Dilation

Dan was living a hundred, no, maybe a thousand, lives. Simultaneously.

He knew that it all started when Ethan died. Actually, when he revisits the memory he can see multiple different outcomes to that day... several where he and Ethan both died. He was pretty sure he had a mental breakdown, but the visions became stronger over time and he started to believe they contained real data.

When he and Lily were, basically, abducted by Cedric, this dual and triple vision started to become more frequent. A month later, and he was living in a weird stereoscopic world full time. It was debilitating at first, but it wasn't the sort of thing he could tell this weird group of secret agents (as he referred to them in his head). Lily could tell he was going through something and she gave him space. God knows she needed some herself.

Cedric was the catalyst to unlocking the true power of Dan's multifaceted perspective, and Dan was shocked to realize that maybe he wasn't crazy.

"Where are we? Why can't I contact my family?" Dan asked, frustration and anger clear in his voice. Cedric maintained the same stoic face he usually wore, but Dan saw it soften a little.

"You know I can't tell you, its for our safety as well as yours. Same reason we can't contact your family, to keep them unconnected to everything that you're caught up in," Cedric said, not for the first time.

A sharply outlined afterimage of Cedric said nothing at all. A foggy looking version said basically the same thing, but sounded more harsh. Ten versions of Cedric deep, a near transparent Cedric said "We smuggled you into Canada. Nowhere on earth is safe, but we have resources here and it gives us breathing room. Your parents are much safer if you're considered missing or dead".

"Are we in Toronto," Dan said, as he watched Cedric closely.

"What! What are you talking about? All you need to know is that you have to stay in this safe house, and it doesn't matter where we are." Cedric seemed surprised for an instant, but he went back to poker face pretty quickly. His second image said, "Fuck. Who told him?".

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Dan was finally, mostly, able to function in timeline Alpha without being distracted by all the extra input. He called it Alpha because 'reality' was 3D and in full colour, but everything else was either misty, faded, transparent, or just outlined... he could tell how close to reality a vision was by how substantial the images were. Interacting with reality this way was kind of like talking to friends while the radio and TV were both playing... distracting, but manageable... usually.

It all seemed to happen in real time, so he didn't think it helped much in the moment. It did, however, give him information he wouldn't normally have had, as Cedric had confirmed during their conversations. He learned that the Centre was not telling them a lot of things. They had technology that would make a science fiction writer jealous: they had sent agents to Mars and beyond for reconnaissance, a satellite network that extended past the solar system... Though Dan wasn't sure if all of this was true in reality Alpha, or just potentially true.

It was alternate reality shit, right? If that was true, then Dan understood that some of the data he heard was definitely not true in reality Alpha... thats kind of how it all worked, he thought.

Dan watched as The Director, 'what the hell was his name anyways?', walked towards him. His face was calm and blank, but Dan saw outlines and images of his face looking worried and a little angry... he saw staticky 'Directors' turning away too. Alpha Director came right up to him though.

The Director was wearing a dark grey suit, bright white shirt and a blue tie. You'd think he was a corporate salaryman, or maybe a politician, until you noticed how powerful he looked and how gracefully he moved. Dan thought of him as a cross between a secret agent and a bank manager.

"Dan, this is yours," he said while pulling a gun out from within his jacket. It was dark grey, matte, and bigger than Dan expected.

"What the hell" Dan said, genuinely shocked.

"What can I say, welcome to the team," the Director said, a smile almost on his lips. "I know to you it looks like we are just running and hiding, but we have goals we need to keep achieving too. We've debated what to do about you and Lily, and it isn't safe to just hide you somewhere, or to send you back to your parents. That's why you're both officially entering The Centre's Academy, starting tomorrow."

".... Are you joking? You have an academy? We are fu#$ing teenagers, and you just handed me a gun," Dan said, almost yelling at the end.

"And not just any gun. You'll learn how to use it properly in class, but that weapon is entirely non-lethal until you graduate, or it is authorized by myself or a manager. Right now it is more like a laser tag gun to practice with," he said. The Director put the gun in Dan's unresponsive hand, and then closed his fingers around it. "Son, I need you to get up to speed here. I know none of this is your fault, but this is an opportunity to turn you into an asset instead of a liability... and you'll be better equipped to help Lily." He paused to look into Dan's eyes forcefully.

"Honestly, Lily is more dangerous than you right now, she's had good training all her life. However, I think you are a realist, and will grow quickly in the academy. Work hard, and get strong enough to protect her." With that, the Director clapped him on the shoulder, and then walked away. A very solid Beta timeline version remained though, and said "Your exposure to the quantum event could manifest in ways that are useful to us, and it is better if you are trained to deal with it".

'Woah,' Dan thought, watching the Director and his afterimages walk away. 'So my extra vision is something they expected? .... What is a quantum event?'

The gun was heavy in his hand, and he looked at it more closely. It was a matte grey, like dark concrete, with a long barrel and an oversized muzzle. Dan wasn't an expert on weapons, but it seemed too long to holster it in his pants. Also, he couldn't tell how to get the bullets in; he expected there to be a clip or chamber in the grip, but it was seamless. It felt more comfortable in two hands, and he tried pulling the trigger while aiming at the ceiling... it moved, but nothing happend.

'I guess it really is locked down... maybe it is a toy more than anything?' Dan played with the gun for a while, and thought about everything the Director said. Their lives had become a puzzle and he was trying to put all the pieces together. The accident, Ethan's death, the attack on Lily's home, the monster that tried to kill them, the Centre, this 'Academy, and the mysterious quantum event.

Lost in thought, Dan felt like he spent hours running in mental circles. He had to shake himself out his trance. 'The only thing I'm sure of right now is that this is Fu%ked. Lily and I need to stay together and figure out why this is all happening. The Director knows more than he's telling us, but I really don't think they know everything either.'

He started walking towards his room, wondering what time it was, since he'd almost been daydreaming there. Dan would have been very surprised to realize that only five minutes had passed since his meeting with the Director.

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'I wonder if they told Dan yet?' Lily thought. She was in the gym of the facility, working through her kata after a long work out. Ethan always left Kata and forms until the end of his workouts, because he wanted to be more centred mentally, able to perform the moves even when tired.

At 15, she seemed to be slightly built compared to Dan and Ethan, but she was already 5'7" and ropey with the kind of lean muscle that comes from a lifetime of martial arts practice. Sweat glistened on her face, the hollow of her collar bone, and soaked through the grey sports bra and shorts the Centre provided her. She wiped some sweat with a towel while she looked around the giant, but empty gym.

She had thrown herself into exercise and martial arts since they arrived in this strange place. She knew she was hiding from her thoughts, and the reality of her situation, but it was all that was keeping her sane. Still, considering she spent hours here everyday, no one else ever entered. 'I'm finding it hard to believe they have an Academy of students here somewhere... but this place is massive'.

She'd explored as much as she was allowed, and came across a lot of doors her pass did not giver her access to. She and Dan were confined to 2 floors, but she was starting to realize that this complex was much larger than she first thought. 'Are the other students already here... or is the Academy somewhere else?'

Lily knew she was in need of some sort of mental crisis intervention, it wasn't normal to have had your entire family die and/or be killed, and still be so excited about going to school. She was very curious though. The Director and Cedric were the only consistent people she had spoken with here, but the number of personel and activity had been picking up in the last week, and she suspected it was related to her studies starting next week.

'I wonder if Dan is excited too?' she thought. Dan had been acting really strange lately, but that was comforting to her. At least one of them was acting normally in this situation.

'What would Ethan do? Probably laugh and see if everything could be solved with a game of frisbee rather than a fight.' She smiled, Ethan annoyed her, but he was a good guy.

The truth was, Lily was afraid to talk to Dan about everything that had happened. He was a realist, and would push her to accept everything. Deep down, she didn't think it was real.... she saw Ethan's body, she saw the monster, but it was like a fever dream that she remembered vividly. She still felt a connection to her brother.

'Should I tell Dan about the dreams, or am I being dumb?' She had been dreaming about Ethan constantly this last week, and he was doing crazy shit like getting in gun fights and car chases. It felt like she was there, just a push away from touching him. 'Yeah, I'm crazy. Dan doesn't need my crazy on top of his,' she thought, a little smile forming on her glowing face.

She turned back to the mats, planning to do a yoga cool down, not suspecting how much her tumultuous life was about to change.

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