I like daydreaming. It’s a way to escape reality, to get away from it all without having to travel. And the best part? You can do whatever you want, wherever you want, whenever you want. It’s that freedom that keeps me going back to my dream worlds. I don’t choose the dream world. I close my eyes, then open them inside a random dream. They can vary from the surface of an alien planet to the middle of an abandoned city, but a few things stay constant. First, I’m always wearing clothes appropriate for the weather. If I’m in space I’m wearing a spacesuit, and if I’m at the edge of an active volcano I’m wearing a heat suit while running away. Second, there are never any people around, but there are occasionally animals, like rats or alien rats. There’s mostly rats. Third-and this is a stupid one-I never have a phone with me. I always check the pockets, if there are any, of whatever I’m wearing, but I never find a phone. I’ve found candy, and once a whip, but never any human electronics. I guess the dreams couldn’t handle it if I could contact the real world.

I open my eyes inside the new dream and recognise the place from earlier. I’m still standing outside of the gates to the city, but this time there’s a crater about the size of a house in the ground nearby. That’s strange, usually the world doesn’t change in between visits. I walk over to it and look inside, but there isn’t anything inside. In face, the entire inside surface of the crater is perfectly smooth. Crouching down, I reach out my hand to touch the surface, but the minute I make contact I’m thrown back and into the air. I hit the ground with a thud a couple feet away, but I don’t feel any pain. I get up and dust off my legs, then decide to avoid the crater. I walk closer to the city gates, and see that there’s a crack I can slip through to enter the city. I poke my head through first, and see that it leads to an abandoned town square. Slipping the rest of my body through, I take my first step inside the city. A wind blows around me, then the ground starts shaking.

“Whoa!” I almost lose my balance, but with enough windmilling of my arms I’m able to stay stable. I’m so glad no one was around to see that. I sigh in relief, then I look down and see there’s suddenly only darkness beneath me.

“Wha…?” Suddenly I’m falling into the darkness. “AHHHHHH!!!!!!!” I desperately flail my arms around in the hopes of catching on to something, but all I see is black around me. Oh my flying spaghetti monster, I think I’m going to die. Are the dreams trying to kill me? Wait, can I die in a dream? I haven’t tested it because, you know, I don’t want to die, but is this it? The end? I look up at the sky and see that it’s just a tiny dot of light above, then nothing at all.

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A couple hours later I’m still falling in the darkness. By this point I’ve accepted my impending death and am just awaiting the end. How long am I going to be falling? I wish I had my phone. Wait, do dreams even have cell receptions? Because I need to check on-

“Oomph!” I suddenly slam into a soft warm surface. Ok, that hurt quite a bit. Without lifting my head I reach out and feel in front of me. My hand hits a wall, and I look up to find that I’ve created an indentation a few feet deep. I climb onto my feet and out of the crater with surprising ease, but as I start dusting myself off I look down to see most of my clothes are ripped from the impact. I guess I’m pretty invincible, but my clothes are a different matter. I take off my ripped jacket and set it to the side, and luckily find the shirt underneath is fine. There’s never anyone else in my dreams, so I guess nudity isn’t a problem, but I would be extremely uncomfortable feeling wind under my bare boobs. Plus, it’s not exactly the warmest in this world. My pants are also significantly ripped, but they have more of a ‘teenage midlife crisis’ feel than ‘ready to disintegrate’ feel, so I keep them on.

I finally look around at the slightly illuminated cavern I’ve fallen to, but fail to see anything casting the light. Now that I think about it, there aren’t any shadows either, but that could be because all the surfaces are smooth. I twist around, but I don’t even see my own shadow. Maybe it’s the surfaces that are all glowing? Without warning, there’s a rumbling similar to the one when I was on the surface, and a tunnel opens up opposite me. Grinning, I start towards the tunnel. Maybe this dream is more interesting than I thought.