Generations

Chapter 5: Dreams Becoming Reality

Chapter 5: Dreams Becoming Reality

He wondered if they’d be back. The voices that took hold of him just an hour ago, they seemed to still be in his body, rumbling in his stomach, whispering in his ears, though he couldn’t make out what they were saying. They were just there, constantly reminding Simon of their power. Any moment, he knew they could control him again. Force him to speak, as if he was a puppet, the strings from an unseen force controlling his every movement. No matter how much he tried to resist, he couldn’t as if it was just a movie, a dream, where he could only watch.

“You think it will come back?” Jason asked, seeing his brother’s nervous downward gaze. He hated not knowing what was going on, what secrets were being kept. Their mom told them that Grandma Rose was coming to see them because of what was happening, and that they should just be patient until then, but he wasn’t one to sit around and do nothing. He almost wished that he was going to school today instead of all this strangeness. It would have been a whole lot less stressful than this, that was for sure.

Simon nodded.

Jason hadn’t left his brother’s side since they got done eating breakfast. They sat on the bed, the air conditioner the only thing to break the silence most of the time, as time seemed to slow. Jason wanted to do something to put his mind out of the misery of this quiet, but any offer to do something, video games, TV, basketball, but nothing could get more than a word or two out of Simon.

This wasn’t like Simon, who normally seemed to have more energy than him. But here he was, weak, solemn, and just plain not right. And so Jason resigned himself to staying with him, no matter what that meant, if it meant sitting here in boredom, slapping him out of another trance, or something much worse with whatever the Nightwings he mentioned. Even if he didn’t know what was going to happen, he knew that something was coming.

“I’ll keep them away from you.”

“How?”

Simon knew what those words really meant. They were to get him to feel better, get him out of this funk. He saw the worried looks all around him, especially from Jason. He wasn’t stupid. But how could they expect him to act like everything was normal. They were in the room with him; they all saw it happen. Heck, they even recorded his message, or whatever it was. And Jason had no idea what was going on inside him. This wasn’t a nightmare that went away with some bright lights, a good breakfast and maybe a few tears. No, this was reality.

“I don’t know, but I will; I promise.”

“Okay,” Simon said, his head still buried between his legs.

Jason sighed, though was careful for his brother not to hear his despair as well. Maybe there wasn’t anything he could do, but he still wanted to be here, to do something, and it wasn’t like Simon knew anymore. And there was strength in numbers after all; maybe one of them couldn’t stop this thing, but it never seemed to attack Simon when he was there. Not the nightmare, not whatever thing grabbed him when he went to get Mom. That could be it!

“Simon, that thing or whatever it was never came after you when I was here. So you don’t have anything to worry about.”

“What about when that thing took control of my body?” Simon replied flatly.

“I didn’t think about that.”

“Thanks for trying though,” Simon said, actually looking up at his brother this time. He didn’t want Jason to be all down and depressed too. Maybe he had to do something, and hope that maybe the strange feeling would go away if he took his mind off it. “Want to go downstairs and see if Mom found out anything else?”