Dare to Dream Chapter One The sun rose high in the sky, revealing a large beautiful meadow. Selena spinned around in a circle, making her white dress twirl. She smiled as deer ran beside her and butterflies flew above her. The flowers danced with her. She spread her arms wide open and pretended to fly with the wind. She laughed as the wind whipped her hair back. There was no where in the world she would rather be at than here. Then the scene changed. The flowers wilted. The grass turned gray and died. The butterflies turned to bats. Deer turned to skeletons. The beautiful sunny sky turned into a dark, starless night sky. There was no#moonto help her see. Selena shivered as shadows watched her every moves. She dashed to the dark forest in front of her. Shadows followed behind. Crows caw above her. She didn't dare look up as she ran deeper into the forest until she came across a waterfall. Only then did she decide to rest for a bit. Selena dropped to her knees and scooped up some water with her hands. She brought her hands to her lips and slurped up the water. The water burned the back of her throat, but she didn't care. She drank until she was quenched. Then she soaked her feet into the lake. She looked around her at the gloomy and bleak surroundings. Everything looked dead. She wished she was still at the meadow and the sky would be sunny again. She jumped up as something touches her feet. She pulled her feet out of the water and looked to where her feet had been. Her breath caught in her throat. A man, who looks no more than to be twenty, stared past her. His neck was twisted at an angle and one of his eyes was missing. A smile formed on his lips. Selena couln't help but stared at the dead man. She reached into the water to grab his golden watch, but a hand grabbed her wrist. She looked at the man and noticed her was staring at her. She screamed. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Selena woke up drenched in sweat, She heard someone scream or was it her own? She tried to calm her racing heart; blood pounded in her ears. Her mind began to automatically chant: It's alright. It's just a dream. She glanced at the digital clock on her nightstand. It reads 10:30 am. Selena bolted out of bed and headed for the bathroom. She turned on the water and showered as quick as she can. She was in such a hurry that she almost slipped while getting out. She got dressed and brushed her teeth in fifteen minutes flat. She ran to the dresser and grabbed her phone off the wooden jewelry box her grandmother gave her. She will have to have her mom mail it to her. Selena went through her contracts, looking for her friend's number. She finally found it after going through the long list of D's. Apparently, she had alot of friends whose name's start with a D. Selena dialed Ericka's number and waited for an answer. She answered after the fourth ring. Selena didn't give Ericka the split-second to say something. "Why didn't you wake me up? The plane departs in thirty-minutes!" "Uh... It's 11:30. The plane is already departing..." Selena's eyes widened. "WHAT?!" She yelled. Clearly, the last time she checked the clock, it was 10:30. Have time really went by fast? She glanced at her handwatch on her wrist. It only reads 10:50. Did she have the wrong time? "Just joking. It's 10:50. So, are you coming or what?" Selena could only shook her head as she picked her luggage and shoved it into the back of her truck. So far so good. She drove to the airport as fast as the truck could go, hoping the plane doesn't leave without her. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Selena slipped into the seat beside Erick at 113. She had sprinted through the airport, and was having a bit of trouble catching her breath. Ericka pretended not to look over even as she did, and smiled. "Thanks," Selena huffed. "Are you excited?" She had the nerve to ask. "Yeah. I'm just... " huff, huff," bursting at the seams." The plane began to move. With a jolt, Selena ripped forward in her seat, leaning over Ericka, who sat next to the plane wall, and window. "What?" asked Ericka. "I want to see Memphis..." she huffed,"One last time." Quickly, the buildings passed. Faster and faster. From her window, she could see everything. Her entire #life passed in an instant and vanished as buildings gave way to trees; trees to fields; and fields, with a start, to clouds. They were on their way.

Someday Someday, I will call you my own and we shall bear kids together and die of a marvelous age. Someday, I will have all of the weeds picked from my #life garden and I shall find a rose... a red rose. Someday, my #life shall be restored, where all of the scattered puzzles shall join together to form a clear picture. Someday, my days will no longer be full of sorrow and pain, but of happiness and love. Someday, I will see myself as you see me. I will see the beauty in me and the things that I once could not see. Someday, I shall become a leader. Never shall I follow, but to lead the ones to the light. Someday, Just someday, my eyes will be wide open, my heart will cry out in joy, and I will see my one and only God. Someday...Just someday.

A Son for Halloween #life wasn't so.... great. My girlfriend broke up with me, because I didn't want to have sex with her. Honestly, my walls in our relationship was the reason she broke up with me... Out of the two hundred different men she'd mated with, only one rejected her. One who was the infamous pop star and model. One whose name was Travis Starr. One who was..me. That night, which was Halloween, I chose to go to the bar. I needed something to set my mind off of her... If only I'd been with someone who respected my boundaries... maybe then, I wouldn't be so hurt. I chugged down the whole glass of beer and ordered more. The glasses kept coming... one after another. I bean to lose it as I cried like a baby... well, actually, like a girl. "Marissa!" I hollered/cried. Most people in the bar stared at me. It wasn't like they could recognize me. In fact, I wore a redsox ball cap with skinny jeans and Bama' shirt. And glasses to cover my light green eyes. The good thing was... I had long,brown hair...most villagers had brown hair as well. So, I was no higher than all others while in disguise. I was just a normal, drunk man crying for his woman, which wasn't uncommon. Any man comes here and cry for their lovers... It's normal like that. I began to feel lightheaded and sleepy. Somewhere far, I saw three men and a woman coming to me... They guided me to the front door and gave me a glass of this brown liquid. I wasn't in my right mind. Normally, I wouldn't accept drinks from strangers, but I had little power over my brain. "Drink," the woman commanded. And I did... But instead of feeling hot as I did when I drank the beer, I began to feel so sleepy.... Very sleepy... My eyes began to drop and I found myself slipping out of my body... "Goodnight," her voice singed. Then, I was lost to the dark. ********* I woke up, startled. A lightbulb hanging from the ceiling flickered on and off. I took notes of my surroundings... Gray, slimy walls. Red tables in the corner. A hole in the ceiling. A green door... And I heard sounds of water dripping from afar. Where was I? I don't know. Wherever I was, I knew only three things... I was on a cotton, white bed... I was in pain around my kidney area... And I wasn't alone. I could hear faint sounds of breathing. I winced every time I heard a wheeze. All I wanted was to know how I got her and why. I tried to recall everything that happened, but I hit a brick wall. My head pounded loud in my ears. Strangely, I had a faint headache, which was very rare. I was known for having a hard-head... Meaning I never had headaches unless I was annoyed. Headaches were for the weak. I was no weak man... Well, okay. Maybe I was a little weak, but just pretend you understand where I'm going here, okay? I threw the covers off of me and reached into my jeans for my phone. Luckily, I still had it with me, yet my keys and wallet was gone. The first person that came in mind was Marissa. Usually, she would be protecting me and cheering me up... Don't get me wrong, but... I may be strong and not as weak as some people, but...when you fall first, you feel more pain than the person who barely did. The scone person that came in mind was Gary Edwards, my drummer and best friend since 4th grade. According to my iPhone 5c, it was 4 in the morning. He should be asleep... The third person was not actually a person. It was 911. I thought of the reporters and how this would spread worldwide. Either now or never! My head screamed at me. Now it was.... I dialed the number and sighed. My fame will be double now. ******** Years has passed since that night. According to the world, I was gone for a month... And I thought it was only an hour. I had many DNA tests and was glad to know that I was still a virgin. I'm now married to a woman named Scarlet Rose and together, we have four kids. Two daughters and two sons. I also include another kid. This young boy came from the tests a doctor has created. A clone. And that very boy was a clone of me. How I survived? Nobody knows. We all know that that kid became Scarlet's and my first son... A son for Halloween. As for the people that forced me to drink the liquid, take internal organs, and cloned me, they were arrested. The liquid turned out to be a everyday drowsy medicine. I don't know what the doctors said it was. As for my family and I... We are happy. Living an every day #life. Free from cruelness and free from cloning. The good thing was... I had long, brown hair...

The Horrific Trade Years ago, I was just a boy with little money, who worked as a fisherman. My family had passed away years ago, but I was too young to remember. My captain was the man who raised me since he first saw me on the street. That time, I was five. Yet, I had skills I'd learned from my biological father long ago. Captain Trover was now my adoptive dad. Sadly, he had little money as well. Fish nowadays were rapidly dying. No fish equals no money. Yet, I believed that something will change. That we will earn money and become wealthy for decades and we won't have to worry about living on the street in rags and living off of garbages. Though, we found ourselves in a tougher situation. A situation that we debated with for days... How to earn money when we are bankrupt? That answer came faster than a blink of an eye. Slaves. I felt uneasy about it. The thoughts of taking people from their own countries to ours seemed wrong, but my father quickly changed my mind by a simple saying of "They are not forced, son. They want to come and work for us." And here I am, as a sailor on Nassau, delivering African slaves to our new world. And from the look of it, I don't think they really wanted to come. "Son, take the girls to the cabins!" My father squawked. After ten years of drinking alcohol, his voice slowly came to sound like a girly pitch. Some sailors teased him about it, but my father waved their remarks aside. I settled the bucket of water next to the three, African warriors, who stood in front of the girls I was supposed to take to the cabins. The warriors flexed their muscles and masked their fears with bravery. Yet, I could still see it... The fear in their eyes. I sighed and tried to move them aside, yet, they stood their ground. The girls behind them clung to their arms as I stepped a bit closer. Let's admit, a teenager like me who's only 5'11 can't take down someone whose 6'4. That's called a miracle. Those can only occur in plays. I took a step back and examined the deck. There were once fourteen thousand slaves in here, but many has died from malnutrition and dysentery, as well as scurvy. Those that were sick were thrown overboard or chose to jump themselves to avoid being forced. This journey was known as the Middle Passage to a few sailors, but not to me. This should had been known as the Suicidal and Murder Passage... a passage where many slaves were killed instead of being saved. I grabbed one of the girls by her arm and forced her away from the man. "Adunbi!" The girl shrieked as I grabbed hold onto the other girls. She started weeping as I dragged them all up the stairs. A slight guilt weighed on my heart. I was doing something I never imagined myself doing... I was delivering slaves to sailors for their use. As gross as it sounds, what choice did I have? This was earning me a lot of money than I had when I was a fisherman. More money means bills are paid and foods are brought. Add to the fact that I could now go to school once all of these slaves were taken to the Americas and they pay us with goods. From there, we were told to take the goods to Europe and we will receive our prizes from there. I motioned for the three sailors to take the girls from me. It wasn't like I could just let them go and hand them to the sailors... It was because they were clinging to me with all their might and sobbing onto my now wet shirt. Yet, the same pain stayed in my heart as Jan, Willem, and Abel took the three, young girls to their cabins. I can do this. I can do this... I recited to myself over and over. I tried to walk away from the cabins as I heard a scream. I can do this. I can do this... And sure enough, I had never looked back again. I accepted the guilt of my needs for money and the fate that came with it. I knew as day by day, month by month, and year by year goes by, I would never forgive myself for letting this happen.

You're the One You always needed a helpful hand to pull you up. Getting drunk from drinking whiskey from a cup. You say there's nothing I can do, But I will always help you. You looked a little strange when I saw you yesterday. I asked and you said nothing goes my way. You say its the end of your story. When you said that, I had to worry. I cant help but to cry without you. So please tell me what to do. I said that you keep me tame. You just smile and say the same. People say that I'm a sin. But my #life started when you walked in. You said it's the end of your story. When you said that, I had to worry. I cant help but to cry without you. So please tell me what to do. Because these guys don't know the name of my band. They just hang around to hold my hand. But it hurts my eyes to see, that you don't know you're the only one for me. So put a sing saying let us be. So let the other girls see. You're the only one for me.