The Island of Secrets

Chapter 23) Induced Hallucinations

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Kate's POV: The silvery images seemed to dance and swim before my eyes, which normally stayed so calm and collected. Due to my eidetic memory, I normally always knew when I was being tricked: the reason I could still see when I squinted Dashi's old self, her old hairstyle, old clothes, etc. But this must be a trick. This must be.

Maegan Cat stood there, a sweet, sad smile on her face. Jonathon stood next to her, a ghostly hand resting on her shoulder. They were just as I remembered.

Well of course they were, a sharp icy part of my subconsciousness told me. They're dead. How could they have changed?

My eyes filled with unfallen tears. I mourned my parents twice already. It's just cruel to remind me of them again. It must be the villains. It must be.

But I still couldn't help the slight glimmer of hope that filled my heart with a slight warmth as I looked at her, the tall female cat whose silver fur resembles my own. "Mum?"

Maegan smiled a little wider, but these were images dreamed up by my subconscious, after all. So that's why she shook her head.

I knew it was a trick, just a hallucination brought up by some villain gas, but I couldn't help the tear that fell from my eye. I felt like I just lost her again.

Then, to my complete surprise, she spoke. I didn't think hallucinations could speak. "Kate. We're not real."

"I - I know," I stuttered, unable to comprehend the weirdness of speaking to my dead mother.

Maegan smiled. "My clever girl. You have to wake up now. Your friends need you."

"O okay," I said, not knowing what else to say.

"Remember, we're always here with you," Maegan promised, and I felt myself smile.

"I know. I could feel you."

Before she could say any more, there was a noise behind me, and the ghostly apparitions dissolved before my eyes. Selene stumbled into the room, still half asleep, looking at me, her mouth forming words. "Kate?"

Then her eyes clouded over and she gazed into mid air, a sudden look of shock on her face. "Stefan?" she murmured.

I instantly knew that she had come into range of the hallucination gas, and I guessed she wouldn't be able to fight it off as easily as I had.

"Nonononono," I muttered under my breath as I ran to her, trying to push all thoughts of my ghostly parents out of my head. It was a chemically induced hallucination. That was all.

I reached Selene and shook her shoulder, blocking her vision of her own hallucination. "Snap out of it. It's not real. C'mon Selene."

Slowly, some life came back into my friend's eyes and she blinked. "Kate. How did you? But... Stefan was right..."

"Right there. I know. So were my parents," I informed her.

Selene's eyes sharpened as she woke up completely. "Why, the little... they drugged us!"

I nodded. "Yes. We have to get out of here before it affects us again. It shouldn't travel as far as the hotel rooms."

Selene nodded, still looking slightly dazed.

"Stefan, huh?" I asked. "Any relation?"

Selene looked guarded. "It doesn't matter. It was only a hallucination, nothing more. It wasn't real. Nothing seems real in this place."

KateSeleneMelody3OCS

Selene's POV: I looked at Kate, still angered at the fact that they had drugged us! Kate was radioing Captain Barnacles and the others, telling them what had happened and to stay away from the lobby.