It’s black. All black. There are noises, screeching, screaming? Suddenly white flashes, but nothing is visible.

You are not fulfilling your Potential.

It changes, from the black, to a stark contrast of white. A hospital room.

We can help you.

There is a glint. A syringe, dripping false promises.

There’s no need to worry.

It’s getting closer.

It’ll all be over in–

Jess opened her eyes and clutched the sheets. Sweat was manifesting on her forehead.

Shit. What was that? She breathed in and out, slowly, savouring the breath, letting go of the covers. It had come back again. That dream. She’d had it a couple of times before, but each time it came back, it became longer, more real. She rolled over, staring at the ceiling. She jumped when Hayley murmured, still fast asleep.

Come on. It was only a dream.



Bob sat at the kitchen counter, a plate with a croissant sitting in its centre in front of him. He felt immensely proud of waking up first, but then there was nobody awake to congratulate his fine efforts. He turned over the paper, reading the front page. His eyes widened. More about the missing kids, but he recognised the pictures. He had gone to kindergarten with him! And her, she used to work at the pizza place right before he moved the few miles to go to college.

Jesus, he thought. What next?

Jess walked into the kitchen, yawning. Bob looked up, startled to see that she was in her pyjamas. Her very revealing vest and shorts set pyjamas.

“You’re up?” Jess asked. “Wow.”

“Yeah, I woke up, then figured I’d impress everyone by being awake,” he said, grinning. He paused. “Of course, people are hard to impress when they’re asleep.”

Jess gave a small smile. “I’m afraid to say that you still weren’t the first up, I’ve been awake since about three in the morning.”

Bob’s jaw dropped. “Three? My God, what were you doing?”

She grimaced. “I had a nasty dream, then couldn’t sleep, so I went to the garage and played guitar for ages.”

“The garage? You must be freezing!”

She seemed a bit surprised. “Oh. Yeah. I guess I am.”

“Come here, steal my body heat.” He got up as she walked towards him and gave her a hug.

She sighed good-naturedly and lifted her head. “Wow. You are warm.”

He smiled. “And you’re cold. You need some more clothes.”

“Fuck, I was supposed to do the laundry.”



“We’re going adventuring!” Hayley cried. Charlie grinned at her as Jess rolled her eyes.

“Not really, we’re kind of just going to the woods,” she said.

“You don’t sound perfectly happy, Jess,” Charlie remarked.

“Zombies live in woods,” she replied, deadpan, eyes wide.

Bob started laughing as Charlie explained all the different places that zombies could live and watched Jess get more and more freaked out. He stopped as soon as she started stomping off into the woods.

“Um, should we follow her?” Bob questioned.

Charlie squinted. “Yeah, knowing her she’ll get herself killed.”

At Hayley’s strange request, they were spending their Sunday afternoon exploring the woods next to the house. None of them really looked the part – all of them were wearing skinny jeans, Vans or Converses, and the only person with a jacket was Bob, the others wearing hoodies. Although Jess did have a scarf.

“Hey Jess, wait up! Don’t wanna find anything without us!” Hayley yelled, running after her.

“It’s just a woods, Hayley, nothing here!” Jess called, turning around while still walking backwards, then inevitably walking into a tree. “Ow.”

Charlie almost fell over laughing as Bob ran towards her, helping her up.

“God Jess, that was amazing!” Charlie said, wiping imaginary tears from his eyes.

“Shut your trap, it was not amazing, it was painful,” she retorted, grabbing onto Bob as she shakily stood up. She then proceeded to wipe leaves off her ass.

“That may not have been amazing, but it was quite spectacular,” Hayley put in, grinning.

“I hate you all,” Jess said, eyes narrowed. She looked at Bob. “Except you.”

“Well, that makes me feel better!” Bob replied.

“You know what else I hate? Trees. And woods. And zombies.”

Charlie sighed. “Jess, zombies don’t exist.”

At that precise moment, with incredibly bad timing, the sky darkened and there was a burst of thunder.

“Shit,” Hayley said.

“That’s it; we’re getting out of here!” Jess cried hysterically. She started running towards the house while Hayley swiftly followed. Bob and Charlie looked at each other.

“Yep, I’m pretty freaked out too,” Charlie said.

“… me too,” Bob admitted.

“Run for it?”

“Yes, please.”




It’s black. All black. There are noises, screeching, screaming? Suddenly white flashes, but nothing is visible.

You are not fulfilling your Potential.

It changes, from the black, to a stark contrast of white, a hospital room.

We can help you.

There is a glint. A syringe, dripping false promises.

There’s no need to worry.

It’s getting closer.

It’ll all be over in a few hours.

A small pin prick. Then a small irritant… it builds, crushing pain.

You could be so powerful, Jessica.

Jess sat up. It had happened again. The second night in a row. It actually addressed her by name this time.

What the fuck is this about?



Jess’s diary – September 21st/22nd 2008

It happened again. That dream. God, I hate it. It makes me feel so defenceless, helpless. I hate that. I can’t stand it. And whenever I have that stupid dream, I can never get to sleep again. Which really isn’t good for my sleep patterns, you know? Especially if it’s gonna start doing it every night, and if that happens, I will not be best pleased.

At all.

Huh, seeing as I can’t sleep, I might as well ramble. Did you know that I have eleven pairs of different coloured skinny jeans? And counting? Oh, I mentioned that, huh?
Jesus, what am I doing? I’m talking to this stupid book like it’s a real person. I need a life. No. I need to stop dreaming about that fricking hospital bed, blackness, etc. It’s not doing good things for my brain.

I’ve got to distract myself.

Oh, I’ve mentioned Bob before in this… we had this hug today. I dunno, maybe it was just a hug, but the thing is, it didn’t feel like just a hug. It felt like there was something more there. Like understanding was passing between us.

Of course, that could be dementia brought on by sleep deprivation.

Screw it, I’m gonna go play guitar.