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.

        一天杰米又被欺负，他拖着疲惫的脚步离开学校朝家的方向走去。穿过纽约穷街陋巷，杰米不止一次地渴望日子能好过一点。

        杰米是一位害羞的男孩，生活历经坎坷，其处世态度就是回避现实。

        睡觉即为杰米消除困惑的手段，无论放飞自我还是结交朋友，在梦乡里他天马行空遨游四海八荒。睡觉好比一台暖洋洋的壁炉，杰米得以缓解身心疲劳，减轻日常烦恼。虽说梦去无痕，但一觉醒来他总是备感惬意。

        一声巨响打断了杰米良辰美梦。

        杰米只管干自己的事，从中自得其乐，毕竟他常常独来独往。他边摇头边揉眼睛， “我得睡点觉，”杰米喃喃自语，不在对什么人说话。

        缺觉这种事情屡见不鲜，难怪人们常说大约百分之九十的高中生睡眠不……

        杰米没有留意响声，有个东西从阴影里爬了出来，看上去真像阴影，正朝杰米扑来，说时迟那时快，他……

        “……杰米，杰米！”

        杰米吃力地一点一点睁开眼睛，一只肥硕金色的苍蝇盯着他不放，跟杰米母亲没啥两样。

        “杰米，你上学又要晚了！”

        杰米母亲终于发话。

        “好的，好的，知道了，我只做个梦而已。” 杰米踢开毯子，感受到清早刺骨的寒气。他母亲穿好上班衣服，把金发往后扎成圆髻，如往常似的，一副职业打扮。

        “嗨，宝贝，你不能老迟到，叫校长太操心。”

        对嘞，杰米思忖，世上竟然有人这么关心我。他曾有过无数次这种经历，每当母亲发飙，杰米设法绕开话……

        “杰米！”

        杰米眨了眨眼，突然之间一切变得不大对劲。他抬起头，发觉室温下降，大声喊道：“妈妈？”心一下子提到嗓子眼儿。

        母亲已出门，没人听见杰米吆喝。睡房对面的衣橱吱吱作响，屋里传出狂笑声，黑暗中有一人影晃动。我讨厌那个衣橱，杰米想。

        杰米从床上跳起冲出睡房，下楼直奔前门，过道上漆黑一片。仔细一瞧，要找的目标正离开衣橱呼哧带喘地朝他走来，在毫无先兆的情况下，黑窗帘一下子把杰米裹得瓷实。

        可恶！

        杰米重重地摔倒在地，空气扑面扑来，他深吸了几口，直到脑袋不再嗡嗡作响方才环视四周，首先引起注意的就是夜灯，它与挂在卧室的那盏一模一样。

        我回屋去。杰米扫了一眼场景，时段略有不同，或许应该说成夜晚。

        杰米松口气站了起来，意识到所有一切不过是噩梦所致，以前此类事情时有发生，不过醒后他从来记不清梦中情节，或许这正是造成幻觉记忆的地方，杰米这么认为，思维又陷入一片茫然。

        “但我确实记得，”他低声说：“我记得所发生的……是……”

        接着，杰米脚趾发出阵阵刺痛，有股令人不寒而栗的感觉，话刚说出口半句便停下来并朝脚踩的地毯望去，原来那儿曾有地毯。

        脚下一大块黑色东西，黏糊糊胶质状物粘在他脚上，杰米抖了抖腿，黑泥非但没有移动，反而慢慢爬到腿上，紧紧贴住衣服表皮，黑泥所经之处让肤质敏感程度降低，变成毫无灵性的躯壳。

        不，不！这不可能—不会发生！杰米脑袋瓜完全崩溃了，简直不可思议。

        那时，黑泥铺展遮住杰米半个身躯，继续朝其胸脯挺进，杰米竭力爬到床上，试图探究虚实。他摸到闹钟，仅有这一玩艺而已，半间屋子被搞得乌漆麻黑。

        杰米早已见怪不怪，顺手抄起电话，刚要张大眼睛观察动向，手中电话立马融化成一滩废塑料烂铜丝，把手烫个正着。

        杰米痛得失声尖叫，不知道如何应对，与以往不同，无论使用什么招术休想把他叫醒。

        平生头一回杰米不能再对发生的事情不管不问，回避终究不是办法，光靠睡觉解决不了燃眉之急。

        除非...梦想。

        杰米突然计上心来，顾不上手部灼痛黑泥蔓延到了肩膀，拼命爬上床，他头挨着枕头，合上眼睛，努力让全身放松，开始放飞梦想。

        他梦想化作一只鸟翱翔天空，之所以特别向往是因为现实生活中无法体验。

        他梦想一个温馨舒适的家。

        他梦想一张容易入眠的床……

        杰米突然惊醒，出人意料地，梦中细节依旧历历在目。然而，他明白现实中一切幻觉都将随着记忆消退而支离破碎。

        瞬间，杰米脑海里所有梦想荡然无存。

        杰米瞄了一眼闹钟，意识到已是星期六上午十一点，接着倒头又睡。

Today in History(历史上的今天):

2016 Yo-Yo @ Lansdale Intl Fest(2016年兰斯代尔春季国际节抖空竹)

Crosslink(相关博文):

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