By request.

And by request, you'll get the first page of my work in the works, which is easily the safest part of the piece.

I awoke to the all too familiar sound of a blaring alarm. Twelve high pitched squeals in quick succession and then a two second break. I can’t count the times that I had just let it ring, becoming more and more frustrated with the machine for wanting me to shut it off. Every morning it was the same struggle, a cage match between me and my alarm. Eventually, I’d become frustrated with the alarm and hit the snooze button before turning over again. This battle would continue until one of us gave up, and that alarm clock had nerves of steel. It had a truly ingenious design. It took a fair amount of dexterity to finally turn the damn thing off, which insured that the user was awake. I can imagine the sadist who designed it. He probably wore a white lab coat while he worked, just to be a jerk. Nobody likes guys who wear white lab coats unnecessarily. And he probably didn’t need to sleep either, so he could make his clock as annoying as possible. I can see him now, giggling madly as he watches some poor test subject at work through one of those two-way mirrors.

“Well,” I mumbled to myself, “I guess I’ve got no choice.” I began work on my project for the morning, which was to give myself some much needed peace and quiet. Unfortunately, the clock had other plans. Every morning was the same; I’d awaken from a dream that didn’t exist, pretending I was annoyed that I couldn’t see the ending, but I knew the truth: I hadn’t dreamed in months. The brain needs dreams to function, and without them it starts to tell you that things are wrong. First you start sleeping more, I’ve noticed that. Then there are drastic changes in your mood, followed by the hallucinations. They start out small enough, an extra bird in a group, glare from somebody’s nonexistent watch, a leaf that blows in the wind. But you’d be amazed how quickly those things add up. Soon, there are drastic changes: cars suddenly disappear from your rearview mirror and the phone will ring when it’s turned off. Fortunately, my hallucinations were very mild in contrast to what they could have been. I don’t think I’ve lost enough REM to induce seriously threatening hallucinations, but my point still stands, dreaming keeps you stable and keeps you sane. What I wouldn’t give to dream again.

Slowly, I pushed off the sheets that kept my body at a comfortable temperature and rolled myself over into an awkward position. It’s the way I wake up. Slowly, I felt around my nightstand in an attempt to find my glasses. Every now and then, my dear feline would knock them onto the floor, which throws off my precise morning routine. I usually give myself about twenty minutes to shower, ten minutes to eat, five minutes to get dressed and five minutes to deal with other assorted morning duties and hygiene. It takes me about eight minutes to get to school, but I drive faster than I should, so I don’t know if that counts for anything. I cherish those forty-eight minutes every morning, so much that I like nothing better in the morning to than to stand in the shower and let the water cascade along my back and chest. I can’t describe it; it’s just such a soothing feeling. I often spend more time in the shower than I allot for in my schedule; it adds some much needed chaos to my morning routine.

It was a very unremarkable morning; I don’t believe it could have been more average. That isn’t, to say, that the morning itself was just like all other mornings because it was the same, but because it was different. My mother had left for work by the time I got out of the shower, so I was free to do whatever I ---

There's the cutoff. That's what you get. I can't be working for hours and hours on a project if I'm just going to give it away. The full version will run you at least $15.99 if I can hook a producer.