Chapter Two

  "AJ, you can't keep ignoring me," a voice said inside his head.

  AJ was sitting at the breakfast counter, eating a bagel right before leaving for school.

  "AJ, you are going to miss the bus. AJ? Helloooo? The bus? AJ, are you listening?" His mother, Mary, could be heard saying.

  "Hm?" AJ looked up from his plate.

  "Go back to your room so we can talk," the voice said again.

  "Are you deaf? Listen to your mother. You better hurry up and head to school," his father, Adam, said.

  AJ just stared at both of them and nodded. He left the table, grabbed his backpack, and headed out the door.

  "What is going on with him lately?" Mary asked Adam.

  "I will never understand that generation. I had an odd dream about him last night," Adam said.

  "Really? Me too. What about?" asked Mary.

  "I-I can't remember," replied Adam.

  "Huh, me either. Oh well. Coffee?" asked Mary.

  This isn't happening. This isn't happening. This isn't happening, AJ thought as he headed to the bus stop.

  "But it IS happening," the voice said.

  It can read my thoughts? AJ panicked and started to hum a song. Um... hey now dun dun dun dun, get your dun dun, go play.

  "Hey, what are you doing?!" the voice said.

  Hey now, dun dun dun dun, dun dun dun, get paid.

  "FINE. I'll be back when you come to your senses," the voice said.

  AJ didn’t know why he chose that song, but he knew it word for word and kept singing it all the way to school. He sang it so much that he went into autopilot, picking a seat on the bus and walking into school.

  AJ walked to his locker and ran into Zoe.

  "AJ! Hello, Earth to AJ!"

  AJ looked over and saw Zoe standing by his locker with a smile on her face. She walked over and kissed him on the lips.

  "Hey, how are you doing?" AJ asked, smiling back at her.

  "I'm good. I had the strangest dream about you last night," Zoe said, looking into his eyes.

  "Yeah? What about?" asked AJ.

  "I can't remember, but I feel like it was something important." Zoe paused, trying to recall the dream.

  AJ took a long look at Zoe. She was beautiful, a half-white, half-Asian woman with bright eyes and an amazing smile. She was the only person AJ could open up to and the only friend he truly trusted. Her father was an Irish-American cop, and her mother was a Japanese-American nurse. They were divorced, so Zoe and her brother had a busy life switching between homes.

  "Darn, I’m sure it will come to me. Anyway, AJ, have you decided where you're going next year yet? If you want, we can go over plans tonight, maybe over dinner after school?" said Zoe.

  "I haven’t gotten any acceptance letters yet, and I’ve got a lot on my plate, Zoe. Maybe we can talk this weekend. Are we still on for the Academy of Science sleepover together?" AJ asked, his mind was still elsewhere.

  "Oh. Okay. Yeah, sure. I'll see you then," replied Zoe.

  Zoe walked off, and AJ headed to class.

  AJ sat in history class. The teacher asked him a question, but he didn’t hear it.

  "Abel Jones," the teacher called.

  "What?"

  "Did you hear the question?"

  "No."

  "Then please pay attention."

  "Yes, ma'am," AJ replied.

  The teacher then turned to Everett and asked him a question about Greek mythology.

  "Everett, what can you tell us about Zeus and his son, Apollo?"

  "Zeus was the king of the gods, known as the god of the sky and thunder, as well as the god of law and order."

  Everett continued his answer, but Tyrone, who didn’t like Everett, interrupted with a rude comment.

  “Nerd,” said Tyrone.

  "Zeus was married to the goddess Hera, but he was notorious for being unfaithful. He had many lovers, both nymphs and mortal women. Apollo was his son with a mortal named Leto."

  "Very good. Now, can you tell me about the nymph, Daphne?" the teacher asked.

  "Daphne was a wood nymph, the daughter of the river god Peneus. She was one of the most beautiful of the nymphs. One day, while running away from the god Apollo—who had fallen in love with her—she begged her father for help. He transformed her into a laurel tree, and Apollo, embracing the tree, placed a crown of laurel leaves on his head, naming it the 'crown of victory.'"

  The teacher was impressed and wrote the homework on the board: an essay on Greek mythology.

  AJ grabbed the paper that had his assignment titled Subject: Orpheus and Eurydice.

  Tyrone groaned loudly and rolled his eyes. "So boring."

  "Now, now, Tyrone, this is important stuff. You never know—it could come in handy," the teacher said.

  "Like when?"

  "Well, have you ever felt like you were in the wrong place at the wrong time? Or maybe had a weird dream? That could have been the Greek gods trying to reach out to you."

  "Uh-huh," Tyrone rolled his eyes and slouched in his chair. "Whatever, teach. This is stupid."

  "Alright, well, class is dismissed," the teacher said.

  On the way out of class, Tyrone picked on Everett for his answer.

  "Hey, nerd, how come you always know everything?" Tyrone sneered.

  "Because I study," Everett replied.

  "Yeah, whatever. Hey, I need help with my homework. Can you come to the library and help me?"

  "Well, I have class..."

  "Come on, brother. Besides, I'll make it worth your while."

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  "How?"

  "I'll pay you for your time. You can buy a new skateboard instead of that ninja one you have." Tyrone pointed to his skateboard.

  "Well, I guess, since I need the money..."

  AJ watched as Tyrone and Everett walked off towards the library.

  "Don't let him go with him," the voice reappeared inside AJ's head.

  Oh no, AJ thought as he ran toward the bathroom. He didn’t want to be seen.

  AJ finally snapped and acknowledged the voice.

  "Please, just go away. I can't be crazy. I don't want to be crazy," he said, looking into a mirror.

  "You are not crazy. But... um... there is someone in that bathroom stall who might think you are," the voice said.

  AJ bent down and saw feet under the stall door. His eyes widened.

  "He hasn't seen you yet. Just leave. Walk to the football field. We can talk in the stands," the voice said.

  AJ headed to the football field. He saw some friends along the way and passed Zoe.

  "Hey AJ, I was thinking about our convo earlier, and I really want—"

  "Sorry, busy right now," AJ said, walking quickly to the field.

  He climbed up the stands to the middle row.

  "Okay, fine, I'm here," AJ said.

  "First off, I can read your mind. So, you don’t have to talk aloud; people will notice. No one can hear me besides you," the voice explained.

  "Where are you?" AJ asked.

  "I'm just... in you. Or it is more accurate to say all around you. You could say I'm a part of you at the moment."

  "You are me?"

  "No, no. Well. Kind of. I'm not from this Earth. I had my own body... I think," said the voice.

  "Who are you then?"

  "I... I don't remember. I just... am."

  "Okay, well, I need to call you something. Just am? Justam. I got it! How about 'Justin' for the time being?"

  "That's fine. Names are not important. Now listen carefully. Something happened that has never happened before and will never happen again."

  "What do you mean? How do you know?" asked AJ.

  "I have been watching you your entire life. It's what beings like me do. We are not of this world. We have been around long before you and your ancestors. We only observe because that is all we have ever been able to do. We have no emotions like you humans, so there was no desire to do anything else. But the more we observe humans, the more some of us, like me, grow curious.

  You see, we cannot enter your world; we physically do not exist. But a human's dreams—their subconscious—are a different story. You have not comprehended that your consciousness ascends beyond your dimension. It’s a window to all the other realities, yet this Earth thinks of them as merely a movie playing in their heads. In a dream, our worlds can mold, and we can, in a sense, have bodies again. We are far too old as entities to remember what our bodies looked like, so we mimic. And the more we copied, the more we started to... form."

  "Are you saying those times when I have sleep paralysis—when anyone has sleep paralysis—it is really a being from another world watching me?!"

  "Well, yes. But—"

  AJ started to laugh. "That's the most ridiculous thing. How could you even come up with that?"

  "I mean, think about it. The same exact thing has been happening to millions of people since we even knew how to dream. Sleep demons? Sleep witches? Things visiting you late at night? Why would everyone have the same dream and feel the same paralysis with pressure on their chest?"

  AJ stopped laughing. "Last night... that feeling. It was new. I've always felt pressure, but this time... what happened?"

  "I—I don’t know," Justin said, hesitating. "We’re not supposed to be able to touch you. If we tried, all you would feel is that pressure, and then you’d wake up. But last night, something about your dream felt so familiar. I didn't want it to end, so I was you in the dream. Or were you me? I felt how you felt. I had never experienced that before. You were going to take that away from me, so I—"

  AJ looked around. The voice just stopped. "You what?"

  "I don't know. But now I can talk to you just like in your dreams. It’s like a part of you is still dreaming."

  "You talk to me in my dreams?"

  "Oh yes. Beings like us can communicate through dreams; you humans just never remember. Or we make you forget. Usually, if you can’t remember a dream, that's us. Have you ever fallen in love but can’t remember their face? Have you ever felt death, then realized that wasn’t you? Have you ever been so angry that your wrath burned down towns and relationships while you were outside looking in? That's us."

  "That doesn't make sense. But, fine. Let’s say that’s true. What does that have to do with me? Why are you here?"

  "Well, you see, the impossible happened, and I got through. Once I was in your world, in your mind, I was able to feel—feel for the first time. Everything you feel. It was too much and not enough. Others watched and were instantly attracted to come through, too. I knew what would happen if they managed to get through. It was like a memory, but not your own—what the future would be like if I—if we didn’t stop them. And I felt sadness. So, I decided to destroy the gate."

  "Destroy the gate? Whoa, me? Did you try to kill me?"

  "Killing wasn’t a concept I understood. You don't just exist in the present to us. There is no good or bad in death for us. But once I touched you, I couldn't go through with it. Some got through before I managed to wake you up, which temporarily stopped more from coming."

  "How many?"

  "Five."

  "You are saying they are bad?"

  "Bad for us—or you, I should say. They will latch onto a human, most likely one you have a strong emotional connection with. If we don't stop them, they will slowly feed off those emotions until the human is no longer in control. They become just beings of raw emotion, ultimately leading to their own destruction. Then they will become gates themselves and create more gates until—"

  "Their own destruction? Like they die?"

  "Yes."

  "Why didn’t I die?"

  "I don’t know."

  "So how do we stop them?"

  "We enter their dreams."

  "Excuse me?" AJ said in disbelief.

  "I can teach you. First, I can detect them. I am connected to my kind. Then we just need to be asleep in the same room. I need you to enter your sleep paralysis state; only this time, you will be their sleep paralysis entity. From there, it's as simple as a touch. It’s much easier to show you than to explain."

  "Do we know where these five beings are?"

  "I only sensed one so far. I sensed it when two of your classmates went off to the library. The other four? I do not know. They will likely be attached to someone close to you, so I suggest you go about your life, and they will reveal themselves. For now, let's deal with the one we know of."

  "It must be Tyrone. I have to be asleep in the same room as him? When am I going to be sleeping in the same room as Tyrone?!"

  "Didn't I hear there is a field trip with an overnight stay at the Academy of Science?"

  "Yeah, but he will never go to that. That guy only cares about football and women."

  "Well then, you better make sure he is at that event," said Justin.

  AJ sat there, thinking about everything he had just been told. Maybe he should see a doctor and find out if he was crazy. But what if this is true? AJ decided that either way, he would find out at the Academy of Science Museum.

  The rest of the school day went by slowly. AJ tried his hardest to concentrate, but all he could think about was Justin and the sleep entities. He was in his last class of the day, and Tyrone was in it. He stared at him, wondering how he was going to convince Tyrone to go to the Academy of Science.

  "Mr. Jones. Mr. Jones. Are you paying attention?" said the teacher.

  "What?" replied AJ, snapping out of his thoughts.

  "Since you’re clearly not paying attention, would you care to solve this math equation on the board for the class?" said the teacher.

  "Uh, sure. Give me a moment."

  AJ looked at the math problem on the board.

  "X is 10," Justin said to AJ.

  "Uh, X is 10," AJ repeated.

  "Wow, correct. I guess you were paying attention. You can sit back down," said the teacher.

  As soon as class was dismissed, AJ decided to speak with Tyrone and convince him to go to the museum.

  "Tyrone."

  "What's up?"

  "I, uh, wanted to talk to you."

  "Talk. Shoot."

  "Um, are you going on the Academy of Science trip?"

  "Hell no."

  "But why not? There’s a sleepover."

  "Why would I do that? Sleep is for the weak. I have plans to meet up with Tiffany. You should come too. Bring Zoe."

  "Um, I’m good. But you should really consider it. It’s for extra credit."

  "My guy, you worry too much."

  AJ tried a new tactic. "Zoe's friends will be there. Trust me, they're hot and all single. Think about it. We got our own hotel rooms. We’ll all be sleeping in the same place. Plenty of time to make some moves."

  "You know what? I didn’t think about that. Well, if that’s the case, then hell yeah, I’m in."

  "Hell yeah." AJ got really excited that it worked but immediately dialed it back because Tyrone had given him a look.

  Tyrone took off down the hallway as AJ watched. As Tyrone left, AJ saw Everett and Zoe talking to each other and headed toward them.

  Everett could be heard saying, "No, I swear that is what I saw." Tyrone approached them, and Everett looked down immediately.

  "Hey, what are y’all talking about? Hm?"

  "Nothing," Everett said, looking away.

  "You are one ugly motherfucker, you know that?" Tyrone said.

  "Tyrone!" exclaimed Zoe.

  "What! I’m just saying it so he tries a little harder. You want me to lie? Whatever." Tyrone continued down the hallway. "Look forward to seeing you at the Academy of Science!"

  Zoe turned back to Everett. "What did that mean?"

  Everett just shrugged. "I got to go." He walked off in the opposite direction toward AJ. As he passed AJ, they locked eyes. AJ could see Everett had a black eye. But it wasn’t sadness in his eyes. Or fear, even. It was anger. AJ had never seen someone look at him with such hate. Everett passed by.

  "Something bad is going to happen if we don’t get to Tyrone, huh?" AJ said aloud, trying to speak to Justin.

  "Hey. Stop. Talking. Out loud. You look like a crazy person," Justin said to AJ in his head.

  AJ forgot and looked around to see a few students giving him weird looks. But nothing hides abnormality like high school, so he went on his merry way.

  AJ headed home. Nothing eventful happened for the rest of the day. Justin was pretty silent during that time. In his room, AJ stalled going to bed—he was afraid. He didn’t want to dream. He lay there with his eyes open, staring at the ceiling.

  "It’s okay. Just breathe. I’m here with you. I’ll teach you how to control your dreams," said Justin.

  "Can you teach me to block you out while I sleep? I don’t want to see you or think about these entities when I’m not dreaming."

  "If that’s what you wish. But know, you can’t block out everything. You’re not that powerful yet. There will always be something. It’s inevitable."

  AJ was getting annoyed with Justin’s cryptic responses.

  "Justin, are you going to be with me forever?"

  "Until we defeat the last of the sleep entities. Then, I can no longer hold on to this plane. I will go back to being a floating conscience of data."

  "Why not?"

  "I’m not sure. So, it goes."

  "Oh. Well, good night, Justin."

  "Good night, AJ."

  AJ closed his eyes.