CHAPTER FOUR - HONG'S THEORY (pt. I)

By the time Anton is done with his morning rituals I’m practically on the verge of combustion due to how anxious I am to discuss last night’s dream. I’ve always sucked at being patient, and now is no exception. While I was waiting, I wrote down what happened in our dream because I was so worried I’d forget what happened in it like I did that nightmare.

“So, what was it you were so desperate to tell me about again?” Anton says, sitting at the kitchen table across from me with coffee mug in hand.

“It’s about last night’s dream,” I say, a bit too eagerly, shoving my notebook in his face, “I wrote down all the important stuff that happened in it, so I can give you a refresher if you want!”

He pushes the notebook away as he takes a lengthy sip of his coffee.

“Do you really expect me to go to the trouble of reading all of that?” He asks, leaning back in his chair, “Your handwriting’s near-illegible, and I don’t need to be reminded of anything.”

I frown. He’s dismissive and doesn’t seem to be taking this as seriously as I am, which is odd because he’s nearly always the more serious one out of both of us.

“Well,” I clear my throat, feeling a bit flustered and having lost my train of thought, “I don’t really have to talk about what happened in the dream if you’re not interested. I just thought it was really weird that we had the exact same dream at the exact same time.”

“It was. And this was the first time that our dreams have synced up like this, no? I don’t want you telling me you’ve secretly been spying on my dreams for months now.”

I roll my eyes.

“Why is that your first thought? I’d never do something creepy like that! You’ve been in my dreams before, but of course it was a weird dream-version of you and not the actual you,” I continue, “I’ve never shared a dream with anyone. Nothing like this has ever happened to me before and it’s really freaky.”

“Yes, ‘freaky’ indeed. I didn’t realize that the version of you I was talking to was your actual subconscious and not just an eerily accurate dream vision. I don’t like the implications of that very much,” Anton winces, “I do not wish to share any more dreams. You’re already on my mind quite a lot, I don’t need you invading my thoughts even more than you already do.”

“Aww, it’s sweet that you think of me so often, Mr. Giles!” I tease.

Anton sighs, clearly unamused by my teasing as he takes another very long sip of his coffee. We remain in silence for a few seconds since I don’t really have anything else to say about the matter. I thought he’d be more perceptive, but he’s made it clear that he’s uncomfortable and doesn’t wanna talk about it anymore. That’s a little bit discouraging, but it’s not the end of the world, after all, that dream could be a total fluke and mean absolutely nothing.

“…Anyway, I don’t mean to change the subject too abruptly, but did you still want to go grocery shopping for the week? I know we had discussed it yesterday but I wanted to know if you were hoping for me to accompany you there before I set my mind on staying home all day.”

Crap! I forgot I was going to come up with a list earlier of things that I wanted to buy today. I was too busy writing about our dream to even think about doing anything else!

“Yeah, it would be nice if you went with me,” I reply, slightly flustered from the abrupt topic change, “But I haven’t come up with a shopping list yet, so let me do that first.”

“Excellent. Gives me more time to mentally prepare myself for going outside and dealing with the general public,” the famously agoraphobic and asocial Anton says, “I will be in my room. Let me know when you are finished.”

He begins to get out of his seat to leave, but as he does a thought forms in my head.

“Wait, before you go, I wanted to ask you something.”

“Go ahead.”

“You’re a smart guy, and you know basically everything about all sorts of magic. There are people out there who can use their magic to manipulate dreams and stuff, right?”

“Yes, indeed there are,” he nods, sitting back down, “Dream magic… It’s not a very common or well-documented type of magic, due to its origins in the realm of subconsciousness. Our general understanding of it is very limited, and it’s assumed most people who possess this kind of magic are often unaware of their talents, and thus they are unable to harness its full potential or even really take advantage of it at all. The exact specifics of what powers these individuals have are also relatively uncertain as well– it seems to vary from person to person, based on anecdotal evidence. For some, they possess the ability to manipulate other peoples’ dreams. For others, they’re able to conjure up dreams of anyone and anything they choose.”

I soak in his words like a sponge, ruminating on them for a few seconds. Then, I come to an epiphany.

“What if both of us have some kind of magic dream powers? I mean, like, what if we were thinking about each other really hard and we somehow manifested our thoughts into a single dream like that? That would make this whole thing make more sense to me, and I don’t think it would be all that far-fetched, especially since you said that most dream magic people aren’t even aware they hold that kind of power!” I exclaim, nearly leaping out of my seat, “If I’m right and we both have those powers, then when we think about each other we can sync up our dreams again and control them and stuff!”

Anton exhales loudly through his nose, perhaps in frustration.

“See, this is exactly why I wanted to wait until after I’d had my coffee to discuss this. If I were still half-asleep I would have no clue what was going on, and I still honestly have next to no idea what you’re prattling on about. I feel that, if I actually did have some kind of latent dream powers, I would have long been aware of them by now. I rarely have dreams, and even when I do, they’re not exciting nor memorable, and of course never lucid. Last night was a very special exception,” he adjusts his glasses and gathers his thoughts, “If I were to go along with your little dream magic theory, I’d argue that out of both of us, you are the one who possesses that kind of power, since, unlike me, you seem to have dreams regularly. I’d even argue that your hypothetical dream magic is so powerful it bestowed upon me the gift of lucidity. But I do not want to get your hopes up, and I truly, sincerely hope from the bottom of my heart that you do not possess any dream powers. I do not ever want our dreams to sync up like that again and I do not want you having any sort of access to my subconscious. I wish to end the discussion here, for my sanity’s sake.”

I nod in faux agreement. He gets up and leaves, and in my mind I begin to form a little plan. To test out the dream magic theory, I will think about Anton really hard all day and all night before I get to bed so we can share another dream. It shouldn’t be all that hard, especially since he is my mentor AND roommate, and I spend the most time with him out of anyone I know, but do I really want to think about this guy more than I have to? I debate following through with this scheme for a second, but because I’m genuinely curious about dream magic, I’ve decided to test out this theory. For the rest of the day, I will try my best to fill my mind with thoughts of him (for better or worse).