Hidden: In the Dark

Cognitive

It's night. "Hey, wait up!" Steve falls behind as Bert and Randolf run ahead through the dew painted grass. They're selling alien shaped lollipops at the concession stand at the movie drive-in. "This is cool." Steve says, trying to fit in. "Well, it was my idea." Bert brags. "Hey, it's Jenny." Randolf remarks. Jenny is the next-door neighbor that has the pool. She invited them over a number of times but Steve was always too shy to actually go, can't say the same for the brothers though. 

"I'll take some Dr. Pepper." Bert says as a greeting. "Why you gotta have me pay for your stuff? Just go get it." Jenny teases. "With what money?" He's losing her attention. "What if-" He picks up a crushed up can off the ground. "I throw this and hit him on the head." He points at a dude parked in an older model of an orange Chevy, in an obvious attempt to impress her.

"You wanna bet?" She fixes her gaze at him with her head still down. "Yeah." Bert says triumphantly. Jenny adjusts her gaze to look at him then pulls out a can of pepper spray and sprays all three of the boys. "That's-" She points at the guy. "My boyfriend." Sending them running. 

"Ahh!" They squeal as they fall on the ground behind the concession stand, laughing. "I didn't even do anything." Steve says, rubbing his eyes. It's a sorry attempt because rubbing them made it worse. Bert playfully bumps his shoulder. Tears are strolling down from his stinging eyes as he holds his forearm up to his nose to keep it from leaking. "First time is always the worst." Randolf says. Steve shakes his head, still annoyed.

"We're still friends." Bert snorts, sucking up a string of snot.

"Why?" Steve says, standing up, holding his nose. He looks ahead and in the grass is a glowing light. He does a double take. His vision is still hazy from the pepper spray. He looks behind him to see everything else has stopped, nobody is moving, it's all dull. "This isn't how it happened." He approaches the light. It's a light-up spiky ball, shining all different colors, flashing, he goes to pick it up.

Everything is white. He finds himself tromping down a walkway in the woods with his snow boots on, a completely different time, a completely different...place. White covered trees, hedges and bushes surround them. Steve grabs a handful of snow with his glove. It's deep enough that he can just grab a layer and it's still clean, no dirt or anything. He takes a lick. "Eww, you're eating that?" Bert and Randolf look behind them. "Yeah, it's good."

"Better hope it's not yellow." Their dad says ahead. Steve looks over and sees the same ball in the snow but not lit up this time. He remembers it, this is familiar. He looks around him, the same results, it's like he's reliving these memories but the ball is snapping him out of it. He grabs the ball and hangs the band around his neck.

"I feel like in order to be my whole self, I need to reach the other part of me but he's trapped in a cage, on the inside and wanting to break free but I need someone to get me out, both halves of me. People walk past but I can't stop them, do they hear me? Or do I just not matter?"

"I need the key."

"When I was little, I was being babysat-

The door had to be closed so the dog didn't run around. He asked me which side I wanted to go on. "Are you staying out or going in? I'm going to close this door." The living room or the rest of the house, it may not seem like a big deal but it was a big decision in the sense of who I was with."

Steve stands at the door, he doesn't have an answer, he's still trying to recollect everything up until now. It's too late, the door closes. Steve walks up to it. He can still see through the slits of the blinded door. His biological father is in there. There's another voice, a younger one, who is that? "Let's play." the girly voice says. He sees her, it's Maze! He looks to the other side where his father was, except he's not there anymore, it's someone else. He's standing there with open arms. "You're forcing me to watch this." Steve complains. This is no longer his life or memories, it's Maze's.