Dreams

It was an amazing sight to behold. A vast grassy field stretched onto the golden sunset. Huge cloud formations surrounded Mathaius as he soared through the sky. An ominous storm front approached behind him and there was as glorious as the sunset before him. He slowed to a halt and glanced, first to the storm front then to the sunset. He longed to race towards either sight but could not choose. The storm front emitted a great power and made Mathaius feel energetic and alive, while the sunset gave him a feeling of warmth and happiness.
Then, suddenly he noticed a clear pool below and warily descended it. When he got close, his reflection was blurry from his approach, then became clear. What he saw was not himself but a magnificent-
BEEP. . .BEEPBEEP. . .BEEPBEEPBEEP. . .
Mathaius grumbled as he blindly searched for his alarm clock. His hand found a night stand and the edge or an alarm clock that was just beyond his reach. As he reached to tap the snooze button, the clock slipped from his reach. He jumped up to catch it and somehow managed to flip over the night stand and land on his face.
Ow. He thought as he rubbed his nose and began to get ready for school. He rummaged through his fridge hoping to find leftovers from whatever he did last night and managed to find a cold, half-eaten pizza.
Yay, cold pizza. thought Mathaius as he gnawed on the pizza, not bothering to heat it up. He actually liked pizza better cold some times, depending on the kind of course.
The phone rang and he stuffed the rest into his mouth, picked up the receiver, swallowed and answered.
“Hello?”
“WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU!” Mathaius winced at Rika’s painfully loud voice and said “Eh?”
“Don’t eh me, you were supposed to be here TEN MINUTES AGO! I’m not going to carpool with you if you continue forget to get here on time, Mat.”
“Look,” said Mat, “I’ll set my alarm earlier so I won’t be late, okay?”
Rika sighed, but calmed her tone and said “All right, but you better get your ass down here in the next three minutes or I’m leaving without you.”
“Okey-dokey, see-ya” replied Mat and quickly hung up. “Note to self: try not to piss off Rika” he mumbled to no one in particular and raced out the door.
* * *

“. . .and then I looked down and my reflection was all blurry, so I waited for it to clear up, but before it did I woke up.”
“Wow.” Replied Rika sarcastically. Before, she was the only one of Mathaius friends who was interested when he described his dreams, but nowadays, she was as uncaring as the rest of them. Although she still put up with listening to them. Mathaius had just made in time and now they were headed towards the local college. Mathaius Garrowstin lived in the town of Salem, Washington and had just started his freshman year. He had just turned nineteen and lived in a small apartment building that was located by the bookstore that he worked at. Rika, who was a little older than him, also worked at the bookstore and, by some strange coincidence, lived in the apartment across from his.
“And now comes the explanation of what it all means.” Teased Rika. But instead of getting annoyed, he just blinked and assumed a confused expression.
“Actually, I really don’t know what it all means.”
“Looks like not all your dreams have some wondrous meaning or lesson.” She said and smiled.
“Oh it means something all right, I just haven’t figured it out yet.”
Suddenly the car slammed to a stop and Mathaius jerked forward. He was wearing his seat belt, but the upper strap was faulty and sometimes slipped a bit. Unfortunately for him, it slipped all the way and his face slammed into the dashboard.
                Why is it always my face? Thought Mathaius as he rubbed his nose and turned to see why Rika had so suddenly slammed to a halt. Her eyes were wide open and her mouth was gaping as her lower quivering. Mathaius slowly turned to see what had caused her to look so fearful. Before them stood a terrible pileup. Heavily damaged cars were strewn across the road, some flipped completely over, and a huge oil truck was torn in half. The only visible body laid on the hood of a lightly damaged SUV. His expression was a blank mask as blood poured from his mouth.
Mathaius quickly turned back to Rika. He was as horrified as she was, but it did not affect him as much.
“Rika?”
She said nothing, as she had no mouth, nor eyes.
“Mat!”
Mathaius woke with a start and looked around. They were parked at the college and Rika was outside his car door waiting for him to get out.
“Hey, drool boy, you getting out any time soon, we’re going to be late.” Mathaius wiped his mouth and got out. “What happened, there was the pileup and the bodies and. . .” He trailed off.
“Don’t you remember? You had just finished telling about your amazing dream when we got stuck in a traffic jam and you fell asleep on my dashboard.”
Mathaius frowned, “That’s weird, I don’t remember falling asleep. . . Or the traffic jam for that matter.”
Rika chuckled “That’s Mat for ya, always forgetting the most random things” she gave an affectionate shove and ran off to her class. “Laters.”
“Bye. . .” Mathaius stood there, utterly confused.


Mathaius sat in his final class for the day waiting for class to end. He wasn’t tired enough to sleep, which was what he usually did, so he looked out the window that he always sat by and traced the clouds with his finger. He soon noticed a seagull, those birds were always flying around near the campus this time of year, and followed for a while before noticed it was flying in a strange pattern, shooting upwards, then doing loop-de-loops. He frowned and held it between his two fingers, pretending to smash it like a bug.
When he lowered his hand, he, and a few other students, noticed that it began diving straight at him with increasing speed. Then, someone screamed as the seagull exploded, its entrails splattering against the window. This startled Mathaius as he fell sideways out of his seat, almost crashing into the person next to him.
The professor looked at the strange mess on the window with a horrified expression, cleared his throat and was about to speak when the bell rang. Everyone hurried out of the classroom with more haste than usual, Mathaius being last. Just as he was about to leave he looked back, worried, the turned to leave just to bump into his friend, Derrick.
“Whoa, dude,” said Derrick who glanced at Mathaius, peered into the classroom, then looked back at him, “what happened to you, and the window?
Mathaius explained what happened as they walked down the hall, also mentioning his dream on the way here.
“That is weird, dude.” Said Derrick as Mathiaus finished.
“Yeah, but I think there connected, somehow.”
“Whatever.” Derrick was about to turn away when he remembered something. “Yo, Mat, you seem stressed, there’s a party at the lot and it’s gonna be huge, wanna come?” Mathaius sighed “Sorry, can’t, got to work tonight.”
“Your loss, dude.” Derrick turned to leave.

* * *
Mathaius met up with Rika and they drove to work. During his break, he talked to Rika about what happened.
“Weird.” She then changed the subject. “Hey, that new manga series you’ve been waiting for just came in.” She pointed to the graphic novel section.
“Really? Thanks.” Said Mathaius as he turned to check it out. The interesting manga kept his mind off of the strange day he had. When their shift ended, they headed back to the apartment building.
They said goodnight and parted, Rika mentioning that Mathaius looked pale, and parted. He slowly walked into his apartment and literally fell into bed, exhausted and feeling a bit ill.