Velli

  No one knocks at my door. I don’t even hear it crack open. I only catch the slow patter of footsteps. It’s been less than an hour since Rose crushed my dreams, and yet I’m met with another challenge. A gun lies under my pillow for such an occasion. I leave it there, anxious to use it but not anxious to show it. Still, I would never lay a finger on what comes through the door.

  I recognize her silhouette first. My bedside lamp, the one light in the room, makes her shadow stretch across my small space and lie across my bed. Dream’s in my room. My house. She sees it. She sees exactly how I live.

  My heart beats fast. Every word that wants to come out of my mouth is now meaningless and journeys back, defeated, slump shouldered, and hands in pockets down my trachea. I receive a consolatory revelation—every bit of anger I felt toward her before was just me coping. I love her.

  “Can I sit?” she asks.

  The question makes me straighten, and I slide over to make room for her. She dressed up for me. I’m embarrassed to be in only a T-shirt and shorts. She wears a yellow dress and pure-white sneakers.

  Dream sits on my bed with a barely registered plop. I’m glad she’s back. She smells like the beach—no, that’s not it. Her smell has no salt. It’s dirt. No, not dirt, never that. She smells like sand.

  “Um, Velli, um.” Her somberness and struggle for the right words scare me. She takes a long pause after every one and breathes heavily. “Rose saw you.”

  My heart drops.

  Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahah!

  I’ve lost everything. Dream’s going to leave me, then they’ll throw me into the Heirs’ prison, and my mom will die. My mom will die. No one’s going to pay for that hospital bill.

  I warned you about this living business. Really overrated.

  I reach for my phone. I need to get out of here. I need to—

  “Velli!” Dream’s eyes are red, wet, and her lips quiver as her gaze bores into me.

  It hurts to see.

  “Can you focus on me for one second and not the next thing?”

  She cries. She’s hurt. She doesn’t hate me yet. I can get out of this. I don’t have to die in prison.

  The girl you love is crying in front of you, and this is what you think about. You’re disgustingly selfish.

  You’re absolutely right, Fate. “I am so sorry, Dream.”

  Stolen story; please report.

  “Why? Why are you always scheming? Why won’t you ever let me in? Always on to the next thing. Why can’t you just be happy with me?”

  “I am!” I console her. “I am so happy with you. I want to keep being happy with you.” “Happy with you forever” is what I want to say.

  She folds her arms and stops staring at me. “Well, you’re doing a fine job. Because they’re coming for you now.”

  I lean back in my bed. I smack my head against the headboard, and something crashes to the floor. It’s not important. It can all break, and it won’t matter. It’s all gone. It will all be gone, and I’m never going to see the sun again.

  Why didn’t I value the time I had with Dream before?

  “Just why, Velli?” she screams, making me shake.

  “I was being blackmailed. I didn’t want to,” I say.

  A liar until the end, then.

  Yes. I’ll die as I’ve lived.

  I find no hope in her eyes at this revelation, and that’s… intriguing.

  “Can we do anything?” I ask.

  “No!” she screams. “Nothing.” Her head shakes with both words.

  “Then it’s over.” I am careful to not let my real emotions show. A few tears escape. My body aches from fear, and my voice cracks and shrivels.

  “There’s nothing we can do,” Dream says, and I’m so relieved.

  The real Dream would never give up. It’s so hard not to smile at that line. Waking up from a nightmare is an energy boost, but I have to contain it. The Nightmare Couple is here. Fake Dream is the Sandwoman.

  Let’s speed it up, then. I know exactly what she wants. “How long do we have?”

  “Not that long, probably three minutes,” Fake Dream says in an attempt to control her anxiety-ridden breath.

  “I… can you…?” I swallow hard and make myself appear to hyperventilate, as if my fear is getting the better of me.

  “Say it, whatever it is.”

  “Can you stay with me?” I pour out the words with counterfeit fear. “Just until we hear them walking to the door, then you can leave through the back door, all right? I don’t want them to see you with me.”

  “Yeah.” Her voice is a hopeless whisper.

  We sit in silence. Unsure of what I’d actually do, I do nothing but stare at the floor. She slides and hops over to me. I flinch then relax. This isn’t the real Dream. In fact, I’ll never see this fake Dream again.

  I grab her hand and squeeze. For once, I’m free to be honest. “I love you more than anything, but I’m so scared you’ll leave me as soon as you find out you’re a better person than I am in every way. You always say how you’re glad we’re friends and how much I mean to you, and I have no idea why. I don’t know why you even like me as a friend.”

  I don’t bother to watch Fake Dream’s response. It just felt good to say. I give her what she wants, though. My arms crawl up her body until my hands get lost in her hair. Her arms follow my lead as she explores me. Then her hands are on the back of my neck. Time waits for us to look into each other’s eyes, and I pull her face toward mine. We kiss.

  I wish this feeling were more complex. If this was real love, there would be a sense of relief or lust. But it’s not Dream, so I don’t feel a thing. However, my plan is working. Congrats to me.

  Sand invades my mouth like a plague of locusts on a farm. An aggressive gorging that swells my cheeks and mouth until there’s too much to shut. My mouth is no longer mine to control. It’s held open by sand as I’m forced to swallow more and more.

  Fake Dream barely bothers managing her disguise. Her mouth expands to the size of my head, and her arms no longer caress my body in loving affection. They pull apart my jaw to ease her onslaught. The rest of her face is disfigured, cheeks wrinkled in fatty layers, eyes lost in the face of her scrunch, and lips melting into sand.

  Then I’m gone, lost in the dream realm.

  Substack Link- For short stories of fantasy and horror that sometimes involve the characters from here

  https://iifinch.substack.com/

  Reddit Link- short stories here as well but you also get a bit more community.

  https://www.reddit.com/r/Finchink/