Chapter One
A dog was barking somewhere outside. A voice, obviously belonging to the dog’s owner, sounded through the darkness of the night. “Max! Come back!” The dog barked once more, and then everything was silent again. Everyone had fallen asleep long ago, everyone except me. I took a look at my clock. The lighted numbers told me it was exactly 4:23, no minute earlier and no minute later. I turned around, facing the blind wall to the right of my bed.
I closed my eyes, and breathed slowly. However, I didn’t fall asleep. So I started counting flamingos. Counting sheep had become slightly boring after two months, so I decided to count other animals. Today it was dear flamingo’s turn. I silently whispered the numbers, the only sound in the room.
“34, 35, 36, 36.5, 37.” I yawned and turned back again. 4:30. “Crap.” I kicked the sheets away, and placed my feet on the cold wooden floor. I stumbled out of the room, and went into the bathroom. There I splashed some water in my face, and looked out of the window for some time. As expected, there was no one to be seen. Of course not, anyone that went outside in a crowded city at this time must be either very brave or very mad. It wouldn’t be the first time a man or woman had been robbed, murdered or worse. So we all stayed inside.
Why actually, I wondered. Because the mostly made up stories our own government spread across the country scared the hell out of us? Because it wasn’t neat to go out in the middle of the night? Because we were scared of the dark? It was almost funny. And how many people had really experienced something bad? Indeed, almost no one. It was as if the government used the dark of the night for their own illegal activities.
I rubbed my eyes. “Seriously, I need more sleep before I start seeing complots everywhere.”
Or start talking to myself. And that’s exactly the problem. Sleep is a complicated thing. When you sleep you sink away in unconsciousness, but it is a refreshing kind of unconsciousness. Somehow your body rests, your troubles fade away, and your brains are being prepared for another day of hard thinking. And as if that wasn’t enough already, sleeping has several stages, including one in which you are able to dream. Your strangest fantasies can come true, or maybe you are reliving the past day again. Most people enjoy dreaming. So yeah, sleeping is good. But here’s the thing: I can’t sleep. And it’s not that I sometimes can’t sleep a night, no, there are whole periods without any sleep. Let me think, the last time was 4 days ago. You can imagine I’m pretty tired.
And yet sleep won’t relieve me from this barely awake state. Instead, it lets me go on, drains all energy from my body, till I’m only just able to keep my eyes opened. Why are people blessed with this demon called sleep, or rather, why ain’t I? The answer to that question is only to be found inside myself, hidden in an unexplored, maybe even dangerous part of my brains. But I don’t know where to look, and it seems unlikely that anyone does know, that there is a person that can point me in the right direction. But maybe it isn’t that unlikely at all. I mean, there have to be other people that have the exact same problem. If only I could find them, we could explore the dangerous parts of our brains, map them and find the hidden answer.
And yet I appeared to be alone in my awakeness. Maybe I should go out, do that what I shouldn’t be doing, and find others with sleeping problems. And if I bumped into one of the governments illegal activities, well, that was no big deal. Maybe I could even make money out of it. Robbers? Take whatever you want, my money isn’t as great value to me as sleep. Murderers? Go ahead, dead can impossibly be worse than this. Worse things? That’s actually ironic, what can be worse than this?
So I made my decision, I would leave my safe house, and explore the nightly city. I went back to my room, put on jeans and a shirt, and grabbed my coat. I also slid my purse into my pocket, though I doubted I needed it. I put on my shoes, tied them, and was ready to leave, what I did.
The cool morning air welcomed me, and far away I was able to see the tiniest stripe of light at the horizon. High above my head the pale moon hung, shining it’s light over the streets. Not nearly as bright as the sun, but a million times more beautiful. I put my icy hands in my pockets, and walked to the end of the street. Here I was able to hear sounds, the laughter of a group drunken people, music coming out of an open window, and further away the screaming of a woman. Never thought it was so lively at night. I should’ve known, though. It’s just what big cities are like. They attract all kinds of people, some good, some not so good. But that wasn’t why I was out here in the middle of the night. No, I was here to find a solution.
And I better find it quick, before I don’t even know what sleeping is like anymore. So I walked further and further away from my house. As the minutes passed, less and less people were on the streets, laughter had become scarce, anyone playing music was being cursed by every person that came near enough to hear, and the screaming had stopped. I checked my watch. 5:45. Nearly morning. In just half an hour people would be getting out of their beds, preparing for work, or school maybe. And there would be nothing out here of any importance to me. Even though I failed this time, I wasn’t planning on giving up. Tomorrow I would go out again, and if I had to the day after also, and the day after that, and all the days after that till I found a solution. Quite satisfied I went back to my empty house.
