Drift into the Past

[April 1st 2022]

It's 6:30 am. Harry's alarm clock rings out aloud. The disturbing noise wakes him up from his sleep. He turns around and hits the manual snooze switch and then turns back to continue his sleep. A few minutes later, the alarm starts ringing again but this time around, louder than before. He turns around and hits the snooze switch, then lays back on his bed, trying to catch a quick nap. Just then, the alarm starts ringing again but louder than the previous two times. He becomes very angry, grabs the "crazy clock" as he calls it and then smashes it against the wall. Alas he could now enjoy his lovely sleep.

His door opens slowly as someone creps into his room gently and carefully on the tip of her toes. She walks quietly as she approaches towards his bed. Within a short period of time, she was close enough to his bed. She drags out the pillow which he had laid his head on quietly and when it was completely out, raises it up hit it on him three times. "Wake up! Wake up day dreamer!", she echoes jovially. He didn't feel the first hit. The second hit made him mutter, "leave me alone!!!" in a sleepy voice but when the third but heavy hit landed on the back of his head, he felt it very well. This one made him jump up from bed. He screamed out her name as loud as he could, "Jules!!!!!." He grabbed the other pillow by his side and throws it at her but of course, she dodges it and tries to run outside but he stands up quickly and grabs the first pillow. He also chases her out of his room as they both run all the way downstairs untill they finally reached the sitting room.

"Mum, the boy is up," Jules exclaims loudly. His mother, Bexley turns around and looks at her son smiling. She becomes amazed at the gaze on his face. That was his first smile in a while. Both Jules and her mom bursts into laughter. He had been so quiet and moody ever since the incident from Nigeria. That was one of the reasons why Jules tried to cheer him up that morning. Within some minutes, everyone's laughter quenches when tears starts welling up his eyes again. He's been like that ever since he returned from the world of the dead. He'd smile whenever Jules does one funny thing or another and within a second, he'd also start shedding unnecessary tears. No one knew the cause of his crying and he also refused to share his pain with anyone. Within a glimpse of the eye, those tears gradually rolls down his eyeballs. This triggered his mom's own tears. She had always been emotional and couldn't bear seeing her son in that condition anymore, although it wasn't the first time.

He had always been a happy kid from birth although he's now an adult. The boredom killer of the family, was the name she called him frequently. He was well known for troubling Jules at home ever since childhood and the above incident was just a tip of the iceberg to what he had been doing to her. He loved his sister as much as he loved himself but preferred troubling her. A tragic turn of event indeed, all he does now is shed tears while drowning in silence. Even the well known psychologist, Dr Ben had been clueless on his case but everyone knew that Harry was going through a lot. Soon, Bexley's phone starts ringing. She moves closer to check who the caller was and discovers that it was Dr Ben. Dr. Ben was Harry's doctor and a psychologist. She picks up the call and quietly leaves the scene.

"Hello Bex," said the caller.

"Good morning Ben," Bexley replies.

"How are you doing today?".

"Cool", she replies

"How's he doing today?,"

"Same as before, but he smiled again few minutes ago,"

"Really? that's great news, i'd like to meet him today,"

"Today? I'm quite busy today but i'll try my best to bring him," whispers Bexley as she ends the call.

She goes back to the sitting room but Harry had already gone back to his room. "Mum, i gotta to go" said Jules just as she was still starring around the room. "Okay, my sweet angel," Bexley replies as she hugs her daughter and whispers, "Take care darling".

Jules replies her quickly,

"And you to mum."

She then straps her bag and leaves through the door. Bexley breathes heavily as she walks up the stairs to invite Harry for breakfast. She arrives at his door and knocks but he doesn't reply so she knocks again. After the third knocking, she grabs the door's handle and makes her way in. She finds him lying on his bed again. He's been like that for the past two weeks. He rarely ate anything and all he consumed was water. This was one of the reasons why Dr. Ben was paid to get him back to his senses. After some minutes of staring, she walks straight to his bed and sits close to him. She stretches out her hands and pats his curly rough looking hairs.

"Honey, breakfast is ready", she whispers but he shakes his head sideways and then digs his face into his pillow again. Just then, he starts muttering, "mom i'm the cause, i killed them all, i killed all of them." This had been the only words he's been speaking ever since he came back from the world of the dead. His mom had tried her best to discover what the problem was but he had refused to let the cat out of the bag. She becomes confused as usual but still tries to console her only son saying,

"Stop saying that son, you killed no one", but suddenly, Harry cuts in saying,

"But they wouldn't have died like that, they shouldn't have." She becomes more confused than ever but grabs the opportunity to figure out the course of his torture.

"What exactly happened to you?" She questions him. "I'm your mother and you are my son. If you can't trust your mother, who else would?". He stammers slowly in a low tone saying, "the multiverse....".

"The what?", his mother asks anxiously.

He pauses and then asks her a question, "Mum, have you heard about the multiverse?".

She becomes confused than ever, " the M-U-L-T-I-V-E-R-S-E?"