1 Dream or Reality?

He suddenly woke up from his sleep. He couldn't help but pant hard due to the difficulty he was experiencing while trying to breathe — he just couldn't regulate it. Beads of sweat drooped down his face like he had just gotten out of a stream of water... or maybe he just had a bowl of water poured on him.

He managed to sit up, but fear was written on his face as he felt a sharp stinging pain in his chest. It made him want to choke as he slightly coughed.

But what made him wake up suddenly? What would make him become afraid all of a sudden?

The dream he had. No, not a dream. A nightmare.

But why did it feel so real? Wait, was he really going to die? Why was he feeling like he was going to die? Was death coming? Different thoughts ran through his mind due to the impact of the dream. What kind of dream would make a man wake up suddenly with a great sense of reality? ...only one that sensed danger!

He looked around as he became conscious of the environment he was in.

"Where am I?" he muttered to himself.

It seemed to him that he was in a room. He had no shirt or pants on, just his underpants. He was still sweating profusely but he had managed to catch his breath.

"That dream... why does it seem real?" Panic-stricken, he questioned himself. He still felt perplexed by the whole thing. Who wouldn't... when death was involved?

He sighed and looked down. He realized he was sitting on a bed which was extremely rough. A strong stench presently filled up the room, similar to a rotten egg and giving a bad atmosphere.

His mind suddenly discerned something. His nostrils perceived a mixture of a pleasurable scent amidst the foul stench similar to a rotten egg. What could the scent-stench be if not... Obviously, it was what he was deciphering through his sense of smell and he came to a deduction on it — He wasn't the only one on the bed.

He tilted his face a bit to check out who was with him and what he saw was a feminine figure, totally unclad with only a part of the bed sheet covering her legs. He tried to recollect the lady beside him, but he was finding it hard to.

Who was she? And how did they end up here? What was even wrong with his memories?

Looking at her face, it was someone familiar. He had to stare at her for long before realizing it was someone he had known for a long time. But why was he having troubles with his memories all of a sudden? Was it a short time amnesia?

"Lily..." he called out to the feminine figure sleeping peacefully beside him, hoping he was right with the name.

The feminine figure shifted her body a little and managed to open her eyes. She was obviously tired, and he felt guilty for disturbing her. But that action of hers meant the name he called her was actually the right one.

"Ryan..." she mumbled while trying to yawn, "what time is it?" she asked him.

"I don't know," he gave an uncertain reply. He looked out the window and saw that it was still dark. It was probably still midnight but he wasn't even sure.

"How did we get here?" he asked and waited for a reply, but it seemed the lady was asleep already as he got no reply from her after awhile. He looked at her closely and confirmed she was indeed fast asleep already.

He tried to think but the dream started evading his mind. Why was he still having thoughts based on the dream he had? He should have forgotten soon as he woke up. He tried taking it off his mind but he couldn't.

"Just a bad dream, just a bad dream," he tried consoling himself but he knew they were mere words. The dream might mean something after all, he thought.

Getting up from the bed, he gazed around the room. He picked up his jean pants which was lying lazily on the floor and tried putting it on. He felt his knees tremble and immediately threw the pants back to the floor. He had to sit back down. Standing felt like hell at that moment.

His phone was on the cabinet near the bed and he picked it up. 3:43am showed clearly on the screen of the phone as soon as he tapped it. His eyes were still a little dim but he managed to see it. It was past midnight and it would take some hours more before the day would eventually break.

But something surprisingly happened which confirmed that there was a problem with him.

Like a fast wind, the unexpected happened. The memory of how he got into the room rushed into his mind. This surprised him totally, but he could remember clearly now.

The night before, he and Lily, the lady sleeping beside him, who is apparently his girlfriend, had gone clubbing just to have fun. It has been over a month since they had gotten into a relationship and that was the second time they were going out together — although he forced her to this one because she wasn't a clubbing type.

Totally drunk and knocked out, they had to lodge in an hotel close to the club as they couldn't get home in that state. Since they were both drunk, they didn't know the annoying actions they were both pulling.

They collapsed on the bed with a loud thud — loud enough to awake others in the next room, and they laughed it off. It sounded funny in their ears, due to their drunken state of course.

But then, the result of the scent-stench he was perceiving started slowly before they eventually popped into what couples do. That's right, they went through the process of making a baby, only that they weren't planning on getting one since they weren't a married couple. It was just the pleasurable part they explored.

A throbbing headache hit him after remembering what had happened. What was going on with him? Hadn't the drunkenness worn off? Maybe he was just suffering from a hangover...

The dream flooded his mind again and it worsened the headache. Seeing himself dying ignited the fear in him. Had he really died? The aura of the room was unexplainably filled with the smell of death. Was he going to die now?

He knelt down and put his hands on his head to try suppress the headache. It didn't stop as he felt his head start to pound. He tried to shout but he couldn't even utter anything meaningful.

"What's happening to me?" he asked himself in a fading voice as he began shivering uncontrollably. The feeling just wasn't right.

He tried calling the lady sleeping on the bed but he knew it was a waste of time. She definitely wouldn't hear him because he himself was finding it hard to hear his voice.

His head started pounding hard and the headache increased, this time worse than before. He felt like it was going to burst open anytime soon and light tears began to escape freely from his eyes. He was getting weak, his breathing cut short, his body became as light as a feather, his soul probably escaping from his body.

"Help... me!" were the only words he finally managed to utter before he collapsed to the floor.