Chapter 7: And then... the dream happened

She woke up the next morning with the sun coming through unshut blinds. 'This was strange, did her butler forget to close them?' She was sure they were shut when she went to bed; and 'where was her cup of coffee? Was he recharging, did something malfunction?'

Determined to investigate what was going on in her house, she jumped out of bed. It felt weird. She got dizzy all of a sudden and had to sit back down. 'What in the world…'

Her eyes were finally strting to take in her surroundings. The bedspread was a gauzy flowery yellow thing, with what looked like red satin pillow cases on the bed. 'who would have something so tacky?!' realisation finally hit her when she realised her pink fluffy pyjamas were now a silky, scantily laced decorated nightgown. This was not her home.

Had she been kidnapped?! No, surely no kidnapper would put her in this setting. What was going on?!

She tried calling for her butler but the sound of her voice sounded off.

She ran to the door of the bedroom and tried to open it. If this was a kidnapping it would be locked.

To her surprise the door opened just fine. The bedroom opened into a small living space where more tacky décor awaited her. To her left she could see a door that looked like it hid a bathroom behind it, and to her right, the living spaces ended in French doors that would likely open to reveal a small balcony. The kitchen was small as well, it looked like it was an all in one kind of apartment.

'Ok, Raven stay calm. This is clearly a dream, and all you have to do is wake up. Right, how did those neurology books she read advised to do it?!'

First she needed to inflict some form of discomfort on her body. It was too risky to get into a cold shower, she had no idea what was going on, and if this was a nightmare, who knows what could happen to her. Short outburst of pain it was. She pinched her arm, hard, twisting the skin until a pained cry came out and she started tearing up.

'Ok that didn't work, and It will likely leave a bruise'. Next step was sharp pain. She ran towards the kitchen area looking for something sharp. She would just prick her finger or something. No! first she needed to disinfect the utensil, better safe than sorry.

She grabbed the first sharp knife she saw and ran towards what she assumed was the bathroom to find some alcohol or disinfectant to rub the knife.

'Mission accomplished' she gave herself a mental pat on the back. She found what she needed. With a sigh, preparing herself for sharp paint hat would wake her up she pricked her finger. Pain radiated through her hand and arm, and blood was already starting to flow out of the wound.

"Ouch! That was rough" she exclaimed, trying to look for something to stop the bleeding. That was not smart but it was needed.

So if pain didn't work, then what would. If this was one of those sleep paralysis dreams where she felt awake but she was still sleeping then she needed to get out.

Next step was to find out what the dream was about. She was beginning to think this was a nightmare and it would not go well for her to be defensless. Who knows what her mind might've concocted from all the sensory overload she had today with Victor.

Dissatisfied with her attempts to wake up, she headed back to the living room. She needed more information. 'Where was she?!'

Luckily, on the couch…'horrible colour' she thought , was a handbag. That was the first clue. Just as she was getting ready to rummage through the handbag in the hopes of finding something to help her wake up a phone started ringing in the bedroom.

'Another clue! She would surely be able to find out some information right?!' The screen was flashing with an incoming call.

"Dominic put them through…" oh no, hang on, this was a dream, there was no Dominic here.

She looked at the phone screen where a cute animated kitten was wagging its tail under the name Shengli.

'Who was that?!'

She picked up not daring to say a word.

A high pitched voice assaulted her ears. A female voice, sounding both excited and nervous at the same time was speaking very fast in a language she could barely understand.

'What on earth was going on?! Why was she dreaming in Mandarin?! ' she had given up on learning the language preferring the European ones, but she could make sense of the conversation. The woman on the phone was shouting congratulations at someone named Liehen.

Slowly tuning into what was happening, the woman was talking about a promotion that this Liehen had received, as executive assistant to the president and CEO of this something or other company. 'Ok, this is my first clue to wake up'.

Trying her best to mimic the woman's accent (not her enthusiasim, that was a feat she could not achieve) she replied slowly "I think you have the wrong number."

A ghasp was heard on the other side of the phone.

"Liehen, what are you talking about?! Did you have a weird dream again?! It's me Shengli, I'm so proud of you for moving up!!..." and then she carried on with this nonsense about this job. The woman's style of speaking was oddly familiar. 'Hah, a female Victor, how delightful'.

She reacted to a question the woman threw her and she was trying hard to not to seem too out of it. 'Should she challenge the dream reality? Was that the best option here? It was certainly an option to keep throwing challenges at the world her mind had created, like a virus, trying to force herself to wake up' It seemed like a good idea.

"Miss, miss, excuse me." She said in english trying to shock the reality of this twisted dream.

The woman was quiet and then suddenly started laughing.

"Very good Liehen, practice your English, you will need it in your new job."

'Right so that didn't work. Back to mandarin it was'.

"Excuse me miss, I really think you have the wrong number, there's no Liehen here. My name is Raven and …" she stopped, it hit her, that was the Chinese word for Raven. Ok maybe this was her after all.

The woman laughed again.

"You're so funny darling, I cannot wait to see you today slapping all those bitches' faces with your promotion."

"Excuse me, miss Shengli, there will be no slapping and no bitches, I have no idea what you're talking about."

The other side went silent. Like she was contemplating something and then said:

"Darling this is not funny anymore, hurry up and get to work, lets meet before and get a coffee, you can tell me all about why you're acting so weird!". She hung up.