Lost in the Dream

Ride or Die

Sweven

Time heals nothing unless you move along with it.

°°°

We lost count of how many days has it been since One disappeared.

He disappeared into thin air without leaving any trace where he went.

It still feels like a dream every time I think about it.

Waking up without him didn't only make everyone worried. It also filled our hearts with pain and it slowly becomes unbearable as time goes by.

Funny thing? The time in that house doesn't work at all. It seems like their house is a portal to some strange place. At first look, it's just a typical house you can see everywhere but if you look closer, every inch of the place seems haunted, filled with secrets.

We didn't stop looking for him but we need to continue our lives too. Every night we go back to that strange house, trying to figure out what really happened.

There's a world only a few know about, only visible to people with deep, aching heart,

A place where people go when everything in the superficial world fell apart;

A place that exist somewhere between time and space,

Be careful for it gets tricky like a maze.

It exist but is not known to common mortal,

The only way to it is through a secret portal;

Avity is what may open the door,

It is where everything that one’s gone will be able to restore.

If things went wrong, you'll end up in a loop,

You'll find yourself jumping in the same hoop;

It will be long a drive, lonely and dangerous,

Unbearable and makes you rancorous.

The only way out is to find the ghost ride,

It's there but hard to find for its mystified;

You must know when things started

For that passenger to be unparted.

While looking for some clues, we somehow stumbled on a secret diary which we sufficed own by One's father. It looks more like a watch manual except for the strange drawings and that poem.

We've been trying to understand what does the poem means but we're stuck in the last stanza. We've been thinking about the ghost ride mentioned and the part where it says we must know when things started.

"Hey, are you okay?"

I didn't know I dozed off until Malkiel tapped me on my shoulder.

"Yeah. What time is it?"

"Quarter to four. Aren't you going home?" he asked.

"The only way out is to find the ghost ride, It's there but hard to find for its mystified;" I read the stanza, "Don't you think it's a place existing here around us? A bus, train, or a plane, perhaps?"

"I don't think it's a plane. A bus? Kinda impossible. I've been thinking about a train, too."

"My head hurts." I grunted, "Where're the others?"

"Theo and Koa are still in the company. They'll join us later. I don't know where Martell and Gideon went."

"Guys!"

We both turn towards the door and found Theo running and Koa behind him.

"What's up?"

"We found it," Theo said as he catches his breath.

"Found what?"

We called Martell and Gideon to tell them we're heading to Moyen Subway. According to Theo, it's the place mentioned in the diary. It's hard to believe it, though, since there is lots of subway station around us. We're not even sure if the ghost ride, we're talking about is a train.

"It could be a bus or a car." I tried to reason out when we reached the place.

"Don't you watch movies, Sweven?" Theo mocked.

"Don't tell me you brought us here based on the movies you've watched?" I asked in exasperation.

"Do you have any other guess, then?"

"For goodness's sake, people. Can you stop bickering even just for now?" Malkiel hissed, shutting us both.

"We've scanned this area yesterday and we found a strange-looking clock," Koa said then started walking to and pointed at the wall behind us. "There."

We all turned and found a strange-looking clock on the wall. If you're not going to look closely, you won't even notice it. What makes it weird is that it looks like a time loop, the same illustration in the diary.

"It is said that the ghost ride is hard to find because it's mystified and we must know when things started," Theo said as he looks around.

"Do you think it pertains to when the accident happened?" I asked.

"I tried it already. The date of the accident was the 15th of January. Koa and I tried to jump in that railway at when the hands of the clock hit 1:15 but nothing happened."

"I don't that's the time," Martell said who just arrived with Gideon. "I don't think it started when the accident happened."

"What do you mean?" we all asked in unison.

"If this thing is destined to happen, mayhap everything started when One was born. I don't know, it just came to me."

"You're so bright, Martell!" Theo exclaimed.

We all look at the clock instinctively. It's two minutes before the hand of the clock hits 5:14.

"Are you willing to take any chances?" Theo asked everyone.

"Oh, come on!" Gideon said, "We are each other's ride or die."

Malkiel counted one to three and we all jumped.

All right, it's ride or die.