Chapter 1

The date read May 13th, 1967 on the scribbled calendar, and a long day awaited John. Little did he know that this day was finally going to be his day.

“John, come down here, breakfast is ready!” cried his mother.

He chose to ignore her, he didn’t care about breakfast, not now. He situated himself in his cluttered workspace.

John whispered to himself, “The square root of one-hundred-fifty-three... uhh okay good.” He put together the pre-labeled metal pieces, attached the wires in different places and was messing around with different options.

John’s mother stomped up the stairs, “John, it has been four weeks that you have not been down for breakfast!”. “I demand you to come down this instant, this is not healthy. I will have you see the doctor or a therapist if otherwise.”

“Mom, I’m fine. You need to leave me alone, stop interrupting. I am in the middle of something important, this could be it!”

“What could be it? What are you talking about? By the way, the police department called again. Your brother has been caught with drugs.”. “I don’t know what I’m going to do with that kid.”

“Mom, I don’t care about him, or dad or anyone, just leave me alone!” John was frustrated at this point, he pushed his mother out of his room and locked the door.

He had a secret stash of food hidden in his closet and took a bag of chips. He had not eaten in 24 hours. After his small break was over, he made his way back to his crooked chair, but felt the room was stuffy. He walked along the squeaky floor to open the window, but it was stuck. He felt like he was suffocating, he was almost to the point where he wanted to give up. He knew however that if he didn’t finish he would be stuck in his rotting hole for the rest of his life. He heard a beeping noise come from the table. The machine had turned on, how odd.

“What the... ? It couldn’t... I didn’t.... but... how?” He looked confused; he ran over to the table and attached the end of the wire to his arm. He pressed the button and BOOM, he was gone.

There was a bang at his door, but there was no response. His mother wondered what the loud noise was. She assumed he had dropped something so she walked away.

“Sir! Come, quick they are waiting for you, we need to get moving now, or you might be late, not that it really matters.” said a man in a black suit with dark shades standing by a black Buick.

John was confused, he didn’t know how he got here or who the man calling for him was but he got up and followed the man into the car anyway. “I’m coming,” he said.

They arrived to their destination. “ Follow me, dinner is getting cold and your friends are waiting inside.” The butler lead the way to the dining room. The mansion-sized house included three floors, an in-ground pool in the backyard, a game room, an enormous kitchen stocked with foods of all kind. Unlike the foods he would find at his house, or not find for that matter. He only ever dreamed of a house like this, his friends however were not people that he knew, he was confused.

“Hi there, what’s your name?” asked one boy named Jake.

“Who are you all?”, asked John.

“Well we were all here waiting for someone but we didn't know who it was.” said the boy named Keith.

John said, “I’m sorry, I don’t really know what is going on here, but I kind of want to play some video games, do you guys want to join?”

“Sure, That sounds fun.” said Jake.

So they all went down to the game room, played a little and got to know each other, after hours in the game room they went to the pool, without realizing that night had fallen. But they didn’t care, they were having a good time. John sat in the corner of the pool for a time thinking about his home, and his mother.

He woke up... in his chair, back in his dark and creepy room, and the sun was setting it was almost night. He didn’t know what had happened or why he was home, but he was there. He was confused. The door was open, open to leave and enter dream world.

The next day John decided to try it again, he didn’t know if he should tell his mom or not or anyone for that matter so he kept it to himself. He sat himself on the chair, and attached the wire to his wrist. “Okay, here goes nothing, I’ve got to figure out how this works before I even think about telling someone.”

John had to figure out the mechanics of his machine, how he worked in the dream, and how he woke himself up to reality. He went in everyday and completely locked himself away in his room. He hated reality, so he had nothing left but to dream.

Years had passed and one night, He found himself in the other world without the use of his machine. He realized that he did not need the machine to go into the dream anymore. He just needed to fall asleep with the hopes of entering the other world.

The world he entered had people he had never seen before and after ten years had passed he managed to somehow bring his friend Keith into his world without realizing what he had done.

They woke up in the darkness of John’s dilapidated room.

“What is this place?” asked Keith with a puzzled look on his face.

“I don’t understand what is happening, I don’t understand why you are here.”

“You don’t uanderstand why I’m where? How did we get here, I could have sworn we were in your room with Jake”

“I don’t know how to explain this to you Keith, this is all beyond my understanding and I have to tell you that this place we are in is my room, it’s my real room.”

“You don’t know how you brought me to your room? This isn’t your room John. I don’t get what's going on. What kind of stupid no making sense prank is this? Haha you are a funny guy.”

John was having difficulties explaining to Keith what was going on, he was trying to figure out for himself how Keith had come to the real world. Six years had gone by that he had spent traveling back and forth all to understand his creation. However, every step of the way there he just found more complications and had more questions. John had to accept the fact that this was some sort of magic or unexplained miracle of some sort. It was no longer just a dream, it was another place, another world, another reality.

After many many years of traveling back and forth between the two worlds he was a part of, John decided that it was best if he just buried his machine and concentrated on his reality before he lost the ability to tell the difference between the world he was born in and the world he had created. He had a child now, and this was not the way to live. He had spent many years trying to understand his creation, but never actually got to do so. He didn’t want his child to be stuck in his conflicting situation. He had started a new chapter in his life with a wife and a kid. He left behind the people in his dream world without a goodbye. He died on the year 2021, without having ever told anyone of his creation of the other world. Those doors however, remained open for he had not closed them.