Dream On. Chapter 30: Insomnia.

Previously...

Insomnia

Albert woke up on his bedroom floor, with a terrible headache and his pants soiled. He felt dirty, both inside and outside and he went to take a shower. Under the water he recapitulated all of his dream, it had been a demonstration of what Marla could do. It had been terrible to see that he had no control of his body, but he hadn't quite grasped what it actually meant during the dream. If she could make him make love to her, who knew what else could she do? What if she made him kill himself? He scrubbed himself until he felt that he was clean from the outside.

The inside was another matter. He felt violated and yet no one would understand how a dream had affected him in such a manner. He told Robert, but he just joked at how he had accomplished, at least in dreams, what all the guys at the university wanted to do. He couldn't tell anyone else, for sure not to Myriam, and his grandmother was missing in action again and she wouldn't pick up the phone even if it was important. On top of all that, he was now too afraid to sleep, he tried to focus on other things before sleeping, as Lara had told him, but every time he closed his eyes he felt the same impotence that he had felt during the dream.

He started drinking coffee 5 times a day, making sure he only slept when Marla was awake and taking into account that they shared most of the class schedule, that was little enough. He also tried to exercise more his mind, focusing more on what Lara told him. After some weeks he could maintain the focus all over the dream, even if he was only focusing on something as simple as a rock. One day, after one month and a half of sleeping only for short and fractionated periods of time, he fell asleep at class. Then he decided he couldn't take it anymore and that he did need a full night of sleep. Additionally, everyone was telling him that he was going mental, and the truth was that he was much more irritable than ever and he started avoiding all his friends just not to hear them tell him that he looked miserable.

He went to his room after having lunch and realized that he had never been so eager to go to sleep. It made him feel stupid, in a way, but he knew that he had never needed to sleep so much in all his life. When Robert saw that his roommate was wearing his pajamas he couldn't believe it.

-Are you really going to sleep or are you officially crazy and you have decided that wearing pajamas at all time was a good idea?

-I'm going to sleep, I just can't stand it anymore.

-Good.- Robert said approvingly.

Albert tried to focus on something, but as soon as he closed his eyes he drifted into a deep dreamless sleep. He only woke up when Robert shook him awake the following day to go for lunch.

-Pfff, you are the sleeping “beauty”, aren't you?

Albert stretched and yawned.

-Well, I did need to sleep, what were you expecting?

-At least I hope you slept well, c'mon get dressed! We're going out for lunch to celebrate that you've finally slept well and that the spring is arriving and we're getting rid of all this horrible snow.

Albert got out of the bed and into the shower, he could feel how his body had recovered from his crazy almost non-sleeping month. He decided that he would never do that again. He had been on the verge of snapping out, and he could not risk his mental health. Actually, he was probably much more vulnerable when he was not sleeping well than he was when he had a regular sleep schedule. He got dressed and he and Robert went to find the girls. They carried some food and a big blanket to do a picnic so they all set off to the forest.

Myriam managed to get herself close to Albert, and separated him from his friend, then she slipped her arm through his and leaned her head on his shoulder.

-You look much better now.- she told him.- Never, ever do this again, do you hear me?

He smiled and wanted to stroke her hair, to touch her cheeks, to kiss her, but he didn't.

-I won't, I promise.