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Dizziness clouded Grace’s head when he sat up in bed. He rubbed his temple, wincing from the feeling. His temple was warm. And sweaty. He had to get over his fever before morning or Rocky wasn’t going to let him teach. He could already hear his pebbles’ disappointed chirps at hearing his class was canceled.
Something hit the floor and shattered.
Silence followed the noise.
Someone was in his living room.
Ice ran through his nerves and he fumbled finding his glasses on the nightstand. He was shoving them on when—
“Grace sure he can’t wait taking his sleep,” Rocky chirped from his doorway. “Adrian will be here soon or Eridian from Med team can come watch.”
Grace shook his head and regretted it as his headache ached. “I will be fine. It’s just a slight fever and it will be gone by the time I wake up. Now go, Mr. Important or you will be late for your meeting.”
“Grace don’t do anything stupid.”
Grace shoved him with his foot. Rocky didn’t budge. “I promise. I am a grown adult. I can take care of myself. Stop babying me. Your acting like something terrible is going to happen.”
“Grace is big baby. Can’t take care of himself,” Still, Rocky headed down the stairs. “Rocky and Adrian will visit after the meeting. Don’t do anything stupid. Just sleep.”
Right, Rocky and Adrian were visiting him to check up on him. Though, it was strange they weren’t in the room with him.
“Rocky, Adrain? Hiding isn’t going to help you if you broke something of mine.”
Silence.
Grace frowned. Darkness pressed against his windows. He felt like he had just closed his eyes, but he must have slept well past afternoon and into the night. Something irked him. Could it be that it was somehow darker outside than any other nights? Grace made a mental note to let Adrian know. He could feel a headache from explaining his prefer level of darkness to an alien who couldn’t see light.
He reached out an tug on his lamp string. Nothing happened. He tried again.
“Did you guys mess with my lights?” No noise. Annoyance began to build up in him. “You know, these pranks aren’t really funny when I am not feeling well.”
He pulled his quilt around him as he stood up. He kicked his junk out of the way as he slowly headed for the living room. The last time Rocky messed with his lights was to ambush Grace after he joked that Rocky couldn’t scare him. He tensed when he passed the doorway, but nothing happened.
He felt the wall till he hit the light switch. It clicked as he flicked it up. Nothing. Grace groaned. He flicked it again and again. The lights overhead pulsed then flared, eventually growing brighter till he could see. He blinked at the open floor. Darkness was pressing against the windows, obscuring his view of the ocean. Speaking of his ocean, he couldn’t hear the waves. They had become background noise to him, but now their absences hung in the air.
Armando’s limbs hung limply from the ceiling.
He didn’t like that.
The table covered in Grace’s craft supplies was shifted. His diagram on water cycle now laid on the floor in pieces. The painted white rocks were now redish as they laid in a puddle. Grace stepped closer, peering at the liquid. A large splatter on the floor was between him and the table. Almost as if something large and wet fell. The liquid was on the edge of his table, dripping down. There were smaller puddles leading away. Grace’s eyes followed their path till they met a pair of legs.
A human figure stood shaking on their feet in the kitchen doorway.
The figure was soaked in blood. Blood. Grace’s mind made the connection and he almost gags. Not just from the gory sight, but the smell. It filled his nose with a copper scent. The figure swayed on their feet, dripping blood with every movement. They raised their bloody hand to point the kitchen knife at Grace.
“Oooooo,” Grace’s mind made a new connection and his pulse slowed.
This was a dream. DUH.
Grace never had a lucid dream before. He glanced down at his fingers and counted them. All ten were there. How surprisingly real everything seemed.
The figure flinched at the noise. Then they stepped forward. Grace fought the urge to back away as the figure crept towards him. The figure opened their mouth, revealing bloody teeth and gravely voice.
“Where the fuck am I?”
“Language,” Grace snapped.
His nose wrinkled as the scent grew stronger. Grace focused on deciphering the man’s features under all the blood. Long hair stuck to his face. His clothing was too covered to see. No arm below his left elbow. He shook on his feet as if he was tired and about to collapse. His eyes reminded Grace of an cornered animal.
Wow, his mind comes up with the craziest stuff.
He jerked the knife threateningly at Grace. He snarled. “Tell me what is going on or else.”
Grace crossed his arms, stood to his full height, and raised an eyebrow. “Or what,” he said mockingly, “Your going to stab me? I’m soooo scared.”
The man hesitated. He spoke less sure. “You should be. I could kill you.”
Grace snorted. “You can’t die in a dream, buddy. And I know this is a dream and all so it doesn’t really matter, but you are making a huge mess.”
Grace gestured to the puddle of blood forming below the man. “Are you going to clean this up?”
The man was breathing hard. He could collapsed at any moment. Suddenly, the atmosphere felt less frightening. Regret and pity bloomed in Grace, drowning out his annoyance.
“Come with me. I’ll run you a bath.”
The man protested as Grace walked away. There were apartments in New York smaller than his bathroom. Rocky had gone all out on designing a safe and assessable bathroom for Grace when he was still recovering from their journey. He threw his quilt onto the counter before pressing a tile in wall. A long plank came out of the bath tubs sides for a bench. The bathtub was a small pool so he could easily shower and sit down at the same time. Something he thought his guest would appreciate.
He heard the wet shuffle behind him. He dropped all his soap on the table next to the tub. The man was standing in the doorway, staring at Grace and clenching the now bloody knife.
Grace gestured to the bench. “Get in.”
“Where. Am. I?”
Grace did his best stern teacher voice. “You are in my house. You are dripping what I think is blood all over my house. If you don’t want to get kick out, you need to take a shower. Please get into the bathtub.”
Grace went back to the wall and pulled the lever. It clicked and the shower head began to spray warm water. Grace was about to touch the water to make sure it wasn’t too hot when a bloody figure passed him. The man stumbled into the tub, yanked the shower head down, and began sucking it. Grace stared at him horrified.
“What the hell?”
Drinking. The man was drinking from the shower head like he had been dying of thirst. At least he was in the tub. Grace spotted the knife abandoned on the floor. Stepping over all the blood, he gently grab it. His neck prickled.
The man had stopped drinking and was staring at him. Grace could make out the scruff of a beard now. And teeth. Small fangs poking out of the bumpy surface of his left cheek. Why the hell not, dream?
“If you wanted a drink, you could have asked,” he said while tossing the knife into the sink. He pointed at the bench. “Sit down before you fall and crack your skull.”
The man blinked at Grace, then the bench before slowly sitting down. He still clutch the shower head which was spraying his torso. Pinkish water rushed down the drain. Grace grabbed his loofah from the wall cabinet. The man watched as Grace coated it with soap and held it out. He held out his other hand for the shower head.
“You scrub and I will rinse you off.”
The man passed the shower head and took the loofah. He dragged it against his body slowly, spreading the reddish spuds. Grace twisted the shower head to increase the pressure. The man flinched at the water hitting his back.
“Do you have a name?”
His voice was smaller and softer than ever. “Simon.”
“Nice to meet you, Simon. I’m Dr. Ryland Grace. Just call me Grace. Have we met before?”
Grace could see the color of Simon’s hair was black. He continued.
“The faces you see in your dreams are supposed to be faces you’ve seen before when your awake. Something about your brain recycling what it knows. I obviously never seen a bloody person before, but maybe I’ve seen you. Had I met you? Seen you in a crowd or a cafe? Youtube video or something?”
The clothing the man wore appeared to be worn down and torn in some places. Grace’s hand brushed bare skin of a shoulder in one of the tears and he shivered. Simon was warm. And soft. Grace’s hand tingled where they met.
“You really think this is a dream?” Simon croaked.
“What else could it be?” Grace rebuttaled.
A long pause. “I don’t know. Maybe this is a dream.”
Grace hummed. His back ached at being bent but Grace swallowed it. Who cares about his fever or aching joints when he could spend time with another person. Even if it wasn’t real.
“I’m going to wash your hair,” Grace said.
Simon copied Grace’s hum.
Grace led Simon to his bed. The pajamas Grace loaned him clung to his skin from being a size to small and the water. Simon didn’t complain about the clothes or when Grace grabbed his wrist and led him away. He looked like a zombie on his feet. Grace didn’t feel much different. It seemed crazy that he felt tired in a dream. Everything seemed too vivid too. But Simon was all the proof that this wasn’t real. He fell into bed, dragging Simon down with him. The other sighed as he laid down. Grace threw the blankets over both of them.
“Goodnight, Simon.”
He closed his eyes and felt a panic. The waves absence was suddenly there again. Could he fall asleep without them? Why would he have trouble sleeping in a dream? If someone was dreaming they were insomniac would they wake up rested or sleep deprived? Did that make any sense?
A loud breathing pulled him out of his mind.
Grace counted the seconds between each snore and simply slept.
“Grace dumb dumb dumb statement.”
Adrian had brought the old translator to the medbay when it became clear Rocky was too angry to rant slow enough for Grace to understand. Now they stood menacing by the door why Rocky walked back in forth in front of Grace who sat on the med table. If rocks could glare, there would be a hole in Grace’s head.
“Grace said not a baby. Grace promise Rocky he wouldn’t do anything stupid. Just sleep. Grace lied. Accusation!”
“Again, I thought it was a dream. How was I to know the human who teleported into my bio-dome was real!”
“Grace mock Anomaly Simon when Anomaly Simon threaten to kill Grace. Grace acts like dumb baby. Grace not notice the bio-dome was malfunctioning. Grace bathed and slept with Anomaly Simon after being threatened to be murdered with weapon. Grace reckless. Grace stupid stupid stupid.”
“That was pretty stupid of you.”
Grace wheeled around to glare at other med table set up across the room where Simon sat in a hospital gown. “Don’t side with him.”
“Anomaly Simon is smarter than Grace! Statement.”
“Agreed statement,” Adrian added.
“Agreed, statement respectfully,” Dr. House, the Eridian doctor, added from beside Simon.
“Good grief,” Grace said, throwing up his hands.
His irritation was minimal despite his act. He should be feeling worse from his fever. He should be planning on what to say to his students about their canceled class. He should be more freaked out about bio-dome malfunctioning or the fact he did bath and slept beside a stranger. But all he could think was Simon Simon Simon.
And how happy he was that this wasn’t a dream.