Insomnia Wake #Wattys2016

Chapter 9 - Doors Are Meant To Be Opened. And Closed. And Opened. And Closed...

I can't take it anymore! I threw my cards down and laid down on the floor, turning away from the others. How long has it been now? If I play another game I'm sure to burst. Calm down Neuman, call down. Even though I knew sleep was impossible in this world, I still closed my eyes and tried to shut down my mind.

Instead, quite the opposite happened, and my senses became overwhelmed by familiar sensations.

I was standing in my room, and at first glance it was exactly how I remembered. Am I hallucinating? Daydreaming? A little bit of both? I knew not the answer to that question.

Wait, something isn't right. I looked at my desk. There was my pen and some papers, but the pen was at a slight angle compared to how I left it. I walked over to it and looked carefully. There was writing on the paper:

You know what must be done Neuman.

I quickly turned around. What's going on? Is there someone else here? I turned back and looked at the paper.

Ha! Made you look! No, but seriously, pay attention.

Someone's... messing with me? I once again checked my surroundings but by the time I looked back the paper was already blank. I noticed quiet, but still audible, voices of children behind me. There was a soft white light leaking into the room from under my door.

I slowly and carefully walked to the door, opening it an inch at a time. Behind it was a scene from my childhood. I stepped all the way through, but the door and all that was with it no longer existed by the time I reached out behind me to close the door.

"Well, what are you going to do Neuman?! If you don't give it to me we're through!"

Oh, this moment. This was quite a long time ago.

"Please Neuman! It's mine! Make him give Sparky back to me!"

There was a younger version of me, only about three feet tall, being confronted by my best friend and a girl I had hardly met. The boy was holding a stuffed dog.

I really struggled with this decision. It was originally the girl's, but she lost it, and it went unfound for several weeks before the boy picked it up and got attached to it. At this point the girl had given up on the toy, but when she saw the boy playing with it she freaked. At this point I thought that they both had equal right over it, but I didn't want to ruin my friendship.

The girl cried. "My daddy gave him to me before he went off to fight bad guys! He's my special doggy! Give him baaaaack!"

I felt my heart sink. Then I knew that the toy meant far more to her than it did to him. I was once again at a stand still on my decision.

"You lost it but didn't find it, so he gets it."

That was my final decision. It was a selfish one. All I wanted was to preserve my friendship. "You're such an idiot, Neuman," I said to myself, both to the me of now and the me of the past.

The past stopped playing, as if it was a recording that had run out of film. The me of the past turned around and looked up at me, and just stared at me for a moment.

"Do you know where you are?"

"Talking to myself now am I? If I had to guess it would that I'm hallucinating or going insane, maybe both."

The little me stuck his tongue out at me. "Wrong! You'll certainly go crazy if you don't stop yourself though."

That smug little brat. "Then where am I, little boy?"