Ms. Walker noticed how Josh looked happier than usual when he got to the office

“Did something good happen Josh?”

“You won’t believe it if I tell you”

“Is a rare sight to see you smiling”

“Yeah, I know but is so silly that is incredible”

“Come to my office so you can share that happiness of you later today”

That moment never came because Josh had several stuffs to do that day, he even forgot how happy he was at the beginning of the day, he went home and felt like a rock, and then he started dreaming again but he had a different dream this time

Josh was running with a katana on his hand, it was almost dawn, it was maybe 3am and the streets were filled with fog, and then, Josh heard people coming for him and he started to run, if he had a pen he could have started writing the exciting story of a hero who ran from his enemies like he was doing at that time but it was a different dream, in fact he had forgotten about the dream where he is novelist

The dream turned into a pursuit that lead him to another country where a gang was waiting for him and then one of the people in the crowd said

“You done it, you have to deal with that Burden yourself”

Josh then woke up and felt disappointed because this dream was different and he was not able to continue dreaming about being novelist, his happiness from previous day went poof in just one night, he thought that it was mere coincidence, but he was not going to waste the chance of writing that dream that he just had and when he got to work he started to write hoping to have a chance to write the story on the notebook that the guy lent him on the dream from Japan

It was 11am and Josh started to feel sleepy, he has been sleeping properly but the fact that he has been moving during his dreams are making him feel tired, he planned to sleep a bit during lunch break, he finished his lunch and then placed his headsets on and started to relax until he fell asleep

“Yo! I just wanted to know if you could come tonight?”

“huh?”

Josh was a Cosmo station, north of the Namahage Museum at Oga city in the Akita Prefecture, the smell of the place felt like combustible, it was a station so it made sense

“Sure”

Josh woke up and he was at his office and his desk had droll because he was really tired

“You just woke up on time dude, the boss is on the parking”

It was 01:20pm and David didn’t wake up Josh so this could have turned into something really bad, Josh has been sleeping more often than he used to, I guess this is a signal of tiredness, it seems that Josh is not resting enough even though the time of his sleep has increased, well, if you travel to Japan during your dreams it must take a lot of effort

“Josh, I’ll need you to stay tonight” said Ms. Walker

Staying late at work was something that Josh was used to, even when staying late meant the hell for him because he really put effort on his daily activities to leave at time, having less time for himself always stresses him out, as long as he doesn’t fall asleep while driving he should be ok

10pm and he is going home now, he won’t be able to play his game at this time because is way too late, he has to get early next day to come for work, he finally reached his home and he fell as rock on his bed, finally he gets to rest

“Dude, you are late”

Josh woke up at Namahage shrine, a girl was leaving the office and Josh boss came and he finally was able to see his face, it you can call that a face that’s it

His boss was wearing a mask, it was really a creepy mask

“What took you so long?”

“It was a long day at work”

“Ok, is not like you have a schedule on this side”

The smell of the place was like Sulphur and Josh felt uncomfortable and left the room

“Take this, it will help you feel better”

The person with the mask gave Josh a cup of Sake, Josh drank it and he started to feel better

“I don’t want to put too much pressure on you but do you have any advance on the story that you will write?”

“Yeah, but I don’t know where to start because I don’t know the type of story that you want”

“It doesn’t matter as long as you start writing”

“I was planning on making the story about how the O Sole Mio music was created, but then I came with another idea about re-creating stories of the folklore of my country in a Japanese version, but what I really want to avoid is to make Harem, I had enough of it already”

“The reason that I’m asking is because we have a client that is looking forward to your work”

“Really?”

Josh could not believe it because as he said before, he didn’t know he was that famous just by writing one story, so having someone looking forward to his work was something shocking

“This area, Namahage is very famous for its festival during February, but this place becomes a dead place after that so having some attraction beside that event will help us to promote Namahage Tourism”

That was a lie….

Josh woke up again and another day started for him, it was like a vicious circle that never ended, his life was being drained for not being able to sleep properly

I may consider either living on this side or the other side but I can’t live in both sides at the same time, this is going to kill me, it is already a hell to live my daily life, I like the supernatural feel of traveling to japan during my dreams but I won’t believe until I see a real signal that those dreams are not fake

Josh was really expecting that last day of the month to see the final signal that he was waiting, there was only one proof that will make him believe that this was not a normal dream, finally the day came and he went to the ATM to check his account, and he finally realized that this was not a dream, $2,676.10 appeared on Josh account and he went in shock, he pulled out his phone to make the conversion to Yen and realized that the amount matches with the 299,441 yen that he was supposed to get by working as novelist

But wait, something is wrong here, how come he got paid even if he has yet to complete a novel for the Namahage guy? Josh had to come with an idea to start writing next time that he travels to Japan, meaning that he need to start writing on his next dream

The Namahage dude was coming to the shrine, it was the first time that he was not wearing a mask and noticed that Josh was already there, he got used to the Sulphur smell after coming during a month to the Shrine, for some reason the look of Josh was different on this side than on his real life, he didn’t look tired at all

“Yo! You came early today”

“Hello, hey, this is the first time that I see your face”

“I guess I should tell you my name now”

The guy looked like a person on his 25s, he was younger than Josh

“My name is Keita, my mom picked that name for me, she said that I’m meant to be a blessing for others”

“Those $2,676.10 really looked like a blessing to me, so your mother was right, look, here is the draft of what I was thinking for my first work”

Keita started to read the draft and he had a serious face

“What do you think?”

“I’ll show this to my client, keep writing, don’t worry about the feedback yet, you can change the story whenever you want”