"L! Lyn! Llyne!" I heard someone screaming my name. I slowly opened my eyes and saw Iz's worried look.
"Iz?" I immediately sat up, gasping for air. I placed my hand on my forehead. I felt disoriented and weak.
"You got to breathe, Lil!" Iz shouted. I looked at my surroundings and found myself back in Iz's room.
"I'm okay, Iz. Don't worry." I sighed and stood up.
"I didn't know you have OSA. Why didn't you tell me? I was worried sick." Tears were swelling in Iz's eyes.
"OSA?" I asked.
"Obstructive Sleep Apnea. It's a sleeping-breathing disorder. OSA appears when the airways become obstructed. People with OSA might snore loudly, waking up choking or gasping for air. They might also have headaches in the morning, trouble focusing, and would feel excessively tired or irritable during the day like you every day." Iz explained OSA in detail.
"Uh-huh," I replied sluggishly.
"You should take it seriously. It can prove to be fatal if it's not treated. There are various methods to solve it. One of them is -" Iz continued on.
"It's not OSA. It's another nightmare." I interrupted Iz before she started rambling on for hours.
Iz stopped and said, "Oh. Another one? That must be awful."
"Not that bad, even though I already had two today. The first one was not that bad, second; the worst, third; weirded me out." I said as I stretched my body. "Anyways, how long we slept?" I changed the topic.
Iz looked at the clock on her bedside table. "Only 30 minutes."
I was dumbfounded. "Only 30 minutes? That felt way longer."
GrrooowwwwLLLLL~
We looked in the direction of the growl. My stomach.
"..."
"..."
Iz gawked her eyes in disbelief.
"Iz, stop looking at my tummy. It's getting embarrassed." I shooed her off.
Iz backed off and exclaimed. "What kind of wild demon is living inside you?"
"The type that needs constant feeding or else it'll eat me up whole," I answered sarcastically.
"We better go down and eat dinner before the monster EATS you up!"
I snickered when Iz said that and followed her downstairs.
When we arrived at the dining table, we saw a mountain of dishes beautifully displayed.
"Why is it that everything you guys do needs to be so extravagant?"
"Is it? I think it's normal."
"Go check your brain."
We sat down next to each other and picked the food.
While I was enjoying my food, I noticed I never met Iz's father.
I placed my chopsticks down and asked Iz. "I have never seen your father before except in the newspaper. Doesn't he eat with you?"
Iz replied to me with her mouth filled with food. "Noooope."
"I thought you had etiquette class. If your teacher saw this, she would faint."
Iz ignored my remarks. "My father is always with his business associates in his office. He rarely spends time with me."
"You must have felt lonely."
"Not really. After all, they always say the more business father has, the more money we have. Besides, I have you and everyone in the house. I don't feel one bit of loneliness."
"Aww... That's sweet."
Iz continued. "My father's business associates are super creepy. They have really scary faces and dark, bloody aura. All of them are at least 6 feet tall, too. When I first saw them, I fainted while standing."
"You fainted? Now I'm curious what they look like."
Thud. Thud. Thud. It's the sound of heavy footsteps from the floor above.
"They got loud footsteps."
"They must be out of Father's office."
"How you know? You peeked?"
"Father always soundproof his office. I tried to eavesdrop several times but failed."
"Wow! You're daring." Shocked by Iz's bravery.
"Businesses are always followed by risks."
"Ever heard of the proverb, 'Curiosity killed the cat'?" I scolded Iz.
Iz gulped and continued her dinner.
After we finished our dinner, we went up to Iz's room.
Iz and I sat on Iz's bed comfortably.
While I was enjoying Iz's comfy bed, she shoved a pencil in-front-of me.
"Waaahhhh!" I screamed in surprise.
"You trying to kill me with a pencil?!! What have I wronged you?!!" I backed away from Iz.
"Talk and don't leave any details." She retracted her pencil and was busy writing my profile on a piece of paper like a psychologist.
"You know, psychologist don't threaten their clients to talk."
"Lil, I'm just a friend who wants to help you. I'm trying my best not to throttle you here."
"Oh, right. The promise."
"No delaying. Spill it unless you want my help in that, too...." Iz scowled at me.
"I guess I'll tell you my dark past."
Iz raised her pencil, trying to stab me.
"Joking. Joking. Can't you take a joke."
"If you want to stay alive, then don't."
"Ouish~ Fine. I'll tell you about my first dream."
I told Iz my first dream in detail.
Iz jotted everything down.
"Lil, looking at your happy face as you describe your first dream. I presumed you must have really wanted to stay there."
"Seems that way."
"Were you having trouble sleeping that time or before that?"
"Nope. Not at all, I slept like a baby."
"You were completely relaxed?"
"No one can be more relaxed than me."
Iz cocked her head to the side. "Hmm... I see. You mentioned that something wrapped around your leg?"
"Ya. Why?"
"A tentacle, perhaps."
"Mmm... Maybe? I think there was some suction too."
"Were you surrounded by water perchance?"
My eyes widened. "Why didn't I think of that? I can't swim!"
"That's the first thing you thought about?"
"What else?"
"Why was there a lady under the water? Why were you under the water as well? What is the connection between the dead lady and you? Have you met her before? Why did the monster attack you? Why could you breathe underwater? All those questions?"
"Right. Those questions."
"Do you even know what I just said?"
"Ya-da-ya-da-ya-da... Monster?" I gave her a blank look.
"You're hopeless." Iz smiled. "Let's leave the first dream for now. Tell me the second."
I told Iz I was in her classroom waiting for her, how I fell asleep, and the horrible second dream.
"What? Wait. So the lady in your first dream who was dead appeared in your second dream? She was alive and chopping people down? She also..." Iz imitate the movement of a logger chopping a tree.
"That's right. She swung her scythe at my neck."
Iz grabbed her neck. "Now I know why you reacted that way in school. Imagine your neck getting chopped off."
"You're not making me feel better, doc."
"You remembered the man you bumped in Uncle Simon's restaurant?"
"Ya?"
"Was he one of the dead bodies in your second dream?"
"How you know?"
"You did say you have no taste in dead man."
"Oh right, I did."
"So, the third dream?"
"You not going to ask anything more about my second dream?"
"Let me hear all three, then I'll decide."
"Okay. Here's the third dream," I mentioned how I could sense danger coming and how the little girl always appeared in my dreams.
"You have psychic powers. And it started in primary? The first experience must have been tough on you."
"Not really. Just some black fog surrounding a room. No biggie."
"That girl you mentioned. She seems idle?"
"Till my third dream, that is. Normally, the little girl stands there and does nothing. Mentioning her really terrifies me."
"She's like a messenger? Or a guardian angel?"
"If that's what a guardian angel looks like, those people on the Internet must be taking drugs."
"Right. You did say she looks more like a ghost in a movie, right?"
"Ya. She does. Exactly like in a movie."
"What if that's not what she looks like?"
"What do you mean, Iz?"
"When you were small, you hated horror shows. It gave you a strong impression. Maybe whoever it is, it's trying to protect you from harm, so it took that form?"
"Protecting me by giving me trauma? That's new."
"It's a human's natural reaction to run away from things that scare them. The fight or flight response."
"But I don't know what I'm supposed to be running from. Let's not forget how she tried to trap me in the dream as well."
"I don't know running from what, but all these years, she never harmed you, right?"
"Right. Only scared me and made me unable to sleep for a few days. Once I closed my eyes and there she was."
"There might be a chance that all three dreams are connected."
"How did you get that?"
"Here's a hypothesis. The first two dreams are connected."
'"Ya. The pretty lady was there in both. What about the third dream?"
"Right. For the third dream, the little girl might be protecting you from those events that might happen by trapping you inside your dream."
"You mean if I was trapped in my dream, I'll be in a coma in reality, and no harm will come to me?"
"Might be so."
"Well, she was desperate enough to move and talk."
Iz nodded her head.
"Of course, there is always a chance that these dreams are just dreams. They might not turn into reality for all you know."
"True."
Iz looked at her clock and said, "It's bedtime. Let's sleep, and we'll continue this tomorrow."
"Okaaaayyyyyyy....." I agreed.
Iz and I laid back on the bed.
I closed my eyes, hoping there won't be any dreams.