by ALYSSA

Once upon a dream, I find myself sitting on the couch next to a young blonde boy. If I saw him in real life, I could not say this, but in my dream, he was my younger brother. He was upset about something, and I hated seeing him so distraught, so I offered to take him out. I think I was 14 years old in my dream too, but I had a license and my own house in the city. I was an adult at 14. He looks up and I smile at him, but he still looks sullen and forces a smile back. “Sure,” he replies. We always have the most fun trips together, unlike dad, who only makes things worse.

So we get in my Smart Car and I drive him to the Smithsonian, but eventually he gets tired and hungry, so we leave and just start walking. We walk for a very long time and talk. I pull out his favorite Lunchables out of my pack and give them to him to eat on the way. We speak many words, and exchange many thoughts and feelings, but we really say nothing. Eventually, we wind up in the woods. I’m not sure how, but we do. He smiles at me and runs up the nearest tree once we realize. I run up with him, and there’s music everywhere. There’s a sweet dance tune that I love and we both smile and frolic through the woods.

We stop paying attention to our surroundings until we reach a small house and farm with a beautiful view of the surrounding mountains and forest. There was green and brown in every direction but up. The sky was turning beautiful shades of gold and pink on the horizon as the sun became a sliver in the distance. The house was a powder blue with white edges. After taking a moment to soak in our surroundings, my brother laughs and runs to the house and climbs on the roof. I smile and follow after him, partly to make sure he didn’t get in trouble and partly just because.

Once we get up there, he gets really tired and leans against me. We’re facing one mountain that kind of reminded me of a giant layered dessert. There were layers of forest on the bottom that got bigger and bigger until you reached the top, which was a beautiful grayish brown mountain with snow on the top. The sun was no longer in view, but I could see its colorful rays shining past the mountain. “I love you so much,” my brother tells me as we fall asleep atop the roof. “I love you too.” I shut my eyes, and drift to consciousness. I wake tired, with my eyes watery, but with no tears.

by ALYSSA

Once upon a dream, I wake up in a familiar bedroom that I know belongs to me, but in reality I’ve never seen. It’s dark, and late at night, but I’m not tired. I go downstairs to get a drink. The stairs are carpeted a light shade of pink, but they look blood red in the black filter of night. When I get to the bottom of the stairs and turn the corner onto a white tiled floor, I see the living room. It’s hard to see in the dark, but there are four stairs leading down into the living room, and there is brown carpet at the bottom. On the left is a brick fireplace, with a small stage near it in the front of the room between it and the door.

In the doorway, which was closed, is another girl, about the same age as me. It was my old friend Isabella! I was excited and happy (and for some reason unnerved) to see my old friend, but she had her brother, and I knew I had to take care of him before Isabella. I was supposed to take him to school for her tomorrow. So I came up to her and gently took her sleeping brother from her arms. In retrospect, I realize there should have been no way that she could have gotten in. All the doors and windows were locked and closed, before and after she entered. After I took her brother, I turned around and set him on the couch.

When I turned back around, she was gone, and out the window I saw her car pulling out. So I turned back around, only to find her brother gone from the couch on which I had set him. I spent a very long time searching for him. I looked under all the furniture, in my room, in my mom’s room, and even in my sister’s room. There was one closet I hadn’t checked yet: The one across the stairs. As I open the door I notice a shadow move and I feel relieved until I realize it’s a large, black cat, with a rough nose. It pounces me and just as it’s nose brushes my face, I wake up, covered in sweat with my heart thundering against my chest.