Sleep

Ever since I was a little boy i've had a reoccuring dream. It's always the same, I'm walking down a hallway towards a door very slowly. When I finally reach the door I wake up. The first few times I was worried about what was behind it, I told my mom but she assured me that it didn't mean anything. After the first six or seven times I learned that it was a dream the second I saw the door and I wouldn't worry, I'd just walk until i woke up. So of course when I saw it last night I just let it keep going until I reached the door, that was the point of divergence from every other night. When i reached for the handle it turned and I opened the door. I was shocked at first but decided it woud be nice to know what was always waiting for me in this dream. when i walked inside I saw a man laying in a hospital bed. I approached the bed and looked at the man's face, I couldn't believe what i saw. The man was me, but that was impossible. There couldn't be two of me and he had so many more scars than i had.

"Pretty crazy eh?"

I turned to see who was talking, and found it wasn't quite a person. It was as if somebody had drawn a black outline of a tall, hairless man and coloured him white. He had no clothes on but yet he had nothing that i could tell his gender by. I say he instead of she or it because he seemed to have a male voice.

"How can there be two of me?" I asked.

"There aren't two of you." He replied. "The man in that bed is the only real thing here"

"Of course we aren't real, we're in a dream." I said

"Not quite" The man said. The way he talked was strange. Without a mouth it seemed his voice was coming from a speaker in his face. "This is a special dream. You could call it an out of body experience"

"If that is me than why am i so battred up?" I asked. "Why am i in a hospital?"

"You were driving down an icy hill and slid into a tree." He replied. "The doctors put you into a medically induced coma to try to save you but it didn't work. They're about to unplug you."

I started to panic. I Didn't want to die, there was so much i hadn't seen, that i hadn't done

"How do i wake up?" I franticly asked. "Tell me quickly, please don't let me die."

"I can't help you." He said. "This is where you've always been going. You could say it's your destiny."

"Is that why i couldn't get past the door?" I asked but of course he didn't need to answer for me to know.

"So everything Iv'e done, everything I've worked for, it was all going towards this?" I asked

"Think of it this way." He said. "Everybody has a beginning and an end. But in between is never written in stone. You have a point A and point B, but how you get there is up to you."

"So what next?" I asked. "WIll i go to heaven or hell?"

"Neither." He answered. "There is literally nothing after you die. It's like a dreamless sleep, but you don't wake up."

I began to cry at. Now i knew that i was going to die, and had a feeling i would soon. The doctors wouldn't take too long to pull a plug.

"Who are you." I asked. It probably should have been my first question, but i was too shocked to wonder that was talking to me when i saw myself. "Are you god?"

"I said it before, the only real thing here is that body on the bed." He replied

"That doesn't answer my question." I snapped, feeling angry that he would waste my time when i had so little time left

"I am your thoughts, your memories, your feelings. A part of your subconcience that everybody has." He replied. "When you die they say that your life flashes before your eyes right? Well that's not quite what happens. You don't see your life, you see me."

In that second i remembered. Every happy moment in my life since i came out of my mothers womb. It all flooded in at once, making me realize that even though it ends here my life was not any worse than it would have been if i had longer time to live.

Then i fell asleep.