After the Demise

Chapter 5

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

"Uhh," I groaned. I hated that alarm clock. I slapped the top and it stopped beeping. I tried going back to sleep but it was no use, I was already up, so I laid in bed and about what was going happen today. "It's a Saturday, that's good," I said to myself. "I need to go to the café today, Madie said she needed to talk to me about something." I looked at my phone, it was 8:32. "Thats in 6 hours." I laid in bed till I heard plates clanging in the kitchen, and went ahead and got dressed in my usual, blue jeans and a T-shirt. I played video games till I heard my mom yell for my Dad and I that breakfast was ready.

I went downstairs to see that my dad had beaten me to breakfast, and already had crumbs of bacon around his mouth. "Morning," he said to me.

"Morning," I replied. My mom had cooked us bacon, eggs, french toast, and pancakes. Even though we could have easily had our butler do it, my mom loves to cook, ever since she was little. She said that when she was little, she had once put a plastic toy burger in the microwave to see if it would cook, and nearly blew up the microwave.

"Did you sleep well?" She asked.

"Yeah," I answered. I piled my plate with bacon and french toast, my favorite. She was checking something on her laptop when she turned her head to look at me, her face annoyed.

"Brandon Randy Kiddell," she said, turning her laptop so I could see the screen, "Explain this." It was my grades for the year so far, all As and Bs, except for my English grade, a C, a low C, "I thought you said you fixed your grade in English?"

"I did," I answered, "For a day, before my project was due." My mom sighed.

"I thought we talked about this, you have got to keep your grades up."

"I know," I said. My dad stood up and fixed his tie.

"Well, I better be going," he said. He kissed my mom goodbye and exited the kitchen. I decided to head back to my room when my mom stopped me. 

"Hey Randy," she said, "Get that grade up okay?"

"Yeah, I will," I replied, and headed back upstairs.  When I reached my room, a weird, black glow was emanating behind my door.  When I opened it up, my room was gone, just a black abyss.  I felt drawn to it and went into the darkness and it enveloped me. 

*****

When I awoke I was in a hospital room, all that was in there was the bed I was laying on, a table and some cabinets with a sink.  Then everything hit me, all the stuff that just happened, the sand man, Kirsten, the base, and that weird dream. No, not dream, memory, that was part of my memory. My family was rich, and my name is Randy, Brandon is just my first name. And Maddie, she was my girlfriend, is she dead? My parents as well? I brought my legs to my head and closed my eyes. I still couldn't remember what happened after that morning, I seriously doubt I was swallowed by a void. As I was contemplating someone opened a door and walked in.

"Glad to see your awake," said the man, "Never liked those Time Locks."  I looked up at him, he looked Native American, with a broad forehead and nose.  His skin was a rich, dark brown, and he had a bag of medical equipment in hand.  He set them on a table then grabbed a seat, pulling it beside the bed and sat in it.  "So, how are you?"

"Fine, I guess," I replied.  "I just don't understand anything that's going on."

"I figured as much," he said.  He pulled something out of his bag, I'd seen it a million times but never knew the name.  It was used for measuring blood pressure. 

"What's that called?" I asked. 

"This?" He said while putting the cuff on my upper left arm, "This is a  sphygmomanometer, try saying that while under a few drinks."

"It's hard to say that already," I replied, and we both laughed.  He used other medical equipment, checking to see if anything was wrong with me.  Finally, he put the last of the stuff in his bag and started to leave. 

"Well, everything checked out, your in good health."  As he reached the door, I spoke up.  

"Wait a minute," I said, he stopped and looked at me.  "Doctor, while I was asleep, I dreamed about my old life and I got some of my memories back, but it wasn't like a regular dream, it felt like I was experiencing it, like I was there again."  His eye brows furrowed, thinking about what I just said in deep thought.  He looked down, and after a few moments,  he looked up at me. 

"My guess, your brain is trying to put together your memories, and sleep would be the best time for it to do that."  He then opened the door and left, closing it behind him.  I got off the bed and as I was reaching for the door knob, the door opened, revealing the doctor again.  "How did you fall asleep exactly?" He asked. 

"Um, I heard a loud boom, then blood curdling screams." I looked at his face, he seemed unfazed, "Then everything got bright than completely black." He furrowed his eye brows again.

"What where you doing right before all of that happened?"

"I was talking with Kirsten and she was explaining what happened in the pa-"

"That's it!" He exclaimed, his eyes were wide with excitement, like he had just walked into a store with everything for free, "Your brain, like you, where grasping at straws for what had happened," now he was using hand jesters with his speech. "Then, your brain had started registering the information before you even could recognize it, and when it started putting the pieces together, it triggered auditory and visual hallucinations that you most prominently know in your subconscious mind. The experience was too much, and you went unconscious. This gave your brain the perfect opportunity to focus on memory retrieval," he started laughing with joy. "I must tell John about this, come with me!" He then ran out of the room, and I followed.  As I chased him down the hallways I thought to myself, what is my life right now? I saw him take a left into a room and I followed him in.