James did not wake up till he arrived at the street of his home, then his sleep vanished. James stood straight in confusion and stared at the well-lit street on his left. "Yeah, that's my street," James said slowly before climbing down the truck. James turned around and smiled weakly. "Thank you, Mr Truck driver, I am deeply grateful for this, I don't know what would have happened to me if you were not there to pick me up."
The truck driver smiled and adjusted his baseball cap. "Don't worry lad, I couldn't just drive by and see you in distress. Go home safely alright?" the truck driver waved and drove off.
James began walking to Martha's home. 'How the hell did I know that I had reached my home and woke up? Was it AI?' James thought confused. One moment he was very exhausted from walking a long distance, but by the time he approached the street, his exhaustion vanished into thin air, which made him a bit hopeful. AI was still there, it only needs to be activated.
By the time James reached the gate of Martha's residence, he noticed the two police cars parked adjacently by his house. "Oh no, what happened?" James was apprehensive and really hoped that everyone was okay.
When he quickly arrived at the sitting room, he saw three cops and the entire family sitting on the sofa. Martha was frantically explaining something to the cops, while John was on a call, with a deep frown plastered on his face. By the time they saw James, Martha rushed over and hugged James in tears.
"Oh, James! James, I've been worried sick of you. What happened, where were you?" Martha kept rambling and the two cops came over at the source of the commotion. John disconnected the call he was on and approached James.
"Mr James, Mrs Smith reported that you were missing for more than 24 hours, please can you tell us where you went to during these hours?" one of the cops asked. James was beyond surprised. What the hell?! Missing for 24 hours? How was that possible? James was only coming back from school like, I don't know, 2 hours!
"I'm sorry sir, I don't understand. What do you mean by 'missing for—" James was still talking when Martha interrupted him "Yes sir, he was missing for more than twenty-four hours, right James? Anyways here he is, thank God! There's no need to stress him more than he had" Martha hastily replied. The cops stared at each other, and back to James "Alright, but please keep a close eye on him from now on. There are piling cases of missing children we have to deal with" the female cop concluded, prompting the other cops to exit the building.
James knew what was going on. He was not missing for 24 hours, as Martha had claimed. This was just an excuse that Martha made up to lie to the rest of the family. This made James sad. Not you Martha. The family had started to dislike him little by little, to the point of even abandoning him in his school. What's next, maybe hand him over to the monsters that want to cut his head open?
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
James could not sleep. He turned, twisted, stretched, stared at the ceiling, but he could not bring himself to slumber at all. The strangest thing was that he was not even tired at all. He felt like he had a lot of energy brimming in his body, which made him wonder.
'So, I don't need sleep anymore, that's weird and nice. But doesn't sleeplessness bad for the brain?' James thought. He then climbed out of his bed, approached his study desk, grabbed his PC and walked out of his bedroom to the outside of his residence. He sat on the balcony chair and stared at the sky filled stars, his thought began to wander.
'AI' James called in his mind, but still, there was no response, which made James depressed. He then took out his laptop and turned it on.
He then clicked on the search bar of chrome browser and typed "rare cases of sleeplessness" and slicked enter. An article popped up on the page, which James started to read.
"Fatal familial insomnia (FFI) is a rare genetic degenerative brain disorder. It is characterized by an inability to sleep (insomnia) that may be initially mild, but progressively worsens, leading to significant physical and mental deterioration."
James was slightly surprised but was not afraid. 'Physical and mental deterioration eh? This is intriguing" James thought and shut his laptop, closing his eye to think. If what was written in this article acts out in his case, then he had about seven days to live, before he dies of insomnia.
James shrugged and rested fully on the chair. "Can't be the worst way to die, right? At least I'm coming to meet you mom and dad" he said softly and smiled.
There are many things in life James had never experienced, and thanks to his parent's unforeseen death, he was likely to not experience them at all. Love, happy family, married life, travelling—all these sounds like goals he's never going to reach anymore. Martha was beginning to hate him, students in school despised him, and now, he has a death sentence.
What did I do wrong in life?