Trigger warning ⚠️
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ I must have fallen asleep.
I was not asleep for long. I had been watching a movie with my wife, a certain horror movie about a haunted tape. It got boring quick, and I was already drowsy. It was just another sci Fi horror with a predictable plot; The protagonist kept wandering his farm looking for something. It wasn’t even clear what he was looking for.
I was awoken by the sound of a crying child; it was my daughter. Come to think of it, the dream had was of her crying. When startled awake, I told my wife to check with her mother, I felt uneasy. The kids went for a weekend sleepover at my wife’s mom’s place.
She called her mom, and everything was fine. I still felt uneasy, I considered fetching the kids anyway. Those elevated emotions after a dream can be so deceiving but we know they aren’t real. My wife agreed, after all our daughter is a tad spoilt and she likes her room at home; often she would throw a tantrum to get her toys or to be back home with her entertainment. She is only four so it’s a work in progress.
I went from afraid to rageful in seconds when it dawned on me that my best friend, my sister-in-law came to town and never told us. She said she would let me know once she arrived when we spoke yesterday whilst she was still undecided about whether to come. Seeing her is something that happens on occasion as she stays 6 hours away in a different time zone.
Since yesterday when she said she might come through to town, I had been trying to get hold of her to find out the plans, so that we could see her before she departs the next day. To my dismay, I accidentally found out that she was in town and now she had been ignoring both our calls and MIL at this point had not given us any sign that she was home.
I told my wife that we could go get the kids immediately. I was hoping to see my friend so I tried to get hold of her again so that we can plan around it. My wife saw that I was visibly upset and tried to comfort me by saying that people occasionally fail to communicate effectively but it’s unintentional and the phone is long forgotten once she is in a social situation which was understandable, if my calls hadn’t already been from the previous day, unanswered.
I started getting dressed so we could fetch the kids, come home and then just enjoy our time together and forget about it. At this point I felt ignored, deceived and unimportant. Up to this point my life had been an adventure, heavenly. I never had any overwhelming emotions.
My wife had faded not the background and I didn’t hear much from her.
After a while, I was wondering if my wife was still in the house, it had gotten too quiet. Moments later, however I startled awake again, as from a nightmare in my bed. I was sweating, it took me a while to get to my senses, then I heard my wife. “What happened? Did we fall asleep again?”, I slurred half asleep.
This time I was taking time to fully come to my senses. I saw it was dark outside and all the lights were off in the house, nothing but the tv was playing.
Uncanny however, it was the same scene as when I thought had woken up previously. Which was the only signs I had that this was not a dream. I Recall hearing the sounds “Don’t put on the panic helmet, you wouldn’t handle it” moments before I woke up.
Still distraught, I asked my wife what she remembered, since the last thing I remembered was brushing my teeth at the sink and then nothing… until I woke up in the dark… it was probably 12 pm when I was brushing my teeth before we left but now by the looks of it, it is at least 7pm. We lost several based on this eery observation. She said that she recalls me going off about her sister and then assumes we just fell asleep again.
My mind won’t allow me to believe that. I was incredibly hazy at this point; I continued getting dizzier by the second as I attempted to make my way down our hallway.
I had noticed flickering lights and wanted to investigate. The vertigo was so overwhelming that I needed to hold on to the walls to stay upright. The blue flickering lights seems to imamate from our tv in the living room which was unplugged last I remember. Right before I could turn the corner I collapsed onto the floor, “don’t use the panic Helmet” a thousand whispers echoed.
I woke up in bed again, this time my wife was fast asleep.
It was even darker so it must have been incredibly late. The first thing I saw was a VR HEADSET hanging on a hook on the wall beside the bed. I don’t have such a helmet. The scene on the tv was the same as the previous times, but this time the farmer seemed closer. “Don’t use the panic helmet, you can’t handle it”, he said while becoming far more interactive. He pointed directly in my direction and my heart leaped. “Don’t touch the VR helmet”, he said louder, with a demonic voice. I tried to get up, but it was hard to move this time around. Every time I had gotten up, I was more exhausted. I heard screeching static, then he pressed himself up against the TV glass and hollered “don’t use the PANIC HELMET”
I Felt trapped in my environment, my claustrophobia peaking, while the tv was on a loop, I saw it buffering and sticking like a scratched up old DVD. I stared at the VR headset hanging on the wall beside me, wondering what kind of dream this was repeating and pondered whether I should do the opposite of what I’m being warned. That was the moment when I heard the tv in the downstairs tv room blast. I mustered up every ounce of strength I had, falling down several times in the process.
Finally, I Rose to my feet.
Holding onto every sturdy object I could find I made my way down the hallway toward the tv. I could see two shadows in the distance beside the tv staring at me before I got flung across the room. I remembered thinking “I am either going to die or be seriously hurt”. Before I hit the ground, I woke up in bed again. This time around I arose screaming, I sat up immediately. The room was darker now. I checked the clock, but my phone was dead. I check beside me, and my wife had vanished.
Now I panicked!
In the background I could hear the man on the tv saying “do not touch the helmet” for what felt like the millionth time. I drew all the courage from the worry of my wife’s safety and ran down the hallway where I could hear whispering this time. I could make out almost nothing accept the phrase “The sedation is wearing off; I think he is waking up” followed by loud static. Then I found myself flying across the room again. This time instead of going back to bed, I travelled through what I could only describe as a filmstrip which displayed valued moments in my life.
I had firsthand experience of what all those “near death experience” doctors mean when they say “the patient’s life was flashing before their eyes.”
I finally came to when I was sitting on a blanket, during a panic with my wife on one of the dates we had 10 years ago before we were engaged. She was laughing and telling me one of the anecdotes she loves to tell. I thought to myself that I had heard this one before, so entranced by how young she looked. How could I be here? I know this moment! Did I go back in time? So many questions but I got interrupted.
“Babe…babe..babe..” she shook me back to reality,
“You are a million miles away, are you okay?” She asked.
I couldn’t say anything; my voice was gone, and she would think I’m mental if I said something regardless.
At that moment, I got flung off into another memory, this one was of when we were getting married. Again, I was confused but at this point I assumed that I was dreaming, I didn’t want to accept the devastating reality that I could be in the afterlife. I don’t want to think about it. I smiled with teary eyes at how beautiful she looked in her dress, this was her moment.
I was lifted off into moment after moment: the births of our children, the first argument my wife and I had, nights up with my daughter when she was just a baby, many moments with my best friend. Then it slowed down at a memory where we were on a family picnic.
The color changed to the color scheme of the movie that was repeating. I was phasing in and out like a glitching spirit while seeing glimpses of static. This memory was disconnecting and reconnecting like a YouTube video that was losing signal. This continues for a while and no one else seemed to notice this.
There came a hurricane in the distance! When I tried to get away, I’d be back on the blanket with my family again, their faces transforming and distorting.
I could hear whispers within the hurricane “it’s wearing off, his coming to” on repeat until the faceless figures that once was my family all stared at me and mimicked the sound. “It’s wearing off, He’s coming to, it’s wearing off, he’s coming to, it’s wearing off, he’s coming to” repeating like a broken record. I start to hear a high-pitched squeal increasing in volume while the remnants of my picnic scene went to chaos phasing in and out, appearing and disappearing in different parts of the field.
The picnic blanket was now hovering in mid-air like a glitchy 90s computer game. I started flying backwards in time, seeing every aspect of my life at the speed of light, in reverse until I was slammed back into my bed.
Everything was black!
The tv was off, I couldn’t feel anything not even the bed under me, my wife didn’t answer no matter how loud I screamed. I felt like I was in a cave, the sounds, reverberating through my ears making me feel crazier every moment it lingers. I turned to my side and saw the VR HEADSET illuminating as if it is the only thing left in existence. That’s when I finally decided to use it for what would I have to lose?
I carefully removed it from its hook on the wall and placed it tenderly over my head. It was dark until I could hear what sounded like a video game starting up, I saw flashing lights, faded in and increased in brightness.
In a blink, I was face-to-face with myself. I saw in a white room what looked like an early 90s avatar of me but nevertheless, it was me.
The sounds came back “it’s wearing off, he’s coming to” repeating and loudening.
I closed my eyes to brace myself for whatever was next.
Everything faded and I felt a tug on the headset. “Thank God “, I said.
“Honey, is that you? You will not believe what I experienced” I said shaky.
The helmet pulled off and I turned white when I saw doctors and nurses standing in front of me where I was seated next to a big machine.
“You really scared us Mr Anderson, the virtual reality you created malfunctioned, and we nearly lost you.”, said the doctor.
At the hospital I sat mesmerized, scared and confused as they told me I paid them to create a life for me and I’d been in there for 30 years. Who am I then?