Have you ever had one of those dreams where you realize you’re dreaming? I always wake up right after the realization, like the shock of it breaks the illusion. But this dream was different, backwards almost.

I can’t remember how it started, it was like my subconscious pulled my conscious mind into the dream at the moment of realization. My first memory is of saying “This is a dream?” right as it all clicked.

It made sense why I was confused, it was different than any dream I’d ever had before. It almost felt more real than being awake.

It was like all my senses perceived the area around me in perfect clarity; the colors and brush strokes of every painting along the walls, the smell of soap and stale blood lingering under a foreign perfume, the sweat on my own skin. Even my emotions felt heightened, I was afraid.

I was seated in some sort of tattoo chair, my arms and legs restrained with heavy straps. The parlor looked hygienic enough, but it was cluttered with pictures and objects from what must have been decades of use.

Standing over me was the person I intuitively understood to be my captor. We had just been talking, or so I felt, but I had no memory of the conversation.

I couldn’t tell their ethnicity or gender, I wasn’t even sure they were human. They had smooth pale skin with intensely blue eyes. Their ears came up to gentle points, and their hair was a shimmery white-gray, falling flat and straight like a cascade of liquid silver.

They were wearing some sort of long shirt over a pair of short pants, and every visible inch of skin was covered in tattoos and piercings. Most depicted things I had no understanding of. A bemused smirk lingered on their lips.

“Yes and no, you’ve crossed into the realm of night, the land of dreams.” They spoke in a lilting voice that was gratingly condescending.

“But this is a dream, like none of this is real?” I tried to clarify.

My captor let out a chirping laugh “This is very real for me, I live here. But no, we are not in your reality. You’ve been sentenced to a new one, I’m here to guide you there.” They stated matter-of-factly.

“Sentenced, what are you talking about?” I asked, pulling a little against the straps. I …