"Welcome to Destination Island!" the exuberant voice of a smiling woman greeted Bill upon exiting through the airport doors.

Bill returned the smile as he nodded toward her. The warm air and gentle breeze welcomed him to this place, already allowing him to relax before even settling in.

"Right this way, sir. Your new life awaits you!" The woman directed him toward a parked car on the side of the street. A new life – Bill liked the sound of that. After traveling thousands of miles away from the life he had become accustomed to, he was skeptical at just how radical of a change this place could be for him. He had always sought a u-turn, a back road, or any other kind of deviation from the path the latter part of his life was going to take him, even if it was mandated.

What kind of change Destination Island promised was yet to be determined.

Bill climbed into the passenger seat of the vehicle, right next to a wide-eyed driver wearing a uniform similar to that of the woman who greeted him earlier. "You're…you're…!"

"Yes, I'm Bill, pleased to meet you."

"Oh, Bill!" he exclaimed, extending his hand to shake, for which Bill obliged. "It's an honor to meet you, sir. I'll have you know that I'm a big fan of everything you've done. I never, not once, questioned your investment choices-"

"Enough!" interrupted Bill. "You can probably understand when I say that it's been a long flight, and the last thing I want to do is shoot stories about all of my escapades with you."

"S-sorry, sir. How about I just drive you to your residency."

"Yes, how about you do that."

They drove past various shops, apartment complexes, and restaurants all seemingly designed to be in a movie. Every possible expense seemed to go into this paradise – a serious effort to make the incoming denizens as comfortable as possible living here. Bill could appreciate that part of his earlier livelihood not changing.

"We're here," the driver broke the silence as they pulled into the entrance of a massive hotel – but you might as well call it a resort – and hurried out to help Bill gather his luggage.

A rather tall, smiling man hurried out to greet them. He pushed aside his neat, white hair and rubbed his clean-shaven chin as he waited patiently for them.

"Until next time," the driver said, climbing back into his car.

"Yep."

As the car sped off, Bill turned toward the other man. "Ah, it's about time you arrived here. My name is Tom Stevenson, but everyone around here calls me Pops. I've taken to treating all of my patrons as my own flesh blood and so I ended up adopting the name."

The two of them shook hands, and Bill followed Pops through the large, glass doors. Inside, the resort might as well have passed for a sprawling palace. Chandeliers, garland, marble floors, mahogany furnishings, and antique clocks all decorated the foyer. "Your room would be upstairs," Pops motioned for Bill to follow him.

After venturing for some time down an equally eye-pleasing hallway, they arrived at Bill's room. Once they stepped in, Bill could only stare in awe. He had seen plenty of luxurious living arrangements in his time, but nothing compared to the pure diamond-knobbed, gold-plated faucets, the silk curtains, the temperature adjusting bed, and the bronze statue serving as a fountain surround by a coy fish pond.

Pops noticed his eyes lingering on the fountain. "We had some extra money to throw around, so we figured, why the hell not? If you find it tacky, we'll take it out and put in laser lights like one of our other guests asked for. We'll even let you eat the fish."

"I've got to say," Bill's voice exuded wonderment, "you've really outdone yourself here."

"Wow, coming from the world's richest man… no we haven't."

Bill gathered up his luggage and brought them over to his bed. Pops continued, "Tomorrow we'll be serving breakfast down by the pool. You're welcome to join, in fact I strongly implore that you show up, even with all that jet lag. You'll be able to meet some of the people – sorry, they'll be able to meet you, and my cooks are damn good, mind you. We get new people coming in a lot, and it's sort of our little unofficial welcome to your new home."

"Sounds like something I shouldn't miss." Pops nodded and subsequently made his exit.

Bill walked over to a nearby window and peered out at what lay before him. A beautiful sunset appeared on the horizon lined with palm trees just before the coast, which consisted of white sand and clear, blue waters. They weren't kidding when they promised us paradise, thought Bill.

Before he looked away from the window, a figure dressed in some kind of white cloth ran out onto a nearby lawn. The figure carried a large white sign, barely able to keep their balance at the size of it. The person looked up, and even with the hood enshrouding their face from visibility, Bill believed they were staring directly at him.

Eyebrows furrowed, Bill stared intently at whatever this individual planned to do next. After standing still for some time, they finally flipped over the sign and held it high above their head. In bold, comic sans letters it read:

PLEASE GO TO SLEEP

Bill simply sat there, party out of being perplexed, partly to see how long this mysterious person could keep the sign raised above their head. A solid five minutes passed, and the sign was lowered. However, the figure did not move. Instead, they raised it up one more time, and astonishingly, a new message appeared:

DO YOU SEEK THE TRUTH?

At that, Bill yanked his blinds clothes. He looked to his suitcase. I still have a lot of unpacking to do, he thought. But that could wait until tomorrow.

As much as he wanted to eliminate any trace of that dream he had on his flight, it remained as vivid as ever. He could even recall the smell, the feeling of the carpet in the vehicle he somehow ended up inside. That smiling Igor and his assistant, Margaret, were also quite clear to him.

As illogical as it sounded, could that figure out on the lawn somehow be aware of his dreams, and thus urging him to return to whatever place he had been? Bill shook his head at that thought.

Even if there was no connection, he had no intention of returning to that place anyway. And so, just like his days as a startup executive, he decided he would not be getting any sleep that night.

Instead, he waited.