Hector’s eyes stared at the ceiling as his alarm blared in the background. Was it real? Does Volithur really exist? The revelation that the entire world experienced the hyper-realistic dreams would have been a severe enough shock, but then he had heard the Jinn mentioned. Volithur had been told to keep quiet about training to be an electronics technician because the Jinn used electronics, then Randy had mentioned he was a Jinn in his dreams, where his dream-dad was building circuits to upload his consciousness to.


    News articles advanced every crazy theory imaginable to explain the situation, but no one knew anything. Were these dreams some kind of collective unconscious phenomenon? Did people start recollecting the lives of individuals from other universes? Was reality actually a simulation and the latest code release had exposed a weird bug?


    Hector got out of bed, stretched his back, and went about his morning routine. Friday was his alternate day of weight lifting, which he usually looked forward to. Today it took a little more effort to stay focused, though. Dumbbell butterflies, Romanian dead lifts, single-arm dumbbell rows, cable triceps extensions, and overhead presses. Not as fun as it usually was, seeing his mind remained preoccupied.


    Because one strange little idea kept popping up in his head. Why didn’t he try the cultivation exercises Volithur had been doing? The fact that humans throughout the whole planet were having these dreams meant there had to be something to them. Why not test out the method of using magic that had been taught to him?


    Hector ground his teeth as he showered, changed, and drove to the hospital. He wasn’t going to play act at casting magic spells like a kid with an overactive imagination. He was a fifty-two year old man with a professional career who had serious issues facing him. Retreating into fantasies might be a valid coping mechanism for some people, but that wasn’t him. He would deal with life head on.


    I can’t believe Volithur is just going to let the Lord General Asshole get away with the death of his parents, he thought before pushing all thoughts of dream worlds out of his head.


    His father was awake and picking at a cupcake as he entered the room.


    “Dad, you’re eating again?”


    “Hey, Hector. Got to keep my strength up.”


    Warmth suffused Hector. “That’s great. How are you feeling today?”


    “Still breathing, if just barely.”


    “Is the cupcake any good?”


    His dad waved a hand dismissively. “My taste buds are broke. Everything tastes wrong.”


    “I could try to get you something else if you like.”


    “It’s all the same to me.”


    “Still, we might be able to find something for you to enjoy.”


    “I enjoy plenty, my boy. Plenty.” His dad smirked in such a dirty way that Hector’s mind made a series of instantaneous connections.


    “You’ve been having fun in your dreams.”


    “Oh, yes, I have.”


    Hector nodded. “That’s great, dad. Why don’t you tell me about it?”


    “I’m a young man in them. Deronto Yervol. Adopted into something called an Alfar tribe. Remember those Lord of the Rings movies? They’re a little like the elves. No pointy ears or anything. Just really like living in harmony with nature. I spend all day climbing trees, gathering fruits and nuts, and hunting animals with my bare hands. Then I spend all night making love to a beautiful young woman. I have three more days to prove I can harness life energy if I want to stay with them. I can’t let myself die before I know what happens to Deronto.”Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.


    He filed away the details for later analysis. “What was Deronto before he became one of these Alfar?”


    “He’s not an Alfar yet. Just a regular human like us. On the run from a coven of Strigoi that slaughtered his village.”


    “Strigoi?”


    “Vampires,” his father clarified. “That was the first dream, running from Strigoi. Lina saved me. Tackled me into a river when she saw what was going down. Took me back to her village and they gave me seven days to change into one of them.”


    Hector clenched his hands together in his lap. “Would you care to hear about my dreams?”


    “I showed you mine, now you show me yours,” his dad wheezed.


    “My parents were murdered in front of me by magic soldiers, then--”


    “Hector, that isn’t the kind of dream to dwell on.”


    “Dad, please just listen.”


    “Go on, then.”


    Hector took a breath. “After the bad stuff happened, I was taken with the other kids to a central location to be processed. A nobleman made me into his ward.”


    “A rich man adopted you?”


    “Not an adoption as such, no. I… well, Volilthur, which is my name there, was more of a servant in the nobleman’s fifth household. I doubt I will ever see him again. But they are teaching me to absorb cosmic energy to become something called a Xian--”


    His dad choked on a piece of cupcake, hacking and spluttering. As Hector fussed over him, his dad pushed away the glass of water, napkin, and hands. Finally, Terry Thoreaux got enough of his breath back to speak. “You said your dream-you was a god damn Xian?”


    “Becoming a Xian after they attacked his world and abducted him,” Hector corrected.


    “How is that possible? The Xian are in my dream. They are a major power. Them and the Arahant and the Jinn are always at war. They go to war and the rest of us suffer for it. But how are you dreaming the same world as me?”


    “Everyone on Earth is having dreams, dad. They started two days ago.”


    Something faded in Terry’s eyes. “Everyone? I thought it was just me.”


    Hector’s heart clenched. “Sorry, I didn’t meant to… but don’t you see, these dreams might be real. Your Deronto and that Lina might be real.”


    “Might be real,” Terry repeated. “Don’t matter how it is. I want to know what happens next. Hector, I think I am in love with Lina. On the edge of eighty, glued to my death bed, and I fell in love with a character from a dream. It’s so real. I can’t separate what I feel from what I remember Deronto feeling. And none of that matters. I have been sliding into the jaws of death for so long, struggling just hard enough to not feel like a quitter, and now I desperately want more days so I can live in that other world.”


    Hector placed his hand over his father’s. “I understand. Volithur has had nothing but hard times since I started dreaming him, but I am still desperate to see what is next. Your guy is actually having a good time.”


    His dad snorted a laugh. “If all that’s real, maybe I should smear myself in mud and do the wild heart dance under the light of a full moon. I might unlock a life affinity.”


    “Only if I can record video,” Hector said.


    “We’d better not, then. I don’t want everyone to know the banana thing is a lie.”


    “I’m glad you enjoy the dreams, dad.”


    “It sure has given me something to look forward to.”


    Hector glanced at the clock. “I’ve got to get to work. Enjoy spending time with Lina.”


    “Do you still work a double shift every day?”


    “Someone has to keep the warehouse humming along.”


    “And no overtime for all that?”


    “I’m a director of the company, dad. The annual bonus I get is more than one of my guys makes in overtime for a whole year.”


    “More than they’d get if they worked eighty hours every week?”


    Hector chose not to answer that. “Sweet dreams, dad.”