SUPER. LUCID. (Palaye Royale)

YOU'LL BE FINE

     One year and four months earlier.

     Sebastian knocked loudly on the bathroom door, "Em, come out!"
     Emerson was sketching on the toilet seat with a sharpie. "Leave me alone."
     "What are you even doing in there? It's been three fucking hours!"
     "I said, leave me alone!"
     Sebastian grunted and got his jacket.
     Remington saw him and asked, "Where are you going?"
     Sebastian fixed his hair in the mirror while he answered, "Out to find a decent bathroom."

     Later on, a concerned Remington knocked on the door, "Em. It's dinner time now. You've been in there for six hours."
     No reply.
     "Em? I know you're hungry. Come out now. Please."
     Silence. Rem pushed his ear against the door. No movement inside.
     Remington felt a pang of fear and called out to his older brother. "Seb. Something's wrong."
     Sebastian walked closer. "What?"
     "It's Emerson. It's like he's not in there anymore."
     Things got dead serious. Sebastian commanded, "Get the EMF."

     Remington ran into his room to look for the thing in his drawer. Sebastian tried the door knob. It was still locked. There was no other way out. He kicked down the door. No Emerson. Only his sharpie drawings and writings that filled the walls and the floor and the ceiling. It's an unbelievable sight.

     Remington returned with a handheld radio-like device called Electromagnetic Field Detector (or EMF meter) to locate Emerson when he's on another dimension. Remington pulled the antennae out and waved the meter around the bathroom. It repeatedly beeped out loud .

     A sigh of relief came out of Rem. "Ok, Em." Remington looked like he was talking to nobody, and he thought out loud, "Sheesh, this feels like praying to God or something."
     Remington started again, "Emerson. Please. Come back. I know it feels safe down there, but you're safer here. With us."

     Emerson heard the beeping and, out of annoyance, floated away.

     The EMF detector slowly stopped beeping. "Shit!" Rem waved it around once more.

     Meanwhile, Seb called someone on the phone.
     Remington saw him and shouted, "What the fuck are you doing?! We are losing himー!!"
     Sebastian, with guilt in his chest, used his ability to mute his brother. When the person on the other end finally picked up, he spoke, "Hello, it's Seb. I need to talk to your cousin. …Rod. Yeah. …No time for that! We have an emergency! …I think Emerson got stuck in the Void." Sebastian grew more frustrated with every word. "…Yes, he's missing! …Alright." And he gave them their address. He put the phone down and faced Rem, "Fill the tub with water."
     Remington, still muted, shouted without a sound, "What?!"
     Seb unmuted him. "Just do as I tell you!"
     Rem pointed at him, "There should be a good reason for this." and ran to the bathroom, device still in hand, and ran the water.

     At the parallel plane, Emerson saw a glimmering object from afar. He swam closer to it. It looked like a shiny coin. He tried to reach it, but it floated further away. He swam deeper into space and stretched his arm a bit more…

     As the two brothers waited for the person Sebastian called for, and the tub to be filled, Rem continued to wave the device around their house, still hoping to find a sign of their brother.

     In the infinite darkness, as Emerson's curious fingers were about to grab the elusive coin, a strong light came from the object, and everything turned white. A sense of panic had hit him. He couldn't see his arm. Nor his other arm. Nor any part of him. He had lost his physical shell. He was merely a floating consciousness.

     The device still wasn't beeping. "Shit. I can't sense him…" Remington began to get suspicious with Sebastian, "Who was that…person you talked to?"
     Seb replied while still staring at the running water, "A cousin of an ex of mine. He's a "water medium"."
     Rem raised an eyebrow, "The fuck is that?"
     Seb continued, "He can contact the dead through water. He can also find lost items and pull them out of the water."
Remington shook his head a bit. "So?"
     "He's the only chance we've got. Or at least, the only one I can think of right now."

     As the tub was three-fourths full, the doorbell rang. Seb opened the front door and immediately let the bearded man in a gray coat in.
     The guy briskly walked to the scene. "Did you use the meter?"
     "Yes", Seb answered him, "but we lost him a while ago. We don't know how many hours he has been in there. Please. Bring him back."
     "I have done this with missing persons," he paused, "but I haven't done this with someone or somethin' from the Void. Don't worry, I'm gunna try. You know this comes with a hefty price."
     "I don't care how much; it's my brother's life."
     "Good. Now you be quiet while I do this." Rod then sat down on the tiled floor and focused his whole mind on the tub. Ten minutes felt like an hour for the brothers. The water began to vibrate…