Raymond awoke to the sun beating down on him. When his eyes adjusted, he realized he was in a sunflower patch. He raises his left hand to shield himself as he pulled himself up.
After getting up, he dusted the grass and dirt off himself. He began walking through the rows, examining the appearance of each flower he passed. Raymond stumbled across a multicolored flower of red and orange. He ran his fingers on the soft petals and without thinking, he plucks them off.
"Hey, those aren't yours to touch!", someone in the distance yelled at him. He glanced around, not seeing anyone.
That's when he sees her, a young woman standing on a hill next to a large oak tree. Her blue dress was blowing in the non-existent wind that was surrounding her. She took off her hat and fanned it in front of her. Suddenly everything around him began to morph as if everything was being distorted by the beating sun. The flowers that were once around him began to decay before liquifying into a pool of orange water. Surprisingly enough, Raymond's feet weren’t submerged, almost as if he was walking on the surface. Raymond ran his fingers through his dark brown hair, not entirely sure about what's happening to him.
"What's going on? What the fuck is going on?", Raymond asked himself as he took his hand out of his hair. He looks up and sees that she's just a few feet away from him. This time, her back was to him and was getting blurrier by the second. Shades of blue, brown, and red bounced off of her, the color seeping into the ground the more he looked at her.
As he started walking toward the woman, the sunflowers emerged from the water, hanging lowly. The closer he got, the more concerned he began to be.
When he got close enough to touch her, he stopped walking. "Hello? Is there something you need?", he asked cautiously.
"I just wanted to see how you’re doing. You’ve grown so much", she responded back. Even now, she hasn’t turned around to face him.
"I-I'm sorry but I don't know who you are", Raymond shuffled nervously, not sure where this was going.
"You don’t remember me? Well, that's a shame." She turned around, revealing that she doesn’t have a face. "How about now?" She cocked her head to the side, clasping her hands together.
Raymond froze. There's no way that this is happening. "No, I don't." He cursed himself for responding too quickly, giving himself away.
"Y'know you don't have to lie to me." She placed her hands on his cheeks. "I'm just family." She used one of her hands to touch his hair, stopping short of his third eye.
"No, you're not. If you were, mom would've said something," he began shaking, tears threatening to fall.
She took hold of his upper eyelash with her thumb and index finger. "I'm upset that you don’t think I'm family." Her face morphed so she would have one large eye in the center of it. "I guess you deserve what's coming to you."
Without any warning, she ripped open his eye open, crimson red pouring down his face. He began to hyperventilate, tears rushing down his face as he tried to get out of her grip.
"Now, you better wake up before you'll forget how to forever."
Raymond woke up with tears running down his face and his heart beating fast. He wiped his eyes and took deep breaths to regain composure. Once relaxed, he turned over to see that his boyfriend was sleeping peacefully next to him. Raymond held him close and buried his face in his long hair. After a few minutes, he turned to his left to grab his phone off the dresser to check the time. It's 3:45 AM. He placed his phone back onto the dresser once again. He knew it was going to be a long night.
After spending long, agonizing minutes trying to fall asleep, he gave up. He removed himself from Alex and got out of bed, stumbling in the process. He wasn't sure what he wanted to do so he opened the door and made his way into the kitchen. Despite knowing that this isn't a good idea, he decided to make himself some coffee. He walked over to the kitchen counter and took out a packet from the top shelf. He placed it into the coffee machine and waited for a couple of minutes. He takes the drink and goes back into Alex's room, sipping it occasionally.
Once he made his way back to the bedroom, he turned on the hanging lights and sat on his side of the bed. He took a sip before placing the mug on the floor and looked at himself in the mirror. He removed any earrings that he accidentally left in the night before and placed them on the dresser. He attempted to smooth down his disheveled hair, which didn't leave much of an impression. He began rubbing his face, trying to stay somewhat awake. He stopped messing with his face and looked at his third eye. He poked around it, feeling the appendage move under his fingers. He rubbed his index finger over the bottom eyelid, dragging it down a little. Without much thought, he tugged on the upper eyelashes. He personally believed that this wasn't going to hurt at all. He was wrong.
"Holy shit, that hurts!", Raymond loudly exclaims, hands over the appendage. His eyes began to water as he curled into the fetal position. He most definitely woke Alex up.
I opened my eyes after hearing Raymond say something loudly. I pushed my hair out of my face before turning to my right. I see that he's in the fetal position. I hope he’s okay.
I hugged him from behind and started playing with his hair. In response, he turned around and buried his face in my neck. He wrapped his arms around me. I waited a bit before saying anything.
"Is everything okay?" I asked. I have a feeling that he won't say much.
He hesitated and sighed before answering. "Yeah, I'm alright."
I took my hands out of his hair and caressed his cheek. "Do you want to talk about it? You don't have to if you don't want to."
Raymond smiled a little. "Maybe." He really did that.
"So, are you gonna tell me what happened then?", I asked, a little too energetic for my liking.
He sat up in bed, still facing me. "If we leave this room, I will."
Since I wanted him to tell me what happened, I decided that I would take him to the living room. I got out of bed, held one of his hands, and dragged him out of my room. We walked through the short hallway and I flicked on the upper headlights. I let go of his hand so he could sit down before I turned on the TV. 'The Office' was on so I decided to leave it alone. I sat down on the couch where Raymond was, and he laid his head on my lap. Once again, I started playing with his hair, lightly scratching his scalp. As a result, he hummed and began messing with his fingers.
"So, are you going to tell me what happened?" I asked. There's no way he's getting out of this.
"It's so stupid, I can't believe you really want to hear it", he began chuckling.
"You got me worried at..." I glanced at the clock on the wall. "4:09 in the morning. Of course, I want to hear it."
"Okay, so I had a dream that I was in a sunflower patch, like the ones back at home." He stopped for a moment before starting up again. "Everything was going so well until this girl appeared. Everything started to melt, and my only thought was that I had to talk to her. So I go up to her and she somehow knows who I am, and when she turned around, she had no face. I'm freaking out and she rips open my third eye." He points to his eye.
"How does this add up with what happened earlier?" I really wasn't getting it. Hopefully, he didn't do what I'm thinking he did.
"Well. I got a bit too curious and opened my eye. It hurt in the dream and I wanted to know if it would hurt in real life. It obviously hurt in real life, too." He really did what I thought he did.
"You're an idiot", I said to him.
"I'm your idiot", he said back.