Souvenir's Of Self

26 May 2082

Dear Stranger,

Leo died. That’s what I want to tell you. That the damn idiot’s dead. Roy’s dead too. Thought I’d chuck that one at you too, keep the ball rolling. I’m not dead. Not yet. All these kids my age are dying. There were two hundred and twenty something kids in my class. That twenty something are dead now. More will die before this year’s done. That’s just my class. People die every day, I know that. But more are dying than ever before because of DreamTrue.

Since Leo’s birthday three years ago, he and Roy started using it more and more. I watched them a couple times, too. It just didn’t sit right with me though. Sure, seeing Leo’s first dream was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen and we gave him hell about it but I could see them getting hooked; to the extent that they, like many others, found it hard to distinguish between reality and the dream. They weren’t eating much. Weren’t sleeping much, except to dream. And then they just didn’t wake up. Their bodies gave up. I think that taking DT overloaded their brains and bodies with something that they couldn’t handle anymore. All the cases have been kept real quiet in the news but I know. I ask Uncle Kit lots of questions. He tries to fob me off but I keep coming and he always gives in.

What gets me is that my Dad still basks in the glory of his invention while people are dying every day because of it. I just want to get away from it all. As soon as I finish school this year, I’m leaving. Maybe to explore beyond the Federation, get away from the city. Maybe become a hermit.

Kit has told me that in the last two months there have been several unexplainable deaths. There’s no link in the way the victims have been killed but all the deaths have been extremely gruesome. I can’t remember seeing Kit this stressed or frustrated. On top of this he’s investigating a break in at the DreamTrue Labs; information and equipment was stolen.

I’m living with him at the moment. Damn near broke Mum’s heart but being around Dad just makes me furious. Sometimes Kit lets me help him with his cases. He’ll try theories out on me and I try to give him different ideas. I’m discovering more and more that I don’t like people very much. They’re horrible. I’m also learning that they all seem to run according to patterns; they’re predictable. It’s the people who know this that are interesting because they can do the unexpected. Enough analysing people. I have a funeral to attend.