The Day things went trippyBy Jacob Rablou

• It was a pretty usual Thursday morning, barely managing to wake up after going to bed at 3 because of procrastinating. Only something felt odd, it felt somewhat surreal, as if it was all just a really really good picture. Only you could move around in it and interact with things, it felt like it was trying to impersonate the real world. But I tried to reason with myself and agreed with it being the hangover from last night. The only thing that still didn’t make sense was the sunrise and just how pretty it really was. Whatever I thought, I went downstairs to get breakfast noticing that none of the stairs creaked as they always did. That was the tipping point when I seriously felt as though something was wrong but I had no idea what to do about it.

No Photoshop, picture from my room last summer.

• It was spring break so the days felt long, and in remembering that I became very uneasy, I began to panic even, I was pacing around the house like a mad dog with no purpose in my mind as to what I was doing. Until I walked unknowingly into a table and knocked over a glass full with cognac only, when it shattered the cognac seeped down through the hardwood vanishing just before my eyes. Into the grains of the wood becoming a part of the lines, I fell to my knees and hit the ground until my fists bled, trying to get the liquor out, but it was in the wood. I looked at it closely and it began to move. The lines of grain slowly came together in the wood to form a face. Some fiendish, sniveling looking demonic, satanic creature made of what I can only describe as hatred from hell.

• It slowly began to open its eyes, its pupils were glowing blood red and its irises were nothing but flames coming outward from the pupil. I froze with my gaze stuck on its eyes. I was scared to blink or move my eyes, thinking that it would go away if I did not make any move at all. By chest was hurting and screaming to me in pain and I now I believe I had a minor heart attack of some sort as I my vision began to be hazy. It slowly opened its mouth into a horrible grin, barring its teeth and sniveling, its teeth were stained red for the same reason you’d think they are. I could not hold my eyes open any longer so I blinked. The instant I did it exploded into a red fireball that was so big I flinched. When I looked back it was there again, then it began to talk. “Hello boy!” It said to me with a snarl. I said nothing, “Your future will be as dark as night, and your mind will forever be tainted by ME!” I screamed back “Leave me alone!” at the absolute top of my lungs. It uttered a deep laugh then said “Mark my words, by the end of your 25th year, your mind will be lost and I’ll be the only thing you ever see.” Then it broke up into a swarm of insects that were flying towards me with red eyes. I closed my eyes and covered my ears to escape the deafening buzz of the swarm.

• When I opened my eyes everything was gone and I was sitting there, the glass broken, the cognac still gone and my knuckles ablaze with red. I then cleaned up the glass, there were 20 shards of glass and for some reason that number sounded fishy. I then went outside to the chair in my backyard to think. The minute I sat down I heard a bird screeching behind me, making the most awful sound. I immediately turned around, nothing was there. Then I heard the sound again on my left; I turned to face it but nothing. I heard it once more behind me again but nothing. “Where are you!” and all of a sudden I heard my mother say “it’s time to wake up.” Only, she had a tremor in her voice. I immediately replied “Mom I am awake, what is it?” as I began looking around. “Just, please wake up, wake up and say something!” she began to cry very hard as if something terrible happened. “Mom where are you?! I’m awake I’m out in the yard, Mom!” I screamed but there was no response. I began to shake as no one was around in the yard except me. I slowly and quietly sat back in the chair, and when I took my eyes off the ground right in front of me to look in the yard. I heard the screech again above me, but before I could look up three birds fell from the sky with their throats ripped out.

• I don’t think I ever ran that fast before in my life, I ran back inside the house, slammed the back door and locked it. I closed the blinds and sat down on the floor with my back against a wall. My head was hurting and my heart was beating too fast, I tried to control myself and think. There were three birds and 20 shards of glass. 3 and 20, what does that mean I kept asking myself. I sat there for half an hour thinking until it hit me, today is the 20th of March, the third month and the twentieth day. Also it was my birthday, the day I turn 25. But before I could completely lose it and freak out my phone rang. It was my friend Jeff Chang.

• “Hey buddy, look I know it’s your birthday so let’s go out and get some brunch on me. What do you say bro?” he inquired. “Uh, something has me preoccupied right now…” I said trying to sound calm. “Come on man, it’s your birthday today, screw everything else lets go. Also I’m already kinda at your house haha.” He said cheerfully insisting. “Okay, but give me a few minutes.” I said. I quickly ran upstairs to the bathroom and splashed some cold water on my face, it felt like it helped so out the house I went.

• Jeff had recently bought the new BMW M4 with a turbo kit and 430 horsepower, in all black, it was immaculate. I hopped in and we sped off to the restaurant, Joe had turned the corner of my street and stopped completely setting the car for launch. Then, in an instant he floored it leaving a cloud of burnt rubber behind us. We burned it 0-100 in no more than 4 seconds, but Joe then told me that it was a dual clutch 7 speed transmission instead of the 6 speed transmission of the M3, the model that it is replacing.

• We got there very fast hitting 150 kmph as our top speed on the freeway before we almost got pulled over. It was funny however because we sped right past the cop and didn’t stop, he turned on his lights but saw that we were not slowing down so he didn’t pursue. We ordered the same thing we always do, the original breakfast. Bacon, eggs, ham, toast and crepes with hash browns and Fruit smoothies. The restaurant was busy as it always was only it was much more quiet than it should’ve been. Jeff Chang didn’t agree though, he said it was as loud as always but I knew he was wrong because every other time he was listening to music while we ate. The bill came around as usual, 20 dollars each with tip included, we had a small argument as he wanted to pay for me too. He paid in the end because he told the waitress it was my birthday so she wouldn’t let me pay, point is it was nice of him. He then took out an envelope and handed it to me saying happy birthday. I opened it and a 50 dollar gift card to B.C. Liquor stores fell out just as he said “Booze money”. But then I looked up to see the inside of the card and the thing from the hard wood grains was there.

• I screamed and looked up to see that not only was Jeff gone, but so was the entire restaurant, the world itself in fact had disappeared and I was in total darkness. Everywhere I looked was nothing, it was like being out of the universe. Then there was a flash of light brighter than the sun then all was dark again. Then another flash, then nothing, then I woke up.

Where’d he go?

• It all turned on like a surge of electricity, the whole world came crashing down on me, taking me back into existence. It was an experience human nature cannot fully understand. My mother was screaming and my dad had already lifted me up and out of the bed, he had tears in his eyes and he was shouting a thanks to god for bringing his son back. He then gently put me back down in the bed and they both just looked at me, scratching their eyes as if it was all a figment of their imaginations that I came back out of it.

• I smiled back to their ecstatic faces and asked “What the hell happened?” They both cut each other off then my mother let my dad tell me since she was still crying of joy. “My boy you were dead, then in a coma, then asleep for 2 weeks!” my dad said with the biggest sound of pride I’ve hear from him in my life. “How?!” I asked nervously. “You and your buddies went out for drinks on your birthday and you were in a car crash. The paramedics said you weren’t breathing for 10 minutes due to severe blunt trauma to the chest. They then defribulated you four times before you took your first breath, but you wouldn’t wake up, all you had was a faint pulse and barely any brain activity.” Said my mom with tears still running down her face. “They said your chance of survival was 5-7% son. But you went head to head with those odds and won!” added my dad. “I still don’t get it though. When was the crash and how did it happen? I don’t remember anything.” I asked. “It was two weeks ago today, on your birthday, you and your friends went out that night and on your way home some drunk retard T-Boned you guys on your side of the car really bad. Doc’s say you took almost all the force of the impact.” He said with disbelief in his voice. “What about my friends?” I asked suddenly scared. “They got nothing except some small cuts and minor whiplash.” Said my mom. “Who was driving?” I asked. “Jeff Chang was, sucks for his new M4, it’s a shame a brand new beauty like that was totaled.” Said my dad as we both chuckled.

• I told them about my dreams and they explained that my subconscious conjured everything up and that it wasn’t real, but a good imitation of reality. “But son, on a serious note, we thought we’d lost you, I had to go to work every now and then but your mother, she never left your side.” Said my dad. I looked over to my mother, she stopped crying now that she saw I really was awake. She came over to me and gave me a hug and said “Don’t you ever leave us again.”

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