Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction Group 3 - 2017 | Page 348

This was the second anomaly that had happened. First, not being able to dismiss the dark presence. And now this? It wasn’t
like lucid dreams were unpredictable, it…it wasn’t like they were predictable, either, but as an experienced lucid dreamer, I kind
of…well…just made them up as I went along. It was eerily quiet.
“Hey!” A sharp voice cut through the air. I was caught off guard and stumbled. I was surprised. I was never surprised! My
dream, my rules! I didn’t think of it, I didn’t conjure it up, so it shouldn’t have happened! I recovered quickly and turned around
to see where the noise had come from anyway. Standing a couple of metres away from me was a girl. She was maybe a year, two
years older than me. She had quite prominent, sharp features, coupled with piercing hazel eyes and wavy waist-length
coppery-brown hair. There was a sort of enigmatic aura to her.
“Who are you?” I called out.
“I would ask you the same,” she responded curtly. “You don’t look like you’re from these parts.”
I scoffed. It was hard to take in. “ ‘These parts’? What do you mean, ‘these parts’ ? This is all a figment of my imagination.
You are a figment of my imagination!”
She looked slightly irritated. “Can a figment of your imagination do this?”
It happened all too quickly. She reached her hand inside the folds of her cloak and drew out a throwing knife, and in one
smooth motion released it towards me with deadly momentum. I was too stunned to react, and it looked like that the knife was
headed straight towards the dead centre of my heart, but at the last millisecond it swerved upwards and to the left and its edge
just grazed the tip of my ear, drawing blood before embedding itself in the wall next to me.
I was lost for words. My jaw dropped as I clutched my stinging ear.
“You didn’t imagine that, I suppose?” she smirked. “Thought so.” She strode forward to retrieve her knife. “Now tell me.
Who are you?”
I told her my name.
“And what are you doing here?”
“Where exactly is here?”
“Shanghai.”
Shanghai?! I was a bit shocked to hear this. It just all didn’t add up. Usually dreams started in places I was familiar with, or
my mind just conjured up completely strange and fantastical realms as I went along. I’d never even been to Shanghai, let alone
being able to visit it in a dream coming from my own mind!