NOTE: Don’t worry about who the characters are, because you probably don’t know them anyway. There just people, let’s leave it at that, shall we?

My Dream

By Justin Sword

3 - 16 - 2006

Last night I had a dream…

We were riding the bus. Bus 03-17. To my right sat Brittany, by the window. To my left sat Michael, by the aisle. I was in the middle. We were all in the same seat.

“It’s cloudy,” said Brittany. I looked but couldn’t see clearly, because I was in the middle. There were creeping clouds and a green sign above, which read:

ONE WAY – NO TURNS

70HP

“Look. There’s Jazmin,” said Michael. I looked but couldn’t see clearly because I was in the middle. All I could see was her hair and the rim of her glasses.

Michael scooted over a little to let me see her. I leaned over him to see Jazmin listening to Thomas. She was smiling. He was telling her a story.

“Hey. Don’t sit on me,” said the girl in the seat opposite ours. She sounded familiar. Then I realized she was Cherri, the girl who had left our school. She stared at me.

I looked back at Jazmin. Then I recognized some other people on the bus. In front of Jazmin sat Zack. Behind Jazmin sat Allison. To the right of Jazmin sat Thomas, and behind him sat Kristen. They were all in separate seats. They were all staring at me.

I turned to Brittany. She had a gloomy expression on her face, like she had lost something dear to her and had no hope of getting it back. She continued to look out the window, staring at the clouds. We passed another green sign.

NO EXIT

70HP

“There’s a storm coming,” she muttered. I put my hand on her arm, which was cold and stiff. Her shirt, which had previously been red, turned orange, then blue, then orange again.

I turned to Michael. He gave me a cold, heartless look. It was then that I noticed he was in military uniform. He had a scar that crossed his left eye.

Suddenly he changed. As I looked harder, I saw in him traces of my old friend, Gordon. He continued to scowl.

The bus passed under a bridge. I heard a horn honk. There was a large truck closing in on our left side. Its horn flared again.

I felt a warm, shaking hand on my left shoulder. I turned around. It was Victoria. She looked tired. No… not so much tired, but… exhausted. Exhausted of life, emptiness, and oppression. Her eyes closed and she breathed deeply. She hummed. No tune in particular. Just, “Hmmmmmmmm.”

Cherri, Zack, Allison, and Kristen were still staring at me. Everyone else on the bus went about their conversations as normal. But the people I knew, they were different. They didn’t spend their time in idle chit chat. They found it much more interesting to stare at me.

“When? When will we get there? When will it come?” Brittany asked. A cold mist floated from her lips, like a winter chill.

Her skin had begun to turn blue. I felt her hand. It was frozen. A tear dripped from her left eye, and became ice on her cheek. It fell into her lap and crumbled.

“Brittany? Brit? Are you alright?” I shook her shoulder. But the more I urged her to speak, the more she cried. Frozen tears fell from her eyes.

I looked to my left. Michael was gone. Victoria’s hand still held onto my left shoulder, and she hummed.

The clouds outside were now dark and brooding. No rain fell, but the clouds were there, ready to storm the land when the time was right.

The bus passed under one final sign.

DO NOT TURN LEFT

MHP

And then I woke up…