chapter IV
When he woke up at dusk, he was more irritable than before. He sulked around the house, not even bothering to go out to… drink. I stopped him in one of the hallways.
“Hey… why are you so upset today?”
“I don’t know!” He yelled at me. He walked through me and stomped off downstairs. I saved his life… shouldn’t he be happy?
Later on that evening, he was on the third floor reading a book. I peeked inside, finding him sitting in a leather chair, his feet propped up on a coffee table. His dark hair was well brushed, and he was balancing glasses on the edge of his nose. He looked thirty, not sixteen. I smiled and knocked.
“Come in,” he said, obviously in a better mood.
“What are you reading?” He held up the book. It had green leather binding, but no title on it.
“Edgar Allen Poe. I’m skimming through all of his poems, hoping to find one that I like. I’ve read them all before, but I don’t have a photographic memory.” I just nodded.
“Why are you wearing glasses?” He laughed, and pushed them up.
“I used to wear glasses when I was a human… Obviously I no longer need glasses, but I always liked them. They made me feel… sophisticated.” I laughed with him. “I took out the lenses from before and replaced them with ordinary glass.” I shook my head jokingly.
“I’m pretty sure your sophisticated enough without glasses. How old are you?” He shifted uncomfortably in the chair, but told me.
“Five hundred and… well, I am over five hundred years old. I don’t remember exactly.” I gaped. “How about you?” I swallowed. I felt so young…
“I- I’m almost sixty.” My voice went up an octave and he laughed at my expression.
“You are very young, miss.” I glared at him jokingly, putting my hands on my hips. “I never said it was a bad thing.” I shrugged.
“The, uh, sun’s about to come up.”
“Oh, yes, I know.”
“What’s it like to sleep? I’ve forgotten…”
“Well, for me it’s just a state of rest. I never have dreams, and rest peacefully. For humans, it can be an odd thing. You shut your eyes and suddenly you are in a different universe, a world you have created in your mind. Everything seems real when you are in the dream, but when you wake up, you can completely distinguish reality from the dream. Oh, how I’d love to dream… Just something simple. I haven’t had a dream since I was human…” He trailed off, gazing into space. He slammed the book shut -sending dust everywhere- and slipped it back onto the shelf. He placed his glasses carefully onto the coffee table and went downstairs. By the time he got there, I had already gotten the idea. Lance would dream again: Today.
***
I waited until around noon when he had drifted off into the deepest sleep of the day. My idea -a brilliant one at that- was to ‘possess’ Lance while he slept… just go into his subconscious and create a dream. I felt giddy at the thought of it.
I stood by his coffin and imagined myself as mist. A mist that could go into Lance’s mind as he slept…
Suddenly, I was there. The entire world was white. I built the library on the third floor with my mind. It was difficult to find Lance at first, but he wasn’t reluctant to enter the dream. He walked in and sat in his normal position in the chair, glasses balanced on his nose. I smiled and came in.
“You don’t bother to knock today?” He smiled. I grinned so widely it scared him. “Eliza? What’s wrong with you…?”
“Do you know where we are?”
“Of course. In the library on the third floor.” I made lightning flash outside. I opened the curtains and let the grey light fill the room. I gestured to the outside. He set down his book, and his glasses fell off. He gaped as he stared outside. He put his hand to the glass. Lightning flashed and it was easy to see that it was raining… upside down. His eyes were wide. He turned toward me. “I’m dreaming?” I nodded. I was so incredibly giddy, I couldn’t help but giggle. “How did you do it?”
“I’m a ghost. I can possess people and cause them to hallucinate… This is kind of like a combination of the two. You said that you’d love to dream, and I suppose I owe you something for putting up with me. So, here we are.” What he did next was completely unexpected. He stepped toward me and hugged me.
It was in a dream, so of course my body was real. He could wrap his arms around me without going through me. It was warm in a way his real body temperature could never be. I gasped as he hugged me. I hugged him back.
“You’re welcome,” I whispered. I watch him spend hours in the dream seeing how things worked, impossibly even. He was a child learning about the world. I watched him until the sun set, and I had to leave. I left his mind as he woke. He was still smiling when he opened his eyes.
