"I Woke Up. My Dream Didn't"

Dreams are where you go when you can't afford to die. People say dreams are your subconscious. That's a pretty way of saying it's the basement you never clean. Everything you pretended to forget during the day lives down there. The people you didn't mourn properly. The things you wanted to say and swallowed. At 2 AM, they open the door themselves.<img alt="" src="/media/inline_insight_image/8090ab11a50f9ac9fee4d1ffd60c714e.jpg"/>The worst part isn't the nightmares. Nightmares are honest. Someone chasing you, teeth falling out, falling from a height - at least your body is telling you the truth: you are afraid. The cruelest dreams are the good ones. You dream that she came back. And in the dream, it makes sense. Of course she's back. Why wouldn't she be? You make tea, you talk about nothing, you laugh. It feels more real than real life ever did. The light in the dream is warmer than actual sunlight.<img alt="" src="/media/inline_insight_image/f0ddf404c6a5d637b029a123b5de3dea.jpg"/>Then you wake up.<img alt="" src="/media/inline_insight_image/185286d3e7e48f95a448196d221272d1.jpg"/>And for 0.5 seconds, you still believe it. Your hand reaches for the other side of the bed. Your mouth is already forming her name. Then your room hits you - same ceiling, same fan noise, same loneliness that was there yesterday. And you have to grieve her all over again. Every morning is a small funeral for a dream that felt truer than your life. That's the dark contract of dreaming. Your brain gives you what you beg for at night, but makes you pay for it in the morning with interest. We chase dreams in real life - "follow your dreams" - but no one tells you that dreams don't want to be caught. A dream is powerful because you can't have it. Once you grab it, it becomes a job, a rent payment, a routine. The hunter x hunter dream, the samurai dream, the winter arc dream - they stay alive because you suffer for them. Your dreams know you better than your friends do. They know you want to disappear. They know you want to be seen. They know you are tired of being the strong one. So they show you yourself, without armor, without the quote you posted on your status. Most people are scared of dying in their sleep. I'm scared of waking up and realizing I have stopped dreaming at all.<img src="/media/inline_insight_image/54cdd94f000eae13fb7b4ac158c38cd8.jpg"/>Because a man who no longer dreams while sleeping has already started dying while awake.I know there are some people who don't actually dream sometimes. It's just a writeup y'all ✌️😁The dark twist was necessary.

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