Visions of The Alter-World

Last night I had the oddest dream.

There's this school in the Alter-World, it's like the building I went to grade school in (which isn't there anymore by the way) but it seems infinitely bigger.

So I'm sitting in this classroom which reminds me of a recitation course I had my last semester of college, there isn't a teacher, but there's a voice coming from what seems like the front of the room. I'm ignoring it. Instead I'm staring at this girl a few rows in front of me (and one to the left) and wondering if I know her from somewhere and just can't place it or if she's one of the imaginary strangers the gods of the AW throw at me just to keep me on my toes.

I'm suddenly distracted. There's a table in the hallway outside the room, it looks like it's right across from the men's room. There's this guy I went to grade school with and run into every now and then sitting on the table. He's talking to this girl I know. He shouldn't be talking to this girl. I know him. I know he's trouble and I know she doesn't know any better and suddenly I'm feeling rather big brotherly and shaking loose from the idea that I'm stuck in some perpetual high school class that's main purpose seems to be me gawking at some fantasy girl sitting a few rows in front of me (and one to the left). I've snapped out of it. I'm up and moving.

It's about now that I get confused. I knew all along where I was, but there was that haze clouding my mind telling me that I was doing what I was supposed to be doing even though deep down I knew it wasn't. But now I'm standing in the hallway, there are these guys I know on the stairway staring down at this girl talking to this guy, I growl and they scurry away. I'm about to step between the girl and the guy when I suddenly doubt that this is a dream. What if somehow I'm not in the alter-world? What if I'm in the real world and I've just lost the plot altogether? I wouldn't think twice about bashing this guy's skull in either way (even though we've always got along) but I'm really nothing to this girl. I have no right to interfere with what's going on either way. We barely know each other, we're almost strangers. But I still feel like I should do...something.

Why am I wearing a hooded sweatshirt?

Something is wrong. So I veer off at the last minute and head into the men's room.

My high school history teacher is there. So are a few old friends, and some random people I've met throughout my life. At least one guy is a television actor but I can't tell if it's the actor or the character he plays on the show so I avoid him as much as possible.

Bathrooms in the Alter-World are always huge, they always have showers even if they're in restaurants or schools or train stations. They always seem more like saunas then bathrooms. They often have multiple sections. I'm standing in the middle of this one dripping wet with sweat and ankle deep in dirty water laughing at a joke told by a man with a monocle and a smoking pipe when I snap back to the realization that there's no way this is real because even for me it's just too freaking weird. So I run out into the hallway to grab this girl, tell her how important she is, and tell her that she needs to get away from this dirtbag before someone gets hurt.

But she's gone, and now standing at the table is one of my oldest friends who I rarely ever see and have always felt guilty about not hanging out with more. But instead of catching up I grab him by the shoulders and ask where the girl has gone. He points towards the classroom I had just been in, but instead of a classroom it's an exit now, and as I make a mad dash for it I feel very very young for the first time ever.

I burst through the door and out into the snow (it wasn't snowing a minute ago), but they're nowhere to be seen. I stop and scream her name, ready to fall to my knees, let the dream end and go back to whatever else I would have been doing. But I can't, they won't let me. And suddenly I can see him dragging her through a sunny field not far in the distance. It looks warm and inviting, they're wearing summer clothes. Where I'm standing it's freezing and the snow is quickly growing heavier. I close me eyes and...

I blip into the field right next to them and somehow bring the snow with me. I grab her arm and pull her from his grasp. The look of confusion on his face either says "I know you, but from where?" or "How the hell did you get here?"

I step between the two of them and he seems to grow in height. I'm thinking, "What the fuck?" But before I can tell her to turn and run he attacks, knocking me to the ground. He heads for her. I struggle back to my feet and unleash a surge of energy that slows him down just enough for me to get a hand on him. I spin him around, grab him with both hands, and toss him high into the sky. He doesn't come back down.

She crying, she looks so cold.

I hold her tight to me to keep her warm and say, "I..."

And as my voice falters I have nothing more to say, because I know that even in a made-up world what I would have said next wouldn't have been true.

I hold her and simply tell her not to cry.

We stand there as the warm sun beats down on us and the snow turns into a slow rain and I wonder why even the Alter-World has chosen to fuck with me on this otherwise quiet day.