It was quite challenging to get her to sit back down, particularly after experiencing such a panic attack. As we both tried to calm down, I noticed she was still shivering uncontrollably, and my head was starting to throb with pain.

It was a surreal experience, it had been a while since a dream felt so tangible and lifelike.

After learning her name, and that she was just like me, my brain started a constant battle between its two halves. The first half was excited to know that she wasn't just a figment of my imagination, but a real person with whom I could share my interests. The second half, however, was alarmed because it meant that the only safe place I had to be alone with my thoughts was not a safe haven anymore.

Despite everything, my attention was completely consumed by a more pressing matter that lay before me. As I gazed into the big, gray eyes that peered out from under the freckles sprinkled on her face, I couldn't help but feel an overwhelming sense of confusion. The red fringe that framed her face seemed to accentuate the disorientation that I saw in her eyes.

As I took a deep breath and prepared to speak, I couldn't help but feel that this was going to be a defining moment in both of our lives.

“I'm Jasper.” I said, introducing myself. It was a stupid way of maintaining a sense of normalcy amidst all the chaos.

“This doesn’t make sense, it just feels so real.” She repeated those words again and again, I wasn’t sure if I should interrupt her or help her calm down.

She was mostly likely experiencing some sort of cognitive dissonance, where her mind was struggling to reconcile what she believed to be true with what she was experiencing. And I only knew that because it was exactly what was happening to me. At that moment, I wasn't sure whether I should interrupt her or help her calm down. However, I felt the need to be there for her and offer support in any way I could. After all, I was the one that told her the truth.

Walking her to the nearest seat had been a good idea, I couldn't help but notice the relief in her expression as she finally found a place to rest her legs. I wanted to sit next to her and offer some comfort, but her downcast expression seemed to be asking for space and time alone.

Eventually, I settled into a seat across from her in the awkward front section of the bus, where we were forced to face each other in an uncomfortable silence.

Looking out the window, I couldn't help but wonder what was going through her mind and if there was anything else I could do to help her feel better. It still seemed bizarre that I was talking to a real person, and yet there she was.

The hum of the engine and the occasional sound of a distorted car horn seemed to amplify the tension in the air, making me wish I could find the right words to break the ice and start a conversation. But for that instant, all I could do was sit quietly and wait for her to make the first move.

"Have you ever heard about lucid dreaming?" I asked, unsure if it was even a good idea to touch on the topic at the moment. "It's basically becoming self-aware during a dream. It allows you to control and manipulate your dreamscape.”

“Yeah, but this is not it,” she said, shaking her head slowly. A thoughtful expression crossed her face as she pressed her index finger to her palm. I couldn't help but smile, feeling a sense of connection with her.

Despite having years of experience with lucid dreaming, it was refreshing to meet someone who shared my interest and knowledge in the subject.

What that what made us special?

“Oh, you do that?” I chuckled and showed her my tongue. “I just bite it,” I said. The sound of my words was a little more like someone choking, I proceeded to demonstrate.

The sensation was both familiar and unpleasant. For a split second, I entertained the thought that perhaps this was it - the moment where I would finally break the curse and wake myself up immediately. However, as I soon discovered, this assumption couldn't be further from the truth.

Little did I know that everything I knew about dreams would be challenged again and again after that moment. I would be forced to question the nature of reality itself, and come to terms with the fact that the world I thought I knew was only a fraction of what truly existed.

Her finger didn’t go through her palm either, even though it was supposed to.

The whole point was to perform an action that would defy logic in a dream, prompting our brains to recognize that it was not reality. However, to our surprise, none of those things happened the way they were supposed to. This added to the confusion of the situation, and we both couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity of it all. It was as if our minds were playing tricks on us, teasing us with the possibility of a lucid dream, only to have it slip away at the last moment.

“You're such a masochist.” She said in between laughs, in a teasing tone.

I blushed, feeling the heat rise to my cheeks. It was a reflex, an involuntary response to her words that I couldn't control. I tried to come back with a snarky response, hoping to hide my embarrassment and insecurity. It wasn't the first time I had to mask my emotions like that. In fact, it had become a habit, a way of protecting myself from getting hurt. I had built an emotional wall around me, and it had kept me safe for most of my life.

A part of me kept on thinking that maybe, if I acted enough like a confident guy, I would become one.

“Maybe,” I raised an eyebrow and half smiled. “Is that something you like?”

Now it was her turn to react. I couldn't help but notice the way her lips curved upwards and separated with absolute incredulity. It was a baffling expression that made me wonder: was that the type of guys she was into?

My mind raced with all kinds of questions and doubts. Would I even be able to become someone like that?

Why on earth was I thinking about that when reality shattered before my own eyes?

It was the definition of insanity. The pieces of the puzzle were so intricately woven together that it was difficult to know where one ended and the other began. However, as the minutes passed, Chiara slowly began to let her guard down. The background noise that had once been a constant source of distraction was now reduced to mere background noise, no longer interfering with us.

In high school, I became enamored with the idea of lucid dreaming after watching a certain movie that has since become quite famous. That heist one with the dreams and mental manipulation.

Then did my due diligence. I scoured the internet and joined forums filled with people who had more experience than I did, hoping to learn as much as I could. I even went as far as keeping a dream journal to record and analyze my dreams, and made sure to do reality checks constantly to train my brain to recognize when I was dreaming.

I didn't stop there, though. I was determined to perfect every step of the lucid dreaming process. I followed every guide I could find, and made sure to stick to them rigorously. I spent countless hours practicing and honing my skills until I was confident in my abilities. And even when I stumbled along the way, I never gave up.

Being able to remember most of my dreams in vivid detail was a huge achievement for me. It was a crucial component in my journey, and I was killing it. As I continued to practice, I developed a sort of nervous tic where I would bite my tongue and associate it with checking my surroundings. This helped me stay grounded and aware.

With time and practice, this technique became deeply ingrained in my brain. Soon enough, I was even doing it in my dreams. It was a reliable way for me to know that I was, in fact, dreaming. It's interesting to note that pain feels different when you're dreaming. In some cases, you may not even feel it at all.

As I began to hone my skills, I found that detecting when something was "off" and not quite real became almost second nature to me.

It was as if a switch had been flipped in my brain and suddenly, I was able to see through the facade of reality. This realization was both liberating and exhilarating, allowing me to fully embrace the world around me for the first time.

At that moment I used it either have superpowers or sex with whoever I wanted as every other horny teenager would.

I'm pretty sure that was the only reason why I was able to understand and come to terms with my own sexuality that quickly, despite having met so many people who had to endure a much steeper learning curve. It was a journey that welcomed people of all genders and sexual identities - guys, gals and everyone in between - into my dreams. These moments were truly liberating, and I felt like I could truly be myself without any judgment or shame. I wish I could say that this phase became monotonous and unexciting over time, but the opposite was true.

Every night felt like a new adventure, and I was constantly surprised by the many different experiences and emotions that came with it. As much as I enjoyed these moments, I also realized that there was a certain danger that came with them. The more I indulged in my lucid dreams, the more I liked the feeling of control and power that came with them. It was as if I had found a way to escape the mundane and often stressful reality of my waking life, and I didn't want to let it go.

You see, when you have the power to change reality around you, all of a sudden you don’t want to wake up. And that came become dangerous, addicting, scary.

And for some reason I felt compelled on telling her all that, maybe because I didn’t really know her, maybe because a part of me still thought it wasn’t real. There was an easiness on talking to someone you just met because they don't have any expectations on you, therefore you can't really disappoint them.

“… so I became obsessed.” I held my breath for a second and could hear she did the same. I remember the feeling of being consumed by an idea, a desire, something that drove me to the brink of madness. It was exhilarating and terrifying all at once. “So I stopped doing that, and now I just come here.”

“You’re telling me that you can choose to be anywhere when you are asleep and you chose… a bus?!” Her confused expression said everything.

“Not really,” I shrugged and leaned to the front, resting my elbows on my knees, so I could see her more closely, she was stunning. I paused for a moment, looking at her in silence before continuing. "One day I just started appearing here first, as a nice transition towards whatever comes next. Being here first has given me the perfect opportunity to to be alone with my own thoughts… until now.”

“Did I- I’m sorry. I didn’t want to.” She said with a stutter. Her cheeks blushed and looked adorable, I probably started blushing too, but tried to take my mind out of it.

“I like it, it’s refreshing.”

I wanted to tell her that it really was, that having someone to just talk shit with without any type of expectations was maybe what I needed. After all, nothing else was real, only both of us -and even that was debatable-.

Admittedly, we didn't really know each other and perhaps we didn't even care to. It was a strange coincidence that we had crossed paths twice, but I knew that the likelihood of us meeting again was slim.

I didn’t know how I felt about it, she seemed interesting enough to want to meet her at least three times, but I’ve never been so lucky to have life go exactly how I want it.

Alarm bells rang on my mind. It wasn't the first time I felt this way, and I knew from experience that it was my mind's way of preparing for the worst. I had built an emotional wall around myself, brick by brick, to avoid the pain of heartbreak.

But as much as I tried to ignore it, the feeling persisted, and I couldn't help but wonder what was causing it.

And then something happened, I couldn't help but feel like the universe was conspiring against me. It was as if every aspect of my life was a constant struggle, even in my dreams. Suddenly, the bus came to an abrupt stop, almost jolting me out of the seat. It felt too perfectly aligned, like it was done on purpose.

"I guess this is where I get off," I said, feeling a pang of sadness as I stood up slowly from my seat. It was hard to leave her, but I knew I had to go. She had paled, and I hated to see her like that. I wished we could have stayed together, at least for a little more time.

“What do you mean by that? There are no stops,” she wasn’t raising her voice anymore, it was a mere whisper. “We’re dreaming, right?”

“I don’t know, I guess it’s a bus because it takes you somewhere, to the actual dream you’re supposed to have or something.” I shrugged and started moving slowly, trying to get the most out of the moment as possible.

In true honestly, I didn’t want to go, to leave the whole situation like this, but it felt like it was out of my control. At first it was just goosebumps, until my whole body started shaking. Something was pulling me towards the nearest door and unconsciously my fingers tried to close around the pole. Something out of my control didn’t want me to stay longer, to keep on talking.

Or maybe I was being delusional again.

“Wait!” This time she was the one that shouted before I exited. “How do I know when I’m supposed to get down?”

“You’ll feel it” I said, without being really sure about what that meant.