From the dining hall downstairs, Iker had managed to sneak in shredded chicken into his dorm, subsequently bringing it to the window. While yielding the window from the white cat headbutting his hands to enter, Iker shoved the hand-sized bowl through the gap while shutting the window both diligently and urgently. However, the white cat ignored the chicken shreds entirely, staring right into Iker's eyes with strange sentience. Then, astoundingly, the cat kicked the full bowl towards the Nevadan desert with his hind leg as he pressed his front paw onto the window pane, still staring and yowling incessantly at Iker.

  "Wow. First cat I've met that doesn't like chicken," Iker said, closing the white curtains on the beseeching cat. Iker had yet to eat a meal himself, but he was going to address that now.

  Thereon, Iker had to collect an assortment of snacks from the kitchen he just exited, gathering everything into his arms in hopes of it all substituting a full meal.

  "Iker, are you joining us today?" Alice the psychiatrist asked behind the partial wall.

  As per usual, Iker missed the most recent main meal. Was it breakfast? Lunch? Dinner?

  No idea.

  "You there?"

  "Yea. I'll come," Iker replied. The recreation room had a lot more going on, but the living room where all the group meetings took place was more stripped down. Perhaps it was this way to minimize distractions, however it made the vinyl record player against the wall the focal point even though there were colorful plastic chairs and couches. Upon spotting the musical device, Iker could not prevent the hairs on the back of his neck from standing.

  "Iker, could you check the door for me while I get everyone else?" Alice asked. "We'll be in the room you're currently in... like usual."

  Iker chose the only loveseat in the room to plop down his trove of snacks. Now that Iker no longer needed to focus on preventing snacks from falling during his detoxing stupor, he could now hear the shuffling from the entrance. At least if he had dropped any snacks, he had showered and had put on a pair of gray sweatpants and a black sweatshirt, overall looking more put together than he had been earlier. When he went through the kitchen again to be a casual stone toss away from the glass entrance, he stopped altogether and raised an eyebrow.

  Upon noticing the white woman that was wearing a nurse outfit and trying to break in, a random word popped in Iker's head.

  Primetime.

  Suddenly the memory of the cat trying to get in the window replayed in his mind's eye.

  Bastian?

  Slaps reverberated from the glass of the front door, Iker shifting his gaze to peer at the flyer Monica was trying to show him.

  REHAB OF USHER

  Who? What?

  How come I never knew what this place was called. Wait. Isn't this place called the Usher Treatment Center?

  Iker's head ached, forcing his eyes shut. Overwhelmed by his surging thoughts, Iker turned himself around and marched back to the living room.

  "Alice! There's a nurse in the front door!"

  "Okay. Thank you! I'll get the door."

  Bizarrely enough, Iker had a vivid memory of Alice having very short hair, yet that was not how her hair was in reality. Even though the roars of jet engines and the clinking of champagne glass manifested from the bygone memory, Alice had dreadlocks wrapped behind her. In any other instance Iker would be questioning his sanity, however Iker was a r0cbyte addict after all. The strange overlap of reality, memories, and dreams during detoxing was to be expected. She also wore a medical gown over her business casual attire as she walked past Iker to reach the entrance.

  And the patients waiting in the living room...

  "I am so glad to see you here," Ameen said to Iker.

  Ameen, Dominic, and Feechi had their seated chairs arranged in a semi-circle.

  "Thank you Iker," Alice said upon resting a hand on Iker's shoulder. She took a seat too, and Iker followed suit after selecting his first snacks from the loveseat to nibble on.

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  "Is it appropriate for both of us to be here?" Dominic asked Alice.

  Alice dragged her chair closer. "Your coordinator called in sick. I want to hopefully get the meeting started and you four can carry on without me. I have the topic the coordinator selected for today."

  "What is the topic?" Feechi asked. Feechi, Ameen, and Dominic had the same memo when it came to the dress code. Presentable, but not guilt-inducing if any of them had the urge to crawl back into bed. Iker could not remember the last time he was the most light-skin person in the room.

  While Iker scoped out the group, Alice shuffled through her sheets and smiled. "The future."

  Shy scoffs emerged from the group.

  "You should go first Alice," Dominic urged.

  "... why?" Alice asked, locking eyes with Dominic.

  "Well, the subject matter has the potential to be quite depressing," Ameen replied. "You can set a lighter tone."

  Alice glanced down at the sheets she finished organizing. "It doesn't have to be that way."

  "I am afraid our futures are predetermined," Ameen said.

  The mood was on the lighter side until Ameen said that, a slice of tension being added to the air.

  "... what do you mean by that?" Feechi asked.

  "You don't even have to get woo-woo, get philosophical, or even think about it from a physics perspective," Ameen explained.

  "Hold up," Dominic interrupted. "Sorry Ameen, no offense, but I don't want you to set the tone of this group today. I think you'll take us on a tangent that won't help our sobriety. That's why I insist on giving Alice the floor first."

  Dominic bowed in Alice's direction while remaining seated, inciting a chuckle from her and from Iker, and Ameen nodded in response. "Yes, you have a point."

  Alice placed her paper sheets on a chair facing away from her before turning herself back around and crossing her legs. "It's an awkward question to answer... because I have yet to tell you all.. I won't be here much longer."

  "Yea," Feechi added. "Didn't you wanna be more of an entrepreneur? Weren't you starting a bunch of tech businesses as a teen? This was a detour right?"

  Alice nodded. "It's hard to explain... well actually... what Ameen said earlier about woo-woo things... it actually fits because it would be nearly impossible to explain what I am trying to do without going into my own tangent. But lets just say that studying neuroembryology was an essential next step for my ambitions in tech. Perfect. I'll leave it at that."

  "When are you leaving us?" Iker asked.

  "You're trying to get a theory of everything together Alice. The universal truth," Ameen interrupted. "A scientific theory that shows that we are inside a human mind, that we are inside a book simulation. The universal mind."

  Alice batted her eyelashes with curiosity while rubbing her chin, and she noticed Dominic sighing too. "Interesting. Ameen... how are you feeling by the way?"

  It seemed attempts to blend with the group's mood were just feigns from Ameen, because a very genuine frown formed across the entirety of his face. "I do not need your condescension doctor. I have been sober the longest in this institution!"

  "I am sorry. I must have phrased my question poorly. I do want you to do well when you leave this place Ameen. What do you want your future to be Ameen?" Alice asked. "Should we get to you last?"

  For a moment, it seemed Ameen had attained some self-awareness. Most of his frown softened. "Yes. Please."

  "The strange thing about the future is that it really doesn't exist if you think about it," Feechi said, dragging her chair forward to take the floor. "I mean... there's only the present and the past, and even that, you could say in some ways the past doesn't exist either. Just whatever the past managed to leave physically is what actually exists, and perhaps the way we remember it. There's a lot of things I want to forget... but at the same time I don't want to forget it... because then my memories of how low my life can get is the thing that stops me from taking r0cbytes ever again. It's so powerful that before I knew what was a dream, what was a memory, and what was imagined... but now I don't know which is which. I could either lose my mind trying to figure it all out, or I can make the present the best that I can. Now I know, if I stay sober, what is real and what isn't real."

  "Playing those virtual reality games doesn't help either... the consoles that get your entire nervous system involved like the virtualtop," Alice said. "But corporations are trying to make sure that word doesn't get out as to how imperfect they are, especially to what they do to both plugged in brains and uploaded minds. And consumers don't care. Escapism and profit are the gods of humanity now. Now everyone wants their escape as the world burns outside their windows. Anyways. Thank you Feechi, I appreciate you speaking."

  Light claps and snaps came from the group.

  "I have to be honest and say... I am not optimistic about the future," Dominic said, adjusting his tone to take the floor. "This part of staying sober... it's so easy for me. You know when it gets hard? When I realize just how much of my life I have to build back up again. All the shit I've done and all the hurt I've caused just piling up. That's when I wanna relapse. Feechi... you got a point about the future not existing cause I've been really thinking about that. I actually looked into the origins about manifestation because Renée keeps bringing it up, and boy have they butchered the concept out there. You know what's weird to think about? The future only exists in our heads. Like, anything physical and tangible has to be a thought first. That's what it was about... how much... and most importantly, how little, those thoughts can actually take on a physical form. You bridge the gap between the thought and the physical, whether it be through actions, knowledge, or asking the right people. And I don't want to rush that bridging... cause if I feel like I have to fix everything at once, then that's when I'll relapse. I can build that bridge one deck at a time."

  "Nice. Thank you Dominic," Alice said, inviting others to snap with her.

  "I want to go next," Ameen said, speaking over Iker's gaping mouth.

  "Sure," Alice said.

  "I had to go next, because thoughts manifesting into reality was a perfect transition for me," Ameen said, bringing his chair closer to speak.

  Thereupon, shattering glass echoed across the house from the entrance. The indoor lights died and the sky outside, still the same color somehow, flickered incessantly as a magical goat figure loomed behind Ameen.