Mixing with the crowd and doing my utmost best not to look back, I unknowingly remembered the words thrown my way by the pretty lady. I shuddered once I considered a certain possibility and trembled even more when I realized that I had only one way to confirm if it was the case or not.

And certainly, not long after I prepared my heart for what was to come, I could hear it clearly:

[Help me! Somebody help me please me....NO!!! Stay away!!!]

A gasp involuntarily escaped my lips as I just confirmed two possibilities: one, I was still asleep and this is a reoccurring dream from which I wasn’t able to wake up just yet, or two, this was reality.

The truth was that, irrelevant of which one of the two was the case, I am in a horribly shitty situation. Therefore, I decided to do the one thing that I could think of: RUN!

“I’ll be damned before I enter that shitty alley! Who’s stupid enough to fall for the same trick twice. Damnit! I’m not into that sort of ‘play’, nor do I get pleasure from pain! Who the fuck would, with a dagger through his/her heart!?”

Running while swearing, I turned right and left a couple of times, but there weren’t any people to be found. This sort of situation gave rise to a feeling of fright, while my heart began racing.

“Don’t tell me… Fuck! How come is this place!?”

To my utter disbelief, the place I was in was an alley. A simple alley hidden between concrete behemoths, barely receiving some light from a faraway lamp post and the moon in the sky. As soon as I wanted to run, my feet were once more chained to the ground and the feeling of fright creeped its way through my innards, while the sound of footsteps were coming from behind me.

The all-too-familiar scene was about to be replayed!

[I finally found you!]

“I honestly wish you wouldn’t have…”

Unable to escape, unable to wake up, unable to think clearly… I began to panic. After all, if this was still a dream, it meant that I have no way of waking up from it, therefore forced to relive it again and again. On the other hand, if it was real, I was even more fucked, as I would literally die. Under such stupid conditions, what the hell could I even do?

“Think! Think! There must be something… I must be missing something…”

[Look! The hourglass is almost empty...you nearly got away this time to! You know how hard it is for me to track you every time you have been reborn, just to find out that you have died again? Really now! What is with you and the death while young? You have to talk with Luci about this; there is something really wrong with you!]

Hearing her words, I couldn’t help but perk my ears and try to take in every little detail, hoping I would grab hold of a lead. There had to be something I could use!

“Hourglass and dagger… the same ritual through which I die. Based on the dialogue with her from last night… or rather, last dream, that dagger is used to kill me and wake up someone else in my stead. Also, the point where she refers to me ‘dying’ in the previous attempts to find ‘me’… she probably isn’t even referring to the current me, but rather, to the person she is trying to somehow bring back to life. And then there’s Luci. He seems like a key character and he should hold some sort of importance… He also sounds familiar for some reason, like a story I heard before a long time ago and I am troubled in remembering the fine details of…”

Realizing the lack of information, I could only grit my teeth and dive deeper inside this madness.

“Who is Luci to you? And why do you know his name?”

A random question to which I was 99% sure I won’t get an answer. These lines were scripted, but there was a certain amount of freedom based on something. I had to grab a firm hold of that something and find the way to unravel this stupidly psychotic dream.

Seeing her startled face, I realized that I must’ve hit a jackpot.

[What are you talking about silly? He’s my brother and your friend, of course…]

Unexpectedly, there was an answer. Not only that, but now I have more details about this mystery person than before: she is the daughter of Luci, who also happens to be a friend of mine. Well… not mine, mine, but probably this guy whom she was trying to sacrifice me for.

[Oh! I almost forget about this...]

As the knife was unveiled and the explanation started, I realized that once more I returned to the regular pattern. The deviation didn’t last long enough to find a solution, or find out more information. I could only improvise and try to stall for more time.

“Your name?”

[Eh? My name? Don’t tell me you forgot it…]

“Unfortunately…”

[I cannot believe that you actually dared forget my name! It’s not enough that you did such a cruel thing to begin with, making me forget you, but you actually dared forget about me as well!? It’s LAURA! Laura! I can’t believe how much of an asshole you are!!!]

“…”

Staring speechless at the absolute beauty with flaming red head that was stomping on my feet with her boots in anger, I couldn’t help but gape. Laura!? I heard it before, didn’t I? This name of hers was too familiar.

“They say that it’s almost impossible to control your thoughts and memories in a dream, so that’s why I might have this problem. But I am certain that just recently I heard that name from someone… Who was it!?”

However, my time came to an end as the beauty grudgingly shattered the hourglass against the road under our feet and stabbed the dagger in my chest, under my wide-opened and surprised eyes. I didn’t even had time to feel the pain, as my vision blurred and fell into unconsciousness, while hearing her lingering words…

[Hmpf! That’s payback! Also, you are going to pay for the meals in the next thousands of years.]

Opening my eyes once more, greeted by the incredibly hot rays of sunlight from outside, I once again found myself in the same bed as always. Turning my head to the side, I found Vic sipping from his coffee mug.

[‘Morning!](Vic)

“Oh, fuck!”

I inwardly screamed as loud as I could, given that it was already the third time I was reliving this shitty dream. At least… now I might’ve found a way to break out of this loop!

“Note to self: do your best and don’t piss off the red-haired beauty! Or the one in the park since she seems to be the stalkerish type…”

Laying on my back in the bed and facing the poorly painted ceiling, I sighed in defeat. I wasn’t sure of how many times I could go through this without completely losing my shit, but there was time for some slight… experiments!