Why Are My Dreams Realistic?

Chapter 6 : The Kid Name Aki : (part 1)

 The chime of the clock resonates in my head. Remembering, creating a disturbance inside my head. It feels cold. I feel my soul shivering in the depths as I traversed the portal. I couldn’t see my body nor feel a dormant feeling. The cold had numbed everything within me. It feels… Lonely for some reason. This life is tainted with darkness.

“Calm… your… mind…” I could hear a distant voice. “Will be… waiting… In the… promise… future… Ataru…”

Ataru… Who was it? The name of someone who was called out in the void of light in this portal. A hint of gentleness in the tone they’ve produced. The sound of love and tenderness within the care of life.

“Arcana…”

******

I woke up. It was a long and cold flight between my thoughts and the time when I would appear again. My body was numb from the shivering cold deep within my soul. 

It hurts. It hurts… It's suffocating, yet I’m alive.

The sound of chiming bells resounded in the monochrome world of the portal. I looked around, but all I could see was a vast nothingness. There's nothing but an icy path paved in this place.

“Hello? Are you there?” Suddenly, I could hear a voice between the chimes of the bell. “Hello…?”

Then a knocking sound resounded in the empty monochrome world. I tried to look around to find a door. The knocking sound echoes, creating waves of shivering distraction within my skin. The repeated chimes that echoed around the room made me unsteady. My head hurts from spinning around looking for it. I fall to my knees, blocking all the sounds with my hands as my eyes begin to black out.

Then suddenly, it feels warm. It feels like I’m being cradled by a warm blanket. The chimes of the bell disappeared within the invisible blanket that covered the sound. I looked up slowly with my hands still on my ears. I saw an objective standing in front of me. A red door unexpectedly appeared in front of me.

“Hello…? Are you there…?” The voice that I heard earlier became much more apparent. “Can you see the door now?” 

“Y-yeah…” I said. The voice didn’t respond for a long time.

Then, I heard a giggle beyond the door.  “Hihihihi.” It sounded like a kid, but I'm not sure if it was a kid.

“Hello?” I tried to talk to the voice beyond the door, but it only giggled. I'm slightly annoyed, but I’m keeping myself calm. I took a deep breath for thirty seconds. Then, I heard another response from the voice beyond the door.

“Uhhh… Mister. Can you peek through the keyhole?” The voice said. I stood up and peeked through the hole. “Hello.” I saw a boy peeking through the hole. He waved at me and sent a warm smile through the hole. I waved back and gave an awkward smile. “H-hello…” The boy has a broad smile beyond the door. The cold I’m feeling dissipates, along with the ringing in my head.

“Say. Can you come to open the door? I want to see you for real.” The boy begged.

“O-okay,” I slowly rotated the door knob. Then, with a click, it felt like the light had consumed me.

I covered my eyes with the sudden blinding of the light beyond the door. It cleansed me of everything that had created the pain and suffering beyond the path in this small world.

“Heyas!” As the door opened. The boy greeted me with joy. He instantly rushed forward, touching all over me. “Woah… You’re so scrawny. You don’t have enough muscles. Have you eaten yet? Your nails are so long. I like it!” He continued to look at every part of my body. I feel uncomfortable with someone doing these things to me.

“Uhh… Could you… uhm… move? I said while trembling. The boy instantly backed away three steps from me. He lay down on the first step, rolled on the second, then stood up on the third.

“I… um sorry…” The boy giggled slightly. He’s biting his lips from excitement. I could see his hand trembling as he clasped it together. “S-say… Do you want to play with me…?” The boy looked at me with his eyes slowly getting bigger and brighter. 

I felt my chest flutter from the face the boy made. I placed my right hand on my chest, seeing how it thumped faster than usual. “P-play? W-what is that?” I asked.

“You’ll just play with me with a game I have.” The boy took a step forward with a smile.

“W-what kind.” I took a step back.

“Hmm… What should we play? I have a lot of things in mind.” The boy took another step.

“W-would it be painful? I took a step to the right and backed away.

“It depends.” The boy had a Cheshire smile and took three steps forward. He was now in front of me.

I slowly moved my left foot back as I replied, but he held me in my position with a look of eagerness. “I…” 

“Hmm? What is it?” The boy tightly held me in place. I couldn’t even run or move my body by how strong he was. It was weird that someone as short could hold me in place without effort.

“O-okay… I guess we’ll play.” Without a way to run, I just accepted his proposal of playing. Although I don’t understand the concept of playing, the delighted look on his face tells me that it might be fun.

“Hmm… I guess these doors would do the trick. I hope we have a wonderful time here, Mori.” The boy called me by my name.

“W-what did you call me?” I asked with a look of confusion. I did not introduce myself yet, but he already knows my name.

“Mori! It’s your name, isn’t it? Man, it’s really wonderful that you’ve returned here again!” Or are you, not Mori?” The boy asked.

“M-my name is Mori, but I don’t think I’ve met you,” I said. I’m trying to move my face away from him as he keeps getting his face close to me.

“Really? You don’t know me? Would my name help you remember it…?” The boy turned around for a second while biting his nails. Then he looked at me again with a smile. “Aki… my name… Have you remembered it?” The boy asked.

The boy looked like he was about to cry, but I didn’t really know him, nor did I have any memories of him. I couldn’t help but deny the fact that I don’t really know him or haven’t met him. “N-no… sorry… It’s my first time seeing you, Aki…” He looked disappointed when he turned around. 

“Oh… I see… I guess it happened again.” With the way his tone felt like he was about to cry, I couldn’t help but get closer to console him. I gently stroked his back and then patted his hair. Then, suddenly, I heard a hint of laughter while patting him. “Hehehehe… Hehehehehehe.” It felt ominous that I slowly removed my hand from his head, but he grabbed it and placed it back.

“Hehehe. I like this. Could you pat my head for thirty minutes?” He said while giggling.

I was hesitant to answer but then agreed to it anyway. “O-okay.” I patted his head in the rhythm of my heartbeat. I never expected him to ask me something like this. Although I didn’t really understand the reason for this, I couldn’t help but let out a soft smile on my face.

Then, after thirty minutes of continuous stroking of his hair, I noticed how his hair became a mess. I tried to fix his hair by placing it in the same way I do my hair. Although I did a terrific job, I think it’s good enough.”

“~phew…!” I took a deep breath. “I-is this enough?” I asked.

“~snore…” Aki fell asleep. I look at my palms with shock at how effective my patting was that it could even make someone fall asleep just by doing it. Looking at my palms, I felt a jolt in my body. A slight joy sent a shock through my body. I lay down in front of Aki with the sudden relapse that the jolt sent in my body.

******

“yawn~…” As I opened my eyes, I forgot where I was, or rather I didn’t know where I was. I fell asleep in an unknown world with someone that I don’t even know. This bad habit feels getting out of hand, considering I’m too relaxed.

Aki was still sleeping beside me. His head was in my stomach. He might’ve unconsciously moved to me. He wasn’t heavy, but I couldn’t move him out of the way. He was comfortable sleeping on me. I bop his cheeks, but it didn’t work. Then, I proceeded to pinch his plump, pallid cheeks. “Nghh…” Then he slowly opened his eyes.

“H-hey…” I waved my hand near his face.

“O-oh…! Hehehe. I’m sorry. Your head pats were so comfortable that I fell asleep.” Aki giggled. He stood up and lightly took five steps back; he then spun with a smile. Then he stopped and stared at the monochrome sky and raised his hand like he was catching a feather. “My dream of having to sleep with someone else was already fulfilled in such a short time.” His smile was as wide as the dream he wanted to achieve.

He put his hands down. He placed both hands on his chest, clasping them together as he kneeled while looking at the sky. I could hear him muttering, but all I could say was that he was happy. Then he stood up and walked right back to me. “Sorry for the holdup.” He said with a big smile on his face. 

“I-its fine,” 

“I’m just so happy that one of my dreams was already fulfilled. So for this, I will give you a wonderful time as we play around this vast world filled with our thoughts!” Aki said. 

“H-how can we play? Are there pieces of equipment that we need to use?” I said. The place was just a vast of nothingness. The red door that I’ve entered disappeared. It's nothing but us.

"Hmm..." As Aki looked around in this nothingness I found it weird that he was looking at it like there was something, and then he flicked his finger. Then, suddenly, a loud noise echoed inside my head. 

I fell to my knees. The unbearable noise inside my head felt like it was smashing my head into a million pieces. “Grahhh!!!” I wailed in pain of the noise. Tears started to pour out of my eyes, followed by blood.

“Hmm… you can hear it? That’s incredible, Mori! You’re amazing! I can’t even hear it!” I don’t understand what Aki said. I couldn’t even see him as blood continued to come out of my eyes.

The sound was unbearable. I tried to smash my head on the floor, but my head just bounced right of off it. “T-turn it off!” I yelled.

“I can’t. You’re the only one who can hear it.

I lay flat, holding my head in a fetal position as the pain was so intense that I felt like I was going to pass out unconscious. Then suddenly, when I was about to lose consciousness. I felt a warm embrace. The pain subsided little by little until it disappeared entirely.

“Are you okay now?” I can now hear Aki’s voice clearly.

“Y-yeah,” 

“phew…~I guess you should hold on to this.” I looked up. I saw Aki was giving me something. It has a bright glow. I squinted to see it clearly. It was a card. A weird card, to be precise. It glows brightly with an indescribable light coming out of it.

I took the card, although it was unreadable, I asked him. "W-what should I do with this?” I said.

“I’m giving it to you now. I think this card would help us in our adventure beyond the doors of life.” Suddenly, thousands of doors appeared in front of me. The vast nothingness earlier was now filled with countless doors with different colors and designs. “Although it doesn’t reveal itself right now, I think it would still work out after we finished playing. So. Should we play?” Aki said as he held out his hand. 

I grabbed his hands with a smile on my face. “Okay!” I let out a warm smile on my face. The warm feeling of embrace earlier shattered the pain in me. It was such a pleasant warmth that I’ll always look back on in just a short time.