Darkness. I am swimming in comfortable waves of soothing darkness. I am conscious of nothing but that moment. I want to stay in this moment forever. I am just pure spirit floating. My memories of the other world are slipping away, as if they are all a bad dream.

Dream. That word stirs me from my lethargy. Something seems important about that word. Dream, dream, dream. Dreams: where the mind plays tricks on the tired dreamer, dreams, where countless images fly past the dreamer.

I will myself forward through the dream mist. I can see nothing.

Light. A bright, blue light in the distance. I am drawn toward it under someone else's will. I am frightened. I try to move back, but this other will is stronger than mine. I am pushed forward.

The light intensifies. I am suddenly aware of the presence beside me. I cannot see it, but I am aware of it.

"Dreams. Destiny," it says in a soft voice that qualms my fears. I turn back to the light and am about to press forward when something stopped me. Another voice, familiar but distant, calling my name. I can detect a hint of worry in this other voice.

"Morb, Morb, Morb…"

---

Physical sensation began to return to me slowly but surely. My head still hurt, but it was tolerable. I was so comfortable that I didn't want to move a muscle, but I had to.

I opened my eyes first. The first face I saw was that of Liz, looking worried. She was glad to see me awake and called for Timmy to grab a glass of water. He came up beside me with the water. Groggily I took the glass from him, thanking him with a nod. It was then that I noticed that it wasn't just us three. Danny, Sam and Tucker were in the room as well, looking at me with an odd look on their faces.

I spoke, and was surprised by how hoarse my voice was.

"How long?"

"Three hours."

I looked at my watch. Sure enough it was around five-thirty. I sat up. Liz immediately came up to help me sit up. After I was comfortably situated, I asked what had happened.

"You started screaming and grabbing your head as if you were in pain. For an instant I thought that you were playing around. But then you started bleeding from the ears and nose. I screamed for help. Danny, Sam and Tucker came running back. By that time you were unconscious but trembling very hard. It took the three of them to carry you. I opened the door and they placed you on the couch. You had stopped trembling by that time but you were staring into space as if looking at something that wasn't really there. Your eyes eventually closed and we've been waiting for you to wake up since then."

I looked at myself. They hadn't removed anything, meaning that they hadn't found out about the jewelry I had found.

I tried standing up a couple times. The fist two times I got very dizzy and had to sit down and wait for the dizziness to go away. The third time I was able to stand without Liz's help. I asked for a pain killer. Timmy went upstairs to go get one, or so he claimed. I turned to Danny, Sam and Tucker. I thanked them for their help and told them that I was feeling much better now. They left. Timmy came back down with a pink bottle of pills. I took a couple. He then ran back upstairs. After he was gone, Betania appeared, asking if I felt any better.

"I'm not so sure as of yet. My head still hurts a little—" I stopped talking. The girls stared at me as if expecting me to fall on the floor again.

In fact, the exact opposite had happened. The pain that had been there before had instantly dissolved as if by magic. I had a suspicion. I picked up the bottle and examined it closely. I saw no identifying marks on it, which confirmed my hypothesis a bit. I decided not to worry about it and lay down again. I pulled out my copy of the Hope Prophecy and continued to read it. I soon fell asleep.

When I woke up it was around eight-fifteen. Liz and Betania were talking. I felt much better. Both girls even said that I looked much better. Liz and I went upstairs to tell Timmy that he had forty-five minutes. We found him in the game room playing with four other players, a headset over his ears.

"Hey, Timmy. Your bedtime's at nine and it's eight-fifteen now. Just a little reminder. What are you playing?"

The Crash Nebula First-Person Shooter Video Game. It rules!"

"Yea, I'll bet it does. Mind if we join you?"

"Uh, sure. I know there's a couple of extra controllers and headsets around somewhere." He began rummaging through the pile of gear in the room. After a couple of minutes he came back with two gaming controllers and headsets, which we plugged in. Timmy started a new game, which consisted of himself, me Liz and five other players. Timmy's game name was pink_hat, I made a new profile called Cpt-Morbius, and Liz made one called Decimator. There were five other people playing with us this time, Hawkingfan, DirtyC, Boilinator, SuperSanchez, and a person called purple_queen.

"Hey, Timmy, do you know anybody whose playing with us?"

"Yes, I do. He flipped a switch on the console and said hello into his microphone. Instantly I heard four other voices respond to Timmy's voice by name. They asked the same question I asked.

"Guys, there two playing with me right now are my two new babysitters."

"Lucky you! We're still stuck with Vicky. We have to play in A.J.'s room secretly in order to play. How'd you two do it, I mean, persuade Timmy's parents to get rid of Vicky?"

"That, my dear sir, is private company business." We all laughed at that. We started playing. By the middle of the game, purple_queen was dominating. She would say a couple of things to us after a massive spree that she was on. I finally recognized who it was after a while. Even though she had tried to disguise her voice, I recognized her as Trixie. Liz did as well, I could tell. So did Timmy.

I decided to try something. I whispered my thought to Liz, who nodded with a grin. I cleared my throat and said, "Hey queen, you know something? You are proof of a saying that I have held as a life truth for a long time now."

"What's that?"

"The fact that if guys did more things that girls did, girls would be more free to do more boy things, such as video games."

I heard an audible gasp, mostly from Trixie and Timmy. They were so distracted that I was able to get off a couple of sniper kills before I was sniped myself. At eight fifty-five the game ended. Trixie was first place, Timmy was second, Liz and I were third and Chester, A.J., Sanchez and Elmer were fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh respectively.

At that moment I heard a door open over the VCube.

"Hey, twerps. NO FUN!!! Espescially video games!" We heard a chain saw starting up. The next thing we knew, they had all gone. Only Timmy, Trixie, Liz and I were left. I looked at my watch. I asked Timmy to get ready for bed. We said good night to Trixie, who left without a word.

We put Timmy to bed and waited downstairs for Timmy's parents to get home. They arrived around fifteen minutes later. They paid us and we all went to bed. Due to another exhausting day, I was asleep in minutes.


Not much to say here. Hope you like!!!

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