The Abyss | Noah Sebastian

Dreamstate

After a few moments, he snapped out of his trance by blinking and letting out a sigh.

"Noah, what the fuck just happened?" His hands felt clammy and his face was covered in sweat. 

"Just another memory," he lifelessly stated, "if you haven't had one yet, you will. You'll get random memories from your time on Earth."

I gasped. "That's why I remembered the pepper story with my Gran!" He let off a shrug, obviously not knowing about my memory but understanding what I meant. "I was in the kitchen with her as a kid and I dumped too much pepper in the mashed potatoes!" Noah gave me a slight grin at that. "But then how the hell did I get a bowl of it when I woke up?"

"We're able to manifest our comforts here. It's the only thing that has remotely kept me sane all this time." He ran his fingers through his hair.

"I was with my friends Nick, Nicholas, and Jolly," he sighed, "we were goofing around, drinking White Claws, and playing Mario Party. This was the night Nick was so high and drunk off his ass that he ended up streaking through the whole house." A smile appeared on his face. He was glowing.

"They're such fucking idiots, man," he chuckled, "literally the best friends you could ever ask for. Me and my friend Nicholas have been friends since I was barely a teenager. He's like a brother to me. Jolly and Nick -- I'd take a bullet for them any day of the week. They're my family."

I offered him a smile. It's how I felt about Mia.

"Do you get memories of your family, too?"

His smile faded and he shook his head. "Sometimes about my grandma and grandpa, that's it. I didn't have a good relationship with my parents."

I decided not to press him any further. "So, what does one do around here to pass the time?"

"Glad you asked," he said as he began to walk down the hallway, motioning him to follow me. We passed several doors, which I assumed is where others stayed, but I didn't hear or see a soul. We got down to the end of the hallway and walked into an open-concept room lined with bookshelves, painting supplies, and other crafts. "We have this shitty hobby room. Hope you like reading religious texts, because that's the majority of what is on the shelves."

I groaned. As an atheist, I had no desire to read any of them -- despite my situation.

"Noah, my dude!" A shorter tan-skinned guy with medium length dark hair and red streaks popped out of nowhere and gave Noah a fist bump and a 'man hug'. 

"Short Stuff, my guy," Noah smiled, pulling him into a real hug. "Britt, this is Vinny. He stays in the room next door to ours."

"Hi," I smiled. He looked kind of familiar, but I couldn't place it.

"Hey Britt, welcome aboard!" His smile was infectious and he seemed to have a positive attitude despite the situation at hand. "Sorry you got stuck with this guy, he tends to scare his roommates off to the afterlife."

Noah rolled his eyes. "Not in the slightest," he mumbled, "don't confuse her. This is like her first day here."

"I bet he hasn't even told you how pretty you are," Vinny said, raising his thick eyebrows. I felt a blush creep up on my cheek. In the 'real' world, a guy as attractive as Vinny would never say such a thing about me, let alone someone like Noah, who seemed to purposefully ignore Vinny.

"Vin, what's the move today? How do keep Britt properly entertained between all these mesmerizing activities," Noah said sarcastically.

"I've been writing some stuff for Trap Demon," he beamed. I gave him an inquisitive look. "Back home I would use a program sorta like Garageband to make trap or EDM sounding beats, then I would record myself rapping outrageous lyrics to it with my friends."