Dream Catcher

My eyes fluttered open, I was awake.

The dream...was so real...that my mind still lingered on the images.

Suddenly, I sat up.

Reality:
I.
Couldn't.
Breathe!

Wheezing and pulling for air, I coughed and pressed my hands into the lumpy mattress.

I'm up. I'm up. It's okay, I'm up now.

As I shuffled to the bathroom, my eyelids were heavy, my mind replaying the images like a movie reel: people and places that were so familiar, yet unknown to me now.

Who were they? 

This had happened before, I thought as I floated back to the bedroom. My mind holding onto the images, my body catching the memory of how I felt. Familiar. So familiar.

Back in bed, I watched the fan, turning back and forth, like a pendulum.
My eyes followed it, back and forth, it's low hum steady.

I snuggled my pillow, it was only a dream.

Inhaling warm air into my nostrils. Thank you. 
Exhaling. Thank you. 
My eyelids drifted closed.