Work Text:
His eyes felt heavy as he gripped the steering wheel in his large hands. He brought his left hand to his face, rubbing it along his skin as if it would somehow wake him.
The night had been a long one; he had driven across town to visit his family for his nephew’s birthday celebrations, and he ended up overstaying. He had been up late for work the night before, and he desperately needed the sleep.
In yet another attempt to keep himself awake for the rest of the drive, Rhett reached over to turn the knob on the radio, turning the background music up to the foreground. It wasn’t something he recognized, so he turned the tuner to the next station, barely glancing over to see the frequency he was at. Once he was settled on a comforting, classic track, he turned his head to the road.
It happened quickly from there; the headlights heading right toward him, tires squealing as they attempted to gain traction and control on the graveled road. Rhett’s eyes were wide as his car spun wildly out of control, before the front end quickly gained ground on the wooded area off to the right of the road. There was a loud crash as his car collided with something and a sudden spike of pain throughout his body, before everything turned black.
-
It was a blur, when things began to come back to him. First, there came sound. It didn’t sound familiar, but it was noise . Then came colors of all kinds. Shapes wouldn’t come until later, but the colors were something . Sensation came, as he felt the soft bedding underneath his back that almost felt too comfortable to be real. He clenched his fists around the bedsheets, and it was at that moment when everything began to return. His memory was in fragments, but he knew something happened.
He felt his eyes open, and he took the time to look around the room. Rhett almost expected to see a doctor, a few family members crowded around in concern. But it seemed like it was just a bedroom. It felt like his, but not at the same time. Everything felt familiar, but not. A wrong-ness settled low in his gut, yet he sat up in the bed, throwing his legs over the side.
He was fully dressed, further cementing the wrong-ness of the place he was in. The decorations around him seemed to be there, yet also seemed to swirl out of recognition. He had to look away in order not to hurt his brain any more than it already was.
He shakily stood, making his way out the door. To his surprise, the door from the bedroom led directly outside.
The sky was blue, but the wrong shade of blue. The grass was green, but not the right green. Everything just seemed to speak to the wrongness of it all. Nothing seemed real. He walked the paths in front of him, running into no one. The world was empty. Everything was wrong. He sat on the park bench a let out a long sigh.
What else could he even do?
-
The world he found himself in was lonely. He could wander every business, every market. He could eat, but even the taste wasn’t the same. He couldn’t understand it.
He knew something happened to him. He knew with these weird developments, that he was most likely dead. He thought that the afterlife would be different, though. He pictured pearly gates, angels, clouds. He didn’t picture an empty, lonely world that was like his world, but un-like it enough that it felt all wrong.
He filled his time sleeping, and doing things that he normally wouldn’t be able to do with other people watching. It was basically a test. He sometimes almost pictured someone popping out from behind a wall, letting him in on the joke that was this world.
He sat in the café, drinking a coffee that he had made for himself in the back, and he kicked his legs up on the table. He had a permanent marker in his hand, one that must’ve been used for writing names on cups once upon a time. He was doodling over the ward wood tabletop, bored out of his mind. It had been at least a week of nothingness. He wasn’t sure what he had done to be placed there… But he would make do.
He was so caught up in his thoughts, that the loud bang from the back of the café caused him to jump what felt like three feet. It took a moment to comprehend what was wrong with the situation. He was alone. He had been alone for a while. There was a noise. That he did not cause. As his mind caught up, he cast his marker aside and crept to the back, on guard the entire time. No one was supposed to be here. No one had been here.
He peeked around the corner, into the kitchen, to be greeted with a voice.
“Who’s there?” The voice was a higher pitch than what he remembered his voice sounding like. The two locked eyes. The other man was several inches shorter than him, his dark hair up and to the right side of his face. He was wearing a plaid button up, and tight jeans. His blue eyes looked fearful as he made eye contact. “Who are you? Why are you here?”
“I could ask you the same thing.” Rhett’s voice even sounded different than he remembered. It was odd. The other man looked toward him, almost as if calculating.
“My name is Link. I woke up here two days ago. I thought I was alone. So, who are you ?” They still stood at least ten feet away from one another.
“I’m Rhett. I’ve been here for a week. I woke up in a bed across town. I thought… I thought I was alone.” Link slowly made his way toward Rhett, like a frightened animal. It didn’t register what he was doing until he did it. He placed his hand on Rhett’s shoulder, as if grounding himself, making sure that the taller man was indeed real.
Sensation filled Rhett like nothing had in a week. It felt more real more right than anything in the strange world had. The two stared at each other in shock.
-
Rhett and Link found themselves attached at the hip. The two would sit in companionable silence by the river, listening to its not-quite-right rushing of water. The two would talk about what they remembered from before, about what they wanted to do before.
They were inseparable. Sometimes, Rhett forgot the wrongness with Link by his side.
-
“My mom struggled to put food on our table. She was the strongest woman I ever knew. I wish I told her that.”
“I grew up poor.”
“I don’t like a lot of foods. I’m pretty picky.”
“My favorite foods are peanut butter and cereal.”
“All I remember before waking up here was being sick.”
“I’m afraid of being alone.”
“I was ready to give up before we found each other.”
Rhett found out so much about Link. They were deeper, more meaningful things than he had ever learned about anyone before. He found himself sharing even more things. He never thought he’d find his closest friend in the world of wrong-ness.
-
They were watching clouds go by, lying side by side in the grass. Rhett lost count of the time they had spent in the other world, it could’ve been weeks, it could’ve been years. The two couldn’t tell.
“That one looks like a llama. No… An alpaca.” Link spoke, his shoulder touching Rhett’s. It was the only thing that felt real.
“I could see it.” The two sat in silence, before Rhett broke it. “Do you ever wonder why we’re here?” Link turned his head, forcing the two to make eye contact with their faces only inches apart.
“Always.” He turned back to the sky, his blue eyes almost matching the view above it. Rhett let his gaze linger on his friend. “I wonder if this is supposed to be some weird sort of afterlife, if we did something to end up here. I… I don’t know. Sometimes I think I…” He swallowed, his adam’s apple moving with the motion.
“You what?”
“Rhett… Do you ever wonder if your memories could be fake? What if the other world isn’t real… But this is? What if that other world is real, but we just imagined ourselves being there. What if… What if one, or both of us, isn’t real?” After his rant, Link turned to Rhett, in a moment of vulnerability.
“I don’t know.” The bigger man responded. “I’m not sure I care. Honestly… You’re the best friend I’ve ever had. Even if you’re the only other one here. I just… I’ve never gotten on with someone like I have with you. Maybe that’s why we’re here. We were meant to meet, and maybe we died, maybe… Whatever. Maybe this is just a way to make up for lost time.” They looked into each other’s eyes for a few moments, before Link began to break into a small chuckle.
“That kind of sounds ridiculous.” Rhett smiled.
“Yeah. But it’s nice to think about.” Link nudged his friend with his shoulder. “I’m happy I’m stuck here with you, Rhett. You’re my best friend.”
Rhett smiled.
-
The two still spent every moment together. Time didn’t seem to exist, but it seemed like years. The two only grew closer.
When they found the empty music store, Rhett played his favorite songs for Link on the guitar. The two sang for hours, and the shop quickly became one of their favorite places to spend time together.
It made sense when Rhett finished sat his favorite guitar on it’s stand, he turned back toward his friend, only to have his shoulders pressed back into the wall and lips collide into his. It only made sense for the first time to happen there.
Link pulled back, the black of his pupils almost overtaking the blue irises that Rhett had grown to love. He seemed uncertain of where to go next, until the taller man’s hands reached around his neck and pulled him in for more.
It became a great pastime for the two of them; going to different locations as lovers, as friends. The two would walk the park, visit the empty restaurants. The two spent every waking moment together, both agreeing that they had a relationship closer than any either had had before.
Even if they weren’t sure they needed the sleep, they would take it to pass time. It wasn’t unusual for the two wake in bed together. Although Rhett was larger, he always seemed to find himself being the little spoon, but he never minded.
In the world that everything was wrong, the two seemed to find the one thing right: each other.
-
Rhett sat behind Link, the guitar sat in the latter man’s lap. Link already knew chords, so it was easier than he would’ve thought to teach him how to play. They had all the time in the world; it only seemed reasonable to begin.
The time passed with much laughter and gentle kisses along Link’s cheeks and neck. As the two began to get too distracted to continue the lesson, Link suddenly tensed.
“Do you hear that?” Rhett’s lips paused their motion on the damp skin in front of him.
“Hear what? I don’t hear anything.” Link pulled away.
“Did you turn on the record player?” This spurred Rhett into action.
“Did I turn on what?” The two warily approached the front counter, approaching the blaring device by the untouched cash register. “I… I didn’t turn that on. Are you sure you didn’t and you forgot?”
“I… I don’t think so.” Link turned the player off, turning toward his friend. “Rhett… That’s never happened before. Are… Things changing?”
Rhett wasn’t sure.
-
Suddenly, shades of green in the grass began to look right. Shades of blue began to be the right shade of blue. Rhett found himself disappointed that the sky no longer matched Link’s eyes.
That wasn’t what scared them the most about their changing world. The two men found themselves walking the park alongside the river, hand-in-hand. Link watched the water flow, while Rhett watched the sky. He only turned to his friend when he felt the smaller man’s hand tighten in his.
“Link?” He then saw how pale his friend’s face had become. He decided to look where the other man’s eyes were planted. Then he saw it.
There were small fish, all along the shallow water. There were other living creatures in the world that they had begun to believe to be forever trapped alone in. The two turned from the water to each other, when their heads snapped up to hear the flutter of wings from the tree above. A crow. A crow that flown from the treetop, into the sky above.
“I don’t… I don’t understand.” Rhett started. “What does this mean?” Link’s lips were tightened into a line.
“I don’t know.”
-
The world began to come alive. The two men found themselves thrown for a loop, having gotten so used to the empty nothingness it had provided for them.
Yet, more changes were to come. They were lying in bed, Link tracing his hand along Rhett’s bare skin under the blankets, when the taller man heard it.
“How much longer will it take?” Rhett tensed. It was a woman’s voice. It sounded muffled, but it seemed somewhat familiar. Then came a man’s voice.
“Did you hear that?” Link shook his head, his eyes wide with concern. Rhett began to worry he was going crazy.
He continued to tell his friend every time he heard any voices. Link never heard them. The worry that he was going insane seemed to grow. But his lover wasn’t too frightened.
“It could be a good thing. Maybe it means you’re almost done here. Maybe that was the point… To get you ready to leave.” Link’s eyes always looked so sad.
“But what about you?” He would always respond. Link would shrug.
“I know you’ll find me.”
-
The world they were in was almost completely real, with the exception of other people. It felt like Link was going to be right. It felt like the world was trying to be like the one Rhett lived in before it, almost as if he were going to return soon.
It made him nervous. It made him scared. He would hold Link closer to his chest, he would kiss him a little harder. It felt like time was slipping away.
He felt love deeper than he had ever felt before. No one had ever gotten beneath his many layers, still loving and cherishing what they found. Rhett’s heart hurt with the thought of leaving him alone in the world they were in. He promised to find Link when he went back, but he was still afraid.
What if things were different when they went back? What if
They were different people? Rhett was afraid to find out. But time wasn’t kind, and they were running out of it.
“How long do you think it’ll be?” Rhett asked, his favorite guitar in the shop in his hands. Link sat in a stool nearby.
“Probably not long… How many voices have you heard today?”
He questioned, although both knew the answer; too many. The frequency was dizzying. Sometimes he could understand what they were saying, other times it was a muffled mess.
The taller man stood, putting the instrument away. He strode over to his best friend, placing his hands on both sides of his face. He stroke his thumbs over the stubbled skin.
“I hope you're not long after me… I’m going to miss you.” Link closed his eyes, leaning into the touch. “Although I’m going to miss having you to myself…” He knelt down to place his lips against his lover’s forehead, before placing his own against the skin. He closed his eyes in contentment.
-
They were afraid. Rhett began feel pain, all along his body. He was scared of what was to come. It was coming. It could be any moment.
They didn’t dare speak about it, but they questioned their fate as a couple. Rhett began to fear the possibility of not finding Link in the real world. He didn’t think he could stand it.
Rhett laid in bed, clutching his head in pain. Link rubbed his shoulders, his lips in a concerned frown. The taller man’s face was fixed in a grimace.
“I’m scared.” Rhett grunted, feeling the pain only rise in
Intensity. Link shushed him.
“It’s going to be okay, baby. It’ll be okay.” Rhett found tears gathering in his eyes. He heard the voices clearer than ever before.
“Rhett? Rhett?? Are his eyes twitching?”
“It’s happening, Link. I feel it. I think… I think I’m about to go.” He suddenly felt faint, and Link gasped as his hands went straight through his lover’s skin as if it were fog. The two met eyes, Link’s blue eyes clouding over with unshed tears.
“Rhett…”
“I swear I’ll find you. I swear, if it’s the last thing I do… I will find you. We will be happy together out there, okay?” He used his fleeting solidity to place a lingering kiss on Link’s quivering lips. “I know I never said it out loud, but I love you. God, I love you. I’ve never loved anyone like I love you.” Rhett paused to gasp in pain. “We’ll be together again. I promise.”
“I love you too.” A tear fell, dripping from his nose. Rhett held onto those words, as he felt himself slipping away. He locked his eyes onto Link’s as he faded, making sure that the last thing he saw of the other world was the blue of his eyes.
-
The first thing Rhett felt was pain. He couldn't believe the amount of pain he was in. He attempted to let out a groan, but was stopped by a tube in his throat. He felt overcome with panic.
“Rhett, you need to calm down.” It didn't do anything to help. “Rhett, honey, please…”
He went back under.
-
The next time he came to, he felt much more calm. The pain wasn’t sharp, it was only a dull ache. He felt the tube in his throat, but he was far too tired to panic this time.
“Rhett?” The voice was soft, fearful. He fought to open his eyes, fighting against the deep fog of exhaustion.
Everything was blurry, every shape and color. The sensation felt familiar, somehow. He was too tired to remember why.
He heard a sharp intake of air. “Honey, call the doctors in, his eyes are open!” Suddenly, a blurred shape of a person took over his limited vision. “You’re finally awake.” The voice was full of tears. His slow mind took another full minute to catch up with the fact that the voice he was hearing was his own mother’s.
The lights became brighter, and a crowd of people surrounded him.
“Glad to see you decided to join us, Rhett.” The person was unfamiliar in any way, and a flashlight was shined into his eyes. He wanted to groan at the invasion. “Are you able to squeeze my hand?” He felt something in between his fingers that wasn’t there before. He gripped it. “Very, very good. I’m going to ask you some yes or no questions… Just squeeze for yes, okay?” He squeezed. “Are you feeling any pain?”
He squeezed.
“Would you rate it above a 5 out of 10 on a pain scale?”
He left the hand alone.
“Very good! Do you know where you are?”
He still left the hand alone.
“You were in an accident, Rhett. A pretty bad one. You’ve been in a coma. The pain you’re feeling is most likely from your injuries. Are you still understanding everything okay?”
Squeeze.
“Good. We can ask more questions in a bit, but how would you like to see if we can get that breathing tube out? Sound good?”
He squeezed as hard as he could. The doctor chuckled.
“Then let’s get to it.”
-
The first few days seemed to blend together. His mind was still a complete jumble. His vision took a little while to come back, and his voice was rough and unusable at first, due to the breathing tube.
The doctors and his family were still not letting him know everything, like how long he was in the coma, and how severe his injuries were. It was beginning to get a little frustrating.
His mom came in every day, and the two of them would watch the TV together. Although, it was more that his mom would watch TV in the room while Rhett continued to fade in and out of sleep.
He didn’t know how many days it had been since he had woken up in the hospital, when suddenly he was overcome with a sudden sadness. A pit grew in his stomach, and he felt like crying.
“Rhett, what’s wrong?” His mom ran her fingers through his hair, and he felt a tear run down his cheek. “Baby, why are you crying?”
Then it hit him.
Wrong colors, wrong buildings, wrong sky. Emptiness, loneliness. Link.
Link .
His brain felt like it was frying, he grew so hot. Before he closed his eyes at the onslaught, he watched his mom press the emergency call button in a panic.
Everything went black.
-
The next time he woke up, he felt entirely different. Everything felt more focused, he remembered everything. He was entirely aware of his surroundings.
When the doctor came in to check on him, he felt there like he hadn’t in days. They kept asking question after question, and he answered with a clarity he hadn’t felt since what felt like before the accident even.
“So you’re all rebooted now, huh?” The doctor had had his parents escorted from the room during the examination, the two of them were alone. Rhett watched him warily. “It’s common with the method we used to treat you during your coma. The brain takes a while to come back, and then it decided to come all at once, overloading everything. Scary to watch for non-professionals, but it was completely normal.”
“What are you talking about, doc’?”
“Well, Rhett, there has been an experimental treatment for coma patients created. We place them in a virtual reality, slowly easing that world into something more familiar to them as they regain brain function, until they are ready to be brought out and back into the real world.” The pieces came together in Rhett’s mind. It all made sense. The world, the slow change of everything. Only one piece didn’t quite fit.
“What about Link?” Rhett questioned.
“I’m sorry, what?”
“The other man in the program. The one who was with me the whole time. What about him? Where is he?” The doctor looked incredibly confused.
“And you said… His name was Link? As in… L.I.N.K.?” Rhett nodded his head. The doctor let out a sigh, standing to his feet.
“Are you not going to answer me? I told him… I told him I’d find him when I got out. I can’t break my promise, doc’.” There was a computer monitor on the wall, with a large cabinet door beside it. The man pulled the door open, revealing many wires and machines, all powered off.
“This program is what brought you back. This room is the only room in this entire hospital, in this entire world that can do what we were able to do for you. We have only been able to do this with eight other people before you. How the machine works is that there are three stages of the treatment. Before you, every single patient had only required the first two stages to heal. There wasn’t any change, and we had to implement the third stage in order to heal you.”
“But… I don’t understand what any of this has to do with…”
“Our program’s name is LINK, Rhett.” The doctor stopped his rant with a few words that rocked his entire world.
“But… That’s not… That’s not possible. He was… He was real. I talked with him. I…”
“What if one, or both of us, isn’t real?” He could still hear Link saying it, clear as day. His heart hammered in his chest. The blue of Link’s eyes. It matched the sky. He felt his eyes fill with tears.
“If need be, we can schedule meetings with a therapist, as I’m sure it will be difficult to become accustomed to regular life, especially after such an immersive experience…” Rhett shook his head.
“No. I don’t… I don’t need therapy.” The doctor looked skeptical. “I just… I need to go home.”
-
It look a long time to go home. Weeks of rehab, of constant memories of a man that didn’t even really exist. When he finally returned home to his own bed, he found himself looking out his window and wishing the shade of the sky was a little more wrong.
He found himself writing down everything he could remember about his friend. He didn’t want to forget anything. He couldn’t handle it if he forgot anything.
-
The blue of the sky was right. It irritated him. His parents came to visit and drop off his medications, and he had his blinds shut in the midst of the beautiful day.
“Honey… We’re worried about you. Are you sure you don’t want to see someone?”
It hurt for him to do, but he promptly told his parents to leave.
-
He remembered his smile. The way his body felt alongside his in bed. He couldn’t sleep without smelling him. He wanted the punishment to end.
It was obvious that he wasn’t meant to survive the crash, and he was in some sort of hell. He just wanted it to end.
-
Rhett sat on his bed, watching the clouds go by. The shapes didn’t make sense to him, and he wished he could feel a warm presence beside him. He wished he was there.
He wondered if either worlds were real… If he got both his Heaven with Link and Hell here. He wondered if he died in the crash. He turned away from the window, feeling sick to his stomach.
-
He smiled, feeling lighter than he had probably ever. His eyes drifted over the nightstand, seeing the piles of empty pill bottles, but he didn’t care. This world wasn’t real. It couldn’t be.
His mind drifted to another place momentarily, to memories.
“ I love you too . ” He could hear Link’s voice in his ears, as if he were in the same room. He felt nauseous. He ignored it.
“I’m coming, Link. I promise.” He promised he would find him. He would leave this world behind, he would find him. He couldn’t break his promise.
His eyes kept fluttering, and his head felt like it weighed a ton. He managed to turn his head toward the window, the blinds wide open. Perfect. The cloud looked like a llama… He heard Link’s voice in his head. “No… An alpaca .” He smiled. It was coming soon.
He watched the sky as his world began to fade. The blue began to match Link’s eyes.
-
THE END