Every night remains the same; staring at the ceiling until I fall asleep and then, the magic happens.

The only time I can get out of reality is through dreams where I can kill those toxic peers of mine. Then include a dragon and a giant whirlpool slowly sucking the life of me and teleport to space where asteroids travel like a fun carousel.

To me, dreams are my reality. This "actual" one is so plain and boring and if something adrenaline inducing event does happen, it's mostly just a bunch of issues involving crimes and deaths of innocent -- "innocent" -- people.

Plain. Boring. Toxic. Fragile.

Every day and every night, a cycle of reality and reality.

It's getting boring, too.

But this morning was rather good. I got promoted. I think that's something to be proud of myself. That might be it because I felt a rush of energy to get more work done. Surprisingly enough, the usual news and bickering of teammates were nowhere and I peacefully went through the day.

Now tonight, that rush is gone and I find myself just staring at the ceiling again. Plain white with rocky patterns -- the view when waking up and falling asleep.

As I close my eyes, the scenery I see is my office.

Am I dreaming or did the day just go by like that...

I look around and see my boss approaching me. Standing up to greet him, he pushes me aside and gives the man behind me the same promotion I had.

When I look back, the face of that man was unclear but rather familiar. The way he moved and dressed reminded me of something too familiar.

He looks at me and grins. The boss and other employees shift their gazes at me and laughs. I step back a little as I fall to a depth with the last image of that man grinning.

Eveything is dark for a moment. Then, a light glimmers.

I am in my house.

That grinning man is there. He is carrying a child whose face was blurred as well. A bunch of children of different ages run around him as what seems to be his wife is sitting on the couch, observing silently and eerily.

The wife stands up a little later and stabs one of the children. The child who seems to be in his early teens. The older ones stop playing and tries to recucitate him while the younger ones continued playing with their dad. The man was unfazed, too. Then, the wife stabs herself as the dad stops carrying the youngest. He tells the young ones to sit down as he drops the infant like a ball and even stepped on it. He takes the knife and stabs the rest of the children except one of them. He managed to get away to my direction and hugged me.

The man grins with such ill intent.

For some reason, I just watched it all.

I looked at the child and he cries.

"Please, don't leave me like this!"

I slap myself in hopes of waking up.

The view gets dark and hazy as the grinning man forcefully takes the child away. The child holds on the my hand.

Everything was stuck between my reality and the actual reality.

And it clicked.

The grinning man lets go of him as something near approaches. The child pulls me away from him and pushes me inside a cabinet with enough space for him. He closes the covers. A small hole is present enough for me to look through.

I can only see the grinning man's legs standing still as another pair of legs stands before him. Their conversations were unclear until the last sentence.

"Don't do to the child as what you did to me."

Blood soaks the unknown man and falls to the floor with his face facing me.

The grinning man kneels and opens his mouth as blood sprays unto my face. I wipe it off immediately as I look at the crying child asking for help.

And then, he took him away in an instant.

The blood continues covering my eyes as I wipe it off to see the white ceiling of my every day life.

It's raining today.

It turns out I left the window open over my head.

I control my breathing. I go to the bathroom and noticed that my clothes were soaked with blood. Out of fear, I took them off. Fortunately enough, I had no wounds. But how did those stains end up there?

I must have been hallucinating.

I prepare everything and head to work. After bathing, I step out on a wet rag. Looking down on the floor, I jump back into the shower.

It wasn't a rag.

The door opens slowly as the grinning man's face peeks in. He goes away and shuts the door in the process.

After a minute, I panic. I look around and just stare at the floor. The bloody man lays flat on his belly with his head pressed on the floor.

I get out immediately in a purple room.

It looks awfully familiar.

And I'm not naked anymore. I'm wearing this loose suit I can't clearly see.

A sofa appears in the middle of the room as the child I met earlier is tied tightly. The grinning man sits on the arm of the sofa and does a pushing motion against me. The room widens as I quickly distance from them.

"Help..."

A word of sorrowful voice resonates, as mine overlaps it.

"Stop!"

Everything stops except the grinning man. His grin vanishes and looks around, dumbfounded.

I jolt slowly and alowly towards the two being, forcing my body to move. And in an instant, I arrive in front of the man and punch the world out of him.

He falls on the floor, bloody and unconscious.

"You did it again."

The child looks at me crying, saying those words as the scenery changes.

It went back to the scene with the grinning man and his family still alive.

Their faces become clearer except the current live child and grinning man.

And my questions to their familiarity have been answered.

"Do you remember us?

The whole family speak as they stare at me.

"Remember them?"

No...

I am transported inside the cabinet earlier with the child next to me.

The two standing men are looking at me. The grinning one holds the dead one by the hair and shows it to me.

"Any memory of it?"

The grinning man asks calmly.

I look beside the child and he grins at me but crying as well. He slowly turns big, almost like the grinning man as I quickly get out.

Every character I've met circles around me, all soaked in blood. The child stands on my right as the man to my left.

Ahh... I remember...

"Murderer..."

I look at the child.

"How could you kill your own wife and children?"

I look at the man.

I look at everyone.

The memory is getting clearer now... that day.

"My wife and I don't have stable jobs and weren't in a happy relationship. We have a total of 7 children who turned out to be happy ones. It was a relief to me but to my wife it wasn't."

The scenery changes into that day.

"My wife, a selfish lady, envied our children's happiness especially the eldest's, considering they have a different mother. I didn't notice it until I turned to face her, stabbing my child to death. And I just... stood there in fear. We locked eyes for a moment before she muttered those words."

"Everything I am is because of you."

"Then proceeded to slice her neck. I knew very well I no longer loved her and so, just like gum, i threw my youngest to the floor and stepped on them until they breathe no more. The rest of my children were shocked and sat down as what seems to be their reflex. They were such good children. It was sad to see them go."

I laugh maniacally at the memory that I was once a murderer.

"Then the man he had an affair with came to me and tried to sue me. He failed though. I stabbed him multiple times before he bled on the floor. And this purple room? Oh I remember so well now! This is where I found my wife and her lover doing the dirty."

Such bliss to remember that day.

I look at the grinning man as his face clears up.

It is indeed me.

"Would you like to recreate that scene?"

I grin as approach him.

Before I could, the child holds my arm tightly. I look at him and shake aggressively to let him go. His face clears up.

"Please, don't repeat it. Please!"

The child is the little me.

I stop forcing him away.

"Please... save me."

I notice myself having a relaxed and soft face.

I'm... contemplating on what to do.

He distorts as he consumes the whole room with glitches.

I wake up in a white room filled with whispers and see the adult and little versions of me.

A bright door appears before me as they stood on separate sides.

"This is your chance to make up for everything."

The child tells me as he holds my hand.

"So, what's your choice?"

The adult one follows.

I kneel down to the child's height level. I look at him for a moment and smiled.

"I know myself more than any of you two does."

I pat him on the head and lay my forehead on his.

He smiles in relief.

The grinning man loses his grin.

"I'm sorry, little one."

Just kidding!

I stab the child on his heart just like what society did to me. His blood splatters all over the white room. I push his corpse away from my path.

The man grins again as I approach him calmly.

"So, you chose to do it again?"

I grin at him as I stab him on the heart as well. I push him to the side.

"You don't get to talk. I am both of you and I control this life, not you past scraps."

I enter the bright door and back into my room.

I am on the bed facing the white ceiling.

I laugh maniacally.

I sit up, facing my sweet boss.

"My love, my room of gorgeously crafted weapons, what shall we do today?"

~~~~~~~

When you dream and have a hard time waking up, what if a character from your dream is actually trying to keep you in for a purpose?

A made up myth I guess??? This is just my 3AM thought...

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