Inception.
It seemed impossible to me. Me, being a girl in her late teens living with nothing but her boyfriend, a Siamese kitten, and a husky, found nothing to be possible that was out of the ordinary. But this was possible. And they wanted me to do it.
Which leads me to repeat this seemingly simple, yet extremely complicated word; inception.
Inception is using extremely expensive technology to basically invade one's mind. In dream state. I had been a victim of this when I was only twelve years old. My father owned a large franchise and many men wanted to buy it. So they convinced me, planting this idea in my mind about how much better life would be without the franchise. And so I fell for it. Now, my father is a millionaire, but owns a small business. All because of me and this complex concept of inception.
Now, why would I volunteer to do this to someone else? Plant an idea into someone else's mind? To let them suffer. Show them what I went through. Then, I might never be shown such cruelty again.
"Ready?" my boyfriend asks, his jet black hair hanging over his face.
"You need to get a haircut." I smirk.
"Stop stalling," he snaps, "This is just a practice, okay? So if anything goes wrong, I'll…" his voice drifts off.
"I'll take care of it," I kiss his forehead lightly and he lights a cigarette.
"Okay. Ready?" he asks, twirling the cigarette in his fingers.
"Yup. Send me in." I sigh and close my eyes, the wristband slicing into my wrist.
I was invading my sister's dream tonight. She had volunteered for the practice and knew this would just be a dream. Of course, she would be the architect of this dream. I would just merely know what would happen in this dream.
Suddenly, I'm in a familiar street, staring blankly at my sister.
"Where are we?" I ask her.
"Los Angeles." She smiles and twirls around, almost letting a car hit her. We run to a small café we always ate at when we were younger, Real Food Daily, a vegan place.
"New York City, Times Square." She recites under her breath and instantly, everything around us fades into Times Square.
People start staring at us walking up and down the streets.
"What's their problem?" my sister chuckles.
"They're sensing that we're changing their world." I say softly.
"But they're reflections of ME." She says.
"Which means it will just be sooner for them to find out." I shrug.
She rolls her eyes.
"You're just trying to scare me." She chuckles.
Suddenly, she outstretches her hand and a building lights on fire and melts to a fire hydrant and an alleyway.
"See. Nothing happened." She smirks.
"Not yet." I hiss and start walking away from her frantically.
Of course, she chases after me.
"Lea! Come on! You know I'm kidding with you!" she laughs.
Suddenly, she puts a wall in front of me so that I can't go any further from her.
"Are you insane?" I scream at her and all of the faces turn towards us.
"Holy. Crap." She squeaks out.
I snarl at her.
"You're crazy, sis." I snap and she rolls her eyes.
The crowd starts moving in on us and somebody grab my arms.
"Let me go!" I scream.
I kick at thin air, which appears useless, but it's my only hope.
Suddenly, I see my mother lighting a fire in the middle of the street.
"Set her in, boys." She says calmly and the boys holding me, who I realize are my brothers, press my face into the flames.
"If you die…you wake up. So why not torture you, first?"
I can feel the flames melt my flesh and can hear my sister's useless screams for me and then feel my clothes ripped off by civilians.
Her screams end by what's easily recognized as a skull hitting a wall, but what about me? Finally, a knife digs into my back and I'm back in my apartment, but I can't see anything and I feel my body twitching.
"What happened back there?" my boyfriend's voice asks my sister, "You're awake, so shouldn't she be a-"
Finally, my eyes flash open.
"Lea!" he gasps and hugs me close.
I can faintly smell the smoke on his jersey. I pull away.
"I'm not doing that again. I'm not doing inception." I snap and then leave the room.