It was a hot January afternoon and I walked briskly along the road, dust kicking up at my feet, the sound of Rupert panting heavily being a constant reminder of what I was doing, every so often her would begin tugging desperately at his lead. Arriving at the lamp post before sniffing it for an odd minute, before something else would catch his eye, pulling me along again. My arm strained at the constant motions and my mind tried desperately to wring some satisfaction, some purpose out of this activity, but my only thoughts were for Ms Roberts, and calculus...tomorrow. I shuddered.

My watch ticked softly, 20:30. I didn't know why I wore it, in fact I was pretty sure that I had lost it when I was 12, after all, who wore watches these days? The thought did not seem to bother me though, I heard a car pull up beside me on the road, the man rolled up the window and pointed at the dog with a white smile, the butt of a burning cigarette clasped between his cracked lips.

I heard Rupert bark as the colour bled out from the world, my knees hit the floor but I was caught, firmly, almost gently- almost. Dimly, I attempted to make sense of the situation, after all this couldn't be normal...Could it? My legs and arms were tied up, but they hadn't gagged me, I smiled in relief and breathed out slow steady breaths, the sky was darker now, the beams from lamp posts swishing past the car window as I blinked, trying my very best to stay awake. I could hear a voice in the background, muffled by my doped eardrums, "He's secure, and reading is positive, stand by for confirmation." Nodding my head softly tothe strange sounds I thought dimly of Rupert, his barking still fresh in my mind. I hoped I would get back in time for dinner; mam hated it when I was late.

I was walking along the pathway again, a fountain bubbled softly near me and the children singing a nursery rhyme, whizzing past me and glowing blue, it was an odd song, something I had never heard before... French? It was something European anyway... Grass erupted at my feet and at some point Rupert's lead dissolved in the air, the great Labrador bounding off into the dust, strange wooden buildings growing behind him, obscuring my view.

Blinking again I was sitting on a beach, the sand was white like paper, moving silkily past my toes as I hummed softly, the silence of the land wrapping itself around me like a blanket. I jolted back in horror at the screaming, couldn't you hear it? The ships sitting on the ocean, sinking to the sound of men, some screaming their prayers, I knew they were speaking to God even though they weren't speaking English, it was a confusing feeling. A single man stood at the top of the ship, a white hood fluttering loosely past his face, his hard eyes staring out into the sea, suddenly we were looking at each other and I could see his scars, a thin blond beard on his waxy skin. I saw a blade jump from his wrist- hidden, he lunged at me and I screamed and I shrank back, blinking again in the park, Rupert staring at me confused, and his tail wagging.

A woman was sitting beside me, looking into me with a smile as if I was a mirror and she was simply making sure she looked every bit as beautiful as ever, which she did. I wanted to ask for her name, but a different question left my lips instead.
"Qui suis-je?"
I rubbed my hands over my lips in shock, feeling my eyes widen and my pulse quicken.
The woman looked at me, her head tilted slightly to the right, her heart shaped lips curving into a perfect smile.
"Forgotten already have we?"
She leaned forward to take my hand and I grabbed it like a man drowning, she didn't seem to mind, only turn around to what was behind her, I followed her lead and with a sweeping motion the park where we were collapsed, replaced only by a thick green field, flowers budding at our feet.

She looked at my surprised face and her smile widened.
"Your name is Edward Alexander Dwyer" he voice was so calm, little more than a whisper, like an autumn breeze ruffling a pile of leaves and barely disturbing them. My next question thankfully was in English.

"Where are we?"
The woman looked around us expectantly and laughed softly. "I don't know Edward, they have taken you somewhere very cold and very bright, they have you wired up to many machines, and..."
"They?"
The woman didn't seem to mind me interrupting her, merely clicking her fingers and summoning a car from thin air. A man sat in it, his face frozen into a grin, that cigarette in his mouth, smoke drifting lazily from its end.
"Do you remember this man?"
I nodded softly, not knowing what to say, but I seemed to have satisfied her question as she clicked her fingers and the car broke away into leaves that scattered over the long grass.

"This man works for somebody very dangerous Edward, somebody who has been watching you for a long time."
I paused and looked at her, turning my head to see- actually see where I was. The situation was very bizarre, but at some point an idea clicked and I stared at the woman with an expectant smile.

"I'm dreaming aren't I?" it wasn't really a question, I already knew it had to be the answer, there was no other way for me to meet this woman, somebody who I had never met, in a field that not only had I never been to before, I couldn't even remember how I got there.

The woman shrugged at the question that wasn't a question.
"I suppose you could call it that... The men have induced a coma onto you in order to find something that is buried somewhere in your ancestral memory."
I looked at her with a questioning look, not even going to bother telling her how ridiculous she sounded right now.

"They will most likely obtain the information in about 3 days, 4 if they are careless, 2 if you are... Then I suppose they will just turn you off with the machines."

She looked at me with a piteous smile, he white teeth sparkling in the sunlight, perhaps they were the sun, I wasn't entirely sure where the light in dreams came from.
"It's terribly confusing I know, but all I can tell you right now without wasting too much time or confusing you is that you have something that some people desperately need, I have rejected their attempts to simply extract the information so that they will have to attempt to steal it manually, going memory by memory."
"Memory by-?"
The woman cut me off with a shake of her head, her smile fading as she continued; her tone was now more businesslike, the playfulness now long gone.
"If you can reach that memory before them, quite possible, then you will be able to hide it even deeper, you will have an advantage and you may leave with the skills necessary to escape."

While thinking of an appropriate way to respond to her, she clicked her fingers and revealed a door, it was a small wooden one with a brass handle, stone walls grew around the frame and with it the smell of warm bread filled the air.

She nodded towards the door with a reassuring smile and slowly I made my way towards it. My reasoning was that if she was telling the truth and I had been captured, It would probably be in my best interests to go along with her instructions, and if it was just in my head, well... It had been years since I had a dream that interesting.

Waving calmly to the woman I clasped my hands onto the door, opening it slowly with a crack as a white light exploded from the edges of it, the grassy field blew away from under my feet as I tumbled into nothing, the calm, perfect white smile of the woman being the only thing I could see.