Short Story: Oblivious

WORK IN PROGRESS: 

Oblivious

By J. Roman-Torres

I open my eyes, and I can't see anything. I'm lying on the ground somewhere. It's wet, I can feel that my pants are soaked with water. I think I'm bleeding from my head. I can feel something warm dripping down my face. The signature copper smell of blood fills the room. Then I feel it, a pounding pain in my right temple.  It's pounding so hard that I can't make sense of my surroundings. Did I hit myself with something? Did I fall? I raise my hand to touch the area where the pain is coming from. As soon as I do, I regret it immediately. A surging sharp pain races from my head to my toes and back up. I let out a loud piercing cry. Then I realize that I don't know where I am. I can't see anything! Everything is pitch black and the only sound I hear is drops of water hitting the ground. That would explain why the ground is wet. I try to remember the last thing I did. Memories in my head jump like a buffering movie. Bits and pieces go back and forth making my head hurt even more. I try to calm down to subdue the pain. When I'm able to hear myself again, I try to stand up to discover my surroundings. As soon as I do I slip...

"Kurt! Kurt!" I heard someone calling my name in the distance. "Kurt! Are you alright?" I open my eyes and manage to stagger to my feet. Breathless and still in pain, I look around to see where I am. It's still pitch black... What the heck happened? One second I was trying to get up, the next I wake up to the sound of my name. How long have I been on the floor? The pain in my head is there but not as strong as I remember. I touch my face and the blood has crusted on my forehead. I must have been out for a while. "Are you OK?" he said. At least I think it was a he, a young he. It sounded like a little kid. The voice startled me and I slipped again, this time landing on my butt. "Are you OK Kurt?", the little boy asks again. "Who are you? And how do you know my name?" I ask, my voice breaking a little. "I'm Kay. I know your name because that's what they called you when they brought you in." They? Who is this kid and who are they? What the fuck is going on?

"Where are we Kay?" "We are in a place called Oblivious".  "Oblivious?" I asked. "Yes, no one knows where it is or what is it for. All I know is that people who come here are forgotten" Kay said with fear in his voice. Where the fuck is this place and why am I here? I try to put together the pieces of memories I'm able to bring back. The effort is pointless; I can't make any sense with all this fog in my head. "How long have I been here?", I ask Kay. "Well, if I'm keeping track of time correctly, it's been seventeen days since they brought you here. God knows how long they had you before then." Seventeen fucking days! I hold my knees to my chest as I start to hyperventilate. A rush of fear races through my body, it’s overwhelming.  I feel like my lungs can’t work properly, I can barely breathe. What happened to me? Why am I here? Where does my family think I am? What do they think happened to me? Are they looking for me? I need to run! I need to get out of here... Oblivious, wherever this place is! Kay... How long has this kid been in here? I can breathe again... As I slow my breathing back to normal, I mumble some to Kay. "Kay, how long have you been here?" "I believe it’s been almost a year", he says emotionless. "There's no way of getting out" he continues. "The only way is if they take you. They come every two days. They hose us down with what it feels like ice cold water and then drop a bag of something I've been eating since I got here. It’s not food, but it keeps me alive. I call it Bliss." he said. "Who are they? What do they want?" "It all comes in time Kurt, it all will come" he says. Footsteps are heard outside. I can hear Kay run to a corner, I can hear the fear in his voice. "Hide!" he says.  My heart races as the steps get closer. I want to go somewhere but I can't see shit. What should I do? I grab my knees and bury my head in between them. I hear a loud clanking sound, like someone opening a vault.

The cracking sound of a metal door screeches in my ears. There's other people in here! I can hear voices. Someone is sobbing... As the vault door opens the intense light streaming from it burns my retinas. I hear someone scream. My heart is racing and my body is trembling like it never has before. As my eyes readjust to the light coming from the door, I see several dark figures. They look like humans but they feel like something else. What the hell are these things?

"Sun!", one of the things said. "It's your turn today, your time is done. You'll be erased for what you have done!". "No, no, no! Ah! Please don't!", Sun screamed. One of the things grabbed her by the hair while the other one shot her with the water hose. As the water hit her skin, she started to scream louder. It sounded like they were ripping her soul from her body. After a loud and final squeal, she fainted. They dragged her body out the vault. One of the things dropped five glowing bags before closing the vault once more. The bags shone with a dim blue light. They looked beautiful in the darkness, there was something so peaceful about them. In the dim light, I can see other human silhouettes around me. I can count four, including Kay's. I can't see them clearly but they feel utterly familiar. I can see Kay coming towards me. I gasped as see his face. "These are Bliss. It's what the Dream Eaters feed us." he says. "You just grab a bag and grab what's inside. Once you touch it, you'll feel completely satisfied and calm." I'm still staring at him in complete awe. It's like I'm looking at myself in a mirror to 10 years into the past. "Who are you?" I asked. "Well, I'm Kay. I thought I already told you my name." He seemed confused but distraught too. He said he's been here for over a year. His clothes are all ripped and dirty. His hair is a mess and he's barefoot. I'm still in awe.

 Why does he look so familiar to me? What does this all mean? Did he say Dream Eaters? "Wait, is that their name? Dream Eaters?" I asked. "Yes, that's what they call themselves. I told you that everything was going to start falling into place with time." he concludes. I look around and the other four individuals are opening their Bliss bags. Once they do, the lights in them fade away. "Stay close to me please" I ask Kay. "OK don't worry" the kid replies. I open my Bliss bag and I feel this warmth that radiates from the light inside the bag. It makes me feel at ease, docile. As soon as I touch it, a beautiful memory comes to mind. It flashes in front of my eyes like it has just happened. Riley, holding my hand as we walked the shore on Venice Beach. I sigh and the lights go dark. I guess Kay already had his Bliss. "Kay" I call his name out. "I'm here Kurt" he replies. With a sigh of relief I start asking questions. 

"Where did they take that girl, Sun? What are they going to do to her? Did the Dream Eater say she was going to be erased?" I asked as my voice trembles. Kay exhales, "She is going to be erased. You see, I wasn't completely honest with you when I told you I didn't know what Oblivious is for. I don’t know where it is but I know is a place where suppressed memories or emotions are placed to be eradicated. That's what happened to Sun. She was someone's memory, a bad one, who was suppressed and now it needed to disappear. We are also someone's memory. The Dream Eaters are the ones that take care of that. I told you you've been here around seventeen days because that's how long I've seen you here. No one knows how long the Dream Eaters have you until you're brought in here, to The Vault. Before you ask, The Vault is where we currently are. It's literally that, a vault. The Dream Eaters keep us here until it's time to be erased." he expresses. "Wait, so why am I here? Why have you been here over a year and haven't been erased?" I asked desperately. "To be honest, I have no answer to that. Over time I've formulated my own ideas. Once, months ago, there was this dog. Her name was Star and she was beautiful. One day, the Dream Eaters came and took her. I thought it was the last time I was going to see her. A day later they brought her back, they said it wasn't her time yet. A few days after, they came back for her. They said she wasn't supposed to be there anymore. I assumed she was being released instead of being erased. This led me to think that we're here until someone decides is time for us to be erased or otherwise." His explanation raised hundreds of other questions that he had no answers to.  I started to wonder why I was there. If I'm someone's suppressed memory and waiting for deletion, why can I feel this is all real? How can I remember that I have a family? How can I remember Riley?

"Kay, do you remember anything before you came here?" I asked. "Not really, I only remember darkness." he utters in a sad tone. I put my hand to my head and I feel the sting of the wound on my right temple. How did I get this? I wonder if the Dream Eaters did this to me. "Do you know how I got hurt?" I ask Kay. "No I don't, sorry" he says. "I know" a familiar voice says from the other side of The Vault. This voice is extremely familiar. It has that tone of safety, a feeling like home. "Who are you? I asked. "You tried to escape the Dream Eaters when they brought you into The Vault. You were screaming franticly and trying to punch your way out of this wretched place. One of them hit you in the head hard, you passed out. Another one dragged you inside and let you there. I thought you were dead." the guy said. "How come I don't remember that?" asked Kay. "We are all here because we're all memories of the same person. Some memories are connected to others in some way, but not all memories are connected. I know for a fact that I'm completely connected to you Kurt" says the guy. As the words leave his lips, the hairs on my arms and the back of my neck stand. A freezing cold sensation covers my body and I start to shiver. "What do you mean you're connected to me?" I yelled in disbelief. I feel him getting closer and I crawl back until I hit the wall. I still feel his presence moving towards me. I hear his steps in the water that has accumulated from the drip on the wall. Then, I feel his hand on my legs, I can't move. His body gets close to mine and his other hand is on my chest now. I feel his breath on my neck, I don't know what to do. I feel his face in front of mine and he speaks. "It's me Kurt. It's me, Riley." He proceeds to put his lips on mine, forcing his tongue in my mouth. This feeling! This sensation! The sound of his name resonates all over my body. His lips on mine feel like fresh air to my lungs. Then it hits me... all the memories come back like a running river. They are too much for me to handle, the emotions and the feelings are rushing too fast. As he releases my lips, I black out. 

“Who are you Riley?” Kay asked intrigued. “Little one, you don’t know me but I know you well. Even though your memory is not connected to me directly, you form a big part of my story, of my life with Kurt.” Riley says while holding me in his arms. I passed out… His kiss created this vortex of emotions in my mind that I couldn’t handle. Now I know who he is, Riley my ex-boyfriend. As soon as I grasp what happened I wake up… “Riley!” I screamed. “Riley what are you doing here? All of this is your fault! You… you broke me. You left me behind when I needed you the most, when no one else believed in me, you left!”. At this point I was shouting, with tears in my eyes. “Why did you do this to me? I loved you… I still do, you gave me purpose.” I continued. “Stop! You’ve got to listen to me” said Riley with a serious tone. I looked at his face perplexed. I can see him now; I can see almost everything in The Vault. What changed? His eyes are locked with mine; his face is a mixture of pain and concern. Why is he here?

“I didn’t leave you on purpose Kurt, I never left you at all. I was there since the beginning, when the hallucinations started. When you woke up on the middle of the night screaming that they were here to take you. I’m still astonished how even back then you knew about this place, you knew about Oblivious.” I unraveled from his arms and stepped back in a second. “What do you mean I knew about Oblivious? I asked in fear. “In one of your break downs you woke up screaming.  You kept repeating that they were here for you, the Dream Eaters. They were going to take you away and lock you in a vault.” As I listen to his explanation I was perplexed. How did I know that? Is Oblivious part of my hallucinations? Am I that crazy? “That night was the worst” he sighed. “You climbed to the top of our apartment complex, four stories. You screamed and shouted that you would not be taken, that you weren’t crazy, that they were coming. A neighbor was able to catch you before you jumped. Luckily, the ambulance showed up shortly after. In the ambulance, the put some sedatives to control you. You had become a danger to yourself and the staff trying to help you.  I called your mom but she never picked up, it was around 3:00 a.m. when we were on our way to the hospital. The paramedics took you inside, I followed right behind them. Out of nowhere, you woke up and wrestled your way out of the stretcher. I tried to calm you down but you wouldn’t listen. You kept screaming ‘they’re coming, the Dream Eaters are coming.’” With tears in my eyes I listened to Riley’s story. Kay was next to me holding my hand, eyes wide open while he listened to the story. “The nurses struggled to hold you down. They tried more sedatives on you but it didn’t work! During the struggle, you slipped, that’s when everything changed.” his face went blank. “What happened Riley? I asked desperately. He looked at Kay, then straight at me. “You slipped and hit your head against the floor, hard. There was blood everywhere, you were unconscious and the nurses were pushing me back while I was trying to help you out. They rushed you to the OR for surgery, clearly the injury was bad. To prevent permanent brain damage, the doctors put you in an induced coma. The surgery was a success and you were moved to a room. Your parents came to visit and your sister calls every day to see how you are. It’s been two weeks since surgery and you haven’t woken up.” he starts to sob. “Wait, what? Two weeks! Why haven’t I woken up? Is there something wrong?” I shout. “No, the surgery was a success. The doctors say that it might be because of the psychotic breakdown you had before the surgery. The doctor said that if you don’t wake up soon, you might not wake up at all.” I start to panic and to hyperventilate. Kay squeezes my hand while Riley holds my face and reminds me to breathe. Steps are heard outside The Vault… How long has it been? Two days already? Kay said that they come every two days to bring Bliss and to erase someone. I don’t think it’s been that long. I can hear others squirming in the depths of The Vault. I’m still not able to able to see everyone. There is no time for me to ask Riley how he knows all that information. Perhaps he is real? It doesn’t make sense!

The Vault door is opening again and light starts to creep through the seams. Kay runs away to a corner and Riley holds me tight in his arms. Two Dream Eaters enter The Vault with what looks like a Y-Pole, that tool that animal services uses to catch animals. “Mary!” the Dream Eater shouted. “Your time is up! Time to be erased!” As soon as he finished those words, a scream was heard from the dark side of The Vault. Mary was oddly familiar, I suppose everyone here is. She was a tall girl with long black hair and big eyes. She was on the big side of the spectrum but not too big. The Dream Eater pushed her against the wall using his Y-Pole. Then another Dream Eater came carrying the hose. “You became a horrible person Mary. After all the help he offered you, all the time he missed you, you went behind his back and turned his friends against him.” said one of the Dream Eaters. At this point, Mary was crying her eyes out. There was nothing she or any of us could do. “Do it!” shouted the Dream Eater. Immediately, the Dream Eater holding the hose turned it on. Just like with Sun, as soon as the water hit her skin a powerful squeal came out of her mouth until she fainted. They dragged her out by one hand and closed the vault.

“No Bliss?” asked Kay. “It hasn’t been two days yet.” Riley replied. Here I lay, still numb of all the things that had happened in the last couple of hours. “Riley, how do you know all these things that happened to Kurt?” Kay asks concerned. “I really don’t know.” he replied. “It’s like one second I was there, the next one I was here. I don’t know what the fuck is going on. All I know is that if Kurt wants to wake up, he’ll need my help to escape this place.”  “Mary!” I screamed. “She’s gone babe.” says Riley. “It was my sister! Mary was my sister!” I said in tears. Kay and Riley look at each other surprised. No one was expecting that statement. “Now everything the Dream Eater said makes sense!” Riley mentions. “You and your sister had a fallout five years ago when she returned from Europe. You helped her settle in and scored her a gig at your company. She became jealous of you at work. Everyone loved you!  Even though she worked hard to fit in no one cared about her, that’s when the problems started. She started making rumors about you and other people in the office. She didn’t care if you were her brother, she just wanted to get all the attention. That’s the reason that memory of her was here. You wanted that part of her, that memory you had of her to be erased. Oblivious is your mind Kurt. We’re inside your head, and we need to get out of it fast!” he finished.

“OK, so let me get this clear. Me and everyone that has ever been inside The Vault are part of Kurt’s memories? Kay asks confused. “Yes, that is correct.” Riley replied. While they discuss everything that has happened, I’m putting pieces together. Everything that Riley said is making sense to me now. The memories of the roof event, the struggle at the hospital, everything is coming back. Suddenly, everything goes white. I can see myself laying down on the hospital bed, machines beeping all around me. There’s a tube down my throat keeping me alive. Riley is there, his head laying on my lap, while he holds my hand on a chair next to my bed. I need to wake up! I need to escape Oblivious! As I come back to myself, I realized that the other two random people inside the vault are people that I obviously know. I detangle myself from Riley’s arms and crawl up to see who the other two people are. As I get close to the first one I noticed that is a woman. She’s laying on her back talking to herself. I can’t hear what she’s mumbling so I try to get closer to see if I can understand. “It’s your fault Kurt, it’s your fault Jim left me” she said repeatedly. It finally hits me, it’s my mother, Lisa. I despised her for all she did to me. She used to beat my sister and me every time she got drunk. She lost her job and all her friends. She blamed me for the fact that my dad abandoned us and built a new family. No wonder she was here in Oblivious, I wanted her gone!

“Go to fucking hell Lisa! You fucking whore! I’m glad that you’re here, this is what you deserve you fucking maniac. You need to be erased! You need to be erased!” I started to scream frantically.  Kay was so scared that he ran to a corner and covered his head with his arms. “Stop! Kurt stop!” Riley shouted while he yanked my arm. “Babe, you need to stop. This is why she’s here for, she’s here because you put her here.” He hugs me and cradles me until I fall asleep.

I woke up to the sound of the vault door opening. I can feel how Riley is holding me tight, protectively. The doors open completely and a Dream Eater walks in. He looks around and see Kay in a corner, shivering in fear. Then he looks at me and Riley and I completely froze. He turns his head and he sees what he was looking for. In the back-right corner of the vault, laying in a puddle of water, there she was. Crazy old Liza, mumbling the same words repetitively. “It’s your fault Kurt, it’s your fault Jim left me”. “Lisa!” the Dream Eater said in a demanding tone. “Your time is up! It’s time for you to be erased!”. Lisa didn’t even notice what was going on. It wasn’t until three other Dream Eaters entered the room that she knew there was something happening. One of the Dream Eaters used the Y-Pole to push her against the wall. The other two restrained her by the hands. Then, a fifth Dream Eater carrying the hose came in. This time the hose was different. It radiated heat, it smelled like sulfur. “What’s going on?” I asked Riley. “I really don’t know” he replied. “They will be no mercy for you Lisa, it’s time that you paid for what you’ve done.” said the Dream Eater as he motioned the one with the hose to engage. As the Dream Eater turned the valve on the hose, a blazing blast of fire came out of it. Fire engulfed Lisa’s body and she screamed. Her screech was so terrifying that Kay started to cry, so did I.

As her ashes fell on the floor, the Dream Eaters walked out the vault’s door. One came back, bringing with him bags of Bliss. He dropped them on the floor and left, shutting the vault behind him. Kay quickly grabbed his bag, so did the other person in the vault. I tried to get up to get my back but Riley gestured me to stay put. He reaches out with his hands and grabs both bags. “Thanks love.” I said to Riley. I cannot believe he is here with me. He means so much to me, my love for him is unmeasurable. When Lisa, because I cannot call her mom, went completely off her rockers, he took me in and took care of me and my bipolar self. I can’t imagine a life without Riley in it, he keeps me grounded; safe. Sadly, that’s my problem, I’m crazy. Well, not crazy but mentally unstable. The emotional abuse I experienced growing up with Lisa, fucked me up even more. I was already diagnosed as a manic bipolar when I was thirteen. I was taking control of my illness and I was making good progress, but then dad left. Living with Lisa became almost impossible. She was drinking every day since she woke up around noon. The house was falling apart and my mental state was as well. My sister couldn’t care less about what was happening. My mother only blamed me for what happened with dad. Nevertheless, when Lisa was too intoxicated, my sister would get beat too. Lisa would think she was a whore that my dad had brought to the house. Many men came in and out of my house at that time. I think that’s how Lisa was making money; she became a whore. I was eighteen when I met Riley, he begged me to move in with him and I couldn’t say yes any faster.

Since then, everything started to get better. Sadly, my mental disability was getting out of hand. I was doing ridiculous things, putting myself in danger. Once, I stole a baby from this lady at the mall. The baby was crying while she was in the fitting room. I felt like I needed to do something, so I grabbed the baby and cradle him until he started laughing with me. When the mom came out of the fitting room and saw me with the baby she freaked out. Apparently so did I, because I darted out of the store with baby in hand. I ran through all four stories of the shopping mall. Mall security tased me to catch me and bring the baby back to safety. I didn’t mean to hurt the baby, I just wanted him to stop crying, to make him feel better. Anyways, I ended up in a police jail cell for a couple of hours until Riley came to my rescue.

“Here love” Riley gestured for me to grab my Bliss bag.  I grabbed my bag and opened with hesitation. What memory will the Bliss bring to me this time? Would it be a pleasant one or a nasty one? Fuck it! I opened the bag and felt the warm and peace radiating from the Bliss. I extend my hand and touch it, then it hits me. Laughs, joy, kisses, fun, and his face. The Bliss gave me the memory of the first time I met Riley. Now I have tears in my eyes and I can’t stop them. I’m guessing his Bliss contained the same memory because he is crying too. I sit up and I move closer to him. With my hand, I caress his face and I whisper “I love you Riley” then I kiss him passionately. From the corner of my eye, I can see Kay making a face that resembled disgust. I can feel his disapproval and his embarrassment. Then it finally hits me… Kay, I know who he is! It’s me! Kay is my younger self! “You! I know who you’re now!” I yelled at him. Riley looked at me surprised. “You disgusting little prick! You and Lisa ruined me. You couldn’t admit the truth! You punished me for who I was and repressed me until the point that I started hurting myself.” I was screaming at this point. Riley was holding me back; I was on top of Kay yelling at his face. He just stood there, staring blankly at my face; he knew what he had done. “I hate you Kurt! I hate what you wanted me to do, everything that you put me through because you wouldn’t accept the reality!” At this point Riley let me go, he knew who Kay was now. “You’re the disgusting one! Both of you are! Kay finally snapped back. His intense stare was locked on me. He stood from the ground and walked towards my face. “You’re an abomination! What you’re doing is a sin and you’ll pay for it! That’s the real reason you’re here, locked up in your own mind, about to be lost forever. I clenched my fist, ready to punch the little teenager prick straight in the face. Out of nowhere, the vault door was wide open. The powerful light blinded us completely. “It’s finally your turn Kay!" I heard the Dream Eater exclaim. The next thing I heard was the brat screaming. He grabbed to my arm in an attempt to save himself. The Dream Eaters were pulling him, he was screaming. I felt the heat of the blazing fire coming from the hose. Kay, the memory of that little prick, had finally been erased.

We must have fallen asleep, me and Riley are both lying next to each other on the ground. I look at him and give him a kiss on the forehead. I sit up and look around, there’s only one more memory left in the vault other than us. I was determined to find out who that last person was but as soon as I moved Riley grabbed my hand. “Babe, we need to find a way to get out of this place. The Dream Eaters are not following a pattern anymore. Haven’t you noticed?”. As he says that I realized all the people, memories, that have been erased since I’ve been here. Sun, that bitch, Lisa, the whore, Mary, the drama queen, and Kay the younger version of me, the me I hated the most. Riley is right, but I need to know who is that last person locked in Oblivious. If that person is here it’s because I put them here, consciously or not. I need to find out who it was and why I put them here. “Riley, I need to know… I need to know who he is.” I whispered to his ear.

 He lets my hand go and I nod my head, letting him know that I understood. I get up and I walk towards the person sitting in the back-left corner of the vault. Once I’m in front of him, I realize who he is, it’s Jim, my dad. Jim left when I was twelve years old. He didn’t love Lisa or us anymore, so he disappeared from our lives. It wasn’t until five years ago that I heard from him. I received a letter from him, he wanted to meet with me, he wanted to tell me the truth. I can’t remember if we ever met or not. I can’t quite remember how I felt when I read the letter. Why is he here? “Dad” I said in an inquiry tone. He looks up, confused and weary. “Dad, it’s me Kurt, your son”. He stretches his arm towards my face, I put my hand on top of his. I love him, I still do after all these years. “My dear Kurt, how much I missed you” he said as a tear rolled down his face. “I need to tell you the truth son, I need to tell you why I left.” My heart skipped a beat and I grabbed his hand and brought it to my chest. “I couldn’t handle it anymore Kurt, I stayed there long enough. I stayed because of you and your sister, but it was too much. Lisa was drunk all the time; I came home and to find her with other men in my bed while I was out working. I wanted to take you guys with me but I couldn’t, she wouldn’t let me. She put a restraining order on me, I couldn’t get near you guys.” he sobbed. I couldn’t contain my tears and I started to cry, I hugged him like it was going to be the last time I was going to see him, it probably was. Soon the Dream Eaters will come to erase him also and I needed to find a way to get out of here if I wanted to survive. “I love you dad; I’m sorry I hated you for all the wrong reasons. That’s why you are in this place. It’s all Lisa’s fault! She made up stories and fill my head with lies.” “Don’t worry my child, I love you and always will.” I turned around and went back to Riley’s arms. He hugged me and told me something I was waiting for. “This is how we are going to escape Kurt… The Dream Eaters are going to come eventually for the memory of your dad. When we hear the vault door opening, we need to move as close to it as possible. Once all the Dream Eaters are in, we dart through the door.” he explained. “But Riley, where are we going to go? We don’t know what’s out there.” I replied. “I know, but the only way to find out is getting out of here! I cannot lose you Kurt! I need to take you out of here, so you can come back to me.” I nod with my head and get my mind set to execute Riley’s plan. I look at my dad, who’s sitting down in the corner where I left him. He looks at me and smile, and I can’t help to feel his love, the one that Lisa denied me. I look back at Riley and I kiss him on his lips. “I love you Riley” I said to him looking at his eyes. “I love you too babe” he replies.

As he finishes his words the vault door started to open. “Here’s our chance Kurt, hold on!” Riley said while he holds my hand tight. “I love you dad!” I was able to yell across the vault one last time to my father, who I probably will never see again. “I love you too son” I heard him say. The vault door opens and the last thing I hear is the Dream Eater say “Jim, your time has come to be released!”. I gasped, as Riley pull me by my arm out the door of the vault. He’s not being erased! I was able to forgive him, I learned the truth! “Run! Riley screamed. We ran out behind the Dream Eater but we found two more outside the door. I slid in between the legs of one and Riley punched the other out of his way. I grabbed his hand and we ran as fast as we could down the white and luminous hallway. It seemed that we were running for over ten minutes. I could hear the steps of the Dream Eaters right behind us. “Where are we going?” I asked Riley. “I don’t know! Just keep running!” I wondered if we were going to be running forever, then I realized something important! We were in Oblivious, a place inside my mind! “Stop!” I tell Riley pulling him by the hand. “This is my mind, these are my memories, I can make a way out!” I closed my eyes and thought about the life I had with Riley back in reality. The love he has always showed me and how much we will work together so I could get better. When I opened my eyes, there was a door at the end of the hallway. “There’s the exit!” I said smiling. “Well, we better run because here comes the Dream Eaters.” The Dream Eaters were gaining on us, running faster than before. We ran in the direction of the door, but now we were dodging fireballs! One of the Dream Eaters was carrying the fire hose and it was shooting at us. When we are about to reach the door, I trip, hitting the ground hard and taking Riley with me. As we raise our heads the Dream Eaters are on top of us, ready to take us back to the vault. Suddenly, the Dream Eater falls to the ground, someone had pushed him. When I look behind it, it was my dad! He came to our rescue! “Run my dear one, go back home!” “Thanks dad! I love you!” Riley got up and pulled me up with him. We ran towards the door as I saw my dad’s memory being burn into ashes. Riley opens the door and says “See you soon love” and pushes me inside… darkness.

In the hospital, machines beep all over the room. On the intercom, you can hear the nurses calling a doctor using code black. Here I was, laying on the hospital bed with no expected recovery time. Riley, holding my hand, passed out on a chair next to me. A nurse is checking my vitals when suddenly, I open my eyes. “Oh my God!” the nurse says. “He’s back, he’s back! she yells. Riley wakes up and looks at me. “We made it babe, welcome home.” he utters.