by Cooper Eaton
“Well, last night something unbelievable happened… I left my body!”
Dr. Madstein leaned forward in his chair as quick as lightning! “Wait! What?”
"I know it sounds crazy, but I did. I left my body and just flew around! I don't know what happened, but it felt real. It was awesome! I know I sound crazy, but I'm not making this up, it happened. You have to believe me; no one else will."
Dr. Madstein looked like he was going to burst with excitement! "I do believe you, William, I do believe you! So it happened, you left your body?" He asked very excitedly.
He sounded happy about something, but it definitely wasn't for me. His mind seemed to be on something else completely.
“Are you okay Dr. Madstein?” I asked trying to gain is attention from whatever far away place he was now at.
“Yes, yes everything is more than okay! Everything is great! How did it happen, when did it happen?
“Last night, out of the nowhere trails of colors appeared flying all around me. I tried to follow them, but I accidentally left my body! When I looked down I outside of it, I know it sounds beyond crazy, but I swear it happened.”
I know I sounded crazy, but Dr. Madstein seemed to have the opposite standpoint. In fact, he looks very excited. "Thank you so much, William, I can't wait to have another one of our talks, but right now, I need to be somewhere. Thank you for sharing, and I can't wait to discuss this more with you." With that, he was up and on the move!
He magnetic repellant chair flew into the table as he practically ran from the room!
I couldn't help it; I had to figure out what the heck was happening! What is he talking about, what is anyone talking about? Dr. Madstein seemed to be the only one with answers, and so I followed.
I stood trying to seem as nonchalant as possible and began to follow the good Doctor…
He wasn't very hard to follow. He was so focused on something; he kept whispering to himself and getting lost. He was so focused on whatever it was that had gotten him excited that even if I would have been very obvious he probably wouldn't have noticed me.
He moved quickly and so did I, with him leading, whispering to himself and myself following closely on his heels. I used the shadows and walls to stay hidden. If any cameras were in commission, I would surely be thwarted, but I pushed all doubt from my mind.
I have to figure out what Dr. Madstein knows!
He walked around a corner and by the sudden voices I guessed he was talking to someone. I carefully peeked around the corner and hurriedly pulled back out of sight!
All three of them were there! Mr. Blackwood, Mrs. Nasdrin, and Dr. Madstein. I barely caught snippets of what they were saying, but I didn't dare move closer, for fear of being detected.
“The boy has done it!” Dr. Madstein reported.
“We need to tell him about it.” Mrs. Nasdin jumped in.
“I’ll tell him, just try and keep it quiet for now.” Mr. Blackwood told the group.
Then they all moved closer and whispered something, but I couldn’t quite make it out! It’s important, but I can’t risk getting caught.
Their whispering ended shortly and their footsteps told me that they were splitting up. One set of feet seemed to be moving my way! I can’t run, they’ll see me! I shoved my body back into a small crease in the shadow covered wall and waited!
Mr. Blackwood turned the corner and thankfully continued right past me! Phew! His attention seemed elsewhere. He’d whispered to himself something about telling him, about William. I had to find out the who he was talking about was.
I slipped from the shadowed corner and began to, every so slowly, follow Mr. Blackwood. I have to know what’s happening!
He hurried through hallway after hallway occasionally looking back, but not seeing his stalker move from shadow to shadow of the poorly lit hallways. I’m actually pretty good at following people. As long as they weren't paying super close attention, I was able to stay close enough not to lose them, but far enough to stay out of sight.
We went up several flights of stairs and to the floor where I’d met the strange man from the forest.
The hallway was home to far fewer shadows, due to several windows, which increased the difficulty of following. I was so concentrated on staying out of sight that I almost missed Mr. Blackwood opening a tall coal colored gray door!
After waiting a few moments, I approached. "Click."
Dang it! It’s locked! All of that work only to get shut out at the very end! Man do I have terrible luck.
I turned to leave when I heard footsteps! “Click, clack, click, clack.”
Where should I hide? I began to run; I have to find somewhere! And then I saw it! A small door seemed to beckon to me! I tried it and “Creak,” it swung open! Yes! I quickly shut the door, before sneaking into the corner and sliding downward into a sitting position.
To my surprise, no one followed. I’ve lost them! Even so, I couldn’t afford to peak my head out and be spotted, so I waited. The time ticked by as I sat on the cold wooden floor shrouded in darkness. I couldn’t see much of the room, but it didn’t look like much anyways. It had no windows, and the walls were bare.
With nothing to do but think, I began to think about what had been happening. I thought about the night before and how I’d slipped from the confines of my body! I can’t believe it! I’d flown through walls and even people, and I even saw a brain and a dream! Last night was beyond belief. It was awesome! I tried to wrap my head around this, but couldn’t, could it have been a delusion? No, it couldn't have. It had been so surreal! The way I'd felt was indescribable! It was better than any drug, and it was truly incredible!
I shook myself from these thoughts, content with the amount of time I’d waited, however when I opened my eyes to leave, something was different! It didn’t feel like I’d opened my eye lids. Could it be?
Yes, yes it was, It’d happened again!
I was out of my body! I’m floating! I’m loose! I’m free!
I swooped around the room in a complete frenzy! Then I danced from side to side with exuberance as an insane pleasure rushed through me! I'm back baby; I'm back!
Then it hit me. I’m here to find out something, and now I can do it! I’d been so excited that I almost missed the opportunity right in front of me.
I zoomed at the wall and burst through gliding to an abrupt halt! Whoa. The room, which resembled that of a barely lit old timey study, held Mr. Blackwood and another man and they were deep in conversation!
“We can’t control him; he might be stronger than we thought.” Mr. Blackwood finished.
The man, who was draped in shadows, seemed very angered by Mr. Blackwood. “Are you really such an incompetent fool? You're telling me you can’t control a boy with no idea of what is going on! How weak are you?” The man’s shout became a bellow of absolute fury! “He is only a boy, with no knowledge, and yet you are unable to restrain him!” As the man continued, something began to happen!
Dark, black tendrils of color materialized from his spindly fingers! What the heck!? The cords seemed different than the ones carrying dreams the night before. These were more controlled! They were more scary. Uh oh! They seemed to obey this man's command!
They moved in, wrapping themselves around Mr. Blackwood, slowly tightening around his neck! The sight reminded me of an old horror movie about an extinct animal called an anaconda!
“Accck, accc!” Mr. Blackwood flailed trying desperately to hold on to life!
I could see color cords fleeing from his brain! They were dark blue and they rushed after one another, trying to escape the poisoning effect of the black tendrils wrapped around their master’s throat.
Mr. Blackwood was being strangled!
“You good for nothing, weak, disposable piece of…”
Wait stop! I called inwardly.
The man stopped mid-sentence and his head turned!
Mr. Blackwood slowly sunk to his knees tr
ying to pull the tendrils from around his neck! “Uhhh, uhhhh!!” He choked trying to fill his lungs with air!
I was so focused on Mr. Blackwood that I didn’t realize where the other man was looking!
“Huhhh, huhh, huh!” Mr. Blackwood choked in air as blood dribbled from his mouth.
“Get up you fool. It seems we have a visitor.” The man said eerily calm, as his eyes bore into my floating consciousness.
Mr. Blackwood looked utterly bewildered, but the other man knew I was here, he knows! I was suddenly completely naked and exposed! He knows who I am! He’s going to catch me!
“Get him!” the man shouted as he put his hands together once more and thrust them towards me!
The black pythons of color materialized and rushed toward me! I spun around and took off!
I flew as fast I could possible fly! I rammed through wall after wall! I couldn’t change directions, I can’t slow down! The cords are gaining momentum! I could feel them catching up with me! They were latching on!
I spun; shaking their grip while trying to keep flying! I burst through another wall, but this time I was met with outside air! I have to go faster!
I weaved left and down! The ground came up to greet me but I pulled up at the last second grazing blades of grass, but continuing on!
And then, I saw him! A guard and his guard dog! They were standing in front of the main entrance completely oblivious to my peril! Help, help me!
I altered my course, making a beeline for the pair. The tendrils seemed to fall behind as if slightly confused as to what I was doing.
My plan was to fly into the guard's head and hide there, but at the last second, something changed my mind. Dogs are a man’s best friend, so why not hide out with a beast that loves me?
I was flying so fast, I barely changed my course in time! I slammed into the oblivious dog at supersonic speeds, colliding with his brain without slowing! And that’s when everything clicked.
I hit the dog’s brain, but instead of passing through it, I stuck to it! In fact, I was it! I am the dog’s brain, I have control of the dog, I am a dog, I’m an animal!
Through my new dog eyes I saw the tendrils approaching! There was nothing I could do, this is it!
They approached faster and faster, and then… They passed me! They’d missed me! They’d gone by without a clue as to where I’d hidden!
I turned my new, smaller head to see where the cords had gone, but they had vanished! This dog saved me! Can this world be any more bizarre?
Chapter 16: Diving for Answers
I eventually found my way back to my own body and made my way carefully back downstairs, to ground level, trying not to be detected. Glancing out the windows it looked as though several hours had passed.
My head was still reeling! I had no idea how the world worked anymore! What is real? My life now seemed limitless. What is really possible?
These thoughts of potential greatness flooded my brain all the way back to my room. I tried not to wake Rasben, but once again, I failed.
“Hey, what are you doing up?” Rasben asked as he jerked awake. “Why are you always out of bed?”
“Thought I heard something again, why are you in bed so early?” I tried.
“We were told to get in bed early, and you really expect me to believe that lie again?” Rasben replied sarcastically. “You heard something? Did you hear Jessica down the hallway?”
“No, what are you talking about?”
“I bet you were with her. Why else would you be out in the middle of the night? I don’t care about what you guys have done, but you need to stop. If you get caught sneaking around at night you’ll probably get sent home, and if it’s with a girl, you have no chance at staying.”
“None of what you think is happening is going on.”
“Whatever, I get that you don’t want to confess. Just don’t get me in trouble when you get caught.
“Are you really worried about the fact that I’m sneaking around, or do I sense jealousy?” A look of confusion passed over his face as I pressed him. “So that’s it! You’re jealous. You're jealous because I actually have a girl and all you can do is dream about them.”
Rasben’s eyes focused on mine. “What, how… How did you know that I…” Rasben stuttered.
Uh oh. Well, I guess I can’t turn back now.
“There’s no way you could know about my dreams.” Rasben tried to reassure himself.
“Don’t freak out, but you know how I told you about what happened to me the other night and how I had that out of body experience. Well, I may not have told you everything. What I forgot to mention was that the cords of colors that flew around me carried dreams.” Rasben now looked completely lost. “Well, anyways, I followed a cord and it led me back to you. What I’m saying is; I saw your dream where you shot that guy in a duel.
Rasben continued to stutter in disbelief. “There’s no way that happened! How could that have happened? What the hell is going on! I must have been talking in my sleep! There’s no way you could have seen my dream, that’s impossible! This is utterly preposterous!” Rasben shouted while racking his mind for some sort of argument, “I’ve got it! If you actually saw my dream, what then was the color of hair did the girl I liked have?”
“Dark blonde, almost brown.”
Rasben continued to fire questions, “What color was the man’s hat?”
“Black.”¶“What was the name of the saloon behind us?”
“The only thing behind you was a ghost town.”
Rasben was at a loss of words. Finally, he found his voice and began to speak again. “Well, if this really is true, then you're the reason I felt like I was being watched. You’re what I felt in my mind! You’re why I felt like I’d been violated! I can’t believe this, are you tricking me?”
“I’m not lying, it’s the truth! I’ve been trying to tell you for days now. I don’t know how I can prove this to you anymore than I already have. Rasben, if you believed me, I’d finally have someone on my side. Just think about it, there is no way I could have known about your dream unless I’d seen it. You have to believe me!”
A minute or so of him staring at the floor passed. Finally he looked up and spoke, “I don’t completely believe you. You haven’t completely been honest about everything up to this point, but I do know that something doesn’t add up. I’ll take your word that you somehow can see things others can’t and I’ll take your word that you saw my dream, but I’ll need more. I’ll need some sort of proof. I suggest we talk more about his tomorrow. If you can prove to me with a surety that you’re telling the truth then I’ll get behind you 100%.
“Alright, I’ll think of something.” our conversation ended.
We both laid down and shut off our lamp illuminators. I was actually pretty ecstatic that I had someone halfway convinced that what was happening to me wasn’t fake! If I can convince someone else that what is happening to me is true, then maybe, I can convince myself that what’s happening is authentic!
Crazy ideas of how to show Rasben that I was telling the truth about jumping out of my body continued to run through my head as I fell into a very fitful and short sleep.
“Wake up, wake up, wake up!” I was shaken awake by a woman in an all-white uniform. “It’s time to go! You have to get up!” She shrilled.
I could barely see. My eyes were blurry and out of focus. I could barely see the alarm clock but I could tell it said 5 am on it! “What are you talking about? It’s 5 in the morning! Why the heck are you in here? There’s no way we have a mission right now!” I said rolling over to go back to sleep, but to no avail.
The women pulled out a whistle and began shrieking on it! “Get out of bed right now!”
Rasben and I leapt from our beds and practically changed clothes instantaneously! No more rebellion was going to be tolerated.
The women led us down the hallway and into a small room that Rachel and Jessica were both already in.
“Nice of you to show up.” Jessica said sarcastically yawning.
“Everyone lay on separate beds! Hurry, hurry, hurry” The woman ordered.
As we laid down; the woman began scanning a monitor. The mattresses were cold and quite uncomfortable, but we were quickly launched into a simulator.
Zoom! I buzzed through the sea of colors as I had done so many times before, but this time the colors stood out. Each of them making their own trail as they spiraled around crazily.
In the middle of my close scrutiny, I was yanked from the tunnel and thrown back into the world. I have to get my mind focused on what is coming and try to get these thoughts of colors out of my mind.
Boom! I slammed into my avatar body and felt myself connect with it! The feeling was similar to that of my dog takeover which sent a feeling of deja vu rippling throughout me. I flexed my fingers to make sure everything was in order and then began to scan my surroundings.
There wasn’t very much to look at. Instead of being outside as I normally was, I found myself looking at my new team lying lifeless in a small dark room that surrounded us.
Slowly, all of the other bodies were taken over by my team and the confusion only grew. “Where are we?” “This can’t be right, can it?” Commented Rachel and Jessica.
“What’s that?” Rasben asked pointing up to what looked like some sort of doorway. “There’s only one way to find out.” I replied. “Rasben, help me lift Jessica up.”
I cupped my hands as did Rasben and we both hoisted up one of her feet. She was extremely light in her new asian avatar. We lifted her and she managed to break the seal with a single pull. With that, she quickly disappeared into the darkness above.
“Send up Rachel.” Jessica’s voice echoed down.
Imitating the same procedure, we lifted Rachel, also asian in stature, up into the new exit. She also disappeared. Next up was Rasben.
