So, time to present the the speech. Although in all honesty, it was less of a speech and more of a press conference. I guess I was over exaggerating because I was nervous. Ironically, since my dream, I wasn't nearly as nervous as I was last night. It was like somehow, my dream snapped me out of my being nervous. I don't know how but it did. Sadly, I didn't get much time to think about it since we arrived at the place where I was supposed to speak. The place was just in front of the legislative was a fairly large building and as the name suggested, it was where the laws of the empire were passed.
Just in front of the podium were teams of reporters all with different kinds of microphones and flashing cameras on them to take in as much of the information as possible for their respective employers.
Composing myself, I stepped up to the podium and began speaking, "Good afternoon, I'll try to keep this short and sweet because I'm sure you have other Important things to get to. Firstly, I would like to address these so called 'memories' people are gaining. These are not actual memories, they are just glitches in people's coding. If you are experiencing any of these 'memories', then please seek medical help to have them fixed. Now, do any of you have any questions?"
At this a man in the back stood up, "Yes, I have a question. How is it that people are gaining said 'fake memories'?"
I had been prepared for questions like this a few weeks before so I easily answered,"The reason behind this is how we programmed the making of new memories for some of the citizens. All memories are run through a server and our analysts have found that certain hiccups in the server have mixed up certain people and events in people's memories. This is mainly due to all of the memories being routed through one server." I wasn't completely lying on that part. The analysts have discovered that people were regaining their memories because we only use one memory server.
This time a different reporter stood up. This one was a woman and a little easier on the eyes if you catch my drift. She asked, "Some are reporting that they are gaining memories of war. How do you explain that. Also, how are you planning on fixing the issue?"
"You see, the one server was only a temporary setup. The goal is for each person to have their own individual memory server. As for the memories of war, everyone has been to some sort of history class or heard of how the empress conquered much of the galaxy, so many of the people may accidently confuse themselves in said new memories with known information."
The woman followed up with, "And how long until the fix for these glitches will be in action?"
"We started as soon as the original memory server was setup but it still might be a few weeks or a month or two."
After that, it started to leave the subject of the memories and went on to other political matters which I was well versed in at all times. Not only because I'm the Empress' son, but also because I'm a bit of a nerd. All in all, the press conference lasted about a hour.
After the conference, I went into the legislative building to sit down and relax for a minute. Sadly, it didn't look like I was going to be relaxing for long.
"Wow, sleeping on the job now are we?" I opened my eyes long enough to see my girlfriend Sarah's face staring at me with a look of feigned disappointment on her face.
"See, to be sleeping on the job, I would actually have to have a job to do."
"You see, this is why you need me, otherwise you'd be the laziest person ever." She said this as she sat next to me poking on each of the last three words.
"I think you got it backwards, you see, I still remember that time you won a bet and made me do all of your work for a month."
"Fine, you got me there. Anyways, good job out there with those blood suckers." That was something I never understood. She absolutely hated the press. I mean I didn't like them all that much, but she hated them with a passion.
"Thanks, I wasn't nearly as nervous as I was last night."
"See, you always get really nervous about something until you do it." That was when her phone dinged.
"Sorry I've got to go, my dad wants me to come home now. Love you bye." she gave me a kiss and left.
Suddenly, I was freezing. The entire landscape changed around me. I was on some kind of snow planet.
"Love you bye" I heard the voice and whipped around. I had never heard it before but it was familiar, just like the stuff in my dream.
When I turned around, I saw the shaggy version of me with a girl.
"I love you too Vanessa." I didn't know what was happening and I was so confused but I couldn't do anything.
Eventually the shaggy me ended up at what I guessed was his house. The woman and the man were there so I guessed that they were just his extremely abusive parents.
"So, John you make it home okay, no detours perhaps?" It was the woman who spoke.
"No Ingrid, there were no detours."
Okay, so at least now I have a face with the name.
"Not even for that Vanessa girl" Shaggy's face immediately hardened when she said that.
"Oh, did you think we didn't know about that? Johnny, you should know that you can't keep things from your parents."
"You can shut the fuck up. You are not my parents and if you consider what you did adoption you are seriously fucked up."
Okay, so that throws the parent theory out the window. However, if they weren't his parents, then what relation did he have to them and why did he stick around with them?
"Oh, John, you might want to chose your next words and actions very carefully. Otherwise we'll have to ask Michael to have a little meetup with your little girly-friend." Shaggy was visibly enraged by this but still managed to keep himself under control.
"Good. Your not being unreasonable for once. I think we've found a way to keep that temper of yours in check. Which reminds me… Marv"
The man who was apparently not shaggy's dad walked in, so I'm guessing he's Marv.
"What do want Ingrid?"
"I think we need to teach our son a lesson in taking detours."
"Will do." and with that they brought out that whip from before and started to savagely beat him with it.
It was a horrifying sight to see. The sound of the whip cracking set your nerves on edge. What was worse was when one of the hits landed. Not only was it the impact of the whip, but also the shards of metal and glass would rip at the flesh. And this guy just sat there and took it. He didn't even make a sound. It was almost like this was his way of rebelling without taking any actual action.
At some point, and I'm not sure when, I slowly started to merge with the me in the dream. I saw through his eyes and felt each excruciating strike of the whip. I felt like I was going to lose my mind when someone saved me.
I look around frantically and saw my mother's eyes staring directly into mine.
"John, are you okay?" she looked worried so I tried to calm her down.
"Yeah mom I'm fine it was just a dream."
"John, don't lie to me. Are you really alright?" I always found that strange how she could always tell when I was lying.
"No mom, but I don't feel like talking about it."
"Also, Mark told me about your nightmare this morning. I think you might need to talk about it, preferably with me."
"Fine, but not right now. I'm a little exhausted."
"Alright, but we're going to talk about this tomorrow morning."
"Okay then, tomorrow morning."
"By the way, I thought you were at the mind vaults."
"John, I left an hour ago"
I checked my watch and saw that it read 10:00 pm. That' when I realized that I had been asleep for 5 hours. Anyway, with that little bit of time loss out of the way, we headed home. As soon as we got home I went to my room. However I tried not to sleep because I was afraid of what I'd see in my dreams. Sadly, I still drifted off to sleep. However, this time was different. This time it was a void, and Shaggy was standing in front of me except his hair was more groomed than before.
He was looking dead at me when he said, "We need to talk."