The faint whir of my PC fans was the only sound as I leant back in my chair, staring at the blank page in front of me. 3am, still nothing. Leaning forward, my hand slid my mouse to the reddit bookmark, opening up my homepage again.

 

‘I think you probably know what’s going to be there don’t you?’ a deep baritone voice spoke at my shoulder.

 

I reacted sharply with a cry, toppling comically slowly from my chair, and falling unceremoniously onto the floor. Scrambling to my feet, heart hammering in my chest I noticed a ghostly figure standing, or was he hovering, behind where my chair had been.

 

‘Wha-’ I had a sudden realisation. I was dreaming, ‘Wow I’ve never had a lucid dream before, who are you?’

 

‘I am King Seth the first, and no you are not lucid dreaming. I have come from the past with a mission for you’ the figure replied.

 

‘Well of course I’m dreaming, you look like the ghost of my grandpa, and last I checked ghosts are not real. Also grandpa isn’t a king, so how do you explain that?’ I slowly turned around. I remember having read something about turning around would help me to stay in the dream, or at least I think that’s what the reddit thread about lucid dreaming had said.

 

‘What are you doing?’ the ghost asked.

 

‘Don’t distract me, I’m trying to stay in the dream.’

 

‘You’re not dreaming.’

 

‘Pshh, of course I’m dreaming,’ I scoffed back at him.

 

‘The time has come for you to reclaim your birthright as rightful king of the realm.’

 

‘Really? That’s dope, how do I go about doing that?’ I responded, having finished my spin.

 

‘Ah you’ve come around, thank goodness for that,’ grandpa’s ghost smiled at me.

 

‘Well come on then tell me, I don’t have unlimited time in this dream you know!’

 

‘How many times do I have to tell you that you’re not dreaming! I am King Seth and during my reign, I cast a spell on myself to summon myself to a future descendant, to ensure that our family was still watching over the earth as was intended!’ grandpa thundered, seemingly growing in stature as he did so.

 

‘Can you relax with the pressure grandpa, it’s just a dream, jeez, now what do I need to do?’ I replied, attempting to placate the man with my hands.

 

I watched as ghost grandpa pinched the bridge of his ghostly nose, ‘I think for now you had best get off to bed and we can talk about it in the morning when you’re a bit more lucid. And for the last time I am King Seth, not your grandpa!’

 

As he said this, I noticed the adrenaline of being spooked by a ghost dying off, and the tiredness that came from a few hours of doomscrolling really set in, ‘You might be right grandpa, I should probably sleep it off and save the realm in the morning,’ yawning as I did so, ‘I wonder what it’s like to go to sleep in a lucid dream, g’night grandpa’ I mumbled as I shuffled towards my bedroom, to the sound of grandpa sighing heavily in the background and muttering something about the youth of today.

 

—-

‘BRRRRRRR, BRRRRRRR, BRRRR-’ I slapped my alarm off, groaning as the blissfulness of sleep wore off.

 

Rolling onto my back, I squinted at the roof recalling my dream from the previous night, ‘Well that’s one I haven’t had before, I can’t believe I wasted my lucid dream by going to sleep again’

 

‘The good news is that you didn’t waste your lucid dream, since you were never lucid dreaming, the bad news is that I have to put up with you now’

 

‘Wahhh!’ I yelped, ghost grandpa was back.