"An Active Imagination"

Hello, everyone and welcome back to Daniel's Discussions! I would like to personally thank you for patience. Well, in a recent post, I asked you all if you wanted me to post my book. Well, here you go! I hope you enjoy!

An Active Imagination

By: Daniel Duncan

Chapter I

It was a hot summer day; the Sun shined brightly in the clear, cloudless, afternoon sky, and although there was a cool breeze upon the mountain top, the heat of the Sunlight made the endeavor all the more difficult… Three soldiers ran along the top of the mountain, doing their best to move quickly and stay unnoticed. When they had a good mile and a half between them and their pursuers they stopped to catch their breath.

“We can’t rest long, they’re fast… Really fast.” The youngest of the three spoke up.

“They are only human… They… Can’t just run forever!” The oldest replied, gasping for air. The middle one sat down on a rock and chugged down the rest of the water in his canteen before speaking,

“Man… What are these things?”

“Well… Joel…” The oldest said in response,

“They are very angry Natives.” In response, Joel looked the oldest in the eyes,

“Well, let me tell you right now, Sam… I don’t really care what someone took from me, I wouldn’t chase them down for EIGHT STINKIN’ MILES!!” The youngest spoke up harshly,

“Keep your voice down, Joel! They might have lost us back there.”

“Ah, shut up, Noah!” Joel yelled at the youngest.

 The oldest was about to scold them for arguing mid-mission, but was interrupted before he could speak by the sound of many feet charging across the mountain.

“Ah, crap!” Joel almost screamed. The three of them stood up and continued running across the hill.

The oldest, Sam, recollected exactly how they got in this mess. Three days ago, Noah and Joel were assigned a mission to sneak into this native camp and take their Source Rock; a magical orb, roughly the size of a large marble, that supposedly held the key to limitless power. Sam, a Colonel, was sent with them not only to ensure the success of the mission but to keep the other two in check. The orb was right next to the chief of the tribe, nevertheless the mission went flawlessly! But, the moment the Sun rose and the chief opened his eyes… The three had been chased. Now… Sam, a 39-year-old Colonel, Joel, a 29-year-old Sargent, and Noah, a 27-year-old Private First Class were running for their lives.

“It’s three miles till we reach the rendezvous point!” Sam yelled. Suddenly Sam heard a sound come from behind,

“Sam, don’t go any further!” The sharp voice knocked the boy right out of his daydream. 15-year-old Sam turned around to face his father, who was hiking up the mountain at a ridiculously slow pace (in Sam’s opinion). Sam sat down on a rock to wait… His two younger brothers did the same.

“I told you to stay where I can see you.” The father shouted trying to catch up with the three boys.

“Sorry, dad… I guess I got lost in a daydream again…”

This was a recurring problem for Sam; if his mind wasn’t actively focused on something, he would rapidly drift off into a daydream. This didn't bother Sam however, he actually preferred the Dream World rather than the Real World: in the Dream World you can do anything, no matter how absurd! In the Real World, however, there are limitations to what a person can do.

“You need to wait for me. I’m not as fast as you kids.” Their father explained as he finally caught up.

That was another thing that Sam hated about the Real World: You had to wait for things… In his imagination, he never needed to wait on anything! Everything was always on que, everything waited on him. Sam stood and started to walk up the hill. It wasn’t a walk; it would more accurately be called meandering or wandering… Sam used a Fitbit that said his walking speed is approximately 4.5 mph… So this pace he was forced to walk in, was basically a wandering movement in the general direction, ‘straight’.

Sam could do nothing but wander forward as they attempted to get to the top of this… Foothill. Kennesaw Mountain was not a small mountain, but as opposed to the hills in Alaska… It was a foothill. Sam longed for Alaska; he lived there only a year and a half and yet, he missed with all his heart. He loved the cold, he loved the dark, he loved the space… But, most importantly, he loved the fact that no one cares about what you do with your stuff. His father, in Alaska, spent about a week un-jamming a .22 that his uncle gave him. When he finally thought he had fixed it, he stepped on the back porch and shot it down the hill.

There’s no reason to fear for someone’s life… They lived on the top of a hill that was densely forested. The forest was only about 250 yards deep before it completely disappeared and met the road… But, it was so dense that there’s no way that a .22 could do anything.

Sam and his friends actually made it a game, ‘Try to Find the Tree That Has A .22 Bullet Stuck in It’, it was a very fun game! If you found it, you got a week’s worth of candy! No one ever found it though… Remembering all of this made Sam chuckle. He didn’t even notice that he had walked ahead again. He just stood there waiting for them to catch up.

“Man… Something’s wrong with me.” Sam said to himself under his breath,

“Why is it that when I daydream… Or think deeply in general… I just become oblivious to time passing?” He stood there for about fifteen more seconds until his father and three brothers came into view. Sam paused for a second…

“1, 2, 3, 4…” He said pointing to each of his visible family members, then pointed to himself,

“5…” He paused to think for a moment,

“Two are missing… Where’s Mom and Eliza?” He thought out loud. He waited until his father and brothers were within earshot and yelled,

“Where’s Mom and Eliza?!”

“They’re at the visitor center.” His brother, Joel, yelled back.

Sam scolded himself for forgetting. He suffered from a moderate case of Short Term Memory Loss. Not as bad as that of Dory from Finding Nemo… But, if it wasn’t of uttermost importance, he would forget. And, unfortunately for him, very few things were considered to be of uttermost importance. You could literally hide something in plain sight--you could set it on the counter top--and he wouldn’t notice. He slipped back into a daydream as he continued walking… And before he knew it, they were back in the van headed home. This one… Confused him… He knew that when he got deep into a daydream he became completely oblivious to time passing… But, this was ridiculous! It had to have been at least 45 minutes that just… Disappeared.

When the arrived home, Sam went to his room, put on his headphones, and turned on his iPod Nano. Now that he had ‘thinking music’ playing he replayed the whole event, considering how it happened… He chalked it up to: blacking out, and left his room to eat dinner. After he cleaned up dinner, as it was his turn to do so, he went to bed.

At about midnight, he awoke up to the sound of heavy feet storming through the house. They charged right for his bedroom and the door flew open revealing two soldiers wearing unfamiliar armor. Both of them had a strange symbol on the left of their chest. It looked vaguely like many lines making up and filling a triangle. They ripped Sam out of his bed, hand cuffed him, gagged him, blindfolded him, and dragged him out of the house. Through the blindfold Sam could make out a very bright light… Something hit him with extraordinary force over the head, then everything went black.

Sam awoke to still being blindfolded and gagged, but his hands were tied behind something like a chair. The sound of a metal door opening fallowed by another bright light broke the silence. He was un-cuffed just long enough to get him off of the chair, then his hands were immediately cuffed behind his back again. He was hustled through a maze of bright lights until Sam heard the sound of a heavy door opening; his blindfold was removed to reveal a massive room filled with strange creatures that could only be described as aliens or monsters. And every single one of them was hollering like it was the Colosseum… However, it was only as large as an average court room.

Sam was moved to a large platform raised about a foot and a half, in the middle of the room. There was a large desk about fifteen feet in front of him, at which sat a large figure… It wore a large black robe with a hood. One could mistake it as the Grim Reaper… But, it obviously wasn’t, it was too… Buff, too muscular, too… Tall. It stood up, it looked to be 9 or 10 feet tall. It raised its right hand and the crowd that had been screaming and cheering was now deathly silent. Everyone, including the cloaked judge, sat down. Sam was now the only person who was standing up. The creature at the desk looked down at Sam. Looking around the room, it began to speak in a deep, gravelly voice that was nevertheless clear and definite,

“Standing before us is a Wanderer, one of the last five of its kind; Sacred, cherished, infinite in power. Nearly two centuries ago we, the Supreme Council of the Ninety Worlds, swore to protect these beings…” He said gesturing to Sam,

“And to give them the same fair and just treatment as anyone else. However, in exchange for protecting them, welcoming them, and treating them as equals, we made an agreement with the last five Wanderers.”

He picked up a parchment of paper that had been folded like a letter and that had a strange seal on it and opened it,

“Here is the contract that ALL FIVE of the Wanderers signed stating that they would only use their incredible gifts in dire circumstances or to help the needy.” He put down the paper and looked Sam in the eye,

“This one, broke that agreement. Sam-anon Az-Miin Zochorum, you are charged with continual time travel and tampering with the Time Stream used by the planet known as Earth. How do you plea?”

Sam just stood there, awestruck. He was trying to process everything that was going on around him… Nothing made sense. Now he was in court for something he didn’t even know was physically possible! In a moment of both terror and exhaustion, Sam blurted out the first thing that came to mind,

“What are you talking about!? T-time travel, t-t-ta-tampering with the Time Stream??! That’s impossible! I’m just your average 15-year-old American… I’m not even that! Have you seen my test scores??” Murmurs and whispers rang through the Council as every word that Sam said echoed in the large room. The judge looked at him in confusion, but before he could speak, Sam said one more thing,

“And what the heck is this ‘contract’? I never signed a peace treaty or whatever it is!” When he said this, the room went silent,

“You mean to say… You don’t remember?” The judge inquired,

“I’m pretty sure I would remember signing a… Space Contract or whatever.” Sam said sarcastically.

The judge just sat there, it almost seemed like he was afraid when he said,

“What’s your full name?”

“Samuel James Tyler.” Sam declared in a loud clear voice.

Just like that, the room filled with cries of fear or other emotions. Among them you could hear voices yelling, “Spare him!” or “Help him” or “He has the sickness!” The judge frantically pounded the desk with his gavel, screaming,

“Order! We shall have order in the Council!” Once the crowd had finally been silenced, the judge looked down at Sam. There was a long pause, suddenly the judge stood up and said,

“I sentence you to house arrest and place you in the hands of our Main Healer, until such time when we can identify the problem and fix it.” The judge looked around the room, and proclaimed,

“All in favor?” It looked as though literally every being in the room raised its right hand and yelled,

“Aye!” The judge took a quick look around the room,

“All opposed?” One being in the room raised its right hand and said,

“Aye.” Utter silence, everyone in the room looked, in pure anger, at this one lone creature that disagreed.

The judge took another quick look around the room,

“Case dismissed.”

He motioned for Sam to be taken away. This time, Sam wasn’t blindfolded or gagged. Now he could clearly see what was around him, the sight he saw was incredible! There were giant futuristic buildings everywhere, logic defying vehicles, and every kind of alien species the imagination could conjure traveled around, just living their lives! He was ushered into a strange vehicle. Just the sight of everything could make a grown man cry… It was incredible, unimaginable, logic defying, and Sam loved it! An hour and a half passed like a flash of awe inspiring light. And before his mind could finish processing what he saw, he was ushered to the front door of a two-leveled building out in the middle of nowhere… It was kind of strange in comparison to the large city. Sam was escorted to the front door and one of the two soldiers pushed a button on a panel that was next to the door. The door opened into the wall like a door from Star Wars and behind it stood something that couldn’t be explained in mere words… It looked like the End Dragon from Minecraft was shrunk to be about five-foot-eight, given a white dress, blue eyes, glasses and removed its wings. It’s adorable! Sam thought to himself. The soldiers simply gave the creature a chip that looked like it was from a camera, escorted Sam inside, un-cuffed him, and left… Just like that.

Sam could tell that this creature was confused. It looked at the chip in it's right hand, then at Sam, then back at the chip again. It asked Sam to sit down while it walked into the other room. All Sam could do there was look around the room. It was spacious, warm, cozy. Out of nowhere, the alien walked up to him and said,

“Hello, Sam. My name is Doctor Emizaneth Monret, but you can call me whatever you wish.”

Sam looked her in the eye and asked,

“Is Emi alright?” She paused for a moment, then looked Sam in the eye and responded,

“Sure.” Emi replied.

Sam asked another question,

“Are you the healer that I was told I would be staying with?”

She nodded. Suddenly all of the floodgates opened! She went full nerd on Sam, bombarding him with questions about his race, his powers, where he’s been, how old he is, if he can feel things like pain or hot or cold, and basically anything that came to mind. Sam couldn’t keep up with her, so he stayed silent. Emi just stood there… You could almost see the stars in her eyes…

“Wow… I am standing in the presence of pure greatness… The most powerful thing in the multiverse is in my house… I get to take care of something that has infinite knowledge and wisdom!”

She fainted. Sam didn’t know what to do… He didn’t want to drag her around trying to find a couch or something to put her on, but right as he decided to pick her up and find a place other than the floor to let her sleep, she sprung right back into reality.

Sam could see that it took every fiber of her being to control herself as she asked him to fallow her to where he would be staying.

“This is my guest room…” Emi opened the door leading to a bedroom that, in comparison to Sam’s bedroom, looked like a Masters’ Suite.

“It’s so tidy because… Well… I never have guests. Everyone that I heal is in a hospital.” She said looking kind of embarrassed. Sam looked at her,

“I thought you were the Main Healer; why would you never get guests?” She made a face that looked like she was kind of depressed,

“Well, I get visitors… Every now and then… But, no one ever spends the night. So, this room has been completely untouched, other than the occasional cleaning, since I moved in.”

Sam couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. He walked over and put a hand on her shoulder. She gave a small smile, and turned and darted away yelling,
“I need to make dinner!!”

Sam chuckled a little, then went back to studying the room he was in. There was a large bed that looked like it would be roughly the size of a king sized bed. Sam pressed his hand on the bed and it sank! Sam lied on the bed and just melted, it was like the whole bed was made of warm memory foam. He lay there, closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and sighed.

“Now, this… Is a bed!” He exclaimed, yawning and stretching. He closed his eyes and let sleep take him.

Chapter ii

He was awoken by a sound come from down stairs,

“Dinner’s ready!”

It shocked him awake… He looked at the clock. It was ridiculously technologically advanced but, he could still tell that he had been asleep for 40 minutes. Deep grumblings of frustration emitted from Sam as he tried to get up off of the comfy bed.

The half-asleep Sam trudged downstairs, still grumbling about having to get out of his warm foam bed. As soon as he set foot on the main floor the smell of food caught his attention. A fascinating feature of the human mind is that it remembers what things smell like. This smell was completely unfamiliar and yet… It made his mouth water.

He made his way to the table and his jaw dropped when he saw the feast set before him. Emi stood next to the table, looking at Sam in anticipation of how he would respond. Sam caught on to this immediately, however due to his being half-asleep and his awe of how much food was set before him, all he could get out were mumbles and hand gestures.

The only audible word he could get out was,

“It’s glorious!” Emi smiled and gestured for him to sit. He sat down in a chair and found enough concentration to mumble,

“Is there any order or do I just dive in?” Emi sat down and responded,

“Dive in.” She filled her plate with several fruits and what looked like it might be some kind of steak.

Sam was amazed to see razor teeth inside of her mouth, every one of her teeth that Sam could see were razor sharp. Nonetheless, she used a knife and cut the steak before putting it in her mouth. Sam, on the other hand, didn’t waste time being ‘proper’ he stuffed everything he could in his mouth. It was like watching a vacuum cleaner. Everything that went near his mouth was eaten up!

Forty-five minutes later Sam was stuffed like a Thanksgiving Turkey and the table was picked clean. Sam felt like asking why she made such a large feast, but decided to be grateful instead of inquisitive.

Emi brought him a drink that could be easily mistaken for a milkshake, by humans, at first glance. Sam groaned in frustration,

“I’m stuffed… So stuffed…” He looked at the milkshake siting before him on the table and mumbled,

“It looks delicious.” Sam wanted to eat it, but he was so full that the very thought of more food made him uncomfortable.

He just sat there groaning and mumbling to himself. Emi was cleaning up after the meal, in 6 short minutes the only thing on the table was the milkshake. Sam could hear Emi humming in the kitchen as she prepared the dishes to be washed. He sat up in his seat and scowled at the milkshake,

“Look at you… Sitting there… Mocking me!” He spoke in the milkshake’s vice, high pitched and mocking, and said,

“Oh, you can’t eat me! HA! You don’t have the stomach!” He continued in his normal voice,

“Oh but what you don’t know is that I’m just biding my time… Waiting until I have just enough room in my stomach to swallow you whole!”

He stared at the milkshake and mumbled under his breath as though to mock the mocking milkshake and to encourage his stomach to digest faster.

Three minutes later, he grabbed the milkshake and laughed,

“Now, oh Undrinkable One, you’re mine!” He took a large drink. It was unbelievably thick but creamy in texture, and it was almost sickeningly sweet. Sam drank it in a matter of 13 seconds. He laughed,

“I have conquered the Undrinkable One!” Emi stuck her head out of the kitchen to see what was going on. Sam fell out of his chair,

“Brain freeze!!” He moaned,

“It burns! It burns us!” He yelled mimicking Golem. Emi couldn’t help but laugh. Sam finally got up and sat back in his chair. Emi finally caught her breathe and explained that she had never seen something that funny before. Sam grumbled in his throat. Sam decided to be a gentleman and asked if he could help her with anything. She explained that she was fine doing it by herself and said that he should simply make himself comfortable.

Sam agreed and left Emi to the dishes; Sam decided that the best thing to do would be to explore the house and get to know his surroundings. He began the process of ‘casing the joint’, as his mother called it; He started in the entry way and meticulously walked through every room looking at everything.

When you came in the front door, you stand a two-story clearing; directly to your right is an office; directly to your left is the dining room; straight in front of you, to the left is a hallway leading to a sitting room; straight in front of you, to the right is a staircase leading to the upper floor; if you walk down the hallway you find that there is a door at the end of the hallway leading to the basement; when you leave the hallway and stand in the sitting room consisting of a love-seat that was in front of the TV, two recliners, and a couch; to your right is another short hallway leading to a bedroom and the main floor bathroom; the main floor bathroom has two doors: one that connects it to the main floor and one that connects it to the main floor bedroom, at night you could lock the door that connects the bathroom to the main floor and the only way to get in the bathroom would be through the bedroom; to the left of the sitting room was a massive kitchen; at the entrance of the kitchen, to the left is a butler’s pantry that also connects to the dining room; the back door is in the kitchen as well as the way to get to the garage. There are no doors on the main floor except the ones that connect to the outside and the ones in the bathroom and bedroom; the roof in the sitting room and entry way are the same height, but every other room on the main floor has a nine-foot roof. If you go up the stairs half way up it splits and goes left and right; to the right is the guest bedroom that has its own bathroom, it is the same size as the main floor bedroom and bathroom; the first door at the top of the left staircase is a towel closet; to the right is the master bedroom, Sam didn’t want to intrude on Emi’s personal stuff so he didn’t enter the room; on the left are two other bedrooms that share a bathroom. Every bedroom had a walk-in closet and every bathroom was complete. The basement door was locked.

Sam sat down in the love-seat, and yawned. He spent the next five minutes studying the TV looking object that sat against the wall in front of him.

“Would you mind if I turn on the TV?” Sam asked.

 Emi looked at the TV and said,

“I don’t mind… All you have to do is find the remote.”

Sam looked at her and replied by saying,

“Did you lose it?”

“Yes… Two days ago.”

Emi paused doing the dishes to point out that she had it last when she in the love-seat. Sam began the process of finding a lost remote… He shoved his arms into the deepest parts of the chair trying to find where the remote could have fallen… Nothing. Next, he lifted the sofa to see if it was underneath it… Nothing. Suddenly the TV turned on by itself. Sam was a little startled at this happening, but he didn’t really care… The only thing that mattered in that moment was that the TV was on. The TV started to flip around the channels. Sam got very suspicious and spun around to get a look at Emi, who jumped at his sudden movement. She didn’t have the remote…

“How is the TV doing that?” Sam asked. Emi smiled and explained to him that she could control technology with her mind. Sam immediately shot a question at her about her ‘power’,

“Is it like telekinesis?”

“No.” Emi responded.

“Oh… So… What? What do you mean by control technology?”

“I mean that I can control stuff… Like the toaster… Or the oven… Or the TV… If it runs on a power source of some kind, I can control it with my mind. For example, I couldn’t build a TV with my mind but I can buy one and never need a remote.” Sam put two and two together…

“Wait… So you just wanted me to find a nonexistent remote??!”

“It isn’t nonexistent! The TV came with a remote… It’s just that, because I never needed to use it, I didn’t keep track of where it went.”

Sam looked at her and laughed at the magnitude of the prank she just pulled on him and at how efficient it was,
“That was very good!” Sam exclaimed. 

Emi smiled and laughed,
“I know. I’m hilarious!”

Emi flipped through the channels until she got to a channel that was playing an alien game show. It looked vaguely like the setup of Family Feud… But, the game show host was asking the teams riddles.

“Okay, last riddle, for 5000 points! Are you ready?” That game show host inquired. Everyone answered in unison,
“Yes.”

“Alright. The last riddle is:  What 7 letter, Earth Word, is spelled the same way backwards and forewords? You have one minute.” Both teams thought deeply, you could see it in their eyes. Sam on the other hand answered every riddle almost instantly,

“The answer is: Racecar.” Sam shouted at the TV. A minute passed and no one answered the riddle.

“The answer was: Racecar. No one got that riddle.” Sam smiled,

“I got the riddle.” Emi finished the dishes and sat next to Sam. She turned toward Sam and asked a question,

“After this would you be okay with doing some tests?” Sam didn’t like the idea of doing tests, but he didn’t protest,

“Sure. Actually, if you want we could go now… The show’s almost over anyway.”  Emi looked at the TV then back at Sam,

“That would be great!” 

Emi shut off the TV and led Sam to the basement door, she took a key from her pocket and unlocked the door. At the bottom of the stairs, to the left, there was another bedroom and to the right there was another bathroom. Other than those two rooms the basement was completely open and it was full of medical equipment. 

Emi gestured for Sam to sit. She walked over to a computer and got to work. Sam looked around… It looked like the check-up room and the emergency room from a hospital were put into one room. The only thing that didn’t look like it was taken from a hospital was a gyroscope looking thing in the corner. Emi got up from her seat by the computer and sat in front of Sam, with a tablet in her hand.

“Do you remember anything before living on Earth?” She inquired,

“No. I never second guessed my humanity.” Sam answered truthfully. Emi typed on the tablet and asked another question,

“How far in the past can you remember?”

“The earliest memory that I have is that I jumped on a bed when I was 5 and I ended up jumping out of a 2^nd story window.” Emi typed his answer on the tablet and asked anther question,

“Have you ever exhibited strange talents? Other than time travel?” Sam thought for a moment,

“Well… I’m extremely strong, responsible, and fast… I’m also very good at completely ignoring things.” Emi looked him in the eyes and asked,

“Have you ever looked in the mirror and seen a different reflection? As if, you were different?” This question hit Sam like a rock,

“What? No! Never!” Emi typed on the tablet,

“You do know that this isn’t what your species naturally looks like, right?” Sam lifted his arms in a shrug and explained,

“I had no idea that I was an alien until yesterday!” Emi stood up and set the tablet on the counter next to her,

“Fallow me.” She instructed. Sam obeyed and was led to the thing that looked like a gyroscope. Emi told him to remove his shirt, his socks, and his shoes. Sam was hesitant, but he did as he was told, then Emi strapped him in and turned it on. After 15 minutes of spinning in every direction, the machine stopped. Sam got out and fell on his knees.

“I feel like my bones are vibrating!” He exclaimed, trying to focus. That’s when he noticed that his hands looked different. 

Emi brought full body mirror and placed it in front of him. He looked like a birch tree. He had the body shape he had before he got in the gyroscope, but he had the color scheme of a birch tree. His head, neck, forearms, hands, and feet (from the ankle down) were pitch black. He studied his body carefully; his eyes were black other than his irises, which were bright green; he had no nose, no ears, no hair. He opened his mouth and examined its contents, his teeth were long, black, and wolf-like; the inside of his mouth was a black as his head. He studied his arms, they were shaped exactly like his arms were when he was human looking; his hands still had five fingers, but every finger now had a four-inch claw at the end of it. His legs were shaped like those a dog would have; his feet were shaped like human feet, but now he only had three toes on each foot and they were clawed like his hands were.

“How?” He gasped, his voice was deeper and more gravely.

“Well, your body was used to holing that form under the influence of Earth’s gravity. So, all that had to be done was make your body feel like there was a change in gravity. You see, in this form you are much more invulnerable than in any form you could take, so if gravity suddenly changes you return to your previous form to avoid being crushed or exploding.” Sam felt faint,

“So… If I’m an alien and I’ve always been that way… How can I live with humans that have pictures of me as a baby in the hospital??” Emi looks him square in the eyes and responds simply,

“They never actually existed. You created them in an attempt to escape everything that you feared.” This his Sam like a brick, he felt tears start rolling down his face,

“That’s impossible! I had friends over all the time! I walked up and down the stairs in the house every day!”

“I never said that they were imaginary. I said that you created them. That is one of the Wanderers’ amazing powers: they can create animate and/or inanimate objects out of thin air.” Sam was gritting his teeth in rage and sadness,

“Afraid of what?!” Emi walked over to the computer and brought back another tablet.

“About a century ago, all the Wanderers just abandoned their home world. No one knows why. But, they all just left the planet. For some reason… After that… They all died. Millions at a time. Soon only 5 remained. And one by one they died to a virus. You are the only one that has survived from it, but now… You’re exhibiting the symptoms of the virus.” Sam felt like killing something, he just wanted to take his claws and bury them in something’s chest. But, instead of being violent, he just clenched his fists.

“So… What you’re saying is: I was afraid so I ran away to Earth and created a family and a body so that I could have camouflage… Then, I just hid there?” Emi nodded,

“That is correct.” Sam looked her in the eye and asked,

“How did I forget everything?” Emi shrugged and thought for a moment,

“Maybe your camouflage was so good that it fooled you too… Or, perhaps, you just wanted to fit in somewhere and so you told yourself, “I am human.”, for so long that you forgot everything that you were.” Sam thought this through then asked,

“So… What happens to them when I’m gone?”

“They stop existing, they disappear into thin air, and everyone who ever met them and every record of their existence vanishes.” Emi replied.

That was all that Sam could take, stormed out of the basement and upstairs to the guestroom. He slammed the door and collapsed on the bed weeping bitterly. Three days dragged by and this is all Sam could do. He didn’t drink, he didn’t eat. He cried, often he would cry himself to sleep, only to wake again and continue weeping. 

Everything he thought was real was a lie! It was the greatest lie that anyone could ever tell… And he fell for it, hook, line, and sinker! In the midst of his sadness, Emi would occasionally enter the room and try to comfort Sam… To no avail. 

The fourth day after Sam’s tragic revelation, he exits his room and slowly made his way down stairs. He found Emi sitting in the dining room by herself reading a book. Sam didn’t want to be alone anymore… But, he didn’t know what to say.

“I’m sorry.” Sam’s voice was quiet, but his sudden appearance startled her.

“What?” Emi asked due to the fact that she honestly couldn’t make out what he had said,

“I said: I’m sorry.” He responded quietly, looking at the ground,

“You’ve done nothing that would need an apology.” Emi stated, closing her book and standing up,

“I know you were just doing your job… But, I shouldn’t have acted like some kind of child.” Emi couldn’t believe what she was hearing!

“That is a lot to take in! You took it how anyone would have taken it!” Emi tried to comfort him. All Sam could do was stand there shaking his head. Emi hugged Sam and spoke softly in his ear,

“If it’s any consolation, I know what it’s like to lose everything. I lost my parents, my brother, and my home, to a fire when I was 10.” Sam could feel that Emi had started to cry. Sam realizing this hugged her tightly and started to cry. It was 15 minutes before they let go of each other and stopped crying. Sam chuckled softly and asked through a cracking voice,

“What’s for dinner? I’m starving.” Emi laughed like it was the funniest thing she had ever heard and hugged Sam again. She let go and walked into the kitchen saying,

“I’ll get started on supper.” Sam sat at the table and sighed. It was strange… He felt better than he had ever felt before. He smiled and closed his eyes to rest a little before dinner. 

(I am currently working on chapter three. Because of school and chores and all that... I don't have a lot of time to work on it. I hope you have enjoyed. If you have, please let me know in the comments and I will work on getting the third chapter done. That's all for this post. Thanks for reading Daniel's Discussions! Stay tuned for more.)