Prologue
"How... how are you here? You've only been in my dreams, you're only supposed to be in my head... Am I going crazy?"
She held her head between her hands, thinking of reasons why she would be hallucinating her literal dream guy. He was staring right at her with the kind and knowing eyes she had created. All the dreams she had had over the summer had been slowly building her perfect world. Everything had been her creation and she had to answer to no one but herself. She felt powerful in these dreams; she was the heroine, the creator, and the beneficiary.
It left her wanting a fantasy world to become real, was it finally happening? Or was her mind finally cracking under the pressure of reality? She couldn't tell. Her mind was racing as she lifted her face to look at this strange man again.
"Are you planning on answering me, Katie?" He said this rather impatiently. He had an air of superiority as well as authority. "Isn't that what you wanted? That's why you dreamed me up in the first place, to escape from the real world. That's why you read so much, why you avoid people as much as you can. I know you as well as you know yourself, I know this is what you want. Not everyone gets this choice. Not everyone gets to choose to escape reality.
He took a step closer to her desk, holding out his hand."You know you want this, you made this decision a long time ago. You made this decision before you even created me."
He was right of course. She remembered thinking a million times how much better it would be if she lived in a different place, where reality was what she chose or at least different than how it was now. Fantasy could become reality; that was what this guy was offering. She would want this desperately while watching movies, reading her favorite books, and even after she had woken from her dreams. There never seemed to be a moment when she didn't want to run away from this world.
Except when she was with Jared. Everything actually seemed right when she was with him. She finally felt accepted, wanted and even maybe loved. This just didn't feel like it was enough for her though. She wanted the whole school, her own family, the world. She needed to know that she had a place, but couldn't she just work on her social awkwardness and make things work in this reality with Jared?
This realization washed over her mind; thoughts becoming even more frantic. Now she wasn't sure at all what she wanted. She could live in this place that had depressed her all her life and stay with the one thing in it that made sense, or she could take this man's hand and live happily ever after in a world where she could make reality what she wanted. No extra work was involved in his offer. Her heart felt heavy, she felt this should be an easy decision.
His eyes glinted red in the light as she looked down at her hand. "Come on, this is what you have been dreaming of. It's the chance of a life time."
She raised her head, a determined look on her face, and grasped his hand. There was a sudden warm tingle that ran up her arm as everything around her warped and shifted into the shadows. Her last thought was of Jared's reaction to her absence, until her mind felt that tingle and nothing else mattered.
A big smile passed over his face as he led her into the darkness.