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This had been a long day for him. He got his grant approved Plus he just got his house made. Life is going great for Stanford pines. After a long day of roaming around the forest area and getting the damage of his car assesed.... thanks Steve He really needed this sleep,he hadn't really slept in this week or in his college days or when he left when he was about to graduate.
He keeps his glasses on his night stand and sees the cool water settling on his glasses after he knocked the bottle. But alas a man's gotta sleep and so he starts counting . 1..2...3...4.. the method never really works for him but he slowly drifts to sleep. Oh how good did that sound. Ford woke up in a cold sweat what was he was still sleeping .... oh, ok.
Ford had always been a heavy sleeper considering the times when he did sleep and also a lucid one. His mother used to say he and stan shared thoughts but he stopped believing that long ago.
He was in a void dark...so dark.He saw a dressing mirror in front of him .A lighter appears in his arm. He looked around and he sees his perpetual motion machine there right on the table where he left it that unfortunate night. He didnt know what got into him but he flicked his lighter on...off...on...of the flames were dancing around even tho there was no wind and lit it on fire the flames danced on his creation and he saw a arm bang on the table right next on his dream project and it spoofed into a circuit.
He looked around and in the mirror and he saw a face he shouldn't be seeing . He saw his own face. He read this some where that people really cant see reflections in mirrors during their dreams but hey hes gotta remember this .
The face his face looked worn , beaten , tired .. he looked like he lost his spark. The eyes he saw were dead,lost of life, ambition and happiness and then he realized this wasn't him . This was him. Stanley .... that little .... words couldn't Express his annoyance .he couldn't even leave him alone in his sleep like thinking bout him all day wasn't enough.
Below the mirror was it said in bold red words ",do you regret this" as if..ha ..this was a joke that could make him laugh even in the dead of the night. Stanley and regret dont belong in on sentence. The reflection's came out of the mirror as if It was standing right in front of him Yeah...'alright it's a dream' he reminded himself.
The figure took the lighter from his hands and lit a cigar. He can't believe stanley would do such a thing. He see the figure.. stanley light it up and take a puff before getting beaten to pulp by some goons. That must hurt...but whatever.
He looks around and finds the west coast tech brochure sitting where his machine was before and looks over the mirror only to find his twin still in a tub of ice clutching to his side with crimson liquid oozing from his fingers coating the ice in sick red, he wants to help but reminds himself it's just a dream.
He goes over to the table and picks the brochure up, reading.....reminiscent of his good times, their good times. But good things never last neither did his and maybe just maybe if he'd called they could talk things out. I wonder how hes doing he thought to himself..........
Not good
a familiar voice chimes in. A voice he heard when he was about to fall from the swings,a voice he heard when he was putting in the last screw of that godforsaken machine......a voice he heard when he saw stanley got kicked out needless to say this voice is not good.
He looks over to the mirror and now sees his brother dressed in the suit gambling like theres no tomorrow....oh I remember why I hated this idiot he thinks to himself his anger boiling. He picks up the brochure and lights it on fire. He thinks to himself this is how he must have felt. Are you happy now stanley he speaks now looking intently at the mirror .
And in a moment the room again fills with light and he looks around only to see their childhood room now tattered and broken its center being the stano'war.He walks over to the boat in a moment of fury light it up on fire.For a moment it felt good but as the flames danced on the once intact boat leaving nothing behind but ashes his anger boils down only to realized what he had done .
That boat used to be something of great importance for him, for them but now it's nothing he is horrified to see his brother....no his younger self right there staring daggers at him until theres nothing there and the void becomes dark again.
The boat now reduced to mere ashes . He runs over to the former boat and tries to put it back together.....after that failed attempt He tries to will it back to its former self but is unable to do so all while this child stares down on him...clearly disappointed in him, his actions and what he had done.
He looked to the mirror one more time now only to see his brother a bloody mess... his hair in knots,hands tied to his legs, his mouth bloodied from his desperate attempts to chew his way out. He tries to reach out his hands not able to go through the glass. And as he sees his brother struggle to survive the mirror turns to black.
That familiar text came back but now he understood what it meant. The text was not about Stanley it never was. It was about him. His jaws started to hurt really hurt..the pain radiating from his jaws to his neck. The excruciating pain causing him to lose conciousness and he blinked back to the real world.
His head pounding and his alarm blaring.... he looked around and his phone started to ring.
Ring...
Ring....
.He picks it up and hears his mother's sniffling after a while of which she says "hey,ford I love you and always will. Can you please come home this week they.....just I cant on phone.""Ma what happend to Stanley " his voice cold breaking at the end."they found him,in a car" she now seriously sobbing . "We're having his funeral this Thursday. Ford and know you both were not on the best terms but you should come" and with that last word he hangs up the phone and throws his head in his hands.
He stands up and looks over to his rooms mirror and sees himself.He punched the glass until his knuckles were bloodied and the mirror broken .
A man so indulged in his own life,
that couldn't see through his lies. A reflection so broken and maimed, a reality to broken to be saved ,
To see and forget what is true, to hate someone over something so untrue.
Now he sees his mistakes, the opportunities that he could have saved,
A life that he could've had, with his brother by his side, now he sits with his head in his hands, soaking in memories he could've had.