TIME WARP: Self-Induced Insomnia

[Thomas "Monroe" Montgomery]

Monroe stared at the ceiling. It had been another long night of heavy eyelids and headphones over his ears blasting music louder than his thoughts to keep him awake. He moved from his bed, to his desk, to the floor. He'd never had this much trouble going to sleep. Usually he could fall asleep anywhere as long as he had a place to rest his head. Things felt different now and maybe it's because he wasn't sure what was going on.

He'd spent the night at his friend's house the night before. They'd stayed up til nearly four in the morning playing video games and just before Monroe fell asleep, his friend passed out. And that's when it had happened.

He'd been pulled into sleep. He didn't know how else to describe it, that's what it felt like. And then there was darkness...and then images, a dream. His friend was there in the distance and Monroe moved closer to him, taking wary steps forward.

A chain of events happened, a random chain of events...a weird dream and when Monroe woke up he realized that his friend was laying there awake and that perhaps he'd opened his eyes at the exact same time as him. And then he went on about a weird dream that he'd had and how Monroe was there and nothing made sense. Had they had the same dream? How did that even happen?

And now he was confused and he couldn't sleep and he had to stuff an old hoodie under his door so his mother wouldn't see the crack of light if she came to check on him.

And now it was morning, bright and early, 8 a.m. and sleep weighed heavily on his eyelids as he got up and stretched, looking at himself in the mirror and trying to figure out if he somehow felt or looked different.

[Dr. James Campbell]

James Campbell was exhausted. He'd been away from home on a five-day recruitment--the parents had come up with every way they could to stall--and was only back for twelve hours before Aristea sent him out again. He understood why, of course. The other recruiters had families and kids, and his daughter lived in another state. He wasn't married, but if the politics went their way, that might be in his and Chase's future. As it was, his boyfriend was used to James being away from home often. They both worked at Hammel; Chase knew the score.

He had read all the information they had on Montgomery, Thomas multiple times. It wasn't much, just the report from a Hammel Alum who could identify other metas in the area, some info on their power, and could pinpoint them when they manifested. Other times, he had the blood tests done ahead of time, or police reports. Now, he was likely to sound insane, unless Thomas was ready to admit to something unusual happening with his dreams.

For the first time in his life, all the traffic had gone exactly his way. Every light had been green, and the traffic was light. It was only a few hour drive, but he hadn't expected it to go nearly this fast. He thought he was going to be there closer to nine, but it was just past eight when he arrived. James knew he would likely face resistance--two days was probably not long enough for Thomas's mother to recognize something was different--but he was good at his job. If he was able to get him to consent to a blood test, things would go easier. He rang the bell and waited, straightening his tie. When he had to convince a parent their child was meta, he always wanted to look respectable.