Jay's SOS

He had sent me and 3 other of our friends an ‘SOS’. I was worried about him so I paddled off on my bike as soon as I received his message. His house wasn’t far from mine but not for the others.

Jay Blue was always dramatic, sending SOSs like the end of the world was near. But by the SOS he’d sent me and the others, this seemed pretty damn serious.

As soon as I got to his house, I threw my bike on his front lawn and literally shrieked his name, “JAY! JAY WHERE THE HECK ARE YOU?!” As soon as I did, a guy with messy hair jogged from the backyard. It was Jay in a science lab coat, telling me that whatever the SOS was for, it was just for us to see what he’d made. Usually he’d make us his guinea pigs so I turned to my bike and got ready to hit the road.

“If you’re asking me to become your guinea pig, save it,” I told him, cycling off. He laughed.

“Technically yes, you’ll have to be my guinea pig again today but you’re not going to be alone, you know. I texted Eleanor, Ashley and Max too, you know.” He told me. I squinted my eyes at him and cycled back to his house, throwing my bike on his front lawn once more. He smirked and said, “Max is here by the way. He’s in the backyard.”

With that been said, Jay and I walked into the backyard where I saw Max strapped to a metal chair with belts on his arms and legs. He saw me and we shook his body on the chair dramatically.

“Help me, mate!” He wailed, squinting at Jay. Jay laughed and looked at me. I looked back at him with eyes wide open as if to say, heck no I’m no doing this.

“Relax,” Jay tells me with a nudge of his elbow. “Max is only being dramatic.”

“Dramatic?” Max screams at the top of his lungs, his Brit accent showing. “You texted SOS as if you were kidnapped and I come here, finding out that you have intentions of using that dream invention of yours on me and the others!”

“Woah, woah, woah,” I exclaimed, backing away. Jay looked at me in full tranquil. “I’m not testing that dream machine again. Ever.”

The last time Max, Eleanor, Ashley and I were Jay’s test subjects for his dream machine, Ashley didn’t wake up for a month! There’s no way I’m risking my life on this machine.

“Relax Alex,” Jay tells me, walking towards me and pats my back. “I’ve fixed the machine and tried it on my cousin a few days ago.”

“Where’s he now?”

No answer from Jay. I raise both my eyebrows and my mouth gapes. Max gets even shakier on the chair he’s strapped on and I begin to have second thoughts about coming to Jay’s house. Suddenly, from behind me, I hear footsteps. Jay and I turn around and see Eleanor and Ashley walking towards us.

“Hey, Hastings.” Ashley greets me with a nudge of her elbow. He nudges me in the chest and I rub my chest as I say, “I’m fine.” Meekly.

“So I got your SOS,” Eleanor says it as if she’s the only one who received Jay’s over dramatic text. “What’s up?”

“Uh, what’s up, is that Jay’s making us use the dream machine again,” Max answers. He raises and eyebrow, looks at Ashley, nods crazily and repeats, “Yes, Ashley. The machine that got you in the hospital for a MONTH.”

Ashley starts to dart off out of there and Jay catches her with a rope he made himself, designed to grip firmly onto whatever it was holding. Ashley shrieked and yelled, obviously wanting to escape from there. Eleanor and I look at each other as if to tell each other we can still run away.

Now Ashley and Max are strapped onto the chair, looking at each other occasionally and cursing at Jay. Jay pretends not to hear them and turns to me and Eleanor who slightly back away from him.

“I have 2 more chairs with straps if you’re wondering,” He says with a sickeningly innocent smile. Eleanor and I looked at each other and sighed heavily. We sat on the chairs in front of Max and Ashley.

“What do we have to do?” I was the first one to speak after what seemed like forever. Jay, who was fiddling with the machine, turned to us.

“I’ll play some music that’s designed to put y’all to sleep so you’ll have a lucid dream. Have any of you watched Inception because that’s what I’m going for.” We all’ve watched it. We watched it at Ashley’s house the other night during movie night. It was a great story but something I did not want to do.

“So we’ll be going through dream stages.” Max asked as if it’s a matter of fact. Jay says yes and we all practically relax for a bit. But Ashley freaked out so we all looked at Jay who still seemed in full tranquillity that made me want to slap him so bad.

“Each stage you go through will be someone else’s dream. I don’t know who’s dream will go first or what order it’ll go in so just, go with the flow aye?” Jay says as he puts a briefcase in the centre of us all. I look at it with widened eyes and turn to Eleanor who’s looking at me. She’s blanched and was shaking.

“Is this life risking?” Eleanor asked, her British accent deep.

“That,” Jay stops fiddling with the machine and looks at Eleanor for a second before his gaze goes downcast. “Is not certain.”

“Alex, unstrap me, NOW.” Ashley literally shrieked. We all turned to her and back to Jay who was still - in my annoyance - full tranquil.

Music starts playing and we fall asleep one by one. I was the last to sleep and before I did, I heard Jay’s last words to us.

“Each dream is a riddle, by the way! Good luck!”

To be continued in: Dream #1