Keep Dreaming up Ways to Survive by Mitch Mueller (the reading strategies book .TXT) 📕

   Felix sat in the desolate, black, empty void, eyes straining to see something, anything. Felix felt nothing, not even sad, but he got slightly confused when he heard his name.

“Felix…”

Huh?

“Felix…”

Where am I?

“Answer me you worthless mongrel!”

“Y-yes..!” Felix answered the voice that was coming out of the blackness in front of him.

“Of course a weak and pitiful human is scared of me…’’ The voice said to itself, not even being quiet about it.

‘What…?” Felix voiced as a monster that had huge ram horns, a face that resembled a goat's face that had bunched together razor blades for teeth, and a body that looked like dripping candle wax appeared out of the darkness.

“A ram...?” Felix chuckled trying to hide his fear by laughing until he felt a stinging pain on his cheek, he was slapped.

“Human, I know your minuscule brain can’t comprehend what I'm saying but, you are going to listen to me, I shall destroy or as you say blow up the trash hole you call Earth.” The monster said emotionlessly.

“What!? Why!?’’ Felix exclaimed, Felix, felt his heart pick up its pace.

“Because! It’s sickening and revolting, the world filled to the brim with murder and corrupted politicians. It’s polluted, and already on death's doorstep, blowing it up will change nothing, it was going to happen sooner or later.’’ the monster growled at Felix. Felix cowered back and said,

“Well… why tell me…?’’ Felix shook. He felt a cold breeze go past the back of his neck, even though there was no way the wind could be there. 

“Because I like a challenge.” The monster smiled as a flat laugh left its mouth. The monster backed up as the darkness consumed it. Immediately as it left, Felix started feeling dizzy, and then he blacked out.

Felix woke up in a cold sweat,  feeling tears rolling down the sides of his face. Then he heard the door open as his mom walked in she said, “Felix… oh my god, are you crying? Again! We are not doing this, I am so tired of you… and you're about to be late, get up now!’’ 

Suddenly Felix didn’t have any motivation or energy to get out of bed, he felt as if his mother had sucked up the little bit of energy he had, leaving him an empty husk. He forced himself out of bed having an aching pain all over, wishing he was dreaming again because he didn’t feel sad there. He remembered his dream, so he quickly got dressed then ran downstairs to yell at his mom, “Mom!  A monster going to blow up the world!’’

“...What?’’

“It...it told me itself!’’

“When?”

“J-just now! In my d-dream!’’ Felix hollered with as much confidence as he could muster.

“Well I can’t do anything about a dream, now go to school.’’ Felix’s mom said without looking up from her phone.

“But mom-’’ Felix tried to say.

“School! Now!’’ His mom yelled, Felix sighed then walked out of his house and made his way to school. Felix was thinking of someone else he could tell, someone who would listen, then he thought of calling the police. Then he started to think about it, “Was the police necessary? Of course, it was! Who else was going to help him? Wait… he doesn’t need the police, it was just a dream! But what if that was him predicting the future? Will it be his fault the world blows up? He hates being blamed for stuff he didn’t do, he decided what to do. This is going to be awkward.

“9-1-1, what’s your emergency?” Asked the operator.

“Um… someone is going to b-blow up the Earth,’’ Felix said with not as much confidence as before.

“A terrorist group? Where? Who?’’ The operator asked. Felix hesitates for a second. Should he say it? Of course not, it’s stupid! But he was already on the phone, if he said it he'd sound crazy!

“Sir-’’

“A monster... but, d-don’t think I’m crazy! I just… it told me itself! And I don’t know… maybe I could be predicting the future…?’ Felix said quickly, feeling his throat close up.

“...Ok, when did it tell you…?’’

“I-in a d-dream…” Felix mumbled knowing he sounded like a maniac, he felt sweat beading up at his forehead.

“Well… we can’t do anything about a dream. Sir, have you been taking any pills- ” The operator huffed.

“Ok! Bye!” Felix hung up immediately as he walked in front of the school and other students were staring at him. Felix wanted to die, disappear and crawl into a hole as everyone stared at him. Then he heard, “Dude, look at him! He is crazy, talking about dreams and hearing voices!”

“He hears voices? Gross, he should not be around us! He's going to end up in a mental hospital!”

“Probably! He is always doing weird things. Uhh, freak!” 

Students all around him were making more rumors about Felix being crazy. Felix started scratching at his wrist, feeling tears filling his eyes, “ Why does bad stuff always happen to me.” Felix whispered to himself, digging at his wrist causing his skin to peel apart and tear. Felix realized this and quickly covered his wrist and his hand, he didn’t want the teachers calling his mom again. All Felix could hear and think about was negative thoughts but he didn’t want that, he tried to think happy thoughts. Although he completely failed, he thought of the worst things he could have. Felix unconsciously started picking at his skin again causing it to bleed even more. His chest tightened as he felt a pair of eyes on him, he turned around and saw one of the popular kids, Dawson staring at him, he decided to ignore it and go into class.

          Dawson stared at Felix till he went into class. He heard a rumor that Felix was calling the police because he had a dream about a monster, when Dawson heard that he was surprised but, he believed that he was telling the truth. The reason he believed him was that he had the same dream as Felix. He had the same ugly ram monster saying it was going to blow up the world, but Dawson never caused a scene because he always had dreams predicting the future. As a kid, he dreamt about his mom dying of heart failure, when she did he was too sad to think anything about it and thought it was just a coincidence.

Dawson followed Felix around till the end of the day, he finally got to him as he was leaving the school building.

“Hey…. you.” Dawson said, trying to remember Felix's name. Felix turned around, seeing him and stiffening up, Felix knew Dawson as the guy who beat people up for just being themself.

“Y-yes…?” Felix mumbled, not trying to provoke him.

“You had a dream about a monster, right?” Dawson questioned bluntly. 

Felix was so tired of people talking about it he just wished it didn’t happen, he sighed then said, “I…” Felix found no point in hiding it now. “Yeah...I...I did...” He tried to rush away because he was expecting to get made fun of.

“Wait!” Dawson barked loudly, grabbing onto Felix's scratched wrist causing it to reopen. Dawson gripped tightly as Felix winced quietly, Felix felt as if he was going to cry and he also wanted to scream at Dawson to let him go, but his voice betrayed him and it didn’t come out. To not cry like a baby, Felix breathed in and out a couple of times.

“What do you need…?” Felix croaked out, snatching his wrist back so it wouldn’t bleed anymore. 

“God, you don’t need to cry about it. I’m trying to help you, I also had a… dream.” Dawson cleared his throat as he wiped his slightly bloody hand on his pant leg.

“A dream? L-like with a monster?” Felix said quietly, looking around for people who were staring at them. 

“Yeah,” Dawson said looking directly into Felix's eyes. Felix nodded his head and waited for Dawson to say something else. When he didn’t, Felix awkwardly chuckled, “So.. do you think it’s real…? Or… or am I the crazy one, haha…” 

“Well, I don’t think you're crazy because I think it’s real too.” Dawson shrugged. Felix smiled a little when Dawson said he didn’t think he was crazy.

“Why do you think it’s real?” Felix questioned. 

“I… always had dreams predicting the future or whatever,” Dawson muttered, hating the fact that he had to say this to a person he just met.

“Really?” Felix said, genuinely curious.

“Yeah, ok! Now, what are we going to do about it?” Dawson said, getting frustrated with Felix.

“We… we have to do something about it…?” Felix stopped breathing for a second.

“Why wouldn’t we? Do you want the world being destroyed to be all your fault?” Dawson asked sarcastically. Felix hated being blamed for stuff he had no control over, but he had control over this. He was so conflicted about what to do, so he just said, “No… I don’t want it to be my fault! But what are we supposed to do, ask them nicely?”

“Well, I never dreamt something this serious. So maybe we just need to hope we dream something helpful.” Dawson shrugged. They both just stood there for a minute waiting for someone to talk.

“Ok, bye. Hope you dream up something good!” Dawson laughed, turning around leaving.

Dawson just wanted to sleep as he got out of the shower, it was already 11 pm so he decided to just go straight to bed. Dawson fumbled around his messy room to turn the lights off, as he flopped on the bed and shuffled under the covers, he thought of Felix and the dream. How were they, two 17-year-old boys, supposed to stop an alien from destroying Earth? Dawson wouldn’t deny that he couldn’t fight an alien and Felix… he just couldn’t fight in general, Dawson was getting worried. His stomach churned with fear as he turned on his side, he closed his eyes to somehow sleep the scared away.

Dawson opened his eyes to black nothingness, that was ok but he could not move. He assumed it was just sleep paralysis, he waited patiently for his sleep paralysis demon to scare him but it never came. He peered to the side to witness the monster, from his last dream, gripping Felix by the neck. Dawson’s eyes widened, he tried to get up to save Felix. But he still couldn’t move, luckily Felix