Visions - Lucian (1)

Greetings to everyone, the following story was inspired by the digital art of @xpilar, I invite you to visit his blog. The picture that motivated this story is the following.

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Source

Visions

Lucian (1)

-I no longer find the difference between sleep and vigil, visions come to me at any moment, strange lands, people I don't think I know, tastes and aromas I haven't felt -Lucian leaned forward, bent his head and rested his forehead on the palm of his hands, while he closed his eyes tightening his eyelids -. It's as if it wasn't me, as if some other mind were getting into mine.

-Lucian, we know that's not possible, we've talked about it before, - replied PATRICIA, standing in front of the bed where the boy was sitting.

-Then, what's the matter with me? asked Luciano, in a tone of supplication. -Why do I have these visions?

-We are still not sure, the medical databases do not show cases like yours, all possible physical causes of your ailment have already been explored and we have medicated against all possible psychiatric causes, without any result, - replied PATRICIA, with her unalterable translucent acrylic face.

-Is there no cure for me then? -The boy's helpless look did not immute PATRICIA at all.

-We don't know yet, at the moment we can only provide you with medication to reduce stress and prevent psychotic and depressive events, - replied the robot nurse.

Once in his room, Lucian lay on the bed in distress, afraid to fall asleep. The last eight years, of the fifteen he already had, he had spent having these strange visions, first they were dreams, showing him other people, wet nurses and children he didn't think he knew, many of them sick and dying, with horrible lesions and deformities, but all incredibly similar to the companions he had grown up with.

Then he began to have strange visions even when he was awake, first it was about flashes in his mind, as if they put an image in front of his eyes for fractions of a second, steep landscapes with infinite peaks that like sharp teeth covered the whole horizon, a night sky covered with stars that he did not know, where the faint veil of the Milky Way was denser and phosphorescent, the corridors of the ship and the solitary colony as if almost nobody lived there. Then the flashes became longer, until there were episodes in which he could be disconnected from reality for several seconds, contemplating a world he did not know.

It was like being there, being able to feel and breathe that strange world full of sickness and death, of desperation, anguish and agony. That pathetic world in which his companions seemed to suffer and die, victims of horrible ailments.

In his dream he could see the common room of the dispensary, where the wet nurses once treated him when he fell from one of the park games and hit his head; but it didn't seem to be the same room, a strong, foul odor filled the whole place, it didn't look dirty or sloppy, it looked as neat as it had always known it, but yet that horrible stench seemed to come from everywhere; he soon realized that it seemed to come from him.

In his dream he saw around him and noticed that the room was full, the twenty beds were occupied, screams and moans were heard from all directions, he went to the end of the room and as he walked he could see other children he knew, but they were smaller than they were today, younger, but sick, with sores and deformities, some with amputated limbs or with what appeared to be severe burns.

He approached the water jet at the end of the room and took a paper cup with his left hand and approached it to the nozzle to serve himself, then he looked up and could see himself, reflected in the white acrylic sheet that covered the water tank. It was his face, but strangely younger, about eight or ten years old, but it was not the face that he once saw in a mirror, he looked tired and emaciated, his cheeks and eyes were cracked and his lips pursed, bruised and cracked, his lively black eyes seemed white and lifeless.

He heard behind him the recognizable footsteps of one of the approaching wet nurses.

-Lucian, what are you doing up? -He could recognize the voice of MARIANA, one of the nursery nurses, but what was she doing in the dispensary? ―. You mustn't get up, if you want something you can ask me, I'll bring it to you.

-Huumm eeegg uuumm - he spoke, but he could only hear meaningless babbling, emitted with a voice he could not recognize, but he knew it came from him.

Then he collapsed on the ground and felt his body start to shake violently, and he could see how MARIANA approached him to pick him up, when he was close, he saw how on his badge something was different from the one he knew, where he usually put "MARIANA, Perseus Nursery", he could see, to his surprise, that something was different.

He woke up with screams and tears, he was still in the bedroom of the academy that he shared with three other boys his age, he was agitated, soaked in sweat and felt his heart beating fast, his classmates seemed not to have noticed the situation. As PATRICIA had recommended to him, in a previous session, he took his notebook and began to write down what he saw in his dream, at the end of his lines, he wrote down a meaningless phrase for himself. "MARIANA, Kindergarten of Fenrir".

Text of @amart29 Barcelona, Venezuela, September 2019

Other stories from the series The Age of Perseus

• Perseo / Perseus
• Fenrir / Fenrir
• Iriana / Iriana
• Visions - Lucian (1)

I can only thank @xpilar for allowing me to use his digital art in my publication and for motivating my creation. Thank you very much @xpilar

Thank you all for visiting my publication, I hope your comments and I appreciate your support, until next time

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