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"The Dream"

 I took off my apron and grabbed my bag from the hook on the far side of the wall. I breathed a sigh of relief and left my job for the day. Or at least I tried before my boss stopped me.

"Hey," he started, his heavy Italian accent making him stumble over his words. "I know you've been under a lot of stress lately. I want you to take a few days off and get some rest." He patted my shoulder.

"But I don't think I can afford to-" I started before being cut off.

"It'll be fine," he said. "Consider it a paid vacation. You need it more than I do."

I was shocked. I never thought I'd hear a manager tell me I'd get paid for time off. At the last few places I'd worked, they would never be nearly as considerate.

I gave him a hug and thanked him. He nodded caringly and I headed out the door with a slight smile on my face.

***

I got home and was greeted by the smell of body odor and rotting food wafting through the air. I nearly gagged. I looked over to my overflowing trash can. "I need to take that out," I muttered to myself.

I wasn't proud of the lack of upkeep in my apartment. When you have so much to focus on and so little time at home to do anything, there are some things that slip under the radar. Until they no longer can. I grabbed the trash bag and tied it up, trash tumbling from the opening and onto the floor. I tried to fit those fallen things in the bag, but it was too full as it was. I grabbed another trash bag and picked up the rest. Thankfully it was just paper plates and plastic. Nothing too gross.

Gathering the garbage, I took it all outside and to the huge dumpster outside the apartment complex. I made my way back into my apartment and shut the door behind me. It almost felt humiliating to be taking out that much trash. Would the people around me think of me as a slob? I swear to you, I'm normally not like this. It's just what inevitably happens when you become so overwhelmed that things slip away from you.

Breathing an exhausted sigh, I slumped down on my couch and turned on the television. As the screen flashed to life, I screamed. There was a huge roach crawling across the screen. I got up to swat it away but it was gone by the time I got to my feet. I slumped back down and flipped through the channels. There had to be something good on, right?

Thankfully, there was a show on that I was into. It was a basic crime show about a detective who doubled as a baker. It's called, 'Cooked Crooked'.

I began to dose off as the exhaustion from the day set in. 

***

I caught myself drifting and woke myself up. Perhaps it was a little later than I'd thought. The room was dark, except for the light from the television. But what was playing now? There was an ominous looking face on the screen and it appeared to by looking at me with a twisted smile on it's face. I could hear words being muttered from characters off screen, but I couldn't make out what they were.

The camera then panned over to a room full of even more people with that same twisted face, all peering out at me from beyond the screen. The people were unmoving, unblinking. Almost like an image rather than I video.

Then, the camera slowly panned back to where it was before. Only this time, it was my own reflection. I was watching myself in real time on the screen. I waved my arm and the person on the screen did the same. I was terrified.

With my heart pounding, I reached for the remote to switch the channel. Then, an arm shot out from the couch and grabbed my hand. And it began to pull me into the couch with it. I tried to thrash and fight it, but I couldn't the arm was strong and the force unrelenting. I let out a final scream and... Woke up?

I found myself sitting upright, gasping for air. I glanced around and found that I was back on my couch, sunlight still bleeding in through the windows. Looking over, the show was still on. To my dismay, however, the screen was now covered on nearly every square inch with roaches.

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