The Dream Trap Ch. 05

I woke up to pure blackness. The last thing I remembered was my skull getting intimate with an aluminum baseball bat, wielded by a psychotic football player who was blaming me for killing his father in a short story I had written for school. A short story which, based on the way he was acting, was apparently true. Except it couldn't have been true, because I had only existed, or the world had only existed, or something, for less than two weeks. The first thing I remembered was waking up with Summer Glau's mouth around my dick on a Monday morning in September; how the hell could I have killed a guy in July?

Yeah, my life was kind of fucked up.

Back to the blackness. I could feel myself sitting on a plain wood chair, one that lacked any sort of cushioning. There was no light, so I couldn't tell if my eyes were open or closed. Neither my hands nor my legs seemed to be tied down, which was good. On the other hand, I had no idea where I was so I still had no idea what my chance of escape looked like, or if it was even possible.

"Soooo..." I said into the darkness. "Am I being held prisoner, or is this one of those 'have a conversation with yourself' scenes where I talk to myself in riddles and vague hints?"

"What do you think?" The answer was in my own voice. There was a snap and hiss as a match flared to life, briefly illuminating my face some five feet away as I lit a whopping huge cigar. It shouldn't have been possible, but the glowing tip was bright enough that I could see my doppleganger standing there in a trench coat, a Cuban clenched in the corner of his mouth. He looked just like the stereotypical informant from 40s gangster flick, except that I didn't really have the shoulders or chiseled jaw to properly pull off that sort of look.

"I think you, I, or we may be over compensating with that cigar," I said with a nod.

"Wiseass."

"You would know, wouldn't you?" I said with a shake of my head. "Look, do you have any idea what's going?"

"Yeah, you're unconscious, mostly because you let some asshole hit you in the head with a bat."

"Besides that, I mean."

My doppleganger shrugged. "You know everything I do."

"Is that supposed to be some vague hint that I already know what's going on," I asked with a frown, "or an admission that I really have no idea what is going on?"

"How the hell am I supposed to know?" My doppleganger rolled the cigar to the other side of his mouth. Even though it was clearly lit and smoking, it hadn't burned any shorter during our conversation. "I mean, I'm you, right?"

"Yeah, that's what I was afraid of." I sighed. "Ok, so then what do we know?"

"We know this world is a little too happy-happy joy-joy," the doppleganger replied. "But we knew that. We were told that. What else were we told?"

"This world will be as you write it," I quoted. "Wait, you don't think...?"

"You wrote the short story, and now Yawgmoth thinks you killed his father," the doppleganger replied. "I'm pretty sure the two are connected, yeah."

"Ok, but how does that even work?" I demanded.

"I don't know. Why not go and find out?" The doppleganger pulled the cigar from his mouth and pinched off the tip. He dropped the glowing ember to the floor, then crushed it beneath his boot. The darkness returned, and with it, silence.

*

The next time I woke up it was much easier to figure out where I was. Half a dozen different machines sat next to me, steadily beeping as they monitored my vital signs. An old ten inch TV was mounted across from me in a corner of the ceiling, silently playing a day time soap. Oddly, it wasn't an HD TV, but the sort of boxy thing common back in the 90s. Two thick metal railings lined the side of my bed to make sure I didn't accidentally roll out of it, and someone had oh-so helpfully jammed a plastic breathing tube down my throat.

Summer was sitting in the chair next to me, quietly reading from black Nook. She looked up as I grunted, then bolted to her feet when she realized I was awake. "Oh, thank gods!" she cried as she leaned over to hug me. The bed squeaked and rocked as she squeezed me tight, and for a moment I found it difficult to breathe. "Do you have any idea how badly you scared us? When Aly called to say you hadn't made it..."

"Eeerk!" I gargled.

"What?" She looked down and suddenly remembered where we were. "Oh! Sorry, sorry!"

"Glg," I replied, or tried to. I couldn't even frown with that blasted tube stuck down my throat. Instead I held up my hands and mimed a pen and paper, wincing as I accidentally tugged on the IV some bastard had stuck me with. Being hospitalized sucks.

"Got it!" Summer said with a nod. She started digging in her purse and dug out a reporter's flip style notebook and a pen. "Here you go."

I gave her a slight nod in thanks as she passed them over. I quickly began scribbling. "How long have I been out?"

"It's Wednesday night," she answered after a quick read. "You've been out for the better of five days. Do you know what happened?"

"Go jumped by Yawgmoth and friends," I wrote back. "Police?"

"Not enough evidence at the scene," she said sadly. "They'll take your statement, but we'd already mentioned Yawgmoth because of the fight you had at school. They said they talked to him, and that he and his friends had an alibi. I can't believe he would do something like this just because he got dumped!"

"Not because of Kirsten," I wrote. "Says I killed his dad during the summer."

"That Sadisto guy from July?" Summer asked with a frown. "How does Yawgmoth connect back to that?"

"He's his son."

"Fuck! Well, that explains where he got his alibis then. I bet he inherited his father's organization."

"Probably." All right, so somehow Summer knew more about what was going on than I did. I was glad someone did, because it that meant it might be easier getting answers once I was out of the hopsital.

"He's not going to leave you alone, you know." Summer's brow furrowed as she thought about it. "You're going to have to get stronger. A lot stronger, I mean. I'm going to talk to Max about it, but as soon as you get out of here, we're going to start training you on how to fight properly. It means we're probably going to have to put school on hold, at least for a while. Would your friend be willing to help as well?"

"Kelk? Probably." What did she mean by her and Max training me, though?

"Ok. I'm going to head home, then, and let them all know the good news, ok? I'd stick around just to be safe, but I don't think Yawgmoth will try anything here. Its too public for one thing, and it would hard for him to get any cover with so many witnesses around," Summer said. She leaned over the bed again, more carefully this time, and planted a kiss on my forehead. Her hand, however, began to wander under my hospital gown. "Get better quick, ok? The faster you get out of here the faster we can get to training you and...other things."

I nodded, tried to smile around the breathing tube, and immediately regretted it. Ok, fine, it probably wouldn't have been too bright to try anything strenuous while plugged into a heart monitor, but, well, damnit! It still would have been nice to have fooled around a little bit. I'd been bed ridden for the better part of a week, so I was sure my muscles could have used a bit of a work out. Work out the kinks a bit by having a bit of kinky hospital sex, that sort of thing.

I lay back and tried to watch the soap opera, but it really wasn't doing anything for me. The guy and the guy were arguing, the girl and the guy were arguing, the girl and the girl were arguing, and the girl and the guy and the girl were all in their underwear but not doing anything that would get you in trouble for being broadcast at two in the afternoon. It might have been easier to care if there had been some volume for me to actually know what they were arguing about. I looked around for a remote, but couldn't find one.

After a few minutes I found myself twirling the pen Summer had left behind between the fingers of my left hand. The world will be as you write it. Ok, it sounded great in theory, but so far all it had managed to accomplish was getting the crap kicked out of me. It didn't tell me what the rules were, or even if there were any. I had come up with the story before I met Yawgmoth, but I didn't actually write it down until after we had had met. Even then I hadn't included him in it, so where was the connection? Was the world filling details I had left blank? Or was there something in my subconscious that had linked my fake fight with the real one? I figured the only way to find out was to do a bit of experimenting. With a bit of effort I managed to swing a hinged tray in front of me, and set the pad of paper down on top of it. Looking around the room, I figured the first problem I wanted to resolve was the TV. I hastily scribbled, 'There was a remote control sitting on the bedside table.' Then I glanced over.

Nothing.

"There is a remote control sitting on the bedside table.'

Still nothing. Maybe I wasn't being specific enough?

'There is a remote control sitting on the bedside table next to me.'

The soap opera ended in a quick flash of scenes that might or might not be in the next day's episode. Either way, it didn't seem like I could just spontaneously generate matter out of thin air. I decided to try a different tactic. I flipped the pad to a blank sheet of paper and wrote, 'With a hiss of static, the volume on the hospital's TV started working again.'

I waited, then waited a little bit more. The TV just rolled right into the next program, one of those self-help talk shows that promises a daily life changing experience. Having already had enough of those, it was probably a good thing that the volume didn't suddenly come on. It was possible I was taking the whole "be as you write it" line a bit too literally. Or maybe it just wasn't enough for me to write it down, maybe someone had to read it. There'd been a discussion in my Transtemporal Mechanics class about wave function theories and the possibility that the universe only existed based on observable data; that the more people held a belief to be true, the more like it was to become true. I'd dismissed it as some hokey bullshit at the time, but suddenly I wasn't so sure. I was going to have to go back and reread that chapter as soon as I got home.

I shifted back into a resting position as the door opened to admit a pair of identical red heads. There was something familiar, like I had seen them somewhere before, but I couldn't quite place it. One was holding a clipboard, while the other was pushing a small cart loaded with bottles and the those tiny little plastic cups that they hand out pills in. They were both dressed in what looked like a nurse's outfit by way of Victoria's Secret. The shoulders and hem, which didn't make it even half way down their thighs, were all edged in curly lace. The collar running along the neckline was a good two inches wide, but the neckline itself was open down to mid chest so as to leave as much cleavage on display as possible. The only thing holding the outfit closed were two small buttons which were working over time to hold in the twins' rather ample bosoms. Not that they needed to, considering the outfits were both made from a sheer white fabric that left nothing to the imagination. And yes, they were definitely natural reds.

The one with the clipboard had a name tag reading, "Annie", while the one with the cart was named Hallie according to her name tag.

"Ah, good, you're awake!" Annie said as she stepped closer. "And it seems like you won't be needing this any longer, so just hold still..."

I did as I was told as she reached for the tube down my throat and started to extract it. It took several minutes, as she had to slow down every time it started to catch against the side of my throat or if my gag reflex started acting up. There was at least one point where I nearly had to vomit, and trust me when I say that is not an experience you ever want to have. The last inch came out much faster than the first, and by the time she was done I had a new found respect for every girl who had ever deep throated me.

"Here, drink this," Hallie said as she stepped up to the other side of the bed. She held out a Dixie cup with a blue liquid in it. "It will help with the soreness. Sip it, though, don't guzzle."

I nodded, then did as she said. The drink was extremely thick, almost syrupy. It tasted like it was supposed to taste like grape juice, but the flavor suite couldn't quite get through that heavy medical sourness. It did wonders for my throat, though, and I felt my muscles quickly relaxing despite having had the tube in the way for so long.

"Thanks," I wheezed. Even with the medicine, I still sounded like I had just gotten over a bad case of strep throat. "Do you have any water?"

"Yup," Hallie answered as she reached for another cup. "Again, sip, don't guzzle."

"Got it." I wasn't sure I could have guzzled it; just talking made my throat hurt.

"Well, your blood pressure looks good, and your heart rate and breathing are back to normal," Annie said as she started checking things off on her clipboard. "I honestly don't know how you've done it; with the sort of beating you took you should still be in a coma. As it is, even the fracture in your skull seems to be healing."

"Guess I'm just lucky," I said between sips.

"Lucky nothing," Annie said with a frown. "I hate to throw around the word "miracle", mostly because it tends to get too many people's hopes up, but its either that or the desk screwed up and gave me the paperwork for the wrong patient again. Unfortunately, the info on your boards matches the info in my hands, so I know that's not the case. We'll probably be able to get you out of here faster than expected. I still want to hold you here for a few more days of observation."

"Do I have to?"

Annie shrugged. "You can, legally, check yourself out AMA, or Against Medical Advice, but I honestly don't suggest it, and not just because your insurance is paying for everything. Blows to the head are not only some of the most dangerous, but also some of the trickiest to deal with. Frankly, we don't everything about the brain that we wish we did. You could be fine, or you could get five steps out the door and drop back into a coma. There were also some anomalies in your last round of blood work that I wanted to take another look at. I'll be happier once I get the reports back on that, as well."

That caught my attention. "What sort of anomalies?"

Annie's lips twisted into a frown. "That's just it - we're not entirely sure. You've got an elevated white blood cell count, which is to be expected, as well as a small bacterial infection, which was also to be expected. We put you on antibacterials, and that was all taken care of. But the lab also found traces of what looked like a viral infection, though they couldn't identify what sort of virus it might be. You also haven't been showing any symptoms of an infection. Until and unless you do, I don't want to start you on any medicines that might cause issues with the treatments you're already go through. It could be nothing, and judging from how quickly you woke up, that's probably exactly what it is. Still, I'd rather be as sure as possible. Now that you're awake, you can tell us if you start feeling sick or if something feels off."

"Makes sense," I said. I drained the last of the water and handed it back Hallie, nodding for more. She took out a small metal pitcher and poured another round, then handed it over again. This time I did guzzle a bit; despite the IV keeping me hydrated, I was still feeling exceptionally thirsty. It hurt a little bit, but the water was nice and cold, and that soothed the worst of the ache. When I motioned for a third, Hallie just laughed and put the pitcher down on the bedside table where it would be in easy reach.

"Take it easy there," she warned with a smile. "You've got too many bits and pieces sticking out for us to walk you to the bathroom, and the nurses get upset if they have to change your bedpan too often."

"I'll try to keep that in mind," I said.

"Good," Annie said as she headed to the cart and pulled out a large bucket. "Now, normally this is a duty for the nurses, but since we're here already..."

I frowned in confusion as Hallie giggled and reached for my blanket. Before I knew what was happening she had yanked it down to the end of the bed. It was at that point that I realized I wasn't wearing a hospital gown. Seems the standards are just a bit different in a world where casual nudity is no big deal. Problem being, while the world was fine with casual nudity, it was still something that I was getting used to. Being in the same room as twin red heads clad in sheer lingerie had produced some rather predictable results.

"Oh, my," Annie gasped as both women turned to stare at my cock. It was fully erect, with my foreskin pulled back just far enough to expose a tip shiny with precum.

"Why- Why don't I start at one end and you take the other, then we'll meet in the middle?" Hallie stammered. Her hands were shaking as she reached for a sponge that her sister was offering her.

"That works for me," Annie said as she wrung out a sponge of her own. She didn't wring it out over the bucket, though, but all over the front of her uniform. The thin material immediately plastered itself to her curves, highlighting her nipples where they poked through now completely transparent cloth.

"Hey, no fair!" Hallie protested. She retaliated by simply stripping her uniform off entirely. Annie responded by sticking out her tongue and doing the same. My eyes swung back and forth between the two, but I was otherwise entirely unsure what to say or do. It really isn't a smart idea to make any fast moves when you're still poked full of needles. All I could manage was a stupid sounding, "Umm..."

The twins were still glaring at one another as they stepped up to the bed, sponges in hand.

Rather than start at opposite ends as they planned, they both stepped up to the head of the bed, Hallie on the left and Annie on the right, then began to rub me over from the shoulders down. The water was hot and the sponges were soft, which was probably a good thing because the twins were going at it fairly aggressively. I wasn't quite worried about them scrubbing my skin off, but if they put any more elbow into it then there was a chance that it might have become an issue.

It was Annie who made the first move, leaning over to nibble at the side of my neck as she ran her sponge over my chest. I let out a small sigh and tilted my head to the side in order to give her better access. Her breath was warm and ticklish as she worked her way towards my collarbone, and the hand with the sponge in it was making small circles as it worked its way down my chest and towards my navel. My entire body trembled as her hand inched closer to my waist. My breath started coming faster as I closed my eyes and focused on the sensation of being touched. My cock throbbed with anticipation of their approach, my balls heavy with the need for release after spending so long unconscious.

Hallie must have noticed the effect her sister was having on me, as the next thing I knew her lips pressed against one of my nipples while her fingers of her free hand caressed the other. I couldn't stop the gasp that escaped from my lips. That only served to encourage Hallie, and the kissing and caressing immediately turned to sucking and pinching. I lifted my hand and placed it over the back of her head, tangling my fingers in her long, fine hair as I pulled her closer.

Their sponges reached my crotch at about the same time, at which point both of the twins casually tossed them away. I don't know if that had been the plan all along, or if they were simply choosing to abandon the sponge bath, but I do know that once their fingers wrapped around my shaft, I didn't care. Their hands were joined together with my penis in the middle, and as they began to stroke it up and down Hallie moved her other hand away so that Annie could take her proper place at my right nipple. She wasn't quite as aggressive as Hallie was, so I carefully put a hand on her head as well and silently urged to suck harder.