Vice Versa

My head slipped off my hand, and my chin cracked down onto my keyboard.

Katherine, at the opposite desk, giggled. “Still not sleeping, honey? You should go see my hypnotherapist. He’s cured me of just about everything. He’s pretty on the eyes too!” she added with a wink and flipped a business card onto my desk. “Give it a try.”

So there I was, lying on the hypnotherapist’s couch, self-consciously pulling my skirt down over my knees. Katherine was right; he was easy on the eyes. I was sceptical that he could actually help and suspected that the eye-candy was the reason for Katherine’s many visits with various ailments.

“I’m Ben,” said the man who appeared far too young for his supposed qualifications. “I’ll count back from ten, and you’ll be fast asleep.”

Except that I wasn’t.

I was in the middle of a raging battle. I dropped to my knees, ducking a swinging sword. A spray of warm blood spattered my cheek as the sword met a new target.

“Lady Marian, beware.”

Moments later, my head was struck… and I awoke on the therapist’s couch.

“See if this session has helped,” said Ben. “I’ll see you again in a fortnight to see how you’re doing.”

That night I lay down and expected to lie awake for hours like I normally did, but I’d no sooner closed my eyes than I woke up staring into the face of a blood-spattered warrior with a little more than a five o’clock shadow. I sat up and scooted back on the animal skin I’d been lying on.

“Marian, thank God. What were you doing on the battlefield? I told you to stay back in the trees.”

“Who are you? How do you know my name?” I asked.

“It’s me, Robin,” he said, frowning. “Tuck,” he shouted.

Now I think I’m losing my grip on reality. Whenever I try to sleep here, I wake up immediately in the other place, and vice versa. I don’t know if it’s a dream, but I feel like I never truly sleep. I don’t know what’s real anymore.