Danny Callahan woke up in a panic. The same dream again- he was being killed by a big muscly man with unflattering blonde bangs, as a pudgy guy in a fedora scream-laughed behind him. To his knowledge, he had experienced the dream five times before today, all in the past week. A similar thing had happened to him previously with other dreams, but those had been rather simple- the same dream repeated twice over a month, for example. That was normal- this was not. But perhaps the strangest thing about the dream, the thing that confused and perplexed Danny Callahan into a state of nervous fear, was that his classmate was in the dream-Allison Carmicheal, who was standing there screaming at somebody, either the men killing Danny or at Danny himself. To Danny’s knowledge, they had never spoken a word to each other, and hardly ever even glanced in each other’s general directions.
Danny kept thinking as he got dressed. Perhaps the only significant connection between him and Allison Carmicheal was that Allison lived about two minutes away from him. He had seen her walking around, getting driven to school, and occasionally sitting out on her porch, but even then they had never struck up a conversation. If there was one thing he knew about Allison, it was that she wasn’t especially personable- she had floated in and out of cliques for a while, eventually opting to live life as someone people occasionally spoke to but otherwise forgot about.
Danny decided to stop thinking about the dream- he subconsciously ignored the fact that 1) he was being murdered in the dream and 2) the two men who appeared to be the perpetrators seemed awfully familiar. As he slowly crept down the stairs, he glanced over at his mother- sleeping restlessly on the couch, the TV flickering in front of her. Danny quietly made himself a bowl of cereal and went back upstairs to go about his business. It must have only been 5:00 in the morning, but Danny was decent at falling back asleep. However, when he woke up in the early hours of the morning like this, he took great pleasure in getting ready ahead of time- eating, putting some clothes on, the rest. Danny liked to give himself time to think.
As he returned to his room, Danny realized begrudgingly that his drapes were open, giving people on the street a full view of his second-story bedroom. As he went to close them, his eyes darted around absentmindedly and he caught a glimpse of a man in a long coat, standing right below his window. The man’s eyes turned to look up at him. He was bald aside from some vague patches of hair, and overall looked grimy. The man and Danny observed each other for a while, before the man ran away, turning the corner and taking his small shopping bags with him. Danny realized somewhat apathetically that he would not be falling asleep that night.
***
Feb 2nd, 9:20 AM. Allison Mae Carmicheal, currently in possession of grenade
Allison knew what was behind the door, and it certainly wasn’t good. She dashed through the yellow hallway, hearing the creature tear the rooms apart behind her. Its joints popped in exertion, and Allison just barely made it back into the first room before the creature could round the corner and grab her. Allison grabbed at the ladder like a madman, palms sweaty with genuine fear, and began scampering up to the surface. She could feel the grenade bumping around in her pocket and was filled with impossible happiness. Today might be the day. She might kill the thing that was pursuing her at this very moment. But not right now. She had a plan, and the plan couldn’t fail. She would make sure everything went properly. She would escape the loop.
***
Feb 2nd, 8:00 AM. Daniel Evan Callahan
Daniel’s eyes snapped open. He had fallen asleep briefly, but briefly was too long. The man might still be outside, he thought nervously. He slowly stepped to his window, and ever so slightly pushed the drape open. The man was not there, just a pile of leaves and the grass of his neighbor’s lawn. Danny breathed a sigh of relief, and made his way downstairs.
His mother was still sleeping, and the TV was still flickering. Men in tacky suits screamed slogans at the camera, yelping like baboons and banging their podiums, Danny vaguely registered the program- HALBERD, where middle-class “intellects” the world over put their brains together to create “the next big thing”. A man was currently advertising what appeared to be a small piece of plastic with numbered buttons and a single antenna. “Cellular technology,” he began, before being cut off by Halberd’s host, Micheal Wayne. “My sincerest apologies, good sir,” Wayne began, “but a deal is impossible. Come back when you’ve got some proof that your thingamajig works.” Danny’s mother loved Halberd, and Danny had (perhaps against his will) memorized Wayne’s mannerisms- particularly his whole “proof” rant. He was one of the richest men in the world, and seemed particularly determined to not share his wealth with others.
Danny packed his bag, again with the same level of grace as before so as to not disturb his mother. Just as he opened the door, he heard Wayne announce, with a sleazy grin on his face, that the next product being advertised was a cybernetic machine that simulated the experience of taking drugs. He described it accordingly- “All the stimulation, none of the consequences!”
The crowd cheered.
***
Feb 2nd, 9:25 AM, Allison Mae Carmicheal.
Allison dashed through the forest until finally her school was visible in the distance. The creature’s joints popped in the distance behind her, but sooner or later she heard it stop, and she finally slowed to a walking pace. The creature began sputtering, before its articulating body propped it up straight. Allison considered turning around to look at it, before stopping herself- unless she needed to, it was hardly necessary to gaze upon this perversion of nature. Allison strolled across the wide, green, flowered field, and breathed a sigh of relief upon noticing that there wasn’t anybody around the school grounds. She walked past the blacktop and pushed open the doors, glancing briefly behind her- the creature was still there, on the outskirts of the forest, looking at her. It was visible only in silhouette, but despite this Allison still felt as though it could kill her at any moment. She knew deep down she was right.
***
Feb 2nd, 9:43 AM, Daniel Evan Callahan
Danny stared deeply at the air vent above him. He thought harder than he ever had in his life about the logistics of air vents, why they were even something that needed to exist on Earth and the like, but despite all his deep thought he ultimately dredged up nothing. Somewhere up at the front of his class, his teacher spoke about something that he should have found interesting. His thoughts, however, were consumed by Allison Carmicheal. He didn’t want to be thinking about her, but he was- today was the first day in a long while where she hadn’t been on time, and it deeply perplexed him. It was too alarming of a coincidence.
Usually, Allison was the perfect student- she answered questions in class regularly, and to his memory had never been late. But today she was? Coinciding perfectly with Allison’s first appearance in his murder dream? It alarmed him. And suddenly, just on cue and continuing the perplexing trend of Allison-related coincidences that had plagued him that morning, Allison burst through the door, stared directly at Danny’s teacher, and said, in what could best be described as a drill sergeant voice, “MY APOLOGIES FOR BEING LATE, GOOD SIR!” The class laughed- they rarely did. But there was something about Allison’s joke that caused an uproar. It was as if she had practiced it or something.
Allison quietly took her seat, in direct contrast to her previous outburst, and the class continued to giggle sparingly. Even Danny was laughing, but he tried to not look at Allison- he didn’t want to seem rude or anything. He was trying so hard to not look at Allison that he somehow didn’t notice that she was now sitting right next to him. She snapped her fingers quietly next to him. He turned around. She passed him a pink sticky note, with rather crappy handwriting on it. Danny struggled to make it out, but eventually made out the following-
MEET ME OUTSIDE, THREE MINUTES AFTER I LEAVE. LET’S GO FOR A WALK OR SOMETHING.
Danny was taken aback, and blinked about five times in spite of himself. Allison laughed at him a little, and he looked at the air vent as some sort of safety-seeking mechanism. As promised, Allison put her hand up a few seconds later- “Excuse me, may I use your lavatory, good sir?” That got another roar of laughter from the class. Whenever someone made a single half-decent joke, they were automatically funny for about another hour or so. The teacher begrudgingly agreed, and Allison stood up and left- winking at Danny on the way out. A kid behind Danny tapped his shoulder. Danny looked at him, not really prepared for any kind of social interaction after the train wreck that was the last two minutes. “Yo, dude,” the kid said. It was Jeremy, world-renowned well-meaning asshole. “You and Carmicheal getting it on or something?” Danny sputtered various sentences that were all versions of “no”. Jeremy laughed and then whispered something to someone behind him…that Josh Nevcled guy. He was a hot jock who was also good at school, making him a modern Adonis in the eyes of basically every girl at the school. Josh leaned forward in his seat and began to glare at Danny. Danny decided that maybe going outside with a girl he had never interacted with in his life was maybe a halfway decent idea.