It all started with that Dreamcatcher. Why hadn’t he thrown it away!
It was supposed to be a simple gift for a friend. A friend that took that same night as an opportunity to break his heart. Smash it to bits. He had gone home with the dreamcatcher in hand, intending to throw it away. Instead, he had thrown it to one side in a fit and left it in the corner of his room.
He found it a few days later and grabbed it, bent it as he took it to the trash. Feathers hanging over the open maw of garbage, he watched as light began to race back and forth across the edge. The beads lit up as he held it, light flashing across his eyes. Everything turned white for a second.
When color returned, everything seemed...normal. He threw the dreamcatcher in the trash and started to walk away, when his phone rang. It was the interview he had been waiting on for weeks. He got the job, and at a pay rate higher than he originally thought. With all the benefits. Everything he ever wanted from a job was being offered to him.
Dazed, he hung up only for a few seconds before he got a text. Someone wanted to hook up with him. Someone he’d been waiting to hear from for months. He hesitated texting back, glancing over his shoulder. Reaching down, he snatched the dreamcatcher and held it up, peering at the sides and edges. Certainly this couldn’t have been the cause...but what else could it have been?
Gently brushing it off, he stuck it under his arm as he texted back, taking note to keep his dreamcatcher safe.
That night he had a dream about a bonus at his new job followed by a dream where he had to hire a bunch of clowns for a party. That morning he woke up to a text from his boss; they thought he deserved a raise. He sat up and dug out his dreamcatcher, holding it and thinking about the clowns. He hated clowns.
If all his dreams were coming true, he wasn’t sure he wanted that one to be a part of it. He hoped he was being superstitious...and yet, if clowns had to be a part of this day, he hoped it would be a part of someone else’s day. He pressed it, bent the hoop, even held it over the trash, but nothing happened. The dreamcatcher remained inert. He tossed aside for the day and went to work.
He was in the middle of a task when he heard someone in the office had a panic attack. Apparently his new co-worker had gotten fired after an explosion of tempers. He heard someone refer to it as their ‘worst nightmare’.
He hesitated going to sleep that night. The dreamcatcher couldn’t have caused this...could it? A dream for a nightmare?
He shook his head. Certainly not. It was a coincidence. That’s all.
Placing it on his bed-side table, he turned the light out and went to sleep.
The next day saw a third date that went amazingly well. It also saw his ex-friend get attacked by a group of spiders. He had trouble sleeping that night, wondering what he had done.
The next day brought about a winning lottery ticket for him, while it brought another friend close to drowning in a swimming pool. He stayed up that night, staring at his dreamcatcher. All of his dreams were coming true. While those around him were plagued by real-life nightmares.
The same day he won a vacation for two was the same day his parents went down in an airplane crash. His mother was deathly afraid of flying, but was on a trip to come down and see him that day as a surprise.
He couldn’t take it anymore. It all started with this stupid dreamcatcher.
He took it to the trash and broke it over his knee. A light instantly flared, a blue after-image left on his retinas as he held the two halves of the dreamcatcher in his hands. He took scissors to the center, then broke it in half again before tossing the whole thing in the trash. Wiping his hands clean, he shoved the trashcan back into place and walked away.
That night was his first nightmare. He woke up several times during the night, and each time he stared around waiting for something to happen. When the morning came, he was so tired he didn’t hear his phone ringing across the room. He didn’t see he had a voicemail. He picked up when he noticed a text from the one he was dating; they were done.
The voicemail was from his boss; they accused him of embezzling money and had the documents to prove it. They were going to report him for fraud. There were two emails waiting for him, telling him that both the lottery numbers and the vacation package went to the wrong person, and were going to be revoked.
Before noon, he had lost everything. And was now was going to be investigated for something he had never done in his life. He ran to the trash, but it had already been taken out. The dreamcatcher was gone. His dreams were gone.
It was that dreamcatcher. Why hadn’t he just thrown it away at the start?!