Curtain Call - An AJR Fic (Everything Clicks - Book 3)

Way Less Sad (Jack)

The room was filling faster than I could move. In less than a minute, the water was almost to the base of my chin. I had no other choice. I took a deep inhale and plunged below the surface. Underwater, it was nearly impossible to see. I just kept moving in the same direction with the hope that I'd get somewhere...and the hope that I wouldn't run out of breath. I fumbled around for several minutes, blindly trying to search my own bedroom. I could feel my chest tightening as the air in my lungs was fading.

Then, in a stroke of luck, my hand found the handle of my bedroom door.

My eyes widened and I flung the door open, all of the water behind me spilling into the apartment and throwing me into the hallway. I gasped for breath as gallons of water rushed by me into the other rooms. I tried to stabilize myself against a wall, but it was no use. I collapsed in a puddle of water, and the rest of that time is blank.

****

When I came back into reality, or what I thought it was, things were very different from what I remembered. I blinked my eyes awake and got up slowly. Around me, the ground was completely dry; so were my clothes. How long was I out?

"Adam? Ryan?" I called out again. "Are you guys okay? ...Hello?"

I looked around at my surroundings. Something felt off. I felt dizzy, like I was hungover or something. I took a couple of steps forward into the living room.

"...Wh...What?"

Everything had been flipped on its head. Every piece of furniture, the apartment itself, even me, all of it was upside down. This night was getting stranger and stranger by the moment. I tried my best to walk to the coffee table in the living room, bumping into several things in the process. The bottle of wine from yesterday evening still sat there. I picked it up along with one of the empty glasses. Unsure of what to expect, I tried to pour the wine into the glass. Instead of flowing into the glass, the wine ran backwards out of the bottle, toward the ceiling.

"Well," I muttered to myself as I set the wine down, "that's certainly unusual."

I started feeling lightheaded from the change in scenery. I put my hand up to the wall to stabilize myself and get a grip on everything. First, the apartment flooded, and now everything was upside down. I'd learned to stop judging things like this a long time ago because of...well, everything at this point. But two strange occurrences in one day? That's new. That's almost...

L-word territory.

My stomach felt sick at the very thought of it being anything related to The Light. My limbs felt weak and shaky. I tried not to let it consume me. I tried to stay present. That was something Dr. Atwood had taught me.

What can I focus on? What can I look at to take my mind off all this? Are there any sounds, any smells? Come on, come on! There has to be something. Anything.

My eyes met the night sky as my legs gave out from under me. In the window, I could only see the light from the moon. Tears welled up around my eyes. I wanted to scream. Behind me, I felt a presence. But it wasn't someone that seemed...familiar to me.

"Is there someone there?" I called out.

Missing little time, the person behind me held their hand out to help me back to my feet. I hesitated for a moment, fearing who it might be or what they might do. But what more did I have to lose? I slowly took the other person's hand and they gently helped me up, not showing their face or saying a word. I was getting really uncomfortable.

"Who...Who are you?" I asked.

I could see the figure's smile through the darkness before an unsettling and familiar voice spoke.

"Why are you scared, Jack?"

My eyes widened as they stepped closer, and I saw their face.

It was me.

Behind him, more replicas of me emerged, each with the same evil smirk. They all crowded around me closely. My heart was nearly beating out of my chest. What were they going to do to me?

"What's your deal, Jack?" One replica snarled.

"Why don't you want to see The General?" Another prodded.

"Don't you want to get revenge?" A different one said, with an almost psychotic grin.

I started hyperventilating in the center of the circle. "No..."

One of the replicas giggled evilly. "What if he kills you?!"

"Stop!"

"Haha!" Another chimed in a sing-song voice. "You're gonna be a dead man!"

"Quit it!" I cried, covering my ears. "Just stop!"

"You're gonna die!" The first replica started chanting, and the others joined in.

"Leave me alone!" I sobbed, tears streaming down my face.

I fell to my knees in the middle of the cacophony. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't drown out their noise. My chest started tightening; I could hardly breathe. If they kept this up, they could kill me themselves.

"Jack?!"

I lifted my eyes just above the ground. I could hear my name. Distantly, but it was there. And what's more, the voice sounded...familiar, and comforting.

"Jack!"

Was it...Adam?

"Jack!"

I gasped and flew up into a sitting position. I was in my bed. It...was a dream? And a fucking awful one at that. Adam and Ryan sat on either side of me, horrified expressions pasted on both of their faces.

"Jesus Christ, Jack..." Ryan exclaimed.

I was still breathing extremely heavily. I attempted to calm myself down a bit before I tried to reply. "What...what happened?"

Adam took an exasperated breath and ran his hand through his hair. "You...you were screaming in your sleep. It terrified us. We thought...something was wrong..."

I looked down at my blankets and said nothing.

"I could ask the same of you," Ryan returned. "What the hell happened, Jack? Are you okay?"

I was visibly shaking, but I didn't want to worry them. I shook my head. "Nightmare..." I replied, to the best of my ability. "Bad nightmare..."

Adam raised an eyebrow but said nothing more on the topic. Ryan frowned in sympathy.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Ryan queried.

I froze. What if it was The Light? They would want to know. But even I didn't know. And I didn't want to put everything in jeopardy. Ryan would hate me for that. I had no idea what to do.

I looked at Ryan and shook my head. "No...I think it's just...nerves...about tomorrow..."

Adam and Ryan nodded in unison and Adam patted me on the shoulder.

"...I haven't slept well all night," He admitted. "My stomach's in knots, I'm terrified."

"I haven't slept much, either," Ryan agreed. "But I know this is the right thing to do."

I sighed shakily. Maybe we all thought that, but now I had a premonition. I knew it; that dream was a message. I had never had a prophetic dream, ever in my life, but I knew one thing:

Something bad was going to happen.

"As long as we have a solid plan and we stick together, everything should go fine," Ryan tried to assure us.

Adam sighed as he stood up. "Let's hope so. Goodnight."

"'Night," Ryan said tonelessly.

"Y...Yeah..." I muttered.

The door closed behind Ryan with a quiet click. I readjusted to be as comfortable in bed as I possibly could. I found myself staring at the ceiling again. The crack was nowhere to be seen.

As soon as I heard Adam and Ryan's doors shut, I felt tears roll down my face.

That was the first night I cried myself to sleep in a long time.