The next time I blinked open my eyes, I was staring at a popcorn ceiling, with the soft hum of an electric fan humming in the background.
I recognized that ceiling
'No…'
My eyes shot open, and I burst up from my familiarly uncomfortable bed, and look around, this is my bedroom, still the same as I remembered! The painting from my older brother on the wall, my desk, my computer!
Before I knew it, I had crumpled to the ground, elated by the sensation of it all.
"Theo, you alright?" A nostalgic voice fills my ears, I snap my head up to my door, Mary!
I bounced to my feet and scrambled for the door, I turned the handle and practically jumped into a… dark, empty, hallway?
And then my memories came back fully. This, was my parents house, I moved out when I was twenty two, and haven't had the time to come back except for holidays…
On top of that, Mary and I hadn't spoken since dad died, and she hadn't used that concerned tone with me since I left.
"Theo, what are you looking at?" I turned my head to my left, and suddenly I was in my apartment's kitchen, Rachel had just called out to me from the living room, I ran to her, disregarding the flaws in the ruse.
I just want to see her again!
One last time!
But when I turned the corner, I was met with not a person in sight, and instead of my living room, it was the same hallway.
Then the thoughts caught up, Rachel and I had broken up when I was twenty four, I hadn't dated since…
"Theodore, I know you have it in you, why can't you just apply yourself?"
I tried not to look in the direction of the voice I knew all too well
Mr. Williams! My favorite teacher, bar none, though he had a lot of options about potential, he was a good man.
I never did see that potential in myself, but either way I still found myself in my old school buildings main lobby, and still found myself walking towards his classroom, and once I turned the corner to it, what did I see then that damned hallway again…
And there, once I saw it, my memories came back, of how he would constantly compare students, and reprimanded the ones that did poorly, source of a lot of my insecurities in my later life…
"Bro Theo! Where are you?"
I take a deep sigh inward as once again I am suppressed and then…
My eyes light up as I look to my right, and find myself in a football field, I don't find Sam as I was hoping.
I run to the bleachers, hoping that the rest of the team would still be there, and once I opened the door, I was back in…
That gods forsaken hallway…
And the memories were once again brought back…
Sammy… we drifted apart after I got kicked from the team… I was honestly pretty bad, I'm a little surprised they let me try out to begin with…
"There he is, Theo-man of the hour, hahaha!"
Tears burst from my eyes…
As I looked up, I found myself looking at a cake, glowing with candles, and, with hope fluttering in my chest, I looked at the family couch, where the voice was coming from, only to see.
That.
Blasted.
Hallway.
Again…
And the memories came rushing back, again… it was my dad, it was, my birthday, I was about to turn nineteen…
He collapsed that day, had to be rushed to the hospital, forgot to take his insulin that day, ate some cake… got himself bedridden for weeks…
And he stopped calling me Theo-man of the hour after my twelfth birthday…
But before I could really get my wits about me, another voice filtered into my ears
"Theo, how are you feeling?"
In my throat, it felt like a knife had lodged itself, my hands were shaking as I found myself turning…
When I turned, I found myself not in any place I had been before, but in a white void… and in front of me, is the visage, of a grey haired, wrinkley but still spry, old woman, named Susan…
But to me, was and will always be, Mom…
"Oh how's my boy doing, are you feeding yourself?"
My voice choked up and refusing to even croak, I walked towards her,
"Oh, hey now, it's ok, come here, and give your mama a hug, dear."
As she approached me, I snapped to my senses, and stepped back.
She looked hurt, and confused.
"Soo, what? What do you plan to do to me? Have me fall for another one of your damned hopes? Think I'll let you get close again?"
"Theodore, What are you talking about honey?" But the feeling of my memories kept me stable as I snapped at the illusion "don't, use her voice, you don't know me- you don't know her." I was beginning to hyperventilate as I glared at the cruel figure before me.
"Theo, your being ridiculous, I am your mother, and I always will be."
"My mother, hasn't spoken to me like that in y-years…"
She stepped forward one last time and said "don't you speak to me like that, young man, I know you better than anyone, now come and give me a damned hug!" As she was talking, I witnessed that thing's skin slough off, leaving chunks of pale flesh on the void like floor, but no blood, instead, a black ichor oozed from it's flesh and it's bones became visible, and it shambles forward again
I closed my eyes as I once again stepped away from the thing…
- - - -
And as I opened my eyes again, I found that the white void and the thing trying to trick me with my mom's face had been replaced with that hallway…
I sigh in exhaustion as I finally decide to walk towards the door at the end of the hallway, dreading the thought that I might already know what would be on the other side…