Dream Walker

It’s been three nights since I drank the tea. Three days without real sleep. Three days wondering if I’m going crazy. Three days of hiding my possible descent into madness from my friends. Each night I close my eyes, and I pray for slumber, I beg to be whisked away into a deep and restful sleep. Yet each night, I find myself stumbling into the minds of my friends.

My three best friends and I had decided to make a girl’s trip to a small town in Mexico, excited to roam, explore, and spend late nights out. We were ready for new experiences and had decided we were going to take chances on this trip. If I knew now what that would mean, I would go back and keep walking. It was a simple street vendor, like any others we had seen that day. The air was warm and humid against our skin as we laughed our way through the streets. We’d only even stopped because Katie saw a cute bracelet dangling from the cart and when we approached the man seemed very sweet and helpful.

He asked us if we wanted to try some special tea he’d brewed. He said something along the lines of it being transcendental, and a truly extraordinary experience. A once in a lifetime opportunity, he said. He said he kept it special, just for tourists like us, and that it would only cost a simple trade. Meg has allergies, Katie was just ogling the bracelet, Brit was a little tipsy from lunch and was giggling telling me I should do it. I thought what the hell, might as well take a leap of faith. It was earthy and dry in my mouth, my lips puckering after each sip. I couldn’t really begin to describe the taste if I wanted to, it was so unusual. I thought that was the charm. We would all make our way back to the hotel joking about how I was going to start tripping at any moment.

That night, I had showered and was ready for a good night’s rest before our next day of adventure. I was sharing a bed with meg, who was already asleep, while Katie and Brit shared the pullout couch bed. When my head hit the pillow and I closed my eyes, I thought I was drifting into my own sleep. When I opened my eyes, I wasn’t in the hotel anymore, I wasn’t even lying in bed. It was like being awake, but in a completely different universe. I was standing at the edge of a canyon, looking down into the abyss. I looked up and around me, and saw that Meg was standing right beside me also looking down.

I reached for her, but my hand went right through. I called her name, but she couldn’t hear me. I thought maybe I was the one dreaming, but I was too aware and too awake. I knew I was in a dream, and some deep part of me realized it wasn’t mine. It was Meg’s. I clung to the idea that if I just went along with it, then it would all be okay. I would wake up and it would be a weird experience I could brush off and eventually laugh about. So, I stood alongside her in her dream and stared into the abyss with her. When she leapt from the side, I gasped and then followed suit. As we fell, the darkness came alive with these neon butterflies flying all around us. Her laugh echoed as we fell, bouncing on mushrooms until we reached the bottom.

Then came the alarm. It sounded like it was coming from somewhere in the distance, and it turned out it was. It was the alarm in the hotel room. And then just like that, I was opening my eyes at the same time Meg was, both of us still lying in the hotel bed. It felt like the whole thing was only a few minutes long, but I guess that’s how dreams always feel, especially when they aren’t my own. I felt exhausted, and my brain felt like it was running on fumes. I wanted to ask Meg about her dreams, just to see if maybe it was just some weird nightmare of my own. But I couldn’t bring myself to ask her, scared she was going to confirm that it was in fact her dream. I would brush it off, and we would go on to have another nice day exploring the little town we were in. We walked down the same street we had seen the vendor on the day before, but he was gone. I suppose I should’ve expected that.

The next night, I laid down once again hopeful for a good night’s rest. I could feel myself wearing thin, and that was only day two. When I closed my eyes and felt myself drifting, I sighed with relief as the feeling of sleep washed over me. Except, I found myself once again opening my eyes to an entirely different world. This time it was Katie I was standing next to. We were standing in our old high school gymnasium, and there were a crowd of people staring at us. They were laughing and pointing, and when we looked down there was pee dripping down our legs. I wasn’t just in her dream; I was merging with it too. I felt the embarrassment bubble up in me as it bubbled up in Katie. Their laughs echoed through the gym in this sort of crescendo, and then we woke up.

It was the middle of the night this time and Katie immediately got up to run to the bathroom. I’m guessing she had to pee. I just laid there, frozen. I didn’t even want to try to go back to sleep. I was even more exhausted than when I laid my head down initially. I couldn’t shake the feeling that if I fell back asleep, I was going to drift back into Katie’s dreams, or Meg’s. I was still hoping that it was some sort of nightmare that I was having where I was really lucidly dreaming. The sun rose and I felt like I was hungover after being run over by a truck. I didn’t even want to leave the room, just telling the girls I felt sick and needed to stay in. I went down to the lobby and searched for any information I could on what was happening.

I read about lucid dreaming, sleep paralysis, and night terrors. I read every scientific word I could find, and when none of it made any sense, I made the choice to look up if there was anyone else experiencing what I was. The only thing I found that even remotely resonated with me was the term, dream walker. Even then, it seemed like a far-fetched concept, but it was the only thing I had. Honestly, I didn’t care about what it was or if it sounded crazy, I just wanted to find a way to sleep. As long as I was walking into my friend’s dreams, I wasn’t getting any sleep of my own. If anything, it only seemed to drain me even further. The only suggestion this mystical article had to offer was that I had to be as far away from people as I could get. I needed to be far enough that I couldn’t stray into a nearby dream. It sounded like some people were even able to control it.

When I got back to the room, I started packing all my things as quickly as I could. I was practically just throwing things into my suitcase. The girls came back right as I was wrapping up, and of course they were confused and concerned. I didn’t know what to tell them, other than I was feeling super sick, and just needed to go home. I was wide eyed, sleep deprived, and desperate. I pushed past them and ignored their pleas for me to just stay another night. I booked next flight back to Seattle and was boarding the plane within a few hours. When I made it back to my little apartment, I flung myself onto my bed, thankful to be alone and able to hope for sleep.

I closed my eyes, but in a moment, I was opening them again to a room I didn’t recognize. This time when I looked around there was nobody beside me. I was in a dimly lit room, with nothing in it but a mirror. I walked up to it and staring back at me was the vendor, smiling proudly. I closed my eyes again, panic swelling in my chest. I opened them to see I was standing in the kitchen, next to me was a man I didn’t recognize, and in front of us was a thing of true nightmares. I closed my eyes again, and again, and again.