"Dinner is served."

A man said while placing dishes on the large rectangular dinner table.

There were many men in the room. Two standing far behind me near the entrance, ten surrounding the table from afar. These 12 men were wearing armors and each had a sword on their waist. Maybe they were the guards as they were in fixed positions. The ones sitting for dinner looked noble, rich, and powerful especially the one at the other end of the table stood out very much. He had a very well built and huge body with a domineering aura. With a single glance, one could tell that he was never to be messed with.

But for some reason, the whole room was quite dark. Only the candles placed on the table were the source of light in this whole large dining room. All men's faces were unrecognizable but I knew, not a single one of them had I met before.

'Well, let's eat first then.' I thought while extending my hand to open the lid of the dish in front of me.

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the dish. I immediately stood up and backed off. My whole body started to tremble. Was it fear? No, I was disgusted.

"Wh…hat i.is t….his?" I was barely able to say a few words.

But not a single soul heard me. They were eating with ease and satisfaction. Everyone had big smiles on their faces. I could hear them saying "Delicious!" and "Cheers!".

All the dishes contained human parts. In some plates, there were human fingers and eyes while there were human hearts and brains in the others. All were well cooked with many seasonings. A servant was pouring human blood in glasses of the men eating.

I couldn't stand the sight in front of me. I instinctively looked down only to find I had a woman's body and was wearing a gown? All this confusion made my stomach start acting weird. It made me want to throw up.

I immediately got up from the bed and rushed towards the bathroom. I could still clearly remember that disgusting sight.

After cleaning my mouth, I rose my head up.

Early morning sunlight was entering through the bathroom window making the reflection in the mirror clearly visible.

I unconsciously started staring at the eyes. Dark circles surrounded eyes with different colors. When stared in the right deep black eye, one feels as if he is being sucked into the dark abyss. When stared in the left blood-red eye, one feels as if he is taking a blood bath.

"That dream again…." I sighed while staring at my pale face in the mirror.

Ever since I was a small kid, this dream haunted me often.

***

I returned to my room, put my glasses on, and checked the date on my phone.

[Feb 25]

These letters were the most terrifying things for me. And now the day had come once again.

But to my surprise, I was feeling nothing.

Every year on this day right from the moment I woke up till I exhaust myself to sleep, my head would ache like it will explode any minute. I would groan all day from the pain.

Unexplainable illusions would pop up in between this unbearable pain. Illusions of people I have never met before being dragged by people with armors to a strange place.

That strange place was undeniably a whole different dimension. And the two dimensions were connected by a huge bright red circular surface which looked as if it came right from a fantasy book. It was magical and couldn't be explained by today's science.

People in large numbers locked up in cells and some of their heads being cut off. Human parts being cooked. Blood stored like wine in bottles. I could see these things clearly as if It was not an illusion but I was present in that place. I could hear screams, cries of people. I felt anger, pity, and disgust at the same time. Experiencing these illusions would make me throw up several times.

Unexpectedly today was different?

'Strange. Why am I not having those headaches? But today is the day!?'

I hurriedly searched the name 'Dr.Sasaki' in my contacts.

-Mr.Sada, How may I help you?

A lady's soft voice was heard from the other side of the phone.

-Dr.Sasaki, I am not having…. those headaches. But t..oday is 'February 25' so h..ow in the world!? Can I co…me to your clinic for a chec..kup right now? E..very year I suffered from th…ose terrible headaches and illusions of people being ma…ssacred on this day so-

She cut-off my shaking voice and said with a calm voice.

-First of all calm down. Take deep breathes.

I controlled my heavy breathing and listened to her patiently.

-As I have said before many times, currently there is no other cases similar to your condition in the whole world. So I cannot help you.

-But how..

-In my opinion, maybe you have overcome your trauma somehow and maybe your efforts to improve your psychological health paid off. Regarding you visiting my clinic, every time you have normal results so there is no need for a checkup.

-…

-It's a good thing that your condition has improved so cheer up.

-Thank you. Sorry for disturbing you so early in the morning.

-It's okay. And Happy Birthday.

-Thank you.

The call ended but I still didn't get the answer to my question.

The thing is, I didn't have any incidents that include the moments of my illusions or my nightmares in my whole life so there should be no trauma at all. And it didn't affect my daily life except for my birthday and the morning I have 'that dream'.

So why today is different than my other birthdays?

Damn.....

'Leave it. Maybe it as Dr.Sasaki said and I have never got an answer in these past 22 years.'

I gave up like always not knowing that today my life will change forever.