Unreal Dimensions: Cage Of Illusions

4: The Truth

                                          I went running into my bedroom leaving the cereal untouched on the table. Shutting the door behind me I crawled up in the corner of my bed. I never asked for much so I thought Mom shouldn't have refused when I did. I waited for her to come and wipe my tears.

Before eating my breakfast in the morning I would always look for the action figure that came free with the cereal box. It was from my favourite tv show. I had almost got all the pieces to complete my collection. It was weird for a little girl to be so obsessed with shows that weren't appreciated by the girls of the same age. They compared my figures to their dolls. I didn't even care to explain the difference. They were the ones missing the bigger picture.

That morning when I checked the box I couldn't find the figure in it. I thought she already put it next to my cereal bowl on the table but it wasn't there. When I asked her she said she had given it away to the homeless kid who came to deliver the newspaper every morning. He didn't ask for it but was surely interested in having one. I was really furious. She had just given it away.

The waiting time exceeded my estimation. I began to think she didn't even care. After a while, I began to think maybe it was a little too much to shut the door that way. I had a lot of those figures. It wouldn't hurt to give one away to Dustin who had nothing. I wished I realized it sooner and hadn't run away. There was no way I could have the courage to go back to the table. But I was also hungry. I took my time in stepping out of the room quietly while looking down to avoid any eye contact with her.

Apologizing to my parents wasn't something that I was good at. I just pretended to forget what happened and started fresh again. That was my only escape from feeling guilty.

When I began to eat my cereal I saw that there was something kept behind the bowl. It was another figure but custom made. A well-crafted potato was used as its head and macaroni and cereal were used to fill up the other body parts. I could see it took a lot of effort to hold those fragile pieces together. On one of the portions of macaroni was carved one word- Ray.

From that moment it was my favourite action figure. I kept it with me for a long time. My mother was a wonderful person. She knew I couldn't apologize, so she never brought this up again. It was always better to leave somethings unsaid. After she left, I had the courage to apologize thousand times just to bring them back. I wished I would've sucked up my guilt and said it before they were gone. I knew what Dustin felt like his whole life.

I missed them more in this place than the real world.

Max and I moved on from one safe-house to another. I tried my best to describe the cradle to Max. I wasn't getting any other clue from my visions except for the dust. He took some time to heal but was back on track once his wounds disappeared. That happened unusually fast. We encountered a lot more bots when we were on the move. I learnt the construction of a gun by then. Max could be a good teacher, once listened to.

The true structure of these buildings and houses was still a mystery to me. I never knew how many people were actually settled here. The map of this place seemed to be endless. Everywhere Max took me was a small isolated house where we could rest and move in a direction where my vision was the strongest. A long-term decision never crossed my mind. I wasn't sure about what to do after we would find the Gyro. Following Max in each step was my temporary and only concern at that moment.

There had to be people out there who would have volunteered to assist us. After seeing Tyreese build up a whole community it was frightening to discover what other transformations people had endured.