That night as Jon lay in bed, he said out loud "Sarah McMillan," and then thought about sheep.
The world formed around Jon. He was outside, on a street somewhere in his neighborhood. And then he heard a dog bark. And then he heard a girl scream. Then he turned towards the sound and saw Sarah McMillan being chased by three dogs.
An idea came to Jon. He remembered how he was able to alter the dream world the night before, but he wasn't sure if he could alter himself. How much control did he have?
"I can run at super speeds, and I'm strong enough to easily lift Sarah," he said to himself. If he was going to break Sarah down, he was going to do it thoroughly.
Jon didn't feel any different, but decided to test things out, and chased after Sarah and the dogs.
It worked. In an instant, Jon was running next to the dogs, and in the next instant he was carrying Sarah in his arms, creating massive distance between themselves and the canines.
Sarah looked up expecting to thank her savior, but made a disgusted look when she saw Jon's face. "Jon? What are you doing here?" she demanded.
Jon kept looking forward. If this was going to work, he'd have to act like he was playing a role. He tried to imagine in his head the Beast from Beauty and the Beast, and when he opened his mouth, the disdain came out before the words. "I just saved your life. Show some gratitude."
Jon kept running until he could no longer hear the dogs and then stopped in a city park, dropping Sarah on a grassy ridge. He hadn't looked her in the eye once. It was hard for him to keep a straight face when Sarah said with a bit of embarrassment, "Look Jon, I'm sorry I was rude before. Thank you for saving me."
Instead of cracking, Jon looked down at her, right into her expectant face, and for a moment he had second thoughts. This was a side of Sarah he'd never seen before. Helpless. Dependent. But then he remembered that this was the same Sarah who would have just sat back and laughed if he or Karyn had actually been in serious trouble in the real world, and his face hardened.
Jon looked Sarah straight in the eyes and said, "Whatever. You're such a stupid bitch." Then he turned his back to her and slowly walked away.
With every step that Jon took, the world became fuzzier. It wasn't like last night when the colors seemed to fade. It was like his vision was blurring until slowly shapes were no longer shapes. And it was much slower, too. Jon supposed that this was just one of those things that changed from person to person.
But just before the world completely disappeared, right as Jon was feeling the most confident in his plan, he heard a quiet little feminine sob coming from behind him, and he felt a knot build up in his throat.
But then the world was gone.
