Josh did not attend his classes that next day. He rationalized that he was paying for them and he could afford to pay not to go to them if he really couldn’t handle doing so. Instead of rest at home, however—as sleeping repulsed him to the point of nausea—Josh spent the time trying to draw what he had seen. Unlike before, when he had seen the marks on Sara and Connor and Margot, he remembered vividly what the ones he had seen in his dream looked like.

He recalled the spirals that had appeared on his own arm with perfect clarity. And, likewise, he recalled the mark on the other arm just as clearly too, though he wished he couldn’t. Even the crude drawings he had produced of that other mark made him anxious to look at, which he realized was an indication of their accuracy. They were accurate enough to trigger the memories of seeing it.

Unlike other dreams Josh had experienced, the memories of walking through the city, falling through the void, and then being pulled out of his bubble all stayed with him as clearly as if they had actually happened. If he stayed still too long thinking about what he had seen he could feel himself shaking from the force of his own heartbeat.

Not long after Josh had woken up in the middle of the night, Kerry had come over and knocked on Josh’s door.

“Are you doing all right in there?” He had asked. He had even jiggled the handle to check if the door was locked in case he needed to come in to offer some kind of emergency assistance.”

Josh had responded weakly, but with enough force to be convincing that, “I’m okay. Just… a horrible dream and… I actually don’t feel that great. I might be sick.”

Kerry had left at that. Offer to buy some soup, but left. He was good about not prying when things seemed private. And Josh considered his dream incredibly private. For hours as he sat and tried to recreate what he had seen he battled in his head as to whether he should tell someone. Maybe Margot, maybe Sara… maybe even Connor. Connor seemed the sort of guy who would be level headed and honest. Not too invested but helpful. But Josh didn’t feel like he knew Connor well enough to trust him with the sort of experience he had just endured. Similarly, telling Margot felt like it might have some sort of repercussions. Perhaps she’d refuse to tell him more, or perhaps the other way around. Maybe knowing he had had a dream like that would make her more absolute, perhaps she would force a mark on Josh whether he liked it or not. Sara seemed the only person he could imagine sharing his experience with, though he couldn’t exactly understand why he trusted her that much. Perhaps it was because she never seemed to have any expectations, she was always just happy to be involved.

So, while it went against his better judgement, Josh turned on his phone and texted Sara.

“Hey, do you have a moment to talk? Or just text?”

Her response was nearly immediate. “Yeah. What’s up?”

Josh felt incredibly stupid typing out his message but now that he had started talking he felt the need to tell her what had happened. It was, strangely, comforting. “I had this dream. And I feel like it actually meant more than just a dream. Is that. Does that happen?”

“Hold on. I want to ask my mom something. I promise I won’t tell her anything about you.”

Josh was filled with dread at the prospect of Sara telling Margot about the dream, or even that he had had a dream and it might mean something related to what they were. And the time between Sara’s text and her next one felt like ages, but it was really probably just a few minutes.

“I remember my mom telling me that she’d had strange dreams when she’d gotten her mark. I don’t want to share too much in case she gets mad at me. But maybe you could tell me about what happened and I could let you know if you should be worried?”

“That’s. It’s long. Okay.” Josh was fumbling, still thinking about how he could retract his request to have a listening ear. But he was already this far, and that was enough to keep him going. “Maybe I should type it and send you an email?”

“Okay. That works. My email is -----------------.”

Josh spent the next half hour agonizing over the details of what he’d seen and how it felt. He even considered scanning or taking a picture of what he’d drawn, but something felt wrong about that. Like it was too personal and having a copy on his phone where it could be detected by apps and other software felt invasive. When he had written it all out, it seemed even sillier than it had when it was mostly just in his head. Josh almost didn’t send it to Sara, the thought of what if this is too personal and she gets weirded out, or what if she thinks this is stupid nearly paralyzed him. Never before had he cared so much about what someone he knew so little thought of him.

“I sent it. Let me know when you get it.” the thought that maybe he’d put in her email address wrong terrified Josh. And while he had checked and double checked it, and it was exactly the same as the one she’d sent, it was still nerve wracking. If it went to someone else he didn’t know what he’d do.

After an agonized few minutes, Sara responded with “Got it. Give me a minute this is long.”

“Holy… Josh. You need to tell Margot about this.”