Chapter Text
He woke up again, sunlight shining into his face. He rolled over onto his side away from it and sighed, pulling the covers back and stepping down onto the cold, wooden floor.
He walked over to his desk and pulled out a chair, seating himself while picking up a chewed on pencil and opening a notebook; writing something down.
Day 48, I had another nightmare. I was in some sort of forest, lost, and nowhere to go. I was wearing the same brown coat and bag again. Peering through the eyeholes that limited my vision, but I felt safe in the bag. I never dared to take it off.
The forest was full of traps and bags full of people. Despite it all being a dream, I could still smell the stench of rot from every body I passed. Flies surrounded them, hungrily eating away at them. No animals were to be seen, it was quiet, so quiet.
The last thing I remember seeing before waking up was a dimly lit house. I tried to approach it, but I slipped, and now I’m here. Again. I might try to approach the house when I sleep again, maybe someone lives there. Maybe they’re nice. I’m not sure.
He looked over at his clock hanging on the wall, nine o clock, it read
Shoot, I’m late again. He hurried up out of his seat and grabbed his backpack that was lying on the foot of his bed and ran out of his room, nearly tripping over and down the stairs, luckily he caught himself and went down swiftly and to the door, his mother waved a goodbye to him from the kitchen, his father was at work, he couldn’t say goodbye to him.
On his way out, his neighbor, better known as Lawrence, greeted him while passing by. Holding a beaten-up doll with purple buttons for eyes.
“Hi, Mono—“
—“Only Sidney calls me that,” he interrupted, “best friend nicknames, you know.”
“Ah, right, sorry.” His face turned red, scratching the back of his neck, “I might’ve forgotten your name.”
“Milo. It’s Milo.” He adjusted his backpack strap.
“Oh, right, Milo!” Lawrence spat with a laugh, “How could I forget!”
Milo sighed, “What do you want, I have to be somewhere right now, so make it quick.
“Oh, yeah,” Lawrence held up the orange-haired doll, “Ali made this for me, isn’t it cute?”
That boy and his dolls, he had many of them in his room, filling every shelf. Milo would catch him outside playing dollhouse with Ali sometimes, he found it childish—too childish—despite being the same age as them, he wanted to be seen as an adult, treated like he was old enough to do what the grown-ups did, so he’d usually get into trouble with Sidney, meeting up at the lake every day.
The lake. I was supposed to meet her there thirty minutes ago. Darn it.
“Lawrence—“ Milo waved his hand —“The doll is nice, but I have to be somewhere right now. Sidney is waiting for me.”
“Oh, sorry.” Lawrence pulled the doll back, hugging it close to himself, looking down at his feet, “I just wanted to show you my new doll, that’s all.”
Milo sighed, feeling bad, he glared at the doll again, “It’s a nice doll, Lawrence. I’ll see you later.” He smiled, waving and then getting onto his bike and pedaling away, leaving Lawrence alone with his doll.
I’d better hurry, she’s going to be so mad at me…
He rode his bike up in a hurry to a tree that stood beside the lake, stopping it there and leaning it against the stump. Another bike rested there, Sidney’s bike. It had chipped paint and mud stains all over it, as she never bothered to clean it once.
“You’re late. Again.” Milo whipped his head up, Sidney stood just a few feet away from him, crossing her arms and tapping her foot, furrowing her brow with a stuck out bottom lip.
“I overslept, Six.”
“That’s been your excuse this past month,” She groaned while slouching, “Come on, Mono, we barely get to hang out during school, and now that it’s summer, you still can’t arrive on time?”
“Lawrence wanted to show me his stupid doll that Ali gave him, sorry.”
“Fine, whatever,” Sidney, or “Six”, as Milo called her, sighed, putting her arms to rest by her side, “Did you at least bring what I told you to bring?”
“You mean the worms you asked me to buy last week? Yeah, I brought ‘em.” Milo took his backpack off his shoulders, unzipping it and pulling out a clear container full of dirt, worms crawled around within, “Here.”
“Thanks!” She took the container out of his hands and started running towards the lake, “C’mon, Mono! Don’t be a slowpoke!” she giggled, Milo sighed, running to catch up behind her.
She stopped at the edge of the lake, a fishing rod was laying on the ground, Milo watched as she grabbed a worm and stuck it through the hook, watching it squirm for a minute before picking up the fishing rod and casting it out into the water, then they waited.
“So, this is what you needed it for?” Milo asked, Sidney nodded, grinning.
“Yeah, this fishing rod’s been here for weeks, hasn’t moved an inch. Nobody’s using it, so I might as well.”
“Why didn’t you tell me? I had to make up my own story on how I needed worms for fishing, and here you are, living my imaginary story.”
“I was trying to surprise you, and I would’ve let you have a turn if you didn’t take so long, Mono.” She sneered, glaring up at him with a mean look. Milo was stumped, he didn’t know what to say. Sidney always knew how to make him question the next thing that would come out of his mouth, he never understood how she did it, was it magic, or her judgement that made him quiet? He’d never know.
“I- whatever, can you at least let me go when you’re finished?”
“Nothing’s biting yet,” Sidney seemed frustrated, slowly reeling in the fishing rod.
“Patience, Six. Patience.”
“Like how I was patiently waiting for you to arrive, bonehead.”
Milo gave up in trying to speak to her, but Sidney didn’t. She liked to poke the bear with a stick, so she brought up something Milo thought she’d never bring up once in their lives:
“Mono, you know that book you have laying on your desk?” She smiled, not making eye contact with him or even leaning her head towards him. Just straight ahead towards the lake.
Milo jumped in his skin, the book, the one where he kept all his dream logs in, did she know what was inside, what the pages read? He felt a lump in his throat, he never told her about his dreams, only told her to not touch the book.
“What book, my diary?” He tried to play dumb, Sidney saw right through him.
“You always let me look through that, you know what I’m talking about. The book you keep telling me not to read.”
He tried making up an excuse, “That’s just my- err.. homework!” He rubbed his arm, Sidney raised an eyebrow, puffing out her lips.
“Then why can’t I see it?”
“I don’t want you using my homework to cheat again.”
“Mono, it’s summer.”
“And? I use that notebook every time I go to school, you just don’t pay attention.”
Sidney scowled at him, clenching her teeth and tightly gripping onto the fishing rod, “Fine, whatever.”
Milo didn’t tell anyone about his journal, he feared his parents would send him off somewhere and he’d never see Sidney again, or Sidney would spread around his secret if he ever told her. So he kept it to himself, but he was always curious, did Sidney ever have any of these dreams, or dreams similar to his? He was too afraid to ask, so he kept quiet for now.
“Sorry.” Sidney mumbled, Milo looked back at her, then looked away again.
“It’s fine.” He replied, clearing his throat after.
Sidney eventually got impatient and reeled in the fishing rod as fast as she could, the worm was still there, just no longer moving due to being submerged underwater for so long. Sidney shrugged it off, grabbed the worm and gobbled it up like it was an ordinary snack, Milo threw up in his mouth, looking away.
“Six—“ He gagged, —“What is wrong with you?!”
“I didn’t wanna waste it.” She licked her lips.
“Don’t eat worms, are you crazy?!” He shouted, Sidney giggled, picking up the container of worms while putting down the fishing rod, Milo picked it up and Sidney put another worm on the hook, he then cast it out, beginning to wait for a fish to take it.
He noticed Sidney trying to eat the other worms, he screamed and dropped the fishing rod to stop her, not realizing his mistake, because the moment he did that, something started to pull and tug at the line.
“Oh— darn it!” Milo reached for the fishing rod, but it was too late, whatever had it pulled it into the water, never to be seen again.
They both stood there in silence, Sidney kicked a rock towards Milo, grabbing his attention.
“Nice job.” She mocked, Milo buried his face into his hands, growling with a scream, teeth clenched tightly.
“Hey, relax” It’s fine. I still have these worms, and they taste delicious.”
“Stop eating the worms, Six! Those were for the fish, not you!” Milo lifted his head out from his hands to look at her, she helped him up off of the ground, he dusted himself off, his face a mild red with anger, he took a deep breath, reassuring himself to calm down.
“Whatever, it’s fine. We’ll just get another one.”
“From where, I don’t have any money.” Sidney stomped her foot.
“I’ll buy it with my own, once I get my allowance of course.” Milo replied, continuing to dust himself off.
“You come here every day all day, how do you get your allowance if you’re not doing chores at home?”
“My parents make me do chores once I get back home.”
“Right…” Sidney gave him a look, “Mine don’t give me any allowance, they take whatever money I have and spend it all for themselves, you’re lucky.”
“I hardly see my own father, he’s either out working or getting into a fight with my mom over something, then he just leaves for a while.”
Sidney stared at him, not knowing what to say. Milo realized what he’d said and immediately spoke up again, “Sorry,” he apologized, “I got carried away again in my thoughts.”
Sidney nodded, swallowing, “It’s fine.”
“Are you eating another worm?”
Sidney kept her mouth shut. Milo looked at the container in her hand, lid open, hand covered in dirt.
“Six! Enough of that!” Milo tried to grab at the container, but she quickly ran away, laughing.
“Come catch me Mono!” She shouted while continuing to laugh, Milo raced after her, extending his hands out to reach her—which he eventually did, but not without accidentally knocking her over and spilling all the worms out of the container.
“Get off of me, you made me spill my snack!” Sidney pushed him off of her and scrambled to get the worms back into the container along with the dirt; collecting some debris from the lakeside dirt, it didn’t matter. She only cared about having the worms back in her possession.
Milo got back up, he had a small bruise on his leg, he walked it off though. Sidney held the container tightly and away from Milo as he approached her, but he lost interest in trying to get her to stop eating the worms. In simpler terms: he gave up.
Sidney noticed his lack of effort in trying to grab the container, so she loosened her grip, still keeping it close to her though.
Milo just gave her an annoyed shove, she pushed him back with her elbow, they eventually both decided to just call it a day early and head home. Walking back over to their bikes, still leaning against the trees, awkwardly positioning them and going the same way for a few moments before Sidney made a turn to the road that lead to her house, Mono continued forward, the thought of Sidney eating a worm continued looping in his mind non-stop until he reached his house.
———————
He slumped into his room, putting the backpack down with a thud onto the floor and flopping face-first onto his bed. Hands stretched out to the edge, he quickly sat up, he didn’t want to accidentally fall asleep, not yet.
Milo checked his dream journal and skimmed through the pages, revisiting what’d happened in those previous nightmares, one of them mentioned a prison, another described there being “grotesquely obese people with an unstoppable hunger”, and a page that Milo didn’t like to revisit and would often skip when he reread the journal.
He closed the journal and looked up at the clock, it was around noon, he wasn’t out for very long this time. Usually when he’d go out with Sidney it would be nearly dark by the time he got back home. His mother didn’t question it, only told him to go to his room and stay there until she finished breakfast, or rather lunch, since he skipped breakfast this morning.
Tap, tap, tap.
“What in the—Oh!” Milo jumped out of his seat, falling onto the floor. Sidney was standing on a tree limb right outside his window, waving at him.
Milo groaned, recollecting himself after the fall and standing up to go open the window, once he did, Sidney jumped through and into his room like she owned the place; sitting on his bed. Her shoes were covered in mud, Mono shooed her off before she could get mud stains on his bedsheets.
“You’re not supposed to be here, Sidney.” Milo closed the window to prevent his room from getting hot from the outside summer breeze.
“What happened to ‘Six’?” Sidney leaned against the wall, crossing her arms while giving him a look.
“Six, Sidney, whatever,” He said, “my point still stands. What are you doing here anyways, I thought you went home.”
“I did,” Sidney’s tone shifted, biting her lip, “but my parents were fighting, so I came here to get away from all the shouting.”
“Why are your shoes covered in mud, your house is just a few blocks down,”
“Y’know the weird kid with the blue shirt and messy hair?”
“Ryker?”
“Yeah, him, he threw mud at me while I was walking, never learned how to aim properly from last year’s baseball tryouts and just got my shoes.”
Milo couldn’t believe what he was hearing, “What did you do to him to make him do that?”
Sidney shrugged, “Beats me.”
Sidney took off her shoes, Milo already had his off, outside his room. Sidney was rarely in Milo’s room, usually when they’d hang out it was during after school hours or summer break.
She spotted the book on Milo’s desk again, it was closed as usual. Milo noticed her staring at it, remembering their conversation from earlier, he didn’t want her to open it, but he had to ask just one question from her:
“Sidney,” His voice cracked, catching her attention. He cleared his throat, “sorry, Sidney. Do you ever have dreams?”
“I have dreams that I can fly.” She replied.
“No- I mean, do you have dreams about strange places, like—“ He paused, thinking for a moment, —“dreams about being in an unfamiliar place, full of weird monsters, smells, sounds,”
Sidney’s face went blank, she twirled her hair in a curl through her fingers, taking a deep sigh and puffing her cheeks.
“Well,” she said, “sometimes, I have dreams that I’m in a bright, yellow raincoat, and I’m on some sort of boat, and there’s things there that want to eat me.”
Milo’s heart jumped, her description sounded familiar to something he wrote down in his dream journal, curious, he nodded, “Go on…”
Sidney stopped leaning against the wall, gesturing to his bed, as if she was asking to sit, he nodded, sitting down on it and tapping the area beside him. She sat down next to him, continuing to describe her dreams.
“They were big, fat, ugly, disgusting people. They can’t walk on their own weight, they tried to eat me, multiple times. Luckily, I escaped, but then once I did, I felt hungry, and then I woke up.”
Fat, people, eating, his journal had something similar to that description. But he wasn’t on a boat in that dream like Sidney had described, he didn’t know where he was in that dream, honestly.
“Did you have any dreams before this one?”
Sidney puffed up her cheeks, “I was in a kitchen a few nights ago, I could smell food, it smelled good. But the chefs tried to kill me. They chased me down each time they saw me, they were shrieking and squealing like they were pigs.”
Milo took a deep breath, Sidney was having dreams just like his, maybe he could trust her with this after all. He stood up, telling her to stay put and walking over to his desk, picking up the dream journal and walking back over to the bed, opening it and sitting down.
Sidney’s eyes widened, she leaned against his shoulder to see what was inside; he jerked the book away, nudging her off with his shoulder.
“I thought you were finally about to show me what’s in the journal.” She sighed, looking away.
“I am, but I don’t want you leaning on me while doing it.” He explained, Sidney rolled her eyes, looking back at the journal.
“Look, see, I had a similar dream to yours, grotesquely obese people, eating without any signs of stopping. Except I wasn’t on a boat, I was somewhere else.”
Her mouth was open in awe, she was a little mad at him, though, “This is what you’ve been hiding from me, a dream journal?”
“Yeah, yeah, it’s been happening for a month now, you’re the only person I’ve told. I trust that you won’t tell anyone else.”
“Mono, you trust me with seeing your diary, and I haven’t told anyone about it.”
“Six, you told everyone about the time I cried over getting a ball stuck in a tree.”
“That was ages ago!”
“It was last week.”
“A week is a long time!”
Milo shook his head, turning a page and pointing at a line, “This dream was about when I met some little triangular-headed creatures, they were afraid of me, though, and ran away.”
“I’ve seen those in my dreams too,” Sidney mumbled, “they let me hug them.”
“Lucky,” Milo turned another page, “This one’s about—“ He stopped, reading the page quickly, turning it once he realized which page he was on, the page he dreaded reading, Sidney was curious, trying to turn the page back, Milo smacked her hand away, letting out a grunt.
“Aw, come on, I wanted to see it too.” She pouted, Milo didn’t budge, keeping his thumb over the page to prevent her from turning it.
“I hate that one. I hate reading it.”
“I only saw something about a man.” She said, Milo shushed her.
“Stop.” He snapped, Sidney cleared her throat, pointing at the page they were currently on.
“Well, what about this one?”
Milo perked up, “Oh, yeah, this one, I was in some sort of prison, nobody else but me.”
“How’d you get out?” Sidney asked.
“I pick-pocketed someone passing by and unlocked the cell I was in.”
“So you’ll pick-pocket a guard, but you won’t steal ice cream with me?”
“Six, it’s a dream. I’m not committing crimes in real life.”
Sidney pulled something out of her pocket and shoved it in her mouth, chewing it, “Sure.” She said, speech slightly muffled.
“What are you eating?”
“Worms.”
“Again? I thought you’d stop that by now.”
“My dreams have been making me crave weird things recently.”
“Like what?”
“Well, one time—“
—“Milo!” His mother called from downstairs, Milo panicked, grabbing Sidney by the hand and to the window, opening it quickly and shooing her out, making sure to hand her her shoes back.
“Tell me tomorrow, at the lake, if my mother finds out you were here she’ll get mad at me.” He said, quietly, Sidney nodded and climbed down the tree carefully, putting her shoes back on once she reached the bottom and running off. Milo closed the window, “Coming mom!” and ran out of his room.
——————
Later, after doing his chores per his mother’s request, he spotted the dream journal on the bed and opened it, writing a small note down.
Sidney’s been having these dreams too, she didn’t tell me for how long, though I plan on asking her tomorrow at the lake, hopefully, I won’t be late this time.
Hopefully.