Chapter 1 - My special day

The first chapter tells us about how Sydney lived as a human and his point of view on the world around. A reimagined concept of the first chapter.

CHAPTER 1 - MY SPECIAL DAY

The Mount Bridge is the highest watershed in our city, rising up to forty five meters tall, that guarantees instant death if one jumps from it. Usually, this place was the busiest road connecting two industrial regions; however, today one may feel that the cars simply disappeared. Now, you might spot me sitting on the bench, that is extremely small and does not fit my size. I am sure that the first thing you see is me on the bridge, I am a thirty feet long black dragon, staring at the sky, and wondering is there any remedy to my condition. Looking at the distance, one can see the downtown and mostly all the city on fire. The gun shots are unstoppable and the scream of people, losing their property, which is caught on fire as well, is a common thing to see this hour. This novel will take a while to write. But I am not in a hurry, I have plenty of time. The war that we created: there is no winner and no loser. Everyone loses something and I was no exception.

ABOUT FIVE YEARS EARLIER

October 28, Early Morning, my alarm rang and I woke up shortly after a traditional and worldwide known annoying signal to start an ordinary day. It seemed to be good, no clouds at all and the sun was brightly shining through my partially covered window. I and my neighbors were easily able to hear people running outside and working out in the nearest playground, about a hundred feet away from my house, in such an early time. The fresh air pumped in my open room from the window and the smell of tobacco, which constantly existed in the home atmosphere, was gradually dissolving until it completely vanished.

Now, there was NO IsStrait by that time. I was just a boy with nothing special, an ordinary weirdo. No dragons in my life, however, I was very interested the research about mythical and legendary dragons, as I thought that they were real. And I actually believe they are. Library and Internet were places that I enjoyed the most, the places where I could go and the atmosphere of silence could take me away to the world of my fantasy. The local librarian ordered dragon fiction and non-fiction books especially for me. Seriously, they even made a shelf for dragon-related books, and I was the most popular person in that alley. I read all the books and when some curious pre-schoolers were wondering what book can they pick or just thinking of some myth that was connected to dragons, I knew on what page that particular sentence is. If I am not mistaken, the study of dragons is called Dracology*? Well, we will find out. Or YOU can.

My dad shook me and pushed from my comfortable bed. He gently told me to go to the washroom, while he was leaving my room heading to his garage. Honestly, my dad was always closed inside, kind of introverted. When I was younger he used to buy me presents, not just bars of chocolate or simple gifts, but something big, really big. On my eleventh birthday he gave me a grand piano. And I started learning how to play on it. Soon, after receiving that present, I gave an application to a musical school where I was taught to play piano for almost four years.

I didn’t like to play someone’s stuff. It was always annoying to put the right fingers on the specific notes, and my teacher was always struggling with me. Although, I was a naughty kid, but my teacher with PhD in piano knew that I had a hidden talent, so she did not let me give up on mastering this instrument.

My passion was composing music, making something of my own. It also helped me to co-create my world of dragons. The music inspired me to make up more and more. Vaguely, somebody could distinguish my compositions from some famous composer’s such as Shubert and Chopin. But I preferred to stick with my style and not to steal anything from them. Except  some good harmony insertions.

 My grand piano became my best friend, and that is completely true, as soon as my Father started locking himself in our garage. He sold our car in order to buy some important stuff that did not make sense to anyone. Well, there was no doubt that he was crafting something; by the way, he did not buy me the piano, he built it, crafted with his hands, as I like to say. Almost three years he has been working on one single thing; he never let me enter the garage. I did not even care about the thing that he was working on. I was solely concerned about my forty dollars of cash that I hid from my parents to buy myself a present for my next birthday. Father told me that he spent all my money on transistors, apparently, I was super mad. Several times I tried to enter the garage, but NO! Then I gradually intimidated to do so after he put the alarm and turrets! Imagine, Turrets!!! In general, if somebody with a curious desire wants to break in that “unlucky” garage without a thirty two symbol password, will be honestly killed momentarily by dozens of bullets that can possibly penetrate any sort of material. Nice work, daddy!

What about my mother, eh, there is no need to say anything. Okay, you want to know, don’t you? My mom and dad had something they both loved all their lifes - Engineering and Computer Technical Development. I was not like my parents, my specialty was science, mathematics and Draconology*. After a couple of years of my parent’s marriage I was born. The thing that happened between my mom and dad is still a mystery. I was always asking them, but they denied and each time they said that nothing significant happened. It annoyed me a lot. When I was eleven, they bared upon me that I am too young. When I turned sixteen that nothing happened at all. Now, I have one question: Why did you divorce if some kind of havoc ceases to exist?  So, to cut a long story short, they just did not tell me. After that specific accident my mom started drinking like a fish, became a typical alcoholic but I think she still loved me, in her own specific way: By asking me to buy more spirits, all the time.

  “Easy childhood - a sign of hard life in the future. But it DOES NOT mean that if you had a hard life as a child your life will be easy going.”

On October 28, which went in my memories forever, Mom demanded to me to buy some vodka for my own salary. The real price was around thirty to fifty, so I was always buying a cheaper one and she has never spotted any difference. Double benefit we may say. The cashiers always recognized me in the liquor store and knew that I won’t buy a bottle for myself. They saw me almost each day and were always prepared with a hidden bottle of Vodka and with five bucks of cash to help me out. The staff knew that I am not going to spend this money for cigarettes or for drugs.  I was getting my allowance from Liquor Store salesmen. Unusual, isn’t it?

Couple of minutes later dad left and the home became as always silent. And silence was my friend too.

It was time to go to school and I loved it, although I didn’t have a lot of friends there, due to my special interest - Dragons. My only friend who ever talked with me not on Facebook but Face-to-face was Elliot* - son of the richest man in the city. Although, nobody even talked to me on Facebook, because I was a weirdo. Why did he make friends with me? Who knows…? I was not that wealthy as his other friends from other rich and well-known families. The reason why he went to a public school is unknown, but I infer that he wanted to look like other “normal” people.

  School was pretty easy for me, was getting “A” for any subject without even doing my homework. The teachers did not give me a lot of homework; they knew that I know all the stuff already. The school psychologist was interested in me as a potential client, however we can tell that he just wanted me to be his another patient to get some extra cash for doing nothing. Everybody thought that I was crazy or really drugged, because they did not understand nor appreciate my interest in Draconology. Most of my spare time, that I wouldn’t be better spend on games, I was making research on dragons and anywhere I could. Library books, Internet and forests were my favorite places to search for the clues. My passion went deeper and deeper each year of my pointless existing. But it was a complete flunk, my existence was a flunk as well. I did not have any sort of proof that dragons simply existed.

  My usual school day was as always, as usual. Classes, boring lunchtime, again classes… I was always looking forward to the end of the school time so I can go home and dream again.  What I was dreaming about? This is actually the moment that originated this story and served as a beginning to all the events happening in it. I dreamt about being in peace, being myself, being a dragon. This thing was constantly in my mind, which drove me completely crazy. For me being a dragon is being free, independent, powerful and strong! I was praying to God to make this wish come true. Every single day, before going to bed, I had been begging the Lord to make my wish come true, begging to transform me into a dragon; any kind, just to be it.

 If we try find a good definition to my condition by that time, I believe that the term “Dragonkin” applies to me the most. It originates from the word “otherkin” which literally means people who identify themselves as non-human being in the soul. I was one of them.

  “Everything that you think about a lot becomes suspicious.”

  I did not value my parents; they did not give me as much care as I wanted them to. In contrast, Elliot did. His father - Mr. Louis Klebnitz* was a very, very rich man and was recognized at every place in the city and on the international market. He owned a progressive company called “UICC*”, which I like to pronounce “Uick” and honestly, everybody does pronounce it like that. If I am not mistaken it is United Industrial Cybernetic Corporation. First time I saw him was at the grand technological exhibition that was held by himself. He was a bold tall man in a brown suit with gold covered buttons that one can by mistake mix up with the real gold ones. He did not have any emotions at all, however he was looking around and trying to spot other people and their “business”. Curiosity - the only thing that we shared with him, we both wanted to explore and earn money at the same time. Being curious is our lifestyle: Research, exploration and dreams. With his billions in the pocket and respect, one can do anything - that is why he was extremely valued as a sponsor for technological development. 

  His investments would boost the process of production to 120% and that is actually real. Of course, he did not invest money in potentially failing projects; furthermore, he sometimes made an investment race to choose the best project. Business, nothing more than business was on his mind.

  Elliot`s father was treating his son a lot and he was also a very religious person, not like me. I had a need to earn money by myself, working hard and each day part-time job to safely combine school with labor. Working for a minimum wage did not give me that much satisfaction, and for sure a basic starting work in anybody’s career was not tidy and did not consist of paperwork. Dishwashing and cleaning was the only way I could have earned money.

  At school everyone was busy or doing something, that could be probably just another waste of time. One can always see people running somewhere: Library, gym, laboratory. Not me, I was constantly dreaming about being a dragon, and I was completely in the separate reality from all other students. Everyone, I consider people, was invisible to me or at least in deep blur. I saw a different world in this already existing one. Let’s say I was a bit insane, and that is fairly understandable.

  Our school TV was the greatest attraction of all students and teachers. The city council gave it as a gift to School, probably like an award for a contest, but who cares? That TV was terrifically big. And on every time we have lunch, the custodian switches it on and everybody may feel free to watch shows, news and other useless stuff.

  That day was special - I was not dreaming. One very wise person once said ”Stop dreaming and your dream will come true - do something!” And for that one day I decided not to dream about any dragon related topics and that was pretty hard to cope with. First time I had a want to watch that TV, be curious about it. Of course, the guys who always bullied me found me walking down the hall and started demanding money from me, then shouted “Dragon boy, Dragon boy! Light me up!” Usually, Fred, who was obviously the creepiest guy in the school, bullied me the most. He often kicked me and took my pocket money. That is what most of the traditional hooligans do.  My pockets were anyway empty most of the time, because I do not bring cash to school - not to spend it. Every five dollars that I received I saved it in my piggy bank.

  TV was always the same: Ads, shows, news. As I said that day was special! Only that particular day and all that followed it. I was sitting lonely on the bench and watching how another crazy guy jumped from the cliff to save the world. Couple of minutes later Elliot found me.

“Sup? What is it about?” he said pointing on the screen

“Well, I don’t care…” My monotone voice followed his exclamation

“Do you know what my father is planning to introduce today?”

“Why should I know? He is your father…” I responded scratching my cheek

“If you don’t wanna talk, just tell me that, I will back off and won’t annoy you any more my dearest depressed friend.” -he stood up with anger started swinging with his arms and almost wanted to leave

“Ok, fine, continue my dearest NOT depressed friend.” -my response appeared shortly

“Well, you know, there is an interesting story! Actually, they made a cool device and my father arranged a lottery especially for this event. ”

“That is a lottery. Nice. So what is the prize?”

“The price for a single ticket is 5 dollars plus tax, unfortunately. He is taxing everything he wants.”

“What is the priZe for winning?” I interrupted his unstoppable speech.

“Oh, yeah,” he continued “You can be a first ever tester of the new invention that I think is called Mindmine*.”

“What is this?” - My curiosity level was rising higher and higher each time he said something.

“Oh, Mindmine, it is amazing! Ohh my gawd! I saw that thing! It is like… I cannot express that!”

“Enough of that!” - I became so interested in that super-duper thing - “What does it do?”

“Already wanna know, be patient.” - He stopped and looked at the ceiling - “I actually do not know what it does. I think this program is called FLYE* which is an abbreviation of Future Lets You Explore. My father like abbreviations and acronyms and he always does have a lot of fantasy to make a good one.” - He smiled and almost wanted to laugh.

“So what?” - I asked

“The chance to win is 1:100 000. It is a very low chance, but I still wish you to win this thing. It is awesome!”

“How will I be chosen with such a miserable chance to win? Is it even possible?” - I got concerned about an extraordinary lottery.

“Oh, yeah, almost forgot! For this occasion I bought you one ticket, scratch it and who knows, maybe you will get lucky and win?” - He smiled again, put the chocolate on the bench and left me sitting alone again.

  I said thanks, took the ticket, which was relatively heavy for a piece of paper, and put it in my bag. The bell rang and I went to my class. My social studies teacher Mr. Durham was unexpectedly angry and raging. Probably the principal did not higher his salary, that he was constantly demanding for. We called him Lord Durham. It is an actual historical person who came to Canada and recommended to unite the two separate Lower and Upper Canadas. It is an interesting story. He was very annoyed by my existence; he did not like me in any aspect. School, interests, which I, honestly, did not have except dragons, behavior and general living - everything bothered him. That day was special. In all kinds of special. That class was about comparison of the influence of mythical creatures in the ancient society and in present time. I don’t want to talk about this a lot. He said to me face to face looking in my big brown eyes “Dragons do not exist, you are insane, boy!” I got mad after that. I screamed that he is a liar and he does not know anything about me. The school security took me to the principal and I was unfortunately expelled from school on that lucky special day.

  On my way home I felt hungry. Hunger usually strikes me on my way back home, as I have no money to buy lunch. These times my dragon reflexes go wild and I have an unstoppable want to eat everything that moves or just seems to be moving. I was going crazy, in my mind and also in my body. Then I took the chocolate bar, that I hid in my pocket couple of days ago, and started eating it like a wild dragon bites a fresh piece of meat. Oh, my favorite. That chocolate was the best of all chocolates that I have ever eaten. Time passed by quickly and the chocolate bar fully dropped into my stomach. I saw the nearest trash can and threw the cover away.

I wanted to have a look at my ticket that Elliot gave to me. I took a lone penny from the ground that someone probably dropped. I scratched the protection and the light started reflecting from in and the beams were hitting my right eye. It was obviously and surprisingly a golden ticket with the tag “The WINNER”.  I was stuck and completely confused. I did not know what to do next. Is it a good luck? But how? How can I be that lucky to get a 1:100 000 ticket? Or simply Elliot wanted me to win it legally, and what for?

  Dad did not come back that day from work or from somewhere else. The big case was that he opened the garage and nothing was inside. Everything that surrounded me was very suspicious. Mom was fine, in contrast to me, I was thinking, not about dragons. All the time was spent talking to myself about the ticket. Usually all the spare time, which I did not often have, I was dreaming and dreaming was my lifestyle. Thoughts about floating in the imaginary clouds completely vanished because of the fear that my father will never come back.

  Depression is god. The road from negative emotions undeniably leads to it. It makes you think about it. God has mercy to whom that follows his rules and does not go beyond the restrictions. And after the visit with it one person may have a positive and controllable spiritual ascend. Those who do not understand will receive a capital punishment and brought to hell. The same rule applies in real life.

The following day I was completely silent. I had nowhere to go. All day long I was holding that ticket with The WINNER mark on it. I looked like a shiny paper covered with three to five layers of fine .999 gold and when the light reflects from it our casual grey world becomes slightly brighter. When you look closer it becomes a treasure that any dragon wants to keep and guard to death. Maybe I can keep it? Why should I give the only treasure that I have to Mr. Klebnitz?

   That day my father did not return back home either. The sales clerk from the local bank came to us and he said that our family owns the bank about fifty thousand dollars for the mortgage and that we need to move out and he added that this is our last week. Mom was sleeping. With all the events that made my life the worst of all the people on the planet, I decided to leave this world. I had nothing left, no family, no friends and no destiny. The only thing that motivated me was my epic dream.

  I dressed up in my only good-looking suit, took three hundred dollars that I was saving almost all my life, a couple of cookies and that shiny golden ticket. If I die, nobody will notice that, who cares about the insane otherkin dragon boy without family?

  My way to the Mount Bridge took me two hours and I was thinking about my afterlife. What will happen when I die? Blankness? Hell or heaven? Nobody knows, we can only believe. Religions differ in their thoughts on God and the life after death. I was thinking about heaven, not hell. I wished my dream to finally come true: Become a dragon. I believe that all our dreams come true when we pass away. YOLO - you only live once, but if you know how to live, once is enough. But do not do a suicide for a dream! And never do it at any case! I lived three times and this is my forth. And as I write this you can be sure that I did not jump from the bridge, however I wanted to. I really wished to die. But what is it - Death? Blankness? Infinite dream? The reality with no matter and time? Infinite dream - that is what I believed in. And I do now. Now I do not wait to die. I wait to live as a boy with nothing special as an ordinary guy.

  I slowly approached to the Mount Bridge, the highest watershed in our city, rising up to forty five meters tall, that guarantees instant death if one jumps from it. I crossed all the streets on the red light because I did not bother myself how I die. By the way, I was also really scared! What if my dream will never come true? What IF? We cannot tell, we can only believe. And our belief creates our own religion, our own reality that we live in. What is your reality? What is your belief? What do you dream of?

  Hope generates gods who make us their slaves, not fear. This is the logical reason to eliminate hope. Fear motivates us.

  I put all the money in investments in a random company that the bank offered to invest in. The rest of my cash I spent on snacks because I did not want to die hungry. Those hundred steps going on the top of the bridge I will never forget. That feeling one cannot express. Your heart increases twice as big, the heart beat rate speeds up to an insane level, you feel absolutely calm, and you get ready to sleep. Death is the infinite sleep - infinite dream. After a short pause, looking in the red horizon and the water flow in a fairly speed and shallow river, I stepped over the metal railing and was holding myself tight, not to jump right away and enjoy the last few senseless minutes of your life as a boy on Earth.

  Cars were passing by, then some random people noticed me, some other were staring at me at a sculpture and trying to talk to my human mind. I was a dragon in a human skin. I did not understand them, my draconic instincts were telling me to jump but my human mind was equally confronting. The crowd was helpless; it is against the law to prevent a free-will suicide.

  Right before I wanted fly into the water and crash myself I heard a low voice of a man behind me

“What are you going to do, boy? What will this suicide give to you?”

“It will make my dream come true!” I shouted

“Oh, boy, do you really want to LOSE your dream, huh?” He asked me with a hostile smile which made me feel even worse.

“You do not know anything about me!” I screamed even louder than before.

“You have a golden ticket, don’t you?” - His strong voice penetrated my invisible voice shield.

“How, how do you know?”

“I am Mister Klebnitz, the owner of UICC industries. You cannot hide this ticket from me. For our own convenience we installed a GPS clip on yours and other 4 tickets. We can track the winner faster that way.” - He smiled after a while

“What do you want from me? I can give this ticket back to you!”

“Death will not give you a present, boy. Death will take everything from you and leave you with nothing. I, personally, want to help you!” - He continued after a pause - “I will make your dream come true in this real life!

“How can I trust you?” I asked

“Stop asking questions, boy!” He shouted “I am not your father to beg you not to commit a freaking suicide! You are self-responsible for your own life! I can give you a better choice, rather than drowning in the river. I give you 10 seconds to decide. Jump or come with me!”

“Uh, OK, I, I will go…”  I moaned

“Then come here and have a seat in my car.” - He opened the door and welcomed me

“Wait…”

“NOW, go back on the bridge and have a seat in my Beemer!” He brutally interrupted me with his very deep and strong voice.

I climbed back on the bridge, quickly entered Mr. Klebnitz’s car and he rapidly accelerated and led his way to downtown, to some big and luxurious skyscrapers, that I have never seen in my life. His car was the most expensive thing I have ever had a seat. First three minutes we were sitting silent while he was actively driving and avoiding all the ordinary drivers that move by the rules of the road.  On the back of the front seats he had tablets installed that were showing TV - the same channel that our school TV did. The ad about tickets slightly changed to only one spare ticket left. The music was not loud and to my surprise it was classical. As soon as we arrived to the parking lot reserved only for extremely VIP guests and clients Mr. Klebnitz again started the conversation with me.

“Want anything to eat? You must be hungry.”

“Ye-es…” I slowly said to him

“Well, what would you like to eat, then?” He asked me with his special curiosity that was unstoppably pumping out of him.

“I - I do not know…”

“Oh, boy, are you even in present time? Hey!” Mr. Klebnitz assaulted me

“Yes?”

“How do you feel?”

“I do not know…” - I stared at the bottom of the car

He stepped out of the car and I was still sitting in that confortable seat. He opened my door, pulled me out from the car and angrily demanded

“Do you understand what just happened twenty minutes ago? I do not absolutely care what is in your mind, hear me? I absolutely do not want to even care what you are thinking about! YOU, listen to me, you wanted to end your life by jumping off the bridge. I do not want to ruin my valued reputation because of one crazy boy with a golden ticket in the hand who drowned in the river. Stop being silent! Wake up! Wake up!!!” - He started shaking me like insane.

I believe he was trying to make me awake from my dragon transforming suicidal thoughts. And he succeeded. Have you ever been waken up from a deep sleep? This is how it feels like. All the time my mind was somewhere else.

“What? What happened?” - I opened my eyes and asked Mr. Klebnitz

“Oh, my boy, you finally woke up! You just wanted to commit a suicide by jumping off the bridge. Sounds exiting, isn’t it?”

“I am very tired Mister! May you help me?” - I was crying out

“Yes, boy, let’s go.” - He gently pushed me into the nearest elevator. - “We are in the core of UICC right now, you may have a brief tour here with me. You will have rest soon in your new room.”

Personnel was politely saying hello to Mr. Klebnitz while he was walking down the hall. First time in my life I felt important to someone.

“So, what is your name?” He asked me with an embarrassing feeling that I have already told him my name but he accidentally forgot it.

“My name?” - I tried hard to recall my name but I forgot it. - “I think it starts with ‘S’”

“Sarah?” He laughed out loud.

“No, I am not lying, I think I forgot it.” - The small tears started to appear on my face.

“Don’t worry, boy, it sometimes happens after a severe mental condition that you had. You will recall it soon but after all we can call you Slurpee for now if you want.

“No! It is not funny!” I screamed. “Not like that!”

“Then what do you suggest, make up a new name. Oh, boy, forgot his name.” - A sad smile appeared on his face.

“Call me… Sydney.”

“Then I wish you good luck with recalling your past.” - He told me while opening the door to a shiny blue room.

That hall was right in the very center of the head office, guarded by security with guns equipped and with alarm lasers with automated turrets like in my father’s garage. Behind the thick glass one can see nerdy staff members; probably each of them had doctoral in Science and computering. Tons of paperwork on the tables made them so angry. But I was delighted for the first time in my life.

“We have an experiment going on right now at the lab, so please do not disturb my valuable and highly paid staff.” my new father told me, smiling kindly

“What are you experimenting on?”

“On mice first. So, now we are allowed to test it on people. Tomorrow is a great day. You will be our first human tester. The machine is called the MIND. We call it like that, no need to create any acronyms to it, Just MIND. With its incredible calculating power it allows the person’s mind to interrupt virtual links and create as many virtual realities as the person wants.”

“Are you able to make it the explanation even more complicated?”

“Sydney, it is very hard but… OK, you can basically live inside your mind. The machine generates the behavior of others, I mean people and living organisms. This thing records everything that happens with you inside. YOU can be a master of you world, I mean, It recreates your ideal environment where you will enjoy living. It is very hard to explain, as I said. I am not a good variant for this experiment… We used to make testing on mice, it worked, and their ideal world is a Swiss cheese planet with a cave system inside a cheese brick. After a while they disconnect by themselves.”- He stopped for a moment, looked at the floor and continued his speech - “You must not make anything stupid inside. I am very honest with you. Every single thing from bacteria to people that you mind generates, will be real. This thing,” - he pointed on a big orange metal box - “Is called a generator. It is your heart, a processor. And it has its own limit, around couple of thousands terabytes of terabytes of terabytes. It has a pretty big capacity but it runs out quick if you do not remain on the right path. As soon as misbalance interferes in the system, it will automatically fill up, not immediately. It will take some time.  As soon as the memory runs out you will die as a mind. The point is,” - He put his palms on his bald head - “you are completely connected to the machine as a body and as a mind. It will automatically generate any changes on your body while in the new reality. It total, if you die in your world, you die in real life.”

“But how?” - I became so interested in the MIND machine

“The portal factors you as a body in binary when you enter the portal. That is how it keeps track or your movements so it will look more realistically. Have you ever tried to run in your dreams while you lie on the bed? For sure your legs did not work that well. Your mind is as well connected to the machine. Sounds sci-fi but the real science already knows how to do that.”

“Yeah, sounds very optimistic…” - I said with hope of the best

“Don’t be scared, you just wanted to die a half an hour ago.”

Mr. Klebnitz shaked my hand and pushed me in the lab. The walls in that lab were completely white, like at the hospital. The bright lights were hurting my eyes but it did not seem like other workers were bothered by it. Walking down the hall everyone was trying to clean up stuff that was scattered on all of the tables.

“I wish you good luck with it!” - Mr. Klebnitz was very glad that time and appreciated me while leading our way into the big blue room. The staff tried to shake my hand again and for the first time I felt important to someone. In comparison with an astronaut who came back from the Moon. - “This is a portal” he added while pointing on an empty circle tube.

Soon I got very tired after all that happened to me that day and Mister gave me a ride to the nearest and the most expensive hotel in the city. He booked a room for one night for me to stay before the experiment. I got a feel that someone really cares about me. I missed my parents but after I recall what they did to me I get a confusing paradox. Who cares about me more: Mr. Klebnitz or my parents?

  That night was the best night I have ever had in my entire life before the test. The bed was so much better than at home. It felt so good. Silence was the major reason for that feel. Silence lets you dream, however I understood that my dream is going to come true.

  The alarm clock rang at 6:30 AM and I felt well energized. I saw a stack of clothing on the table with a note put it on. Purple color of the clothes reminded me about my home. However, Mr. Klebnitz gave me more than my parents did for the last 4 years. The experiment captured my mind so much so I was constantly thinking about it - every single second. I put the clothing on, it was exactly my size; one can stretch the tissue twice in size and it would not tear. I was NOT made in a local or international marketplace; made in UICC, in the corp.

  After a little while Mister came in

“Let me introduce to other lucky people.” he said with his awesome traditional smile that looked like fake.

We entered the same lab that I visited the day before and it seemed to be slightly different. I spotted a group of people (two girls and a married couple) on the high-tech bench. Unfortunately, I did not see Elliot there; it looked very strange that the son of the director did not participate.  The girls said hello to me, I responded with the same monotone intonation. How are you is a very primitive and insincere way to start a conversation. If you do not care about my condition just say hello and nothing more.

After a short pause Mister came in the lab.

“My dear lucky winners!” He exclaimed. “Today is a memorable day for me, you, UICC and for all the humanity. The first artificial virtual reality generator will start working on full power. To start with, who volunteers to go first?”

“Me, me, me!” a young girl screamed from her seat and started bursting in laughter. Adults and I got a free nice smile on our faces.

“Please, proceed in the hall, then!” - He shaked girl’s hand and let her go in the lab with the big tube. - “Sydney?” He added “What about you?”

“Mr. Klebnitz?” I started “I am very sorry, but may I go first?” I looked upset “Please, I, don’t want to live here. I mean, I do not want to suffer any more as a human. I am…”

“Tell me, boy” He kindly smiled

“Believe me, my mind is bigger than you think. The things that happen inside my brain have never came even in your fantasy. Please, let me go first!” I crossed my fingers on both hands in a lock.

“Anything your heart wants, child.” And he smiled again “Okay!” He responded with a delighted face “Kendra, take him to the tube lab and let him go first!”

“But what about Laura?” she responded

“Know what? She can wait. I am the boss in this company, not her mother minister. And I don’t care if she starts assaulting me. I decide who goes first.”

The assistant Kendra grabbed my hand and escorted me to the tube lab. Laura was standing aside and she was brutally quarrelling with the staff members. I completely did not care as and never was. My epic dream was about to come true.

“Now, you will need to relax yourself, stay calm and jump into the portal. Do not be scared.” The assistant said. “The machine will do all the work for you. One more thing, take care of yourself. You will be locked in for a pretty long time, I think. We need only one thing to mention, think of your preferred name.”

“I always wanted to be called Ish. Let it be like that.” I said being ready to jump into the portal made out of blue plasma. I may assume it was a liquid.

“Ok, good luck boy but remember, you die inside, and you die outside. That is a new reality, everything will be real. And do not fool around!” - She made a handshake with me and let me go.

And I got ready and fully prepared for my adventure in the depth of my mind.

              Let the dream begin.

                          And I jumped right in.

Author's Note

Please, be critical as hard as you can! Tell me about my mistakes and let me bake this chapter to perfection.
Hope you enjoy reading it.

Reviews

[Arutha]

"The cars are not passing by me, sitting on the bench, that is extremely small and does not fit my size." I didn't really understand why the cars weren't passing by...?

"...caught on fire al well..." should be "as well."

"my alarm rings and I woke up..." You're switching between present and past tense, here.

"One was easily able..." I would stray from this style of writing; when the narrator says "one," it sounds a bit ambiguous for a story. You might try "People could be heard running..." or "I could hear people running..."

"...research about in mythical..." Don't need the word "in."

"The dragons were real in my life." this sentence seemed kind of random, and I wasn't sure what you meant by it.

Lol: "What about my mother, eh, there is no need to say anything. Okay, you want to know, don’t you?" That made me laugh. ;-P I also liked how "dracology" evolved into "draconology," it really gives me the sense that your MC and your narrator are the same person, making it more believable that he wrote the story, which is a really cool concept.

"Asked me to buy more spirit." Maybe try "By asking me to buy more spirits, all the time."

"Mom gave me nothing that day..." What day are you referring to? You seem to go straight from talking generally about the narrator's mom to talking about a specific day without anything that felt like a transition.

"Although, nobody even talked to me on Facebook, because I was a weirdo." Lol, if I wasn't such a weirdo, I would actually HAVE a facebook and I totally be Istrait's friend ;-D

"I was always looking forward to the end of the school time so I can go home and dream again." Oh man, this completely describes me back in my public school days (actually I would just lay my head down on the table and dream right in the middle of class, lol!)

"DRAGONKIN" I would advise doing this in lower case and just using quotation marks. The all-caps makes it feel like the narrator is yelling.

Okay, so far it's really interesting. I like it because I feel like i really connect with your MC. He's a nerd like me, and a bit of a social oddity (also like me!). I always love it when I can really relate to a character; it makes the book that much more intriguing.

I also love his love for dragons! Dragons are AWESOME! I feel like there are still some areas where the English could use some polishing, but you're definitely getting there! I'm just glad I finally got some time to get started on chapter 1 since I accidentally skipped it the first time, lol. I see that I'm almost to Mr. Klebnitz (who I remember from chapter 2), so hopefully I'll have some time later on to come back and finish it up.

[Random Peter]

Thanks, I sometimes skip my mistakes. I will double-check and publish the newer version

[Random Peter]

Yep, Arutha, thanks, I changed some stuff. Awesome review.