Despair Inside Of Dreams

6: Room #513

          I got out of my car and went to the trunk. I decided to put all of my spare clothes in my backpack. I didn't want to leave them there because it might start raining on the way there. I closed the trunk, and Halley and I started our thirty-minute journey to the hotel. I pulled out my phone, on the way to our hotel, and I called my mother. I told her that my car's battery died while I was at the beach with a friend. She asked me if my friend and I wanted to be picked up, but I denied her offer because it was very late. We were already five minutes into our walk to the hotel, anyways. My mother ended the conversation by telling me to stay safe.

          I looked over at Halley, who was still wearing my sweatshirt. She seemed to be in a pleasant mood. The clouds were getting closer, but we heard no signs of thunder. We walked through a quiet, peaceful neighborhood, and surprisingly, we found nobody outside. No cars and no late-night joggers. It made me feel paranoid and anxious because never in my life have I had a night so perfect as this one. It was almost as if I was dreaming.

"Ary, do you feel that?" she said, while coming to a complete stop. She held out her hand. It was sprinkling.

"Yeah, it's starting to rain," I responded.

          There was a noise coming from behind us that sounded almost like a faint waterfall. "Uh-oh," I said. "Downpour's coming." It was raining sort of hard now but not too hard. My clothes got soaked within seconds, but once I looked at Halley, I didn't really care about my clothes. She was jumping and dancing through the rain, as if the lone streetlamp was her spotlight. Her hair flew around her as she spun, and her eyes closed. I stood underneath the streetlamp with her, laughing at her. She took my hand, and she forced me to dance with her, under the rain. I enjoyed it. It made me feel alive.

          Halley seemed as if she was having an amazing time. She spun me around, danced with me, and laughed like there was no tomorrow. As she closed her eyes, she fell right into my arms. She wrapped her arms around me, laughing. Her face was so lit up, as if the streetlamp stood no chance against her. She looked me in the eyes for what seemed to feel like hours. As she wrapped her arms around me neck, I realized that her electric blue eyes were dilated. I tilted my head and leaned in, as she closed her eyes and kissed me. We had a short kiss under the streetlamp and the raining night-sky. She pulled away to look me in the eyes. Even without saying a single word, I understood every word that she wanted to say through her smile.

          We kept walking through the rain, holding each other's hands, not wanting to let go. We arrived at the hotel, fifteen minutes later. We entered the hotel and went to the lobby. "Seems like you two got caught in the rainstorm," the hotel receptionist said, laughing.

"You have no idea. My car died, so we decided to walk here since it didn't seem too far," I responded.

"Well, there's plenty of rooms to stay in. Would you two like a single queen bedroom?"

"Would you happen to have a king sized room?"

"Of course!" I gave the receptionist the money, and in return, he handed me a card. "Here's your key. Your room is on the fifth floor, it's room five-thirteen."

A sharp pain jumped across my head. It felt as if a severe migraine just occurred in my head for a quick minute. I tried my best to hide it while heading back to Halley, who was sitting on the couch. "I got the key! Ready?"

"Yeah! Thank you, Aries," she said, as she got up from her spot. We headed up in the elevator. I started laughing. "What's so funny?"

"We're on our first date, soaked in water, my car is dead, and we're staying in a hotel."

"Hey!" She started laughing, too. "I'd take this over a coffee date, any day."

          I kissed her on the forehead, as the elevator door opened. We found room #513, and I opened the door. As she turned on the lights, I glanced around the room. It felt like a cozy environment. It was a brightly lit room with a large bed in the middle, a 32" television on the dresser, and a large window, facing at the coastline. I tried to find my car, but it was too dark outside. I put my backpack down and tried to find some dry clothes. Near the bottom of the backpack, I found some.

"I got lucky. There's some dry clothes in here. I guess, it was a good idea to bring them with," I said.

"Lucky you. This sweatshirt is a little wet," she said, sarcastically.

"Do you want my pajamas? I have two pairs."

"If you don't mind, I'd love a pair." I handed her the pajamas. "Thanks, hun."

"Yeah, not a problem!" She went to the bathroom to shower, I assumed. I decided to take the opportunity to get ready myself. I threw my wet pants and shirt in the corner of the floor, and I put on a fresh, dry pair of pajamas. I dimmed the lights a bit and started to get the bed ready. I've never slept on a bed this big before. I have a twin mattress at home, but this bed truly made me feel like a king. As I was getting the bed ready, Halley came out of the bathroom. She looked small with my spacey pajamas. Even after walking through a rainstorm and dancing and jumping, she still looked so beautiful.

"Sorry about your sweatshirt," she said. "I hung it up in the bathroom for it to dry."

"Don't worry about it!" I said. She glanced at the enormous bed that stood in front of us.

"This bed is quite big."

"It's all they had left. I asked for two separate queen beds, but they were unavailable." I lied.

"Oh, really now?" She winked at me, as she got into bed. I turned off the lights in the room and joined her. The night-sky was dark and rainy, and we were in a hotel room, cuddling together, so we could warm ourselves. The night truly was amazing. We said our "goodnight's" to each other and pecked. It was almost midnight, but we were both asleep fast.

          I opened my eyes to find myself in the middle of a brightly-lit field. The sun looked, as if it had been brought closer to Earth. The black figure was standing across the field. I could barely see the figure because it was so bright, and I was extremely restless and tired. I realized I was in a dream.

"Where the hell am I? Who are you?" I asked. The figure, slowly, moved closer to me. I brushed off some grass off of my shirt and stood up.

"Aries. You need to save her," the dark figure spoke in a deep, booming voice. "Before it's too late."

"What are you talking about? Save who? What's with the numbers? Come on, man, tell me something!"

"0513 approaches quickly. You have eight months." 

"Eight months for what?"

          The figure started to evaporate into thin air. A enormous, black tidal wave appeared in the distance. It covered the sunlight, and suddenly, darkness surrounded me. I looked up into the sky towards what seemed to be an airplane. It looked like it was trying to escape the tidal wave, but it couldn't make it out. It seemed to be a despair inside of a dream. The black wave consumed me.