"Damn it."

The soft rustles of Katherine's bed soon turned into violent rushes of air, immediately after the warnings of her digital clock. Soon, the woman found herself back to her bad habits--her inevitable feeling of clinomania retreating back to her veins. Like a stab in the heart, Katherine froze once her steps were near the end of the corridor.

The cracks in her--or someone else's--dream she had, it had reappeared. In fact, it had presented itself more close and personally with it's chasm starting from the mouth of her bathroom till the edge of her kitchen. She gasped for air, and took what she had thought was real air. "T-Torus! Help!" she cried out. No rumblings came, only the shine from the blue lines that were still present--and expanding--near her feet.

She traced the wooden walls of her home, backing up from the cracks as they sat silently, in a static moment. Katherine, finally able to muster back her wits, stopped at the light switch. "Torus! Where are you!?" she shouted in despair. Then, there she sat, acquiring back her sanity that she lost. The blue cracks waved in harmony in return to her calm attitude. Katherine, which was still over-reacting toward the alien objects that she allegedly found in her dreams, stopped to think again.

"Okay, Katt. Play it cool, it's not Retrosha--or wherever the hell that freaky voice told you! It's.. your apartment. It's just another segment of your bad dream." she assured herself, hastily. She placed herself back to her dominant position, as the owner of the house. "It's not like a movie. Ugh." she pointed out. 

"It's Retrovva, not Retrosha. Though, it would be quite the fitting name!"

Katherine froze.

"Y-You? Why are you here?" she questioned the voice, silently. "Why, I should be asking that. I should also be asking that to your apartment--it's not fitting to Retrovva's dystopian setting, you know?" he replied back, chuckling again. It was the same voice as before, just more informal in some ways.

Katherine spun in a flash, her expression mixed with fear and confusion. "Who are you!?" she asked, the stuttering masked with the volume of her voice. "We all come by different names, Cat. I come by Kol. Very.. mawkish I must say." he replied back. Katherine fixated her eyes upon the man, a floating, relaxing figure clad in a blue suit and a dashing butterfly tie. "Though I remember people calling me as Anatoly." he said again, rotating his body in the air, before landing. Katherine retraced her steps again. 

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"W-Why is this happening to me? This is purely insane! I need to get out of here! I need to wake up!" she cried out. Anatoly massaged the line between his eyes, before sitting back on the chair, just in front of Katherine. "The boy's still asleep, and we would need to wait for about.." he said, before stopping his sentence to pull out a small, antique watch. "..300 seconds. 5 minutes, if you can count! But before rush hour's over, we still have to wait out the.. act." Anatoly explained. Katherine, finding the comfort of her own living room--or somewhat, a place similar to it--better than the cracked corridors, decided to join Anatoly's sitting.

"What do you mean by the boy,rush hour and the act? How do you know all of this? Why am I here?" she asked, more calmly. Anatoly in return, smiled at her new persona. "I've been here long enough to stay sane with these circumstances. Now, what I meant by the boy, it depends. Do you know any young lad in your lifetime? Someone who remembers YOU, perhaps. Someone with enough desire to pull your conscience to their dreams. That explains OUR presence." Anatoly stopped to exhale. "For the time being, the little kid's in a light sleep, which means rush hour has ended quite long ago. And with the acts, it's simply the duration we have to sit through before the child wakes up--and we do!" Anatoly concluded.

"..you didn't even explain about rush hour?" "It's better witnessed than said. Now, come on! We've got some errands to run, Cat!" Anatoly beckoned her.

"How did you even know my name?" she asked. "..and what are these errands you speak of?" "You were over Retrovva's news, all you for the past weeks, sweetheart! I wonder who the boy thinks of you." he mumbled, before producing a small torn piece of newspaper. The word 'Cat' filled it all. 

Soon, Anatoly exhaled deeply, pushing his own suit (and himself) up to standing level. He jolted his arm out, and spoke casually; "Pull my finger."

"What?" Katherine asked. Anatoly peeked back to Katherine. "This is a lucid dream, so we're free to do what we want, gal." He winked.

Katherine, feeling an odd meme sense up her spine, did it hesitantly. 

The room beneath, on top and around her all deceased in color, their orange and yellow life desaturated to a mere grey and white. Soon, the woman caught a glimpse of Anatoly's smile, before it faded into a kaleidoscope of a tunnel.

~ end of chapter 2; eccentric mondays ~