We're Not Sleeping, We're Just Dreaming (Waterparks fanfic)

Eighteen - Keon

I stared up at the endless whiteness of the sky, fiddling with my hands resting across my stomach and felt it rise up and down with every breath I took in, wondering about the limits of my subconscious. I was alone - perfect time to experiment with how far I could control my mind, perhaps?

"Two days sure feels like forever, huh?"

I turn my head - Awsten. Well, "Awsten". 

I shrug.
"What would you know? You're not real?"
He smirked.
"Real enough to you. Aren't we all that you have, the people in your subconscious?"

I roll my eyes. 

"Still don't understand why you're here exactly."

He lay down next to me, his head level with mine but his body facing the other way.

"It's your brain, you tell me why."

I scoff.

"I don't know. Never been in a coma before."

Awsten smirked. "I guess that's a fair enough answer."

I sighed and closed my eyes, my arms still across the bottom of my chest and my stomach.
"So, whatcha doing?"

I open my eyes and turn my head the other way. Geoff. He sits and lies next to me, his body the same way as Awsten's.

"Not much. Comatose, unsurprisingly is pretty boring."

He smirks. "God, tell me about it."

I roll my eyes again. "So, What will it be today?"

Awsten turns to look at me. "What do you mean?"

I sigh and sit up, getting to my feet and starting to pace. "Well, you only turn up when you want me to see things."

"You'd be lost without us."

I turn on my heel to see Otto, who had appeared behind me. 

I sigh. "Urgh, a full house."

Geoff scoffs. "Admit it, you would be lonely. You'd go insane if all you had was your thoughts." He rolled to his feet, and paced to look into the nothingness, the pure white endlessness."

I turn back on my heel to face Geoff. "Like you know anything about me. You're what I make you out to be."

"He's right, you know."

Awsten is joining in too? Urgh, great - I spin to scowl at him. 

"If I'm really in control, I could make you disappear. Maybe then I'd have some peace and quiet around here. I never wanted this!"

Awsten stepped closer to me as I stuffed my hands angrily into the pockets of my very worn out denim jeans I had been wearing since forever. 

"Yet you're still fighting to stay alive. You haven't really given up...something inside you makes you fight."

I kick my feet against the ground. "I'm not battling to live. Stupid hospital, stupid machines...I'd turn them off if I could, fade away into nothingness."

Awsten stepped closer to me and put his hands firmly on my shoulders as I tried to move away from him. "I think you're scared of dying."

Rage bubbled inside of me and consumed me and I suddenly lashed out, my arms forward and pushing my whole body back until I heard a crunch - I had pushed him to the floor, knocking myself to the ground in the process. I rushed to my feet, standing, breathing heavily as I saw him just lying flat against the floor. My eyes ran all over the scene as my brain raced to comprehend what I had just done - had I killed him? I threw my fists against my temples, shutting my eyes, a squeezing sensation deep inside my head came about, getting bigger and bigger, more and more unbearable. Tightness filled my chest, a burning sensation within my ribs - was this a panic attack? A comatose panic attack?

I forced my eyes open. The feelings in my head and my chest persisted as a weakness in my knees and arms came about.

"This is your fault," said the fake Geoff. "Murderer."

I stared at him, the panic consuming my every thought. Murder.?

"Murder"

"Your fault"

"MURDER"

"YOUR FAULT"

Otto and Geoff repeated the words over and over and over and over and over, louder as they walked closer to me. I gasped for air, my entire being consumed by the overwhelming fear of the power of my anger and my strength. They reached out and touched me, shoving me to the floor as I curled into a ball and shut my eyes, their words louder and echoing in my head, until they were gone and the words began to slowly become quiet, still persistent, as the panic took hold and I could not shake it. 

This was it. This is how I die.