Villain in the Canvas

Chapter 9

Once the view of fleshed out green limbs fill the sky it only takes adding the smell of burning wood to know exactly where I had landed.

Sitting up I glimpse my father looking at me from the other side of the flames, that same smile etched over his face.

"Welcome back Hunter. How the hell are ya?That didn't take too long."

Once again I am confused and disorientated, "Wait, I thought this place was the dream, the Cusp? I was just with Patrick and thought I imagined this whole thing unconscious in the woods. Patrick had mentioned I was missing that entire day, it all added up at the time but now I'm not so sure, both versions of this site feel like the real one in that moment. Right now this feels like authentic one but that would change the second I returned, wouldn't it?"

"I assure you this, the Cusp is very much real, but so was what you just experienced." He looks at me like he just answered everything I ever wanted to know with that single statement.

I stare stare back with a blatant look of unrest, "You don't understand, I was at this exact same campsite except it was winter, not this tropical paradise. Your telling me we are at the exact same place my brother died moments ago and this is perfectly normal to you?"

He pats the log near the fire, "It is actually. Come, have a seat, it's time we had that talk you wanted."

"Oh, so now you can answer my questions.  If you would have when I asked it would have saved me alot confusion these past couple hours."

"You had to go experience that first or you wouldn't have taken me seriously. Do you really think you would have believed me if I had described the crazy shit you just witnessed? Now you're as ready as can be. First, you must open your mind to all possibilities. I thought finding your Third-Eye and seeing your brothers would have convinced you of the truth on it's own."

"Convince me of what?"

His expression grows serious as he looks at me very intensely, "Ok. These experiences you are having are memories from your past life. Your ability to relive these moments, to review, learn, and grow from them occurs through your Third-Eye."

"Right, the cabin, it was lined with shelves of things from when I was younger. As soon as I looked at the items I could remember everything, could feel it, like I was reliving it all over again condensed into a flash."

"And how do you think that is possible, how could that have gotten there?"

"I don't know Ron, what's with the questions, wasn't it my turn for that while you provide the answers?"

"My apologies, you are right. What else was inside the cabin?"

"On the wall that didn't contain shelves was one giant white canvas."

"A canvas?"

"Yea, there was a pull to it once you starting gazing upon it. After a while it filled with color that widened before me, the color forming shapes. It was like an open window that opened to swallow me. I floated through until there was no more canvas, no more cabin, I was simply there, the image now reality."

"Interesting you experienced your life review through a canvas? Mine always occurred in a movie theater screen, I think because I always loved the cinema when I was alive."

"When you were alive, my life revie...wait, when you say my memories, you can't be serious? I saw Gabe dead but that doesn't mean...I mean it was only one memory, I didn't die, it was only him." I started to think about the objects in the room, the personal things that were only mine. How was that feasible, how was any of this possible?