Two days ago, you started (link-reveal: "dreaming")[.
Well, sleepwalking, maybe. Or maybe you took a few too many Ibuprofen trying to kill the feeling in your [[chest->1]]].It wasn't real, is the point here. Some of the things you did were real, but the things you saw were (link-reveal: "not")[. The things you saw were in your head, and nothing's gonna let them [[out->2]]].Not that you'd free them if you could. But (link-reveal: "anyway")[, you might have doped yourself up a little too much, or maybe the sleep deprivation is getting to you, or maybe hallucinations are a natural part of growing up. Who can say?
The point here is that the thing (the dream, the nightmare, the apparition, it doesn't matter) wasn't really here. [[Honestly->3]]].Bugs, after all, are (cycling-link: bind $bug, "fucking disgusting", "pretty cool", "not all that interesting"). Adorable little [[nightmares->4]].{(if:$bug is 'fucking disgusting')[Their legs and wings and eyes...Awful. You don't want to [[think about it->5]].]
(if:$bug is 'pretty cool')[You like them, sort of, but not enough to let them live with you. You've always been better off [[solo->5]].]
(if:$bug is 'not all that interesting')[They'd make terrible roommates. Just like [[everyone else->5]].
]}Regardless of your feelings on the matter, though, something is trying to make your home its home.
In your dreams, at least, which definitely aren't real. It's a big fucking thing, too, at least as insects go. Broad green wings that glow silver in the light. A massive, {
(if:$bug is 'fucking disgusting')[repulsive,]
(if:$bug is 'pretty cool')[beautiful,]
(if:$bug is 'not all that interesting')[]
} fluttering, and completely nonexistent [[moth.->6]]When you first dreamed it, it almost {
(if:$bug is 'fucking disgusting')[paralyzed you]
(if:$bug is 'pretty cool')[hypnotized you]
(if:$bug is 'not all that interesting')[went unnoticed]
}. A moth (male luna moth, as your web search later told you), green and silver in the corner of your eye, beating its wide wings and gliding through the air of your room. After a few minutes of trying to ignore it, you swiveled in your chair to look at it straight on. That, as it turned out, was a [[mistake->7]].It fluttered, flew, and settled on your white lumpy wall. You reached out a tentative hand in its direction, but it did not move. It was still, as though it had never moved at (link-reveal: "all")[.
You didn't touch it. You just grabbed your phone, and started snapping [[photos->8]]].It was dark, then. You had to turn your flash on. The moth stayed motionless, its green body casting a deep shadow on the white paint of the wall. You got a couple good shots, though, and you thumbed through them for a brief moment before you sat back down. You turned your back to the moth, and again tried to [[ignore it->9]].[[It mostly worked.->10]]You fell asleep, later, and had dreams inside a dream. They were more fantastical dreams than of a moth in your room, and more easily dismissed. Waking was a chore, but you rose from your position in bed, and pretty much forgot it. [[All of it.->11]]Your friends, though, did not let you forget. They asked you what you were doing last night, alone in your room. You didn't really know, but you showed them your photos of the [[moth->12]].The photo app opened on the last picture you took. It was exactly as you remembered it: blank white wall illuminated by the flash of your phone camera.
Nothing else was in the picture.