Afterlife Dream

Mom drove like insane. I reckoned that she got used to driving to the hospital because I kept having emergency breakdowns.

She tossed her phone to Jaden and shouted, "Jaden, call the hospital! Tell them that we are heading there this very moment!"

Jaden caught Mom\'s phone. He then rummaged inside his backpack for a little notebook. Mom, bless her heart, prepared the little notebooks for all of us. It contained emergency numbers and all of our medical information just in case one of us got sick and someone in the family had to send me to the hospital. Up until now, they used it mostly to get me help as fast as possible.

Jaden flipped through the pages until he reached my page. As soon as Jaden found the hospital phone number, he made the call.

"Hello? My name is Jaden Weston. I am calling on behalf of a regular patient.

His name is Daniel Weston.

Patient number... wait a second...

11384884...

He is having a severe stomachache..."

Jaden sneaked a glance at me when he said the last sentence.

"Yes, we are heading to the hospital right now.

Umm...

At the junction between Hickory Lane and Avery Road...

Yes, we just passed the Seven Seas Ice Cream Shop..."

I settled on my seat and continued pretending to be weak and feeble.

We arrived at the hospital in no time. By the time we arrived in front of the emergency room, one male nurse and two female nurses were already waiting for us.

The male nurse easily lifted me from the car seat and moved me to a wheelchair without difficulty. They then proceeded to wheel me into my ward, all the while bombarding Mom with questions about what happened.

"He said he had a stomachache..."

"Maybe food poisoning."

"Food poisoning???"

The nurses sucked in deep breaths. "What food???"

"I don\'t know!" Mom answered, panic dripping from her words.

"It is regular canteen food. Jaden, what did you have for lunch today...?"

"Oh, I had a burger with fries..."

"Sounds like perfectly normal lunch... What exactly did Daniel eat?"

Jaden shrugged. "I did not see him during lunch so..."

After the initial ruckus, the nurses left to fetch Dr. Thompson.

Mom and Jaden stayed with me while we waited for Dr. Thompson to arrive.

"Dr. Thompson is currently in the middle of surgery," a nurse came back to inform us. "Should another doctor take a look at Danny?"

Oh, hell no.

"No, it has to be Dr. Thompson!" I insisted to Mom. "He knows me best!"

Mom gave me worried looks.

"But Dr. Thompson might need a while... Danny, does it hurt that much?"

She reached out to massage my stomach but I quickly grabbed her hand.

"Mom, it comes and goes. I want to eat something. Can you buy me something from the vending machine?"

Mom was speechless. I knew I made zero sense. Having a supposedly severe stomachache and then suddenly wanting to eat something? It simply did not add up. Unless I planned to convert that stomachache into hunger. Nevertheless, Mom relented when she saw that I was not floating in the Styx River.

"Alright... what do you want to eat?"

"I want instant ramen with spicy curry soup," I quickly answered.

Mom frowned at me.

"That is not a light meal at all. Did you not eat enough for lunch?"

"I... the food was not food, so I scrapped most of it."

Mom heaved a sigh of relief. "Thank God you did! Imagine what would happen to you if you ate all of the poisonous food!"

I laughed nervously.

I had a reason for getting the instant ramen.

The vending machine was located in the lobby of the first floor. After buying the instant noodle cup, Mom had to go to the pantry to boil some water and prepare the instant ramen. It would take her at least half an hour. It should be enough time to turn the room upside-down.

"You should not eat spicy food when you have a stomachache," Mom chastised.

Oh, any kind of instant ramen would do at this point. I would have ordered beef steak if the vending machine had instant beef steak!

"Then you can throw away the chili powder," I quickly agreed.

Time was ticking. I needed her to leave the ward, now.

"Alright," she shrugged her shoulders. "Jaden, you stay with your brother."

Jaden nodded.

I literally jumped off the bed as soon as Mom left the ward. It was already 15.50! I only had 40 more minutes to find the treasure box!

"Jaden, lock the door," I instructed while I started to rummage through the first closet in the ward.

Jaden blinked at me in confusion, but he still went to the door to lock it.

"I knew you faked it," he commented. "What are you doing, Danny?"

"I am looking for a box," I said while going through layers of clothing. "It looks like a treasure box."

There was nothing in the first closet. I moved on with the second.

"Help me out," I pleaded with Jaden. Not sure whether he was able to help me or not, but I needed every help I could get.

Behind me, Jaden started to look at the medical equipment and the drawers.

The precious time flowed extremely fast when you needed it to flow extra slowly. I looked at my watch every five minutes. The horror in my heart grew more and more as the time slowly ran out.

Just how big was this treasure box?

Was I going to be able to find it or not?

What would happen if I fail the mission?

Was I going to be trapped inside the time loop forever? Would the others move on without me?

That would be an excerpt from a horror movie.

"Danny."

Jaden\'s voice was heard behind me.

"What?" I asked absent-mindedly. I was too occupied with my dreadful thoughts to even pay him any attention.

"Danny, I found it."

That one sentence was enough to make me turn my head so abruptly that my neck bone cracked.

"You WHAT???"

Jaden was holding a wooden treasure box in his hands. It was quite big, actually. Bigger than my lunchbox.

"Jaden, that\'s wonderful!!!"

I took the treasure box from him and examined it. It was locked.

There was a keyhole but where was the key???

As if reading my mind, the treasure box suddenly started to speak to me.

"Dear Adventurer, you have managed to locate the treasure box. Please open the box to recover your memory scroll."

I knew that I had to open it but how???

I looked around the ward in exasperation. Was there some screwdriver I could use to pick the lock? Or anything. Anything would do.

My eyes landed on a baseball bat that was leaning against the wall. It was Jaden\'s.

I jumped to my feet and grabbed it.

"Jaden, let me borrow this. Move aside."

Jaden\'s eyes turned as round as balls. He might think that I had become insane, but I had no time for a proper explanation. He was going to forget everything tomorrow anyway!

I swung the baseball bat and hit at the lock with all my might. The lock fell off and the treasure box opened up dramatically, giving off a golden light that brightened the room for a few seconds before disappearing into nothing.

Inside the treasure box, lying in a bed of velvety golden cloth was my missing tablet.

I sucked in a deep breath.

My tablet.

The item that I had been missing for days.

I took it out of the treasure box and turned it on.

As soon as I pressed the on button, the screen lit up and I exhaled with relief.

But then before it had the chance to show me anything, it disappeared and went into my arm.

I widened my eyes in shock. What was that???

"Dear Adventurer, welcome back to Afterlife Dream. Please allow 1x24 hours for your memories to integrate into your mind."

What...?

"Initiating integration process... counting down to system reboot."

A splitting headache invaded me without warning. I dropped to my knees and held onto my head.

"Five..."

"Danny, what\'s wrong???"

Jaden grabbed me by my shoulders.

"Four..."

I lifted my head with a lot of effort. I wanted to tell him to drag me to bed because my head hurt so much. Unfortunately, not a sound came out of my throat.

"Three..."

Jaden put one of my arms around his neck and dragged me up to my feet nonetheless.

"Two..."

My eyelids grew as heavy as rocks. I tried to stay awake but my eyes kept fluttering shut.

"One..."

My eyes shut tightly in the end. My whole body slackened and I fell to the ground.

"DANNY!!!"

Jaden\'s panicked voice was heard, followed by the sound of Mom\'s frantic knocking on the door.

"Danny??? Jaden??? What are you guys doing? Why is the door locked???"

"Integration process starts..."

BEEP