These Dreams – Chapter 4

"Eris..."

"Eris...."

"Eris....."

Her eyes fluttered open slowly. It was nice to not be jarred awake.

"Good. I've been trying to reach your subconscious for hours."

Quizzically, Eris pushed herself up from the bed she had been 'asleep' on and came partially face to face with a man.

He was older man, with receding gray-white sandy hair and easy blue eyes. There were wrinkles on his brow, and the first attribute she lingered on was his voice. It had what she would have called a leisurely drawl.'

"But since I was a doctor at one time, I realize that it's not your fault that your body was trying to recover from the stress I had to make you go through."

Eris spared him a long deadpanned look of confusion before she curiously tore her eyes away from him to look about at her surroundings.

It appeared she was in a bedroom.

The walls of the room were a rich off-white vanilla shade and had light bamboo wainscoting ([1]Author's Note for those of you who don't know what wainscoting is) that led to a plush light green carpeting. There was a simple matching light brown furniture set that matched the bamboo paneling and consisted of a bed, armoire, dresser, desk, and night stand.

The comforter set was a bold light green, tan, and dark brown colored horizontally striped affair that was neither feminine nor masculine. The walls were bare, as was most of the furniture.

It was obvious that this room was not very well lived in. It held no personal touches at all. There wasn't a scrap of paper out of place that might have hinted as to what kind of person lived here.

Eris had a strong impression that this was a spare room.

She returned her attention to the man by her bed, "If you don't mind me asking, who are you?"

The man explained, in no hurry, "Well, if I were to tell you that it would take such a great deal of time that poor 'ol Richard might think that you had lapsed into a coma. But for all intents and purposes, you may call me Jacob since I speak on his behalf. He takes up the majority of my being anyway."

Eris could feel the muscles moving in her face to contort her eyebrow into a confused expression.

He laughed, "I know how you feel."

"You know," Eris commented aloud, "This is a very lucid dream."

"Well, I have more power here. It makes it a hell of a lot easier to talk to you," he said with mock seriousness.

"Here? You mean, the Island?"

"Yes," the man smiled, "We've been calling for you to come here for a looong time. We're glad that you finally made it." He grimaced, "Sorry if the trip was a little 'unorthodox.'"

"You!? You've been calling me? You're the reason why I've had these dreams of this place? Why!?"

The man who called himself Jacob laced his fingers together and shook his head, "Sorry, it doesn't work out like that kiddo. You're just going to have to trust me. Now, when you wake up, Richard is going to have some questions for you-"

Eris started abruptly at that name, "Richard?" She exhaled softly, and scooted closer to the mysterious man, "Is that his name?"

"The man you've been dreaming about, yes," Jacob said, "Now listen closely, when Richard questions you, for now, this is all you need to know: He needs you, just as much as you need him. You two are meant for each other."

"What? What does that even mean? Listen here crazy man, you can't feed me some bogus vague nonsense and expect me to be pacified with that. That is not how I work!"

"Listen to me," he pressed, unabashed, "Your body is waking and I don't have much time. Tell Richard the truth, you can trust him! Be careful of Ben, he-"

~*~*~

Eris' dream vision tunneled back, away from Jacob, and when she blinked, her eyes opened in the real world. The feeling was incredibly disconcerting. She sighed, and rubbed her eyes.

These dreams are starting to tick me off.

Her body felt sore, but she felt much better. She had never woken up feeling so refreshed before. She didn't feel the need to yawn, or try to sleep for five more minutes, she was just, awake.

Eris stretched, raising her arms above her head as she twisted her abdomen about. Before she could stop herself, her legs followed before instantly being rewarded with pain.

Eris grimaced, and the pain took away the peacefulness of sleep and replaced it with a heightened perception of reality. She was in the same room from her dreams, the only difference was that in Jacob's place was Richard.

Her grimace faded almost instantly.

He smiled, "I'm glad you're awake."

Unease stirred within her at seeing him. Was she really awake? Or was this another dream. The last one had been so lucid. She sat up, and since her bed was pressed against the wall, turned so that she could lean upon it and look directly at her Loverboy.

She very carefully crossed her legs, and decided to reevaluate her situation to determine if she was really awake or not.

Lips pursed, she looked around the room again, every detail was as it had been in her dream. Her eyes flickered back to Richard, who was watching her as intently as she was watching everything else.

He looked, so real. This felt so real. She inhaled; the room had that faint scent of disuse, and a quick look to the window confirmed that he had opened it, as if to help dispel the smell.

If she could smell, then she had to be awake. This was real. Her eyes turned back to Richard, whose legs were crossed, ankle over his knee, and whose hands were leisurely threaded over his lap. He must have been waiting for her to wake up.

Eris didn't know how to feel about this. For so long she had thought of him as something...unreal. It was so odd to see him before her. ...she wondered if he really smelled like how he did in her dreams. She resisted the urge to straddle him in his chair and bury her nose in his hair. She wanted to smell him. Scent was never strong in her dreams, and it was usually how she could tell if she was awake.

Richard was the only thing that she had ever managed to catch scent of in her dreams. But...if the Jacob dude was right, and his power was stronger here, or some shit like that, maybe she could smell other things now in her dreams too?

She pinched herself, that was usually foolproof, and she did it hard enough to hurt.

Richard watched as she brought her right hand to her left arm and pinched herself. The expression on his face was almost comical, he laughed a little, "You're not dreaming."

There was so many questions that were bubbling within her.

"Is... Is your name Richard?"

The look of surprise that crossed his face gave her the answer.

Richard uncrossed his legs and leaned closer to her, resting his hands on the bed as he intently asked, his smile a bit more forced after being caught off guard, "Who told you that?"

Eris fidgeted. She did not like talking about her dreams, mostly because she didn't like the look on people's faces when she spoke of them. That look said 'I think you're crazy and need therapy.' She did not want this man to think she was crazy. Of all people in the world, not this one.

However, the Jacob guy said that she could trust Richard, but, that didn't amount to much seeing as how she didn't want to trust Mr. Incredibly Vague.

"Did Jacob tell you that?"

The look on her face answered the question this time.

Richard smiled, very pleased by this as it confirmed his previous theory, "Did he tell you anything else?"

Eris bit her lip, this was the first time anyone had believed her dreams, or had known what they were about, "He said...that I could trust you...and that we need each other."

Her statement seemed to have a profound effect on him. He slowly leaned back in his chair, and it was apparent that he was thinking.

Loverboy's actions, thus far, had not hinted at whether he knew her or not. And this was something that she needed to know. Now.

She blushed as she started, trying to find the right words as she averted her eyes, finding the comforter to be quite interesting, "Have you... By chance have you ever seen me before... In a dream...perhaps?"

Though Eris wasn't looking directly at him, and was making good use of her peripherals, though she didn't need to with how she could feel his eyes zero in on her as if they had been lasers.

"No," he said slowly, "I don't think I have. However, I don't always remember my dreams, so, maybe I have. ...is this why you're not alarmed with your present situation? Have you already seen this meeting in a dream?"

Eris didn't know if she should be grateful that she didn't have to suffer the embarrassment of having shared sex dreams with the man before her, or whether to feel despair since now she felt truly alone. The conflicting emotions his response brought within her was troubling.

"Who is Ben?" she asked. Wanting to change the subject and divert it off of herself.

"He is...our leader. Why do you ask?"

"Jacob told me to be careful of him, and the way he said it made him sound dangerous. Am I in danger?"

Am I in danger?

Eris felt her hands starting to shake. And then it spread throughout her.

I just survived a plane crash. A lot of people died, Eris. You almost died. And you know you're never getting off this Island. A person named Jacob who was able to communicate to you through your own dreams brought you here by crashing the plane you were on!

You are not in a hospital. And the vague dream guy told you to be careful of some complete stranger! You've been running around in the jungle, which is apparently alive with vocal cords that can produce whispers!

A set of tears fell from her wide eyes, and the cut under her left eye stung as the small traces of salt ran over it. The slight discomfort didn't bother her, but she noticed something that did. In minor disbelief, she noticed that her hands were shaking.

And then everything hit her like a freight train.

"I- I almost died!" she whispered.

"Everyone was screaming!" Eris said with quiet urgency as she wrapped her arms around her.

"Those kids were crying! I couldn't save them! Everything was loud and fast and, and- And there's something in the Jungle!" Eris, despite the pain, brought her knees up so that she could bury her face in them as she started to cry, "I- I don't know what the fuck is going on! And you haven't even asked me who I am! You make it seem like all of this is no big freaking deal!"

The trauma, anxiety, and fear, coupled with the lack of adrenaline hit Eris completely off guard with her current confusion and lack of control of the present situation. The full impact of what had just happened to her did not have the time before to set in, and now that she was not charged with directions, she felt lost.

A sob escaped her, and upon hearing it aloud, she cringed. She was embarrassed and mortified that someone was watching her cry, angry at herself for letting her emotions get the best of her in front of an audience, and frightened because the one person she believed was going to be her anchor in this insanity, didn't know her, at all.

Richard had been waiting for this. He knew it was going to happen sooner or later. She had every right to this bout of post traumatic stress.

She looked so small curled in on herself as her shoulders wracked with sobs and tremors. Her file had told him a lot about her. Her mother had died when she was young, and judging by her expenses and bank account trail, it was obvious that even though she lived with her father, she was entirely self-sufficient.

Everything since her first job at 16 had been put into her name. Her accepted position to a job on the other side of the world and in how quickly she was making her move there hinted at a not so happy family life. Not to mention the death of her mother, and in medical records that affirmed that her father who had institutionalized her and the doctors he had hired thought that she was suffering from 'dreamed delusions.'

The medical records stopped when she reached 16, ending with the doctor's case work that deemed the patient had been cured, and that the leading therapist agreed that no further treatment was necessary.

Richard was able enough to piece together that Eris had not been as the doctors had declared "cured." It was apparent that she had simply pretended that she was 'all better'. Acting along so that the intensive 'treatment' would stop.

Eris Blake was an intelligent young woman, as indicated by her school and college transcripts. Also, as indicated by her school transcripts, her teachers' commendations of her were alike in how they applauded her as a resourceful, more than capable, and an intuitive student.

Her health and work records indicated that she had no friends or family emergency contacts with the exception of her new step-mother whom had recently been married into the family for only a year.

Richard had a feeling that her dreams, and pretending that they didn't exist had led her to refrain from making any close bonds, for fear that others would catch on, and back to a therapist she would go.

There weren't words accurate enough to properly place how he felt about her. She was a perfect example of why he hated the world outside of the Island. It was a militaristic prison. A society based upon rules for the single and simple minded.

Upon reading her file, Richard Alpert could see a good reason why the Island had brought her here, though he was certain her unique gift was not the sole cause.

She belonged here, of this much, he was entirely certain.

Eris didn't register that Richard had moved until she felt his weight shift onto the bed beside her. She tensed within herself, squeezing her eyes shut even harder as she wished to be alone.

However, when he grabbed her and gently pulled her into his lap, she let him. She remained tensed for a bit longer, not knowing if she should trust him when he leaned her into his chest and soothingly began to rub her back in the universal I-don't-mind-if-you-cry-all-over-my-shirt motion.

Eris melted into him, she buried her face into his chest and shuddered as the worst of the tremors ran through her. After a few moments her sobs quieted, and after a few minutes, her tears ran dry, until only her broken breathing remained.

"I'm so sorry that I cried all over you," she murmured into shirt, feeling quite sheepish and not yet brave enough to look up at him.

Richard stopped his movements against her back and wrapped his arms securely around her, "You have nothing to be sorry about. You just survived a very traumatic experience, only to what I'm guessing be told to run through the jungle nonstop until you happened across me. If you had reacted calmly to all of those things, then I would have cause to be concerned."

"Instead, I look like a huge sissy. Not what I would call a very good first impression."

Richard smiled at her grumbling tone.

If only she knew just how much he had gathered of her in the short amount of time since she had woken up. Even though she was obviously wary of what Jacob had said, she did trust him. If she hadn't trusted him she would have pushed him away when he went to comfort her. By that small act of kindness he had extended, and very willingly of course, he knew that Eris would trust him first and foremost out of all the others on the Island. He had instilled more trust between them in this short span of a few minutes than a week of cordialities would have under far more normal circumstances.

Something in the back of his mind, presumably because of the years he had spent with Jacob, told him that was doubtlessly what the Island had intended all along.

[1] AN: Around a 3 ft. high wooden paneling on an inner wall.

I hope this didn't suck too badly...

-Button