The first thing I noticed were his eyes - a vibrant, mesmerizing shade of emerald green, the kind that catches the light and made my whole body spark out of the light. Everything about him, the lean, fit body under a simple shirt, the mature height that made me crane my neck even in my sleep, and the perfect symmetry of his handsome face was just awesome. He was utterly gorgeously flawless. My teenage hormones bursting out with just his appearance, and I was in love with this world.
I floated myself in that perfect fantasy for what felt like hours, just soaking up in his presence. We didn't talk much; we didn't need to. We were walking through an impossibly bright garden and the air smelled like rain and jasmine, but then when I looked closer, the perfection started to fray. It began with the light. He casts no shadow, even though the dream-sun was blazing overhead.
I tried to reach out and take his hand, but before my fingers could brush his, I saw it: a faint, almost invisible shimmer, like heat rising off asphalt, distorting the surrounding air.
A cold, heavy knot formed in my stomach. The beautiful garden suddenly felt like a stage set. I lifted my gaze to his eyes, the stunning green eyes. They weren't just deep; they were vacant. Like looking into two perfectly polished, hollow gems. There was no flicker of thought, no spark of life - just a reflection of my own fear staring back at me.
An urgent, frantic need to get out gripped me. This wasn't a wonderful dream anymore; it was a beautiful, elaborate trap. I turned to run, but a whisper, thin as ice and not from his lips, seemed to scrape against my mind: You can't leave me.
I sat upright in my bed, heart hammering against my ribs, tangled in my sweat-damp sheets. The morning sun was streaming through my bedroom window, ordinary and comforting. But the image of those beautiful empty green eyes was burned behind my eyelids and an unsettling certainty pulsed through me: the mystery I stumbled upon in the dream wasn't contained by sleep. It had followed me awake.