Chapter 2

James fluttered his eyes open.

He rolled over to where his phone was and saw it was 5:10 A.M. He still felt tired but there was no way he was going back to sleep any time soon. James had enough interactions with Lisa, which was ironic for him to admit. He preferred their current real relationship: Non-existent.

James was still tired. He needed to fight the urge to go back to bed. It didn't take much for him to stay awake. When James woke up, he had a bad headache. It was so bad it reminded him of his hangovers. James knew Nick had some aspirin in one of his desk drawers. After unable to find any, he woke Nick up to ask him where they were. Nick told him to fuck off several times before finally telling him where they were.

James found the aspirin in Nick's backpack where he said they were. He took two and swallow them with a Mountain Dew Code Red. His favorite Mountain Dew drink. James was glad it was Saturday. He didn't think he could go to any of his classes with this headache. Even if he didn't have this persistent headache, James would have stayed inside the whole day. A free day for him meant staying in all day playing video games and studying. Mostly playing video games.

On this day, however, James' headache was prohibiting him from enjoying his weekend. The aspirin didn't seem to have any effect on his headache whatsoever. He was hoping a few doses of C.O.D. would help him forget about it. By the time Nick got up, James had already played three hours of gaming. Nick offered James to come hang out with him and his friends for breakfast. James lied saying he already had breakfast. Besides the fact James didn't like any of Nick's friends, his appetite was lost thanks to his headache.

Nick left shortly after, leaving James to continue with his gameplay in peace. It only worsen as the day progressed. He had enough of playing and resorted to lying on his bed hoping soothe the pain away. James tossed and turned, becoming furiously annoyed with his headache. He cursed every few minutes expressing the torture he was feeling.

"Fuck! Why the fuck is this happening to me!? ERRRGGHH! Fuck me!!" James buried his head in his pillows wishing it would go away.

"Please, please, please stop. God, by this point I'll do anything if this fucking headache would just go away!" James screamed in his pillow.

Then after a few minutes, his headache began to reduce. A few minutes passed before his headache completely disappeared. James didn't notice it when he was lying on his bed comfortably. He was about to curse again but was surprised when he didn't have to. James got up from his bed and felt much better. His head felt like it was no longer trying to explode. It was much sought after relief for James.

Since he felt better, James made himself ramen after not eating the whole day. It was good to get some food in his system. As he ate, James thought it was weird his headache went away after offering to do anything for it to go away. He joked about how hoped he didn't accidentally offered his soul to the devil. It was a strange coincidence but did not think much about it afterwards.

James decided to read his biology textbook some more while eating his noodles. He needed to cover three chapters before Monday came. There was going to be a quiz that day and, sure enough, the questions will be from those three chapters. He made it as far as half a chapter when he lost interest and once again returned to playing video games with Nick's xbox.

It was 6 A.M. when Nick came back. He shook his head in disbelief as James kept playing his Call of Duty game.

"Dude, I don't know how you do it. I love video games too, but I can't play as much as you do. You put me to shame." Nick tossed his jacket on his bed and pulled up his chair to join James.

"What can I say? I'm loyal," James replied losing his concentration.

"Yeah, right. Loyal to being a virgin for the rest of your life, maybe." Nick signed on with his controller and joined James in the fight.

"Whatever, man."

"I'm serious, though. You should come hang out with me more often. I promise my friends won't be dicks this time around."

"Nah, that's okay. You don't have to do that."

"I know. I just thought you'd need help"

"You know who needs help? You. I'll set up an appointment with the university psychiatrist so you can tell her all about how you keep getting raped!" Nick's character had just died for the 6th time after three minutes into the game.

"Yeah, you're probably right. I mean, how can I have a normal social life if I can't even prestige on Call of Duty?" Nick joked.

"Admitting it is the first step, my dude"

James and Nick continued to play, occasionally making fun of one another and cursing at each other or at the screen. They always enjoyed playing video games together so much that hours would pass by without them realizing it. Before Nick knew it, he discovered they've been playing for almost 7 hours. It was 1 o'clock in the morning.

"Shit, man. I'm gonna end up like you." Nick turned his controller off and sat down on his desk to work on some assignments.

"C'mon, man, one more hour," James implored.

"Nah, man, I gotta get some work done before I go to bed. And I'm already tired, shit." Nick took his book out and a paper and pencil to jot down notes with.

"Alright, then. Suit yourself, loser."

With that, James resumed the game on his own. Nick stayed up til 3 A.M., before calling it a night. Nick said he would have warned James that too much game playing leads to dicks falling off, but that he didn't need to since by now it was perhaps too late. James bid Nick goodnight in the form of a "fuck you."

Unfortunately, James was soon heavily tired himself since he woke up so early today after only sleeping for four hours. He really didn't want to go back to sleep. His consecutive record of strange, lucid dreams worried him. He didn't want to see Lisa that way again. It was out of character for her. To James, she was perfection. And the "Lisa" in his dreams was ruining it for him. James wished at the very least it could be someone else. Someone he could relate to. Like Nick. If his subconscious could take the form of Nick, then he would be more up to listening to what he had to say.

James thought about maybe doing some research into the subconscious. He had to know how it works so that he can control it better. James thought perhaps there was a way for it to stop. There has to be!

With this in mind, he turned off the console and opened his laptop. He sat on his bed comfortably, searching the web for answers. The web produced results that required a lot of reading. It seems there was plenty to say when it comes to the subject of the subconscious. James was so tired that he didn't even notice falling asleep while reading some of the material.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" Lisa said.

"Lisa? Is that you? What the hell's going on? Why can't I see?"

"Zatknis!" WHACK!

It felt like someone just slapped the shit out of me! What the fuck? It hurt! It hurt a lot! And what language was that? There was someone else in here with Lisa. It sounded like a man. He was the one who yelled in that language.

"You heard the man. No talking." Lisa again.

I was scared. I knew this was a dream but I can't see anything! Why am I blind? And ... and why can't I move? I think I'm sitting down strapped to a chair? I can't move my arms or legs. What gives?

"Teper, my mozhem nachat." The mystery man this time. Finally, a bright light came into view. I was hooded. It took a few seconds for me to adjust to the light and see what the hell was going on.

I saw Lisa and another man standing next to her. I don't know who he is but he looks familiar. This guy was huge! He was tall and muscular. He looked like the type that could break me in half by only using his thumb and index finger. They were both dressed in a military uniform. Not any of the American military branches uniform, though. Russian maybe based on the guy's language. We were in a strange room. It reminded me of a bunker used for wartime. There was only a single light in the room. It came from a light bulb hanging from the ceiling. It was enough to see what was happening in the room.

The only other thing I noticed was this big machine that was on my left. There was a chute that led into this machine. I have no idea what it does. It looks terrifying.

"Yes, let's begin." Lisa replied to the Russian soldier's statement. Lisa looked like a porn star in that uniform. Instead of military-issued pants, she had on an olive-colored skirt that matched the uniform. She also had on stockings with tall black boots. I couldn't take her seriously. She was still so beautiful. Lisa was still rocking the pink hair. I can tell this time she had on red lipstick and dark mascara. Her stance was very erotic. She looked as if she was about to give me a lap dance.

"I don't think so, James. Show him, comrade, what we do to prisoners who don't talk."

I didn't even see it coming. It happened so fast. The Russian soldier stepped up to and stabbed my left thigh with a fucking huge knife! I screamed and howled out loud. The soldier left the knife in there. I started shaking violently. I very much wanted to rip that knife out of me. I didn't think I would ever stop screaming.

"Shut up!" Lisa slapped me hard across the face. It did the trick. I went from screaming to panting heavily. Both of them were looking at me with suspicious smiles on their faces. Looking at the Russian soldier, I noticed he was wearing an eye patch over his left eye. He looked like he could be straight out of an action movie as the villain.

That's it! That's where I recognize him! He's a character from a movie I watched the other day on Netflix. It was this cheesy action movie I thought looked interesting but ended up being disappointing. There was a scene where this guy and another soldier were torturing an American prisoner of war. And it was in this room! Holy shit! We're in the movie! That means I'm playing the American soldier and Lisa is playing the other Russian thug. I wasn't wearing an American uniform. Instead, I was wearing the same clothes I had on before I slept. The first thing they did to the American prisoner was stab him in the thigh for intimidation. And if I remember it right, it's only going to get worse.