Stuck in a Dream (INCOMPLETE)

Prologue

"Ella, your kids are just the sweetest," Rose says to her daughter, ruffling 5-year old Jackson's hair as he runs out of the house to play with his cousins.

"Mom, you're saying that as if they're not your own grandkids," Ella replies, taking a seat on the porch next to her husband.

Rose doesn't reply, simply sipping on her tea as she watches her grandkids toss a football around in the backyard. An odd feeling started building up in her stomach, but she ignored, thinking it was just indigestion. But soon, the feeling started to grow and become more intense. She clutched the arm of her seat and closed her eyes, bracing herself for what she thought was pain that was coming.

Rose opened her eyes, only to be looking at white. Everywhere her eyes looked, there was white. Where was she? Her whole body was numb; she couldn't feel a thing. Rose clenched her hands, blood rushing and tiny prickles appearing. She held up her hands, her eyes widening when she saw that there was not a wrinkle to be found.

But how was this possible? She was 89 years old! What was happening?

Slowly, she turned her head and felt something cold against her cheek. She moved her hands around the surface, and discovered that she was lying down on a metal table. So that meant that what she had been staring at before was a white ceiling! But where was she?

Using her elbows, she slowly gets up, blinking her eyes as dizziness washes over her. She swings her feet over the table and stands up, clutching the table for support as her body threatens to topple over.

Once Rose had regained her balance, she walked throughout the room, poking and prodding at things. There was a transparent bag full of some sort of clear liquid, a bunch of equipment surrounding it. Her feet slapped against the tiles as she walked around, examining everything.

"She's awake!" someone screams from behind her. Rose whirls around, her eyes landing upon a man dressed in scrubs, a mask covering his face. People wearing similar clothes came rushing into the room, surrounding her.

"Rose, are you okay?" someone asks from her left.

"Do you feel dizzy? Disoriented?" someone else asks from behind her.

"Give her some space!" shouts from in front of her. Obviously, they were the boss of these people because they withdrew from their circle around Rose, looking down at the ground. "Ah, Rose. You have finally awakened!"

"Awakened? What do you mean? Where am I? How do you know my name? Who are you? Why-"

"Slow down, Rose!" the man interrupts her, chuckling. He looked to be in about his mid-40's, dressed in a crisp suit. The man was all crisp edges and smooth lines. "By awakened, I mean exactly that. You have been in a deep sleep. You are in a laboratory. We've known your name ever since you were 6 months old. We are scientists."

Rose stared at the man, confused. Even though he had answered her questions, she was just as confused as ever. "How long was I asleep? Why am I in a laboratory? How do you know me?"

"Rose," the man sighs, walking towards the metal table and sitting down. "Let me start from the beginning. My name is Stanley Cooper; but you can call me Dr. Cooper. I am the head of the PL Institute. You've probably never heard of us because we don't want anyone knowing about our research yet. Our research, however, allows us to enter a deep sleep and experience our most recent past lives. And you, Rose, were the test subject."

"Test subject?" Rose repeats, the words feeling strange on her tongue.

"You see, we needed a baby, about 6 months old, to be given to us so we could test our experiment. You were chosen. Your parents handed you over and you've been here ever since, sleeping and being tested on," Dr. Cooper explains further.

"So," Rose begins, unsure of whether or not this was a prank. "All of those things that I've seen. They were all a dream?"

"Or past lives," Dr. Cooper responds, smiling slightly as if to reassure her. "But yes. Technically, it was all a dream."

And that's when Rose collapses to the ground, unconscious.

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