Chapter 18: I’m stuck in the weirdest game

I know I said "my dreams get freaky" earlier, but this time, it was much worse.

When I woke up, I was in a place I hadn't been to in a long time. I was in a small bedroom, with lilac colored walls and a small bed with Hannah Montana sheets and covers. In the corner of the room, there was a smiley face bean bag with heart eyes and a number of stuffed animals sitting on it. There was also a white dresser and small closet in the room, but that wasn't what bothered me the most.

I was in my old bedroom that I lived in before I became homeless.

I'll admit, when I first saw the room, I almost broke down in tears. The room may have looked childish and silly, but this room brought back a lot of memories, good and bad.

After looking through my room, I opened the door and went down the hallway, where I saw a sight even more shocking. In front of me sitting on a leather sofa, was my father, smiling and drinking chocolate milk.

Immediately, I ran up to him and embraced him in a tight hug. I should've been suspicious or wondered why my dead father was still alive and sitting on a sofa, but at the time, I was pretty emotional.

"Dad? H..how..but you're..dead." My father gave me a strange look, staring at me with his dark brown eyes. He looked the exact same as he did the last I saw him, with his same shaggy black hair, tan skin, and glasses.

He chuckled and hoisted me out of his lap. "What are you talking about, sweetie?"

I shook my head. "O..oh um, nothing. Never mind." A number of different emotions were coursing through me, happiness, shock, fear. I just couldn't believe I was finally seeing my dad after all these years.

"Cheer up," my dad said. "I got that chocolate milk that you and Mary like."

My face tensed up. "Marianne? W..where is she?" I felt like someone had punched me in the gut for the second time that day. First, I appeared in my old home with my dead father alive, and now Marianne was alive too?

"Your sister's at the police academy," my dad answered. "She's really excited to start her training."

"P-police academy?" I stammered. Marianne had always told me that she'd wanted to be a cop like dad when she graduated.

He nodded. "It's crazy, right? Ah, my little girls are growing up. Soon, you'll be going to college and dating boys-"

I blushed and looked away, but that didn't mean I wasn't utterly confused. Police academy? College? What in the world was going on? As much as I wanted these questions answered, I knew my dad wasn't going to be any help.

"Y..yeah college," I stuttered. "Anyways, can I see Marianne?"

"Sure, sweetie. She should be done training about now, so you can head to the station. It should be a few blocks away." my dad explained.

"Thanks..dad," I said. As I left my house, I had a feeling this may be the last time I may ever see him.

As I ran down the street, I recognized all the familiar houses and places in the neighborhood. Mr. Barry's garden was still as chaotic looking as ever, with half his plants dead or rotting, while beautiful cello music played at Mrs. Khan's house. It hadn't occurred to me how much I actually missed this place since my dad died.

When I finally reached the police academy, I entered through the large black doors and walked into the lobby, where the receptionist greeted me. The lobby was a large, gray carpeted room with a black receptionist desk and several chairs making a large U shape around the room. To the left and right of the receptionist table were two silver elevators that led up the other floors.

"Hello kiddo," the receptionist said. "How may I help you today?" He had long brown hair wrapped in a man-bun and sky blue eyes, and was wearing a blue police uniform.

"Um...I wanted to see my sister, Marianne," I asked. The receptionist smiled at me and began typing.

He pressed the enter button and looked at the computer. "Marianne is on break right now, so you can go talk to her. She should be on the third floor in the lunchroom."

"Thanks," I said.

"No problem. By the way, is your sister single?"

"Goodbye."

I walked towards the elevator to the left of the receptionist's desk and pressed the button to the third floor. After a short couple of seconds, the doors to the elevator opened and I entered the lunchroom.

The lunchroom was about the size of a normal school cafeteria. It had multiple rows of wide tables and had several food lines and vending machines. The floor was made out of white marble and the walls were a peach color. In the table to the bottom left of me, sat Marianne, laughing and talking to a couple people sitting next to her.

My jaw instantly dropped open. Marianne looked completely different than she did when I last saw her. Instead of having a large potbelly, she had a muscular build with a lean stomach and strong arms. Her black hair was swept into a messy ponytail and her dark green eyes glittered with joy. She was wearing the standard cop uniform and wore a black belt around her waist.

"Excuse me guys," Marianne said, looking towards my direction with a smile and walking over to me. "Hey, sissy. What's going on?"

I looked at her stunned. "M..Marianne." I hadn't heard Marianne say that to me in so long, which made me even more emotional.

"That is my name," Marianne said, chuckling. "What's wrong?"

"N-Nothing," I stammered. "It's just...just good to see you."

Marianne smiled, showing me her pearly white teeth. "It's good to see you too, Rose."

As she was about to hug me, a shot rang through the air. I turned around, trying to see where it went.

I turned towards Marianne. "Did you hear th-"

A big wound appeared on her chest. Blood dripped down her uniform. She fell down, clutching her chest where she had been shot.

I came to her side, breaking down. "No, no not again!" Tears streamed down my face like a waterfall, and a million thoughts were running around in my head.

She stared at me, her face becoming pale. "Avenge me, Rose."

"I will," I promised, holding her hand tight. Suddenly, a white light clouded my face, blinding me. Once the white light went away, I was back in my bedroom as if nothing had happened.

I pranced around my room, hands on my head. Why was I back here again? I just wanted to go back to my friends. Finally, after walking around my room like a maniac, I opened the door and ran past the living room towards the exit.

"Good morning, sweetie!" my dad said as I ran out of the door. I ignored him and sprinted towards the police academy. If I had gotten another chance to save my sister from dying, then I wasn't going to waste it.

I burst into the waiting room, wind blowing my hair back. I ran past the receptionist and ran to the elevator, hoping none of the cops in the waiting room would notice me. I got to the third floor and ran to Marianne.

"What's up, sissy?" Marianne asked.

"No time," I said, dragging her arm with me as I ran back to the elevators.

"What's going on, Rose?" Marianne asked, with worry in her eyes.

I pressed a button to go to the first floor. "There's somebody trying to kill you. I came here to save you."

"What what? Who's trying to kill me?"

The elevator hit the first floor, the doors opening up. "No time to explain. Let's go quick!"

Marianne followed me as I sped out of the academy and began heading to a street on the left, where the neighborhood ended and a line of stores appeared on the left.

As we ran across the street, two guys stood in front of us. The first one had long blonde hair and was wearing a dirty denim jacket and jeans. The second one had short ginger hair and a long beard and wore a heavy wool coat and black jeans.

"You can't escape fate, missy!" the blonde one snarled. He hurled a knife at Marianne, landing right in her chest.

"No!" I screamed, turning towards Marianne as she fell on the pavement, blood trickling down her chest. My vision was blinded again, and I returned back to the apartment.

Once again, I appeared in my room, more distraught than ever. I can't stop fate..what did that mean? No, I had no time until Marianne was shot, so I had to be quick. I ran straight for the academy and grabbed Marianne.

"What's going on?" Marianne asked as I led her out of the police department and headed for home. I ignored her question and kept dragging her along as we got closer to the house. Behind me, I could hear the distant footsteps of the two freaks from last time, but I didn't think too much about it.

I slammed the door open, my dad sitting in his usual spot on the sofa.

"What's up, sweeties? Mary, how did your training go?" my dad asked.

She looked at me, still confused about me dragging her here. "Um, it went fine. Rose rushed me here for some reason, but she won't tell me why."

My dad locked the door as I plopped myself down on a couch in the living room. Marianne took a seat next to me as my father turned on my favorite movie, The Polar Express. It was a weird choice but I loved Christmas movies, so it didn't matter.

As we sat down and watched, enjoying ourselves and laughing, I could feel my panic and emotions easing away. I had found a way to save Marianne and she was finally out of harm's way. After another thirty minutes or so, I noticed a faint beeping sound coming from above.

"Anyone else hear that beeping?" I asked curiously.

Both my dad and Marianne shook their heads and went back to watching the movie. I got up from the couch and headed into the garage where the attic was. It was probably just an alarm or something, but I had to make sure. I pulled down the attic ladder and climbed up, being met with a terrible surprise.

Lines of dynamite and bombs were placed in the attic, with a timer above them saying "0:15 seconds until destruction". I panickedly tried disarming the timer, busting open the operating system on the back and trying to pick through all the wires. The timer then hit 0:08 seconds, and I tried destroying all the wires with a nearby hammer, but nothing was working. As it reached three seconds, I saw a paper wedged beneath the timer.

I quickly turned it over, the message reading, "You can't escape fate, missy. Move on."

The entire house blew up and my vision went white. I returned back to my room, restarting the whole process over again.

This time, I was in full breakdown mode. I crumpled to my knees and pounded on the floor, smashing objects in the room and tearing my stuffed animals apart. Why couldn't I save my sister? Why did this keep happening? No matter what I did, nothing worked. I was about to run out of the room and demand who was doing this to me when something clicked in my brain.

The last two times I tried saving Marianne, I kept getting the same message: "You can't escape fate". Why did I keep getting told that, and what did it even mean?

To add to that, the last message told me to "Move on". Were they referring to Marianne? When they said you can't escape fate, were they referring to fate as in Marianne dying?

If my theory was correct, then this entire nightmare was some colloquial way for me to move past Marianne's death. Instead of trying to prevent it, I had to accept it and move on. That's what those messages were trying to tell me all along.

I sat down on my bed, ready to accept Marianne's death. For days, I had been trying to avoid the subject of her death. Then when Nemesis showed me that there was still a part of me that hated Marianne, I fully pushed her death into the back of my brain, not wanting to think about it.

The entire point of the dream I had was to get over her death. I had to push it out front, not hide it. With those thoughts in mind, I ran over to the police academy and went into the lunchroom, meeting Marianne for what would probably be the last time ever.

"Hey, sissy!" Marianne exclaimed, walking over to me.

"It's good to see you, Marianne," I said.

She embraced me in a warm hug. I heard the gunshot behind me as it sunk into Marianne's chest.

As she fell down to the ground, I stifled a sob and gave her a kiss on the forehead. "Goodbye, Marianne."

My vision was blinded once more, but this time, I woke up in the cave from earlier. Around me, my friends were on the floor, fast asleep. I had beaten the game.