The Door to Tomorrow

Surreal Perplexity pt. 1

The dream began in Joseph's room once again. This time when I opened my eyes, I was sitting on the soft bed and facing toward the doorway. I couldn't feel Joseph on the bed, and when I looked behind me, I saw that the spot next to the wall was indeed vacant.

The orange glow of the sun peeked through the window, casting a shadow of my seated self onto the wooden floor. I listened to the chirping birds outside, and they, of course, reminded me of the real outside world. I rose from the bed and realized I was finally able to look around the room in the daylight for once.

First, I took notice of timeless toys sitting near the dresser to my right—a xylophone, a sitting porcelain doll, and a toy car. Upon seeing those, I thought the room was Joseph's childhood bedroom at first. As I observed my surroundings more, however, I realized how modern the room was. As I recalled from earlier, Joseph's age revealed that he grew up in the 1950s and 1960s. That meant the modern room was possibly his current bedroom. With that in mind, I wondered if the the toys were merely memories from his childhood. Anyway, the room did look modern, but it seemed eerily modern, especially once I took a closer look at things.

I approached the other dresser near the foot of the bed and saw a flat, rectangular television with some kind of sleek black box sitting underneath. It wasn't a VCR or a DVD player, and there were no game controllers in sight. I stared at it for the longest time trying to figure it out, but I had no luck.

On the dresser next to the toys sat a pair of opaque black goggles with a thick head strap. They looked so...out of the ordinary. Maybe even a little suspicious. I reached out to touch them, but when I did, I heard the sound of the white bedroom door opening slightly, accompanied by a child's faint, echoing laughter. I assumed it was the kid from the other dream, meaning it must have been Joseph.

"Joseph?" I approached the door and opened it all the way. When I stepped into the hallway, nobody was there, though.

'What the hell?" I frantically looked both ways again. I noticed Joseph was nowhere to be found, and I started to feel kind of uneasy.

I decided to leave the door open just in case he returned, then I approached the weird headset again. When I tried to touch it a second time, I noticed how apprehensive I was. My breathing became heavier and heavier as I reached out to touch the unfamiliar object. As soon as I did, the room became shrouded in a thick darkness. Terrified, I gasped and shut my eyes. Moments later when I opened my eyes again, I noticed that I was standing on the back balcony. I was simply teleported to another area. I briefly admired the large flowery garden, then headed back inside the mansion.

While passing through the dining area I saw a single blue plate sitting on the counter. It held a decorative pastry slice with multiple layers of custard. I was afraid to taste it, let alone touch it after the teleportation I had just experienced, so I admired it from a short distance. It seemed familiar, but I was ultimately unable to recognize it.

I headed back to Joseph's room to wait for him, but while on my way there I noticed something odd about the perfectly framed pictures in the hallway. They had missing faces. It didn't creep me out as much as it should have, so I just strolled along. While doing that, I passed by the upstairs foyer and saw yet another strange looking TV. The TV monitor in the foyer wasn't just bizarrely rectangular and slim like the one in Joseph's room, but it was also noticeably curved inward. Actually, at first I wasn't even sure if it was a TV or not.

Before I left that area I took a good look at my surroundings. Again, the unoccupied mansion seemed a little too modern, but I felt nostalgic about it for some reason. It felt like home...

I was prepared to reenter Joseph's bedroom, but right before I turned the doorknob, something on a nearby table caught my eye. It was a stunning porcelain vase filled with seven of the nine sacred flowers. The flowers weren't artificial like the ones in the Facility—they were fresh and alive. I lightly stroked a delicate violet petal with my finger to confirm the latter.

I felt compelled to hold the vase. When I gently lifted it, that intense nostalgic feeling slapped me in the face.

"I see. This is my house," I smiled. "Wait, what?" My heart pounded after I acknowledged the meaning of that declaration. I couldn't comprehend why those words came out of my mouth.

Extremely unsettled, I immediately put the vase back in its place. I rushed through Joseph's bedroom door, only to find an infinite black void. As soon as I turned back around, the door I had just entered withered away right in front of me.