An Outsider's Call

33

SAWYER

I open my eyes, feeling so nauseated. I find myself in a bright, open space. I look down, seeing a clear, milky colored floor. I place my hand in front of my eyes, blinded by the light. But once I see my arm, I see the veins in it glow white.

I look at it confused. I didn't think of the ignition...

I need everything to be darker... I can't see a thing... But once I express that thought, everything dims down like a light switch.

This is nothing like the Space in the Pool of Revelations. It's not a white-violet color, and there aren't flakes floating and drifting throughout. Everything around me is so pixelated and glitchy. I look above me, seeing shimmering pixels glitching and scattering everywhere.

I squeeze a blink in my eyes, shaking my head to focus.

"Sawyer? Are you okay?" suddenly echoes through the entire space. "Are you okay?"

I take breath.

"Yeah... can you hear me?" I say.

LAURA

"Yeah, we can." I say. I look at unconscious Sawyer, officially under the Chair. I look at the vials hanging from the tubes... and see a droplet tap into it.

Okay, everything's running smoothly.

I look at the screen, and see a pixelated world. There are light colors tinted in it, like a light purple, yellow, orange, and blue. It pans around, telling us Sawyer is looking around.

The sensor is doing everything right. Transmitting what she sees on the TV screen, and transmitting what she hears to the radio.

The countdown on my phone comes down, a minute already up.

"Sawyer, you don't have a ton of time!" I exclaim.

SAWYER

"Think of what you need to see!" echoes Laura's voice. America's memories.

I close my eyes. Please... let me see her memories... I want to see what happened. Year by year. How much she changed. Why is she like this...?

A few seconds of silence pass, until I hear graceful pixels shimmer their way towards me. I open my eyes, seeing pixels travel through the Space, and flip themselves over to create an entire image around me. After several seconds... I find myself in a new place. This place really lets me see what I want to see.

Pixels turn the setting around me to an entire room. The illusions in front of me have created a house. The house has a redwood wall and floor. There's a red rug on the floor, a beige ripped up coach, there are picture frames on the wall. This house does not look like a typical house today.

These memories don't show themselves the way they did in the Pool of Revelations.

What could this memory be?

I hear little whispers echo through the Space. That means a memory is about to appear!

I suddenly hear a wail in anguish come from behind me, making me jump. I turn around, seeing an open doorway at the end of the illusion. Another scream occurs, coming from the room. It looks like a bathroom, the pole holding the dirty show curtains fallen over a tub.