Chapter 5: Chapter 04

Mirror Changed – Chapter 04

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I'm not sure how I got back on the path in my dream. I don't remember going to sleep, I guess that since this is a dream that doesn't matter too much.

Once again I found myself on the center path between the great jungle and the huge metropolis. Already I had moved beyond the empty blank slate that I saw the first time I was here.  Is this progressing? is this moving on?  However it could be something else. I do not know what is going on. Like the time before I did not seem to need to breathe as there did not even seem to really be a sky. Just the landscapes to one side and to the other.

Wait, wasn't like that last time? It was, I think. I do know that there was more definition this time. I also somehow knew that all living things in the jungle were present, as well as all constructed items of the city. From small lizards and birds to the large animals striding across the land over two tiny microchips and great engines of creation. Everything that ever was seemed to permeate this dream realm. I began to wander down the center path. I was sure it was here for the reason, I was sure I was here for that same reason.

While I walked both vistas continue to change and grow .To evolve and strengthen into what they will become, or is it that they have always been.

The forests or was it the jungles trees grew to astounding heights while the creatures of the land and sky interwove among the greenery. A vast body of water I could feel but not see interposed below and beyond. Leviathans traveled the depths while porpoises frolicked in the waves. Great reptile’s scaled and leather bound roamed the lands next to the furry feathered creatures sharp of tooth and claw. Each stage of evolution making its presence known to me as I meandered at the edge of nature’s ground.

As always opposite the jungle was the realm of stone and bronze, iron and brick, concrete and composite.  Metamorphosized just the same. From early slabs of granite and tools of Obsidian to Adobe huts with thatched roofs civilization grew. Chariots rolled in among the lanes both cobbled and paved. Complex carved edifices formed to replace many of the older buildings, yet some of the ancient remained. Throughout every epoch this continued. The houses and keeps being replaced continually as newer technologies and materials made themselves known. Yet as bronze age melted into iron and iron into medieval something of ages past always remained. Whether it was a peasants hut, or knights retreat, or even the giant pyramid I saw in the distance all of human achievement were there for me to see.

I kept to my pace.

Staying on the path straight ahead as a great ziggurat of glass and steel rose into the heavens. As an ancient Redwood so large it blotted out the sky that was not there. The ancient of both out and alongside the modern. Both expenses were beginning to make my head spin. Then I noticed something in the distance, something ahead of me for the first time.

I walked along to whatever it was they seemed to cross over the path. My bare feet feeling every aspect of the smooth path, a sort of wind that was not their breezing over my bare skin. Whatever it was I felt drawn to it. Whereas nature had been interesting and the great city fascinating this item was irresistible to me.

As I closed on it, I saw that it was a great arch over the path. Details began to fill in as I walked. The left side of it, which was firmly rooted in the grasses of the forest, was a composite of many technologies. Marble pillar, steel girder, alloy braces, engraved woods, LED's and plasma screens, wires, police, strings, gears and more. On the right side where city had it's reign the arch was living construct. Branches were interwoven with vines. Leaves and mosses and flowers and fruits. Animal scurried in among the various places to hide or to crawl. Every color nature could provide was here, whether on the carapace of the beetle or the feathers of a bird.

This great arch rose dozens of feet and was at least as wide. The closer to it I got the more intricate of both halves seemed to become. As if I was rising out of the depths of a trance and into reality for the first time. Closer I walked until I could see a figure in the distance walking towards me.

The person was as naked as I was. Similarity sparked in my mind from the shock of light brown hair and the pale fair skin to the stormy blue grey eyes. It was not until the last several paces that my mind made the connection that the only difference between the figure before me and myself was that it was a girl.

She was smaller than I was, lithe and skinny in that awkward teenager way that many girls in their late teens can be. She was not like any girl I'd ever dreamt about. This girl stood as calm and introspective as I was. Inspecting me with the same intensity that I used on her. So very unlike the erotic dreams of pop stars or females that I knew. Nor was she like any of the awful nightmares of mockery I had endured from women I knew in real life.

Instead, she just walked up to the portal opposite me to stand and stare. Stopping just as I stopped looking when I looked. A mirror to my action in many ways. Her stance so very close to mine but subtly different. Feet placed just a bit different, knees not quite the same bend. Where I was sure my posture was masculine hers was feminine.

We stood there for a time. I was not sure if she was the mirror of me or I was the mirror of her.

Her hair was tomboy short period her size was very petite. I was not the tallest at five foot nine, but she looked like she was over a head shorter. I doubted she came up to five feet, if that. I was not very muscular nor brought of chest, this translated to a slim carriage on her and small but pert breasts. Very defined, likely the type that would never need a bra in her life.

As it was in a dream state I was not abashed by any nudity. Still I did not believe it to be polite to look down below her narrow waist and flat stomach.

Not sure what to do now that I was in arms reach of her we stood for a time. Finally, I reached up to see if I would touch and invisible plane that reflected her image to me. Or perhaps she was real. At least as real as a one could be while in a dream.

I was not taken completely off guard by the feeling of her fingertips on mine. It was still a near thing. Her skin was smooth and warm, fingers tiny against mine. I move my hand slightly to the side expecting her to do the same, to have the contact extended.

Instead her fingers slipped slightly to the side, allowing her hand to clasp mine. An energy flowed up my arm. It was worse than grabbing onto an electric fence. Fire moved along my skin charging every cell with something that was not pain but felt the same nonetheless. The power was of some sort that coursed up my bones igniting everything in their wake. I could not let go. She would not let go. I could not hold on and yet I did. The moment passed after an eternity of but a moment.

Before my vision cleared I noticed that I no longer felt her grip in my hand. Rather it was a flat field against twitch my palm lay. My nerve endings no longer fired randomly in my limbs seemed to be my own once more. I looked around as my site returned. Things seemed somehow different. The air currents a touch more caressing, the ground a little more defined. My skin felt just a touch more sensitive as if it was more receptive to sensation.

Since this was a dream I guess anything could be possible.

Then I looked at where she had been to get a start. I saw myself writ large. My body, though still lanky and gangly was good head taller than I was. I could see everything on my nude form, and as I moved so did he.

Wait…

No.

I seemed to be outside myself. Not in my body, and if I wasn’t in my body then I had to be in hers. I kept looking up at him through the portal because I didn’t want to look down and confirm what I knew to be true. I had never in my life dreamt of being a girl. Why would I suddenly find myself doing so now?

A swallow. Two. The sounds audible to me, nearly deafening. I found it hard to screw up my courage to look down.

Subconsciously I expected to see my flat and markedly unimpressive chest. In my mind I knew what would be there, in my heart it was something else. So when I saw a small set of pert breasts I had a conflicted surprised feeling that was hard to reconcile. It was like phantom limb syndrome but in reverse. Something that shouldn’t be there but was. I felt my chest ending further out than my mind told me it should.

As I looked I heard a rushing in my ears. I had heard this sound before, right before a panic attack I had once years ago. Even knowing what the rushing noise was did not help me out. Instead, it seemed to only make it worse.

A droning ring began to encroach on me then. One hand still attempting to get back through to my male body, the other frozen beside me as I was unwilling to touch this body for fear of how real it would be.

The ringing began to pulse. Like my heart.

Thump, ring. Thump, ring.

With each consecutive beat something was pushed back. Not only from my sight but from my awareness as well. As if it had never been.

Thump, ring.

The great forest and all the creatures within. Gone. Blank nothingness in their place.

Thump, ring.

The metropolis. The skyscrapers, cars, chariots, huts, sawmills and all. Nevermore.

Thump, ring.

The Archway. Comprised of all that was living and all that man had made retreated above beside and beyond.

All that was left was me, my male reflection, and the invisible plane of force in between. Slick as glass and infinitely strong.

Thump, ring.

He watched me as I watched him. The same concern that was almost fear on his face that I felt on mine.

Thump. Ring.

He was pulled back as if by some great force around his middle. Flying away at speed. Leaving me all alone once more upon an empty field.

Thump… RING!

The nothingness of the landscape reared up and wrapped itself around me. Entangling my limbs in a damp grasping hold. Clasping me. Engulfing my body.

I could not breathe. The constricting forcing everything from my lungs.

Thump! My heartbeat so loud I felt as if my eardrums would burst.

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RING! The audible concussive reverberation throughout all of existence.

The grasping landscape eclipsed all of my vision. Nothing remained. A chill began to cover all of my flesh. Clammy and wet. It restrained my legs, holding them together as I attempted to kick away.

THUMP!

My room. I was in my room. My eyes flashed open. I still could not breathe. My heart hammered in my chest, stronger than ever before. The palpitations painful. Everything wasn’t in the right place. I was tangled in my bedding, but it was strewn about. Like I had been fighting it all night. My clothes were half on, half off. Shirt ripped on one side. Television screen knocked to the floor nearby. There was a new hole in the wall nearby, and my left fist felt slightly bruised.

Crap… was I lashing out? Attacking things in my sleep in panicked delirium? It had felt like I had been fighting for my life. My heart finally began its winddown from full panicked fight or flight mode.

My ringtone on my cell went off.  Dangnabit. I pulled valiantly at the sheets and my shirt that was half on half off. I was still restricted and couldn’t get free.

It stopped ringing just as I was clear of those despicable materials.

“Ewwww… Gross.” I did NOT want to touch anything. Everything felt like I had been dragged through seawater and hadn’t even had a chance to dry. I was covered in clammy ick. If nothing else I needed a shower something fierce.

“Only a dream.”

I patted myself down just in case. All parts seemed to be accounted for and no extra jiggly bits or padding where it didn’t belong.

“Only a dream. Only a very very strange dream.”

It had felt so real though. More real than this room right now. I was sure I had much worse or stranger dreams, but this one had a texture to it that went beyond imagination.

At least my phone had pulled me out of the dream before it got even more off the deep end. Now I just needed to find the little bastard. I seem to have flung it somewhere in my thrashing about.

Luckily when I found it the thing wasn’t damaged. Especially since it was just an el-cheap-o flip phone from a bygone era. One of those free government things I got over a year ago. Phone in hand I stood, noticed the late afternoon sun beating down into my room.

“Dammmnnn…. How long was I asleep?”

Rhetorical I knew, even in my own mind. Maybe I should start answering myself too? At least then I may be more interesting. I checked the phone and saw several messages and a few missed calls. Most from Suzi and a couple from David, one of my only friends left. The most recent was Suzi.

I stood there groggily, still coming down from my panicked awakening. I rubbed my sore posterior. How had that happened?

“Ouch…”

Ok, that was pretty lame.

My poor cell wasn’t working terribly well right now. It had been clipped by the tire of one of my coworkers cars earlier this month. The screen was cracked, but still legible at last. I just had to be careful with it till next payday when I could see about getting a replacement el-cheep-o from WallyWorld our local low income social club. Unfortunately, ever since it had been run over its time function didn’t seem to work. As such since I had found myself relying on my phones clock to tell time I found I was rather time deficient.

“Stupid phone.”

“Stupid dream.”

Berating things didn’t help, but sure felt good. It took me a couple of times before I got it to dial out properly. Then I waited as it began to ring through to Suzi’s phone.

She picked up almost immediately.

“Sorry I missed your calls.” I got in before she could speak. Lame Ass strikes again.

“Where are you?” She sounded calm, maybe a bit of concern was in her voice. She was never calm when answering the phone. Bubbly, hyper, distracted? Yes. Calm and focused? Never. “I’ve been trying to reach you for a few hours now.

“Home. Just waking up. Why?”

“Because no one saw where you got off to after the party the other night.”

“It’s fine. We weren’t supposed to do anything until this evening right? So I shouldn’t be too late.”

“No it’s not fine you Jackass.” Now she sounded annoyed. Much closer to the Suzi I knew and loved. “You’ve been incommunicado for more than a day.”

That couldn’t be right. I know I got home around midnight last night. But to sleep a whole day away? Wait… more than a day?

“Shit!” My exclamation loud and shrill to my ears. “Sorry, I mean What?”

There was a pause on the other end. I was sure she was switching ears after my outburst. “Get your skinny butt over here or I’ll send David over to kick it for me. You remember what happened last time I had to sic him on you?”

She hung up before I could reply. Not that I could really come up with a proper retort in quick order.

Fully awake I scrambled into some clean, or at least dry, clothes. I didn’t even bother with socks. Just slipped on my worn out old thrift shop special sneakers. Once outside I finger combed my hair into an approximation of some sort of style. Bed head sounded about right for now. Probably just made it stick out even further. I had to blink a few times in the afternoon glare, my eyes not quite adjusting.

It was not far to Dave’s. Still plenty of distance to mull over my dream. The type that seemed to stick around long into the waking world. It rattled around inside my brainpan like a bad commercial song. Weird and complex, probably something a psychologist would have a field day with. I was considering this as I left the area where my run-down apartment complex was at. Crossing into one of the many small strip malls.

Past the stores, some closed most still open. The area had been able to bounce back pretty quickly after the Covid scare. I was still so distracted, almost distraught, by my dream that I was doing my best to not look into any reflective surface for fear of what I would see.

"Keep it together Jayde.” I would mutter sometimes as I walked.

It didn’t help though. I still kept seeing Her out of the far corner of my eye in the windows and mirrored surfaces. Remnants of a dream that felt more real than the world around me.

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End Chapter 04

Authors Notes – I’ve been waiting to get this chapter online for a LONG Time! It was the dream that Inspired this Whole Novel!  I had this dream a few years ago, it inspired me to write. If not for this dream I would probably not have made a single novel. It was so intense, so REAL, that I had to write it down. I shared it with my father who used to write fanfictions when I was younger. He helped mentor me into my first draft. It began the road to Here.

SO…. With that said. No I am NOT Jayde. Not in any way shape or form. Jayde is inspired by a friend of mine. I would like to think I am closer to Suzi, but even that isn’t really true. There are parts of me in every character, or parts of the people I know and love, aspects here and there. That is true for many authors I believe.

My friend that inspired Jayde joined the military a couple years ago and REALLY grew into his puppy paws. He is Huge now. But when we were lived close to each other he was soooo gangly and awkward. You know who you are, and why nothing worked between us. But I am so happy for you now that you’ve found your wife and have your first kid on the way! I am glad that our friendship survived and so if you read this online then you know how much I’ve treasured the history we had. Give your wife a hug for me.

Also,

Consider popping over to my Patreon, Advanced chapters located there!

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Toodles!

 

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