I've had the same dream for weeks

Hello. My name is Samuel Hopkins. I just turned 17 a few weeks ago and ever since the night before my birthday, I have been dreaming the same dream every night. It starts with me standing alone on top of a hill overlooking my childhood home; we had recently moved into our new house a year ago, and I could never shake off the feeling that something was amiss.

Anyways, back to my dream. I would be standing alone on a hill, the very hill right next to our childhood home where my brother and I would sometimes roll down from. It was always sunny at the start, but in a little while the scenery would change. It would get windy, the clouds and the sun would disappear from view and the blue of the sky would be replaced with a shade of tangerine. I always thought it was just the sunset happening right before me, and that this particular repetitive dream is simply telling me how picturesque the sunset would look like from the top of that hill. And almost every time, I say almost because it happens every other night or two, I would be holding someone's hand beside me. It felt warm and soothing; imagine holding your mother's hand when you were 5 or 6 years old as you walk through the grocery store aisles, leading you through the maze of food products and household items. I felt safe. 

The hand I was holding felt almost like it was guiding me, although I never moved from the spot on top of the hill. I could feel the soft skin of the hand, sometimes caressing it with my rough teenage fingers; I had recently started playing the guitar, leaving me with rough callouses all over my hands and fingers. It would feel weird at first, but it kept happening every other night in my dream that I developed a kind of sickness when I wasn't holding the hand in the dream. It felt much more odd when the hand wasn't there beside me. 

I did notice something strange about the entire thing. Every time I would try to catch a glimpse of the 'person' whose hand I was holding, I would see nothing but a blinding bright light emanating from the east. It was exceptionally bright that it would cause my to squint so hard in my dreams, I would feel lightheaded from the brightness and then eventually wake up. 

It was relatively strange at first, but it did me no harm so I shrugged it off completely. It wasn't until my father and I decided to visit our old town, which was just an hour and a half away from where we lived currently, to visit an old neighbor that the dream suddenly began making sense. Our neighbor, a childhood friend of dad's, had recently called dad a few days ago to tell him that they were relocating to another state; a day and a few hours travel from our old, tiny town. She and her husband, now in their early 40's, had asked a favor from dad to see if there was anything we could to help them; namely with the trucks, moving the furniture's, cleaning their old house, and more. 

My mom had work that day, and as much as she wanted to help she couldn't call in sick on time, and an absent from her line of work would have been difficult to explain. She was a nurse in the local psychiatric institution. My brother, Robert, had no class but was apparently 'seeing some friends' for extra gym practice; you should know he is a basketball player in our high school. Go Panthers! Although I'm pretty sure he was just going out with this girl in his class, Audrey. 

We left home at around quarter past 9 in the morning, dad playing his old Fall Out Boy and MCR Cd's on the stereo as we drove.  The weather was nice that day, around 10 degrees Celsius, which was odd for the season. It was November the 5th and we had just welcomed the season of fall around us, accompanied with the brown and orange of the trees and the slow whistle and chill of the wind at night. It was my favourite season nonetheless. 

I dozed off during the entire trip even though it was a short one. I awoke to the feeling of the car slowing down to a halt, meaning we have reached the destination. It was only 10:30, dad must have driven faster than usual. I saw our old 1-floor home, now with it's new owners, a young asian couple who had recently migrated from South Korea. They didn't know much English, meaning when we left the house in their care we barely had any conversation save for the greetings, the thanks and the goodbyes. My dad's friend Mr. Smith was at his porch moving some boxes from inside his house. He waved to us as soon as we pulled into his driveway. Dad waved back, I smiled in my groggy state.

Before I exited the car, I tried to recall the familiar dreams I've had in the previous weeks before today. The hill, the light, the weather, the emotions I possessed in the dream and the hand I was supposedly holding. I move my gaze from the old rust and moss covered roof of Mr. Smith's soon-to-be previous home to the hill behind it. The hill that never leaves my dreams. Or dream, since there was always just the one. 

When Robert and I were kids, we would run up and down the hill chasing one another. The neighbors had few kids, and those that did have children were already old enough to be our seniors. As a result, it was usually only Robert and I who played with one another, be it inside the house or outside. We would get tired eventually, and would either rest on the foot of the hill or by the bark of the huge tree on top of it. It was huge and old. Mom and dad said this tree had been here ever since they were teenagers. It would always be cool and windy underneath it. The moment you look east, this tree would always meet your gaze. 

The hairs on the back of my neck stood and my eyes began to water randomly when I noticed that the tree, the one that mom and dad probably spent dates on, was no longer there.