Dream Guide

Age Zero
When I first became aware of myself, I was in an empty, white room. Devoid of anything save my own self, it was enclosed by two white doors that blended into the walls. It would have been difficult to distinguish them, except for the clean silver knobs sticking out of the flat surfaces. I took my place in front of one of the doors, and waited.

Waiting wasn't something I do quite well, I realized after some time had passed. My hands itched to open the door behind me, and I had even placed an impatient hand on the knob of the door. Of course, I knew that if I opened it now, there would be nothing waiting for me behind that door. I knew not how I knew such a thing, but I ruefully accepted it.

My ears twitched when I heard the sound of another knob turning and I whirled around to see who had intruded in my space. A small...thing laid on the floor before me, as the other door slowly shut behind it. I say thing because with its squished features and pink limbs, it could only be called that. It was quite an ugly thing too, with an ugly voice that pierced my ears when it screamed out. I stared as it cried for several moments, before I finally grew tired of its incessant noises and picked it up.

The moment I touched it, memories of red warmth flooded my mind. I almost dropped the thing to instinctively hold my head, but I caught myself in time. The memories had not hurt, though the shock of receiving them had been quite sudden.

I gazed down at the pink thing and allowed myself a small smile; its squishy features looked tolerable now that it had stopped crying. Feeling better about having had this thing placed in my care, I opened the door, my door, knowing that dreams of red, instead of nothing, would be waiting behind it.

Age Five
“....And then Lacey took my Barbie doll and made it kiss Ken. Ewwwwww.”

“Yes, yes, I know. I always know these things. Don't you remember?”

She looked up at me, for now I knew it was a she, her wide brown eyes full of doubt. With a pout she said, “You didn't know what mommy got me for Christmas.”

I sighed, shifting her weight in my arms as I walked through the world I had created moments before from her memories. With a blue sky that looked as if it had been colored by a child with a crayon, and birds that resembled V's more than actual birds, it was less real than any world I would have wanted to inhabit, but she seemed to be overjoyed by the look of it.

“That,” I muttered, pinching her cheek spitefully, “was just once.”

She stuck her tongue out at me, though her bubbly laughter filled the air.

Age Twelve
Waiting was never a thing that I was good at, but I did it every day. While she played with friends and went to school, I waited for when she would fall asleep and enter our white room. Sometimes, I held it against her, making her dreams as outrageous as I could until she beat her little fists against my back and yelled for me to stop. Sometimes, I grew frustrated and entered my door, though I knew it would be empty, but the empty world beyond that door was endless compared to the little white room. I would wander forever until I felt I had to go back.

But I never did wander forever. When I opened my door to step back into the white room, she was there, her hand on my doorknob.

I stared down at her and she stared up at me, mouth twisted into a grimace.

“I told you not to touch this door without me.”

“I was bored! I didn't want to wait.”

As soon as she said it, she clamped her hands over her mouth and looked down at her feet. Despite it all, I gritted my teeth and stepped forward, closing my door behind me.

“I won't make anything today. Go back,” I said, scowling down at her sullen figure. Every day I had waited for her, waited to make worlds for her so I could see them myself. By this pathetic little girl, I was chained down, but she was chained down as well. I needed her memories, and she needed the dreams I created from them.

As she drifted back to her door, I called out, “Tomorrow, I will definitely create your worlds, and knock them down again, for you.”

Her steps grew a little lighter as she walked out.