Allan woke up with a sharp inhale, like he'd been pulled out of deep water.
For a moment, he didn't move. He just lay in his bed staring at the ceiling, listening-trying to convince himself that the silence around him was real. The faint hum of the building's ventilation filled the room, steady and mechanical.
He stood up to sit on the corner of his bed, elbows resting on his knees, his fingers intertwined with each other, and his right knee, his whole leg really, bouncing up and down, restless. Sweat clung to his body as if he had run a full marathon.
"Again"
"It happened again…."
It was a weird thing really; most people don't remember the entirety of their dreams. Just a few parts of them, but not Allan-not him.
He remembered all of it.
---
He had been standing in the middle of a ruined city. With many skyscrapers and different types of buildings on both sides of the street he was standing on. The city seemed…still and quiet; many abandoned cars were blocking the main streets, creating a labyrinth of rusted metal throughout the streets. It was as if the original owners had abandoned them in a rush, not caring about traffic laws and regulations anymore. The sun was setting, painting the city in yellowish-orange hues, but something was wrong… very wrong.
As the sun was setting and shadows started creeping up the street, he felt a sharp pain in his chest, and a high-intensity ring started playing on his ears. The pain made him bend down a little, clutching both his ears to try to silence the noise; it didn't work.
He fell to his knees while still clutching his ears, looking down at the street now in front of him. Suddenly, it was as if the sun had moved from its original position to be in front of him. Looking up at the sudden feeling of light in front of him, he saw it.
A dark figure walked down the street toward him; it looked like it was directly approaching him. As he looked at the approaching figure, the intensity of the ringing increased another notch, forcing him to look down and scream while his hands were still covering his ears. A couple of seconds later, the ringing suddenly stopped, and a whitish-bright light enveloped him, forcing his eyes shut.
As he opened his eyes a couple of seconds later, he realized that he was no longer in the same street he was standing on before. He was looking at a strange strand of green that felt as if it was trying to pierce his skin, but was not able to.
"No way…is this… grass!?"
"Wait…no one has seen grass in years!"
"Even I've only seen it in books; how am I looking at it right now?"
"Because I'm showing it to you, kid, and before you ask, yes, you're dreaming again"
An irritated voice said.
"Are you going to stand up? Or are you going to keep looking like a fool on the ground?"
At that, Allan raised his head to look in the direction of the voice. Right in front of him.
"Hey, it's you again…"
"Yes, it's me. You're welcome, by the way; that thing was about to consume your mind"
"What thing?" Allan asked.
"What else? The sun!"
"Had I not been here to protect your consciousness, your mind would have been swallowed without you even knowing"
The figure said, in a tone that Allan could swear sounded smug for some reason.
"Yeah, thanks…how many times has it been this week?"
"Three." The figure raised three of its right-hand fingers.
"Why is this happening to me? I can't even sleep in peace without something trying to consume me or take over me, for some weird reason!"
"I'm not even 18 years old yet!"
"I've already explained to you why"
Suddenly, the space they were in started trembling and cracks started to form in the sky. It was as if something was trying to force its way in by force.
Sighing, the figure said, "Time to wake up, kid."
The figure snapped its fingers, and Allan woke up.
---
As Allan was remembering everything that happened in his dream, the shadows below his bed started to move, shifting to position themselves a few meters away from Allan's bed. From these same shadows, the figure that appeared in his dream manifested, although not as clearly as in the dream. It was as if the figure was struggling to manifest itself into reality outside of Allan's mind.
"You look like crap, kid." The figure said as it fully formed itself.
"Thanks, old man," Allan responded with an irritated tone as he raised his head to look at the figure.
The silence stretched for a few seconds as both Allan and the dark figure stayed silent.
It was Allan who broke the silence. "Remind me again, why are weird beings trying to consume my mind almost every night?"
A deep exhale left the figure's…..mouth? Or whatever it was using to communicate.
"It's because of your heritage, kid; you possess a very strong heritage from a powerful being of old." The figure said with an irritated tone.
"That heritage puts a huge target on your back," the figure continued- "and it will only increase as you grow older; it is both a blessing and a curse."