Intensive Dream Unit

Chapter 1

It was a cold and lifeless room. Sterile white dominated the walls and the furniture with indifference. Yet despite the dreariness, glimpse of life flickered inside like candlelight.

Confined to a bed, a lonely boy whose eyes seemed shut forever was resting. Hundreds of tubes led from his body, connecting his frail shell to arrays of machines that beeped and bleeped once in a while.

His name was Ethan and he always wanted to enter the alter-realm. A world where people tasted their wildest dreams. A technological marvel designed by the human brilliance of Pegasus Corporation, a remedy for tedium and travail of the modern age. Yet he wasn’t allowed due to his failing health.

Suddenly, the occasional shrill tone grew into a screeching siren. The child gasped for air, fingers stretching in a bout of agony. A perilous struggle was raging on beneath the skin, but it looked like a mere spasm on the outside.

However, the doctors were aware of the dire situation. They rushed into the room shouting over one another.

“Quick! We’re losing him!” they yelled in their attempts at stabilizing him.

“Charge in three, two, one,” a woman in a light green coat commented as she placed a defibrillator on Ethan’s chest, immediately causing it to jump.

“It’s not working!”

He had cancer.

“Try again!”

“Three, two, one...”

A very vicious type. It corrupted the body at an alarming speed, withering it like a raisin and consuming it in a ravenous conquest.

“We can’t afford losing him!”

“Stay with us, Ethan!”

It seemed bleak. The little man lay there without vital signs. Despite the state-of-the-art technology, saving him proved an impossible task. All the computer assisted transfusions, modern medical technologies and automated machines were of no use.

One by one, they ceased with the effort, giving up on a hopeless case. There went another young life. But such was the way of fate. No complaint would ever change it. Not a single prayer could appease its unrelenting weaves.

They were slowly leaving the room with this conclusion. Yet nature decided to toy with them at that very moment, commanding the screaming boxes to calm down and resume beeping.

None of the doctors understood the strange occurrence. They considered it pure luck. A miracle that happened once in a decade.

“Where are my parents?” the boy wondered as his eyes opened wide, gazing around him in search for answers.

“They’ll be here soon,” they soothed him, still finding it hard to believe that he lived and communicated.

Despite the marvel, his survival meant prolonging of his life for merely a few days. Fully aware of it, he didn’t despair though. The mind was a delicate contraption, bathing in the illusion of light during hours of complete darkness.

 He dreamt of being a hero in a fairy land plagued by diabolical lords and evil spirits. He portrayed himself as a chivalrous knight that shielded the domain from vicious demons encroaching upon defenceless kingdoms. Yet he was denied all this. His condition would kill him outright, they reasoned.

“I want to enter the alter-realm,” he spoke in spite of believing his pleas would fall on deaf ears.

They looked at him worriedly. He was dying in front of their eyes, his fate inevitable. Their good intentions aiming to sustain his life suddenly seemed like cruelty.

“I guarantee I’ll ensure his safety,” a nurse stood up for him. He recognized her immediately. Jane, a fair-haired young woman whose kind heart brimmed with positive energy.

“Alright, but if he dies...” Sean, a head physician wished to express his concerns.

“Forget the laws,” his colleague Martin argued. “Do you believe they mean anything to him? Do they promise him a memorable life? For once, we could fulfil his dream.”

“Fine, but I’ll have no part in this.”