The Dream

Chapter 12

The next morning, I woke up feeling a little tired. I woke to find the lab a bit messed up. There was something weird about the place. I could not place my finger on it, but it felt like there was some sort of ruckus that took place in the lab at night. I was a bit disturbed and angry about this, because there was something bad going on here and Jessica and Max left me to sleep instead of waking me up. Was their research of so much importance to them?

I immediately ran to the next room. Max and Jessica were sitting on the chair kind of frozen. Both of them had a cup of tea in their hand but none of them were drinking it. The had a look of absolute shock on their faces and something was telling me that it is bad news. I went up to them with this partial anger and partial anxiety and partially with a 'Please don't tell me I did something to y'all' kind of expression.

"Hey, guys! Good morning!"
"Well at least someone is finding the morning to be good" Jessica said sarcastically to Max.
"Well I don't know what's wrong but why is the lab all messed up? You know I got up to a huge surprise guys. I got scared, seeing that."
"Wait! You are saying you got scared?" Max said with a sort of confused expression on his face.
"Obviously I did! What is wrong? What happened yesterday night? Was it a break-in or something and why didn't you guys not wake me up while something bad was happening out there?"
"Wait a sec!! You mean you really don't know what happened at night? Like seriously!!!!" Jessica exclaimed.
Now at this point I was worried. There was some serious shit going on here now. It had turned into an awkward staring session between Jessica and Max who were staring at each other and then towards me with an annoying puzzled expression.
"Okay guys, now this is getting creepy. Please just one of you tell me what exactly happened yesterday. Please"
So then Jessica briefed me in short that I did some weird stuff past 2:30 AM.

"So let me get this straight. You are saying I fell asleep everything was alright, I started dreaming, you got data, everything was good. And then my phone buzzed, which I am saying now was a reminder, and a strange string of events happened?"
"Yes that's exactly what we are saying. So this is what happened after your reminder buzzed."
And then Jessica started narrating the events that took place last night and with every passing moment I was just sinking my head deeper into my hands, purely out of shock and disbelief.
"That's it Max! I think we might have just stumbled upon his trigger to the dream. It was that buzz of his phone. A reminder of some sort."
"Yes I agree. The timing was sort of perfect. It has to be it."
But just then they heard another noise. This time it was a call. The time was 2:50 AM precisely.
"Uhmm... Ma'am I think there is some problem with our machines. While we can clearly see that Richie is fast asleep and in his dreams, the EEG is picking up beta waves. It is almost as if he is awake! How is this possible?"
"What are you saying Max? Are you sure?" Jessica was shocked to hear that.

Just as she was about to turn to the machines, I sat up. So she was eased a bit. She thought maybe I was just a light sleeper and was awake due to the call. But Oh boy! She was wrong. I guess she didn't see that coming.
She said that I suddenly grew fierce. I ripped all the wires attached to my head and chest. So they actually couldn't measure any more data but that was not the end of it.

I apparently took a hammer from a nearby shelf and smashed some of the systems there. I broke a mirror in the room and took a broken piece of glass from it. I severed several of the wires. While all this was happening Max and Jessica were watching this happening from the window of the other room. They were taken aback by this behaviour and couldn't understand any of the stuff that was happening. They were still measuring some of the activity because Jessica had silently slipped a microbot into my system along with my meals.

But then apparently I started going out of control. I was trying to harm myself and that is when they decided to intervene. They rushed into the room and the seized that piece of glass from me. But it was not that simple as I was struggling and apparently, I even kicked Max in a sort of a brawl. As a last resort, they had to tranquilize me to get me under control and put me back to sleep. They had also tied me to restrict my movements until a few hours back. They were pretty sure I had gone insane because of all the events happening to me over the week.

They were traumatized by this, but not as much as I was right now. What the hell is going on? No wonder I woke up feeling tired, after all, that they had said I had done.
"You really don't have a single bit of knowledge about any of this? Seriously Richie?"
"N...N...Noo... Uhmm... I am really scared right now Jessica. I am sorry for everything I did. I don't understand this and I really don't remember any of this.
Also, I am sorry Max, I hope you are not hurt."
"No man, don't worry. I am fine. More importantly how are you now? I know that you must feel frayed after what you just heard."
"Yes man! I am totally shocked!! I don't know what's going on!! And more importantly, the last hope I had, the data about my dream was all destroyed by my own hands. Nothing can be more depressing."
"Well about that, you don't need to worry. This facility belongs to the CIA remember? All the data had been transferred in real-time to a cloud and all that data is safe. "Jessica said, calmly sipping her tea.
"And also, I think now I have a fair idea about how everything was done!
I think we definitely are one step closer to the culprit now!"

She had a kind of a sinister smile on her face while saying this. A smirk that was actually kind of creepy. As if she was saying 'You may be smart, but there is always someone smarter.'