The Door to Tomorrow

Distressing Revelations

The following week was dreadful. For the first few days, I purposely ignored the boss and Narrator. I constantly thought about the possibility of Joseph's true identity. When I first began to suspect Mr. Peterson, I told myself I wouldn't overthink it, but I ended up doing it anyway. It was killing me. All it would've taken to find out the truth was a simple phone call to the boss, but I was too afraid to even try. Instead, I walked around in a daze for the first part of the week.

In the second half, I spoke to the others a bit more, but not many new things were said. Trevor summed it all up the week prior when he told me that he was following fate. I didn't really care at the time. I just assumed that meant he was finally admitting defeat. Those last few days were when I realized how distant I had become. My thoughts had been consumed by my dreams from early on, and the only person I communicated with regularly was Joseph. Well, at least until Mr. Peterson handed me the note. I often wondered how different things would've been if he hadn't done that. Although, if I'm being completely honest, it probably would've done more harm than good.

I spent the majority of the last day in the Library with nothing but my thoughts and the contents of my messenger bag to keep me company. I laid everything out on the tables—the drawing of the majestic stranger, the five journals, hell, I even pulled out the blurry photo.

I traveled up and down the Library, determined to finally find more answers. I started picking out books about clairvoyance and religion and gathered them in serval piles. My recent in-depth analyzation of Joseph eventually led me to believe he was some sort of clairvoyant. Of course, there was also the chance that he was an alien, but I wanted to explore all of the possibilities before sticking with that assumption alone.

I wanted to try and find more information on Mr. Kingsley, too. I needed to know more about the prophecies he made, as well as his life before 1976. That afternoon I found a book about him and set it down next to the open sketchbook.

When I reached for the book, I examined the grayscale drawing again. The man really did resemble Mr. Peterson to a surprising degree. If Mr. Peterson was Joseph, then there was a high chance that the young man in the illustration was actually his father.

"Could this be...Joseph's dad?" I muttered as I ran a finger across the page.

Just then I heard a child's footsteps approaching me from behind. "Chuck, what are you up to?" Concerned Robin inquired while gazing at the drawing.

"Look, there's more to this game than meets the eye," I began. "A lot of this stuff is connected to me somehow, but I'm not sure why. I came to the Library to try and figure something out, but I haven't had any luck."

He stood quietly with his eyes still glued to the sketchbook before asking more questions. "Do you know Joseph?"

I wasn't expecting him to ask that sort of question. "Yeah, kind of. It's kinda hard to explain."

"What do you mean?"

I knew Robin wasn't a threat, so I decided to confess to him. "I, uh...I met him in my dreams. But I don't remember ever meeting him in real life," I lied. "He told me that communicating through dreams was his power, but I've never heard of any power like that."

Robin wandered to a nearby bookshelf and looked through a few books while he listened to me.

"The strange thing is, I feel like I already know him very well. I've only met him in my dreams a few times, but it's like I've known him all my life—" I was interrupted by a loud thud. Robin had just dropped a hardcover book onto the table next to me.

"I knew it. I've heard of this before. It sounds so familiar..."

"Y-You knew what, exactly?"

"I knew you weren't just crazy or talking to yourself. You were talking out loud to Joseph during one of the scenarios, and he helped you. There is a power that has a special kind of telepathy, kind of like the one he uses, but I can't remember what it is." Robin turned a page in the book, which I noticed was called Types of Clairvoyants.