I don't think people realize how terrifying peace can be until they've lived without it long enough.
That was the strange thing about the dream.
Not the fact that I was dreaming at all. Not the fact that my body felt weightless or that my mind felt drowned beneath warm water.
It was how normal everything was.
No screaming.
No blood.
No smell of rot.
Just Englewood.
Whole.
Alive.
I stood outside the convenience store near the apartment blocks with a drink sweating in my hand while summer heat baked the pavement beneath my shoes. Cars crawled through the streets. Music played somewhere distant. Somebody argued over a basketball game nearby.
And none of it was real.
I knew that immediately.
Dreams never get the silence right.
There's always something missing.
Still… my legs moved anyway.
People passed me without fear in their eyes. Nobody carried rifles. Nobody checked corners before turning them. Nobody looked hungry enough to kill.
A little girl ran past me laughing.
