get my head around this. It doesn't make sense." I sighed. I couldn't agree more. I mean, what the hell? Why had we been sharing dreams if neither of us knew why or understood it? Oh dear, and what would Arthur say if he knew? He had wanted me to stay as far out of it as I could. And that was what I wanted too, so I didn't know why I was still sitting there.
"Okay, I'm sorry, I have to go. Let me know if you find out how this happened, yeah? Thanks." I scribbled down the number of my special phone - the one that only Arthur knew about and left as quickly as I could. He looked a little bemused by my sudden and hasty departure, but I figured he'd get over it.
I didn't hear from him at all that week. I tried to tell myself that was a good thing, but the truth was, I wanted to understand how the strange dream thing had happened. I had normal dreams that week, as well. It was very strange. I'd got used to the dreams, even began to look forward to them a little because the dream-Eames was someone I could so easily get along with. Exactly a week after we'd had coffee, the dreams started again. The very first one was a little different than normal, because we'd both accepted that we were actually meeting each other. In our dreams, which I still didn't get. We spent most of that dream trying to figure out what the hell was causing them, but we both came up blank. After that, we settled into a kind of rhythm. He didn't contact me in real life, we ignored each other if we met in the street, and we both pretended the dreams were just that. It didn't work so well. I always had my totem on me - one hand constantly in my pocket, turning the beads of the rosary string over and over between my fingers.
In the end, I just gave up. I texted Arthur, asking if he could come see me, and decided that next time I saw Eames, I would walk straight up to him and tell him we needed to talk. Only, I didn't see him. Of course, he was still in my dreams, but I wanted to make a distinction between what was a dream and what was reality. Arthur was there in a couple of days. I'd always been able to rely on him, particularly when he was between jobs. When he was on a job, he often found it harder to get away and see me, but he had always managed in the past.
"Arthur!" Yes, I launched myself at him in the middle of the airport, completely ignoring the looks I got from everybody else. "Thank heavens, I need your help." He seemed confused, and sensing that I was about to tell him a lot of stuff that he was going to have trouble following, he told me to wait until we got back to my little flat.
"So what's got you so worked up Anna? I don't normally get such a screwed up text message from you." I at least had the grace to blush slightly. The whole thing had really been messing with my head. Especially the meeting in real life. And then not being able to find him when I did want to talk to him.
"It's kinda a long story. And it's kinda screwed up itself. And I still don't understand parts." He rolled his eyes at me, but settled back in a chair, showing that, as always, he was there for me to talk as much as I needed. "It all started in my dreams." At his look of alarm, I added, "No, like actual, I'm asleep, I normally see purple elephants in this sort of dream, dream. Though I don't generally see purple elephants either... Anyway, so here I am, asleep in my bed, not hooked up to anything, totem safely hidden in a drawer. Then, I have a normal dream for a while, but then I turn around and there's this guy. The first few times it happened, I was just a bit surprised, and accepted it as a recurring dream. Only I could never remember the first bit of the dream, and I always remembered the bit where we were talking. And we always talked about something different.
"On its own, that's not too bad. I could have dealt with that. Only then, when I walked to work in the mornings, I always saw the exact same guy as from my dream. He always made as if to stop me, and I just sped up. I didn't really want to know what was happening. That was about the time I started keeping my totem on me constantly. It was so surreal. And then one day, he did stop me. He made me come get coffee with him, and we talked a bit. We didn't quite work out what was going on though. I didn't have that dream for a week after that. Then they started again. And that's when I called you." He just stared at me blankly for a moment.
"I don't suppose you thought to get his name?" Arthur still thinks of me as his ditzy little sister. In all fairness, I suppose that's what I am. Even now.
"Yeah, but you're not going to like it. He Dreams as well. He was surprised by my totem, when I felt the need to test it. And you know him." Arthur pinched the bridge of his nose, sighing heavily.
"Please, please tell me he's not English." I blushed a little. Damn his super smart deductionary skills. Yes, I know I'm inventing words again. Like I said earlier, take your pedantry elsewhere. "Eames?" He asked, though it was more of a rhetorical question by this point. I nodded. "Little sis, I meant it when I said you should stay out of my world. It's not safe. And Eames is possibly the least responsible person you could have found." I shrugged slightly, not wishing to point out that I hadn't had a whole lot of choice in the whole thing.
"So what do I do?" He knew by the look on my face that saying forget about it wouldn't go down very well. "Don't say it, Artie. Don't say it. You know that I want something actually helpful." He rolled his eyes very obviously.
"Fine then. I suppose that saying find out what causes it and then make it stop would also not be appreciated?" He only needed to look at my face to have his answer. "Okay, maybe not. You know, I always thought you two would get along very well. I think it's because you share the same sadistic sense of humour." I didn't bother to deny it - we both know he spoke the truth. "I guess... the best thing to do would be to see him regularly in real life, and see if that stopped the dreams. You said they stopped for a week after you talked for real, yeah? So maybe the real life interaction was why they stopped. I don't suppose you have any way of contacting him? I'd rather not get involved."
"I told him you were my brother, just so you know. I figured he was trustworthy, and he would have eventually got me to tell him anyway, so I just figured it made sense. Sorry. And no, I have no way of contacting him." Thankfully, Artie didn't seem too annoyed. I thought he might have been.
"Fine, I'll give him a call." My perfect big brother. I kind of... Pounced on him? At that point. I threw myself at him, so he ended up on the floor with me hugging him. Tacklehug!
The dreams persisted, and I still hadn't seen him for real. It really bugged me. I had taken to just facing the other way in these dreams. I had asked him a couple of times if we could meet up again for real, to see if the strange dreams would stop again, but he'd just act all shifty and suspicious-looking, yes, I know, words, whatever, and say he was away for some business. Which lead to me ignoring him. Which lead to him trying to get me to talk.
"Anna, you can't keep ignoring me. It's been a week! Come on, talk to me. You know I'll be back when I can. I promise. Really. I will." I stayed strong. Which lead to him tickling me. And just for the record, I am extremely ticklish. Which is how we ended up in a very compromising position. I was rather glad at that point that it was only a dream, and that Arthur couldn't see. He moved straight away though, so the awkwardness wasn't prolonged. I for one, was really rather grateful for that.
"Fine, I'll talk to you here again. But would it have killed you to text or call? Seriously?"
A/N: Don't know where I'm going with this either. I'm clearing out my folders.