Depending on where you began the story, it was about Adam Parrish.
It was a Monday when Adam started having the strange dreams: A magical forest. Ravens. Celtic knot tattoos and loud music. Leather wristbands. An orphan girl. A mysterious boy…
It was not that he didn’t like the dreams. It was more a question of not understanding them. He rarely had dreams before, so why now? And, anyway, it almost felt like these dreams… belonged to someone else.
It was also a Monday when Adam decided to stop by 300 Fox Way. It was rather a subconscious decision than an active one, if Adam was being honest. He didn’t quite trust the so-called methods of psychics but, well. What other options did he have?
Adam stood by the door, pondering if this was a good idea after all; and, when he arrived to the conclusion that he should better head home, the door opened. A woman with a large cloud of pale blonde hair appeared at the other side of the door.
“Welcome, magician,” she said, smiling. “We were waiting for you.”
What surprised Adam the most was not the strangeness of her statement, but the fact that she smiled with her whole face: lips, cheeks, eyes. Everything. And Adam wasn’t used to that. He was used to half-smiles that didn’t leave the mouth. In fact, he, himself, was a master on the art of fake-smiling, since he’d been practicing all his life. (And he learned from the best – his parents.)
Perhaps this woman was just insane.
“I’m not a magician,” Adam said, and excused himself to leave.
“No. You’re the magician,” the woman insisted. “Come on in.”
And, for some strange reason, Adam entered the house. It wasn’t any ordinary place, that house. There was a girl running upstairs. The phone was ringing. Somehow, that place felt so… alive.
They entered a small room where two more women were seating around a table. There was a girl in the corner.
“I understand you’re here because of your dreams,” said one of the women, who had some resemblance with the girl in the corner.
“Yes,” he replied, and took the seat the long-haired woman offered him.
“Alright,” said the woman who looked like the girl. “I’m Maura. This is Calla,” she continued, signaling the woman at her right, the one with shorter hair. “I believe you’ve already met Persephone,” she said, looking at the long-haired woman. “And that’s my daughter, Blue.” Her eyes were now on the girl in the corner. “We’ll make a standard reading, is that okay?”
“Sure,” Adam could only say. “I’m Adam.”
The woman shuffled her Tarot card deck and made Adam choose one. The Dreamer, the card read.
“So, your soulmate is a dreamer,” she said.
“A snake,” Calla spat, more than said.
“I’m sorry… My soulmate?”
“He doesn’t know,” Calla said to Maura, and the three women started whispering to each other. The girl in the corner, Blue, looked at him apologetically.
No, Adam didn’t know. He didn’t know anything, apparently. And he was starting to think all this was a terrible idea. But curiosity took the best of him. “I don’t know what?”
“You share your dreams with your soulmate,” said Maura.
“Why?”
Maura looked at the other two women and then shrugged. “Everyone does.”
“That’s the way the Universe works,” Persephone said.
“But it’s always that other person’s dreams,” said Adam. “Why don’t we share mine?”
“You never dream, Adam Parrish,” said Calla.
“You have too many dreams for the day,” Persephone said. “You leave none for the night.”
“Okay, thanks.” Adam stood up. “I think I should leave.”
“Yes, you should. We’ll see you again very soon,” Maura said. “This one’s on the house.”
Adam doubted that. The seeing these women again part. “Thank you.”
Adam was already walking down the steps towards the street when a voice called for him. Adam turned around. Blue was standing in front of the door and came closer to him. “You’re lucky you can kiss your soulmate.”
“I’m sorry?”
“No, you aren’t,” she snapped. And before Adam could protest, she added, “but it’s okay.”
“I don’t…” Adam didn’t know what to say.
Blue settled on one of the steps, bringing her knees to her face. Adam guessed she’d completely forgotten she was wearing a skirt. “My family believes I’ll kill my soulmate if I ever kiss him.”
“Isn’t that a bit overdramatic?”
“My family? Yeah,” she said, and seemed to remember her skirt. She crossed her legs and turned to Adam. “They’re never wrong, though.”
“Oh. I’m sorry,” Adam said, sitting beside her. “I mean it.”
“Yeah. It’s a good thing that I don’t like him. My soulmate.”
“You don’t like him?”
“Not one bit.” Blue’s reply came quickly. Almost too quickly, Adam thought. “He’s pretentious and manipulative and I refuse to fall in love with him.”
“Can you do that?”
“I can try,” she said. “I mean, who the hell chews mint leaves and is obsessed with dead Welsh Kings?”
Adam arched his eyebrows. “Is he a middle-aged man?”
“Worse,” said Blue. “He’s an old man trapped in the body of a teenager.”
They both laughed.
Perhaps Blue was insane, too. Perhaps everyone was, Adam thought.
“Do you want to share a pizza?” Blue offered. “I work at Nino’s and my shift doesn’t start until four.”
For the first time, Adam didn’t think about how much that would cost and whether he could afford it. In the end, it was just a pizza. “Yeah,” he answered, because it was much more than that.
Letting Blue into his life was like letting an earthquake shatter down his home to pieces, only to discover the many treasures that were hidden behind the walls.
They talked about each other’s soulmates. About the dreams. About school. They talked about the things that were important to them. About mindless things. Adam could feel he could share everything with Blue. They didn’t share their dreams but, in a way, Adam felt Blue and him were soulmates, too.
It was a Tuesday when Adam met his soulmate. The one from his dreams. (He and Blue called him Dream Guy.) Until then, he had only seen scraps of him and his dreams, but that day changed it all.
Adam found himself in the middle of a forest. A magical one. He didn’t know how he knew that, but he just knew. He didn’t know how he’d gotten there, either. (As it always happened when he was in his soulmate’s dreams.)
Orphan Girl appeared from behind a tree and extended her small hand. Adam remembered how shy she’d been at first, but now he let Adam be around her and even talk to her. “Sequi me,” she said. It was Latin. Adam knew Latin. The girl was asking him to follow her. Adam felt a strange excitement in finally putting his knowledge of the dead language in use.
Adam complied and followed the girl to a clearing. There was a boy lying on his belly on the floor, his head resting on his arms. Dream Guy. Orphan Girl let go of Adam’s hand and pointed at the boy. “Kerah,” she said. That wasn’t Latin.
Adam approached him silently, as if the littlest sound could break the dream and wake them both up. He settled beside him, on the floor. He brought one of his hands to the other boy’s bare back and started tracing his tattoo. First with his index finger, then the rest. Then with his whole palm.
Adam had been so caught up in the boy’s back that he had forgotten they were in a dream.
Then, something happened. It was like the dream shifted. But it was just a feeling, because nothing actually happened.
Except, the boy turned around. His piercing blue eyes locked on Adam’s and the dream shifted again.
“Curre.”
Adam turned around to see a bird-like monster coming towards their direction. So he ran. They both ran.
They ran fast but the nightmare–that’s what Adam thought the monster was–ran faster and was soon right behind them. And then–
Adam woke up. At least, that’s what he thought had happened until his eyes adjusted to the place. He was in an unfamiliar place. It looked like a big house, with farm animals outside. Definitely not his home.
And Dream Guy was just right there, beside him.
“Where are we?” Adam asked.
“This is my home.”
“Is this another dream?” But Adam already knew the answer. Dreams had a different feeling. This was reality.
“No.”
“What was that monster?” The other boy remained silent. “Wait. So, you just pulled me out of the dream? How did you do that?”
“You’re real,” the boy said, surprised.
“Aren’t you?”
Adam had the overwhelming sensation that this boy was insane, too. He looked thoughtful, as if he wanted to ask Adam something, or he was pondering whether he should do something. In the end, he just looked at Adam and said, “Go back to sleep.”
Perhaps only the people who mattered were insane. Perhaps that was the whole point, to be brave enough to leave sanity behind.
And Adam was becoming insane.
He went back to sleep.
-TBC-