I startle myself awake. Hands out to brace myself, as I stare at my bedroom ceiling fan. Lying in my bed, my heart still racing. I calm myself and start to relax. It’s morning and already light out. I don’t bother looking at my alarm clock, I know I had to have turned it off and went back to sleep. I don’t hear my cell phone going off, so I’m not late for work yet, but I have to get going. I swing my feet around to sit up while getting out from under the blanket. As I stare at my feet for a moment, I glance and notice the blue ID on my right wrist. “So that’s how it is.” I say to myself.

I hear my cell phone alarm going off in the kitchen, where the charger is. I don’t keep it by my bed anymore, I play with it too much instead of sleeping. I head downstairs to turn it off.

I quickly wash my hair and get cleaned up in the sink, no time for a shower. As I’m drying off, I’m also getting dressed and ready for work. The wife has left me a post-it note. ‘You were sleeping so sound; didn’t want to wake you.’ She writes. She usually leaves for work before I get up, working a different earlier shift.

My boys are still sleeping. The oldest has graduated just this last year and is already working. Youngest still has a couple more years before he graduates. I try to hurry and keep it quiet, so I don’t wake them before they need to get up.

I lock the door behind myself and head off in my car to work. Once I’m driving, I have time to think about what happened. I didn’t remove the blue ID band. I think I’ll leave it on for now. With my hands on the wheel, I see that I still have Grut’s ring on, which makes the whole experience more real for me. I take the ring off and on a few times, I don’t notice anything different or anything change. It has an off-white color. It’s not made of metal, not hard like a rock either. Harder than hard wood, but it is not that either. I play with it a bit more, but it is distracting me while driving, so I put it back on my finger for now. Still can’t read what the ID band says either.

Working through the day, my wife and I have texted a couple of times. Mostly just flirting and telling each other ‘I love you’. Haven’t heard from my boys. Nobody at work said anything about the ring or the ID band, although I see a few glancing at it. By the time I’m ready to go home for the day, I have a rough idea of a plan.

First, I reasoned with myself whether this was all true or not. If not for the ring and ID band, I would say it was all in my head and dismissed it. So, the possibility does exist, even if I still don’t completely believe it all myself. Second, could I end up back there? And if I did, what could I do to take advantage of the situation?

On the way home, I go a little out of my way and stop at “Outdoor World” by the mall. I’m going to do a little shopping before I go to bed. Through the day I reasoned a few ‘What if’ situations, and I think it is worth spending a little money ‘Just in case’. I plan on keeping all the receipts and take everything back if nothing happens. ‘Win – Win’ I think to myself. But thoughts of brain damage again and what if ‘Lose – Lose’ is really what happens.

I get home after shopping. My wife has been home for a bit. I have lots of stuff and some explaining to do.

“Hello dear, how was your day?” My wife asks as she starts to scan over the bags and packages, I am bringing into the house.

“Not too much happening at work today, but I had the weirdest dream last night” as I head back to the car for another load to bring in. She follows me out and helps bring the rest of the stuff back in.

“What’s all this stuff for?” She inquires. “I made pasta. Didn’t feel like cooking. Hope you like it”

She knows that I like the thin noodles and lots of parmesan cheese, that’s why she made it. “Spaghetti is fine.” I reply as she sets the table for me to eat. I’m sure she has already eaten something else by now.

“So, tell me what you bought us?” she starts the conversation, as I start eating my dinner.

“Well,” I begin. “I had this really weird dream last night. I was running around fighting monsters and saving little kids.” My wife is smiling at me, she knows I’m a jokester and is waiting for the punch line or whatever I’m trying to get at. “So, I bought some stuff to fight the monsters with and I kept the receipts in case nothing happens and I have to take it all back.”

She has the biggest grin on her face, looking at me. “Ok.” She says, still waiting for the rest of the story. I can be kind of cheap at times, and I bought ‘stuff’, so she knows that there is still something more going on. “Glad we can take it all back if you don’t need it. What did you buy?”

“Well, glad you asked. I want to show you something first.” Grinning, I pull my chair over, to sit across and next to her. “When I was there, they put an ID on me. Something like when you’re in a hospital.” A little more seriously, I show her my blue ID. “When I woke up this morning, I had this on.”

My wife knows I’m a jokester, but she also knows I’m not a liar and this is going farther than something I would normally do. Holding and turning the ID band around on my wrist, she is examining it. It is blue with writing and symbols on it. It is one continuous piece, without a tie or a clasp. Smooth and not woven.

Looking up at me with a questioning look. We have been together too long for us not to know each other’s thoughts. “I don’t know what it is,” I say. “I would have thought it all a dream except for it,” And remembering the other item “and this ring.” I take it off and hand it to her, to examine.

She holds the ring and looks it over. “I don’t like it.” Handing it back to me.

I continue “If it wasn’t for these” holding up the ring and ID band. “I would think it all a dream”

“So, what do you think now?” she asks.

“I am not sure what to think. I think something is going on, and I am not sure what. Maybe someone is pranking me. Maybe I’m doing this to myself, sleep walking or something. Maybe there is some truth to it and something did happen. So, I bought some ‘stuff’ to try and figure it out.”

My wife helps me bring my new ‘stuff’ up into the bedroom to unpack. As we are unpacking, I get the ‘We are returning that’ look, along with the ‘You’re not keeping that either’ stare.

I bought a small video security camera with a wide lens, to watch the room and record myself while sleeping. It is meant for the outside corner of a house and has night vision. As I set it up in the far corner, I see that I am sleeping alone until it is removed.

I also had to consider that there may be something wrong with me, mentally. What if I got up and instead of killing monsters and saving children, I was hurting or killing somebody. I bought a small dog chain, something I don’t think I could ever break, along with some play handcuffs. Handcuffs were real enough, but with simple play locks. Using a screw gun, I attach the chain to the side of our wooden bed. My wife has a more serious look on her face when I do this, but we both agree better safe than sorry. She thinks that I’m now going way over the top with this, and some of the other things I’m pulling out from my shopping trip.

Now she’s getting a little mad about it all. We kiss good night; she takes her pillow and a blanket to sleep downstairs. The security camera comes with a wireless monitor. I set it up downstairs. I am adamant that she is not to come upstairs, or near me, without checking that I am not doing something stupid, or dangerous. “You’re already doing that” she comments as she is tucking herself in on the couch.

When I was thinking everything over today at work, I made the decision to take this on the serious side, but not extreme. Either something happened, whether it was what I remember or not, or it’s in my head. I need to make sure my wife and family are safe.

My sons are home now and they are having the laugh of their life. After some explanation, it’s all still funny. They are helping dad get ready for bed and all that goes with it. When I was at ‘Outdoor World’ I bought some stuff. I was first looking at all the assorted guns, there was quite a selection. I thought it best not to buy a gun. I have only had a pellet gun; not sure how safe I would be with one. Even if I wanted a gun, I need a Firearm Permit, a 3-day waiting period before I can take it, and some other registration things that I didn’t bother looking at because I decided to move on.

What I did buy, was a type of bulletproof hunting vest. Not an orange one, but Dark camouflage with the matching outfit. There was a ghillie suit, I wasn’t going to buy it, but I went back for it and did. Found a couple of badass compound crossbows. I didn’t buy the most expensive one, it was the third most. I paid extra to have the store set it up for me, while I waited. This model had Assassin in its name. It could shoot a variety of darts, bolts, and other things I wasn’t sure of. It had a scope, laser sighting, and more. The crossbow limbs are swept back and tight to the stock. Having a compound set up with cams, it looked to me more like an assault rifle than a crossbow. The manager set it up at 390lb pull. Laughing, he said that was more than enough considering you only need 35-40lb to hunt deer.

“And don’t worry about which bolts you get either. You won’t find them or they’ll be useless if you do” he says, handing me a few packs of different crossbow bolts. These will snap onto the sides of the crossbow, for ease of carrying.

While I was waiting for the crossbow, I found some machete’s called Tree Swords. Expandable friction lock baton’s, hunting knives with guards like brass knuckles. I bought two of each, along with all the sheaths, straps, and guards for them. Black football cleated shoes (Thought I could run better than with the army boots). Safety gloves that you couldn’t cut through, but also had guards on the back side of the hands and fingers. Binoculars with night vision, Compass, never fail lighters, High powered LED security flashlight, laser pointers that you could light matches with. Rope. And a black full-face motorcycle helmet from a cycle dealer on the way home.

Yes, my sons are having a field day as dad gets ready for bed.

Hand cuffing myself to the bed after outfitting myself for ‘travel’, I’m wishing I would have made the kids leave first. The laser pointers come with special goggles, which I am glad we are all wearing because my youngest has discovered that he can burn/write on the walls with them if he goes slow. Yes, we are all having a good time at dads’ expense. “I am in so much trouble when mom sees”. I’m hoping paint will cover it. Great, now the oldest is trying to burn his old green army men. I toss the key over onto the dresser, only for it to fall short onto the floor.