I called an Uber to take me home. It’s still early in the day, the sun is out, and I have the apartment all to myself. When I get home I realize I am exhausted. I head straight to the couch and turn on the television. I browse the million and one streaming services and land on Netflix. “Man I’ve missed a lot of stuff in just 2 months. Bridgerton? Looks like my cup of tea.”

I head over to the kitchen and plate my turkey with spicy mayo wrap that I got from the Deli. Yum. I impatiently start eating while walking back to the living room, eyes glued to the TV. Before I reach the couch, I see something moving across the street from the corner of my eye.

A man wearing shorts and a bare chest is working out by his window. The curtains wide open. He’s doing pull-ups on an at-home doorway pull-up bar. His long brown hair tied up into a small tail. Some strays sticking to his forehead with his sweat. His mouth puffing out air, is surrounded by a full mustache and beard. Woah. Suddenly this wrap feels hard to swallow, the barely chewed turkey feeling like a rock being shoved down my throat. My body starts to feel warm and heat rushes to my cheeks. I know this feeling… I haven’t been touched in a long time, since my ex and I broke it off last year. The warmth in my body travels south, desire hopping along for the ride.

Right at that moment I felt a strange feeling zap through my chest. My abdominal muscles tense up and I burrow into my body. I close my eyes from the dull ache and stay in this position, expecting a wave of pain to follow. Did I faint? When nothing further happens, I slowly open my eyes and find myself in a different room. What the fuck?

I’m standing in what looks like a hallway, facing a door. I’m too stunned to move and start blinking like a lunatic. Maybe I’ll snap out of it if I do. I look down and notice my hands are void of the sandwich I was just holding. I begin to look around and something feels familiar about it but I don’t know why. As if looking through a fogged lens, everything feels hazy. Confused doesn’t quite describe what I am feeling right now.

I’m startled when I hear grunting behind me and freeze for what feels like an eternity. I let out a huge exhale and brace myself to turn. My eyes begin to look back, and my head follows. My eyes slowly make their way toward the sound and I see the back of a man. He is sculpted with broad shoulders and vascular arms moving up and down on a pull-up bar. 

I gasp, “Ah!” My hand covers my mouth, then my eyes, then my mouth again. 

The man abruptly stops his workout and faces my direction. With panic written all over his face he screams “Who’s there?”

I shut my eyes as a wave of complete invasion washes over me. I start swinging my arms around looking for a wall to help guide me the fuck out of here. “I’m sorry!” I yell.

 “I’m warning you I have a weapon” he continues. With his back against the window he walks towards his baseball bat. He picks it up and stands ready to swing. Oh shit!

I find the door and swing it open, “Ah! Oh my go- I’m so sorry! I’m leaving. I don’t know how-” I stumble as I run out the door, fear of getting beat down by a hot man with a bat making me lose all my balance. I see him jump at the sound of the door slamming into the wall.

The man with the Greek god-like physique starts walking towards me, panting, pupils dilated, and incredibly sweaty. I struggle for a moment to get back up and then flee the second I get my footing. I look back for a second and see him standing in the corridor looking in the opposite direction of where I am. He seems just as confused and panicked as I am. I find the exit sign and run down the stairs till I see the ‘Lobby’ sign. 

I must be dreaming. This has to be a dream. But why does this feel so fucking real? 

I finally step outside and see my building. I run across the street and get in the elevator. Everything feels surreal. My chest is burning from the amount of exertion I used. I finally slow my heart rate and notice something while I press the button to my floor. My hand. It’s completely invisible. My mouth drops and I keep looking at my hand and press ‘6’ again. I feel the contact and push of the button. The elevator begins to move.

“Whaaaaat…?” I scan my other hand and the rest of my body. Everything is completely translucent. I feel an aura around my body, as if I’m about to faint, and all of a sudden I’m in my apartment. On the floor. My face is pressed against the window. 

Damn! What in the – How long have I been knocked out here?

“OOOOWWW” I clutch my elbow as a sudden pain crops up. It seems that I banged it against the floor. My left arm is already showing signs of a contusion. I look across the street and see that the beautiful man is no longer by the window.

I slowly stand up, dazed, and make my way to the kitchen to grab an ice pack. I move slowly, pour myself a cup of water and grab 3 ibuprofens. I clean up the mess my sandwich made on the floor. Dammit. I really wanted to eat that. I hold the ice pack to my elbow and sit at my computer. I don’t know what the fuck is going on but I need to just figure out if anyone else has experienced some shit like this. I start writing into the search engine, “Dreams that feel so real, like an out of body experience.” I hesitantly press enter and starts viewing the results.

I see many things about sleep paralysis, hallucinations, lucid dreaming and voluntary out-of-body experiences. I read into all of them but realize the closest thing to my experience is called astral projection. However, the key difference being that I did not voluntarily try to do this. It was probably just a very wild dream. Maybe side effects of a concussion? I continue to read on until it is dark.

I feel a hand on my shoulder and jump up. I see Billy standing next to me.

“Woah!” says Billy

“Oh my God! You scared me Billy!”

“Sorry! I thought you should get up and move to your bed. Is everything okay?” Billy nods towards the now melted pack of ice on the desk.

I shuffle things around and respond, “Oh. Yeah. Everything is fine. I just tripped and hurt my elbow.” There is no point in trying to explain what happened to Billy especially when I don’t even know what happened myself. I would sound crazy. I peak at my elbow and notice the bruising nearly gone. Weird.

“Well, okay!” says Billy. “It’s Friday night. If you’re feeling up for it we should go out.”

“Ugh yeesss! I need a drink.” Badly.