My dream had been vague this time, and incredibly uncertain, as if there were pieces missing. It was completely different to all the nightmares that had haunted me over the past four days – in this place I wasn’t scared for my life… I wasn’t in danger, in fact, I felt nothing of pain or regret… only joy.
I was walking down the main road of the city in the dead of night, and with streetlights and buildings towering above me, I balanced, stepping one foot over the other on the white painted line in the middle of the road, walking with both my arms stretched out to the side. I was humming to myself, a melody that was short and sweet and full of joy. It made me think for a moment that maybe I was a child…
Without knowing how or why, I appeared in the diner – my favourite place – and everyone was there… Tom and Mary… everyone! I glanced over to one of the tables and I saw my father sharing a drink with the professor, soon to be joined by Aizel as he sat down beside them. There were even pancakes, but I was pretty sure it wasn’t my birthday. As I walked over to the sugary plate of food I realised that it hade been covered will little yellow flowers – marigolds, I think they were, flowers to commemorate the dead.
Mary smiled at me warmly and complemented the turquoise dress that I was wearing and my comfy woollen scarf – saying that I looked absolutely beautiful. From what I could remember, the dress belonged to my mother and she hadn’t worn it for many years.
While I was in the diner with all of my friends and the people I loved, I had absolutely no reason in the world to recall the code, but even still, there is was, written in chalk in some darkened corner of the room. I saw Brakewater too, and Benson… they were both standing by one of the tables on that darkened corner, leaning near the wall where the code had been scribbled. 65743532770121963490. Brakewater was dressed in a heavy jacket and a bowler hat, and he passed a cigarette to Benson who was wearing a neat white suit. And so they stood there with their code, smoking away and not minding the rest of the activities of the diner.
For the first time in a while there was a smile on my face – not an evil, wicked smile but a happy one. I wanted it to stay this way forever, but for reasons unknown to me I found that I was telling everyone that I had to leave. I tried to stop but I couldn’t. I said goodbye to my father, the professor, Aizel, Mary, Tom, my pancakes, and even Benson and Brakewater… but I felt as though someone was missing – not Lace, because I knew that he was just late to arrive. There was someone else…
I thought on it for a while, to the point where it was almost distressing. Who? I wondered, loudly in my mind. Who isn’t here? Who am I missing?
I looked at all of the faces around me as if I were saying one last goodbye, and then I suddenly felt that the name I had been searching for was almost somewhere in the front of my mind, but before I could recall it, I woke up…
ns 172.70.100.243da2