Meghan: Fading

College students streamed around me, their voices dimmed like I was hearing them through cotton-stuffed ears. My shoes padded eerily in the not-so-quiet as I walked down the hallways of the gym. I didn’t know where I was, not really, but I knew I was looking for someone. Faces went by me, rooms and equipment, people stretching, laughing, lifting weights, running, but none of them were familiar. I came to a door with a window set into it and looked into it; ah, there she was. I slapped my hand on the glass to get her attention and smiled. She looked up and straight into my eyes, but her expression remained the same, calm and slightly phased out. I pursed my lips in confusion, I wasn’t supposed to be back yet, why didn’t she react? She pushed open the door and walked past me. I called her name hesitantly; nothing. I shouted it, and when no one in the gym even blinked I knew something was wrong. Why couldn’t they see me, hear me? Was I dead? Why? How? It didn’t matter, I had to get her to hear me. I tried to grip her arms but my hands just slipped off. She sat down to stretch and I slid my arms around her neck, screaming, crying. She hesitated for a moment, staring out into space with a puzzled look on her face. I held my breath and touched her cheek. Can you see? But no, she shook her head and went back to her exercise and I was fading away.

“Dreams that do come true can be as unsettling as those that don’t.”-Brett Butler

“Last night I dreamed that I ate a ten-pound marshmallow, and when I woke up the pillow was gone.”-Tommy Cooper

-Meghan