unexpected

My dreams have been increasingly vivid lately, and more believable. I don't want to say realistic, but I never think about them being dreams. Everything makes perfect sense and I've started building these elaborate worlds in my mind, which aren't usually that different from the real world. The characters are the same. The differences are subtle, and grow more profound as time wears. I wake up confused, anxious, worried, or, rarely, happy.

Except, lately the worlds are getting stranger. There's more differences. The world won't be round at all. There will be no more electricity. Time doesn't work properly. Everything takes place in the framework of a novel or a play, and there's no time between scenes. I've always had these dreams but I've never believed them before. Usually I figure it out. But these days I don't. I go through these absurd worlds like they're real--it's not like I understand them any less than the real world, and they have the benefit of dream logic to them.

And then I wake up in the morning, and somehow nothing seems real anymore. I wander through my life in a daze. My girlfriend asks me what's wrong, and I usually don't hear her. The one time that I do, I tell her I feel like something has changed.

"Between us?" she says, and I say no. I tell her I can't explain it. I tell her that it feels like I found a loose thread in reality and just started pulling, and soon everything started coming unravelled. "It's more like I'm in a story than a word with rules."

And she holds me close like she does when she's worried about me, and I fall asleep, and a world which makes sense waits for me.