Wake to Dream by Lily White
12:30 p.m.
Gray walls.
Black table.
Plastic, fake red roses.
Everything in place, the dust on the tables untouched by human fingers.
Nothing can change because if anything changes, the room is no longer real.
…drip...
"Alice? ... Ms. Beaumont? ... Alice Beaumont ..."
Fast enough to wrench the muscles in her neck, Alice's delicate and emaciated face shot up to lock eyes with Dr. Chance, fingers of anxious dread tracing along her spine. She found him to be sensitive and sweet, if not for his insistence to return her to places she'd rather remain buried.
"Is it my time, doctor?"
He nodded.
Gray walls.
White door.
Dark wood desk.
White and beige striped couch.
Still the same. Still safe.
...drip...
"How are you today, Alice? You appear...stressed." His voice was discordant, bits and pieces understandable, but the rest filtered by the white noise of air rushing from the vents in the ceiling.
"Are you taking your medications?"
"Yes," she nodded, her lips forming the word, but her voice so weak she wasn't certain she'd spoken.
"Good," he answered, his assured tone a bare whisper in her thoughts. "Please, sit down."
Five steps across the room, three steps over the soft, patterned carpet. Four cushions. A white throw draped loosely over the armrest.
Her jaw clenched, her head ticked sharply to the side. Her body had a mind of its own.
"I'm having the dreams again. They don't stop." Terror softened her voice before breaking it apart entirely. "They're relentless."
With a soothing voice to coddle the fragility of Alice's psyche, Dr. Chance asked, "Are the medications helping you sleep?"
Her head shook, a wild movement that felt impossibly fast. "I sleep too much."
Thick silence fell, only broken apart by the doctor's gentle voice. "You've never told me about the beginning, you know? All I have to help you are the dreams." Another suffocating moment of silence. "Tell me what happened in the beginning."
"Can it matter?"
Seconds passed, the clock ticking oddly from the wall. Why hadn't he answered?
Had she actually spoken?
A grumble sounded, her throat clearing away the lump of festering fear that clogged it. "Will the beginning help, doctor?"
"Yes."
Violent tremors shook her, the nightmare of the beginning a wash of pure horror across her thoughts. "She was taken."
"Who...was taken?"
"My sister. They took her. Those bastards took her." It was as if a finger had pressed the volume button, Alice's voice increasing until it was a feral screech on her lips. "They are hurting her! Don't you understand? We have to find her. I have to find her."
"I don't want to talk about the dreams today, Alice." Annoyance in the doctor's voice, determination to make her discuss the topic he wanted. "We're going to start from the beginning."
Hair slapped her face when she shook her head again. Alice's arms were a tight band wrapping her torso, her feet tapping out a rhythm too fast for any sane person. "I don't know if I can."
Suddenly soothing, the doctor's voice changed as fast as Alice's emotions, his patience vying against her insanity to wrestle her behavior under control. "Let's go back to the beginning, Alice, to before the day Delilah was taken. Maybe remembering where you came from will tell me more about where you are now."
"It's not pretty."
...drip...
"It's never pretty."
"Take me there," he insisted.
"You'll scream, Doc."
Silence. He always let silence hang there, a thick and obscene shroud that promised death. "I won't scream."
Hers was a smile that could only be achieved by the insane.
"They all scream."
It's often said that dreams are what you make of them. Alice believed the saying; she held onto that belief even as she approached the monstrosity of an old Victorian home covered and crumbling beneath the weight of a rampant, bright green vine.
Windows that filled the three-story height were dirty and broken. The double doors that had once been a grand entry were barely clinging on to their hinges. For fear she would tumble through the loose and decaying boards of the front steps, she tested her weight first before beginning the climb.
Gripping the tattered and worn handle of the briefcase her mother had bought her on the day she graduated college, she squared her shoulders and tilted her chin in feigned strength of mind.
I can do this, she thought to herself, a lie she'd adopted as her daily mantra, a lie that pushed away the nagging whispers that she'd been delegated the worst of the lot.
Her career, thus far, had never panned out. She kept pushing forward, changing directions as often as an impatient person changed lanes in heavy traffic. Regardless of the career type, she always ended up in the same place: a layperson learning the ropes while being assigned the impossible and daunting task.
Pulling her phone from her pocket, she dialed a number she hadn't yet memorized, checking the number twice before punching in the last few digits.