I don't care what the action movies say; when a guy breaks into a person's house the first thought that enters their head is not to go all kung-fu on them. Trust me; I feel much different now with the barrel of a gun pointed at my face. My first instinct was to run, to scream, to hide from the menacing danger. The man who was doing this was saying something to me, but I couldn't understand a single word. I could barely hear anything other than my reflexes of fear kicking in. It was something about me being a spoiled, lazy teenager who had too much money for what I was worth, and he would solve that problem one way or another. Alex wasn't home. He couldn't save me. No phone to call police either. There wasn't any escape.
I felt the man tug on the sleeve of my t-shirt. He announced in a very confident, cocky voice, "Come on pretty boy McDonnell. Walk faster or it's a bullet to the face." I hated how powerless I was. Would I ever see my friends again? Or upload another video? But most important, though I hated thinking it, will I live? The thought sent a shiver down my spine. Why did there have to be people like this, cruel, evil people who have absolutely no empathy for others? Everything looked and felt fuzzy apart from the tugging on my shirt, and the looming black van at the end of the drive. It seemed to approach in slow motion, until the last couple seconds before I was thrown into the back seat.
"What are you doing, Tim," a much gruffer voice came from the front seat. I was shaking uncontrollably at this point, hoping and praying that this was a dream. "You have to knock the brat out. We don't what him to know where we're going." I felt a heavy, sweaty palm on my face immediately. Then I realized what the owner of the hand was trying to suffocate me into unconsciousness and it was working. My senses were growing hazy and I silently begged for the sweet oxygen I'd taken for granted. The real world that had just been so drastically altered was gone. Instead it was quickly refocusing into a dream, or at least I thought it was a dream. I was fully pulled in when I heard a familiar voice.
"Oh god, Charlie. You better be alright. You better not die. Charlie!" The voice was desperate, torn, and one I knew all too well. One I lived with. Alex. It was like a camera was focusing in my head, and the screen showed a strange man with fiery orange hair and a fedora. Next to him was Alex, and my heart leapt at the sight of him. My housemate looked disheveled, his hair in a mess, bags under his eyes, and tear-stained cheeks. Even in my dreams, there was misery. Maybe it's because all I felt was misery.
"Alex!" the strange man snapped at him, "You need to calm down. It won't help Charlie, only make him more distressed. We need to talk rationally with him."
"That's easy for you to say, he's not your best friend! What if they starve him? Beat him? Stuff him in a room of chemicals? What if they kill him? What if they kill Charlie? I can't lose my best friend, I just can't!" I saw fresh tears forming in his eyes. One could only wish for a guy as good as Alex to care about them. This was a weird dream. It's like I was watching this live. Like it was real.
"That's because it is Charlie." The stranger in the fedora said, and it felt like he was talking to me directly, not dream me, but just me, the person dreaming.
"He is, Charlesburg," Alex was the one talking now, and it was strange to see him so solemn. "He used your DNA so that we could talk to you while you slept."
'Who is he?' I thought to myself. They seemed to hear me when I did that. 'I'm confused as to what's going on.'
"Well Charlie. I'm the Doctor. Hello is usually a good greeting, but I won't hold it against you, I mean, you did just get kidnapped..." the man took off his hat, swiping a loose orange hair out of his face. If this were any other situation, Alex and I would be freaking out about seeing the real life Doctor and laughing at the fact that the Doctor actually was a ginger. But this isn't any normal situation. I had been kidnapped. The word alone sent chills up and down my spine. And now it had happened to me. I was at the mercy of creeps. "We used your DNA via the TARDIS to insert the video of inside here into your subconscious. Unfortunately, it only works when you're asleep. The emotions of your outer world are too strong to let me override them. The best I could get is a live stream of what's happening in reality. But hopefully we can work out a plan in the time we have, especially since I suspect there are aliens involved." The Doctor's personality was exactly how I imagined it. I took a moment, taking in all the details. I, however, stopped when I saw Alex cringe at something.
"Alex, stop looking at the outer world camera. It'll only make you more upset." The Doctor commanded him. I saw Alex look away, with silent tears falling. The image of the Doctor and Alex started to become hazy.
"We're losing you now Charlie, you're waking up. I don't know what's going on, but I will tell you one thing. We're your dreams, so sleep. Sleep as much as you can. It may be your only escape.