Outer Space | Spruceworth 6.3

Chapter 57: Stuck in the Past

Chapter 57: Stuck in the Past

~Ollie~

       I was really started to wish I accepted Grant's offer for him to walk me home before he went over to Holden and Shaw's place. I did want to continue living how my life was before all of this happened and to do that, I didn't want to be so dependant on people. I still wanted my independency and in order to keep that, I couldn't have someone with me at every minute of every day.

       However, I was thinking all of that before the hallucinations were starting to get too much for me. The voice, I could handle. I got so used to hearing him all the time that I didn't feel terrified every time I heard him.

       The visual hallucinations were a different story. The last time I hallucinated Hugh on Halloween, I was so convinced it was real, even almost two weeks after. It was terrifying to think that he was out of prison, waiting to make his next move. 

       Not only that but Hugh was someone I associated with pain and trauma. He tried to kill me. The voice, on the other hand, wasn't from someone that had tried hurting me before. He just.. appeared.

       And now, I was dealing with both the visual and the auditory hallucination.

       I told you, you should have stayed home. It's too dangerous out here. I told you he escaped prison.

       "No, he's still in prison," I said. "He's just a hallucination. That's it."

       "Hello?" Hugh said. "Who are you talking to? I'm over here and, clearly, not in prison."

       "Obviously," I said. "I can't have hallucinations of you in prison since I'm, you know, not in prison. Can I have a hallucination of someone in prison? Wouldn't that just be a dream or something like that? Maybe a premonition... Wait, no, that wouldn't be a premonition. Would it?"

       "Seriously, what on earth are you talking about?" Hugh asked. "I just came over here to see how you were doing. Didn't you hear? I'm a new man. I'm no longer the same person I was before I was sent to prison."

       "Well, I would think you're no longer the same person," I said. "The old person wasn't a hallucination. This one is. You are. Why did this hallucination have to happen right now of all times?"

       "Have you always been this annoying?" Hugh asked.

       "Me? Annoying?" I asked. "You should meet my husband. He's the annoying one. Wait, never mind. You can't meet him since you're a hallucination and only I can see you."

       "Why on earth would you think I'm a hallucination?" Hugh asked.

       "Uh, because you are one?" I said in an obvious tone.

       "You know, I would have thought you would have acted all scared from seeing me," Hugh said. "But this? Being in denial? Thinking I'm a hallucination? This is a lot more satisfying. Seeing you trying to deny what happened."

       I didn't want to listen to this anymore so I just started walking back to my house. I should have started walking back a long time ago but I couldn't help myself and try to talk to the hallucination. After all, I did it with the voice. Maybe accepting that it was a hallucination was something that would have helped me emotionally so it didn't have much control over me.

       As I was walking away, the Hugh hallucination called after me, saying, "Why don't you tell Shaw I said hi?!"

       I wanted to ask why I would want to tell Shaw that a hallucination said hi but I decided to just ignore him in the end. I really wanted to just get home, anyway.