Dreams are very interesting.
As unknown as the human mind.
Yin Meng hated his dreams. A video playing throughout his mind unknowingly, through his perspective. His old classmates would talk about their dreams once in a while. They were random and strange, from becoming a different creature to seeing fictional characters. Crazy color bombs to unexplainable palette choices. Their mind would seem under the influence of the dream, stuck in a world they could never tell was never real until they woke up. They'd run as fast as they could but feel like their legs were stuck in mud. They'd jump from a high ledge only to land perfectly at the bottom. Fly through the air like a bird and drop like a stone.
He wished his dreams were like that. Random, and had nothing to really do with him.
Instead, he was stuck with the unrelenting replays of his memories. They mixed together into one, bits and pieces would be lost in the process and returned with another. Others would disappear to only replace themselves with the reason why Yin Meng identified them as nightmares.
"Heya, kiddo! How've you been?" An unidentifiable man walked through the door to a small home. A tiny child, around the age of six, ran up to him with his small legs.
"Good! Look at what mommy made me, they're super tasty!" He raised his plumb hands to show the man a half-eaten cookie. Pieces of chocolate stuck to his fingers and melted on his palm. Crumbs stuck to his chubby cheeks and bits of cookies were lodged in between his baby teeth.
"Well lookie here, looks like you lost another tooth!" Said the man, his face a blur, and his clothes were unidentifiable. And yet the child didn't at all seem to realize. His hand was large as it reached for the boy's, Yin Meng's, face. He stretched his cheeks within the pinch of his fingers to reveal a gap in his teeth. His two front teeth had disappeared.
The boy's eyes shimmered with glee and waved his now empty hands. "Yeah! I got it out all by myself! Mom said I was super brave and cool!"
A gentle laugh emerged from a room to the side that Yin Meng knew of it as the kitchen. An unidentifiable woman walked through the doorway. Even though her features were blurred, Yin Meng thought he was beautiful.
Her laugh stuck a chord within him, so tender and soothing it numbed his brain.
The scenery changed and the child peak through a crack in the door.
"Where did this come from?" His childish eyes watched as the man held up a note to show to his mother. "It doesn't have an address."
"I don't know, what does it say?" His mother replied.
"In-....game.....pare....mare...at the stroke of midnight...." The words cut in and out as if the dream itself couldn't make something to fill it in. Yin Meng felt as if he was underwater, his ears filled with liquid, and muted the conversation behind the door. But he knew he wanted to hear, he called out the darkness and begged for an answer. 'What answer?' said the stray thought in his mind. 'What was the answer I'm looking for?'
"....what are you doing? Are you going to throw the ball or not?" The wind passed through his hair and the blades of grass wiggled in between his toes. He looked down at his hands to see a large ball.
"Hey! Yin Meng!" A young voice called out to him. He turned his head up to see a girl around his age, whatever that might be. He could see her feature clearly, brown eyes, and brown hair. She looked too soft with her pink cheeks and yellow sundress.
His hands moved on their own to throw her the ball. It moved slowly in the air, going farther, and farther, and farther away.
"I got it!" The girl called out, her small hands grasped onto the small ball that fit into the palm of her hand. She turned towards Yin Meng with a large smile on her face. Her appearance changed and her stature grew. She changed into a woman, another blurred-out figure Yin Meng couldn't identify.
The woman wanted to throw the ball back but realized the distance between the two of them. So far that Yin Meng could only see the color of her yellow sundress. And with the blink of an eye, she disappeared from his sight.
"It liked the taste of my teeth." Someone said to him. He looked up from his hospital bed to see the same unidentifiable man from before sitting by his bedside.
"What?"
"The cookies were amazing, you did a good job."
The boy smiled and laughed at the compliment, "I didn't make those, mommy did!"
"What? You didn't?" The man said in an exaggerated tone. "Then you must take after your mother because everything you give me is so delicious!" He picked up the boy from under his arm and placed him on their living room couch.
The child gave a giddy laugh, his happy face revealed two brand new permanent teeth growing in. A stray hand fell in front of his face, cut from the wrist. It was the same hand that was rubbing his hair seconds before.
The child saw red. From the carpeted floor to the air, to the liquid dripping off his fingers. His living room couch was dyed scarlet. The familiar eerie feeling lodged itself into his mind. His wide eyes turned to see the man sitting next to him.
Eyes the size of gumballs hung out from his eye socket, a strand of red yarn led from the swaying ball to the deeps of the caverns on his face. His mouth, wide and toothless, held a glistening red apple.
Yin Meng awoke with a start. He gasped and held onto his damp shirt, the feeling of his heart burst through his chest and echoed in his head. He coughed and sputtered, saliva dripped from the edge of his lips as he tried to take a breath.
The picture from his dream burned into the back of his mind. The bloodied hand, the red yarn. "Damn it." The words came out of his mouth, quiet and broken. His eyes wettened and he bashed his fist into his blankets. "Damn it. Dammit. Dammit. Dammit!" He clutched his pitch-black hair and pulled at it. "Get out of my fucking head!"
His dreams weren't always the same, but they followed the same theme. That man, his mother, that girl, and that same man. They showed up the most at his worst times through his dreams, then the feeling afterward would bury itself into his mind. So although he wouldn't remember the full contents, he would always remember what it felt like.
His eyes opened and he heard the sound of his phone ringing. The words, Mother, were displayed on the screen.
"Hey Mom..." He said in his gnarled morning voice.
"Thank goodness you answered, you took so long." His mother's voice projected itself into his ears. It was just as soothing as when he was a kid.
"Sorry, my phone fell under the bed and I had to find it." He threw off the bedsheets and moved to his bathroom. He swept his hand through his damp hair and took a breath to calm himself.
"Yeah, you just had me worried for a second. You know how dangerous it is in your region, I thought you might have ended up like the people on the news. It's the second one of the week."
"There's another one?" He frained surprise. He knew who the people were, they were the people killed in that house. Yesterday, Xue Peng was reported missing. Although in a normal case, not being seen for more than 24 hours wouldn't be enough to go off of. But they had found his bloodied clothes, phone, and spare change laid out on the street. That paired with him missing sparked up a case.
"Yes, a woman this time. She was last seen going home, but then her clothes and belongings were just found on the street just a while ago. Apparently, someone who knew her found it and he recognized it as hers."
"I hope they can find her." He said while looking at himself in the mirror. Eye bags adorned his face and sweat from his tossing and turning made him feel uncomfortable.
"I hope so too." His mother reflected on her words. She was easily troubled and stories like those made her feel uneasy. "Just, please promise me that you won't stay out at night. And make sure that you aren't alone, and watch yourself while passing alleyways. And make sure to keep your knife on you."
"Yes, Mom. I know. I'm on vacation right now anyway, I don't feel like staying out much."
"...Alright then. Goodbye, love you. Make sure to stay safe."
A smile crossed his face as he gently told his mother, "Goodbye, love you too."
A solemn look overtook him as he placed his phone to the side. He washed his face and stared into his deep blue eyes.
He felt a little guilty about how he never actually promised his mother to stay safe. He would have on any other day, but he had things he needed to do.
He cleaned himself up, changed his clothes, and headed out the door.