A familiar face.

You spin around, your heart suddenly trying to burst out of your chest. Your fight or flight response kicks in, adrenaline coursing through your veins, your muscles ready for either course of action. Your hands even raise slightly in defense.

It's only when your 180 is complete that you realize that you'd been tapped on the shoulder by a tiny, diminutive woman who's smiling like a cat who's gotten into the cream, her bright white teeth shining in contrast to her light brown skin. Long, dark hair tumbles to her thin waist in straight lines, twin turquoise clasps holding her locks behind her ears. She's wearing a simple white shift, half-way between a nightgown and a dress, sleeveless and hanging down to her knees. Her hands are clasped in front of her, and she's barefoot.

Even though you haven't seen her in a while, you recognize her immediately.

"I know," Asgitsa says brightly, her grin widening even further. "You're probably thinking 'Ahh, what's Asgitsa doing in my dreams!' or something similar, right?" The energy she exuded when you first met her in the library is still with her, and she begins bouncing on the balls of her feet, like she's having trouble standing still.

You open your mouth to speak, but she holds up a single finger in front of your lips and you find that no matter how hard you try, you can't say a word. You can feel them form in your throat, your tongue and mouth can move, but otherwise, nothing. It's a terribly odd sensation.

"I'm sorry, but if I let you get started, we'd have a big long conversation about why I'm here, who I am, who you are, what this place is...you know, the normal expositional tripe. Unfortunately, we don't have time for that. You have something that you need to do and we don't have a lot of time. In fact, you have until you wake up to complete this task, so time is wasting." Despite her enthusiasm, she does seem genuinely apologetic.

She lifts her other hand and snaps her fingers. Between you, a line of light slashes horizontally at chest level (eye level for Asgitsa) and then slips down like a sharp razor against a smooth cheek. It then explodes outward until all that is left is a 3-dimensional image of a man's face. He is black, with short-cropped hair cut a uniform length on his head, and glasses that perch on a nose that is a little too big for his face. He has a well-trimmed goatee that keeps his cheeks clean, peppered with more grey than his hair above, and lips that seem permanently set in a hard line. He also has a single stud set in his right ear. He looks to be about your parent's age. You have absolutely no idea who it is.

"You need to find this man, he's in serious trouble," Asgitsa says after you get a good look, dropping both her hands to her sides. "And you need to hurry. Time is always funny in dreams, and it tends to pass faster than you realize."

"Who is he?" She must have removed your block.

She grimaces. "I'm not allowed to tell you."

Anger begins to boil in your stomach. "How the fuck do you expect me to find him then?"

Asgitsa seems to droop a bit, falling back until her feet are flat on the ground. She tilts her chin, pointing behind you toward the endless hallway of doors. "He's down there, somewhere. Part of your task is to figure out how to find him." You grit your teeth. What the fuck is happening? Some kind of test? For what goddamn reason? You feel frustration and resistance rise in you.

You open your mouth to refuse when something gives you pause. The image of the man has changed. His mouth has opened and a silent scream is screeching out of it. Terror has created a rictus of his face, taking a somewhat handsome face and creating a mask of ugliness and fear. "It's already starting," Asgitsa says, a hint of desperation suffusing her voice.

"What is?" you ask, but she just shakes her head.

"I'm really sorry, but I've told you everything I can for now. If you succeed in your task, come find me again at the library and I'll be able to tell you more. Now hurry, go!"

And then she's gone. No puff of smoke, no fading away, no popping sound. Just gone.

Shit. Why does nothing about this dream world ever make sense?

As the man continues his noiseless scream, you weight your options. You could just ignore Asgitsa's request, find a doorway and have a nut-busting, sex-filled romp like you'd originally planned. That would definitely more fun. But try as you might to talk yourself into doing just that, her last words keep intruding on your thoughts. She has answers. Answers you want, maybe even need. And she's promised to give them to you if you can do what she assigned you. Unless you suddenly found another person who seemed to have the same knowledge as this petite young woman, she seems to be your only avenue of hope. You mentally shrug. Plus, she said she'd give you a date next time you met.

Decision made, you return your attention the man. You focus on his face, trying ascertain anything you can, hints or clues to who he might be. Nothing. You circle around to the other side, but it just gives you another viewpoint of his translucent head. You try picturing what his door might look like, based on his appearance. Still nothing. Finally, you raise a hand an gently stick a finger into his image.

With a slight sucking sound, the man's face implodes, coalescing into a single pinpoint of light sitting just at the tip of your finger. It's pure white, and so bright that you have to shield your eyes to see it clearly. It bounces and wiggles, dancing like a scarf in the wind. It doesn't want to be here, it wants to be...somewhere else. You give you finger a flick, like shaking a drop of water free, and the ball zooms off down the hallway.

After a second's pause, you race after it. Doors flow past you, flashing by like pages of a flip book. You've never traveled this far down the hallway before, but nothing really changes. The doors are still on both sides and there is no end in sight.

After a couple of minutes of running, the light abruptly stops. You skid to a halt, standing a couple of feet away from its bright glow. Then slowly, it glides through the air until it reaches a heavy metal door, with a simple silver knob on its face, where it passes through as if the door didn't exist at all. This mus be the place. You reach your hand to the door. Despair, nobody, confused, determined, Amanda.

Girding yourself, you open the door and step through.

You're on the roof of a tall building, while a black sky with no visible stars hovers above you. All around you stands a dark city, with skyscrapers looking on all sides. Every window is empty, no lights shine from anywhere and the sound of silence is oppressive. Sitting on the edge of the rood is a man, THE man you've been looking for, his head bowed so low that his chin is resting against his chest.

And beside him is a darkness deeper than anything else nearby. It's formless, but you still recognize it. You'd last seen it in a more agitated state, whirling and screaming as it sucked your neighbor Penny out of her dream bedroom. Here, it's more placid, but no less menacing.

You step forward and whispers begin to reach your ears. "Alone...hopeless...let go...jump...nothing...die."

And the man's head is bobbing in time to the whispers, agreeing with every word they say. He wraps his arms around himself, squeezing so tight her begins to shake uncontrollably. You have to do something or he's going to fall off the building.

You focus on the black blob, willing it to disappear from the dream. But nothing happens. In fact, you feel a harsh resistance, and it's all you can do to hold on so that you're not **** from the dream. The pressure builds, pushing you back toward the door, you feet slipping on the surface of the roof. Desperately, you fall to the ground, leaving you less **** to the invisible wind and you stop your backward momentum.

Well, that won't fucking work, you think. Better not try that again.

You crawl forward, inching yourself toward the man. If you could just get a hold of him, you could stop him from jumping, hold onto him and pull him back from the edge. With the wind still blowing, your progress is slow, every centimeter a battle that drains your energy. All the while, the whispers continue.

With a final lunge, you reach out with your hand and grasp the back of his shirt. Your mind explodes.

You're no longer on the roof of the building. Your standing beneath a giant tree, in front of a large crowd of people, all dressed in their finest. Men in tuxedos and double-breasted suits, women in fancy dresses and high heels. A walkway splits the crowd, a wide, ivory satin runway that leads all the way to you. Movement in the back. A beautiful woman steps forward, dressed in a elegant white gown and holding an intricate bouquet of flowers. As she walks up the aisle, her smile is electric and you feel your heart bursting from your chest. It's rhythmic beating is calling to you. BA-DUM-THUMP. BA_DUM-THUMP.

Amanda.

Dazed, you're back on the roof. Reaching deep inside you, you pull the image of the woman from your vision and try to call it forth...but nothing comes. You try again and again. For some reason, she just won't form. Is it because she's...?

You try one last time, putting every ounce of energy and effort behind your attempt, crying out loud and hearing your soul cry out at the same time. It hurts, but you keep going until finally...finally...you feel something answer from a vast distance away.

Amanda appears on the ledge next to the man. His head snaps up, his eyes finding the face of the woman he loved, the woman he lost. She says something to him, and he replies, but the conversation is only meant for the two of them and you don't hear a thing. In the distance, a sunrise begins, perhaps the first one he's truly seen in a long time.

The darkness shudders, screams once and then bounds away, seeking the shadows between then tall building and leaving its prey behind. You stand up and move away from the couple, giving them their privacy. Just as you reach the door, Amanda's head turns to look at you, causing the man to turn as well. Silently, she mouths, "Thank you." Her gratitude is more than you can bear.

You exit the man's dream world, exhausted, and fall into a deeper sleep than you remember having in years.