"...?"
I slowly opened my eyes, the sunlight streaming directly into them.
My hand grasped a blade of grass nearby, feeling incredibly real.
I sat up, carefully observing everything in front of me.
"...what the heck is this?"
I was standing in an endless field of sunflowers.
If this was the way that so-called Leader was trying to brainwash me... well, they did a pretty good job. It looks peaceful as heck.
That is, IF the sunflowers DIDN'T HAVE FACES.
"..." I got a bit creeped out when I saw that every sunflower had lips and eyes, constantly muttering in strange languages and staring at me.
"...now that I notice, the sky is purple-pink, and the sun looks like it was drawn by a kid."
What's this called again? Dreamcore, right? Super uncanny.
I stepped forward, the sunflowers still tracking my every move.
Each sunflower's face had a different expression—happy, sad, angry, ecstatic...
Wait, ecstatic?
I looked closely at the one sunflower with an ecstatic face.
"What the heck? Ahegao??"
Okay, calm down, this dream is getting way too wild...
So, I yanked the sunflower with the ahegao face right out.
It vanished and turned into a normal sunflower.
"Oh..."
So, I kept walking.
Until my foot touched water.
"?!"
I fell into the water, then spun around.
Clinging to the ground, I climbed up and looked around.
"...what now?"
This time, it was houses—pretty normal, except most of them were upside down.
Oh, and my vision too.
How do I explain it? It's like my head was upside down like the houses. The sky was under my feet, and the ground was above my head.
So confusing.
I walked forward, opened the door of one house, and right in front of me was a glitching TV.
I changed the channel, and the TV showed a pair of eyes staring at me, surrounded by spinning circles.
"...?"
I turned off the TV and walked outside.
This time, my vision wasn't upside down anymore. I looked back, and the house had vanished.
Looking ahead, I saw TVs surrounded by flowers, along with a very strange deer.
Strange how? It looked like it was stitched together or something.
It was eating grass, but the grass didn't seem to get any shorter.
Suddenly, one of the TVs turned on, showing a glitchy screen before melting out of the frame.
Then, I realized my own body was glitching like the TV.
"..."
In an instant, I was back in my bedroom, gazing at a starry sky.
The stars were Hello Kitty and other cute animals sitting on them, watching me.
Then I sat up, went to a chair, and grabbed some Lego cereal to eat.
"Soft as charcoal."
Huh? What did I just say?
I put the spoon down, staring at the bowl of Lego cereal in front of me.
Balloons floated into the sky, making me count each one.
When I finished counting, the sky turned into a blue screen of death, and a blindingly bright angel appeared, so radiant I couldn't see clearly.
I opened a door, and in front of me was a black-and-white hallway lined with many doors.
As I walked, each door opened to reveal eyes staring at me.
After a while, I found a rotary phone and picked it up to listen.
"*e***t"
"Who's this?"
"F*****r**k*"
The phone started glitching, so I put it down.
A nearby mirror let me see my reflection, and I noticed my eyes were covered by a black rectangle.
I pushed the mirror aside, revealing another door.
Opening it, I saw a spiral staircase designed like a piano.
As I walked down, each step played a musical note.
Floating smiley masks cheerfully followed me.
After a while, I found another door and opened it.
I was back in that house.
But... something felt familiar?
I walked to the bedroom, where there was a hospital bed and a chair. I chose to sit on the chair.
Then, the entire house started spinning, flying through a starry universe.
I don't know how long it flew, but I kept waiting. I don't know why.
The sound of a heart monitor kept beeping, even though no one was on the hospital bed.
After waiting for a bit, I saw a strange creature.
A rabbit.
It hopped over, touched my leg, then jumped onto the hospital bed.
In no time, the house stopped, as if it had landed.
I stood up and looked at the white rabbit.
It was dead.
The heart monitor stopped beeping.
I covered the rabbit with a blanket and opened the door.
"...wow."
The scene before me... it was like paradise.
Lush green fields, flowing streams, flowers everywhere.
Some deer were circling someone in the distance, sparking my curiosity.
I walked toward them, gently, slowly.
And then I stopped.
The deer saw me and ran off, revealing a girl whose face I couldn't see.
She was picking flowers and putting them in her bag, but when she saw me, she accidentally dropped it.
"...who are you?"
She didn't answer, just picked up her bag and walked closer to me.
She was wearing a maid outfit, but smaller, with white and pale blue as the main colors, and black striped stockings.
...so familiar, but I couldn't place it.
"You're here too early. I haven't prepared anything yet."
"Huh? Sorry?"
"It's okay. It's nice to see you again anyway."
"...is it?"
She came closer, took the flowers she'd picked, and made a flower crown.
"Pretty, right?"
"Beautiful."
"Thank you."
Then she placed it on my head.
"It's not time for you to be here yet, so take this flower crown as a reward for coming too early, okay?"
I looked at the sunlight shining behind her, making her presence more radiant than ever.
"I'll wait for you here when you've figured everything out, so please go back."
Right after that, the house sucked me back inside.
"Wait—hold on! I didn't get your name!"
"My name? But..."
"Any name is fine! I want to know before I leave this dream!" I clung to the doorframe, about to be pulled back.
"...Peter, my name is Alice."
I looked at her. Even though I couldn't see her face, I could feel her smiling.
"The next time we meet will also be the last, Peter."
She waved goodbye as I was completely pulled back into the house, and the door slammed shut.
Right after, I was lying in bed, overwhelmed by sleepiness.
I closed my eyes.