Dream Sequence

It seems to many that hell would be a place where you would have to stay awake through all torture. It would be a forever sleepless night, in the never ending world of chaos and doom. It was Satan's prerogative to let these maggots to go to sleep, only to be brought to their knees even in their own dreamworld. It was another myth that souls didn't need sleep, that they could be in an eternal movie of epic proportions. In his hell, in their purgatory, in heaven, on earth, every soul would need sleep or start to fade, to fall into darkness, never to be seen again. It was a way to disappear.

Johann hadn't slept for a few nights because of how his dreams haunted him. Also his bed, was really, really lumpy. He didn't like his pillow either. It smelled like goat. Some would argue goats are the Devil's creatures or his way to enter the world. The ultimate evil. He was getting incredibly tired, and he started to notice something strange about his own appearance.

"What's going on with my face?" He asked Bladford, who was standing at his door, the usual routine, as his bodyguard, really more of Satan's watchdog. Bladford stared. He noticed Johann's face was somewhat missing in the cheek area. Like if you looked at it, or shined a light in it, it would go through.

"That's what happens when you don't sleep. You fade. Piece by piece, you turn invisible, and eventually, no one sees you again." Horrified, Johann ran back in his bedroom and shut the door. It had sounded familiar but he couldn't put a finger on why, his amnesia still in full affect. He guessed he had to finally go to bed, even there, he could get sleep, he was exhausted. He wasn't excited about the world in his dreams, but disappearing completely was a terror he was not ready for.

_______

Johann dreamed.

He saw a girl, young, ragged, but beautiful. A youthful maid, walking a long in a Victorian styled house. She was somewhat dirty on her face, probably not able to use soap very often, but her eyes popped. They were of emerald color. Her pale brown freckles littered over her nose and cheeks brought out her eyes. Her deep brunette, curly, hair was cute, even if it was messy. He wanted to touch her.

Johann tried to pet the girl on her hair, in his dream, but she slapped him lightly on his wrist.

"Jim, my hair's all messy, you'll get your hand stuck!" She looked to the side, not looking him in the eyes at all. He laughed.

"Well, who told you could slap me?" Johann heard Jim say (which is him at this point but he wasn't able to always control what was going on). Sydney stared off at the wall.

"Sorry." She said. Jim smooched her. She tried to resist by almost shoving him off, putting her hand on his chest and slightly putting force, but, eventually, let him get in there. After a minute, she pulled away. She wagged her finger.

"Not too much today Jimmy." She winked. She laughed, merrily and walked down the hallway, and turned a corner, disappearing from sight. He walked after her, and couldn't find her. That's when Johann woke up.

The girl had reminded her of another he had seen in a memory, where he had given a lady a ring. The lady named Tari. She was pretty like the maid. She had been wearing a wedding dress.

For once, the dream wasn't a nightmare, but it really had him wondering, who was this beautiful, dirty maid, and why didn't he have control over himself, and who was this 'Jim?' Why were they in such a beautiful Victorian house? Where was it?

Johann rolled over on his uneven, smelly bed, and found notebook and pen, and started to jot down what he could remember about her and Jim. He didn't want to lose this information as he couldn't remember anything, and he thought it possible that dreams were a gateway into his own shattered memory. He wrote that the girl might have a connection to Tari, to the one he knew he loved in his past life.

Sydney Bell's perspective:

Jim had been acting as expected, but for some reason he had petted her hair as if she were a cat or a bunny. She knew her hair was messy, but was it that bad? That one little part seemed very out of character for Jim, he hadn't treated her as more than a play thing before. She had slapped him, and he didn't do much back. He did kiss her deeply though, but that was expected of him, being a sexually motivated man or as she thought of him, boy. She hoped she was getting through. She thought that her running away had been a good stimulation for him, and that this was playing 'hard to get,' but maybe it wasn't enough yet, because the next day, Jim ignored her completely.

Sydney had been looking for Jim secretly the entirety of the day, unfortunately, he must of been somewhere else. She cleaned his linens and ironed his black vest, his white and straight long sleeved shirt, and black slacks. Eventually, she came upon Margaret who was talking to the eldest daughter; Marie. They were in the upstairs hallway where Sydney came across Jim the previous day. They were kind of giggling and whispering. Marie stopped talking when she saw Sydney walking out of the hallway nearby. Marie was tall and lanky like her father, nothing really distinguished her besides her cold blue eyes. She had very light thin blond hair tied up nicely in a violet bow, and was wearing a purple gown (which in these days consisted of a sloped shouldered dress and a very frilly bell shaped bottom) with a tight corset underneath. Sydney wasn't sure why the lady needed a corset, she was skinny enough as is. It was probably to make her small breasts stand out, literally.

"Hey Margaret, Marie, have you seen Jim today?" Marie giggled, putting her hand over her mouth. Margaret scrunched her nose and her dirt water brown eyes. As if she had something to say, but wouldn't because Marie was right there.

"He did not tell you?" Marie giggled again.

"Why would he, I'm a maid. He doesn't need to tell me anything." Sydney stared down at the floor at Marie's black rose slippers.

"Shouldn't he tell a girl he kissed?" Marie cackled.

"How do you know that?" Sydney questioned, puzzled.

"I was watching from my room. I was just curious as to what you two were doing."

"Oh. Well, where did he go then?"

"I'm certain you'd like to know."

"Yes..." Sydney shifted her gaze again to Marie's hair, looking at everywhere but her face and eyes. Marie was pretty intimidating.

"He went on a trip with father. To whales, under the prince's invitation."

"That's an honor." Sydney hadn't realized how close her masters were to royalty until just then.

"Well father is a very well known businessman, and the prince thought he could help him with his company." Marie smiled proudly.

"Why'd Jim go too?"

"So that father could show him the ropes. Get him in with the royalty." Sydney was thinking just then that maybe Jim might be unattainable. There was no use giving up just yet though. She would make him bow down to her feet. She would make these stuck up nobles pay for what they have done to every single one of her kindred spirits.

"Well that's that then. How long will they be gone?"

"A couple of weeks, so for now, focus on cleaning the ladies' quarters with Margaret after you've finished for the day."

"Right, Miss. Thank you then." Sydney bowed. "I'll get back to work." She made her way downstairs to take the sheets and blankets outside to dry.

Sydney wondered what Margaret was talking about before Marie. She hoped it wasn't something nasty about her, but she had a sense they were talking about the long smooch her and Jim had. She was not going to let such a smooch get in the way of her plan.

Sydney's Dream:

After a long day of hard work, Sydney basically crashed into her bed. It usually took her twenty minutes to fall asleep due to her bed being misshaped and lopsided. It was not 'just right' like Goldilocks's baby bed. It was to hard to sleep on. It seemed to be father bear's bed but worse. Sydney normally would of not had a dream. She had thought dreams were not hers to have, in life or after dark. She never had expected to have a dream nearly as vivid as this one.

Speaking in another language, she could somehow understand, words were coming out of her mouth as she spoke to a statue in a tomb. "Amen." She was standing right by a Pharaoh of sorts and children wearing dark eyeliner and gold clothing. She was beating two percussive instruments, called Sistrum. The tan skinned Pharaoh with a chiseled jaw and long black straight hair spoke. "The god of the earth, the wind, he who predicts, take this man, Nebwenenef as your high priest. He has served me greatly, and had worshiped you all of his life. He was a beacon of life and a man who gave his heart and soul to his cause." The Pharaoh bowed. Almost immediately after his children, and his wives bowed. Whoever Sydney's perspective was, bowed along with them.

"Nefetari do the honors of a closing, my beautiful wife." The Pharaoh was looking right at her. She was Nefetari, a royal queen of Egypt. Nefetari shook the two Sistrum in a pattern that signified closure. She bowed again to the statue of Amun. A bright golden statue of a man, shirtless with a cane and a gigantic hat. Sydney felt an understanding that Nefetari was very proud to be part of the ceremony. She felt the love Nefetari had towards Amun.

Sydney woke up after the very vivid dream, deciding she was ready to learn to read to eventually figure out who this Pharaoh was or who Nefetari was.