Last night, Quackity dreamed he was in the hospital again. Empty and cold and abandoned, the place was a desolate nightmare. He’d been there before many times, had walked up and down the hallways with only the sound of his shoes clicking against the floor ringing in his ears. He’d tried long ago to shout, to find someone else in this place, but it was always just him. Alone.
And nothing had ever happened. He was left to wander for hours sometimes with nothing but the blank walls and hallways that lead him to nowhere, around in circles. There weren’t any windows, and every door he opened led him back around to the beginning of the same hallway he found himself in when he got here.
It had stopped being scary to him. There wasn’t anything to be afraid of in here. Not a soul other than his. No movement, no noise. Just quiet and still and dark. Unnerving, perhaps, but never scary anymore.
But the dream he’d had last night had been different from all the other times before. The hospital was the same; bleak and shadowy. Never-ending loops and dead-end hallways hadn’t changed.
He knew something was off when he heard the sound of footsteps that didn’t belong to him click-clacking against the floors. Frozen, he held his breath and listened. He’d never seen anyone in here before, never heard a sound that he hadn’t made himself. Wasn’t sure whether to be curious or fearful of it. Despite the shock, there were no physical signs that he was scared. The beat of his heart was steady and calm. No tremors in his hand or his knees. He didn’t feel threatened.
As the footsteps drew closer, Quackity decided to walk and meet whoever it was. Knew somewhere deep down that it was just a dream, that nothing could physically hurt him in this scape.
They both rounded the corner at the same time, nearly bumping into each other, and Quackity didn’t try to hide his look of shock.
It was a real person! It was a man who was a lot taller than him, complete with suspenders and dark brown hair. Tangible and real and here. There was a cobalt glow in his eyes as he set his gaze upon Quackity. He could feel his pulse beginning to jump now, with excitement or confusion, he wasn’t sure. Quackity was almost too shocked to say anything, but surprised words slipped past his lips anyway.
“Are you real?”
The other man’s glowing eyes widened, his jaw going slack as he stared at Quackity, half-words sputtering from his mouth until he asked, “Are you ?”
He didn’t get the chance to answer as the dreamscape began to loosen, fade, and dissolve in front of him. The stranger began to warp, his hand reaching out to him, panicked words falling from his lips. “Wait! Don’t go!”
And when Quackity woke up in an unfamiliar room, the grey hospital walls and the strange man’s hand disappearing, he wanted so badly to understand. Wished that it all made sense in the real world the same way things always made sense in dreams. Had to blame this change of events on the recent move across the country.
His parents had bought a new house in some small town in the middle of nowhere. A fishing town with big boats and brick buildings that looked like they’d been built hundreds of years ago. A town where the locals all knew each other. A town with only one grocery store. A town that was charming as much as it was unfamiliar.
Hurricane Harbor.
Not the most comforting of names.
Quackity hadn’t wanted to move, had loved their apartment on the third floor where city life bustled below him. Loved the window where he could look out of and see a traffic jam or a street performer or a little rat laying a little egg. Granted, his city wasn’t as charming as this coastal town, didn’t have the air of sophistication or community that this place did, but it had been home.
