Day 126 - Bilocational Story

Bilocational Story

Matthew Ryan Fischer

Vance wasn’t aware that he had special powers. In fact when it first happened, he wasn’t aware of anything at all, he was asleep. There had been a dinner party and drinks followed. The night grew late and Vance was tired so he wished his friends well and bade them goodnight. He went to sleep. Within an hour, he had returned to the party but no one thought twice about it, they just assumed he had come back for more. But if anyone had gone upstairs to his bedroom, they certainly would have thought about it twice and forevermore, for even though Vance was downstairs partaking in the late night festivities, he was simultaneously upstairs in his bedroom asleep.

Vance had special powers. Vance was bilocational.

Then next day, when people recounted the events of the night Vance was in all honesty a bit confused. He remembered leaving to go to bed. And his return and the other stories were familiar. They sounded true to his nature and within the spirit of the festivities, but Vance couldn’t quite remember having done them or having been there. It was like a foggy dream. If other people weren’t the ones telling him he had been there he would have assumed he had dreamt the whole thing. But with eyewitness corroboration, Vance was forced to assume he really had awoken and the explanation for his spotty memory was the alcohol or the headache, which he assumed was just a hangover, or the general tiredness he felt, which he assumed was from his return to the party for several more hours.

These were obvious and reasonable answers. Never once did it occur to him to question the very fabric of his own existence.

The thing is though, Vance continued having bilocational outings. And more and more he began having clearer and clearer memories of the events he did while he was out in his second life.

The occurrences were almost always at night after Vance had thought that he had fallen asleep. This allowed him to assume that it all must be some sort of sleep walking or maybe he was having a type of waking narcolepsy, or experiencing vivid hallucinations. He still didn’t realize that he, or some alternate doppelgänger version, was out living a second life.

Vance set up a camera in his room to record himself while he slept, but all it showed was that he was asleep at night.

Vance sought medical help, but nothing was discovered. Vance sought psychological help but all in all he seemed to be a fairly well-adjusted individual. It was a hypnotist that really allowed Vance to truly indulge this belief that something was going on that was beyond him and out of his waking mind’s control.

There were times that nothing would happen. There were times that no new or extra memories formed. This was what made it so hard for Vance to fathom what was really going on.

Then the headaches and general tiredness kicked in to high gear. His days were full of pain and his nights were full of strange new memories that he knew could not be happening. He filmed himself every night and every night, there he was, in bed. And yet there were the memories.

Then one night the nightmare really began. Vance walked through his house. It was dark and it was late, and his roommates were asleep. He didn’t remember waking up. He didn’t remember coming downstairs. He couldn’t remember what his first memory was. He was just suddenly in the living room, walking through the house. He had no idea why or what he was doing up. So he went back upstairs to his room to go back to bed.

And there he was. In bed. Asleep.

Vance was in bed asleep.

And at the same time, he was standing there in the doorway, watching.

Vance screamed. And then screamed some more.

Vance in bed woke and took one look at Vance in the doorway and he screamed, making the other one of him scream more. Vance sat up and Vance walked to the bed and both Vances stared in bewilderment. Then they both started freaking out and screaming more.

Then the lights in the hall turned on and his roommates charged in the room. And Vance was in bed, still freaked out but now alone.

He had no explanation to give, but he kept what he knew to himself. He knew enough to know that no one was going to understand it or take him too seriously. Vance was okay with nightmare and night terrors, but he didn’t need his friends to think he was crazy on top of everything else.

Later, when his roommates had left and gone back to bed, when the house was quiet and he was alone again, Vance consulted the video camera.

And he saw that what he feared would be true was indeed real and very very true.

There they were, on film. Two Vances. It wasn’t a dream. There had been a second him.

Vance sat there for a long time. He watched the footage several times over, but it was always the same. There was no explanation for it. It was like reality wasn’t reality and his dreams had come true. Vance thought he must be living some sort of nightmare, but he couldn’t figure out how it was real or why.

He hid the tape in the bottom of a drawer. He couldn’t show it to anyone, but he couldn’t bring himself to destroy the evidence either. There was something so strange and overwhelming about this new existence that he was afraid he might lose it if he somehow lost the tape. Somehow someway he was being afforded a chance at something more, something rare and special. He was getting more time and chances to do something. He didn’t have it all figured out yet, but he understood that if he could master this new ability he could capitalize on it and have twice the life. He just knew he had to hold on to that secret tape and never ever let it go.