“What’s next? It’ll be hard to top that last one, but we can still try! What’s next? Do you want to pick or shall I?”

  Opening my eyes, the tiny, mousey creature energetically twirls about in place below, careless of my mounting anxiety and discomfort. On the other hand, Ha’koff’s getting very concerned by my increasingly erratic behavior but is otherwise fine. Yes, he’ll be fine as he is for now. I just need to get us out. Then we can both calm down.

  I carefully write, hoping to somehow fool him into revealing his trick.

  “There wouldn’t be an out there to question without it, you… special person! The warm, lovely, comfy in here exists, as you can clearly observe. So if in here exists and out there exists too, then there must be a fence or boundary of some sort to separate them. Each of the three kindly exists to lovingly support the others, exactly as it should be. See?”

  What useless, insane rambling. He’s as mad as the memory. That rules out getting any help from him at all. If my eyes and energy won’t work, then what? What’s left?

  Of course! I’m always forgetting, but there’s one more strong sense in my repertoire. Tightly closing my eyes again, I begin rhythmically breathing deeply in through my nose. The myriad scents of the garden clutter my otherwise powerful organ. Too much, and yet also far too little.

  With some serious effort, I force energy into the center of my face. There’s no time to worry about consequences. All risk is meaningless in the face of oblivion!

  Pushing harder and harder, I can feel my face swelling up, throbbing from a constantly increasing pain. However, this is enough. Enough at least to start. The new torrent of fragrance from the garden easily overwhelms my minds. With no equivalent to an amplified pupil, I’m left with no choice other than to brute force my way through all this information. Allow it all into my minds. Closely inspect every little detail. Every single thing.

  Ugh, it’s so, so much. I don’t think that it’s possible to review it all. The gushing stream of signals is ripping my struggling sanity apart. Isn’t there something else that I can do? Anything else at all?

  “Did you get stung by a bee? I didn’t know I had any of those in here. Don’t worry, it makes you look more refined. Regal even!”

  I reach out with stable energy, frantically trying to stem the flood of data entering through my nose. Anything will do, it just has to slow all this down somehow. The impromptu interlocking web of desperate, stable energy grows and grows in layers, travelling farther and farther away from my body in between the flow and my face.

  Oh no, no, no, that made it ten times worse! What was I thinking?! The incredibly sensitive strings of vibrating energy are channeling even more information directly into my senses. The devastating flood has now become an absolutely overwhelming deluge, washing away all sense of self.

  A tiny glint of signal momentarily bucks above the rest, but then deeply buries itself into the rapid flow again. Is that me? Or am I this stream? I don’t think that I want to be a stream, it’s so soggy and miserable only ever heading in one direction along with everything else. What if I want to go in my own direction? The right direction. Only following along won’t get me there.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  What about that glint? Since it’s so standout and different, maybe I’ll find my unique self if I choose to be that instead.

  The torrential signal suddenly collapses to a single point. Oh, there I am. How silly. This tiny, little smell isn’t me. This little tickle. Although, it’s very different from all the others. What’s it doing hiding in here? It’s not simply following the flow. Where is it going?

  Yes, you. Little odor. Why are you sneaking into my minds? I didn’t give you permission to do that. What are you doing in there? Up to no good, I’m assuming. Little, insignificant odors like you are always going wherever they’re not supposed to be!

  I found you! Now able to clearly see it, the single element of the slinking scent easily bounces off of my turbulent minds. With that in hand, I simply must keep you and all the others out. However, what are you? Let me trace your kind back to your roots, you meddlesome interlopers.

  Taking another breath, I reach back out into the flood, now skillfully swimming through the signal and bouncing from artifact to artifact of the annoying invader.

  Yes, yes, it’s getting easier and easier as we go. Now that there’s a clear target, all I have to do is follow. That’s not so hard. That nagging pain still distracts, but since when has it not? We only have to find the barest, narrowest path, and then we can rest. Then it’ll all be easy. Right?

  There it is! Right at the center. A flower maybe? It’s hard to tell from scent alone. However, now that I know exactly where it lives, that means that it’s time for action.

  Re-opening my eyes, I’m shocked to find that the garden’s image has completely disappeared. Instead, a ubiquitous deep, dark red coats everything as far as I can see. Long dead plants are trampled underfoot everywhere around us, mostly by the restless, ancient pacing of a pair of tiny, little feet.

  The ragged, blood soaked, mousey creature still stands nearby. One eye sags much lower than the other, but both reveal a clear, long lack of sleep. His hands never stop grabbing at the hairs on his head and body, pulling them out in tight clumps. Blisters and soars cover his skin from the constant, nagging agitation eating away at him. How does he live like this?

  “Is this maybe red light, green light? However, I think that you may have been the red light for far too long. Although, you’re very, very good at it. Let’s move on to a different game! One that we can both play. Please?”

  Turning away from the grotesque figure, even the fence is now gone. It’s just infinite, red stained flatness as far as I can see in all directions. The only thing left standing in this wasteland is a single, white flower at the center of what I used to believe was the isolated, little garden. The source of that pesky scent. I guess it’s not affecting me at all anymore?

  Standing up and walking over to the little flower, I tower over it. A giant. Do I need to destroy it to get out?

  “Wha– what are you doing? The temperature and lighting’s much better over here. For a game of chase the ears! Tag, I think they call it. It’s very, very popular, or so I hear.”