a boy's peculiar dream

Billy spent his 12th birthday playing with his friends, having dinner with his family, and enjoying a fantastic day.

Then late that evening he laid his head to sleep in his comfy bed. He tumbled, turned, and fell into Dream Land, where all the magical stories play out in our minds.

But on this spectacular night, his dream was peculiar. In the middle of a fight between a brave gladiator and a dragon, a pair of hands reached out from nowhere and split his dream down the middle. Then they pushed the two halves of the scene apart, revealing nothing but a white background behind them. The hands pushed and pushed, until the dream was gone, and all that was left was whiteness.

 Connected to those two hands were two very long arms, and also a tall man in a brown suit, with a brown, flat-brimmed hat.

The man adjusted his tie and cleared his throat. His incredibly long arms twisted and flapped and flailed, and shrunk back down to normal size.

"You're already 12 years old. You're becoming a grown-up now, Billy." He said with a smile. "It may seem like there's a lot of difference between you and I, but now there's something we both have in common."

"What?" Billy was surprised at the sound of his own voice. He hadn't meant to speak out loud. He lifted his hands and looked at them, turning them over and back again. "Woahh... I'm actually here. Inside my dream."

The suited man continued. "We're both responsible for our choices, Billy. Your parents have raised you well, but now you decide the places you go, the things you do, and the thoughts you think." He tapped Billy with a finger on top his head, smiling again. "No matter what, your choices are yours to make."

"Wh-who are you?" asked the boy.

"Nevermind that, for now." He replied. "What you need to understand is that there is a protection around your soul. You see this ball around us?"

The boy looked up and squinted. Now he could make out checkered lines in the whiteness surrounding him, a little way's away in all directions. These lines were white, too, but the kind of white you see with your eyes closed, after staring at a lightbulb.

"Well, do you see the sphere Billy?"

Billy looked back at the brown-suited man and nodded.

"Your soul is safe here. Protected. You don't ever need to leave this place." The man said, while looking around at the checkered lines.

"Umm, okay." Billy muttered.

"There are things out there. Things that will try to trick you into leaving." The man looked back to Billy, knelt down and put his hand on the boy's shoulder. "But you must never let them. You might never find your way back here again."

A warm thick fog swept in, and Billy could barely see the man tip his hat as he vanished into it.

"Hey! Wait!" Billy cried. But he was back watching the gladiator raise his sword, as he stood over the green slain dragon.