2038: Vincent

Nostalgia

I woke up in a familiar place; my old home in Detroit on the couch. It was after my 6th birthday party, and decorations and confetti scattered the floor. My little triangle cardboard hat was lopsided on my head with the string about to choke me. I fixed it quickly, then stretched. Sunlight beamed through the window, telling me it was a good day. Suddenly, a roaring came from the floor, and the void portal opened. My lower body started to pixelate again, then suck me into another dream. This time, it was when I met Levi in sixth grade. I was sitting at my desk, reading aloud to the class when a sentence had the word "fart" in it. I could barely read it, and the whole class stared at me. The only person snickering with me was Levi. Later that day, he invited me to lunch, saying how he wouldn't be able to read it either. After that, we became friends. Over the weekend, we went to the park in town. I was swinging, while he was on the slides. I got some height, and decided to jump off. I let go of the chains, and lifted my bottom off the seat. I flew in the sky longer than usual, then saw my feet turning blue, and squares floating out of them. I screamed for Levi, but he couldn't hear me. The portal took me back to bed. I woke up. My fingers started hurting, and I tried to wiggle them, but something pressured down. I got worried they were amputated or something. I got up and opened the door with my other hand.

"Good morning, lieutenant" A familiar voice echoed in my ear. Vincent stood in the kitchen making bacon. I looked at my hands, and this time Vincent was pixelating again. The shadow flew out of his mouth, and consumed him, then made its way to me again, into mine. The bottom of my eyes were starting to blacken, and then it went black. I sat up in bed, wondering if I'd pixelate again. My hair was all sweaty, and I'd about pissed the bed. I checked the time on my alarm clock, and realized my phone was on my dresser, perfectly normal with only one crack from when I dropped it on the road last summer. I checked it, and it worked like it always did. I unplugged it and headed out my room. My mom turned around from washing the dishes.

"Good morning, sleepyhead." She smiled brightly, and turned the water off to hug me.

"Morning." I repeated.

"You were exhausted last night. Did Levi wear you out?" She said, looking at my eyebags. I didn't know what she was talking about, but decided to go along with it.

"I guess. It was fun." I said, hopefully thinking the day with Levi at the lab was what she was talking about.

"No zombie potions?" She asked, then making a noise from her throat that sounded like a zombie. I giggled at her, then nodded.

"No, but there was a time machine in the basement." I said, which made her face go pale.

"Time machine?" She repeated, looking startled.

"Yeah, I went to 2038." I shrugged, wondering why she was so pale.

"Honey... That was on the news." She said, hurrying to unlock her phone, and pulling up a post on the news.

Sixteen year old boy was found dead after being found in an abandoned lab's time machine. He had several injuries on his forehead, and a phone was found completely destroyed.

My eyes widened. I ran to the bathroom, and lifted up my shaggy bangs covering my forehead. In the same places I had gashes that never went away on my forehead, there were two birthmarks that took their places.