Rumors
During that whole weekend after Marla's failed party, no one in the university would talk about anything else. The people who had gone were asked for details, and the people who hadn't gone kept adding invented facts as to increase the drama. By the end of Sunday, apparently, there had been a flooding and a fire on the same time, and the house had been struck by a lighting, additionally there were some people in the hospital because of food poisoning. Albert knew better, but he didn't tell to anyone, not even Robert, he would only sit and listen, making some polite questions but trying not to look too interested in the details.
Marla didn't appear in the university the next day. It wasn't unusual for her to skip whole days of class, but she tried to maintain the forms and attend, at least when she had to give a presentation. Also, she loved showing off when her public was only focused on her. And that was the case of that Monday. So there were even weirder rumors going on, from the relatively harmless that said that she was ashamed or that she had food poisoning, to some saying that she had tried to kill herself because she couldn't face failure even on something as stupid as a party.
She didn't appear either on the day after, and Albert overheard some girls of his class saying that they had gone to visit her to see if she was okay and that there was a woman, apparently Marla's mother, telling them not to annoy her that she needed rest. It looked like Marla was sick, but she would be much better soon, they were told. Albert decided that he needed to tell someone what he had done and there was only one person who could understand him.
That night he set off to sleep early, he closed all the windows and the curtains so no light would come in and told Robert to be silent.
-I'm gonna visit my grandma.- he informed his roommate.
-You sound so creepy when you say this on your pajamas and getting into the bed... you're lucky that I'm not judgmental.
-Aha... well, good night.
He focused immediately on his grandmother’s house and found her waiting for him. She looked tired, but she smiled when she saw her grandson.
-Look, who's here! You did it, didn't you?- she said proudly.
-Yes.
-Sit down and tell me everything.
They both sat on a sofa while he told her how he had taken revenge on Marla. His grandmother listened to him in silence and kept all her questions for when Albert was done.
-The thing I don't understand is how could she fight against me, even if it was for a short while. When she got inside my dream I was completely submitted.
Lara stopped to think for a minute, she looked worried.
-Well, we still don't know how did she get inside your dream that time, it's some kind of ability I had never heard of, and it's something that must be extremely difficult, because you have to get from your dream to the reality and then from the reality inside someone else's dream. And anyway, women aren't usually as powerful as men, it's something that is genetic, so she shouldn't have so much power, maybe it's something I've never heard about. But whatever it is, I've been feeling it for some time, I've tried to keep up my barriers for all this time, but I kinda feel I won't be able to hold much more, and I'm afraid of what will happen when I give up.
Albert looked closely at his grandmother, she did not only look tired, she looked old. She had never looked old before, you could tell that she had a certain age, but she had an air of vitality in her, now she just looked old.
-Is there anything I can do?- he asked worried.
-Stay safe, and stay alive.
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