These Dreams of Truth

Déjà Vu

As we walked to breakfast Silvia told me my schedule for the day.

"After breakfast, everyone in Orange will head to a special room. When we get there, we'll have each of the patients sit in a chair at a table and strap them in. Then a procedure specialist will go to each child and preform a test on their forearms."

"What kind of test?" I asked as we merged with the other patients going to breakfast. 

"I'm sorry, Cynder." She stared ahead, her face unchanged. "I'm not cleared to tell you that. You'll find out soon enough."

I walked in to the cafeteria and grabbed the same breakfast I had everyday, joining Astella at my table.

She sat slack faced and pale, as if she'd just heard something she didn't understand. "Good morning." Astella said without meeting my eyes.

"Heard about the full Section test?" I asked as I began to eat my cranberries.

She nodded and smiled as Will slid silently into the seat next to her. "I know I haven't been here long," she started, "but this doesn't seem like a normal thing. Has it ever happened before?"

"Nope," said a boy's voice as he approached. "Never before." Was that... the boy's voice? from my dream? I whipped around to look at him but saw only Sebastian behind me.

He must have noticed my disappointment at seeing him as I turned away. "Whoa," he set his tray down. "You can't not look at me. I'm the best thing to see in this place."

I looked to him and said "You know, I could kill myself if I jumped from the top of your ego. It's just way up there." I heard Will snicker and Sebastian shut up for the time being

"So," Astella went on. "no one really knows what this is about then? If they've never done this before, why are they doing it know?"

"No clue," I shook my head.

We ate on in silence until Astella started drabbling to Will.

"How's your back?" I asked Sebastian.

He shrugged. "My ward gave me some scar cream, but he seemed reluctant to do so."

"Wow," I said, attempting to make it clear that I didn't care for his shit. "It's almost as if he thinks of you as a criminal - Oh wait, he does!"

"I wouldn't say criminal-"

"Oh? Well would would you say then?  Convict? Delinquent? Culprit? Fugitive? Offender? Attacker? Hijacker? Outlaw?"

He appeared to be genuinely shocked at my response. "Umm, well I think I'd prefer...wrongdoer?"

I sighed. "Your lack of effort and scantily aggrandized lexicon never fail to amuse me, Seb."

He rolled his eyes and asked "How'd your thing go from last night?"

He was talking a little louder than I wanted him to be. I lowered my voice in signal for him to do so as well. "It doesn't concern you."

"I happen to be interested in what you plan to be doing with those papers. You never told me, and robbery didn't seem like a thing you do often."

I knew how he could get sometimes, so it wouldn't be worth the fight to keep a secret. "I found out that my dreams that are monitored by my doctor's team are planned ahead of time and they are simply looking for my reactions. I took the paper I stumbled upon with this information on it and I wanted to look at more of them so I - Sebastian, are you even listening to me?! Stop laughing!"

He released his hand from his mouth and nearly fell out of his chair as he snorted with laughter. 

"You incredible asshole," I told him.

"Sorry," he attempted to regain composure. "It's just, you waited this long to figure that out? Like I said last night, you are not the smart one."

I glared at him as I ate my food, and he stared back innocently while slowly eating his orange slices. I got up to throw my trash away and put my dishes back, glancing back to see that he was still staring. 

I looked around at the other patients sitting at their tables. They all seemed just as scared of what was about to happen, even if they tried to hide it.

One thing did catch my eye. I saw a boy who looked like the boy. I only saw his back, but I saw his gray hoodie and unmistakable blond hair with a tint of brown. I speed up, pushing desperately through the other standing patients, not even bothering to say "excuse me" or "I'm sorry."

He was within a few tables. I wondered why he was here and why he wasn't wearing the standard tie-up-in-the-back hospital shirt and pants that were uniform for guys here.

Almost there, I thought to myself. Then a boy about my height ran into me and prevented me from going or seeing forward. 

"I'm so sorry!" he said "I didn't see you."

"Fine," I said pushing past rudely, desperate to get to the boy. But... where was the boy? I was standing beside the kid who ran into me staring dumbfounded at an empty chair that shouldn't have been empty. Where could he have gone? I only looked away from him for less that a second. Could I have imagined it?

More people were staring at me, including the people who were sitting at the table I'd seen him at. I decided to ask them.

"Umm, a few seconds ago, was there a boy sitting here?" I pointed to the seat. "He was tall, blond hair and blue eyes and..." I faded away at their confused look. I walked off quickly to put my dishes away.

When I returned to my table (feeling eyes on me the whole walk back) Sebastian asked what was wrong. 

"You look like you've seen a ghost." was all he said, unnecessarily  fixing his hair. 

I sighed. "I think I may have. Or just some weird déjà vu."

The wards had begun approaching the tables and I was grateful to leave, even if it meant going to some obscure testing room I didn't even know existed.