“…I’m so sorry. You’re a really good friend. I want you to know that.” She finished, her eyes hopeful. Her hand dropped away from mine.

My dreams of love shattered like a glass-blown tower dashed to the ground. In that moment my heart dropped three feet, coming to rest somewhere along the underside of my lower intestines. I couldn’t breathe and a dull ache was beginning to radiate out from my heart’s new resting place. I felt like I’d been kicked in the nuts, not the blinding pain of the initial impact but the creeping feeling of sickness that colours each moment after that.

I blinked once. Time moved like honey, thick and slow and I experienced a moment of clarity usually reserved for athletes and fighters, the clarity in between heartbeats. Time hadn’t slowed it had stopped. In that instant, I built a winding maze of tall stone walls to hide and protect my heart. No one was going to be able to hurt me again.

It was here that I realized that dreams and nightmares were two sides of the same coin.