Chapter 5

“Attention students this is a new student his name is Thomas. Please make him feel welcomed”. I saw the uninterested looks on the faces of all the students in the lunchroom. I don’t remember how I got here or what school this was but there was one student that I could’ve sworn I seen before. Now I remember he was naked walking in the streets. But not here this place seems to peaceful I must’ve seen him somewhere else. Everything suddenly started slipping away. Now out of nowhere it’s the middle of night and I find myself tied to a wooden chair in a warehouse. I am struggling to keep conscience but don’t remember how I got here. Suddenly a fist hits me across the face with such force that my mouths starts bleeding. Everything came back to me now. I was being held by a gang member named Tuco domingo. He was a crazy nut job and all he liked was using women, abusing drugs, and attacking those who he didn’t like for whatever reason. That’s why I am here after seeing the naked boy I tried to follow him from a distance to see what he was up too and Tuco and his men caught me in an abandoned alley way. I should’ve known better than to walk around alone in the city. It might seem dumb but that’s how the world is. There is no more good in the world. Most of it is scum. People of this generation have never even seen a world not ruled by evil. I know it still exists though. “Whack!” another fist hit me on the face. It stung so much that I couldn’t even open my eyes for a moment. As I opened them I see Tuco in my face breathing heavily.

“ You gonna walk around my city again boy?”

“No” I answered. Knowing that if i gave any other answer the beating would just get worse.

“Good.” He laughed and bagged my head.

        “DING DING DING!” I woke up in the middle of a classroom. It was a bright, sunny, and beautiful day in spring. I walked into the hallway and got hugged by a blonde girl. I didn’t know who she was but she smelled nice and felt warm. So I hugged her back. It felt nice to be hugging someone for the first time in awhile. She was like an angel but I still haven’t caught a glimpse of her face. However I could tell she was beautiful. Somehow i just knew. She slowly started to pull away from the and right before I saw her face everything turned black. Short after i came crashing down onto a cold hard pavement. As I stopped rolling I removed a bag from my face and saw a car driving away. It was Tuco’s car. I know because it was the same car that took me the first time. I got up and suddenly a sharp pain hits me. My ankle might be broken or sprained.I ignored it for now and started limping towards a bar nearby. I had no idea where I was so i had no idea of how to get home. I got to the bar and ordered so liquor. Hoping it would drown the pain coming from my ankle and my face. I looked in a mirror that was just standing there and my face was bruised and pumbulled. But this was normal around here. So no one really cared that I looked like I just got jumped. I tried to keep to myself but then a blonde woman sat next to me. I tried to mind my own business still so I didn’t look at her until she asked what had happened to my face.

“Huh?”

“Your face. It looks awful.”

“That’s not very nice.” We both started to laugh and I look up at her and notice that she is extremely beautiful. I have never seen her before. I have never seen someone so beautiful. She elegant blonde hair and eyes as blue and as beautiful as the oceans.

“You want a drink?”

“Sure” she smiled. We had a couple of drinks as we talked. We laughed a lot and that was probably because we were really drunk. That’s the only reason anyone laughs in this world anymore. But I didn’t care being here with beautiful woman suddenly made the world seem like it wasn’t such a bad place. It was around three in the morning and we decided to go for a walk. Even though i just wanted to walk around to spend more time with her we both knew it wasn’t safe. So we just headed towards her house. We got to her house and we started talking again.

“This was fun” I said.

“Yeah we should do it again sometime soon.” She smiled at me and gave me a kiss on my cheek. I started heading towards my house because she told me what direction to head in. I arrive at my house finally. It has one bedroom and one pull out couch. My brother Jones was already home and he asked me if I wanted to go on the roof and get high. Drugs and alcohol being an escape from this dark gloomy world. We started talking about life when we were younger. We talk about our parents who are both gone now. We always get upset when we think about them.  After a while of talking we both just go to sleep.

“Tom!” I wake up in a school cafeteria filled with students.

“Where am I?”

“You’re in the lunchroom dummy. You dozed off.” I didn’t even know who this kid talking to me was but something in my mind kept telling me that I knew him. I had this strong feeling that we we’re good friends. I also had a feeling that his name was Mark. So I tried to see if his name really was Mark.

“Mark?”

“Yeah?” he answered. His name really was Mark. How could I have known that.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“What do you mean?” he answered.

“Where are we?”

“ In the lunchroom? Are you okay man?”

“Yeah I’m fine.”

I couldn’t tell him that  i was completely lost and confused. He already seemed like he was confused.

“There’s Lizzy” Mark pointed out. I turned around and she had her back to us and was talking to some other girl but it was the same blonde angel who hugged me the other time in my dreams. i never seen her before but just like Mark i knew who she was. She turned around and I noticed that she was the same girl from the bar last night. I started getting even more lost than I was before. She came over and sat on my lap. I was confused and she noticed it. So she got me by the hand and took me for a walk. Lost as i was i needed to get to the bottom of this.

“Did you have fun last night?” I asked her.

“You shouldn’t talk about the real world when you are here.”

“The real world?”

“Yeah you will ruin this world and wake up if you do.”

I started to sweat and my mind was running around in circles. There was no way i was just dreaming all this. It was too clear, it was too vivid, it was too real. Suddenly I look up and the whole school was empty except for the two of us.

“Go to my house in the real world we will talk more about this there.” She told me right before the entire school collapsed. I wake up in my bed sweating. Could it be possible that I can live two lives. One as a dream and one here. I was asking myself that but I already knew the answer. It was possible and i was already doing it now.