Life at the Cost of Drinking a Cup of Time: The Simulated Dream

Part Five: Echoes of the Future

As Darcy’s team prepares Tom for the simulation, they ask Alex to stay calm and avoid stress. Darcy instructs Rosalyn to stay close to Alex during this crucial experiment, emphasizing that they might need her to bring him back if necessary.

Everything is ready. The team is adjusting the signals. But just before the experiment begins, Alex suddenly starts convulsing. Darcy immediately halts the test, but one of the team members exclaims that Alex’s brain signals are recording an event. Darcy is taken aback. Moments later, Alex emerges from the seizure.

The lab was silent, save for the erratic beeping of the monitors. Alex sat hunched over, his breath ragged, his hands trembling from the aftershocks of what had just happened. The cold, metallic walls of the experiment room seemed to close in around him, pressing down like the weight of something unseen—something lurking beyond time itself.

Professor Darcy watched him intently, his fingers drumming a restless rhythm on the control panel. He had seen many anomalies in his career, but this? This was different.

"Alex," he said, his voice edged with urgency. "What did you see? Every detail matters."

Alex swallowed hard. His mind was a storm of fragmented images and whispers. But one thing was clear—Sarah. Her face. Her fear.

"She was there," he murmured. "Reaching for me. But she wasn’t the Sarah I know. She was... older. And she looked terrified."

A chill ran through Rosalyn. "Older?"

Alex nodded, his heart pounding. "And the place—it wasn’t home. It was... somewhere else. A city, maybe? But abandoned. Advanced, yet lifeless. Like the drawing I made as a child... but real."

Darcy exchanged a tense glance with his team before turning back to Alex. His expression darkened.

"This wasn’t just a time loop," he said grimly. "You didn’t just go back. Something—or someone—was trying to reach you from the future."

A heavy silence fell over the room.

Then, Rosalyn whispered, almost afraid to say it aloud: "We have to go back in. If these signals are opening a path to the future, we need to know why."

"No," Darcy snapped. "I won’t run an experiment I can’t control. Everything we thought we knew is unraveling."

Alex clenched his fists. The idea of stepping into the unknown again sent ice through his veins, but the thought of turning back was worse. Whatever was on the other side—it was calling him.

"We do this," he said, his voice steady. "But this time, I take control."

Darcy’s jaw tightened. "Impossible."

Alex met his gaze, unwavering. "Fate is in motion, Professor. There’s no escaping it. I won’t stand by and wait for it to come to me."

Darcy exhaled sharply, reluctant but knowing there was no stopping him now.

"Fine. But understand this, Alex—" his voice dropped to a whisper, the weight of his words pressing against the air. "This isn’t an experiment anymore. Whatever is waiting on the other side… knows you’re coming."