And it used, in a word, myself as its arsenal. Me, my friends, the ones I respect and my mind. It has learnt to be crafty - to make it realistic, and excessively so. The place was proper - NTU. Of course. I know I has to be there. Then it cast the right people- because I know who should be here and who shouldn't. All of them behaves in their own characters. But then it won't be enough, will it? So here comes the plot twists.
Layers. The trick was very simple, yet this explanation will be a bit lengthy and may be outragous for some. As usual, I won't judge anyone for not believing any ounce of it (the matter whether you'll judge me instead is of your own discretion). I believe 'layers' is an appropriate term for this. It's easy to understand why.
At the first layer, it was plain in the open, downright obvious. It's just another dream. I 'woke up' from an afternoon nap and explored the elements, and it did bend to my will. I was chasing a policeman instead of him chasing me. It was a bit boring though, so I began to introduce new psychedelic things. I made myself another 'reality' I could switch back and fro. This was not my first time doing it, but keeping two 'storylines' at the same time wass admittedly quite taxing. That's my mistake. I was eager to impress. Who, I didn't even know, but that's when things start to get downhill.
I woke up abruptly. With a headache. I was a bit out of it, but it was understandable because lucid dreams always come with a headache as an aftermath. I accessed my surroundings. Dingy two-people dorm room with natural thin dust layer and a wood-hard bed, check. My pillow, bolster and a thick cover, check. Pleasantly quiet and non threatening room mate, check. A small peeping window on the wall, check. I'd check the whole detail, but some nose from outside distracted me. Laughter and the sound of people speaking. This room was also not a soundproofed one.
Unfamiliar faces, except one, a friendly aquintance, who immediately provided me with a reasonable explanation for the situation. I was bleary, unable to think very straight. There was a package on the leg if the bed. A political pamphlet, stylised as a jigsaw puzzle. Another distraction. I was a bit curious, sure, on why a national party would bother to extend its campaign beyond the shores of our archipelago? But looking at the unreasonable nature of our political field and this particular party's desperation to brainwash the masses (granting local schoolkids a free overseas trip to distribute these unusual pamphlets accross the vast campus ground of NTU, anyone?), it was almost plausible. Wanna-be celebrities these days, bringing the excitement back to the national news feed - sometimes overly so. Even the half complete puzzle depicted a realistic level of design expected of a typical political capaign poster; the huge photo, a real party logo, bizzarely horrible colours combination and blatant contradictions in the wordings.
It came as no surprise that I fell back asleep, and I was woken up by the same kind of noise of chatterings outside the window in the same room. Grudgingly I opened the window, once more attempting a friendly conversation with them before discovering new features in the architecture. I could take off this huge window frame! This dorm building was that old and now I found it quite beautiful in many ways I hadn't realised before. The woods were old, but some of it was stylised in nice, classic ways. Now I could jump over my table for an access to the balcony I didn't know we had before, and by extension, the ground closest to it. A practical alternative exit; I'd always loved this kind of things. I had to tell my room mate the next time he came back. I remembered having a slight reluctance in accepting this room back then, but just like with anything else, I've been learning to accept the reality, bit by bit. As one with reluctance for changes, I always appreciated any kinds of help.
A right hand, judging by the position of the thumb, shook my shoulder to wake me up. Oh that's right. When I fell asleep for the first time, my front was facing the solid wall and not the room. So that was a dream? Oh, a solid cold wall was in front of me. Where was that lovely, detachable large window? Oh no, was that really a dream - what a dissapointment. Oh wait. My hard bed was indeed beside that small peeping window and the other larger windows were on the other sides of the room. I rose slowly and turned around. There it was, the windows that deliver those nice breeze inside the room. The one who had woken me up was a good friend who understood very well, my laggy restarting brain after a deep sleep. He made the usual comment about it before explaining that several of our peers were making plan to go out for dinner. I hadn't replied any of the their text in my phone so they figured out I was asleep. Throughout the whole conversation I was pretty much unresponsive. How many layers did I have then? I was so sleepy still. Hence I struggled to maintain my inner thoughts and that high maintanance conversation (because sadly, well, I couldn't be careless with that could I. Reality is sad.) at the same time and it vaguely reminded me of that double-layered dream. That was quite mentally engaging, wasn't it?
This time, my roomate woke me up. Did I actually fell asleep in the last conversation? How impolite of me. The rest of the group had arrived, and the three of them were building a card house out of their completed jigsaw puzzles. I went ahead to clarify with them if the jigsaw puzzles were real. They were, so was the part with my incomplete jigsaw puzzle real? They laughed at my 'blurriness' and there was another of his remarks on it. I laughed with them. Fancy seeing them around, being so lively and creative. Cute. Oh, the card house tumbled down. The puzzles were undone. Soon, it's time to go for that dinner.
I opened my eyes. I was again leaning on my side, facing the wall. My laptop was in front of me. Safari was loading Twitter.com. My friend was tapping my shoulder, this time with a left hand, trying to wake me up. My room mate was a bit concerned, because apparently I did a little bit of thrashing and whimpers. I struggled to keep my eyes opened, but I was unwilling to move. My head was pounding. I focused my eyes on the Safari bar. A blue line was moving to the right, but was that glitchy dots on the screen did I see? I tried to speak up, but my speech was hampered. I couldn't move at all. Another sleep paralyzation - it's been awhile. Sorry, so sorry. I meant to assure you it's okay. But strangled noises were all I could let out and they're getting worked up about it. Please don't panic, It's fine, really. Those two were too kind. I was going to at least whisper that out loud, but there was another problem coming up. I couldn't breathe.
The increasingly glitchy display was the last thing I could see before everything turned black. I was still, but for a moment I was at a place called nowhere. There was hardly anything to go on because I couldn't even open my eyes and I was still struggling to breathe. Voices were calling me, worry evident in their tones. I kept forcing my reputory muscles to move, knowing I would surely gasp like a fish when I woke up. There was no faking calm now. There was a creeping feeling that if I didn't try my best here, I wouldn't be able to return.
I gasped loudly, much to my friends' surprises. I had returned safely. But my own relief was short lived. I was back in my room, yet I wasn't able to draw another breath, let alone moving. Oh no.
And I jerked awake with a scream. Solid white wall with that little peeping window. Railed 'drainage' instead of large, detachable windows. No easy exit, logical considering my room is located on the third floor. White painted cement bricks instead of classic wood. The girl, my room mate, was still on her desk with her laptop. No dinner. I had lost even my appetite for the day.
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