4. Dreamworld

Annabelle was surprised by a whisper from behind her.

"Miss Abbie... Miss... Are you okay, do you feel bad?"

One of the helpers was talking to her in the lowest voice she could manage so she didn't get startled, calling her back to what normal people called reality.

"Yes, Anna. I just remembered something."

The helpers looked at each other and wondered scared if she had seen something and didn't want to say it. 

The stories about her looking at the void had been around for a while already, but since nobody has seen actually anything, and the noises could be explained, they can't really say the house is haunted, or the girl, in any case. 

She knows that the helpers are still wondering what she was looking at, but she doesn't care what they think. 

The march to her room restarts and they spend a couple of hours to finish arranging everything in the right place, especially her medicine cabinet.

After a very interesting day outside, a tired Annabelle sat on the edge of her bed, changed, and ready to go to sleep. 

She stood there contemplating the new amber bottle that the doctor gave her, a new medicine that is supposed to help her sleep.

Normally she had short periods of sleep of about four hours, without dreams or nightmares. 

Mostly, she used to think about that, her dreams were the very visual images she had in "Real life," of the many characters that she had read before so many times. 

Daydreams, instead of any other kind of unconscious dreams.

She liked it that way, it gave her at least relative control over something, call it her mind, her company, even her reality if you will. She needed that feeling of control.

At least the slight illusion that something in her life could be moved by her sheer will, yet, she was soon to discover how wrong that idea was.

She took one of the pills out of the bottle and put it in her mouth, moving the glass of water close to her lips, and getting just a small sip.

The glass was immediately after, sitting on the mahogany nightstand, and the girl wrapped herself in her bedsheets and blankets. 

The bed was really comfortable, and she wasn't sure if it was the pill, the little sun she caught that day or the general excitement and tiredness of a day close to a normal real life.

Annabelle thought the pill would do nothing for her, really, but it didn't take long for her body to start feeling relaxed and heavy.

The girl started noticing that when she blinked, every time it was getting harder for her to open her eyes once again.

And slowly and slowly, she was not being dragged or push, but softly slid into that heaviness and relaxation like she hadn't felt in a few years.

She was still aware of her surroundings when some images started to form in her head, those that look like an animated picture.

People in very peculiar clothing on a sunny cool day, walking in cobbled streets, in a very long trail that seemed to end up far, far away in a walled, huge city engulfed in clouds that gave the appearance of it to be floating.

She slightly opened her eyes and wondered what was the reason for all she was seeing. 

Still surprised by the clothing so unfamiliar, and in many cases, too revealing, mostly in tones of brown, gray, black, with occasional darers that wore red or green in darker tones, and by the glare of that place that looked so distant, she had to look around.

The streets were wide and cobbled, and she mostly asked herself what was that place that she was seeing and was so unfamiliar.

she blinked heavily a couple more times, still peeking between her room and that place in her head. 

It seemed like that night she was not only going to sleep more than enough, but she was up for an adventure. 

She was very excited.

As we mentioned before, she never had dreams while sleeping, so she took the chance and let her mind free on that journey, and with deep curiosity, she focused on that place, and the surroundings, feeling less and less in her room, and more further away, in that appealing alternate reality.

After all, if this was her thoughts, she reflected, what could happen to her if it all was inside of her own head?...

Or was it?

She found herself more solid, in that place, on the slopes of a mountain, where people were coming and going in this peculiar clothing.

They didn't wear dresses. Most of the ladies were wearing their corset over a delicate and thin blouse, most of the time, white, while others were using just the corset, and those seemed very revealing to Annabelle.

Their bottom parts were combinations of thinner materials in just one layer of fabric in asymmetrical designs and assorted but predominantly dark colors.

She could easily see even above the knee of them, and it also made her notice that nobody saw it weird, or unusual.

Men wore fitted pants, some wore them baggy in the hips and thin down the knee, with flat boots where they'd stuff the lower, thinner part of those pants.

Many of both, men and women, wore trench coats, and dressing coats with tails. 

The top hats were definitely in fashion, and as many men as women wore them. The ladies wore them in different sizes, and there were some that looked as merely decorative for how tiny they were.

Their make up was not excessive, but widely used, mostly by ladies, but in some cases by men as well.

Some of them had shapes drawn surrounding one of their eyes, like gears, spider webs, or very long lines that came from their bottom eyelid to their jawline.

People started noticing a girl standing in the middle of the trail, with a gray nightgown that covered her entire body, and her long, black hair loose in the wind, while she started to notice that, not only that place was amazingly real, but she didn't feel her pain anymore, the constant, chronic half ache, half burn that she had been handling for so many years. 

That was not completely surprising, not as much as it was good news.

It meant that in that place, Abbie could do whatever she wanted without worrying about her sudden death.

She was thrilled and hoped that she could remember every single detail once she woke up.

Since this was her first dream, in general, but especially, of this kind, she was not sure of the rules of the dreamland, but since people was seeing her in that peculiar way, she wanted to try to interact with them. 

She was about to try when a couple, a man and a woman, close to Abbie's own age came from behind her and took her by her arms as if they had been friends for ages. 

"HI!" Said the young woman in a higher, but still comfortable pitch, showing how cheered and happy she was.

"Hello, nice to meet you," added the young man. "My name is Myron, and she is my wife, Raquel," He said with a comical reverence, also in a very interesting and happy mood, that besides taking Annabelle by surprise, were extremely contagious.

"It is very nice to meet you, My name is Annabelle" Abbie responded with a curtsy, feeling that it was the proper way to introduce herself to the strangers.

"Oh, hello Annabelle. Would you let me call you... Belle, maybe?" Myron said.

"No, no, let's call her Belly cat," answered his wife before Abbie could answer.

"Wifey, not everybody likes cats," Myron told his wife.

"But I think she does, don't you Belly Cat?" The very young woman kept her stare focused on Abbie, with a very wide and genuine smile.

"I do like cats, yes, but... I would rather not be called belly if you don't mind." Abbie said, a little shy for so many years with no practice on talking to strangers.

"Belle it is, then," Myron said, keeping the smile in his face.

"Belle Cat, hubby. She did say she liked cats."

"You're right my love, then Belle cat. If you don't mind us asking, why are you wearing sleepwear in the middle of the street?" Myron curiously scanned the stranger that seemed to be in dire need of some style sense.

"Oh, well. I just entered the dream, and I was sleeping. I am sleeping, as a matter of fact, so, what else could I be wearing?"

"Definitely there are no coincidences and no accidents. We've met for a reason, and is to get you out of that sleeping gown," Myron said even more joyful.

The volume of his voice was a little bit up for a normal conversation, and Annabelle was slightly shocked that he seemed to be talking for a crowd, instead of for only her.

"Let's take her to the store," Raquel small-jumped in her place.

"Wait, I can't go to a store," Annabelle said.

"Why not?" Myron wondered, question marks in his face.

"Because I didn't bring any money. I don't even know what money can be used here," Abbie said worriedly.

"Oh dear, have you never dreamed? This is Dreamland! Come, you'll love the store." The joyful couple took one of Annabelle's arms each and pulled her in direction unknown by her. 

In what kind of place did she end up now?