Chapter 4: Virtual Timality

Eric awoke to the sounds of static coming from an old black and white television set. Sitting up, he realized he was in his dad’s parents’ living room, and as he took the room in, everything appeared to be the way he remembered seeing it the last time he had been there. Everything except for the television set.

As Eric stood up, the static faded into a picture of a little boy sitting on a couch playing with a four-inch high Red Indian figurine. The couch looked as dated as the TV Eric was viewing it on, and just as Eric recognized the room being the very one he stood in, a young voice cried distantly from the TV, “Mom? Have you seen my Red Indian?”

The little boy jerked, accidentally knocking the figurine off the arm of the couch where it fell into the floor register beside the couch with a clank. The little boy became very alarmed, scrambled off the couch and peered down the register.

Eric immediately recognized his dad when an older boy entered the room and asked, “Eric, do you do have my Red Indian?”

“No,” the little boy said without looking away from the register.

“Are you still trying to see the mouse?” little Steven Roberts asked, kneeling beside his little brother.

“I thought I heard it again,” the little boy made up.

The two boys listened quietly for over a minute before little Steven sighed and said, “You want to watch Flash Gordon?”

“Okay.”

The two boys got up, then as little Eric sat back down on the couch, little Steven walked up beside the camera’s view. With a click, the TV’s picture flashed and went back to static.

Eric walked up to the TV and changed the channel a few times, but every channel was the same static, so he flipped it off.

When he turned away from the TV, a painted wooden ray gun toy sitting on the coffee table caught his eye. He picked it up and looked at it and was about to set it back down when the crayon marking on the side caught his eye.

“Shrink ray?” Eric said aloud. “You want me to shrink myself?”

“Yes,” the whisper answered.

“Hello again,” Eric said. “I was wondering if you were going to come back. I take it you want me to shrink myself and go down the vent?”

“Yes.”

Eric shrugged his shoulders, then pointed the toy at himself and pulled the trigger.

“Nothing is happening,” Eric said after a few moments.

“Wind it up.”

Eric took another look at the gun, found the winder on the side and gave it a good couple turns. He pointed it at himself again and was about to pull the trigger when he thought better of it and stepped over to the register.

“Here goes nothing,” Eric said as he pointed the toy at himself again and pressed the trigger.

A flash of blue light shot out and Eric found himself falling through the vent.

The slope of the duct was beneath him before he knew what was happening, and within a few seconds, he was sliding to a stop.

Eric stood up and dusted some of the large clumps of dust from his legs and shirt while staring into the dark duct immediately ahead of him. Just beyond where the register grill above him stopped, the duct went straight down.

“I don’t see it,” Eric said. “There’s a penny, a couple of ball bearings, and other stuff, but no Indian here.”

“Down.”

“I knew you were going to say that,” Eric sighed as he looked over the edge into the blackness. “I can’t see a thing down there. Any chance of getting a light?”

When no answer came, Eric rolled one of the bowling ball sized ball bearings over the edge and listened for it to hit. It bounced off the side wall twice before hitting bottom, apparently making a soft landing from the sound.

“Geronimo, I guess,” Eric mused before walking right off the edge.

Eric had a little trouble standing up from the cushion of dust and, strangely enough, ashes, but once he had, he spotted a dusty object a full sized foot away and rushed over to it.

To his horror, it wasn’t the red Indian, but the skeletal remains of a rodent. Eric continued walking down the black passage until he couldn’t see, then turned and doubled back to make sure he hadn’t missed anything. He hadn’t.

“I can’t see how it could be down here,” Eric finally announced after returning to where the blackness was complete. “It couldn’t have bounce this far.”

“Keep going.”

After taking a few careful steps, Eric asked, “Look, are you going to tell me who you are?”

“Soon.”

“Are you grandma?” Eric asked as he started walking at a normal pace. “Or grandpa?”

When he didn’t get an answer, Eric stopped and said, “I’m not going another step unless you tell me who you are.”

Silence was met with more silence.

Eric said honestly, “You know I can always just lie down and go to sleep.”

More silence.

“Fine,” Eric sighed as he bent over to lie down.

After lying on his back for several minutes, Eric rolled over onto his side and felt his breath hitting something. He opened his eyes and vaguely made out a pair of blank eyes, which startled him so much that he jerked and kicked something hard.

“Shit,” Eric exclaimed as he calmed down, realizing he had finally found the figurine.

“Okay, I found the Indian. Now what?”

“Keep going.”

Eric sighed again but got up and started walking again.

“Feels like we’re going back up,” Eric commented a moment later. “How much farther?”

After not getting an answer, Eric picked up his pace. After twenty or so paces, he felt the floor level out, then he tripped over a metal lip and slammed into the ground, hard.

Echoes of spraying water filled his ears as the sight of wet grey and white tile filled his eyes.

“Are you okay?” an unfamiliar voice asked behind him.

Eric turned onto his side, finding himself in a locker room’s shower he didn’t recognize. The sensation of water hitting his bare skin was just registering when the voice said, “Let me help you up.”

Eric’s blood turned cold in shock from the sight of his Uncle Eric standing over him naked offering his hand.

“Are you alright?” the elder Eric asked with concern.

“You’re just a dream,” Eric said as he pulled himself together.

“Not exactly,” the elder Eric said as he helped his nephew to his feet.

When his nephew’s face expressed his disbelief, the uncle said, “This is a dream, but I’m not.”

Eric said bluntly, “Okay, but you’re dead.”

“I know,” the uncle said. “And this wasn’t my idea.”

“What wasn’t?”

“All of this,” he said, indicating the showers before taking a bar of soap from its dish and working up a lather in his hands.

“So, whose idea is it?”

“I don’t know,” he said with a shrug as he bent over to soap up his legs.

When Eric realized he was staring at his dead uncle’s rose, he turned towards the wall, then noticing the soap in the dish in front of him, he found himself following his uncle’s example.

“Your dad and I used to do this all the time,” Eric senior said, drawing Eric junior’s attention to the fact they were soaping each other instead of themselves.

“Randy and I started to do this once at school,” Eric said as his disturbed feelings evaporated. “I chickened out though, because...”

“Because of what happened to me,” Eric senior finished for him as he tugged on his trunk to get it growing. “Are you bigger than your dad?”

“No,” Eric junior said, finding his trunk growing too. “You?”

“Nope,” Eric senior said, offering to let his nephew hold his mammoth cock.

“Wow,” Eric junior said with awe as he grasped the giant one-eyed monster. “Dad never let me touch his.”

“Weird, isn’t it? You don’t really realize how big yours is until you hold one that’s just as big.”

“Yeah,” Eric junior said, giving it a couple testing strokes. “I wish I had had a brother like you or my dad.”

“You’ve done alright,” Eric senior said tenderly. “I’m very proud of you, Eric. You and your dad.”

Eric let go of his uncle’s snake as his cheeks burned from his blush, then said, “Dad misses you a lot. He...”

“I know,” Eric senior said as he rinsed himself off. “He still blames himself a little for what happened to me.”

Eric was very conscious of his uncle’s eyes watching him as he rinsed himself. He thought it was strange that he wasn’t disturbed by it, but he admitted that he had always wished to have met his uncle, and on a few occasions even had even wished for the chance to do something sexual with him like his dad had.

So finding his uncle’s body pressed up against his backside giving him a hug was a somewhat pleasant surprise.

“I need to tell you some things, but not here. Let’s go to your room,” Eric senior said gently as he ended the hug and took his nephew’s hand. “This way.”

Eric followed his uncle willingly, barely noticing the hall they were walking down was the one in his house in Atlanta. His room’s door was open, but after they were both inside, the door was already shut when he turned to close it.

“I’m not going too fast for you, am I?” Eric senior said in his right ear from behind him.

Eric turned, finding himself on his back in his bed with his uncle on his side next to him.

Eric smiled and said, “No, not really.”

“Good,” he said with tenderness as he gently touched Eric’s nose with his finger, then repeated it.

Eric couldn’t help but let out a happy giggle when his uncle missed Eric’s nose on the fourth touch and gave the finger a kiss when it approached to try again.

“You remind me so much of your dad,” Eric senior sighed as he moved the hand down to stroke his nephew’s chest. “You’re built a lot like him, and you’re sweet like him. It’s no wonder you’re losing your interest in guys.”

“What?” Eric said, losing his warm happy feelings.

Eric’s uncle slid himself on top of his nephew’s body, instantly relaxing Eric and bringing back the smile to his lips.

“When your dad came home from college for Christmas, he was different. He wasn’t eager to mess around, and I thought at first he was mad at me. After three days of excuses, I finally cornered him in the bathroom and ... I got him in the mood.”

“You peed on him in the shower,” Eric said with a grin.

“He told you?”

“No, Tim sort of showed me when we were together.”

“Oh. I forgot about that.”

“And I know my dad started noticing girls when he started college. He did tell me about that.”

“When?”

“A couple weeks ago,” Eric shrugged.

“I must have missed that while I was with Karen.”

“Karen?”

“She’s a lot like your mom was. She saved her virginity until she met someone who swept her off her feet.”

“So Karen ... Got swept?”

“About a month ago,” Eric senior said, before looking Eric in the eyes and saying very gently, “She doesn’t know this yet, but she’s pregnant.”

“Pregnant?” Eric said with concern.

“It’ll be a boy,” Eric senior said. “And I’m pretty sure he’ll inherit the Roberts’s shlong.”

Eric grinned, then reached up to touch his uncle’s lips with his right index finger. After his uncle kissed it, Eric kissed it himself before touching his uncle’s nose.

“Yep, Karen takes after her mom,” Eric senior said. “But you and Jodie definitely take after me and your dad.”

“We always said Jodie took after Mom, the way she likes us gays.”

“I guess she takes after all of us then,” Eric senior said, scooting down a little and laying his head on his nephew’s chest. “Remember what you were like at fifteen? She’s just as horny as you were. You should talk to her before she does something stupid like you did when you were fourteen.”

“What did I do?”

“You threw yourself at Tim. You really don’t know how lucky you are he wasn’t what I thought he was.”

“And what was that?”

He said, “It doesn’t matter.”

“Uncle? Who am I?”

Eric’s uncle looked up at Eric’s stressed face and said, “I told you before. You are your mom and dad’s son.”

Eric shook the warm and fuzzy feeling off as he connected the dots.

“You’re the one who’s been helping me?”

“Eric, I won’t lie to you and say everything you feel is really you,” Eric senior said, sliding up to his face. “Some of it is still Tim, but most of it is really you. You have to believe me when I say the feelings you felt about Candice in that dream were all yours.”

“But I’m gay,” Eric said, struggling against the warm, happy feelings his uncle’s touch was generating. “Like you.”

“I’m not gay anymore, Eric,” he said, running his fingers through Eric’s hair. “I’m dead, remember? And if I hadn’t died, I may have ended up liking girls just like your dad did. My mom’s brother and her dad did the same thing. Though those were different times back then.”

Eric stopped resisting the feelings his uncle’s touch was giving him, but this time the uncomfortable feelings in his gut didn’t leave.

So Eric asked, “Nothing says I can’t stay gay, right?”

“No,” Eric senior said as he slid down to lay his head on Eric’s chest again. “Eric, it’s your life. Gay men have a harder time finding a lover to spend the rest of their life with, and you can’t have children with another man. I guess what I’m trying to say is don’t force yourself to choose now. Let yourself find your own way as time goes on. Enjoy the time you have left with Randy, then let whatever happens, happen.”

Eric repeated with emotion, “What time I have left?”

Eric senior sighed, slid up to his nephew’s face again and said, “Randy hasn’t ... matured enough yet. He cares about you, but it really isn’t love. You didn’t really believe you and he would be together forever, did you?”

“No, but...”

“He hasn’t cheated on you yet, but it’s only a matter of time before he does. And don’t blame yourself when it happens.”

“Get off me,” Eric commanded angrily. “You don’t know shit about Randy!”

Eric senior did as he asked and didn’t stop him when he got out of bed.

When Eric turned to face him, his bedroom and his uncle were gone.

“Uncle?” Eric cried anxiously into the blackness. “I’m sorry! Please come back?”

“The others need you now,” the whisper said. “Take them to Tim.”

“I can’t,” Eric said, holding back tears. “Suzi’s parents won’t take her to Tim’s.”

“You don’t need to take their bodies, just their minds.”

“Oh,” Eric said with mixed feelings. “I wish you could have told me that before.”

“Go now.”

“Uncle?” Eric said without having moved. “Just one more minute?”

When nothing happened, Eric asked softly, “Please?”

“I’m here,” his uncle’s voice said from the dark.

“Where ... Oh,” Eric said as he found the bed right where it had been. “No lights?”

“I’m afraid not,” Eric senior said, touching his nephew’s nose with his finger.

When Eric once again found himself lying on his back without having done it himself, he rolled over on his side to face his uncle, then slipped his arms around the warm body he found there and hugged it.

“I love you too,” Eric senior said tenderly as he returned the hug. “Tell your dad I’m proud of him and I’ll always be with him. I’m with all of you.”

“Will I ever see you again?”

“I don’t know,” he whispered in Eric’s ear. “Now take your friends to Tim. I won’t be able to help you anymore, so don’t let anything distract you until you find him.”

Eric didn’t move a muscle, afraid if he did, his uncle would disappear. But when he sensed light hitting his closed eyelids and he opened them, he saw someone else’s face attached to the body he was holding in his dresser’s mirror’s reflection.

“Eric? Is that you?” the body’s owner asked who was also looking at their reflection in the mirror.

Eric looked up at the somewhat familiar face, and when the boy’s face saw his hesitation, he said, “Randy. Randy Byers?”

“Randy?” Eric said in shock, finally recognizing his first suck mate’s features on the seventeen-year-old’s face. “What are you doing here?”

“I...” he said as he looked around in confusion. “Where is here?”

“A dream of my room,” Eric said, unsure whether he was talking to a real person or not.

“A dream?” Randy asked as they moved apart. “That explains why I’m naked, but ... Are you just part of my dream?”

“That depends if you’re just part of mine or not.”

“Wow!” Randy exclaimed when he saw Eric’s cock. “This has to be my dream. You’re huge!”

“Randy, I don’t have time for this,” Eric said when Randy took Eric’s snake into his hand and gave it a squeeze.

“Well, you’re not going anywhere until I get to suck it,” Randy said excitedly as he got on his hands and knees to move around. “Do you want to suck me too?”

“No, and you’re not...” Eric began as he tried to get up but found he couldn’t get his body to move.

“Not what?” Randy asked with a crooked grin before straddling Eric in a 69 position and added, “Now open up.”

Eric did open his mouth to refuse, but found it wouldn’t close back up, and then his tongue reached out to welcome the cock descending into it.

The more Eric struggled to counteract the movements his body was making, the less control he seemed to have over it, so he gave up and completely shut down.

When Eric’s body moved on its own to get on top, Eric found himself detached from his body, and immediately got up off the bed.

“Wow,” Eric said, finding Randy’s mouth and throat stretched and bulging as his dream body’s cock fucked it with abandon.

Eric stood there watching them for a moment, then snapped himself out of his daze and said, “Randy, I have to go now.”

Randy’s eyes bulged when he glanced over to Eric and saw him, then he used his hands to free himself from the dream Eric’s cock.

“Sorry,” Randy said as he brushed the still sucking mouth from his cock. “I just thought...”

“It doesn’t matter,” Eric said, turning to leave.

“Eric, wait a sec.”

Eric paused, then turned to find himself in a slightly familiar bedroom with Randy standing up from a twin bed fully clothed. It took Eric a moment to recognize it was Randy’s bedroom.

“If it’s really you, and if you can remember when you wake up, could you ... call me? I really need to talk.”

“Uh ... Sure, I guess,” Eric said, not sure if he really meant it. “I think I still have your old number.”

“Thanks,” he said relieved. “I’ve been having these really weird dreams where I’m always wanting to suck guys off and stuff, but I when I’m awake, I’m totally turned off by them. I think that guy at camp made it so I couldn’t talk to anyone about stuff like that but you.”

“Sounds like something Tim would have done back then,” Eric admitted. “I promise I’ll call you, Randy.”

“Thanks,” Randy said, picking up a school bag. “I have to go to school now. See you later.”

“But its summer and...” Eric said as the bedroom door shut.

After following Randy out, Eric called Randy’s name down the familiar hallway a few times before getting an unexpected response.

“Eric?” Suzi’s voice cried emotionally. “Eric, RUN!”

“Suz?” Eric called, hurrying down the hallway towards where Suzi’s voice had come.

When Eric turned into the room she was in, he found two Borg creatures strapping Suzi down to a chair while another larger Borg picked up a foot long syringe containing a green liquid and approached her.

“Joey, stop, please stop,” Suzi sobbed.

“Both of you stop,” Eric commanded. “You’re dreaming again!”

“Eric RUN!” Suzi again cried as the bigger Borg turned towards him.

“Joey?” Eric exclaimed, seeing Joey’s face beneath the electro mechanical pieces attached to it.

Two more Borg suddenly grabbed Eric from behind and held Eric still with strength beyond any human as Joey approached and said, “Resistance is futile.”

“Yes, it is,” Eric admitted as he relaxed.

“YEOW!” he cried a moment later when Joey stuck the syringe’s needle into Eric’s neck.

Eric’s senses exploded with pleasure as the contents of the syringe was emptied into Eric’s bloodstream. His body grew distant as electronic noises began filling his head, and he suddenly felt lost and unable to think as the electronic noises took control of his mind.

“Eric?” Suzi sobbed as the Borg beside him released their grip. “Eric?”

Pity momentarily flared through Eric’s brain before the electronic noises washed it away and instructed him to refill the syringe.

“Eric, fight it! Please, Eric, fight it!”

It took the electronic noises longer this time to flush the emotion from Eric’s mind, but as Eric turned towards Suzi with the refilled syringe, he was again completely under the electronic noises’ control.

“No, Eric ... No, please,” Suzi sobbed, shaking all over from the intensity.

This time when his emotions flared up, Eric immediately shut himself down. When his borgified body took another step forward, it left Eric behind.

Eric tapped his other body’s right shoulder and said, “Excuse me. Can I see that?”

The expression on his borgified face made Eric grin before he punched it in the chest and sent it flying across the room.

Eric’s double hit the far concrete wall with such force the concrete broke, and moments after it hit, sparks flew out of Eric’s double before its body went limp.

“One down, five to go,” Eric said to Suzi before turning around.

“Or ten more,” Eric corrected himself before running headfirst into the horde of Borg.

Eric punched his fist through one’s gut, kicked another’s head off as he did a back-flip into the air, crushing two more with his feet when he landed, then tossed Joey toward a second chair saying, “Have a seat, Joey. I’ll be right with you.”

When Joey immediately rushed towards him again, Eric grabbed the phaser still attached to Joey’s belt and stunned him.

Eric popped the remaining Borg’s heads off with a couple of quick kicks, then dusted his hands and said, “Well, so much for the Borg.”

“Eric, how...” Suzi said, before glancing down at Joey. “Untie me.”

“We’re dreaming, you know,” Eric reminded her as he undid the restraints.

“I know, and I think Joey knows it too,” Suzi said. “But the dream takes over and you can’t stop yourself.”

“Yes you can,” Eric said as Suzi undid the last restraint herself and got up. “You have to let everything go and ignore everything you seem to be doing. Then you just sort of fall out.”