The end of the dream

*bang*

The last thing I heard as I walked out of the building I worked in one day. Time seemed to slow down as I looked to see a car flying at my head. Yes, at my head. The bang had been the car bouncing off the parking stub that’s meant to stop people from driving too far forwards. This time it somehow sent the car into the air, at just the right height to ensure that I wasn’t going to survive this. Had the car not jumped up so much, maybe I could’ve lived with severe injuries, and continued dreaming. Instead I was left with terror.

I’ve got an awesome parade tonight! Two of them! I’m gonna miss it!

Then, I woke up.

...

“Hey, son! Ready for the big day?”

“Yeah, dad. I’m just feeling a little weird. Give me a bit to get my head together.”

“No problem, you always were a little slow to wake up properly.”

What… the… heck?

I was in a familiar room, one my parents had rented for us to stay in while in the capital. This was a familiar body, I was David, the boy prodigy, now 18 years old, living in the kingdom of Castile.

This doesn’t feel like a dream.

“Ow!”

I regret it. I regret using so much force when I pinched myself. I think my arm is gonna bruise, it’s so sore. I’d never gotten hurt before when this was a dream, though, admittedly, I’d never tried to hurt myself before today. It seems my dream became reality.

This day went by with me in a daze. Thankfully, all the things I needed to do, were things I knew well enough to basically auto-pilot my whole way through. It all felt so real, so amazing, it overwhelmed me. The warmth of the sun, cheering of crowds. 

It was supposed to be a happy day, yet by the end, as I lay down in bed to prepare for night, I was crying. This world was real. This world I’d ignored and just froliced about was real. That changes everything. I need to actually take this seriously now. Then, as night fell… I woke up.

…

What?

A familiar room. My room. Jessica Joy’s room. My stuffed teddy bears and luxurious silken sheets feeling far more real now than they ever did in my dream. It felt nice. Though it was a little silly to keep a big teddy bear as a sleeping partner when I’m now 18 years old. Not that I ever truly felt as young as I officially was in this world. 

Now, I was embarrassed. Ashamed. This world was real too, right? Then all that time I spent enjoying the freedom to see naked ladies in the shared bathing areas… wait, I’m a girl too here. I never thought about it when I was dreaming, but now… those parts are all real too.

“C’mon sis! It’s your big day!” 

“I’m coming Jenn!”

I have a younger sister in this life (who shouted through my door), unlike my other one. David is an only child, but Jessica has one sister. As for the big day, it’s graduation day. Every year, the academy has a parade for all graduates, with the best students in front. As the best student, I’m to take the lead. 

Getting out of bed, I began to get ready, only to pause as I stared in the mirror at my horns. Yes, horns. I made those horns. I thought nothing of it at the time. I just learned about how certain magics could be used to create them, for both cosmetic and functional purposes. 

The horns we make are magical items embedded in the body, enabling effects that are normally much more difficult. The standard is mana storage, to enable more magic use, though some favor physical enhancement enchantments. I personally chose a mix of both, weaving the two enchantments together in a way that made my physical capabilities greater the more mana I had stored.

However, now that I seriously think about things instead of just carelessly going with the flow… I’m a demon. This is the land of demons. We call this place Demi. While some will be silly and say we are Demizens, most will call us Demons, the school books certainly do. Additionally, transformative magics are commonplace and many have altered their forms either for advantages in combat, or just for personal preference or cosmetic reasons. I once attended a party in which everyone became a different animal. I was a bat, and spent the whole party hanging upside down. It was funny.

*click*

“Hurry up already! We need to go!”

“Alright, alright! Let’s go.” 

In a hurry, I cheated and used a quickchange spell to get dressed and ready. I’d spent far too much time staring into the mirror. Time to go walk down a street, show off a little. 

“Blue again, huh?”

“Of course, I love blue!”

“Yeah, that’s obvious from the gaudy blue gemstone horns you gave yourself.”

“They’re pretty!”

“And frail, if you ever actually run out of mana, they’ll crumble to dust. No one makes horns like that for a reason.”

“I guess I’m ‘no one’ then.”

“Jess, I love ya, but you’re crazy.”

“Love ya too, sis.” 

…

As David, a lot of what shocked me so much by the idea of the world being real, was the understanding that what I’d done mattered. I’d dedicated David’s life to hunting down monsters and clearing dungeons. I’d become so famously good at it, that I was invited to become the leader of the hero party that would be trained up and sent to invade the demon realm. I thought nothing of this when I believed it nothing but a dream. Yet now it was real, and that made me rethink things.

As Jessica, I find it easy to put aside David’s worries and focus on Jessica’s worries instead, and as Jessica, I feel like the shock of the dream becoming real is quite different. I’d become very close with a couple young women of similar age. We’d often celebrate birthdays and special occasions with sleep overs. What made my first real day as Jessica become a day I struggled to get through without messing up, was how strongly my emotions came forth. I’d already cared about my close friends and family when it was a dream. When it became real, I found those feelings to be so much stronger. I may have lost my friends and family in my original life, but I had them here, and I loved them very much. 

By the end of the day, as I lay down in bed, I began to cry. Not in sadness, but because it all felt so overwhelming. It’s like years of love and affection welling up all at once. Perhaps I’d always felt this way, and just not paid it enough attention since I thought it was a dream. I definitely held back my emotions before, believing the people to not be real, and not wanting to fall in love with a fiction. 

It was actually kinda weird how strikingly different being David and being Jessica felt. David was a loner, an adrenaline junky, really. Always chasing the next grand hunt. He had family and friends but didn’t much care about them beyond enjoying time with them when there wasn’t something more interesting to do. I didn’t care much about them. David is me, and I am David. Yet… Jessica is so different, and she is also me, and I her! Jessica spent her life surrounded by family and friends, and was never lacking in support. She studied and learned and enjoyed discussing what she learned with family and friends. My preference for girls over boys was also no secret when the topic of love came up… the fact that this was accepted so well didn’t seem so special at the time (since I thought it was just a dream), but now… when I think of it… I feel so loved. 

Then as night fell… I woke.