Dreaming in Reality

Chapter 6

I was in a small forest. What I was doing here, I had no clue. Being naturally curious, though, I started walking deeper into the woods. I saw many different types of trees. It seemed to be fall, because all the trees where losing their leaves and changing colors, so it was really beautiful walking through the forest.

After walking for what seemed like hours, I came to a small clearing. There were small mounds of dirt scattered everywhere. But as I looked closer, I saw that they were more than just mounds, they had little holes in them. They were dens!

Wait. I've been here before, I thought, recognizing the dens.

"I told you we'd meet again," a voice said from behind me.

I jumped as I turned around. It was the white fox again! The talking white fox!

"Whoa, what are you doing here?" I asked him. He laughed.

"I didn't exactly get a chance to clarify too much or introduce myself last time we met," He explained.

"Um… no, you–you didn't," I said. This was really weird; I never re-visited my daydreams, especially not on the same day.

"My name is Avian, I'm one of the last of the Ashen Foxes," The white fox began, "Before I explain anything, you should know one thing. There is more than just one world, the Human world. There are many different worlds, and they are all named after the most dominant species of that world. That's why we call your world the Human world, because your race is most dominant. In that world, anyway."

"Ok, wait, who's 'we'?" I asked.

"When I say 'we', I'm referring all the organisms of my world," He replied.

"And your world is the Ashen Fox world?"

"No, my race is only the second most dominant species. In this world, the Black Lion is most dominant."

"Oh…" I said. As he continued, I listened intently; this daydream was pretty interesting, no matter how weird it was.

"Worlds are also known as Parallels. This is because they exist parallel to each other. Humans think their world is the only one because they can't see us. But some animals of your world do. Has your dog ever started barking at nothing? To you humans, it may have seemed like nothing, but it was really something in a Parallel world.

"Another thing humans are wrong about is the afterlife. You all will end up here, in this world, as a certain animal,"

"Why do we end up in your world? You said there were many worlds, why don't we end up in one of those worlds?" I interrupted.

"Good question. See, as I told you, all worlds are Parallels, but there are also things called Pairs. Every world has a Pair. My world is Paired to yours, which means that when you die, you come here."

"And when you die, you come to my world?" I said; it made sense to me.

"No, in this world, we live on for eternity. I seem like a young fox to you, right? But I'm really over two hundred years old," Avian said.

"Then why doesn't your world get too crowded? If what you say is true, then there should be millions of peo– I mean, living things in just this little clearing."

Avian looked satisfied, as if he was hoping I would ask this.

"You have a good point. When we come of a certain age, we can move to another world. If all worlds are full, a new world is born."

I couldn't help but laugh. This daydream was really weird! Living forever, Parallel worlds, Paired worlds…. It was out of control!

Avian looked at me questioningly.

"What? What do you find so funny?" He asked. He sounded offended, and disappointed.

"Parallel worlds? Paired worlds? Living forever? This is only a dream, why should I take you seriously? It's not real, you're not really here," I said. Do I have an imagination or what? I thought.

"It's very important that you believe me," He said, desperately.

"Yeah, I'm only dreaming."

"I need for you to believe me," Suddenly he bared his teeth. He got up and started moving slowly toward me. Though I knew this was a dream, I was scared. I started to back away from him. Then he pounced on me. There was a great pain in my arm when he got off. I looked down at it. My sweatshirt arm was scarlet red, and there was a slit in the fabric. With my other arm, I tried to stop the bleeding. I squeezed it tightly.

"I'm sorry. I didn't want to do that, but it's essential that you believe me," He said as he walked back and sat back down. I tried to wake up, tried to get back into reality, but for some reason, I couldn't.

"Why can't I pull myself back into consciousness?" I said through gritted teeth. This was a whole different kind of pain in my arm.

"Because this isn't just one of your regular daydreams, Kiera. This is real."

"Let me go home!" I yelled at him.

"Ok. But we will see each other again. Before you go, remember this: something terrible is going to happen, and there is nothing you can do to prevent it."

I was confused, but I just wanted myself to be fully awake again. I shut my eyes tight, as if that could make it all go away. When I opened my eyes I found that everything was fading, just like the last time I met the white fox.

I shook my head. I was back.

That was the weirdest daydream I've ever had!

I stood up to get out of my chair.

"Ouch!" I yelled. An explosion of pain had erupted in my arm. Oh no… I thought. I looked down at my arm. The sweatshirt was ripped, and scarlet surrounded the wound.

"What? Kiera? Kiera, are you ok?" Shawn must have heard me, because I could hear him running towards my room. Then the door burst open.

"What happened to you?" He asked. He ran over to me. I gasped as he took my arm, the pain was incredible, "What did you do?"

"I – I must've," Thinking quickly, I tried to come up with a believable cover-up story, he wouldn't believe the truth, "I was getting something that fell off my desk, and when I got up, my arm hit the corner of the table."

"This is deep, you're gonna need stitches. I'm calling the doctor, you stay here," He said, and then ran out of my room to the phone in the kitchen.

Supporting my arm, I walked over to sit on my bed. So the white fox is actually real? I thought. Then I tried to recall everything I could remember about our visits. He had said that there were many different worlds that were… Parallel, was it? Yeah… and if that was true, then if I stuck my hand out (I did so) then I'd be brushing millions of other organisms, without them knowing. And then there were Paired worlds. My world was Paired with Avian's world. So when I died, I'd become one of them. What else had he said? He'd asked me if I was a Visionary in our first visit. What was that supposed to mean? And then I remembered something else he'd said, Something terrible is going to happen… What could that possibly be?

"Kiera. The doctor said he'd be able to get you in tomorrow morning. What a way to start off the weekend, huh? Getting cut so bad you need stitches?" Shawn said, jerking me out of my thoughts.

"Yeah," I said.

"For now, we're gonna have to put some pressure on it. I found this bandage stuff in the bathroom, we'll use it for now," Shawn held up some white fabric.

When Shawn wrapped the fabric bandages around my arm, it was really hard to keep still. He had to wrap it tight so as to stop the bleeding. That was really severe pain. Finally, he'd gotten it wrapped. It seemed to have taken forever because it hurt so much.

"Now you should last 'til the doctors appointment tomorrow," Shawn said, "Do you want me to get you anything?"

"No, I'm fine, it's only a cut," I told him.

"Ok. Just holler if you need me," And then he walked out of the room. Shawn was really overprotective about me. Our parents had died in a plane crash when I was eleven, two years ago. Shawn had just turned eighteen, so he'd been allowed to look after me by himself, because he was now officially an adult.

When he'd left, I remembered something. I reached into my pocket with my good arm, and pulled out that piece of Art paper. I opened it up and laid it out on my bed. I had drawn the fox as I'd seen him in the tunnel. He was looking over his shoulder at me, in a dark, rocky tunnel. It was too good of a sketch to be my own. I would never have been able to draw anything this detailed while I was fully conscious.

I pinned the drawing to my bulletin board that was hanging above the headboard of my bed. Suddenly, I was really tired. So I pulled back the covers of my bed with my good arm, and slid under them. It was only about eight o'clock, and though I usually stay up on weekend nights, I decided just to go to sleep tonight.

It didn't take long, and soon I had drifted into a dreamless, undisturbed sleep.