Mr. Sandman

John was in the fiery room again. He rushed to touch a different flame, just to see what it was.

“Seriously, how do you keep getting in here, kid?”

He was punted upwards, through a roof and out into open air, suddenly he was falling off the side of a building. He panicked and started flailing his arms, then went spread eagle to slow his descent. He looked frantically to either side, he was falling off of the Towers Building. This looked to be a continuation of his last dream from the top of the building. Springfield was burning in several neighborhoods, and sirens were wailing everywhere. He wasn’t the only one falling, there were people above him diving after him with determined expressions. He was about to hit the ground when the scene changed.

He was in an alley. He watched as a girl with lime green, shoulder length hair sobbed and punched at the air with light-wreathed hands. She cursed someone named Regan, but her meaning was nearly unintelligible through her sobs. She mentioned some sort of collision several times as well, but John had absolutely no idea what was going on by the time the scene changed again.

He was standing at the edge of a pier, waving. He finished waving and turned away with a tear on his cheek and walked towards the city. Then he got into his dad’s car and drove away.

Sleep Cycle completed.

John blinked and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.

“Ohayogozaimasu, baka-san!”

Sera was smiling at him from her perch on top of his desk. He sat up and waited for his alarm clock to go off.

“Did calling me an idiot in English get boring?”

“Yeah, kind of. Never gets old, though.”

She seemed really cheerful.

Morning people

John shook his head and checked his sp.

100/100

John nodded.

“Great.”

“Yeah, you actually have energy when you sleep well and eat well. Who knew, right? Not you, for some stupid reason. But basically everyone else knew. Anyways, just so you don’t go a lil crazy when it happens: No more Daily Quests. Those were for the tutorial. You may or may not get a quest today, but know that they definitely won’t be a daily thing anymore.”

John nodded.

I totally would have freaked out.

“Oh, and you still have an achievement you haven’t read.”

“What?”

John looked down to the corner of his vision and, sure enough, there was a small blinking light. He tapped it.

Achievement Unlocked! Skeptic: know when something’s too good to be true.

+100 exp.

“Nice one,” Sera said, reading over his shoulder. John grunted.

“Thanks.”

BEEP BEEP SLAM

Nothing. Slightly disappointed, he walked over to the bathroom and then downstairs for breakfast. His mom was already down making eggs and bacon by the time he got there.

“Good morning mom. Do you know when I move into my dorm? I started packing already.”

“The email said today. You’re going to have to finish packing and then move in when you get back home. I’ll be on a plane by then, unfortunately. So, this’ll be goodbye for a while, sweetie.”

She was getting teary, and John knew she was trying her hardest to keep it together for him. He smiled and hugged her. She cried for a bit, and John knew he would miss her, but it was for the best. They held their embrace for a while, but she broke it with an “oh!”

“I forgot to tell you! Your father’s promotion included a company car. What was it? A Nosson two hundred something x, or something like that.”

“A Nosson 370z? That’s a nice car.”

“Yeah, something like that. The point is, your dad is letting you keep his old car.”

“The Mizda?”

“The one in the garage, John, you know I’m no good with this.”

She smiled at him as he grinned. John and his dad used to play car games on a console when he was little, they bonded over knowing a car’s make and model just by looking at its shape. It was a friendly competition that they had running until his dad started going on long business trips. When that started, they started talking more in depth about what cars they liked and why whenever he was home. John still played games like Need For Nitrous and Fuerza Motorsport every now and then just to keep in touch with his car knowledge.

His dad used to work on a 1989 Mizda Rx-7 Turbo II, it was all beat up when he bought it. He cleaned it up, gave it a new paintjob, fixed all the major problems it had, and left a few of the little problems for John to fix. John had gotten to fix all the little problems last year, when he earned his driver’s license. It was just sitting in a vehicle storage unit in Harrison, a neighborhood over. The fact that his dad was letting have the car meant one of two things: that he was over his crush on rotary engines, or that he finally trusted John to drive it by himself. John preferred the second, but knew the first was more likely.

John smiled at the keys his mom was jangling in his face, Sera’s Sigil emblazoned on the spare key.

“Drive safe. Call me every day, okay? I don’t want you to forget that I exist.”

She laughed and then sighed.

“I should be getting to the airport, and you should get to school. Hurry up before you’re late, but don’t speed!”

She hugged him one last time and walked out the door.

Layla groaned as she slapped her alarm clock.

“I fucking hate waking up so early.”

She continued to grumble as she trudged into her bathroom. It was meticulously clean, with all of her hair and skin products lined up in an orderly fashion. Her kitchen was similarly neat and organized. She decided to have a bowl of cereal for breakfast today. Then she grabbed her keys and walked out of the door. She turned to lock it and saw the bright green notice taped to it.

Firesmith Student:

A student has applied for housing and your dorm was the only one with a vacancy. They are expected to move in today. You are expected to allow them to move in the second bedroom, or your own housing contract will become nullified and you will be **** to vacate the premises.

Best wishes, Firesmith housing staff

Her eye twitched. Then she crumpled up the paper and burned it in her fist, leaving a pile of ashes at her front door. She locked her door, took a deep breath and walked towards the school with a bright smile.

Nothing’s going to ruin my day. I have another chance to talk to him. I will talk to him. He will be mine. And we’ll be together forever, happy with each other, and absolutely in love.

She hummed a happy tune as she walked.

John had taken the bus to Harrison, and he had half an hour to get his new car to school. He wasn’t even sure where he would park, he was just excited to finally be driving. The owner of the storage center waved John in, and he walked to where he knew his car was hidden behind an aluminum door. He opened it and smiled at the car. It was a deep burgundy, shiny despite the days it had spent without attention. He got in and revved the rotary engine. His smile grew into a grin. He drove it carefully out of the storage center and onto the highway, blazing down the 420.