When Daemon woke up, he was at home. Just sitting on the couch, wearing his favorite hoodie. He didn’t remember how he got there. “Wasn’t I just with Reno?” He thought. “And why is the house empty, there should be a surprise party”. He tried to stand up but found out he couldn’t. In fact, he couldn’t move at all. “Sam, what’s going on?” He yelled. No one answered.

It felt like he had been sitting on this couch for an eternity when he finally heard something. Somewhere, a door slammed and a woman cried. He felt like he knew who it was but somehow couldn’t figure out her name. After a while, the sound stopped. The silence continued.

Looking around him, Daemon saw he was no longer at home. He was in a park, sitting on a bench. People with no faces walked by. As before, he couldn’t stand up. He tried to call out, but he made no sound. Al he heard was the sounds of birds chirping. Suddenly someone sat down next to him on the bench and started talking. “Ever since you were a little boy, you’ve liked sleeping too much. ‘Can we not skip the morning’ was what you always said. But I’m telling you the morning is over, you can wake up now.” The person next to him said. Daemon felt like he knew the person, but his memories were failing him.

Again his surrounding changed, this time he didn’t see anything he could make sense of. Reno heard a new voice. “I just earned my first promotion. After what happened I couldn’t go back to university. So I accepted the job and I’m doing really well. If....no when you wake up we’ll get a beer to celebrate. Just you and me, like old times. Anyway, I need to go, they will be moving you to a private facility. They assured me you will receive the best care. I’ll try to visit you when I can”

Again Daemon had no idea who was talking to him. Whoever it was, we two must have been close. A beer does sound nice. And he said something about waking up. But I’m not asleep… I think. I can’t think, I need to clear my head. Maybe I’ll just take a little nap, that always helped. Closing his eyes, he let nothingness take him once more.

The next thing he knew, he heard another voice. I haven’t heard this one before I think. Maybe I have, I can’t remember. “Mom is slowly getting better.” The new voice said, followed by a long silence. “She still goes upstairs to wake you up every day you know. Says it keeps her sane, those little habits. Dad still goes to the gym every day. He might be even fitter than me by now. They’re dealing with it, in their own way. I don’t know how to…”. Another long silence. “I saw Reno last week, he’s doing well. We are all grateful to him for providing this place. Him and his uncle of course. Reno is even trying to get you into some drug trial. Smelling salts on steroids he called them. We haven’t told mom, don’t want to give her false hope.”

This time the voice just vanished. He didn’t leave for long though. When he came back, there were other voices. And a smell. A terrible smell. Daemon tried to find the source but didn’t see anything. He tried pinching his nose, but of course, couldn’t. He couldn’t make out what the voices were saying. Luckily the smell vanished quickly, as did the voices. He was left with a just throbbing headache.

The second voice was back. Talking about a lot of science stuff Daemon couldn’t make head or tail of. “My uncle said they will soon be ready for the second trial. Dubbel as effective, that’s what they said. More side-effects though. But at this point, I don’t think that matters anymore. Sam is slowly getting adjusting. He even got a new place. Being closer to here made that decision easy. Your parents are doing well, they still visit every day. I don’t know how they do it.”

Again a voice, no two voices returned. The second and the third one. No smell, but a splitting headache this time. A feeling that his heart was going to explode. He was so hot. Trying to focus on something else, Daemon tried to find the voices again. When he did, they sounded scared. “... are disappearing, apparently alphabetically. Based on the name used to indicate someone the most. Guess I am lucky I wasn’t the first. There is nothing more we can do here. I want to call my father.” Said the second voice. Silence returned. “Is this all there is?” The third voice again. “‘When we disappear, it won’t be long before his support system gives out. We might as well try.” Silence once more.

Slowly Daemon began feeling less hot. The silence was nice. He was still sweating he noticed. Breathing became harder. He tried to breathe faster. Even though he was panting, he still couldn’t breathe. He needed oxygen. Trying to think, he began to notice. The slight breeze on his skin, the pulling of skin under his nose. His slightly open mouth. As the edge of his vision grew darker, he opened his eyes.

Immediately blinded, his brain tried to understand. The accident, the voices, the drug trial, the medicine. It all came rushing back to him and with it, a more pressing matter. The lack of oxygen. Trying to claw at his face, he felt what felt like a mask on top of his head. Tracing the outline, he felt a switch. Flipping it, he heard a hissing sound and suddenly air came rushing into his lungs. Breathing deeply, he tried to open his eyes again. Blinding light came from his left, quickly becoming all-encompassing darkness for a final time.