Adeline had been alone for as long as she could remember. Being an only child in a family that moved around a lot caused her to not have the chance to forge lasting bonds. When you never stay in one place for long making friends only risks getting hurt when you have to leave again. Her romantic life was even more stagnant, not matter how wonderful the few dates she went on were it was as though her heart was holding out for something more.

Some nights, Adeline would dream about lives, though she never recognized whose lives they were. One time her mind whisked her into a tale of knights and noblewoman, the the next night she saw the world through the eyes of a travelling bard, who began to see familiar faces in the audience. It came to the point where Adeline began to keep a dream journal, hoping that she could one day collect the stories into a book. Frustratingly, there was never any closure as the dreams always ended before their resolution. She would wake just as the knight saves the princess, or when the musician confronts their follower.

Without a satisfying ending, there was no point to sharing the dreams, as no one would read stories that have such unsatisfying ending. Adeline contented herself with writing them down until she could write well enough to finish them in her mind’s stead. This is why when it came time to pick a university to study at she chose one that was renowned for its art and literature programs.

After her application was accepted, Adeline began to search for an apartment nearby. She was lucky enough to get a dorm room on campus. She found the place through an ad for roommates and while she wasn’t thrilled with the prospect of having another person nearby, the offer was too good to refuse. To her relief, when she moved in Adeline found out that her new roommate liked to keep to themselves most of the time, and for the first week of school she saw him so rarely that she thought he was trying to hide from her.

Their first proper meeting was on in the kitchen, so early in the morning that neither of them expected the other to be awake. Still when Adeline wandered around when she gave up on sleeping, she spotted him sitting at the counter with a canvas and paints. Not wanting to intrude, she knocked on the wall as she approached, causing him to turn around to look at her. As soon as their eyes met he became pale, as if he had seen a ghost. With a jump he hurried past her back to his room, leaving the unfinished painting behind.

“Wait!” Adeline whispered, but the man was gone, locked back in his room, abandoning the artwork on its stand. Realizing that the artist wouldn’t be returning anytime soon, she let her curiosity get the best of her a glanced at the painting. It was clearly done by a very skilled painter. If not for the fact that there were blank spots on the canvas she could have believed that it was a photograph. After examining it further, Adeline recognized the subject of the painting.

It was her. She didn’t notice immediately because the figure was dressed in what looked like a medieval period ballgown but the was no mistaking it. The familiar brown hair and the twin beauty marks under the eyes that were identical to her own made it feel like she was looking in a mirror. While most would find it odd or even creepy, Adeline found it interesting and almost endearing that someone would paint here so beautifully. When she was young she would use the names and personalities of her favourite people when she wrote stories, so perhaps she felt this was a similar situation. Either way Adeline was determined to find out more about her mysterious

Despite this, Adeline didn’t have the chance to talk to her roommate again for several weeks. The opportunity presented itself when a package came for him while he was painting in his room. When she knocked on his door and called out that he had a delivery, an answer came almost immediately in the form of her roommate nearly crashing through the door covered in paint and graphite. As she handed over the package she also took to chance to ask about the painting. Her roommate admitted that the painting was based on a dream he had recently experienced. In fact he mentioned that he had been having similarly vivid dreams for years and had taken up painting as a way to find closure since the dream were always unfinished.

Adeline laughed and recounted her own experiences with odd dreams, even sharing some of her favourites. Her roommate, whose name she later learned was Micheal looked shocked, and revealed that his dreams were nearly identical only from the opposite perspective. Adeline was the princess, Micheal was the night. She was the bard, he was the admirer.

The pair quickly bonded over their shared dreams, telling the other about any new dreams the morning after they occurred, and helping each other on their artistic interpretation for them. By the time they graduated they had already launched a graphic novel recounting the tales they witnessed in their dreams. Adeline wrote the plot and Micheal would add the paintings. They always stayed faithful to the events as presented in their dreams other than one detail.

They always had a happy ending.