"Come on Indy, blow out the candles!" Jasmine Chang urged her friend. The now seventeen-year-old Indigo Barton was celebrating her first birthday since the end of the war. Indigo smiled shyly and looked around at her friends. She was so glad that they were all there to celebrate with her.
The war had ended a year ago, and all the teens were free to live normal lives once again. Old wounds had healed, but she knew there was at least one person missing. She thought of Brittney, who had sacrificed herself for the rest of them and ended the war forever. It wasn’t fair that she wasn’t celebrating with them. She deserved it.
"What’s taking so long, Indy?" Jason complained. "Just blow out the candles and make a wish!"
Indigo smirked and took a deep breath. Her friends watched, with smiling faces, as she lowered her face to the brightly decorated birthday cake to blow out the seventeen flickering candles. But she stopped suddenly, and looked around.
"What’s wrong?" Joel, her boyfriend, asked.
"Do you hear that?" She said. She strained her ears to hear the distant sound. The sky had gone dark, and in the distance there was a rumbling sound.
"It looks like it’s going to rain. It’s probably just thunder in the background." Helen commented.
"That doesn’t sound like thunder," David said uncertainly. The kids all extended their faces to the sky, searching for something out of the ordinary.
"Hey, what’s that?" Seth pointed to a formation of dark black spots against the gray clouds. He squinted his eyes, and suddenly they widened in terror.
"What the…those are mobile suits!" Helen shrieked.
Six dark black mobile suits were flying straight for them, flying in a ‘V’ formation. The lead suit raised its beam cannon and prepared to fire.
"Everyone hit the deck!" Jason screamed. He dove for the house, even though he knew it probably wouldn’t do them any good. Joel fell on top of Indigo, trying in vain to shield her from the imminent blast.
Helen covered her face with her arms, anticipating the searing pain that was to follow. She heard screaming as the guns started firing, mercilessly tearing up everything they touched. It took her only a moment to realize that it was her screaming. The suits landed and fired straight at the helpless teens on the ground. The heat was unbearable, it tore flesh from her bones, and she could feel the incredible energy eating at her legs.
She watched in horror as her skin bubbled and peeled, she wanted to pass out. Why couldn’t she just pass out or die, and let the pain end? She looked to her right and saw Jason practically dissolve into a pile of dust. She was the only one left…it was only her. She closed her eyes and felt her body melt away…
~
Helen shot out of her bed, sweat pouring down her face. She brushed her dampened hair away from her face, still breathing heavily. She could still feel the heat on her legs. She quickly looked around the room to be sure of her surroundings. She was still in her room, at home. There was no birthday party, and no attack. Indigo’s birthday wasn’t even for another three days! Relieved, Helen fell back down to her pillow and closed her eyes, willing sleep to come.
~
Jason hadn’t realized he had screamed until his mother came to his door.
"Jason? Are you alright?" She asked.
"Fine mom," Jason sighed and he felt his forehead. There was no fever, just a lot of cold sweat.
That dream, it had seemed so real. He had felt the pain; he felt his skin and bones just…dissolving. He could still feel it. He heard his friends’ screams echoing in his mind. Rubbing his head, he got up and headed for the bathroom. ‘What a weird dream.’ He thought, ‘It was so real…’ he shivered and splashed water in his face. "I need to stop watching those damn horror movies."
~
David was screaming at the top of his lungs; quite to his embarrassment. "NO! NO!" He screamed. Then, he broke down into tears. It had all been so real. He quickly got a hold of himself when he heard footsteps heading for his room.
"David?" Dorothy asked through the door, "What’s going on?" She opened the door just wide enough for her slender body and stepped in.
"David, what are you doing?" She scolded. She looked at her son’s tear-stained, sweating face and frowned. "Crying? Over what?"
"I-It’s nothing, just a nightmare."
"A nightmare?" Dorothy scoffed. "Don’t you dare let some pathetic dream get the better of you!"
"I know mom, but it was…"
"What? So real?"
David nodded.
Dorothy sighed and began to scold him about the foolishness of believing in dreams. David sighed and decided he might as well endure it. It wasn’t like he would be getting any sleep now anyway.
~
Joel’s eyes shot open and he gasped. He was faced with a wall of darkness. ‘Am I dead?’ He thought. Then he added thoughtfully, ‘I wonder if Duo’s here…?’
However, he had not been contemplating whether or not he was dead for ten seconds when something landed next to him and threw itself on him.
"What the…!" Joel looked down at the thing that had attacked him and made out the outline of a mess of black hair.
"Jasmine?" His sister buried her head in his chest and breathed deeply. "I had the creepiest dream." She explained; Joel sighed.
"It was so real!" Jasmine whimpered.
"You’re such a wimp," Joel snorted; he didn’t want to admit that he too had been scared awake by a dream.
"We were all at Indy’s birthday party and these mobile suits came and blew us all up. It was terrible. I watched you, right beside me, explode into ashes!”
Joel’s eyes widened and his grip on his sister’s shoulder tightened.
"I…I just had that exact same dream."
Jasmine looked up and stared at him. "What…?" Her jaw practically fell to the floor. "Wow, maybe twins really are psychic."
~
Indigo flung her eyes open in terror and forced herself to take a few deep breaths. "How am I still alive?" She wondered, at first she thought she was in a hospital, but she quickly discovered she was in her trailer at the circus, right where she belonged. She searched herself for any sign of burns, but there was nothing. "A dream?" She breathed a sigh of relief and laughed at herself. She heard the familiar and comforting sounds of the animals and late-night rehearsals she knew so well. Gathering her thoughts, she got out of bed and stepped into her sandals. She then headed out for the trapeze swings; it was her favorite spot to just sit and think. She got there and looked up the latter at the landing, where Seth was already sitting. She sighed and climbed up anyway, sitting next him on the platform.
"Trouble sleeping?" He asked.
Indigo nodded.
"Bad dream?"
She nodded again.
"Me too,"
Indigo looked over at him, but Seth continued to stare out at the practicing clowns down below.
"What about?" Indigo asked.
Seth shook his head. "You’ll think it’s dumb."
"It can’t be as bad as mine," She chuckled. "I actually woke up thinking I was dead or in a hospital or something!"
"Really? Me too,"
"Huh?"
"Well, I had a dream that we were all at your birthday party…"
"And a fleet of mobile suits flying in a ‘V’ formation came and attacked us?" Indigo finished for him.
"Exactly," Seth stared at her in shock. "How did you…?"
"I had the exact same dream."
"Freaky…"
"Yeah, imagine us both having the same dream. Do you think I should cancel the party?"
Seth shook his head. "Nah, it’s probably nothing."
"But…"
"Well, dreams happen in the subconscious right? Since we both go through pretty much the same things every day, our brains are reacting the same way."
"Well maybe…but the exact same dream? Right down to the ‘V’ formation of mobile suits?"
Seth shrugged, "I know it sounds farfetched, but what other explanation in there? It’s not like there’s some psychic maniac out there trying to tell us something, is there?"
"No…I guess not." Indigo chuckled.
