2017-04-17

【Aiden in English】

        Jamie slowly trudged home from school one day, following another session of bullying. Walking through the back streets of New York City, he once again wished he had a better life.

        Jamie was a shy boy who faced many problems in life. His key to surviving was to push away problems.

        His problem-solver was sleep. There, he explored wondrous adventures of dreams, like flying or having friends. Sleep seems like a comforting fireplace that soothed Jamie, calming his daily problems. Not like he remembered dreams, but they're always was a nice feeling of satisfaction after each dose of replenishing sleep.

        A loud, crackling pop snapped Jamie out of his private thoughts.

        Jamie was alone along this particular alley, which was just fine for him, as he was usually alone. Shaking his head, Jamie rubbed his eyes. “I need some sleep,” he murmured, not to anyone in particular.

        Similar things always occurred with the lack of sleep. They say nearly ninety percent of high school students are sleep depr-

        Then, just as Jamie disregarded the sound, something slithered out of the shadows. In fact, all it seemed to be was a shadow. And it jumped at him. Before Jamie could even process what was going on, he-

        “...Jamie, JAMIE!”

        Jamie groggily opened his eyes little by little. A big, blond fly stared back, albeit a fly that looked like his mother.

        “Jamie, you’re late to school again!”

        So it was his mother after all.

        “Okay, okay. I know. I had a bad dream, that’s all.” Jamie kicked off his blankets, rising to the frigid morning air. His mother was all dressed for work, blond hair tied back into a bun. All business, as usual.

        “Look, honey, you can’t keep missing school like this. The principle is really worried about you.”

        Yeah right, Jamie thought to himself. Like someone in this world cares about me. He had been in this situation hundreds of times, and during each of his mother’s rants, he had mastered the ability to zone out of the conversa-

        “JAMIE!”

        Jamie blinked. Suddenly, everything went wrong. Looking up, Jamie sensed the temperature of the room drop. “Mom?” he called out, fear gripping his chest.

        Not that anyone was there to hear him, as his mother had disappeared. Howling laughter split the air, as the closet across Jamie’s bedroom creaked, a silhouette of a humanoid figure lurking within the darkness. I hate that closet, thought Jamie.

        Jamie jumped up from his bed and ran out of his room, down the stairs and to the front door, only to find a black wall of void in his path. Looking over his shoulder, whatever walked out of his closet was on the hunt, wheezing and huffing towards his general direction. Then, without any warning, the black curtain swallowed Jamie up.

        “Oof!”

        Jamie landed painfully on his side. Having the air knocked out of him, he took deep breaths. Once his head stopped ringing, he looked around. The first thing he noticed was the night light. The exact same night light that hung in his bedroom.

        I’m back in my room. Scanning his surroundings, the only difference was the time of day. Or should he say, night?

        Jamie relaxed and stood up, realizing all of this was just a bad dream. Those occurred once in a while, but he never would remember them when he woke up. So maybe that’s where déjà vu comes from, thought Jamie, the mind once again in the clouds.

        “But I do remember,” he whispered. “I remember what happened… could this be a…”

        Then, it started with a tingle around his toes. Like a cold, eerie sensation of impending doom. Jamie stopped mid-sentence and peered down at the carpeting. Well, what used to be the carpeting.

        A black mass of something had gathered around his feet. It was a gooey, gelatin substance that stuck to his foot. Jamie wiggled his leg, but the dark slop would not budge. It slowly climbed up his leg, clinging to his clothes and skin. Every part consumed by the entity lost all sensitivity and was replaced by the emptiness of life.

        No, NO! This can’t be- this isn’t happening! Jamie's brain was in absolute shock. Nothing makes sense.

        By then, the dark goo had swallowed up half of his torso, creeping up to his chest. Heaving himself onto the bed, Jamie searched for answers. He reached for his alarm clock, only to find the clock and its half of the room warp into shadow.

        No longer surprised to see the unexpected, Jamie grabbed his phone. As he swiped open his contacts, the very case melted into plastic and wire soup, burning his hand.

        Screaming in pain, Jamie had run out of options. Unlike the other scenarios, there wasn’t anything to wake him up.

        For once in his life, Jamie couldn’t ignore the problem. There was no way to zone out, to put aside. There was no sleep to absorb the issues at hand.

        Unless… a dream.

        Jamie suddenly got an idea. Ignoring the biting pain in his hand and the dark creeping goo that was now up to his shoulders, Jamie scrambled up into his bed. Laying his head on the pillow, he let out all his tension and closed his eyes. He began to dream.

        He dreamed of flying above the skies, of being a bird. He loved this dream particularly because it was something he would never experience in real life.

        He dreamed of his home, a place of warmth and comfort.

        He dreamed of his bed, how good it felt to drift into a deep, deep sleep…

        Jamie awoke with a start. He remembered it all, which was surprising. However, he knew this was a real-life since memories of the dream were already beginning to deteriorate.

        Before he knew it, the entire dream was wiped from his brain.

        Jamie looked at his clock, realizing that it was Saturday and eleven in the morning, went back to sleep.

        一天傑米又被欺負，他拖着疲憊的腳步離開學校朝家的方向走去。穿過紐約窮街陋巷，傑米不止一次地渴望日子能好過一點。

        傑米是一位害羞的男孩，生活歷經坎坷，其處世態度就是迴避現實。

        睡覺即為傑米消除困惑的手段，無論放飛自我還是結交朋友，在夢鄉里他天馬行空遨遊四海八荒。睡覺好比一台暖洋洋的壁爐，傑米得以緩解身心疲勞，減輕日常煩惱。雖說夢去無痕，但一覺醒來他總是備感愜意。

        一聲巨響打斷了傑米良辰美夢。

        傑米只管幹自己的事，從中自得其樂，畢竟他常常獨來獨往。他邊搖頭邊揉眼睛， “我得睡點覺，”傑米喃喃自語，不在對什麼人說話。

        缺覺這種事情屢見不鮮，難怪人們常說大約百分之九十的高中生睡眠不……

        傑米沒有留意響聲，有個東西從陰影里爬了出來，看上去真像陰影，正朝傑米撲來，說時遲那時快，他……

        “……傑米，傑米！”

        傑米吃力地一點一點睜開眼睛，一隻肥碩金色的蒼蠅盯着他不放，跟傑米母親沒啥兩樣。

        “傑米，你上學又要晚了！”

        傑米母親終於發話。

        “好的，好的，知道了，我只做個夢而已。” 傑米踢開毯子，感受到清早刺骨的寒氣。他母親穿好上班衣服，把金髮往後紮成圓髻，如往常似的，一副職業打扮。

        “嗨，寶貝，你不能老遲到，叫校長太操心。”

        對嘞，傑米思忖，世上竟然有人這麼關心我。他曾有過無數次這種經歷，每當母親發飆，傑米設法繞開話……

        “傑米！”

        傑米眨了眨眼，突然之間一切變得不大對勁。他抬起頭，發覺室溫下降，大聲喊道：“媽媽？”心一下子提到嗓子眼兒。

        母親已出門，沒人聽見傑米吆喝。睡房對面的衣櫥吱吱作響，屋裡傳出狂笑聲，黑暗中有一人影晃動。我討厭那個衣櫥，傑米想。

        傑米從床上跳起衝出睡房，下樓直奔前門，過道上漆黑一片。仔細一瞧，要找的目標正離開衣櫥呼哧帶喘地朝他走來，在毫無先兆的情況下，黑窗簾一下子把傑米裹得瓷實。

        可惡！

        傑米重重地摔倒在地，空氣撲面撲來，他深吸了幾口，直到腦袋不再嗡嗡作響方才環視四周，首先引起注意的就是夜燈，它與掛在臥室的那盞一模一樣。

        我回屋去。傑米掃了一眼場景，時段略有不同，或許應該說成夜晚。

        傑米鬆口氣站了起來，意識到所有一切不過是噩夢所致，以前此類事情時有發生，不過醒後他從來記不清夢中情節，或許這正是造成幻覺記憶的地方，傑米這麼認為，思維又陷入一片茫然。

        “但我確實記得，”他低聲說：“我記得所發生的……是……”

        接着，傑米腳趾發出陣陣刺痛，有股令人不寒而慄的感覺，話剛說出口半句便停下來並朝腳踩的地毯望去，原來那兒曾有地毯。

        腳下一大塊黑色東西，黏糊糊膠質狀物粘在他腳上，傑米抖了抖腿，黑泥非但沒有移動，反而慢慢爬到腿上，緊緊貼住衣服表皮，黑泥所經之處讓膚質敏感程度降低，變成毫無靈性的軀殼。

        不，不！這不可能—不會發生！傑米腦袋瓜完全崩潰了，簡直不可思議。

        那時，黑泥鋪展遮住傑米半個身軀，繼續朝其胸脯挺進，傑米竭力爬到床上，試圖探究虛實。他摸到鬧鐘，僅有這一玩藝而已，半間屋子被搞得烏漆麻黑。

        傑米早已見怪不怪，順手抄起電話，剛要張大眼睛觀察動向，手中電話立馬融化成一灘廢塑料爛銅絲，把手燙個正着。

        傑米痛得失聲尖叫，不知道如何應對，與以往不同，無論使用什麼招術休想把他叫醒。

        平生頭一回傑米不能再對發生的事情不管不問，迴避終究不是辦法，光靠睡覺解決不了燃眉之急。

        除非...夢想。

        傑米突然計上心來，顧不上手部灼痛黑泥蔓延到了肩膀，拼命爬上床，他頭挨着枕頭，合上眼睛，努力讓全身放鬆，開始放飛夢想。

        他夢想化作一隻鳥翱翔天空，之所以特別嚮往是因為現實生活中無法體驗。

        他夢想一個溫馨舒適的家。

        他夢想一張容易入眠的床……

        傑米突然驚醒，出人意料地，夢中細節依舊曆歷在目。然而，他明白現實中一切幻覺都將隨着記憶消退而支離破碎。

        瞬間，傑米腦海里所有夢想蕩然無存。

        傑米瞄了一眼鬧鐘，意識到已是星期六上午十一點，接着倒頭又睡。

Today in History(歷史上的今天):

2016 Yo-Yo @ Lansdale Intl Fest(2016年蘭斯代爾春季國際節抖空竹)

Crosslink(相關博文):

Flash Story─Crisis on Mulberry Street(小小說桑樹街危機)