- Doomsday - Volume One: Gods and Monsters

Chapter 84: For the Man Who Has Everything Part. 2

[Y/N] rushed through his front-door, slamming it behind him, attempting to find some scarce security within the confines of his home, his own home, the home that he had lived in for years and created a family in, where they had celebrated holidays and birthdays and started each morning and ended every night. He kept his eyes upon the hallowed walls, analysing their every feature, hoping that nothing was different then it ever had been, that he wasn't still in a dream or some freak accident. He pinched himself as hard as he could until the spot grew numb, and yet nothing changed, he still stood by the door of his house, looking like an idiot, working himself up for no reason, pinching himself. Letting out a sigh, he turned to his watch once again, counting down the minutes, Angela would still be working at the clinic, the kids at school, and wouldn't be back for a few hours. He could get a few hours of sleep until later, he'd need to be ready for everyone to arrive.

Removing his coat and shoes, he stretched his temple, rubbing his eyes, [Y/N] dropped himself into a plush armchair, old and worn from use, but still alive and kicking, despite the scratches and tears. To his side sat the television remote, tempting him and it didn't take much for him to retrieve the device, the flick of static appearing across the room as the monitor sparked to life, taking a few moments to materialise. Switching through channels quickly, nothing appealed to the detective, cooking shows, news, political debates, drama, reality tv, it was all rubbish, but it stole some time and took his mind off of the anxious feeling that continually crept up upon him today. Filtering through, it was the same thing, one after the other, cartoons and movies, and nothing appealed to him.

However, one show briefly caught his attention upon flicking through, [Y/N] initially showing no interest in the channel, a limited glance nagged at him internally, forcing him to go back and double check. "-And so that's why I always bring an extra tire with me wherever I go!" He had missed the joke but the invisible crowd erupted into laughter, the man onstage, finely dressed, with styled grey hair and a magnificent white smile, lapped up the response, on the corner the logo sat, Ray's Rants. Ray? Ray! Of course he knew Ray, he was the most famous television personality across the country, famous for his indomitable wit and love for the craft, and even in mid-day reruns, the energy he conveyed was powerfully energetic.

"Now, bringing onto stage one of my closest confidants, please give a warm welcome to Gerard Lacroix!" Ray continued, as the guest marched confidently onto the set, waving as he did, and the two men engaged in some idle banter, poking fun and getting some smaller laughs. "Now, a few months ago I kept having this nightmare, at the same time every night I'd be standing on a flat plain, it was beautiful, couldn't convey its majesty with words..." he rambled, the signature style of his show and his iconic quirk. "Alright, so I'd be in the middle of this gorgeous field of grain, going on and on forever, and it was so peaceful, until there was an earthquake that would destroy everything, tearing holes through the land, and I would always fall through and wake up in a cold sweat..."

"Come to find out, it was the exact same time my wife would go to bed every night!" Lacroix and the crowd laughed together, [Y/N] gave a slight snort of recognition, settling into the arm-chair, the stresses of the day slowly melting away. "Now Lacroix here is a 'dream specialist', whatever that means..." he quipped making air quotation marks, "And they now say that you're dreams say a lot more about you then we previously thought, you want to explain Gerard?" Lacroix ruffled his collar preparing to speak, "We've always had an understanding that dreams aren't just things we see at the end of the night, rather they are affected by the previous day, your thoughts and feelings and your deepest worries..."

"We call this 'disguised wish fulfilment', which is pretty self-explanatory. Most commonly, the 'day's residue' or the events of the day directly feed into what we see at night times. We see this with children very clearly, however it affects adults in more conspicuous ways. Dreams are distorted by what we've described as 'manifest content', bringing forth experiences that the dreamer remembers experiencing, and that makes it harder to identify exactly what the significance of a dream means..." [Y/N] listened along intently, sliding further into the plush chair, totally entranced by the television.