1 The Line Between Dreams and Reality

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Missiles launched from a F-22 Raptor fighter jet exploded in a cloud of fire as they hit their target, but the dark barrier was unfazed.

In retaliation, a thin black fiery laser-like ray sliced through the air leaving a mirage from the heat in its wake. As if cut with a sharp knife, the fighter jets slid in half before exploding and crashing down from the skies.

Like fireballs of meteors, they crashed into the towering skyscrapers of the busy metropolitan city.

"AAAAHHHHHH!!!"

"RUN! RUN AWAY!"

"Oh dear god. The buildings are collapsing! Run!

"We're all going to die!"

Screams and panic overtook the city in panic.

However, there was an odd scene in the middle of the chaos.

Slightly floating off the ground amongst all the chaos was a transparent young man.

The panicked people were madly stampeding through him as if he was a ghost, but he was not dead.

The young man, Ethan, was half-naked in his boxers. He had a slightly muscular frame from his somewhat regular sessions to the gym. He had an above average face that bordered celebrities and models but wasn't quite there either.

But right now the handsome face was filled with confusion, not understanding what was going on.

"Hey! Stop! Tell me what's going on! Hey!" The young man tried to pull and push the people to stop and talk to him, but no matter what he tried, everyone simply passed through him as they ran.

The creaking sound of twisting metal alerted the young man as he looked up and saw the partially collapsing skyscraper. It was falling down towards him.

In fear, he tried to get away, but no matter what he tried, he couldn't move from the spot. As the building was about to fall on him, he looked down and covered his head and closed his eyes, bracing for pain.

As he clenched his head for dear life, the light from a blue popup screen appeared before him, making him open his eyes. There were many things displayed on the screen, but he didn't have time to read all of it.

He only caught the words shining in gold, "Choose the Diviner."

The building fell on him and crashed into the ground.

With a gasp of air, Ethan jolted awake from the nightmare. Panting and freaked out he was still in a daze. After seeing himself still in bed, he looked at his phone.

3AM

"Shit. It's so early. What the hell? That's one of the craziest ones yet. Damn dreams."

With a deep yawn, Ethan tiredly breathed in, still half asleep. It was early in the morning. He was tired and still had work to get up for the next day.

So he tried going back to sleep again, but took a bit of time as the images from the dream were still fresh. But eventually Ethan was able to fall back asleep, this time without waking from any nightmares.

The blaring alarm from his phone woke him up hours later. He was in a rush and completely forgot about his nightmarish dream.

With a quick hot shower, he brushed his teeth before stopping and getting out to dry himself. He slipped on his shirt and pants as he quickly got ready for work.

He grabbed some fruit and jerky from his kitchen counter. Stuffing them into his mouth as he tied his shoes and made his way to his front door.

The young office worker was already racing out the door within 5 minutes from the moment he woke up.

Work was extremely busy, and his morning was a blur of rushing to complete all his given assignments. He skipped his first break to make sure his work was completed.

It wasn't until his mandatory lunch hour that Ethan could finally slow down. He grabbed lunch from the company's cafeteria and sat down on an empty table to eat.

He was about to enjoy his overpriced sandwich, when a colleague sat down in the chair opposite him. He was starving and bit down on his sandwich regardless.

"Hey Ethan, busy Monday, huh?"

Ethan was hungry and a bit annoyed, but he politely nodded as he chewed his meal.

Sarah was a brunette with shoulder length hair. Her busty bosom fit snug against her business attire. She was funny and Ethan enjoyed her company as well as her sultry looks, but today he was tired and preferred to be alone. But he wouldn't tell that to Sarah.

"I was going to ask you. Did you have another one? Your dreams are so vivid. It's like you're inside a movie. I never could recall any of my dreams."

His colleague's question reminded him of his nightmare. The odd dream made him forget the fatigue from his busy morning at work.

"Hmmm…now that you mentioned it Sarah. I think I did. This one was weird, a bit different from the others."

Getting excited as if listening to gossip, Sarah hunched forward into the table, exposing the upper parts of her boobs. She looked expectantly at Ethan, wanting to not miss any details.

"Yey! Tell me! What did you see?"

Ethan tried to focus on telling his dream, but eyes kept falling on Sarah's chest. She knew, but didn't care. She was only keen to know more of Ethan's dreams.

Keeping out the part he was half naked, Ethan told her his nightmare.

"Well, I was floating. In the middle of a street. I think it was actually 24th street now that I think about it. Yea… it was... Everyone was screaming and running around. The sounds made me look up. Wait… there were explosions…"

"Explosions? Were we under attack? What were people running from?"

"I don't know. There were these fighter planes that shot missiles at something dark. It feels blurred out. I could see it. But our attacks did nothing. Wait… whatever it was, it shot out a laser and somehow cut the planes down. The planes crashed into that new skyscraper, and then the whole building fell over!"

"Ssshhhhhhh! You're too loud Ethan!"

Everyone eating lunch gave annoyed and odd at the two colleagues.

"Sorry everyone, excuse us! Quietly Ethan!"

After making an apologetic gesture to everyone, Ethan continued his story. With a whisper this time.

"People ran away in a mass panic. Then the building fell on me."

"Was that it? Try to remember anything else."

"Wait… Yea there was more. Something blue. A light blue pop up screen. It said something…What did it say again?"

"Tell me. What did the screen say Ethan."

There was a stern and serious look on Sarah's face, but lost in recalling the dream, Ethan failed to notice.

He pondered hard, but failed to recall anything more about the blue screen.

"…I can't seem to remember... Hopefully it's just a dream."

Sarah returned her face to her previously excited expression.

"Call me or text me if you do, ok?!"

Ethan laughed at Sarah's intrigue and overly involvement with his dreams. "You're too into superstitions, Sarah. It's just a dream."

Sarah laughed back, playing off her true thoughts. "Yea, well I like these kinds of things. Besides, your dreams are more than just interesting. Remember the one about the company outing last month?"

Recalling that dream, Ethan remembered those vivid vital moments. In the dream, while on the way to the conference, they all had died as their bus was rammed head-on by a semi truck.

The scene from the dream matched too closely to Ethan's reality. Exactly actually. They really did go to the conference on the exact same bus, moving on the same lane they died on in Ethan's dream.

Ethan tried talking to the bus driver in attempts to stay one lane over on the way to their destination.

The bus driver didn't like being told how to do his job, and Ethan's colleagues and boss thought he was being unnecessarily rude to the driver. But Ethan didn't give in.

An unsettling and churning feeling in his gut made him resort to pleading then begging, and the driver gave in.

Ethan's dream and odd feeling proved to be right. They would have been caught in a terrible accident. For sure, those in the front of the bus would have died.

Everyone thanked him, especially the bus driver, and asked him about how he knew. He simply told them it was because of a bad feeling, but only he and Sarah knew it was due to his dream days before the incident.

Coming out of his memories, Ethan nodded in understanding of Sarah's comment. There was an unexplained oddity with the events in the dreams that would at times come true.

Ethan had personally witnessed a handful of them. Though he wished he dreamt he would win the lottery and hoped that too would come true. But alas, he never had such a dream.

"Ok, if I remember something that is. Sometimes I'll never recall them."

"You better!"

Getting up she went back to work. Ethan waved her off, and he too went back to his normal routine.

It wasn't until he got home and while eating dinner, did he think more about the dream.

"It looked like a game window. Like a status screen."

Laughing to himself, Ethan continued with the thought.

"Haha! I wonder what my stats as an office worker look like? A pleb probably. Haha! Hopefully, not too pathetic! I go to the gym too! Sometimes."

His attempts to think of the screen caused a light blue status screen to appear in front of him.

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Name: Ethan Saltorie

Species: Humanoid - Primate

Age: 22

Sex: Male

Profession: Office worker

Condition: Healthy

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Skills: None

Abilities: None

Unique constitutions: Blessed Eyes

Talent: Psychic, Foresight

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…

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The impossible happened. Ask and you shall receive or in Ethan's case, think and he shall receive.

He was stunned, but that soon turned into crazed shouting.

"The hell is this!"