By the laws of physics, toast will always land face down
It’d been about 6 months since Martin learned about the Fears, and that he and the others were tied to one by work contract. He’d also been having nightmares that were getting gradually worse ever since. One would think that would be normal, Martin certainly wouldn’t have expected to be nightmare free after reading statements he researched, let alone learning the fact they were real.
But no, his nightmares didn’t have anything to do with learning about the Fears. Well, maybe, but not really? They started a month before Jon filled them on in about the entities. After they all were transferred to the Archives.
In Martin’s dreams, there was Jon, sometimes covered from head to toe in gruesome scars, other times with less or none. There were interactions with people he didn’t know, people he did. There was sometimes someone who’d called themselves Sasha, but it wasn’t Sasha. The Sasha he knew was never in his dreams.
Sometimes there was just fog, in fact, the first nightmare to start all of the others was the fog one. Martin hated the fog dreams the most. It reminded him too much of the Lonely that Jon had told them about. Too much like he would wake up, and still be there. Sometimes he would wake up and his room was colder. Martin would call Jon on mornings like that. Not quite telling him why, didn’t want to worry Jon over a nightmare, but for some reason just hearing “Hello” was enough to chase off the cold. Tim and Sasha could have that effect as well, but never chased the chill as quickly as Jon’s voice could.
Maybe it was since Martin was crushing hard. But it was his boss. And Jon was too busy with other things. Martin would often make sure to have something to ask Jon ready for mornings like that. Sometimes it was random facts that Martin could probably google for answers, but Jon never seemed to mind providing the answers. Other times Martin would pretend he had work questions, even to the extent of not asking Jon while they were at work with real questions till the next day in case it was a fog dream night. Martin could never tell when it would happen, as sometimes it would be weeks between.
It was morning and Jon was out doing something probably reckless, but Martin had the fog dream. So he called.
“Hello Martin.”
“Hello, Jon, sorry to bother you this early. I hope I didn’t wake you.”
“Martin, you know I don’t mind early calls. I’ve told you, it’s not a bother, I’ll be up.” Jon sounded like he was in a good mood, but then again, he always tended to be in a better mood over the phone for some reason.
“You have, but I’m not so rude as to stop apologizing for it.” Martin’s voice raised in a pointed manner. Jon chuckled on the other end of the phone cause he wouldn’t want it any other way.
If the chill hadn’t already left, that laugh would’ve been a lethal attack.
Martin feeling better already continued. “So, if you have time, I was thinking about getting some plants for the archives, liven up the place and maybe have some help fending off the mustiness down there. Wasn’t sure which ones would be able to handle the low light down there. Could also get some imitation plants, but wouldn’t help with the stuffy air.”
“Hm, there are some that would do well if we got the right kind of lamps to sit with them. Maybe change out some light bulbs in areas where the paper would get exposed to it often? Rather than listing all the various breeds, would you rather we take a workday to do a-” Jon hesitated like finishing the sentence was about ot cause him physical pain. ” ...team-building exercise to the store?”
“I- A what?” Martin heard Jon, but didn’t really understand.
“A team-building exercise. That terrible book had mentioned that using work time to do something rela-”
“No no, I know what you meant, but like to get plants?”
“Yeah. why not. We could take hours to debate over the right plants and lights on Elias’s payroll. Even include a reimbursed meal after. HR would love it.”
“Ah, yeah I guess that would be pretty fun then. The four of us.”
“We can plan it when I get back. The season will probably have some weaker plants, but I’m sure they would thrive in the archives with some extra help. Is there anything else on your mind?”
“No, not really. Just woke up and had the thought. Wanted to talk to you about it before I forgot.”
Jon made a sound on the other line, that Martin didn’t quite make out.
“I should probably go now, do morning routine and such I guess? You are staying safe right Jon? Not doing anything reckless?”
“Reckless. Me?” The image of a very scared and tired Jon flashed through Martin’s thoughts for a moment.
“Not funny Jon. I’m worried you know. Texting us to leave early, then again to tell us to not come in for a while. ”
“I’m Fine Martin. Really. Just running to a few places to help out a friend. I’ve only got one more stop before I return.”
“Alright. Take care of yourself.”
“I will. I’ll talk to you later.”
“Bye Jon.”
The call ended and Martin fell back into his bed. Jon’s voice was amazing. It was always the perfect remedy to the Lonely dreams. Jon had pointed out before that Anchors were the key to not succumbing to quite a few of the Fears. Did that make Jon something like that to Martin? Probably since it was a one-sided crush, but was enough he supposed.
It was 7am, but since it was a PTO day, Martin drifted off for a little extra sleep. If he was lucky, there wouldn’t be a dream with that nap.
Martin wasn’t lucky.
There was a bookstore, and in it a lady about the size of Jon, was excited talking to Martin and Jon about something. Martin understood a bit of it, being that it was Polish, but what he didn’t understand was how fluid the conversation was. She was using words and phrases Martin didn’t understand or had ever heard, but he understood what she wanted to say. They were discussing something about a book Martin had found near the Trench, wherever that was.
She was excited since apparently the book had been rare even when it was being printed, and something about how it would burn nicely? The craziest part was Martin was pleased to agree with her? Like that made sense for some reason.
Rebecca, Martin had suddenly known her name -remembered her name?- offered Martin and Jon some tea. Something about an old friend of hers had found some in their Domain, and as they agreed, she simply grabbed the kettle. The water boiled in moments as Martin moved to prepare the tea for the three of them. In the dream he wasn’t alarmed by it at all, like this was just how the world was supposed to be working.
As he prepared the tea in the dream, Martin woke up to his phone going off. He knew the ringtone.
“Yeah...Tim.” Martin’s voice was groggy at best.
“Did I wake you? Anyway, you won’t believe it. So-” Tim continued talking for a while about something he’d found out about a statement they’d been stuck on. Martin listened intently, while still a little shaken from his dream. The scars Jon had had were very common in his dreams. He’d been very curiously making note of them over the last few months, and they never seemed to change locations, even though sometimes there were less.
That lady, Rebecca, she was probably aligned with the Desolation. An Avatar of fear. Martin was certain it wasn’t just a probably after a moment.
“Hey Tim.” Martin interrupted, still kind of not all the way awake. “Do you think with all this crazy entity stuff, that prophetic dreams might be real?”
“Prophetic dreams? Like crystal balls and seeing future stuff?”
“Yeah… I- ah, my dreams have been weird lately. And I know Jon’s told us about his dreams of the statement givers, so maybe it could be an Eye thing?”
“Why not ask Jon? He could do his spooky google-”
“N-NO!” Martin cut him off. “S-sorry didn’t mean to yell...I can’t ask him cause I’ve been dreaming about him…”
“Aaaw, you dreaming about hooking up and want to know if it could happen? We keep telling you to just ask him out. Georgie knows him the best and is rooting for you.”
“No, I mean yes, but it’s more. Jon is covered in scars. Horrible and so many of them. They are in the same places every time. And Tim, the only parts of the dreams that are nice is the fact he is there with me. There is so much wrong in every other way…” Tim was silent on the other end.
“Yeah. hmm. That doesn’t sound the most ideal. It only Jon?”
“Not all the time. I’ve had some dreams with you, and Jon’s there, with less scars, but Sasha never is. Like in any of the dreams. There is someone there that calls herself Sasha though… After certain scars show up on Jon, Tim, you stop showing up. I’ve been trying to not think about it, but what if something really bad is happening with my dreams?”
“You talk to anyone else about it?”
“No, you are the first. I probably wouldn’t have mentioned it if you hadn’t woke me up from one of them and it was stuck on my mind.”
“Hm, maybe keep a dream diary to track it and try to put it in order. If something happens, then you can have a recorder of it before just getting that deja vu feeling?”
“You believe me?”
“Martin, Marto, Our boss is literally spooky google. Weird things happen, and we look into weird things. I trust your instincts regardless of the case. We are professionals at this.”
“Thanks. Could you not tell anyone else for now? I don’t want anyone to worry till it’s sorted out more.”
“It’s okay for me to worry though?” Tim lightly teased.
“No, but less is better?”
“Just pulling ya. I get it. Don’t wait too long though.”
Martin agreed and they went back to talking about Tim’s statement.
After making breakfast, Martin started to write down all the dreams he could remember. It was weird as he wrote them, it wasn’t like trying to remember normal dreams. It was more like writing memories to paper like preparing a biography, or least what he figured that would feel like. He didn’t even have any problems putting the dreams in order.
It was like he knew the order they happened in chronologically even if the dreams weren’t dreamt in order. It was almost the perfect order for a narrative that never happened. Hasn’t happened.
About 6 pages into writing out his dreams, he was hit with a wave of fear as he wrote down ‘after Tim died’ in context to logic of something he was writing out. That hadn’t happened in the dream, in any of them. Martin also knew the next part that would be written was that Jon went into a coma, he started to cry. Somehow after that all the dreams started to thread together too nicely. Months of being alone, all the foggy dreams.
Maybe he would tell Jon now. So Jon could tell him this was silly, and just anxiety or something.
He sent a text to Jon this time, rather than a call since he didn’t want to interrupt Jon. The text was a quick “Got some questions for spooky google. No rush.