Dreaming Up Reality

Ch. 1.

"Aleice, have you been able to find a job yet?" The girl sitting behind the open book closed it to look at her mother. "Nah.. I sent in my application to Easton yesterday though, hope they call back." She pulled the book back up to her face and began reading again, only to be interrupted as her mother started shouting. "You know, I've had a lot of patience with you ever since you graduated. I let you move in with me, I don't expect you to pay rent, I let you sleep on my couch.. the least you could do is try harder at getting out. To be honest, I think it's time I gave you an ultimatum. Either you get a job before the end of the month, or you get out. Simple as that." With those words her mother stood and left the room. Aleice remained on the couch staring at the words on the page blankly. She had heard this speech a million times.. At first it really worried her. Now it was just words her mother used in an attempt to get her motivated. But nothing motivated her these days.

None the less, she did want to leave that place. Those tan walls day in and day out.. The way her brother and sisters treated her. The way her mother treated her.. It really was Hells neighbor. But there was nowhere else for her to go. All of her friends had been left behind after the move out of her fathers house, and she was DEFINITELY not going back there. Not with the wicked witch of the west living there. She had no one. Plus, making friends in a new home isn't easy without school, and being an 18 year old graduate with no job just made it harder.

A tear rolling down and plopping onto the page brought her out of her daze of self pity. She was crying, again. 'Why am I always feeling sorry for myself? Why can't I just do things right for once..' She wiped her face dry and put the book down, pulling her laptop onto her lap and bringing up Google. She carefully typed in [places for hire in Sandusky, Ohio] and hit enter. Tons of job listing sites appeared. She clicked on the first one, and nada. The second one brought up the same results. No one was hiring. Even if she did feel inspired to try, it would be futile effort. She was just the stain on the carpet nobody wanted. She was useless..

Laying down she rested her head against the arm of the couch, her darkred hair fell over the side. She put the hood of her navy blue hoodie over her head and pulled the strings so that it closed over her face enough to hide her eyes. Letting herself get lost in thought, she didn't realize her eyes were becoming heavy, and before she knew it.. she was asleep.

"Hello..?" "Helllooooo.." "Maybe she's dead." "No, I can see her breathing." "Well maybe she's in a coma?" "May- Oh wait.. she's coming to." Aleice's eyes began to slowly flutter open. She was expecting the dim living room lamp she always woke up to, but instead she was blinded by something much more intense. Sitting up and squinting, she brought her arm up to block out whatever it was. After letting her eyes adjust for a moment, she realized she wasn't in her living room. "Uhhh.." What. The. Hell. She began to look around, expecting her brother to pop out and all of this to be a joke. But.. she didn't see her home anywhere. All there was were grassy feilds and blue skies. Where was she? She stood up and brushed herself off, stretching and yawning.

"Oh, hello." Aleice squeeled and fell back to the ground, not expecting what she had just heard.

"Oh I'm sorry.. here.." All of the sudden there was an arm reaching out to her from thin air. Just an arm.. no body. Her eyes grew wide and she crawled away from it quickly. "What is this? Who are you?" Her heart was pumping just about as fast as it could go when the arm reach up to pull back a hood. Brunette tufts fell to his ears and over his pale face. He was smiling with the most perfect smile, except he had abnormaly large canines. His eyes were a pleasant, summery green, and he had lots of freckles. She relaxed instantly just staring at the boy. "Again,.. I'm sorry. Have you never seen a cloak like this before?" He reached his arm out again to help her up, this time she took hold and was lifted to her feet. "Cloak? Like, a cape?" "I suppose you could put it that way.. See?" He shed the cloak and suddenly all of him was revealed. And when I say all, I mean all. She blushed hard and looked away, giggling. "Uhm.. you're naked." He looked down and then back at her, shrugging. "Is that a problem?" She was shocked. And then it hit her. This was a dream!

Why hadn't she already realized it? Why on earth would she be in a feild with a strange naked boy wearing a cloak that turned him invisable? Realizing that she looked back, this time with a more confident look on her face. "Nope. No problem at all." She still couldn't help but giggle though. He smiled back and reached out his hand. "I'm Lex." She took it and shook it gently. "I'm Aleice. And this is a dream." He brought his hand back, folding his cloak and tossing it over his shoulder. "Dream?" She turned and began walking, taking another look around. "Yea, you know.. not real." He began to follow her, a puzzled look on his face. "But.. I'm real..? How did you even get here? I just found you laying there as I was out looking for Kain." She stopped and remembered the voices from earlier. There HAD been two voices.. "Oh yea.. I think I heard you two talking. Who's Kain?" She asked, keeping her eyes on his face. It wasn't so often she was in the presence of a naked man and had to pretend it was normal. "Uhh.. Kain is.. well, he's my brother. He has a temper though and when he gets mad he likes to run off. He had been missing for 3 days until I finally found him. To be honest.. He was just about to eat you."

Her eyes grew wide and she froze. "... Eat me?" "Yea. I convinced him you weren't dead and that you didn't look like you were from around here. Then I convinced him to go back home. He's probably on his way back now if you want to meet him." She was still shocked about his previous statement. "Wait.. Your brother was going to 'eat' me..? That's not weird to you?" He laughed. "Nah, not really. Kain loves fresh meat. C'mon, I'll take you to my home. We'll figure out what you're doing here." Without giving her time to speak he pulled her onto his back and wrapped her legs around his waist, tossing the cloak over both of them before taking off. She kept her grip around his shoulders tight, scared at first. But he had failed to mention his home was so far away. Two hours into the ride and her eyes were getting heavy again. She began to drift away, the sounds of his running slowly dissapearing and being replaced by the sounds of a very loud television playing the usual nonsense.

Just like that, she was back. She opened her eyes to the same living room lamp as she had thousands of times before. A slight feeling of dissapointment rushed over her. That dream was kind of getting good.. the fact that it was a dream and not reality bummed her out. Maybe if she could just fall back asleep she could pick up where she left off.

"Aleice! Get off your ass and come clean the kitchen!" Sigh. That wasn't going to happen.