Flicker

FLICKER

Connor gazed at the flickering neon sign in the window of the bowling alley, his head resting on his open palm. His fingers ran lazily over the bottle in his left hand.
“Con, you okay?” Connor raised his head to meet Tony’s worried gaze. He shook his head slightly, as if he were coming out of a daze. He chuckled.
“I’m…I…yea, I’m fine,” Connor said slowly, “Just dazed off a bit.”
“Are you sure? You’ve been under a lot of stress lately. I mean, if there’s anything wrong…”
“Come on, Tony, I’m fine. Let’s leave the worrying to our wives. Besides, we came here to enjoy a worry-free night, a guys-night out. Let’s enjoy whatever’s left of it.” He raised his glass in a toast, and Tony raised his in return, chuckling a bit.
The two of them had just completed three consecutive rounds of bowling and were taking a breather in the alley’s bar. They came bowling at least once a month, to escape from their everyday lives.
“You up for another round?” Tony looked at Connor with almost childlike anticipation. Connor smiled at Tony’s sad attempt at a puppy dog face.
“Nah, I should probably get back to the real world soon…got to get home and get some work done on that project.” Connor said, a look of sheer disappointment washing over his face. He picked up his cell phone from the table and glanced at it to check the time. Tony sighed and frowned.
“Same time, next month then,” Tony said inquisitively.
“It’s a date…as long as life doesn’t drive me insane,” Connor joked. “I will see you later.” He slapped some money on the table to cover the tab, then, giving Tony a quick pat on the back, broke into a slow jog towards the door. The neon ‘OPEN’ sign burned brightly, its flickering halted.
Connor only lived a few blocks away from the alley so whenever he had to leave early, he usually walked. Otherwise, Tony gave him a lift. But he appreciated the time he had to himself when he walked. Some of his best ideas were born from his lone, late-night walks. Besides, it was his one true escape. He enjoyed the guys night out with Tony, but sometimes he just needed to be alone—completely alone.
It was a wondrous cloudless night. Connor looked up at the stars, enjoying the natural light, even though the street was lined with streetlamps. He breathed deep, drinking in the beauty that surrounded him. It was silent, beautifully silent. The silence that usually comforted Connor. But for some reason, it was unbearable. Suffocating. Dead. He looked around and realized that it was because there wasn’t a car—or, for that fact, another person—anywhere to be seen. It being so late, Connor thought nothing off it. Turning back forward, he took a deep breath and let it slowly escape his lips. He shoved his hands in his pockets, dropped his head, and began his slow gait again.
He lifted it shortly, though, as his eye caught one of the streetlamps flickering. He found himself staring at the flickering, drawn in by it. His eyes shot quickly to the next lamp as it picked up the flickering. Then a third; then a fourth, the flickering intensifying with each new light. Slowly, it moved down the row of streetlamps, passing from one to the other as if through a virus.
Connor shook his head to break himself out of his trance. Nervously, he took off at a jog. The flickering spread quickly and grew faster. He picked up his pace as he realized that the flickering was being picked up by houselights. It was beginning to become very hard to see. He looked up towards the sky, hoping that the starlight would help light his way. His eyes widened as he stared up at a starless sky. He took off at a run just wanting to get home.
The flickering intensified, as if the lights knew he was trying to escape them. He began to sprint now out of fear. All at once, the lights went out. Connor stopped dead in his tracks. The night had become completely pitch dark. The only sounds he heard were those of his own slow and heavy breaths. Afraid to move, he stood completely still, desperately trying to pierce the darkness. His breaths slowed until he felt he was about to be swallowed.
His eyes sparked as the lights flashed once, the road appearing in front of him for a second. The lights flashed again. A long, dank, dimly lit hallway lined with heavy steel doors stretched out in front of him. He shook his head in disbelief. He reached his hand to his side to feel for a wall. Suddenly, the lights flashed back on, beaming brighter than ever. He stared down the street in utter disbelief. He jumped as a hand grabbed his shoulder. He turned to find Tony standing right behind him.
“Is something wrong? You okay?” Tony looked worriedly into Connor’s face, trying to catch his eyes. Connor’s eyes flew wildly around, as he slowly brought his breathing back to normal.
“Yeah, I just thought…” He trailed off, staring down the street as if he were staring at some unknown menace. Tony raised his eyebrows in worry, then gave a half-smile.
“Why don’t I just give you a ride home?” Tony asked. Connor nodded slowly, and let Tony lead him to his car. The car which, Connor had just noticed, was right beside them. As Tony got in and began to drive off, Connor couldn’t help but stare back at the lights, their unwavering glow almost mocking him.


“I know what you think you saw but it’s impossible. Besides, a street could very easily be mistaken for a hallway.” Tony said, trying to help Connor make sense of his little ordeal last night.
“But I could’ve sworn it was a hallway. A dank, dirty hallway lined with some very heavy steel doors. Besides, the hallway I saw looked nothing like the street I was on.” Connor’s voice quickened a little in indignation.
“Oh, so now we’ve moved from think you saw to know you saw, huh?” Connor gave Tony a hard, angry look. “I’m just saying you’ve been through a lot this week. The boss has swamped you with most—scratch that—all of our recent projects. That’s a lot of stress, dude. Maybe it’s just getting to you a little bit.” Connor stared sideways at Tony, not wanting to believe that it had all just been stress. Eventually, he sighed and turned back to his computer. As he did, his eyes caught sight of his boss making his way towards their cubicle.
“Speak of the devil,” Connor mumbled. Tony glanced over his shoulder, and chuckled slightly at his friend’s misfortune. Connor shot him a quick icy stare as their boss walked up next to the cubicle.
“Conman, just the person I was looking for.” Connor’s boss said with a sort of condescending joviality as he stepped up to the cubicle. Connor put on a smile of mock willingness and turned towards his boss.
“Well, no surprise there. What do you need?”
“Remember that program I had you working on?” his boss said, his smile dropping with his tone. Connor looked at him with a twinge of disbelief.
“You’ll definitely have to be more specific. You have me working on three of them.”
“With an extra two on the side,” Tony quietly interjected. Connor gave him a small kick under the desk.
“The second one I assigned to you.”
“Oh, of course,” Connor said, still with no idea of what he was talking about.
“If it is at all possible, I am going to need that finished by tomorrow, or Thursday at the latest.” Connor cringed internally, but just put on the biggest smile he could, and gave his boss a defeated thumbs-up. “Excellent. Just leave the floppy in my mailbox tomorrow or the day after.” Without any form of salutation, the boss just turned and left. When he was out of earshot, Tony moved up next to Connor.
“See, now, this is where most of your problems come from. Why didn’t you tell him that that wouldn’t be possible?”
Connor sighed. “First of all, I am too afraid to lose my job for me to stand up to him in anyway…And secondly, it-it can be done.”
“Only for people with…you’re going to try to pull all-nighters aren’t you. Let’s be serious here. All-nighters are meant for high school and college, not for adults. We need our sleep! Besides, you haven’t slept for two days already…you know, maybe that’s the reason.”
“The reason for what?” Connor asked as he turned away from Tony.
“I’m guessing you don’t want to talk about last night anymore, then…” Tony said.
“Well, seeing as you won’t believe me, I don’t see why I should even bother”
“I didn’t say I didn’t believe you…it’s just hard to believe…”
“Whatever, it doesn’t matter anymore.” Connor turned back towards his computer, and set his hands on the keyboard. After a few still moments of silence, he let out a heavy sigh. “You know what, I’ll be right back.” He got up and quickly walked out of the cubicle, before Tony could say anything.

Connor angrily threw open the door of the men’s room. He hated the fact that he was giving up these fights so easily. Usually, he was a very stubborn person, but lately he just gave in to everything—every suggestion, every command, every fight. He was beginning to think that he was losing control of his world, and he hated not being in control.
He walked over to the sink, and turned on the faucet. He placed his hands under the refreshingly cold water, enjoying every droplet as it ran over his warm skin. He closed his eyes, and soaked in the moment, breathing deep, and tried to calm himself. He brought his face down and splashed the small pool in his palms over his face. He slowly began to open his eyes, but they shot open as he caught a glimpse of the mirror. He recognized his eyes staring back at him, but nothing else was familiar. What he believed was his face was sunken and grisly. He was dressed in what looked to him as loose fitting hospital scrubs. Running his hands over his own clothing, he looked down to find that he was still wearing his work clothing. He looked back at his reflection, now noticing the room, which was as disgusting as the hallway he had seen the night before. He whipped his head around—only to find that the perfectly clean and white office bathroom was still there. He looked back at the reflection. As he did, his reflection raised its hand, and began reaching for the mirror. Connor felt an irresistible urge to do the same, and he began to raise his hand and reach towards the mirror. Connor kept waiting for his hand to touch the mirror. But at the point that it should have, he watched in disbelief as his hand went through the mirror. His reflection, however, didn’t seem to share his feeling this time. Before Connor could react, it grabbed his hand and pulled. Connor threw his other hand up to stop himself, but it fell through. He braced himself against the sink, and struggled to pull himself out. He grunted with effort, but soon realized that he wasn’t strong enough to fight. He yelled out for help, though he knew no one could hear him. The reflection had pulled him in up to his elbow. He began frantically pulling back harder on his hand, not wanting to find out what else was on the other side. With one last big effort, he pulled his hand out, and fell back, hitting his head squarely against the urinal behind him. He caught one last glimpse at his reflection, a look of contempt on its face, before everything went black.

“Connor...honey…wake up…please…” His wife’s voice broke through the shroud surrounding his mind. He stirred slightly, moaning in pain as he tried to open his eyes. He slowly tried to sit himself up, but quickly gave up as his head felt like it was going to split.
“Whoa, slow it down.” Tony was looking up at him from the foot of the bed. “You took a nasty blow to the head. The doctor’s say you’re lucky that you didn’t get a concussion.” Tony paused slightly, a quizzical look coming over his face.
“What…what exactly were you doing in there that caused you to fall like that? Did you faint or something?”
Connor looked to the side, and sighed “Yeah…yeah, I must have stood up too fast or something.”
Connor’s wife broke in. “Well, the doctor and the nurse just said you should rest up for a few days. They already kept you here overnight, but they want you to stay one more night to make sure everything is all right.” She leaned over him and kissed him softly on the head. “I was so scared…but now I’m just so glad you’re okay. I have to go and figure out how we’re going to pay for this.” She turned to Tony, and smiled. “I know that you’ll be in good hands.”
Tony laughed, and smiled back. “Don’t worry, he’s in really good company.” Connor’s wife slowly pulled open the door, not taking her soft gaze of Connor. He smiled and waved to her, so glad that she was there but still wanting her to leave the room. She waved back and blew him a kiss as she slowly closed the door behind her.
“I didn’t faint,” Connor said flatly. “Something…happened again.”
“What? Did the hallway appear in the bathroom again? It still wouldn’t explain how you hit your head against a urinal.”
“Let me finish!” Connor said, a little more angrily than he had intended. He cringed slightly as a sharp pain shot through his head.
“Okay, just calm down. What happened?”
“Something came out of the mirror…or, no, something grabbed me when I stuck my hand into the mirror…I think…”
“You’re telling me that some unknown thing…”
“No, no, it wasn’t unknown. It was me, or some other me…”
“So, your reflection tried to pull you into a mirror world?”
“It wasn’t a mirror world, it was different. But it had the same look about it as the hallway.”
Tony looked at Connor, disbelief slowly taking over his face. “Oh…”
“You don’t believe me, do you?” Connor laid his head down and turned away as he said this.
“Connor, I already told you—it’s not that I don’t believe or that I don’t want to. It’s…it’s just hard to believe. Maybe you just slipped, fell, and hit your head and dreamed…that whole thing.”
Connor lay there, refusing to look at Tony.
“I know what I saw.”
Tony sighed, gave one last look at Connor, and then went to the door. “Okay, then, I’ll see you tomorrow. Try to get some sleep, alright?” He waited for a response. When he was met with none, he sighed again, pulled open the door, and left. Connor stared hard at the wall, fuming. Not only couldn’t he figure out what was going on with him, but his best friend, the one person he hoped would back him up, didn’t even believe him. He lay there, boiling with anger and staring at the wall, until he fell asleep.
Connor awoke to a piercing bright light. He squinted and tried to shield his eyes, but his hands were tied down. Fear rose in him as he stared down at the heavy leather straps around his hands and feet. Voices began to drift into his ears as he realized that there were others in the room. He slowly lifted his head, trying to catch a glimpse of the room. The room looked like nothing he had ever seen, but something about it was terribly familiar. He scanned the room some more, desperately trying to figure out where he was. As he swept his eyes over the room, he caught the gaze of one of the other people in the room, a woman dressed up in what looked like a doctor’s outfit. She gasped and began to yell.
“Doctor Smith, he’s beginning to stir. He’s beginning to stir!” Something about the urgency in her voice made Connor feel an urgency to escape. He began to pull at his restraints, desperately trying to break them. All the doctors in the room began to run towards him, trying to hold him down. Trying to fight them off, he stared in fear as a tall doctor began to prep a needle. Now Connor was terrified. He began to scream, calling out for help, though he knew that no one would come to help him. As the needle came nearer to him, he suddenly realized where he was, or at least why it looked so familiar to him. He had been there twice before. It was the same place that he had seen in the mirror, the same place he had seen in the street. He gave out one last yell as he felt the prick of the needle. It was a sedative, a strong one and Connor passed out in a second.
He screamed and shot up in his hospital bed. He whipped his head around, slightly disoriented. He took a few quick, calming breaths as he realized that it had only been a dream. He pulled up the blanket from the bed and pulled it around himself as he stood up. He began to walk towards the bathroom to throw some water on his face, but stopped with his hand on the doorknob, as he remembered what had happened earlier that day. He sighed and dropped his head. As he did, his eyes caught sight of a small wound at the crook of his arm. His hands shook in fear. How could that be, he thought to himself. It had been a dream, right? He slowly backed away from the door, laid down in his bed, and fell into a troubled sleep.

A stern pair of eyes woke him. He screamed and threw himself up from his bed.
“Whoa, whoa, Con, cool it! It’s just me, Tony!” Tony stood there, his hands up to show he was innocent. Connor looked wildly around the room, breathing heavily. As his eyes came to rest on Tony, he sighed and dropped his guard, but the wild look never left his eyes. Tony stared at him with a cautious look.
“The doctor says that you should be fine to leave, so I’m here to take you home.” He pulled a small backpack around to his stomach, pulled open the zipper, and removed a small pile of clothes. “I brought these.”
“Thanks,” Connor said quietly as he swung his feet over the edge of the bed.
“So how are you doing today? You look like shit,” Tony said as he handed Connor the pants and shirt he had brought for him. Connor took the clothing graciously, despising the feel of hospital smock on his skin. He smirked at Tony as he pulled the Metallica T-shirt over his head.
“Wow, you really are a charmer Tony. You must have all the girls just running to your doorstep.” Tony shrugged, and chuckled. Connor rolled his eyes and said, “As a matter of fact, I am feeling much better. Besides, I thought that was why you said you came anyway—to take me home because I was better.”
“Yeah, well, just have to make sure. I don’t always trust doctors.” A small shiver ran down Connor’s spine. He looked to the small wound on his arm. He took a deep breath, looked at Tony, and asked, “Hey, did they happen to give me a shot yesterday…before I woke up?”
“Yeah, it was to try and get you to wake up. You know, after they found you in the bathroom. Some kind of chemical shock to the system.” Connor sighed as Tony said this. He quickly finished putting his clothes on.
“Well, I’m ready to go. Let’s kick it.” They left the room, meet the doctor for one last check, checked out and left. They climbed into Tony’s deep green Focus. Tony started the car and began to drive off. Connor was just grateful to go home. He needed to clear his head a bit. The events of the last few days had been—crazy. He sighed, deciding to leave it for later. As he exited that train of thought, another came to mind.
“Hey, why didn’t my wife come and pick me up?”
Tony gave him a strange look. “Are you sure you’re fine?”
“Why? I’m just wondering where she is?”
Tony looked as if he was completely taken aback. A serious look came over his face. “Connor, you were never married. In fact, you haven’t had a girlfriend for like 2 years now, remember? You said you needed a break from the whole dating thing.” Tony held his gaze on Connor for a bit. Connor looked at Tony incredulously for a second, and then chuckled.
“Come on, man, stop trying to scare me. Was she working or something? I can never remember her schedule.”
“Of course you can’t. You—never—had a wife.” Connor stared at Tony, smiling, waiting for him to start laughing, chuckling, smiling, or something. But as they sat there for a while just staring at each other. The smile on Connor’s face slowly began to melt into a look of disbelief.
“Okay, joke’s over. You can stop.” Connor said, his good-spiritedness leaving him quickly.
“I’m not…” Tony began.
“Yes, yes you are! Why are you lying to me?”
“Connor…”
“No, you know what, it’s not funny anymore. Where the hell is my wife?”
“Calm down, Con, everything’s fine…”
“NO, IT’S NOT! I have literally been through hell the last few days and now you’re telling me that my wife never existed.”
“What was her name?” Tony asked, a slight note of condescension in his voice. Connor stopped and looked at Tony as he said this. He was about to shout out her name, but as the thought of doing so came to mind, the name just disappeared.
“I…no…it was…God Damn…” He couldn’t even think of a female name, let alone that of his wife.
“You hit your head, and suffered a bit of a concussion, alright. Maybe you created this “wife” of yours in some fantasy…”
“DAMMIT, TONY, I HAVE A WIFE!” Connor breathed heavily, trying to calm his nerves so he could think straight. He closed his eyes, trying to see her face. Hair color…no…eyes…no…voice, body, height, name, where they met…no, no, no! Connor couldn’t remember one single thing about his wife!
“What the hell…is going on?” Connor said through deep breaths. He sat back in the car seat, as if deflated, unable to think of any detail of his wife. Tony kept shooting glances over at Connor, not helping him in the slightest bit. He got lost in his thought and paid no attention to where Tony was driving. As he came out of his fog, he began to panic again.
“Tony, where the hell are you going?” Tony shot a glance at Connor, a look of disbelief coming over his face.
“Alright, Connor, now you’re starting to get me worried. Come on, you remember. We’re heading back to our apartment…the place that we’ve roomed together for almost 6 years now. Don’t you remember?”
“But…my house…” Connor stuttered quietly.
“You’ve never owned a house, Connor. It’s just been you and me and our apartment, alright?” Connor didn’t say anything. He slowly slouched down deeper in the passenger seat, closing his eyes and covering his ears, trying to pull his world together and make sense of everything that was going on. But, no matter how hard he tried to make sense of it, nothing fit. Nothing made sense, and he couldn’t stand it.
He slowly and reluctantly got out of the car when Tony stopped outside of a mediocre apartment building. He grabbed his clothing from the backseat, and slowly lifted his head from the car.
“Come on, Connor,” Tony said softly. “It’s time to go home.”
“This isn’t my home…” Connor muttered.
“Hey, come on…look, I’m not sure what happened to you in the last few days, and can’t even imagine what you’re going through…but…don’t worry. It’s me, Tony, your best friend. It’ll be alright.” Tony grabbed Connor’s hand and gave him a quick hug. Tony walked to the door of the apartment building, and Connor followed reluctantly behind him. They made their way upstairs and soon found themselves in front of the door to the apartment. As Connor walked into the apartment behind Tony, he was hit by a wave of nausea. He gripped the door frame to steady himself. Tony, seeing this, said, “Hey, why don’t I carry your stuff to your room and you just lay yourself down on the couch? You’ve had a rough couple of nights.” Connor gave a weak nod. Tony picked up the few belongings, his eyes glued to Connor, while Connor walked slowly over to the couch. He sat down hard, trying to pull together and figure out everything that was going on. He cupped his face in his hand and began rocking slightly back and forth. His world was crumbling around him and it was bringing him down with it. His wife was gone. Not even that. She had never existed. The life he had; never was. He was losing all control, and he hated not being in control. As all these thoughts drifted into his head, he began to feel completely overwhelmed. His eyes began to slowly well up with tears, not able to hold back the despair he felt. He felt the warm tears drip down his cheek, under his chin, onto his shirt and over his wrist. His hands slowly slid down his face and came to rest on his chin. As he thought more and more of his situation, his eyes slowly dropped to stare at the ground—but stopped when he caught sight of his bloody wrists. Deep gashes had appeared on his wrists and were now bleeding profusely. The deep crimson was everywhere—staining the carpet, the couch, and his clothing. A trembling hand reached up to swipe his face as he realized that his face was covered in blood. It was running down his forearm and elbows and pooling in his lap. His eyes widened in horror.
“TONY! TONY!” He screamed at the top of his lungs. Tony bolted into the room.
“Connor, what is it? What’s wrong?” Connor raised his head to look at Tony. His eyes were filled with complete disbelief.
“My wrists! LOOK!” He threw his arms into Tony’s view, which threw them into his own. He quickly pulled them back.
Clean. His wrists were completely clean. No gashes. No blood. He whipped around to look at the carpet and the couch. White. Completely white. Not one drop of blood could be seen on the couch or the carpet.
Connor looked back up at Tony, his eyes slowly welling with tears.
“I…but…it…wha…what’s happening?” he sputtered out, “What the hell is going on with me?” Tony threw his arm around Connor’s shoulder and slowly led him into his room.
“You can take the big room tonight. You need a good night’s rest, man, that’s all.” Connor let Tony lead him, though he was not sure that what was happening to him could be aided. When they reached the room, Connor just climbed into the bed and pulled the covers tightly around him. He shut his eyes and held them tightly closed, trying to shut out everything. He just wanted to forget everything that was happening, forget everything that had just happened. He slipped into a nightmare-laden sleep, unable to rid himself of the grotesque image of his cut-up wrists.
He woke up to darkness, a little past midnight. He wasn’t sure what had thrown him out of his sleep but he had the sudden need to get out of the bed. He decided to go check out the kitchen—his kitchen—to look for food. He realized that he had not had anything to eat since the morning at the hospital. He sat up, slipped on some socks and made his way out the door. He stumbled around the apartment for a while, realizing that he had no idea where anything was but eventually he found a light switch. He flicked on to find himself standing right in the room that he wanted to be. He thought absolutely nothing of it. He turned to the first cupboard and opened it. Nothing but glasses.
Oh well, he thought, might as well have something to drink as well. He stepped over to the next cupboard and opened it. Full of liquor.
Hmm...I’ll have to keep that in mind for later. He quickly rifled through a few more cupboards but could find no food. He turned and suddenly noticed the refrigerator.
Huh…probably should have checked there first, he thought. He walked up to it and grasped the handle. The cold gray metal and black plastic caught his eye for a bit. He didn’t know why, though. He slowly ran his hand over the handle, the cold metal sending a bit of a shiver down his spine. He swung open the door, almost hitting the wall behind the door. He kneeled down slightly to look in. He saw some bread, some cheese, some mayonnaise and some salami. Everything he needed for a sandwich.
“Huh, perfect,” he mumbled complacently. He grabbed the mayo, the cheese, and the salami, and placed them out on the counter. He turned back to the fridge, and started reaching towards the back to grab the bread. Surprisingly, it was a lot farther back then he thought it was. He stuck his arm all the way into the fridge and still couldn’t reach it. He pulled his hand back and looked in. It was exactly where he had last seen it, which was not as far as he had just been reaching. He shook his head and dismissed the thought. He reached back into the fridge, but still couldn’t reach the bread.
“Weird” He pulled his hand out and looked in again. Right where it had been. He raised his eyebrow with disbelief. He shrugged it off and reached one more time into the fridge. This time his hand closed around the bag. He gave it a tug but it seemed to be stuck. Bracing himself, he grasped more of the bag and gave it a big tug.
He didn’t see the other hand enclose around his wrist.
“WHA…WHAT THE…FUCK…FUCK!!!” he shouted as he was pulled forcefully into the fridge. His face slammed into the freezer door, as his hand holding the fridge slipped. He struggled to pull himself up, and braced himself once more. With a great heave, he pulled himself free of whatever had had hold of him. Quickly, he sat up and looked into the fridge. He was staring at himself, some other self, its arm outstretched and its face contorted into a sinister sneer. It slowly slid backwards until it disappeared.
Tony calmly walked into the room, and Connor tore his eyes away and looked at Tony in complete horror.
“Something…someone is in there!!” Tony leaned over and stared into the fridge.
“Now we’ve been over this, Connor, there’s nothing there.” Connor eyes narrowed in utter disbelief.
“What the hell are you talking about? Someone just grabbed me through the fridge. I just felt and saw someone grab me.” Connor stared desperately up at Tony, unsure of what Tony had meant.
“Connor, there’s no refrigerator there.” Connor’s eyes opened wide in confusion and fear. He sprang to his feet and grasped Tony’s shoulders.
“Tony, what is wrong with you? Have you gone insane?”
“Con, please calm down. I don’t want to have to give you the shot.” Connor stared at Tony, trying to find a joking look in his eyes, but was met with a stony gaze. He slowly backed away in fear and ran into the wall…right where the fridge had just been. He looked around the kitchen, horrified. Right before his eyes things began to disappear and appear, getting the same look as the place he had seen through the mirror, in the hospital, and in the street. As he looked at Tony, he noticed that the lights were beginning to flicker. But as he looked closer, he realized that it was Tony himself that was flickering, between a white lab coat and his very plain pajamas. Connor turned and ran out of the room back to his bedroom. He threw the door open…to find his room full of men and women dressed in lab coats, standing over a person on the gurney in the middle of them. The man reached out his hand for help, groaning with effort. One of the white coat clad doctors around him grabbed a syringe and jabbed it into the man’s neck. Connor trembled in terror as the man’s arm instantly went limp. The doctor’s started advancing towards Connor. He grabbed the door in both hands and slammed it shut as hard as he could. He turned to look for the front door, and found himself in the hallway. But the doors that had once been closed were now open. With nowhere else to go, he took off down the hall, screams of pain and fear filling his ears. As he ran, words he barely remembered seemed to emerge from the screams and fill his head.
“Welcome to Juniper Hills Asylum, Connor,” Tony said to the teenaged boy sitting still and quietly in the wheel chair in front of him. He stood up from his kneeling position to face the elderly woman pushing the wheelchair—Connor’s mother.
“I just can’t take care of him anymore,” she said, with a forced tone of remorse.
“He’ll be just fine here,” Tony told her, a reassuring smile crossing his face.
Connor ran, unaware of where he was headed. But no matter how fast he ran he couldn’t outrun these memories. These memories…
“Good news, Con. We got approval for our experimental procedure.” Tony said, kneeling in front of the now twenty-something man in the wheelchair. “I don’t even know if you know what that means. I don’t even know if you can even hear me. But maybe one day, I’ll be able to talk to you for real and tell you everything that’s happened to you”
Connor threw his hands over his ears trying to shut out these disembodied memories from flooding in. Frightened and confused, he just kept running until he found himself in a small cell at the end of the hall. It was completely empty. He turned to exit the room but saw that the door had closed behind him. He jumped to it and desperately tried to pull it open but it was locked. As he threw his arms up, he saw that his wrists were wrapped in thick bandages.
“Doctor! Something happened! He cut himself! He cut himself!” the orderly spoke excitedly as Tony ran into the cell. He stood and stared in amazement, but then broke his trance.
“Get him to the infirmary.” He barked at the orderly. With help, Connor was taken out of the room. Tony remained, a small smirk on his face.
“It’s working,” he whispered. “Don’t worry, Con. We’re gonna get you back here.”
These words filling his head, he slowly began to survey the rest of his body, which was now clothed in loose fitting hospital scrubs. He brought his arms up, and ran them across his face. Sunken cheeks, covered in stubble. He knew this face. He knew these clothes. And they terrified him.
“HELP!” He screamed as he banged on the door. Tears started running down his face as he screamed louder and louder.
He fell back when Tony’s face appeared in the small window in the door.
“Tony…please…what…what’s going on…” Connor sobbed.
“You’ve come back to us, Con.” Tony said calmly. He pulled a pad from the door, opened and scanned it, jotted something down, and replaced it. “You’ve been trapped in a world of your own for a long time, but you finally woke up. You’re finally back in control.” Connor sputtered, stepping backwards slowly. “It’s good to finally meet you. Welcome back.” Connor dropped to his knees, his body shaking with sobs.
“What’s happening to me?” he choked out.
“Something wonderful,” Tony said soothingly. “Don’t worry. Everything will be alright.” Connor fell to the ground and pulled himself into a fetal position, rocking slowly. Tony smiled down through the tiny window, turned slowly, and walked off down the hall. The light in Connor’s tiny room burned brightly, its flickering forever halted.