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Joey is dreaming, or at least she feels like she is, it’s hard to tell. She stands out front her manor, and it looks fairly the same, maybe it looks cleaner? Did pa come back and spruce the place up maybe? Now that’s a real dream that will never come true.
She pushes the door open and instantly she notices all the taxidermy, it’s gone! It’s nowhere to be found. In its place is like, normal decoration, stuff such as houseplants, pictures, tables!
Speaking of photos, she looks at one on the wall. It’s a photo of her, she looks so grown up, all dressed in a pretty dress, but next to what she can only assume as super mature Joey is a weird looking guy, he’s grey. Literally grey, his skin is all over from what she can see, with freaky golden coloured eyes and big sharp horns, both orange in colour. Maybe this photo was taken on Halloween, if so, this guy has a super cool demon costume! Wonder who he is. Can’t be Jude.
This dream so far seems normal, or at least it seems like a dream. Can’t be anything else. Joey walks the halls, and sees how clean everything is, no toys or dirt or anything! The big grandfather clock by the stairs says it’s just around lunchtime.
Joey starts to head upstairs, gazing out from her vantage point to get a good view of the whole living room, and it’s so weird. Joey registers this as her house, is has to be, but it’s just so unfamiliar now. There isn’t any weird, home alone style contraption to stop some hypothetical robbers Jude made. There is no random veterinarian set up made out of pillows and blankets by herself. There aren't toys loosely scattered all over, becoming a major tripping hazard for basically anyone and it’s pretty damn strange. So strange. She can’t stand it.
Joey rushes upstairs to her room, her sanctuary. That place must be the same.
She hurries up the stairs, careful not to trip on the wooden ledges. She turns to her bedroom door and runs her fingers along the white painted wood. It’s so familiar, this IS her room door. Her hand grips the handle, and she thinks. Thinking only lasts a moment however, for a teenage girl’s curiosity is far stronger then her patience for an internal dialogue about change.
Inside is… weird. So weird. It’s her room, it’s obvious, some things remain like her shelf, her wizard snow globe given by her babysitter now displayed proudly on a dresser, and of her countless stuffed toys and absurd amounts of nicknacks, there are a few she recognises.
The wildest thing in the room is a crib in the middle. It’s so out of place. She walks up to it and peers inside, but no baby. Maybe the baby is elsewhere, or maybe they’re preparing for a baby? Whoever lives here has some sort of business and it definitely involves a baby. But who’s having the baby? Is it her? Is she having a little baby?! Or maybe Jude actually somehow got a date and THEY'RE having a baby! No, that's even more preposterous than her having a little one... This dream just got weirder ten fold!
Joey walks out and goes to check Jude’s room, but chooses against it. Even if this is some weird dream where everything is normal and odd, Jude is never, his room is probably so weird that it is beyond comprehension! She can’t go in there, even if the door looks so strange without the flashy police tape across it and the big sign warning against anyone who enters, besides, she doesn’t feel like being James Bond and getting past all his elaborate traps, if they’re still there that is.
Walking back downstairs, Joey hears a weird noise, the noise of someone approaching, and it’s coming from the front door! She can’t be seen, whoever is there might not think too happy to a maybe unknown 14 year old girl in their manor.
Joey scampers to the kitchen, and shuts the door behind her. Right away she sees how clean it is! It can’t be her who did this, no way. Not Jude either, and as much as she loves her, this can’t be the work of her babysitter. This must be someone who actually likes cleaning, like a professional butler or something. Also, there’s a random twisted up spoon on the counter, all folded in on itself. But it looks so well done, all nice and neat. Whoever did this was definitely no rookie. Maybe whoever cleaned up also did this.
Then Joey sees it. A calendar. Hung right on the wall saying in big bold letters 2007.
…
“2007!?” Joey loudly shouts, gasping, and lastly covering her mouth. “How is it 2007? It’s 1994, that’s…” Joey starts to count to herself, doing the math. “I-… 13 years… 13 years in the future… I wonder if they have flying cars…” She mumbles to herself, looking at her hands. Then, there is a noise, a sound of someone approaching. The handle of the doorknob twists and Joey ducks for cover, hiding behind the kitchen island.
“Joey?… I think I heard you shouting, you okay dear?…” An unfamiliar voice says, stepping into the kitchen. Joey peers around the corner and sees that grey person, horns and all.
He has a black shirt with some weird cryptic symbol on it, in a reddish colour. He looks so weird. Why’s he calling out for her? How does he know her?… strange grey man calling for her in 2007, not the worst dream she’s had.
“Jo? Where are you? Please I’m worried” the voice says, looking around him yet miraculously avoiding her. “Honey?…” Suddenly the door to the kitchen opens and who walks in is… Joey. The Joey Claire, in the flesh. Younger Joey can’t see much of her, her view from her hiding place is awful, so she can only see her face and a little bit of shoulder. Her alternative self walks up to that grey, demonic looking man and she clasps his hands, and she kisses his lips. The horned man smiles and makes soft, nervous chuckles, kissing her back.
They then talk to each other, the grey man looks down slightly. “How much longer?…” He asks, and older Joey claps her hands, grabbing his again and holding them close to their chests. “2 weeks? Can you believe that, 2 weeks!” She replies, “2 weeks, that’s…” the grey man says back, seemingly not understanding the concept of a week. “14 days, wow. It sounds so weird when you think about it, so many months down, just 14 days to go.” She says. The grey man puts a finger to his chin and says “the looks are what I’m curious about…”. “Well,” the dream Joey says, “I know it’ll be amazing! We’ll love it so much, that’s a promise!”
The pair of them decide to walk into the backyard, all the while avoiding seeing little Jo, who scampers back into the main area of the Harley manor. Back in the large living room, Joey looks around, and sees her Pa’s room. She barely ever goes in there, but when she was really little she would crawl into there to snuggle after a night terror had struck her. But he’s been home less and less, so there’s no reason to go in. But she just has an urge to go inside… she walks up, and goes inside.
It’s similar, a large king sized bed in the middle, bathroom, huge wooden dresser. But there is a big lack of the dead, taxidermy animals and massive paintings of her father shooting down wild game, so that’s a plus! There is a nightstand with photos of adult Joey, the house, and that weird grey man. There’s photos of her ma too, and her babysitter, it seems her babysitter has a daughter! She looks a lot like her actually, she's wearing a little headband and a shirt with a little purple tentacle monster in the center. Joey wonders what her name is.
The biggest photo on the desk is a wedding picture, it looks similar to the photo of her mother and father getting married, but instead, it’s herself, and that grey person. She picks up the photo and examines it, then she decides to take it out the frame, popping it out the bottom and looking at it. There’s a little bit of text on the back that reads:
Wedding of Mrs Joanne Claire and Mr Xefros Tritoh, September 14th, 2005.
Both from different worlds, yet always meant to be together.
That second part seems to be some sort of cute little saying or some other thing, it’s sweet, but that answers no questions. Together from different worlds? Is that man with the horns a demon, or maybe even an alien? No way, that’s ridiculous, that’s a conspiracy Jude would come up with.
His name is so weird, Xefros Tritoh, does that mean her last name is Tritoh in this dream? Joey Tritoh, isn’t the worst thing. Slowly she steps back, and she thinks for a moment, putting the photo back in the frame. She flops onto the bed and looks around. All the happenings of this dream are so weird. She’s married to a weird grey horned man, the house looks not like her house anymore. There is something weird about, and she’s going to find the answer!
She rolls out the bed and walks back into the main room. Taking a deep breath, she rushes for the stairs. Only, once she’s halfway up, there is talking back downstairs.
“Joey, what about Cridea for the name? We would never have gotten here if not for her” the horned man, who can she assume is Xef… Xef something she already forgot the name, says. “True,” her older counterpart says back “but maybe that’s for the middle name, you remember what that is?” She says, and Xef nods. It’s only now Joey can get a good view of other Joey and realize… She's pregnant! That’s why where’s the baby stuff!
Our Joey gasps, and then ponders everything. If she’s married to that grey person then he must be the dad! Wow, this dream got real weird again. Although it could be weirder so she should be grateful it isn’t as bad as it could be.
She looks at her pregnant older self and she seems so happy, even the grey man, who may seem nervous, has a faint smile on his face too! Little jo just watches them, just enjoying the sight of this domestic moment, but soon it’s cut short by the 2 of them start to approach the stairs!
Joey turns to run upstairs, it’s the only place to hide! When-
Slip, tumble, fall. Joey gets send fumbling backwards, landing on her butt, then rolling all the way down the stairs like a pathetic bowling ball. And just when she’s about to collide with the others…
She wakes up. Lunging forward in her sleep, she gasps. After a moment of silence she grumbles and flops onto the back, with a sigh. That dream was cool, strange but cool. Oh well, not like it was important, her marrying a grey demon like monster man definitely isn’t something that would happen. Although that does seem like something Jude would come up with for little to no reason.
Joey rolls out of bed and marks her calendar, she should go downstairs and start the day, maybe play with her pup Tesseract, have some breakfast, play some vet with her babysitter. She’ll probably forget that she even had that dream in a day or so, maybe even in a few hours. She’s heard dreams have meaning, but there’s no way that something as wild as that could come true.
Not in a million years.