The work below is written by me and my fellow creative writer, Muhamad Farhan.
I was deeply shocked when I discovered that my friend was an alien. The revelation about him came to me in a dream. I found him afloat above the horizon line. His back turned to me; hands crossed behind his back staring solemnly into the sunset. I approached him, and a platform of stone and rubble formed beneath my feet. I gazed at him with wonderous awe as I reached my hand to call him. He turned, and in a flash, I woke up with cold sweat dripping from my forehead.
That evening, we planned a hangout in a café not far from our school. This seemed like a stupid idea, but I might as well tell him about the dream. The sun began to set as the city came to life, and honks and roars of traffic fill the streets as I make my way steadily toward the Starbucks nearby. The gang was already there, sipping their overpriced coffee like they always do. Daimon sat across from Nikita, teasing him about things that he’s done at school with Tiny simply observing the conversation. As he always does.
The thing with Tiny is that he doesn’t really talk much. Most of the time, he just listens. Strangely, we’ve noticed that he doesn’t blink at all or at the very least he rarely does. Something about him was always odd… but we didn’t really mind. We sat down and have our usual banter about life and the sort. Of course, nothing was out of the ordinary until I decided that it would be the perfect time to talk about a dream that I had of Tiny. We love teasing him a lot about his height. Hence, his nickname is Tiny. He doesn’t seem to be bothered by our jokes most of the time. Until I began talking about that night.
I explained the dream to them, in vivid detail. Everything from the time of the day to Tiny’s appearance, to the face I saw when he turned to me in the dream.
“It’s weird, isn’t it?” I asked the group about their opinion of the dream.
“Think you’ve been reading too much horror stuff lately. HAH!” Daimon chuckled.
“Mm… sounds like your typical weird-ass dreams that happen when you’re way too tired,” Nikita commented on the dream, concerned about my well-being.
“I’m fine, guys, really. But it just… felt different. It didn’t feel like a dream at all.”
“What do you think, Tiny?” Daimon turned to him, taken aback for a bit when he saw Tiny’s expression.
His typical blank stare turned into concern. He began to sweat profusely from the forehead, his pupils dilating as his hands curled and scratched on his thighs. His face went pale, as he turns towards us and tries to answer.
“Hey, man… Are you okay? You don’t look too good.”
“That’s stupid!” Tiny exclaimed loudly, all of us in shock at his answer. Never had he raised his voice that high.
“Hey, sorry man… I didn’t know that it made you uncomfortable.” I try to apologize to him as he began shaking violently.
Tiny grabbed his bag and turned to us,
“I have to go.”
Rushing out of the café, we tried to pursue him, but he was unnaturally fast. We’ve always joked that because he’s short, he runs fast but this is ridiculous. That night we decided to end the hangout earlier than usual. We all went our ways, and I began thinking of some way to apologize to Tiny.
As I went home and lay in bed, I still thought about the dream and how it affected Tiny. Maybe he was sick of all the jokes that we made about him. But it’s strange. He never really cared that much. Why did that send him off? Regardless, I couldn’t think of an apology that night, so I might as well just do it tomorrow. On the spot. So, I decided to lay my head and go to bed.
As I nearly fall asleep, the pitch black of my room suddenly lit up in a flash of golden light. I opened my eyes and winced in pain from the brightness. As I made my way to the window, I noticed that it’s already been shut. The curtains were closed. Wanting to get to the bottom of this, I opened the curtains and looked away from the bright light.
As I turned to the source of the light, I felt a sense of warmth wash over me. Fully opening my eyes, I saw him once again. Tiny, with his back, turned away from me, staring blankly into the full moon. As I walked closer to him, pieces of my house began forming under my feet and creating a walkway to reach him. I extended my arm to touch his shoulder, feeling an extreme sense of déjà vu. In a split second, he turned to me. And in a flash, I felt myself disappear.
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