A Bitter-Sweet Nightmare – Final episode

A BITTER-SWEET NIGHTMARE
Episode 20

FALSE AWAKENING (3)

A false awakening is a vivid and convincing dream about awakening from sleep, while the dreamer, in reality, continues to sleep. False awakenings, mainly those in which one dreams that they have awoken from a sleep that featured dreams, take on aspects of a double dream or a dream within a dream.
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“Hey! Hey! Janine wake up. It’s okay. You just dreaming.” He said to her.
She was panting as she tried to calm down and catch a breath.
“It’s okay _ breath. It was just a nightmare.” He added.

‘Nightmare!’ Janine thought to herself. It felt like forever. Everything that had happened felt just a finger tip away. It was all in her grasp. She thought about how the first dream was and now in the second one, she was hit by a car and died.
‘i died…’ she bit her nails restlessly as she tried to wrap her mind around everything that had happened. She paid absolutely no attention to the man next to her, in silence, he watched as she comforted herself out of her shock.

Janine was having dementia, to be exact, it was Oneirophrenia-dementia _ this was when the difference between dreams and reality becomes clouded. In short, it was when a person could not tell the difference between the two.

“I guess you are okay. Am going back to bed.” He said. This time around, his voice echoed in her heard _ louder and more clearer such that she immediately jumped out of the bed and began glancing at a distance to see who it was.
“Max! No-No! This can’t be happening…” She said.
“What are you talking about? You are overreacting and if you keep behaving like that you going to wake up the kids.” Max said. He was still sleepy despite it being almost 6hrs. He spent the night watching The Lord Of The Rings to ki*ll the stress he had been going through at work lately.

“Why are you in my bed?” She asked him.
“Are you mad? What do you mean why am I in your bed? Am your husband for Christ’s sake.” He told her.
“No! You can’t be my husband.” She exclaimed. “This must be another f****ng dream… Wake up!” She shouted to herself aggressively.

When Max saw that, he got out of bed, walked up to her so that he could calm her down. Because Janine was afraid, to her, Max had just beaten up her boyfriend Markus and pushed her to the road were Chansa’s car knocked her out dead.

“Am warning you, Max, don’t come close to me. You won’t manage to ki*ll me. Am going to scream if you take another step.” She said. She opened the door behind her and ran outside. Max ran after her.
He caught up to her when she had just opened the main door and was outside in the corridor.

“Baby, calm down. You had a bad dream.” Max said.
“Leave me alone!” She screamed.
“Hey! Don’t go that. People are still sleeping. You going to wake up the neighbours.” He told her, instead of her understanding _ it made the matter worse. Janine began shouting and screaming. It didn’t take long and people from the next house came out. It was another young couple.

“What is going on?” Markus asked Max.
“I don’t know bro, she’s agitated. She just woke up screaming and now she’s saying I killed her and I want to ki*ll her.” Max explained.
“That’s crazy talk, why on earth would you want to ki*ll her?” Alice asked.

“You guys? What are they doing here?” Janine asked.
“Huh, we live here. We are your neighbours _ this is my wife Alice.” Markus said.
“Wife! How is she your wife? What about Chansa?” Janine asked.

The guard came running to the scene. He was asleep when he heard all the noise.

“Boss, is everything alright?” Chansa asked Max.
“It’s okay. Don’t worry.” Markus responded.
“She’s just in shock. After resting she will be okay. Janine, it’s okay. None of us want to hurt you. You going to be fine.” Alice told her.
.
.

“Wait, what you are trying to tell me is that Max is my husband and we even have kids together? What about you?” Janine asked.
She had agreed to be with Alice, because of that, Max left the house and went to Markus’ house instead.
“Markus is my husband, we moved here after we got married a year ago.”
“And Chansa is the Care-Taker of this place? Wow!” She said surprisingly.
“Why are you so surprised? What happened in your dream?” Alice asked her.

Janine went on to explain her two dreams to her. When she was done, Alice was filled with awe.

“So, what you are telling me is that you and I are were best friends. Markus my husband was your boyfriend… And I was dating Chansa _ the caretaker while Max was the bad guy. Huh!” She sighed as she gave it a thought.
“Crazy right? Do you think am going insane?” Janine asked Alice.
“No, you not. It was just a dream, dreams are many to be crazy.” Alice comforted her.
“You don’t think it’s prophetic do you?” She asked.
“You died in your dream. Chansa bushed you with his car, ‘she giggled’ that doesn’t make any sense. I see nothing prophetic about that. Max can’t even ki*ll a fly and not he was behaving like a mad man in your dream. That’s just something else.” Alice told her.

In the other house, Markus was rocking his baby as he attempted to get her to sleep.

“I hope she’s going to be alright,” Max said concerning his wife.
“You don’t have to worry. We all know how stressed she’s been of late. Her work has been eating her up.” Markus said.
“Am surprised she thought I want to ki*ll her. It was as if I was some dangerous person in her dream.” Max said thoughtfully.
“I almost laughed. You ain’t getting laid any time soon my brother.” Markus teased.
“Get out…” Max said as they both began to laugh.
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.
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“Hold my hand and let’s pray,” Alice said as the two kneeled down together.
“What are we going to pray about?”
“We will speak the blood of Jesus on our lives, speak against the dream you just had,” Alice told her.

Janine stared at Alice as she spoke. She was the only one that didn’t change, she was still a great friend.

THE END

KENNEDY C KATONGO