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realpaintheory

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Emma woke with a start, drenched in cold sweat. She looked around the room, bewildered, for a moment, but soon realised she'd just been dreaming. Her houseboat rocked, soothing as ever, as she scuttled over to the window. Sure enough, the boat was still tied to the side of the canal.

"It was just a stupid dream," she muttered to herself, but she couldn't help but feel uneasy. She had had this dream before, only a week ago, and every aspect of it had been exactly the same. She partly wondered if it was a prophecy, if for some reason she could see into the future, but she dismissed the idea at once.

"Don't be ridiculous," she scolded herself. It couldn't have been a prophecy, she just had an active imagination, that was all. Especially after all the research she had been doing on "Project X", as she fondly called it.

Emma still had a little niggle in the back of her mind that wanted her to check her notebook, to see if the dreams had anything in common with her "project", but instead she looked at the clock on her bedside table. It read "3:46 am". Exhausted, Emma crawled back in to bed, deciding that any work she did would have to wait until she was fully rested.

Emma woke again at the more reasonable time of 11:30 that morning, although she didn't feel any better for it. She had tossed and turned, her head swirling with the same sequence of events, the whirlwind, the houseboat, the screams, and then the stillness that gave such a sense of finality.  She swung her legs out of bed, stretched, then crossed over to her desk.

"I just need to reassure myself," she told herself. "I know it's not linked at all, but I just need to check." Emma mumbled soothing words to herself over and over again as she sat down and began reading, assuring herself that she wasn't being silly, that she wasn't going mad....

She began flicking through her battered black notebook, pausing every now and again to read a section that had caught her eye.  Finally, Emma came to the part she had been looking for, and read through it.

Friday 18th November

This species, whatever they are, seem to be able to communicate...telepathically? Possibly. The fact remains that they seem to be able to communicate without any detectable language.....also, they appear to be able to manipulate objects, although this hasn't been completely proven...

Emma sighed, and walked over to the little tank in the corner of the room. Inside were two black, shimmering creatures. Emma watched them slinking silently around the tank for a while. Occasionally, they would make eye contact from across the glass case, and the smaller one (Emma presumed it was the female) would stop whatever it was doing and dart over to the larger.

"What are you?" she mumbled. "What are you doing here? Have you got anything to do with these stupid nightmares I've been having?" She sighed again, watching the creatures. They were beautful in some elegant, yet dangerous way. She hadn't touched them, not knowing what they were but they looked as though they were covered in some sort of glossy fur that seemed to ripple with their every movement. "Just give me some answers," she muttered, half to herself.

That's when it happened. The larger creature looked at the smaller one. The smaller one looked at Emma's mobile phone. Emma's mobile phone started to ring.