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Sean was relieved to again wake without any strange dreams or extreme fatigue. In fact, he felt as good as he ever had. After getting ready for work he made himself a large plate of bacon and eggs. He polished that off quickly and after washing up he was off to work.

Sean was feeling so much better, and having such a pleasant work day, that he noticed the taunts of his coworkers more than usual. They made him feel like he was back in high school, which was one of the reasons he hated his job. Even when everything else was going well, he still had to deal with all the taunting over his supposed homosexuality.

John Green was the worst of the lot. He was a big, strong ex-jock who felt that Sean wasn't a real man. He was always calling Sean 'girly boy', 'fag', and other less kind things. Sean ignored him as best he could and continued with his work.

Once his work day was finally over Sean gratefully clocked out and drove home. Once he'd parked his car he made the short walk over to Jill and Mike's apartment. It was getting cold enough for him to regret not wearing a jacket so he was quick to get inside.

"Hey Sean, how was your day?" Mike greeted him. He was playing tennis on his Wii. Unlike Sean he didn't have much use for video games unless they involved lots of movement.

"Okay. How about you?" he replied as he flopped onto the couch. He made sure to keep a healthy distance between him and Mike so he didn't get swatted with the Wii remote.

"Fine. Jill's really involved in her latest project, do you want to make dinner or shall we go out?" he asked just after smashing a serve into the far corner of the court from his opponent.

"I'll make it." Sean replied. He dragged himself off of the couch and into the kitchen. He didn't feel like doing anything complicated so he just made spaghetti.

When Sean told him dinner was ready Mike went back to drag Jill out of her studio. When they came out Jill was covered in splotches of different colored paint. Sean raised an inquiring eyebrow at Mike. "She washed, I swear!" he said. Sean shook his head and turned off the stove before sitting down to eat.

They chatted a little about their day during dinner, but mostly they concentrated on eating. Sean felt a tension in the air he didn't want to think about.

After dinner they all moved to the living room with Mike and Jill on the couch and Sean in the recliner as usual. "Sean, we need to talk." Jill said hesitantly once they were all settled.

"About what?" Sean asked nervously. He knew what, but he was hoping his friends either hadn't noticed, or had disregarded it.

"About what we saw over the weekend." Jill replied.

"What are you talking about?" Sean tried to bluff futilely.

"How about what we saw on Saturday." Mike said.

"That was just an illusion." Sean protested lamely.

"We know it wasn't, Sean, and we saw it again on Sunday." Mike replied.

"Well, maybe you should get your eyes checked?" Sean said weakly.

Jill frowned at Sean's reaction. "You saw it too, didn't you?"

"No, I didn't see anything out of the ordinary on Sunday." Sean said forcefully. No lie, there, I didn't dare look! he thought.

"Maybe you didn't see it, but you were aware of it, weren't you?" Jill asked suspiciously.

"Why are you harping on this?" Sean asked.

"Why are you trying to pretend it didn't happen?" Jill replied.

"Because it's crazy!" Sean snapped.

"You're really scared, aren't you?" Jill said softly.

"Wouldn't you be if your dreams weren't dreams?!" Sean demanded angrily. His friends had rarely seen him this angry.

"What are you talking about?" Mike asked, confused. He hadn't followed all of Jill's reasoning, let alone Sean's.

"Wait right here!" Sean growled through gritted teeth. He stormed out of the apartment and returned shortly carrying a large white feather. "This is what I'm talking about!" He yelled, shoving the feather at Mike.

Mike examined the feather curiously. It was larger than any feather he had ever seen. "Where'd you get this from, an ostrich?" he asked.

"No, I got it from a man with wings!" Sean growled.

Jill's eyes opened wide in surprise. "Are you saying those dreams you've been having are real?!" she asked in shock.

All the anger seemed to flow out of Sean like a punctured balloon and he slumped back into the recliner. "I don't know." He admitted. "I just know I found that in my room Saturday morning. After I found the sword."

"Sword?!" Mike said. "What sword?"

Sean waved weakly at the door. "It's in my bedroom closet on the shelf. I found it next to me on my bed when I woke up Saturday morning. It's identical to the one I took from a dead prison guard in my 'dream'." He replied.

Mike stood and walked over to Sean's apartment and let himself in. Walking into Sean's bedroom he saw the closet door was still open and the sword was sitting there in its' scabbard. He picked it up and carried it back to his apartment. "This it?" he asked Sean. Sean nodded and he drew the sword from its sheath to take a look at it. It wasn't anything fancy. Just a plain short sword with a few notches and scratches along its length. "This looks like it's seen some use." He noted.

"This is even more serious than I thought." Jill mused. "I thought you were somehow creating those images from your subconscious, but that wouldn't explain a solid object like that sword. Now I'm wondering if you were actually there!"

"What do you mean Jill?" Mike asked, looking up from his examination of the sword.

"Well, what if Sean dreamed those places, and then somehow went there in his sleep." Jill explained. "You said your dreams always started with you waking up, right?" she asked Sean, who nodded. "What if you were actually waking up? Then after everything that happened you fell asleep again and traveled back to your bed in your sleep. Kind of a dimensional sleep walking."

"Dimensional?" Sean asked.

Jill shrugged. "How else do you explain it? You somehow tapped into another world in your sleep and traveled there and back again. I'm guessing those things we saw were doorways to worlds like the ones in your book and in that movie."

Mike dropped down into the couch next to Jill. "Wow, that's some theory! But it does fit what we know so far. Maybe we should test it?" he suggested.

"Test it? How do you suggest we do that?" Sean asked wearily.

"You read your book and one of us will try to walk through the doorway that appears." Mike answered.

"That sounds pretty dangerous, Mike." Jill said.

"Okay, then we'll all go." Mike countered.

"What if we can't get back?" Sean asked fearfully.

"Well, you came back on your own when you fell asleep before. Maybe if we just hold onto you while you sleep we'll all be transported back here?" Jill answered.

"That settles that. Now all we need is some way for me to carry this sword!" Mike announced.

"Why do you need the sword?" Jill asked.

"The book Sean's been reading is fantasy. One of us aught to have a sword. And I'm the one best suited to use it." Mike explained.

"If we're going to be ready for a fight, then I'm getting my bow." Sean announced. Jill followed him to his apartment and helped him carry his book, bow, arrows, and related gear back to her apartment. Once there Sean strapped on his arm guard and quiver.

"Okay, I'm ready to go." He announced. Jill held up his book. "Oh yeah, I forgot about that." He said and took the book. Mike meanwhile had run a piece of rope through his belt loops and tied the scabbard to it. He slid the sword home and tested to make sure it wouldn't fall off.

"What about me?" Jill asked. "Shouldn't I be armed, too?"

Mike looked thoughtful and then walked over to the spare bedroom and rummaged around in his camping gear. "Ah, here we go!" he announced happily as he returned with a sheathed hunting knife. He handed it to Jill who attached it to a belt loop on her jeans.

"I guess that's better than nothing." Jill said looking down at the blade. It was about six inches long.

"You know," Sean began, holding up his book, "we're probably just going to walk through some trick of the light and all feel pretty stupid about this."

Mike shrugged. "I'd rather feel stupid than let you keep sleep walking through other worlds and get yourself killed. Better we get a handle on this now, even if we're all just hallucinating because of mold in the walls or something." Jill nodded, so Sean opened his book and began reading.

In moments a hole opened up beside him and a forest became visible through it. Soon it had grown large enough to walk through. Jill grabbed Mike's and Sean's hands and prodded Sean forward. Then they stepped through the hole.

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 To Be Continued…