This is the very beginning of my current “works-in-progress” – When Dreams Become Reality.

  It all started when I awoke from a horrific dream. In all reality this “dream” had actually been more of a nightmare. I had never dreamt of something so vividly in my entire life, until that night. Every detail in the dream had stood out to me, as if it hadn’t been a dream at all. I remember everything, especially his cynical facial expression. The look of satisfaction in his eyes, throughout the dark shadows of a moonlit night. He had been standing over my neighbor’s lifeless body, covered in blood from his boots to his gloves. The blood had stained his faded blue jeans and his white long sleeved shirt. There had also been small traces of blood spatter on his chin and cheeks. He then looked over at me, as a grin began to form on his face. I had stood there in silence, numb to the fact that I had just witnessed this man murder my neighbor. He gently set the sterling silver chef’s knife down on the granite counter top and looked back over to me. ” Don’t worry, Elizabeth. You will understand why this has to happen”. 

  He said with a smirk shown across his lips. I shot awake and immediately stared at the clock– “2:20am” it read, as the moon had shown brightly through my bedroom window. I had spent the next hour trying to piece together what this dream could have meant and decided that it would be best to document what had happened. Once I had finished writing down the contents of my dream, I slowly began to fall back asleep.   The morning came all too quickly, as the sun had illuminated my bedroom and the wall art that decorated the walls. My alarm clock had continue to ring, as I slowly reached across the night stand to shut it off. I reluctantly rose from my bed and made my way downstairs into the kitchen, where my mom had be making breakfast. She turned around to face me with a wide smile, “Good morning, Honey. How did you sleep last night? Pancakes and bacon?” She inquired. 

    I internally chuckled before answering her question. “Sure. Pancakes and bacon sounds good. I could have slept a little bit better, though.” She rose an eyebrow and proceeded to give me a quizzical look. My mother had this way about her when she wanted immediate answers. Her deep blue eyes had always pierced right through me until I provided her with an answer that she deemed acceptable. “Why didn’t you sleep well? Was it those nightmares again? The ones you used to get as a child?” She asked, concerned. I looked back at her, confused because I couldn’t bring myself to recall what those nightmares had been. ” What happened in those nightmares again, Mom?” 

   Her expression had abruptly changed from one of question, to one of concern. ” Oh darling, you would wake up every night at the same time- around two in the morning. You had been yelling at someone to stop because they were hurting someone else. You don’t remember them?” She asked. My eyes immediately grew wide with shock, as I had realized just exactly what nightmares she had been referring to. I haven’t had those kind of nightmares since I was seven years old. I glanced back at my mother. “Yes, actually it was. Except this time he had successfully hurt someone to the point of death. This person had been our neighbor, Mom. I’m just very confused.” 

  My mother’s cheeks had immediately turned pale. I could tell something was wrong, but I wasn’t entirely sure why. ” Mom, what’s wrong?” I asked. She had briefly looked down at her phone and stared directly back at me. Sliding her phone across the kitchen counter, she stared directly into my eyes. Silence fell throughout the entire kitchen, as I grabbed her phone and looked down at the screen. The text message displayed on her screen had been from our neighbor Michelle. ” Janet passed away last night, the authorities aren’t saying anything other than that they believe it to be a homicide.” Shocked, I silently lifted my head from the phone screen and stared back at my mother in bewilderment. ” I-i-i t could be a coincidence. Let’s not over think this, okay?” My hands had been shaking, as I handed my mother back her phone. Sitting at the table stone faced, my mother was speechless. I had taken it upon myself to excuse myself from the table and continue on getting ready for my 9am lecture at school.