There had to be something wrong with me, wrong with my mental state, because no dream I have had has scared me so much.
I awoke in a hospital bed, hooked up to a million wires, needles were stuck in my hand. I couldn’t move. The bed was a sort of pod – a bed with a large glass casing over it, concealing me from the rest of the room. The only thing I could do was wiggle my fingers and toes, and move my head to look around the room. My eyes locked on a man in his mid-forties with a balding head and huge eyes. Panic was evident on his face as he looked at something in front of him.
“We have a problem.” He nudged the man next to him, who was scribbling away on a clipboard, pointing at the screen when he got his attention. They both turned, eyes piercing, to me. Their eyes widened when they saw me.
“She’s awake.”
“Uh..."
“What do we do?”
“Don’t panic.... Uh... Run and get Carl.” The balding man fled the room and the other man, who was seemingly a lot younger with thick brown hair and hazel eyes which shone through thick rimmed glasses, leaned over my pod and looked straight at me.
His eyes locked on to mine and I became afraid. He didn’t speak, and frankly, he stood so still it looked as if he wasn’t even breathing. Like he was a man stuck in time. Minutes felt like hours until the balding man rushed back in with a tall chap with grey hair in a suit. He looked very professional compared with the other two men in the room. The balding bloke was dressed in smart trousers and a thick jumper, whereas the other was dressed in a t-shirt, jeans and converse with a lanyard around his neck.
“Richetto Science Facility”. The younger gent in the room turned to me, and I noticed an ID badge hanging from the lanyard. It read ’Joshua Kingsley’.
“I don’t understand. This is most peculiar, she shouldn’t have woken up. Her machines are all in working order. Except for this one... I’ll get it fixed. She’ll drop back off in a moment. Not to worry.” The tall, grey haired man witted away to himself. Poking and prodding the machine’s buttons in front of him.
Drop off? Drop off to where? To what? What the hell does ’Drop Off’ mean?
My eyelids became heavy, but I refused to let them close completely.
“Joshua?”
His eyes widened as I spoke directly to him, but frankly I didn’t know what else I could say. Help? Who are you? Where am I? I was too exhausted to even think about what I could say to them. Joshua Kingsley made no attempt to move towards me, but kept his eyes locked on mine. Pain shot through my forehead and I couldn’t fight the inevitable any more. My eyelids shut, and for the rest of the night, until I awoke in my bed with my covers pulled over my head, I felt as if I was falling.