*BEEP, BEEP, BEEP

Dean shot up in his bed in a cold sweat to the sound of his alarm blaring. He rubbed his eyes and turned off his alarm. ‘What a dream that was,’ Dean thought as he got out of bed. Dean grabbed his uniform and took a shower.

Dean Ashford was 17 years old and lonely, well mostly anyway. He lived in an apartment by himself, especially after his parents died. He had short black hair that fell just past his eyes that were a deep blue color. He was 6 foot but didn’t have the body. He was fairly skinny and spent most of his time hanging out with his friends or staying at home, reading.

The only spectacular thing about Dean was his photographic memory. He was able to remember millions of things by just looking at them. His memory didn’t make him a robot in any way. Sure he was able to do math problems with ease, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have feelings. He had things that he enjoyed, like reading.

He read books about various things like crafting things and learning about blacksmithing. Dean picked up lots of hobbies and tried many things.

When Dean got out of the shower, he put on his school uniform and walked out of his apartment. He was greeted with the fresh spring air and the wind blowing in his face. It was a pleasant feeling. He walked down the stairs and out of the complex.

On his way to school, Dean’s thoughts were interrupted by one of his friends, Silvia. She had platinum blonde hair and was around 5’ 5” with her sky blue eyes shining in the sunlight. She was from a well off family, but never flaunted her status. “Hey, Dean wait for me!” Dean stopped walking and waited for Silvia to catch up. “Hey Silvia, how’s it going?” Dean waved his hand.

“I’ve been doing great, I feel really confident in the test in Algebra today.”

Dean was shocked, “There’s a test today?”

“How could you forget, I thought you had a great memory.”

Dean laughed, “I was kidding, of course, I know.” The duo arrived at the school and went their separate ways. The first class Dean had to go to was History. He arrived and sat in his seat. After a couple of minutes, Dean’s other friend, Gavin, walked into the classroom. He was quite the opposite of Silvia. His hair was pitch-black, like a void, and it covered his hazel colored eyes.

“Hey Dean, how’s it going?” Gavin asked as he sat next to Dean.

“Just ready to leave.”

“What do you mean, we just got here.”

“Alright, class!” The class’ conversations were interrupted by the teacher walking in, “Let’s learn some history.” Dean absorbed the lesson as if he was a sponge, that was until his head started to hurt. His mind flashed with images of a girl running through a flower field with her silky black hair flowing in the wind. The girl turned around, but Dean couldn’t see her face, he could only see her smile. Her lips moved as if she was trying to talk but nothing came out, or Dean couldn’t hear it.

“Hey, are you good man?” Dean was broken out of his trace by Gavin, “You’re crying, man.”

Dean looked down and saw that his notebook was wet. He wiped his face in his arm, “Yeah I’m good.”

Dean spent the rest of the day until lunch trying to figure out what he saw in his head. While he was trying to remember, Dean tried to draw what the girl looked like but was fuzzy on her face. He remembered every part of her body except the face. ‘She was around 5’ 10” and had black hair down to the middle of her back,’ Dean thought, ‘Why can’t I remember her face?’

While Dean was racking his brain, Gavin walked up to Dean and set his lunch tray in front of him. “What are you thinking so hard about?” Gavin asked.

“Nothing.”

“It doesn’t seem like nothing,” Gavin looked down and saw Dean’s drawing, “I didn’t know you were into drawing, but either way, it’s pretty good.”

“I was just drawing something I saw, nothing special.”

“By the way Dean, I think you forgot to draw the face.” Dean looked back down at the drawing and couldn’t put a face on the girl. He tried putting what he thought her face would be and it all looked unusually unnatural. When Dean went to get on the train back home, he thought he saw the same girl whenever the train passed, but she would be gone before he could get a good look at her face.

Dean arrived at his apartment and immediately went to his computer. He tried to look up the girl but to no avail. He sat down on his bed and looked at the clock, it was 8:13 pm. Dean decided to work on his homework and go to bed. As soon as Dean’s head was on the pillow, he passed out.

Dean’s eyes opened up to a weird scene. It was a girl with short white hair and wings kneeling down to an unknown figure; her face was blurred out as well. He couldn’t hear what the girl was saying, but she looked really angry. Eventually, the girl got up and stormed out of the room.

Dean’s vision cut to black and came back to another scene. This time it was the girl fighting another person with wings. She was eventually bested and she fell downward. As the girl fell down, her hair started to turn into a silky black while her wings faded away. The girl turned to look at Dean, face still blurred, and spoke three words, “Help me, Dean.”

Dean shot up in his bed, breathing heavily. He looked at his clock and it was 6:59 am, just before his alarm went off.

*BEEP, BEEP, BEEP

Dean turned off his alarm and took a shower. While he was in the shower, Dean thought about his dream. ‘What the hell was that? The dream was so surreal. That girl even said my name.’ Dean kept thinking to himself as the warm water ran down his back and over his head.

After what felt like hours, Dean got out of the shower and went on his way to school. This time, Dean walked to school alone. He dodged Silvia and Gavin as he went to his classes. The only time he couldn’t dodge them was on his way home. “Hey Dean,” Silvia yelled, “Where were you all day. Gavin and I have been looking for you.”

“Sorry, I'm just not feeling very well.”

“Well, whenever something is going on just tell us,” Gavin said, reassuringly. As Gavin went to grab Dean’s shoulder, a blue light surrounded the three and blinded them. Dean opened his eyes and saw he was no longer in the middle of the street, He was now in a forest. He saw Silvia and Gavin standing in front of him like they were and a bunch of people, just as confused as Dean.