New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Chapter 45 Pandora's Box: Anguish, Part 2

?Once all of them were there, they went into town and headed to the local arcade. They always hung out there, since all of them were gamers to the core, and they had even met there.

They played for a few hours, before eating lunch in the little restaurant tied to the arcade.

Then they went back to play for a good part of the afternoon.

Around three in the afternoon, Alexander had more than his dose of social interactions and made his way back home. He bid farewell to his friends and walked out of the arcade, heading to his house.

On the way there, he saw a few police cars and two ambulances speed by him.

'Another car accident.' He thought.

These things were quite frequent in his part of town since the roads were winding and it was hard to see on the other side of the curves.

He paid it no mind and kept walking until he got home. He entered through the side door and took his shoes off.

"Mom! Dad! I'm home!" He called out.

He got no answer and surmised they had not gotten home from the ride yet.

So he did what he always did and logged back into Tower of Babel. His parents would holler at him when they got back, anyway.

He played for a long time before noticing they still hadn't come home. He logged out and made his way into the kitchen.

"Mom? Dad? Are you home yet?" He yelled.

Still no answer.

'That must be one hell of a joy ride if they forgot to come back home.' He thought to himself.

He looked at the clock and it showed six o'clock. He shrugged and guessed his father had taken a long route since he had wanted to joy-ride his baby for a long time.

He turned around and was about to go back to his room when his phone rang in his pocket.

'Ahh. Must be them calling to tell me they are going to be late.' He guessed.

But he couldn't recognize the number. He answered the phone unwillingly, hoping it wasn't a scammer or a religious nut.

"Hello?"

"Yes, hello. Can we speak to Alexander Leduc please?" The voice on the other end asked.

"That would be me…" Alexander replied.

"Alexander Leduc? Son to Robert Leduc and Anabelle Leduc?" The person asked again.

"Yes, that is me. Who is this?" Alexander asked, getting annoyed at the questioning.

"I'm Dr. Dufresne, from Joliette General Hospital. I'm calling you because your parents have you both down as emergency contact." The doctor started saying.

"Oh my god, are they ok?" Alexander asked, worry gripping him.

"Your parents have been in a car accident, Mr. Leduc." The doctor continued.

"Yes, but are they ok?!" Alexander cut him again.

A brief silence ensued, causing Alexander's worry to turn into anguish.

"Sir… They were declared dead on site. We would like you to come in and confirm their identities and sign some paperwork. Can you get here on your own, or should we send someone to get you?" The doctor finally declared.

Alexander was in such shock that he dropped his phone to the floor.

The doctor, hearing a loud thud through the phone speaker, called out to the boy a few times. He then guessed what was happening and hung up.

He ordered an ambulance to go fetch him at home, using the address on the emergency contact list.

When the ambulance finally got there, the paramedics found Alexander sitting on the ground in his kitchen, listless.

They grabbed him and sat him in the back of the ambulance. The paramedic in the back talked to him on the way to the hospital, but Alexander was unresponsive, his mind only repeating the words the doctor had told him.

He finally broke down at the hospital, when the doctor lifted a white sheet from his parents' bodies, laying in the morgue.

This was just too much for his brain and just shut down on him. The hospital was accustomed to reactions like these and moved him up to mental treatment floors to wait until he snapped back to reality.

It only took a day, but his mind was still broken. Alexander was functioning on auto-pilot, signing papers, meeting the notary, and the funeral home.

The next days all passed by him like he was just a watcher in his own life. His mind kept replaying the day his parents had died to him.

He kept wondering what would have happened if he had stayed home. Would his father have taken him for the ride instead?

Would they have avoided the crash if he was with him? Would they be alive and ok right now?

Was this his fault?

He just couldn't shake away the feeling he had something to do with his parents' death, making him wallow further and further into anguish and despair.

Days turned to weeks and then months, and yet, a nagging feeling kept appearing in his mind. Hadn't he seen all this once already?

He racked his brain and remembered the day of the accident. He had woken up feeling a sense of Déjà vu.

Like he had already lived through all these events. He tried remembering the dream he had that night, then he realized.

His brain finally realigned with his memories, and it restored his mind to clarity. This was all an illusion.

He was still stuck in an illusion, more than likely the continuation of the previous one.

With his heart still aching at what was happening, his thought process steadied itself.

He tried to think of a way to get out of this illusion, but couldn't quite figure it out.

So he started wandering about in his town, trying to find something that shouldn't be there. Something that would lead him out of here.

He soon found it, in the park near his home. The small building with the water controls for the fountains had a detail on it, it shouldn't have.

On the door to enter, there was a number carved into the door. It was his apartment door number, and it shouldn't be there.

He walked to the door, and when he put his hand on the doorknob, everything vanished again.

'Let's hope this is the end.' He thought as he felt his consciousness fading again.