“I guess I can talk for a few minutes.”
“Good. How is your treatment going? Has your neurologist figured out what’s wrong? Kyle told me you were seeing a hypnotherapist named Dr. Olivier. Is that a good idea? Don’t you think traditional medicine is more practical?”
“Who the hell do you think you are?”
“Lauren, there’s no reason to use that kind of language with me.”
Lauren realized she had spoken her thought out loud. “Lucas, you’re right. I shouldn’t be speaking to you like this. So I’m going to go. Goodbye.”
She ended the call before waiting for Lucas’ reply. She had received the approval from HR acknowledging that she was on a medical leave of absence. That meant until her doctor cleared her to return to work, no one, including Lucas, should have been bothering her. But here he was, yet again overstepping his bounds when it came to her.
She sat the phone back on the side table and went to the kitchen to get something to eat. She got a microwave meal from the freezer. It took multiple reads before she was able to comprehend the four steps required to heat the meal. She realized she was sitting and staring at the microwave door when the sound of the beeps signifying the end of the cooking cycle startled her.
Sitting alone at her kitchen table, Lauren ate her food and cried. The feeling of not being in control, again, overwhelmed her. She wasn’t used to feeling like this. Since she could remember, she always knew what she wanted to do and could always come up with a plan as to how to do it. Now, though, she was at the mercy of an unknown condition and a secretive therapist. She threw her food container away, placed the dirty dishes in the sink, and returned to the family room to wait for Kyle to come home.
***
As she stood in front of the mirror in her bathroom trying to remember what she had come in to do, Lauren caught sight of her reflection and stared at her face. What should have been the whites of her brown eyes were red and looked cracked. Dark bags seemed full and growing beneath her eyes. Her skin, normally a rich medium brown color now looked ashen, like chocolate that had been left in a box too long and developed a waxy surface.
It was Thursday, only five days since this had all started, and she wasn’t sure how much more she could take. She had to get some help. She walked out of the bathroom, figuring whatever she had forgotten could wait. She walked downstairs and into the kitchen, where Kyle was waiting for her so they could leave.
She stopped to kiss him as she passed. She knew her being sick was hard on him, too. So far, every day this week, he’d either missed work altogether or gone in late so that he could drop her off and pick her up from every appointment. And, even though it had to be wearing at him, Kyle never complained.
When they arrived at Estella’s building, he parked next to the curb and got out to open her door.
“I can’t wait here today. I have this morning meeting we couldn’t reschedule. I’ll call you when I’m done and can pick you up. If your session ends before I call, just wait in Estella’s waiting area for me.”
“You do know I could just take a car service home,” Lauren offered.
“No. You’re in no shape to be getting into a stranger’s car. I’ll take you home. You may just have to wait a little while. Is that okay?”
She nodded, dropping the subject. They kissed, then Kyle got into his Audi and drove away. Lauren walked into Estella’s office, taking a seat on the chaise lounge.
The older woman greeted her. “Lauren, our goal today is to talk to Roxal again. I know you want answers, and I believe talking to her will give them to you.”
Lauren nodded and exhaled loudly. “I agree. I think Roxal will answer a lot. Which is why I don’t understand your reluctance to discuss her with me. Her appearance obviously means something. Why won’t you tell me what it means?”
“Because what she means is for you to discover. I can’t tell you who Roxal is to you. It’s important that you talk to her to find out definitively.”
“I understand. I think. Roxal is my subconscious or id or something, and I need to let her talk to me to tell me what I need to hear.”
Estella nodded. “Yes, something like that.”
“Well, I’m ready.” Lauren took her position on the chaise lounge.
“Keep in mind, no matter what happens when you talk to Roxal today, remain calm so you can find out what’s going on. Even if what she says doesn’t make sense to you, listen and we’ll figure it out when you come out of the trance.”
“Got it,” Lauren responded.
Getting to the room was easier during this third hypnosis session. Sitting in her comfy chair in the room in her mind, Lauren maintained her rhythmic breathing and waited for Roxal to show up. There was a light around her and her chair and darkness everywhere else. There wasn’t a hint of the fog anywhere.
Time seemed to move differently in this mental space. Lauren was unsure how long she had been waiting but she started to get anxious.
“Roxal. Roxal. Are you here?” Lauren felt kind of silly calling out to an imaginary person, but she didn’t know what else to try.
There was no response to her call.
Then, just as she was about to call out again, Roxal spoke.
“I see you made it back. Are you awake again?”
Just like before, she was only a voice, but now Lauren found herself thinking of Roxal as a separate individual.
“Yes, I’m awake and with my doctor again.”
“I did not think, or rather, I had hoped you would not be able to make it here again. I must be healing.”
“You’re healing? What happened to you? And why didn’t you think I’d make it back? This little room is one I created,” Lauren responded.
“I was caught in an explosion, I think. I am not quite sure what has happened in my reality.” The voice paused. Lauren felt a surge of nervousness and fear, and then Roxal began talking again. “I…I live a life different from yours. And you may think of this place I call the dreamscape as being something you created, but in reality, it is a bridge between our minds. My getting injured shut my side of the bridge down, so if we are here together, I must be healing.”
Lauren allowed Roxal to be silent for a moment before speaking. “What explosion? I know you said we’ve been talking with one another for over twenty years now, but I don’t have any idea what the things you’re saying mean. I need you to help me understand.”
“Yes, I do owe you that much.” There was a heavy sigh. “I am Unit Beta 56-02-05, self-designated Roxal. I live on a planet named Trebor, and some of my people have the ability to form a mental link, or bridge, with your people on Earth. It is called dream traveling. And because I have this ability, I am a Traveler. Travelers are assigned tasks we must get our Earth Connections to complete. You are my Earth Connection, and my task has been getting you to design a microprocessor your entire planet will utilize.”
The light around her chair was still strong, but fog was beginning to rise up from the direction of what would be the floor. Stay calm or you’ll lose the connection, Lauren reminded herself.
“But that makes no sense. You’re an alien from another planet who can travel into my dreams, and you use that ability to make me create a computer chip. Why?”
“We Travelers are assigned tasks by our gods we only know as The Keepers. I was assigned to get you to build the chip.”
The more the Roxal part of her spoke, the crazier she sounded. Where is this coming from? she wondered.
“I still don’t understand, Roxal. I don’t know what you’re trying to tell me.”
She heard the voice sigh again, but she didn’t just hear it. She felt it. She could feel Roxal’s emotions with her sigh, and it felt like surrender.
“I am trying to tell you the gods of my planet are actually an alien race who conquered and enslaved us and they want to do the same to Earth. This is why we Travelers are assigned tasks. This is why I have been leading you to build your microprocessor.”
&nb
sp; Lauren could feel her anger and disbelief growing as Roxal talked. She tried to push the emotions aside because she had so many questions and she needed to keep the connection going so she could ask them.
She decided to put away her disbelief in these aliens, both Roxal’s people and The Keepers, for a moment. “How would my microprocessor help these Keepers take over Earth?”
“Alone, it does not, but there are at least thousands of others like me with their own assignments. And with enough people doing small parts, it is possible. As for your project, the designs I helped you with were approved by The Keepers. It is not hard to imagine that they have designed in a back door of some sort that they can use to access and control the chips. And think about it. How much of your daily life is controlled by computer-operated equipment? What will happen if your chip gets incorporated into all of those devices?”
Understanding blossomed in Lauren’s brain. “If they can control our technology, then they can control practically everything on Earth,” she answered. “I’m helping to destroy Earth. And you made me do it.” The statement sounded both plausible and ridiculous at the same time.
“Yes, I did, and you have the right to be angry with me.” The feeling of resignation washed over Lauren. “But you have to realize I did not know what I was doing, at first. From the time we are created, we are taught to worship The Keepers as gods. Having the ability to dream travel is revered among my people. Completing the assignment given to you by our gods is an honor. And we are told that by having you all carry out our assignments, we are helping you. We are told that we are keeping you from destroying your planet as we destroyed ours. It was not until my Helper, my mate, Edo, told me The Keepers were not gods and they wanted to conquer your planet that I realized what I was doing. I feel terrible.”
She could feel Roxal’s guilt and sincere sorrow as she spoke. Lauren had also felt a spike of warmth and pain at the mention of the name Edo. Roxal’s emotions were making Lauren work even harder to keep the connection stable.
“You said something about an explosion. What caused it?”
“A team of us following Edo’s instructions. We were trying to escape.”
Warmth and pain followed his name again.
“Why were you trying to escape; had you refused to continue tricking me and they were going to punish you for it?”
“No.” Guilt rolled over Lauren. “Edo was assigned to be my Helper about three annums ago. Our feelings for one another grew. He was familiar with the Resistors, a group here on Trebor fighting against The Keepers. I decided to join him in fighting The Keepers and their Representatives here on Trebor. Resistor members were being hunted and executed. We decided to fight back before we were captured. We were going to escape to the Wasteland.”
“Wasteland? Why did you have to escape to a wasteland?”
“Because our planet—”
“Lauren, you need to wake up now.”
Roxal and Estella’s voices were overlapping in her head, sending spikes of pain into her brain, which felt similar to brain freeze.
“Wait. Stop. Everyone be quiet.” Lauren silenced both women while managing to maintain the connection.
When the pain had subsided, Lauren said, “Estella, you talk.”
She felt a touch on her arm, even though when she looked down there wasn’t a hand on her. She had forgotten she was in a trance and not a real place while interacting with Roxal.
“I need to bring you back. You’ve been talking for almost two hours now. You need to take a break. I’ll allow you to say goodbye.” She didn’t know how close Estella was sitting to her, but her voice sounded very close.
“Roxal, my doctor has told me I need to take a break. Do you think we could pick this up again later?”
“If I am still alive, I will be here.”
Lauren wanted to ask what she meant because she sensed fear in the statement, but didn’t get the chance. Estella had begun the countdown and was bringing her back to reality. Her curiosity would have to be satisfied later.
Opening her eyes, she was back in Estella’s office. The light from the lamp on Estella’s desk seemed bright, and she squinted her eyes until they adjusted.
“Why did you bring me back? I was making great progress.”
“I brought you back because you’ve been talking for two hours. You need to stretch and move around some. And it’s almost lunchtime. You should be hungry.”
“Two hours. It didn’t feel like it had been that long. Hopefully Kyle isn’t—Oh goodness. Where’s my phone?”
Lauren stood and stretched. She was feeling a bit stiff but not too uncomfortable. When she checked her phone, there were five missed calls and three new text messages. All from Kyle.
She called him back.
“Hi. Sorry I missed your calls.”
“I’ve been trying to contact you for the last forty-five minutes,” Kyle snapped.
“I’m sorry. I just saw your calls and your texts. I was under hypnosis. And my phone was on silent in my purse. I didn’t realize how much time had passed. Really, I’m so sorry.”
“I was calling because I had a last-minute meeting that I didn’t find out about until an hour ago and I needed to come and get you thirty minutes ago. Now I don’t have time to pick you up, take you home, and make it back in time.” He sounded angry. Lauren could understand why he was angry, but it wasn’t as if she had purposely ignored him.
“I understand. I’ll call a car service to take me home. I’ll be fine.”
“Just. Whatever. I’ve got to go. I need to grab a quick lunch before the meeting starts.”
“Okay. I’ll text you when I make it home.”
“Bye.” Kyle abruptly hung up the phone.
Lauren placed the phone back into her purse and sat back on the lounge. Her face was resting in her hand.
“Do you need a ride home, Lauren?” Estella asked. “If so, I can take you. I was going to leave for lunch when we were finished.”
Lauren looked up and considered Estella’s offer. “Yes, that would be great. Thank you.”
“No problem. We can talk while I drive.”
Lauren picked up her purse and looked around where she was sitting to make sure she wasn’t leaving anything. Yet another side effect of her insomnia, no short-term memory. As she gathered her belongings, Estella walked to her desk and gathered what she needed.
“Are you ready,” Estella asked. Lauren looked up to find the doctor standing at the door of her office. She stared at her before remembering Estella was giving her a ride home.
The two women walked in silence as they exited the building. Instead of going out of the front door that Lauren always used, she followed Estella down a hallway to another exit that led to a cover parking area. After walking past several cars, minivans, and SUVs, Estella slowed and pointed to a white Lexus LX570 not far from where they stood and said, “That’s my truck.”
Once it was unlocked, Lauren climbed into the passenger side of the vehicle, fastened her seatbelt, and told Estella her home address. Estella had programmed it into the navigation system, and they left the parking lot.
As Estella drove, Lauren gave her the gist of what Roxal had said: an alien race, known as The Keepers, was controlling Roxal’s people and making them force people on Earth to set themselves up to be conquered. And, that she, Lauren, was a pawn in all of this in that the microprocessor she was designing at work would allow The Keepers’ plan of domination to become a reality somehow.
“So what do you think about what you experienced?” Estella asked while keeping her eyes on the road.
Lauren blew out a short, forceful breath. “I think it feels real when I’m in there talking to her. It feels like Roxal is a separate and real person and she believes this story about the aliens is true. But if this is just some trick created by my brain—I mean, if I’m going crazy, then wouldn’t my brain know how to make it sound and feel real? Isn’t that what makes hallucinations dangerous? Sitting here and thi
nking about what happened rationally, I find it just too hard to believe aliens have been traveling into our dreams for who knows how long and guiding humans to do stuff that would bring about our own domination.” Lauren watched Estella, waiting for some sort of response from her. This was one of those occasions when the neutrality of a therapist could be really frustrating.
“That story is a hard one to believe,” Estella responded. “But I think one thing that we can maybe agree on is that your job does appear to be a stressor. Roxal did seem to think your microprocessor was a problem. And you were at work when the first symptom, your migraine, presented. Maybe you should consider taking a leave of absence from work, even after you’re able to sleep again.”
“I don’t know. Maybe,” Lauren answered.
Both women were silent for the rest of the ride to Lauren’s home. Lauren kept thinking about what she had experienced. She still didn’t know if she could trust that it was real. “Thank you, Estella,” Lauren spoke when the Lexus pulled up in front of her house.
“No problem, Lauren.”
Once inside, Lauren texted Kyle to let him know that she was home safe and that she was going to try and get some rest. There was no response. Which Lauren interpreted to mean that either Kyle was preoccupied in his meeting and couldn’t reply or that he was angry with her and didn’t reply. Either way, there was nothing she could do about it now.
She heated a frozen meal for lunch. When she had finished eating, she took her medicine and made herself comfortable on the sofa in the family room. Then Lauren closed her eyes and began the rhythmic breathing like in Estella’s office. Innnnnnnnn. Ouuuuuuut. Innnnnnnnn. Ouuuuuuut.
CHAPTER 16
Roxal opened her eyes, furiously blinking them in reaction to the much too bright glare all around her. As her eyes adjusted, she realized she was awake in her reality. Apparently, she had been right when she told Lauren that their ability to link meant she was healing. She assumed this was the first time since the explosion that she had been conscious, since her last memory was of being in that dusty corridor with Edo. Edo.
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