The fade from black starts. Sel’s new dream adventure. His vision clears. It feels like his journey begins in front of a building. It looks like a hotel or an inn of some sort, giant glass doors in front, grayish brick walls with a tint of brown-red color. People unknown to him going in and out.

  Sel looks at the door handle and thinks of wanting to go inside. He doesn’t know where he is going to end up. The view from the glass doors doesn’t show what’s behind them. Even though they are clear, they don’t. That’s the beauty of the dream world. Things don’t need to make sense.

  Ahh, might as well see what’s behind these doors.

  His curiosity overpowers him and he takes the first step. Hesitantly, Sel touches the handle and slowly flips it. The door starts opening. Immediately, he hears people talking, furniture moving, forks clinking against plates. Looking around, every direction is a unique path he could take.

  Sel takes the first door closest to him and starts to walk. The details and design remind him of places he has been before. He notices white sheets hanging, almost touching the red-carpeted floor. People are zipping in front of him, pushing tables. It looks like there is a big, grand event happening and he has stumbled into it. The hallway’s end is getting closer and closer. He can see a new door waiting to be opened. He slightly quickens his pace, getting excited to see what’s next.

  Surprisingly, the door leads back to the entrance where he first entered.

  Another quirk of the dream world, right.

  Okay, he thinks to himself. Let’s try another path.

  The familiar picture of people zooming around him, moving things and preparing for something big. It all resembles a wedding of some sort. Sel is kind of intrigued by this.

  Maybe I will stay and experience this. See it through.

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  This path is a dead end. Sel backtracks to the hub where all paths begin. This time, stairs are the next thing he tackles. The stairs are made of metal, black and shiny, very similar to the kind used for park benches in the city.

  This path looks promising.

  There are a few routes he can take on this floor. He tries a few of them, but all lead back to the hub floor. Sel is getting frustrated. He remembers the paths he took upstairs and attempts another one he didn’t go to.

  He enters a dimly lit room. He can see a window and the white light from outside. There is an arched entrance with no door leading to a new room.

  His gaze jumps to the grand piano.

  Sel becomes lucid right away.

  All along he was going with the flow of the dream, but in this moment he is in the pilot’s seat.

  He really wants to play it. He looks around to see if he can ask for permission. There is a blonde, middle-aged woman sitting next to the piano, looking like she is conversing with her daughter, or so it seems. Sel doesn’t pay much attention to her. His main focus is on wanting to play.

  The woman looks at him and speaks in another language. Sel attempts to talk, and somehow she manages to understand him. His questions and explanations sound unsure but charming. The woman agrees to let him play.

  All three of them sit on the bench.

  They start playing the piano, some fantasy OST, but it sounds very different from what he is used to hearing.

  Uhm. This doesn’t sound right, he thinks out loud.

  He stops playing and moves to the back of the piano to verify if the sound is actually coming from it. The sound feels cheap and fake. Maybe his expectations were too high.

  Is this how a real grand piano sounds?

  He decides that this is what he is going to get, and it won’t get better.

  He goes back to the bench and starts playing again with them. This time his part sounds sloppy. He is making mistakes.

  Frustrated by the sound and his ability to play, Sel gives up and stands up.

  The dream is fading away.

  He tries to take back control, but to no avail. The dream world slowly dissolves. As it does, from the corner of his eye, he notices the woman’s daughter.

  Awake now, Sel is bummed about it. But at least he got to play a bit on that grand.

  He is also curious about the girl he saw.