3:09

CHAPTER 16 - THE DRIVE

"Honey, I'm home" Cara shouted from the doorway. There was no response. "Honey?"

"What...?" Aaron questioned, looking around the room at a steady pace.

Aaron struggled to come to terms of where exactly he was. He paused and curiously tilted his head towards an awfully familiar voice coming from downstairs.

"Wait... the office door?" he thought. "Why am I in the office? What the hell? I was in Rose's room just a second ago, wasn't I?"

Cara slowly crept up the stairwell. Each footstep felt stronger than his heartbeat as it gained momentum by the second.

"Honey... where are you?" she called out. Cara walked over to the office room door and turned the knob. It was locked.

*CRASH*

"Uh... What the heck was that?" Cara questioned.

Aaron's inquisitive thoughts flickered like old light bulbs. Every question he desperately needed an answer for would ultimately snap his mind in two. He was at boiling point. Why am I wearing my work suit? Why is it 5:30 in the afternoon? Why is there furniture and papers scattered across the room? He thought to himself.

"Babe, you're starting to scare me..." she announced from the hallway.

His wife's questionable concerns were the last thing on his mind. Aaron's pale hands trembled emphatically as his eyes wandered throughout the upturned room. His overworked body was ready to shut down. Then, in the corner of his eye, he spotted something all too familiar, seated on the top of the bookshelf. A teddy bear. The... teddy bear.

"You've got to be kidding me..." he shouted.

Finally, the memories flooded back to him. "I remember this..."

"Hey!" replied Cara, "Fine... don't let me interrupt you then. Whatever you're doing must be more important."

He soared off of the ground with immense ferocity, barely clutching the teddy bear without losing his footing in the risky process.

"WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME!" he shrieked.

The panic would be obvious to anyone. The enigma of the teddy bear placed within his grasp had dulled all of his senses. Aaron's patience was wearing thin. All of a sudden the room felt crowded, in a way he had never felt before. It seemed strangely different compared to the many traumatic experiences he had been through prior to this one, however, on a day like this, anything could be possible.

Out of options and without a second thought, he barged out of the door and down the stairs, evading his disturbed wife in the process.

"Aaron! Where are you going? You're acting crazy!"

Teddy bear still in his grasp, he made his way to the car, reversed dangerously out of the garage and sped into the street.

"Okay, I'd like to wake up now!" he screamed. "This isn't happening... I know I've been through some rough shit, but hallucinating now, I mean... c'mon!"

The thought of calming down was virtually impossible in his eyes. After all, the countless phone calls and annoying messages from his wife were not helping in the slightest. Every couple of minutes he would check the rear-view mirror to see the teddy bear sitting in its perfectly upright position in the middle of the back seat. After driving around in silence for twenty-five minutes he turned up the radio dial and started listening.

"...two-car collision on the South-Western Highway..."

*CRRSH*

"... all of your afternoon music needs..."

*PSSAT*

"... change the way you shop online..."

*HISSS*

"...déjà vu, huh Aaron?"

Aaron stopped changing between radio stations. He pressed his foot on the brakes and swerved into the lane closest to the footpath. Aaron's heart sank like a yacht dropping its anchor. He didn't know what to do or how to react. What the hell did that just say? He thought to himself. He looked back at the teddy bear once again and saw its darkened, static eyes staring back in his direction. Aaron could sense that something didn't feel quite right. He couldn't shake the feeling that he was being watched, but this long drive to clear his head and the incident back at home had taught him one thing. He was no longer in control...

"If I were you I would listen very closely..." the bizarre voice on the radio declared.

There was no longer any static in between the phrases on the radio. Rather, it was complete silence. The voice spoke like a regular person, however, it didn't seem familiar to him at all. Aaron increased the volume upon hearing the unusual request.

"Do me a favour and check the date on your phone..." the voice demanded.

Aaron opened his phone, skipped through all of Cara's messages and opened the Calendar app.

FEBRUARY 2nd 2017

"There is no way this is real. C'mon, jokes over guys. Whatever prank this is, it's not funny!"

Aaron reeled in bewilderment. He checked it all. Photos, messages, e-mails and everything he could. Everything was set to three years ago.

"Do you understand now Aaron?"

Aaron's conflicting thoughts made everything much more challenging. He knew the only way to understand the situation was to accept the absurdity. After all, stranger events had happened.

"But... I don't understand why this date is so important" Aaron reluctantly called out.

"Take yourself back to what happened that day... certain events were set in motion, and they all started here."

"Okay, let's see..." he pondered. "There was the disaster in my office, which just happened, then there was..."

He paused. A eureka moment had struck into his dismembered mind, forcing the memories to flood back to him.

"After that I.. I told her I wanted to have a baby..."

Aaron slumped back in his seat. He scratched the back of his head upon the sudden realisation. His eyes widened as he recognised the possibilities.

"Do you see what you've been given? When you said YES to that note you made a choice. You've been given a second chance... a gift."

"Don't waste it..."

The voice became silent. Aaron had been left to his own hopeful thoughts and the many burning questions of his reality. A reality which had tested him in the harshest of ways.

"Don't waste it," Aaron said to himself. "You can't waste it."

He clicked in the seatbelt and hastily turned on the ignition.

"I won't."