A Room Of Dreams (Kosmos Book 0)

by Simon Horrocks

  Philip gasped as he woke back in his hotel, as if from a simple nightmare. Reached for his phone to check the time and found a message: “Please contact me right away (don’t worry). Dr D.”

  4.1

  Philip wandered after Dills, along the corridor to Amy’s room. She was talking, but his mind was still in last night’s “experience” – it had been like a dream, except he’d been in Amy’s dream. But when did the dream begin? The dark room with the figures? Choosing room 4? Chasing the young woman from the video ad around the hotel? Finding Michael hurt? How about Lewis sending him a memory? Maybe even Lewis was a dream – hell, maybe this whole thing, including Amy being in a coma.

  Maybe he was still dreaming.

  “We found some brain activity,” said Dills.

  “OK,” Philip replied, distant.

  “Last night. We had some technical problems. A lot of our equipment was effected. When everything went back online, we got something. Very weak, but something.”

  “I see.”

  Dills looked at Philip, confused. Took the handle of Amy’s door and paused. “Do you understand what I’m saying?”

  Philip nodded slowly, waiting for Dills to open the door. Inside, the same old hiss of the ventilator and the solemn beep of the life signs monitors. And Amy lying in the hospital bed, as if she’d never moved. He took a seat at her side as Dills closed the door behind them.

  “Funny,” she said.

  “Hmm?”

  “I expected you to be more…” Dills left her sentence hanging.

  “Why? Because you guys finally told me what I already knew?” said Philip, snapping out of his thoughts. Dills absorbed the remark and moved to find something to check on a monitor screen.

  “Still, the chances for your wife to recover... meaningfully…” she said, leaving it hanging again. But Philip was silent, so she changed tack. “I’m trying to get her father put in here with her. It might help them both.”

  “Her father?”

  “You know he was admitted, yesterday?”

  Philip thought back for a moment – so that part was real.

  4.2

  Philip peered through the small window in the ward door and saw Diana talking to a young woman in a leather jacket at the other end. Hoping to get to Michael while Diana was occupied, he slipped quietly through the curtain drawn and found him – the bruises on his face dark and swollen.

  “Michael,” whispered Philip, urgently, gripping his hand. The old man opened his eyes a crack and smiled weakly. “What happened to you?”

  Philip saw Michael’s focus over his left shoulder and turned to see the woman in the leather jacket standing in the gap in the curtain. She flipped open her ID – Detective Sergeant Carol Kwah.

  “You were seen outside the room, shortly after the assault,” said Kwah, once they’d found a quiet corner.

  “By Michael?” asked Philip.

  “Mr. Lord claims you tried to force the door to gain entrance. Unfortunately, he currently doesn’t remember the actual assault.”

  “I was trying to open the door because I heard him from inside,” said Philip impatiently. He didn’t like what she was hinting at.

  “He sounded in distress?”

  “I pushed the door but he was blocking it. I didn’t know he was there.”

  “You said you heard him.”

  “Yes, but I didn’t know he was by the door.”

  Kwah handed him her business card.

  “Don’t leave town?” he quipped.

  Kwah smiled at him blankly. “What?”

  “It was a joke.”

  “Joke,” said Kwah, as if hearing the word for the first time. Unexpectedly, a huge grin spread across her face. “Good one.”

  4.3

  That’s what he remembered. But how much of it was real?

  Back at the hotel, he tried the door to room 04 – locked. Headed down to the reception where the girl was, as usual, absorbed by the contents of her computer monitor. He peered round to see what she was so focused on – an ancient ceramic bearing the image of a man riding a chariot driven by 4 winged horses.

  “The Astra Planeta,” he said, trying to make a more friendly connection. “Gods of the five wandering stars. Phainon, Phaethon, Pyroeis, Eosphoros, Stilbon. The Romans called them Saturn, Jupit-”

  “Yes,” interrupted the receptionist, irritated.

  He’d got her attention, at least.

  “I wonder if you could tell me – is there anyone in room 4? Up on the top floor.”

  “You want to change rooms?”

  “Yes... If that’s possible. Is it free?”

  “Those are the Royal Suites.”

  “Its fine. I’ll pay the extra. I mean, I just thought I’d give myself a bit of extra space for a day or two. Getting a bit claustrophobic. Can’t breathe.” Philip pretended to gasp for air, overdoing the theatrics.

  The girl stared at him curiously.

  “I can put you in a Royal Suite. No problem. It’s up to you.”

  “Yes... Must be number four, though. It’s like a… uh… a lucky number.”

  The girl shrugged and processed the room switch.

  Philip swiped his new key through the lock and entered. Room 04 was not what he remembered. Gone was the dark chamber with the discs. In its place – a hotel room, much like his old one only bigger and with a grand view overlooking the city. So that part must have been imagined or dreamed, he figured. But Michael had certainly been assaulted – he’d just seen him in hospital with the matching bruises. Did that mean somewhere between finding Michael and following the girl to room 04, he’d slipped into non-real experience?

  As he was unpacking, a video message popped up on his phone – it was Lewis.

  “Philip. Hey. It all got a bit random last night, didn’t it? I had to leave you in the middle of it. Forgiveness? Let’s meet at Angels. You know the café, a few minutes from the hospital? 11 am.”

  4.4

  Philip hustled through the crush and paid the café doorman for half an hour inside. 20 minutes passed and Lewis still hadn’t shown. He was considering paying for another 30 when the waitress approached.

  “Is everything okay?”

  “Can I get another coffee? Just black. No extras.”

  “Sure.”

  Philip checked the time again on his phone. When he looked up – he noticed a girl sitting by the window chatting to a friend. The girl from the video – the one he’d chased to room 04 – was it her?

  She got up, said goodbye to her friend and moved to the door. Philip leapt out of his chair, bumping into the returning waitress, knocking his fresh coffee from her hands. The cup smashed on the floor.

  “Oh... sorry!” exclaimed the waitress and hunted around for a cloth.

  But he was too focused on seeing which way the girl went to care. Should he wait for Lewis or go after her?

  “Uh… yes…” he mumbled and set off.

  Back in the crush, he pushed and weaved to keep up with the girl – she was tall and her distinct long, curling afro made it easier to spot her. She turned right into a side street. He fought his way there as fast as he could, only to turn the corner and find she’d gone.

  A call buzzed his phone – Lewis. He must be at the café wondering where he was. He ignored it and carried on pushing along the side street. Then, noticed some people were looking up at the sky.

  “Oh my God!” cried a woman and he followed her gaze – the girl had somehow made it to the top of the building and was standing at the edge, as if about to jump. He ran to the main door, just as it opened, almost tumbling over a small, weasel-faced old man in a wheelchair on his way out, knocking the man’s holdall to the floor.

  He quickly replaced the holdall on the old man’s lap, sprinted in, and then up the building’s narrow, spiralling stairway.

  5.0

  Philip sprinted the final flight of steps and burst through the fire doors onto the roof, gasping. The girl was still standing on the ed
ge, contemplating the drop. Hearing his footsteps, she turned, almost overbalancing.

  “I’m going now, Philip,” she said, calmly. And an ambulance siren wailed in the distance.

  “Wait… wait,” gasped Philip.

  “What for?”

  What for? he thought. Good question.

  “Stay. For a minute more. Don’t leave this way.”

  “It’s time.”

  Philip shook his head, unsure how to do this. Before he could ask important questions, he had to make sure she didn’t jump.

  “Look… you know... this is probably uh... totally fucking inadequate but...” He edged forward a couple of steps. “You know what helps me? I always know that... however shit the world appears to be… uh... this feeling will pass... you will see good things again.”

  “The world does not create that feeling inside me, Philip. The world inspires me. The world is amazing. The universe is amazing.” The girl looked up at the sky as if truly inspired.

  Philip shook his head – this was crazy. “Then why?”

  The sorrowful siren wailed a little nearer.

  “Listen, I want to get to know you better... as a friend... and I have a lot of questions.”

  The girl looked down at the gathered crowd, who in return were looking up, helplessly.

  “I’m scared… This is going to hurt, isn’t it?”

  “Uh… probably.”

  “Help me, then,” she said. Philip took her in his arms and lifted her off the edge of the wall. Then they held each other tightly, as if they both needed this more than anything.

  “Thank you. That feels so much better,” said the girl. “It’s okay, you can let me go. I’ll be fine, now.”

  “Are you sure?” Philip gripped her tight and realised he needed this more than her.

  “Philip, let me go.”

  He did as she asked and she stepped back, her open smile full of warmth.

  “You don’t know how much you’ve helped me today. You are such a wonderful person to do this.”

  Philip finally relaxed a little. “No worries. Really. I just did what anyone would do.”

  The girl then turned and stepped calmly off the building.

  5.1

  Philip stumbled back down the stairwell. Out on the street, where people gathered around what he imaged was the girl’s broken and twisted body. He’d almost emptied his stomach thinking about it, back up on the roof.

  The people seemed extremely animated, as he shoved his way to the centre. But what were they shouting? Sounded like “me, me, me!” And he was totally confused to find not the girl’s crumpled corpse, but the old man in the wheelchair he’d bumped into a few minutes before.

  The crowd were shouting and waving money in the man’s face. He took the cash from a woman at the front, dipped his hand into his holdall and, from a small tank of pink liquid, pulled out a shimmering green-grey drogecube. The woman grabbed the cube and moved away quickly, as the crowd’s shouting grew louder again.

  Philip looked up at the top of the building where the girl had been standing, as the sun burst from a crack in the clouds, and wondered – could he trust his own mind, anymore?

  He paid the café guard for another 30 minutes and found Lewis sitting at the table by the long wall mirror.

  “What did you get?” said Lewis, quickly getting down to business. But Philip was still trying to work out if Lewis was real or not. “I know, it messes with your mind. But it gets easier. You just have to get used to the controls.”

  Philip ordered another coffee.

  “I think I have a lot of things to ask you,” he said as the caffeine hit his bloodstream.

  “You think?”

  “A lot has happened. And I haven’t had time to work out the questions.”

  “Good. Because I don’t have time to answer them… right now... But I will, if I can.”

  “I mean, I don’t know what was real and what was not real. I mean, none of it seemed real. It was like a dream… like being in Amy’s dream.”

  “Well, you were, in a way. It gets mixed up. But we can work on that and try to filter out as much of you as possible. Look – it doesn’t matter what’s real. It just gives us something to go on.”

  “I remember this thing in the elevator.”

  “Thing?”

  “She followed the sound of the baby crying. She got in. There was something above, moving. Something big. The elevator accelerated upwards. Faster and faster. Shaking. Then… then she was with this guy. But this guy was some ex of hers, I think. They were breaking up.”

  “Do you know who that was?”

  “I think his name was Damien.”

  “Damien…?”

  “I don’t know.” Philip sighed, irritated. “Then she was talking to her mother… Diana.”

  “Where was this?”

  “The hospital. She was a doctor.”

  Lewis nodded. “It’s still mixing up.”

  “Yeah. She was angry at her for interfering. But I have a question.”

  “Soon.” Lewis stood up and pulled on his jacket. “We need to get you back in there.”

  5.2

  Philip sat at Amy’s bedside. The ventilator hissed to a hypnotic rhythm. The 3 tiny lights of button-sized device implanted under the skin of Amy’s left temple blinked red in a linear sequence. Tiredness took hold and his eyes began to droop.

  “You should go and get some rest,” said Dills.

  Philip snapped awake and instinctively checked the device. “I’m waiting for a call.”

  “Does this thing work?”

  “It’s not my field exactly, but there seems to be something in it. Why?”

  “You trust it? Insurance companies are not generally known for their concern for humanity.” Dills chuckled.

  “I don’t trust anything. Not until I’ve tested it. Thoroughly.”

  “How about medical professionals?” Dills gave him a cheeky smile.

  When their eyes met and lingered for a little too long, Philip wondered – is she flirting with me?

  “My wife is probably the only being on this planet I trust completely,” he insisted. Dills is a beautiful woman but I’m not going there, he told himself. But he was distracted enough to miss the device flash briefly from red to green and back again.

  “I guess she’s not getting into trouble, now.” Dills instantly regretted those words. “I’m sorry. That was such a stupid thing to say.”

  “Yes.” Philip turned away.

  “Michael is with us, again,” said Dills, changing the subject quickly. “He asked if you were around. Maybe he wants to talk.”

  When Dills had gone, Philip left Amy and snuck down to Michael’s ward, checked to make sure Diana wasn’t around and slipped through the curtain. Amy’s father, lying as motionless as his daughter, woke slowly and peered at him through half-open eyes.

  “You’re such a good man,” he managed, hoarsely.

  “How are you feeling?”

  “Fine,” the old man said.

  “No, you’re not.”

  “They’ve been very kind, here.”

  “Good… good… What happened to you?”

  “It’s not clear. There’s strange people around. They act first and think later. I guess they don’t know better.”

  “Michael, when I found you, you said you remembered something.”

  The man looked confused. “Did I?”

  “Are you protecting her? Diana?”

  “Please!” Michael gasped.

  Philip realised he was gripping his hand a little too tightly and let go. “I’m sorry.”

  “This touches me,” said a voice from behind the curtain. The silhouetted figure stepped into view – it was Diana, her voice rich with irony. “One thing we can take comfort from – how a tragedy can bring a family closer together. It shows how much we really care about one another.”

  “You are not alone.” Philip quickly whispered, trying to break through to the real Michael he felt
was trapped behind the haze. “I am here for you. If you remember one thing, remember that. And there are people who care about you who will look out for you… who… will protect you.”

  But Michael’s expression was now completely blank. Whatever small flame had kindled within had been totally extinguished by the presence of his wife.

  “He tried to hurt us,” said Michael after Philip had left.

  “Yes,” said Diana. “I felt it too.”

  5.3

  Lewis sat in the corridor outside Amy’s room, waiting for Philip and making last-minute coding changes to the psi-complex device software. If he tuned the neural pathway entanglement correctly, conflating both minds into one disorder of consciousness, they’d be all set up for phase 2. As he fixed the last few bugs, he remembered what Core had said – that he’d make a good living as a coder, working on their cutting-edge tech. But he was just coasting, seeing if something would come along. Then found out about System A and worked out how to steal the secret hidden inside. Then he’d never have to suffer another of their damned internaviews.

  He saw Philip shuffle down the corridor and open the door to Amy’s room. Jumped up and followed him inside. Amy looked so full of health and vitality still. Hardly like a woman who’d been in a coma for months and was supposedly on the brink of death.

  “I’ve adjusted the filters a bit. There should be less of you mixing in,” said Lewis and placed the small button-sized device in the palm of Philip’s hand. “I just put stabilizers on your new bicycle.”

  “I trust you know what you’re doing.”

  “Only one way to find out.”

  “What’s the risk profile?” Philip quipped.

  “Not my department.”

  Philip frowned at him – “What is your department?”

  Lewis looked briefly uncomfortable, packed up his laptop and left. Philip implanted the new device under the skin of Amy’s left temple and prepared for another long night.

  “Tiring day,” he began. “I’ve just been through the backlog of messages from work. I mean, I looked at them. Opened a few. We’re recruiting some new staff to try to cover some of the work I’m not doing.”